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. Many of you are new to Greenhouse. This is your first time here. Welcome. that chant that we just did, that verse, I don't know if you listened to it particularly or under, there's some words in there that are not so familiar. And it's a verse to help us concentrate and focus the mind on listening to the talk that's about to happen. It's actually... There's a tradition of chanting it three times to help us, you know, first time kind of, we're not quite there, and then we settle, and then we really vow to taste the truth of the.

[01:12]

Tathagata is a Sanskrit word that's an epithet for the awakened one or the Buddha, which means the thus come one. the one who has come into lessness, comes and goes from lessness, the tathagata. And there's another word in that verse. This penetrating and perfect dharma or truth is rarely met with, even in a hundred thousand million kalpas. And a kalpa is a measurement and The only way to describe it is it's a measurement of time. And it's the time it takes for an iron mountain a hundred miles high to be worn down by a bird with a piece of silk in its mouth flying by and dragging the silk on the top of it once every hundred years.

[02:19]

The time it takes to wear down that mountain is one kalpa. So when you hear this, your mind just, it's like you give up. You know, you can't imagine. And then there's 100,000 million kalpas. So this is supposed to encourage us to really listen to what's being said. But not... It's the kind of listing where you don't have to remember it or play it back. You just bring yourself into an aware presence and whatever comes in is fine and whatever doesn't is fine. And that's a kind of tasting the truth. And there's a joy in this tasting the truth. In fact, I was just reading... in a sutra where the Buddha tastes the truth of the Buddha's characteristics.

[03:32]

A Buddha is steadfast due to great bliss and joy in the taste of the Dharma. Enduring, meaning continuing to practice in order to bring about the welfare of all sentient beings. This is a kind of one of the characteristics of the Buddha, which is the awakened one. They're steadfast and they have joy, and I don't really like the word bliss that much, but great joy, joy and ease in listening to the teaching and continuing to practice how come in order to bring about the welfare of sentient beings. That is... Basically, the reason is one great reason for the awakened one to come into this world, which is this vow of serving sentient beings and bringing about their welfare, this vow of compassion.

[04:40]

This is it, really, this compassionate mind. This is how Buddhas appear in the world, to benefit beings, for the welfare of beings. One might think it's for some other, I don't know, some other reasons to be in some fantabulous altered state of who knows what. But actually, the sole grounded reason for Buddhas to appear in the world, awakened ones, is for the welfare of beings. It's all sentient beings. So, this this vow of compassion. Compassion, you know, sometimes, in fact, I just read in a book recently, someone saying, oh, Zen doesn't talk about compassion very much. And I realized in reading that that I didn't agree that actually all the Zen stories, all the teachings, all the meditation instructions,

[05:47]

flow from this vow of compassion and the welfare of sentient beings. There isn't any other ulterior motive or something besides that. So compassion and wisdom are really central. They actually go together. So the founder of... San Francisco Zen Center Suzuki Roshi, Shunryu Suzuki Roshi, has this book, Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind. It's a classic now. It came out in 1970, I think, the first printing, and it's been in print ever since. And many people know this phrase, Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind. And it's encouraging. It's helpful to be a beginner, to be open and ready to learn or to be exposed to the teaching without thinking, I know all about that.

[06:53]

You don't have to tell me. I understand all that. It doesn't make us open, doesn't help us to be open to taste the truth of the Tathagata's words. So beginner's mind is this mind that's ready and open. But what isn't quoted that Suzuki Rishi said about Zen mind and beginner's mind is that the beginner's mind, this is a quote, is the mind of compassion. When our mind is compassionate, it is boundless. So this is right in the prologue to the book Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind. Yes, Zen mind is beginner's mind, but a beginner's mind is a compassionate mind. And a compassionate mind is boundless. Now, some people might think, well, you know, some people are compassionate and other people are not compassionate.

