Good morning. As always, it's an honor and a pleasure to be out here at Green Gulch talking with you. I try to get out here in time to sit a period of Zazen, which today, just listening to the gentle rain tapping on the roof, wonderful it reminded me of times past when I was here for sessions or sittings and there's something so comforting and quiet and settling about the sound of the rain which we sorely need right and it's a little different from actually we had wonderful rain yesterday in in Berkeley And somehow, in the midst of all that rain, there was a lot of sirens yesterday.

[01:14]

There are not too many sirens out here. Sometimes there's fog horns, right? But you just had the sense that in the midst of this settling, in this dharma rain, there's suffering that is arising. simultaneously, and that people are trying to take care of that. And that's what, in our own way, we were also doing. We completed our seven-day Rohatsu Sesshin yesterday in the afternoon, and I can't for the life of me remember if I actually scheduled to talk here this morning, I was very surprised when I got, Arlene contacted me on Facebook, said, oh, we're looking forward to seeing you on December 13th. And I said, you are? But, you know, it was one of those, if I was thinking, what was I thinking about doing this the day after session, but actually it feels fine.

[02:25]

And the sitting, just to drop into that which is continuous from this week of practices is very good and this is the rohatsu session and you finished on the sixth those of you who did it is that correct you know his decision that celebrates Buddha's enlightenment roughly 2500 years ago when he sat under the Bodhi tree making his vow to awaken. And we had this wonderful ceremony here. You probably have a Buddha's enlightenment ceremony. Do you circumambulate in the zendo? Yeah. So we have this, and sometimes we do it outside, and sometimes we do it inside. Yesterday we did it inside because it was pretty damp.

[03:26]

And... For those of you who have done seshin, seshin manifests in countless different ways. It's almost always hard for a seven-day seshin in one way or another to maintain your posture and maintain your breath and to develop your concentration. Often what I find, talk about this a little more is that the entryway into session is difficult for me and then kind of it gets harder and harder for about two days and then it tends to get easier and easier and I'm then I'm energized and feel very settled and clear well nice work if you can get it This was a session where I felt like I would find my composure and lose my composure and find it and lose it.

[04:38]

And it was difficult going because I was tired for various reasons. So yesterday, which was the seventh day, in the morning we had our Buddhist enlightenment ceremony. And I was... You know, without psychologizing, all I can say is I was in a bad mood. And it's like, oh, no, ceremony, I don't want to do this. And somebody's supposed to feel joy, you know. So we do some vows, we begin to chant the Heart Sutra in Japanese, and we have one circle that's going around clockwise in the zendo, and an inner circle that's going around counterclockwise, and then people posted sort of at the corners who were hurling blossoms into the air so that it's raining down blossoms on us as we're walking. And I could just feel the little child in me saying, you know, I don't want to enjoy this.

[05:48]

I don't want to enjoy this. You know, even though I know that was really stupid. It was, you know, It's just like that's where I was stuck at that moment. But what happened was we had a lot of flowers. People started picking up these flowers, and first they started hurling them in the air. Then they started targeting people and throwing the flowers at people, and then all kinds of imaginative permutations of that came up until... the entire zendo was strewn with flowers and petals. People were covered with flowers. People were wearing them in their robes, putting them in their hair, you know, walk by the doans and the kokyos who were in place and setting flowers on top of their heads. And there was, meanwhile, we're continuing our chanting and our perambulating.

[06:49]

And there was a joyousness and... I couldn't resist. I couldn't resist feeling good. I couldn't resist throwing flowers. I found myself particularly trying to place flowers, not violently, with people that I felt I had some tension or difficulty with. And vice versa. It was a wonderful sense of mutuality that created this community in action as we were walking around and around. It was really fun. And it was very moving. And then because we're kind of very neat in the Zen tradition, we finished. And then everybody... sat down for zazen and then lunch, and while people swept up the zendo entirely, got every little pedal out of every corner very quickly.

[08:01]

And that was also tremendously satisfying to see that kind of attention. So I was thinking about Buddha's enlightenment and my life, our lives. Sojin Roshi was lecturing this week, and what he chose as a subject, at least to begin his lectures, were, in keeping with this theme of enlightenment, the seven factors of enlightenment, which are an early Buddhist teaching about the kinds of things that we need to cultivate in ourselves that arise, they both arise with enlightenment and give rise to enlightenment.

[09:06]

So I'm not going to talk about that a lot, but I thought I would mention what they are and point out that there's one part that's missing, and that's what I will talk about. So these seven factors are mindfulness, this kind of bare attention to what arises. Traditionally, there are four bases of mindfulness. Mindfulness of the body, which begins with noting the quality of your breath. Is it long? Is it short? Is it deep? Is it shallow? Is it in your hara? Is it in your chest? And then other physical sensations. The second base of mindfulness is mindfulness of the feelings, which has a very particular meaning in the Buddhist tradition.