[08:01]

And, you know, it's kind of the luck of a draw. You either are or you aren't. But, you know, one might say, well, I'm not a very compassionate person and that's just the way it is. Actually, What is so marvelous, actually, in these last years is there's been lots of research about compassion, and it isn't something that's just you're either born with it or you're not born with it. Compassion can be developed, can be trained, can be... enhanced, can be deepened. It's not, you know, this is who I am and that's it. And not only that, there's lots of research, and this is kind of unusual for me to be even reading about all this research, but lots of research about the biological and evolutionary importance of compassion and that we are

[09:11]

hardwired, you might say, to be kind and compassionate. So the development of compassion, the training of compassion, is something that can happen. And actually changing the way our psychophysical self responds to situations is possible. And our practice, of course, without saying anything about brains, and plasticity of brains or any of that, I think taking up a practice and a practice of meditation, a practice of non-harming, a practice of precept study, and a practice of what are called the perfections of generosity and patience, these all develop us into being compassionate ones. in this world.

[10:12]

So the personification, you might say, of infinite compassion has been, in Buddhism, it's taken form. Like how would you imagine what infinite compassion would look like What is infinite compassion? What would it be if you could see it? You can see the results of infinite compassion in acts of compassion that happen daily. And in the kind of Buddhist iconography, there are personified images of infinite compassion, which are meant to which are meant to awaken in us our own compassion. The statues or paintings or tankas that have an image of compassion is not that compassion resides in a figure or out there in that way, but they're meant to awaken in ourselves our capacity for infinite compassion.

[11:36]

So one of these... or bodhisattvas. Bodhisattvas are beings who have taken this vow in the same way as the Buddha has taken a vow to live for the benefit and the welfare of beings. And this is a turn in a person's life. This might be a complete turnaround to go from activities of basically self-serving and where our own benefit is of utmost importance and the most important thing, to turn that where living for the benefit of others becomes the most important. And these beings, these bodhisattvas, actually right here, this is a compassion bodhisattva, this is the Jizo bodhisattva, And Jiso's carrying this staff that has these little rings on the top.

[12:42]

And the rings, as Jiso walks and goes clunk, jingle, jingle, clunk, jingle, jingle, with the staff, critters and animals can get out of the way so that they don't get stepped on. So the staff itself is compassion practice. And Jizo is a compassion figure who was born of the story of Jizo, born of a vow to help someone who was suffering greatly. This is how bodhisattvas are born. What arises is a compassionate thought of wanting to help someone. And this thought itself... biologically or in terms of chemistry, changes the body chemistry instead of in a dangerous situation, let's say, where you see someone in trouble, instead of either getting ready to fight or to get out of there quick, to flee, there's the compassion response of trying to help someone

[13:58]

changes the physiology, lowers the heart rate into a situation of wanting to attend, tend and befriend. It cuts through the flight and fight responses. I found this particularly... Fascinating. Another one of the bodhisattvas of infinite compassion is named, well, has many names. This bodhisattva can be male or female, and it has the names of Avalokiteshvara in Sanskrit. It's a long name, which means the one who looks down from on high. There's also, in Chinese, guanyin, which means hearing the cries of the world, the one who hears the cries of the world.

[15:02]

So that's the name of this bodhisattva, of infinite compassion. And this bodhisattva of infinite compassion is, maybe you've seen, probably you've seen statues, pictures of this bodhisattva, and one particular characteristic is in one form is a bodhisattva with a thousand arms, with hands, hands and arms, and on every hand there's an eye. So this bodhisattva of infinite compassion has myriad ways, a thousand is just, you know, it's really 84,000, it's really myriad, it's countless. There's no number to the way that compassion operates and can help. So it's shown with a thousand hands and arms, but it's really more.

[16:05]

All those activities of daily life where we meet someone who's suffering and we suffer with, this is compassion, we suffer with. And you know, there's other words There's a book called Compassion Training by Norman Fisher that's just come out. And there's an interesting paragraph in there about other ways that we connect with people. One is empathy, sympathy, and compassion. Empathy is where we know what another person feels. We can feel what another person feels. But the interesting part about empathy is that it can be used positively and negatively. So someone who knows what you're feeling can manipulate that, can use that in some way, like he mentions a con man or woman or somebody who's trying to sell you something.