[10:10]

We use that word kind of broadly as emotions, but actually in the Buddhist teaching, Feelings are very close to, it's your response to contact, to the first sensation. So it's, is what I'm experiencing pleasant or unpleasant? Or neither pleasant nor unpleasant? And so just observe. your body and in your mind is there a tone of okayness or something wrong without yet giving that a name the third basis is perceptions so that's where we get to the ideas about the stories that we create about these feelings you know

[11:20]

this is unpleasant because such-and-such and then we go our minds veer into very in various directions to the past to our childhood to justice injustice to where I'd like to be to where I wish I weren't all of these things and the final basis of a base of of mindfulness is what I think is, it's often translated as mind objects, which is really, it had me confused for a long time. But it's also translated as dharmas. And what it means to me, and in some of the commentary, a lot of the commentary I've read is, it's mindfulness of the very systems and ways that we have of practicing with what is going on in our body, what's going on in our feelings, what's going on in our mind.

[12:27]

So actually, these seven factors of enlightenment would be a basis for your mindfulness. Mindfulness itself, the four foundations of mindfulness is a basis for mindfulness. The five skandhas, the Four Noble Truths, all of these lists that over time we memorize, these are all systems of dharma that allow us to investigate reality. So in that sense, it leads to the second, the second factor of enlightenment is investigation of the dharmas, to really look at what you're experiencing. a part of your the way you move through the world the way you act the third factor of an of enlightenment is energy or virya it's like being able to apply yourself it's being able to sit upright for a day or seven days attending to your breath and posture

[13:45]

not being pushed out of place not not running in tears or screaming from the room when the pain gets when the mental or physical pain gets too much but being able to endure that having the energy and strength to do that the fourth factor is happiness which we need to be able to experience. I often think of this expression that I read, heard from Thich Nhat Hanh of suffering is not enough. We have this mistaken idea that in some way suffering is redemptive. Not so. Suffering is not redemptive. Suffering is a way of looking at the world and our happiness.

[14:49]

If we cultivate these factors, this joy and happiness arises in us. I'm sure we all experience that from time to time. It may be inconsistent, but it's there. The next factor is calm. be able to not be pushed out of your seat by whatever occurs, whether it's a great happiness, a sorrow, to in your zazen itself. And this is what I was feeling as I was sitting this morning, just not any complex... state of mind that I can name but just the calm of sitting among people on the con breathing in this wonderful room listen the sound calm is something that arises if we just allow ourselves to sit still and in that arising there's also concentration which is the next factor concentration or Samadhi

[16:09]

is something that, again, we allow to arise and our way of doing that is by simply returning again and again to our posture and our breath. And then the final factor of enlightenment is equanimity. All of these are related and some of them are perhaps and I'm not going to, we're not going to talk about them too technically, but upeka or equanimity, this ability that arises in one over time to accept whatever comes, to accept the hardships that occur to us, the suffering that we see around us, to accept that within suffering itself, There is an offering.

[17:14]

There is something that we can learn. There is some way that we can find our freedom. And as we understand that, not in an intellectual way, but actually in our bodies and in our lives, then equanimity takes root. And we're not blown about, thrown about like a boat on a... stormy sea so those are traditionally these are the seven factors of enlightenment now when the Buddha was enlightened he said something like I was am and will be enlightened simultaneously with all beings So it was not just this guy, this Indian guy, scantily clad, sitting under a tree and getting it.

[18:21]

It was the feeling, the getting it itself was the feeling of being connected with all beings. We see this also in Dogen's Genjo Koan, perhaps. I think many of us see as the center of our teacher, Ehe Dogen's Zen teachings for us. He talks about the practice, he said, to study the Buddha way is to study the self. You all have heard this. To study the self is to forget the self. To forget the self is to be actualized by myriad dharmas. In other words, to let... to let these dharmas arise and be moved by them, to be activated, actualized, to engage with them, be connected to them. When actualized by a myriad dharmas, your body and mind together with the bodies and minds of others drop away.

[19:38]

So this is getting at what I want to talk about. This is getting at the eighth factor of enlightenment that's manifest right here in this room, which is community. That to say I was, am, and will be enlightened simultaneously with all beings means I am in community. I am in connection. with all of life. And for Dogen to say, when actualized by myriad dharmas, your body and mind, together with the bodies and minds of others, drop away, says the same thing to me. It says that this experience is not something that takes place in isolation, takes place just in this one individual within this bag of skin.

[20:50]

But the enlightenment that he is talking about itself is connection. It is relationship. In a localized way, you could call it community. All of you have experience of this. I've had the opportunity over the last few months to meet a couple of times with the Green Gulch residential community, which has been very moving. Not always easy because community is no day at the beach, right? And yet there's a sense of connection even when for one person or another, it may not be going quite the way they would have wished. And, you know, I just come out of this seven days of pretty strong community.