[17:14]

They can play on one's own feelings. because they understand human nature and they understand what you're feeling. So empathy, I think it's interesting. It may be amoral, exactly. It may not have a moral side to it. Sympathy is knowing what someone feels and caring about them. And it matters to you. You care about them. You wouldn't use those feelings in some way against the person. And compassion is knowing what a person feels, caring about them, and suffering with, and out of compassion also comes the wish or the wanting to alleviate the suffering. Sympathy, you may care,

[18:15]

And you may act or not, but compassion is you want to do something. You want to act. You want to help in some way. So you could equate compassion with an appropriate response of wanting to alleviate the suffering, help in some way. So to have a thousand hands and eyes to... And, you know, in our minds, we often think of compassion as equated with being nice, you know, sweet and nice. And I would say appropriate response or the appropriate action is not necessarily, may not look nice sometimes. It doesn't maybe look so nice. It might be a shout or a, you don't know what it is. It could be anything. That's, you know, these thousand hands with the eyes, they have wisdom, and they also have skill and means.

[19:23]

And in these hands, if you see one of these figures with the thousand arms, there's different implements, all sorts of stuff. Lassoes and beads and, you know, you name it. Actually, I saw a statue in China in the year 2000 that was carrying a cell phone. It was a cell phone. It was a modern statue in a new temple with these lassos and beads and willow branches and vases and all sorts of symbolic things. And then, yeah, I think a call at the right time is exactly what's needed. So compassionate action uses whatever means. And it may be sweet and the usual way we think of compassion, but it could also be like yelling at somebody. The compassion action takes any form.

[20:27]

And in the Lotus Sutra and other sutras, it talks about the 33 forms of Guanyin or Avalokiteshvara, the one who hears the cries of the world. Whatever you need, Compassion comes in that form. So if you need compassion to come in the form of somebody yelling at you, it'll come in that form. If you need it to come in the form of a good friend, it'll come in that form. If you need it as your pet or... It doesn't matter. It takes any form. So we should, you know, in... Zen mind, compassionate mind, beginner's mind. Be ready, because it will take any form. Be ready. There's many, many figures of the Bodhisattva of Infinite Compassion, some with a thousand arms, some with eleven heads, some you've seen sitting by the water in a...

[21:40]

royal ease, the bodily posture of royal ease, very similar to this Tara figure with one leg up. One leg is hanging down, ready to move. Tara is a compassionate figure as well. This side of the zendo here is the compassion figures. And then the other ones are the wisdom figures, Manjushri and the Buddha. Actually, they're all wisdom and compassion, but these were emphasizing compassion. So sometimes sitting in a white robe with royal ease, very sweet-looking, but this 11-headed one has these 11 different faces. Maybe you've seen a statue like this. And the front is very sweet, very beautiful faces. And then there's... If you go around to the back, there's one of the faces that's like this, like really fierce, really kind of, whoa, scary.

[22:45]

Compassion can have that face sometimes when we need it, when we need some kind of strong medicine that may come in that form that will help us to wake up. I'm... in a year-long program called Contemplative Care that Zen Center is offering, where people are being trained in contemplative care, not hospice, not necessarily hospice, it could become hospice, but just caring for, could be the elderly, sick, children, doesn't matter, some way of connecting with people in a caregiving situation in a new way, and it's probably the oldest way, but a way that is more, it's compassionate care where you're not looking, pitying, or setting yourself above or aside, and you're not below and looking up, you're kind of eye to eye with people.

[24:03]

And it takes, You know, we may have habits of mind of how we stay with family members, friends who are having a hard time or are dealing with loss or grieving or in bereavement. We may find that it's hard to be with people who are in this much difficulty. We may not want to stay around them. So this training is... helping a group of people who are doing this for the year to be very aware of what's going on inside them, inside us, having compassion and suffering with our own difficulty in staying with beings who are suffering and in bereavement, and to be aware of how we deflect

[25:05]

staying with and compassionate, in a compassion mode. We deflect by many ways, by trying to fix what's going on, have solutions, problem solve. I did it this way. I read an article about this. Try it like this. Don't do the, you know, advice, lots of advice. Or not being able to be with someone and moving back, stepping back, isolating the person a little bit. They're not fun to be around anymore. So being very aware of these tendencies and watching what happens to just stay with, just be with, just be present, without doing anything, without fixing, without changing the person. And the circumstances, you can't change, probably.

[26:09]

So this is a practice that is difficult and can be developed through our own being able to stay with what's going on with ourselves. This Zen mind, beginner's mind, compassionate mind, being able to stay with our own feelings, our own strong sensations of pain and difficulty will allow us to fulfill our vows of living a compassionate life, living for the benefit of others. We have to start with ourselves. We can't skip over and somehow look outward to take care of someone else. We start close to home. So this kind of eye-to-eye or evenness rather than taking a position of above or below or not wanting to be around at all is appropriate response.

[27:23]

But we don't know what it's going to look like. There's no formula. There's no set way. And if we get used to a set way that worked, we will become discouraged because it won't work the next time. You know, if we say, oh, I know what to do. This is why beginner's mind is so important. If you hold on to that work that time and I'll try that one again, we will be discouraged and confused. Like, how come that didn't work, you know? So to keep over and over coming back to beginner's mind, I don't know. but I'm going to stay present. I'm going to stay open. I'm going to listen. This is one of the main practices of Guan Yin, or the Bodhisattva of Infinite Compassion, is listening. Her name, or his name, is hearing, hearing the cries of the world.

[28:28]

So listening as a practice, starting with listening. And this listening and appropriate response actually are not two separate things. There's the call, calling out for help, asking for help, which can take many, many, many forms, and the response come up together when we're listening and practicing compassion. It's call and response together. inquiry and response coming up together. So there's a Zen story I wanted to bring up that illustrates a kind of call and response. It's a story that I love and, you know, the more I turn it and tell it and, you know,

[29:36]

reflect on it over and over again, the more the story has meaning and gives back, which is, I think, the same with all stories, whether they're myths or fairy tales or Zen stories or family stories. The more we turn them, we can learn more and more or wake up to the story. So this story, I didn't think of this story as a story of compassion, particularly. But as I said before, often people don't associate Zen stories with stories of compassion. They're stories of waking up and someone realizing their true self and awakening to the reality of the self, reality of their existence. And one might not say, oh, that was such a compassionate story. Because often the story, if it's a Zen story, might include somebody slamming the door on someone's leg and breaking their leg. And you might think, wow, or twisting somebody's nose.

[30:40]

You know, there's stories like this. And you might think, that's not very compassionate. I hope I don't meet that fellow. But to ask, where is compassion here, might be something you might ask. So this story is a story of compassion. It's a story of call and response. And... Often when I get to the end of the story, I feel like crying. This happens to me when I tell the Zen stories. So this is a story about Ananda and Makakasho, or Kashapya. And Ananda and Kashapya were both disciples of the Buddha, Shakyamuni Buddha. And just to fill in a little bit about them, Ananda was the Buddha's cousin and was... Ananda, the word Ananda means joy.

[31:45]

And supposedly Ananda brought joy to beings. He was a very fine-looking man, a fine-looking young man and probably a fine-looking baby and brought joy just to gaze upon him. If you see statues of Ananda, often there's the Buddha... Makashapya or Kashapya and Ananda like a threesome. And Kashapya is often kind of gaunt and with his cheeks kind of sunk in, kind of ascetic looking. Ananda often has these cheeks that you want to give a little pinch to and very sweet-faced. So you always know it's Ananda if he's a really cute fellow. Anyway, Ananda was the Buddha's disciple, as was Kashapya. And Ananda... not only was the Buddha's disciple, but also his attendant for maybe 25 years. And the attendant of the Buddha meant not only seeing to the Buddha's personal and physical needs, you know, probably mending and washing clothes and accompanying him, but also he attended all the Buddha's talks.