[21:59]

So we had like, we had about 40 people a day at the Berkeley Zen Center. And for those of you who've been there, it's a, It's not a big space, so 40 people really fills it. And there was a little coming and going, but there were almost always 40 people there, really practicing with each other. And not just, as you know, in our tradition, it's not just sitting silently. It's also walking. It's eating. working it's the whole dynamic activity of life but in some condensed form very wonderful so the connection without any words and you know often we're supposed to keep your eyes down not supposed to make a lot of eye contact you're not supposed to make jokes although it happens

[23:10]

But mostly in silence, this sense of connection really just flowered. Maybe it culminated in this hurling of flowers. I'm not sure you could say that. And I've been thinking about this a lot for myself. There's an expression that Martin Luther King used a lot, which is called beloved community. To me, the communities that I inhabit represent an effort to manifest the beloved community. So it wasn't a concept that Dr. King invented.

[24:13]

The term, the theological term was actually, I guess it was coined by a guy named Josiah Royce in the, I think, just early 20th century, who was one of the founders of the Fellowship of Reconciliation, which is an organization devoted to nonviolent, reconciliation and direct action so it wasn't just this kind of looking at the world through rose-colored glasses the notion of beloved community is about transformation the notion of sangha that the Buddha evolved that we've inherited that we are improvising upon is about transformation it's about how we each of us is able to let go of the afflictions of the narrowness of our views of our small mindedness of our self-centeredness and selfishness we have to do that this is the individual work that we do

[25:42]

as we're sitting here, as we're working in the world. At the same time, the literal form that we have, which I love so much, is we sit next to each other. We sit on this cushion next to each other day by day. In our tradition, it's mostly staring at the wall. In other traditions, it's facing in and the presence like today I sat I think between two gentlemen I never met them but we were sitting so still together I felt a tremendous sense of connection right in that so what's happening within this so-called individual container not contained there it mysteriously flows among us so when dr. King talked about the beloved community you know what he was talking about was again not a community that was an idealization but a community that actually had to be created

[27:11]

And it was created through cooperation. It was created by the recognition of our common humanity and by the fact, by a recognition that together we are creating this world. And we have thrown our lot in together. So, you know, what he... wrote and you you probably have heard these words we are tied together in the single garment of destiny caught in an inescapable network of mutuality sounds pretty buddhistic to me but he went on in other ways to say that part of the creation of this community has a lot to do with how we handle conflicts.

[28:25]

How we handle the conflicts within ourselves and how we handle the conflicts between ourselves. Essentially handling them in a way that's non-violent. That's mutually recognizing of where a hurt has taken place how it can be remedied some of these are very simple yesterday one of my Dharma sisters acted in a way that was impatient in the zendo during the meal and the head server was upset at the end of our session we have shows on Dharma question and answer and my sister said but I've I hurt my brother and you know I didn't mean to but you know this feels really bad she asked she asked sojourn Roshi what should I do and the answer was not

[29:42]

rocket science said why don't you apologize to him and she said when he said now and so she went over to this person and whispered in his ear and they embraced and so from what was a separation you had a very intimate connection. That's part of the mystery of this, that actually the separation, the gap, or from my side, talking about the lack of composure, actually, I'll tell you another story, but is exactly the fertile ground in which our connection and our awakening can take place. So in that apology and embrace, there was a depth of connection between them that really will change their relationship.

[30:56]

I'm not idealizing this too much, I don't think. So for me, boy, there's a lot I could talk about. The whole other... I just came back from the 20th anniversary of the International Network of Engaged Buddhists in Thailand, which is, there were people from 25 countries. I've been part of this circle of people for almost all that 20 years. And these are, I think, outside of my sangha in Berkeley, and people at the Francisco Zen Center, This is my closest Dharma connections. And it's all, these are Buddhist activists. And we know each other very well. We've met together. We've done retreats together. We've worked on projects.

[31:56]

Quite a number of those people have visited in Berkeley and stayed with us for a time. And I was really looking forward to it. And I can't, but I left for this meeting the day after the end of our practice period in Berkeley. It was a practice period, the first one that I actually led and the first one where I had a shuso. So I was very engaged and I was also really tired. Plus, I was taking two antibiotics for a boil and they just knocked the shit out of you. Then, I don't know if you've, it's really far to Thailand. It was like 26 hours in transit. And, you know, I'm not so young anymore. I was exhausted.

[32:58]

And so when I got, as I was saying that entering Sashin, entering Sashin is a passageway, at least for me, for a lot of people. there's often a day or two of thinking, what am I doing here? Right? You know, it's like, for me, I think my kind of signal fantasy is I could be in bed watching television, which actually I would never do. This is like the last thing I want to do. You know, but it's also, for the first day, it's like, any place but here. So when I got to Thailand, I was exhausted, and I got to this relatively comfortable, very inexpensive hotel in Chiang Mai, and I just fell asleep, and I woke up the next morning tremendously depressed. And this is a propensity that I have towards depression, particularly under stress.

[34:01]

It was hard. It was like a big black dog was... sitting on me and various pretty negative thoughts come up in including like I got to get out of here and then think oh but shit that would be like 26 more hours on the plane in the other direction also thinking oh maybe I'm too old for this now I can't maybe I can't do this anymore and then thinking oh my friends are here but what good is that so in a sense I practiced a kind of I did mindfulness practice as I lay there in bed just first seeing what was going on my body and what my general state of mind which I could readily identifies unpleasant

[35:07]

was and what my stories were about it, what narratives I made up about why this was unpleasant. And then I sort of invoked the fourth basis of mindfulness, which was to look at the dharmas, to look at the essence of dharma which is impermanent and literally to ask myself and this is this is what I do I suggest I recommend this to you when you're feeling angry depressed bad just ask yourself in the midst of that how am I going to feel in three hours because there is the there's the supposition if you the unexamined supposition that I'm always going to feel like this forever now my my life of joy is ended, and it's always going to be really bad.

[36:09]

So I ask myself, how is it going to be in three hours? And then I say, how is it going to be tomorrow? With a recognition that I don't know how, but I know it's going to be different. And then the question is, what do I do? So I put one foot after another out of the bed and I walked down to the temple where we were meeting and I met my friends. And that was perhaps also investigating dharmas to say, I wanted to let my community of friends help me through this. I had faith that that would happen even though it was actually scary it was a scary mind state I had faith in that and as I watched you know so practicing mindfulness in the course of the week that I was there I watched day by day my my energy and sense of connection

[37:38]

until it was a great, joyous thing. It was hard to leave by the time we left. And on the flight back, I felt this interesting tension that there was, I was sitting, I was actually doing zazen on the plane, this interesting pull, that on the one hand, I was leaving these friends, and on the other, I was flying home. I was flying home to my family, and I was flying home to my sangha. And I got there, and as is our wont, Just like the day after Sashin, I'm here sitting Zazen and giving the talk with you.

[38:45]

It's like the next morning, go to the Zendo. And there they all were. And I felt my eyes welling with tears. This is the beloved community. which doesn't mean, I just want to be clear, that everybody likes each other. You know, it also very, almost immediately, because I have a position at Berkeley Zen Center, it meant, returning meant having to engage with the various fires inevitably and constantly are arising in in the community which is why I think we we were responsive to the sirens that were blaring around us yesterday as we sat and their fires as all kinds of fires but even in that fire that's where

[40:06]

Our ability to connect is tested, is refined, within the fires of community and within the fires that exist in each of us. Within the fire that flares and settles that I experienced in Seshin of gaining my composure, losing my composure, gaining it, right there is awakening. Right in that community is this present great spirit that's expressed in the Buddha's words, I was, am, and will be awakened with all beings.

[41:08]

So I'm grateful to be here with you. I'm grateful to be here with old friends and new friends and to feel in community with you and to encourage you to build these communities, whether it's here or anywhere in your life. I want to leave you with some interesting words from a curious source. I've been reading, I read on the plane, I picked up in the airport in Bangkok, a book by Sarah Vowell. Do people know of her? She's often a commentator on This American Life on NPR, which is one of my favorite programs, and she's a wonderful and somewhat nutty writer, but really on the mark. So she wrote this interesting book, which I highly recommend.

[42:16]

It's called The Wordy Shipmates. And just the title got me, but I didn't know what, I thought it was going to be like a David Sedaris book or something, you know, just like clever commentaries. It's actually... a history of the early Puritan settlement in Massachusetts and Rhode Island in America, roughly 1625 to 1640. And so this really struck me. This is from John Winthrop. It was written in 1630, who was a Puritan. He was the first governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. And he's the guy that, you know, you've heard this expression, the city on the hill. I think Reagan used it, defining America. It comes from this text of Winsor, who was not a perfect person, but very expressive.

[43:28]

wonderful writer. He wrote this piece called A Model of Christian Charity. Anyway, let me leave you with these words. This is from Winthrop. We must delight in each other, make others' conditions our own, rejoice together, mourn together, labor and suffer together, always having before our eyes our commission and community in the work of our community as members of the same body. I'll read that again. We must delight in each other, make others' conditions our own, rejoice together, mourn together, labor and suffer together, always having before our eyes our commission and community in the work, our community as members of the same body. that I think is the unwritten but hereby expressed eighth factor of enlightenment thank you very much

[44:42]

@Transcribed_UNK
@Text_v005
@Score_96.57