[32:57]

And Ananda had a particularly... incredible memory. He learned all of the Buddha's talks by heart and could recite word for word. Can you imagine reciting after this talk whatever it was that I said, word for word? Ananda was able to do this. He heard everything and it was said that it was like pouring water, a glass of water into another glass without spilling a drop, like every single thing. And after the Buddha died, Ananda was asked to recite at a council the Buddha's teachings, and he recited everything. And it was as if the Buddha had come alive again. People said he remembered everything. So this is Ananda, and all the sutras start out with, thus have I heard. And this is a kind of a trope, is that what you say?

[33:59]

It's a kind of... beginning of all the sutras, which is Ananda, saying, thus have I heard. The Buddha was dwelling here and there, and these people were gathered, and then the Buddha spoke. This is Ananda saying, thus have I heard. So this is Ananda. And Kashapya was the Buddha's... The Buddha transmitted the Dharma to Kashapya in a very wonderful story where the Buddha was on Vulture Peak and twirled a flower... And Kashapya was in the audience, and Kashapya smiled. And that was the transmission between them. And the Buddha said, I entrust the true Dharma I and the fine mind of Nirvana. I completely entrust it to Kashapya. So Kashapya was the Buddha's successor. And then the Buddha said to Ananda, he asked Ananda to please communicate the teaching.

[35:02]

He asked Ananda. He entrusted Kashapya, and he also entrusted Ananda with passing on the teaching. And so Ananda practiced with Kashapya after the Buddha died for also 20 years, serving Kashapya. But Ananda had not realized his true self during the Buddha's life, even though he... intellectually could recite all the teachings, knew every single thing the Buddha had said, and could say it, he still hadn't woken up to his true self. So, this story is called The Banner Pole, The Flag Pole or The Banner Pole, and Ananda, said to Kashapya, this is after the Buddha had died, he said to Kashapya, what did the Buddha hand onto you beside the golden-sleeved robe?

[36:13]

And Kashapya said, Ananda. And Ananda said, yes. And Kashapya said, take down that banner pole in... in front of the gate. And Ananda was greatly enlightened. So this is the story. You now know a little bit about Kashapya and Ananda. And Ananda's question to Kashapya, you know, Kashapya was the Buddha's successor. He had Dharma transmission from Shakyamuni Buddha. And Ananda's saying, I'll tell the story again. What did the Buddha hand onto you beside the golden-sleeved robe? Kashapi said, Ananda. Ananda said, yes. Kashapi said, take down that banner pole at the front gate.

[37:17]

Take down that banner pole at the front gate. So you might say, well, what? What is this? I give up. What does this story have to do with anything? Banner polls, shouting. And I agree. What is this story? What is this about? And when I said I often kind of cry or feel like I'm going to cry, in the commentary, this case comes up in the book Transmission of the Light, which is the transmission stories, when each disciple from Shakyamuni on down to, I think, Kezan, through India, China, and Japan, these different teachers, how the lineage was, you could say, passed on, or you could say how it was warm hand to warm hand,

[38:27]

celebrated between teacher and disciple, all the way through, you know, through the ages. So this story comes near the beginning, because it starts with, you know, Shakyamuni Buddha, and then Makakasho, or Makakashapya, and then Ananda. And this also is in Koan, a Koan collection of Gateless Gate, Mumon Khan. So... So when reflecting on this, actually for years, and I will continue to reflect on this, you have, here's Ananda who hasn't realized his true nature, knows the Buddha's teaching, intellectually, academically, understands and can teach. And he says to Kashapya, what else, what, you know, he'd been with Kashapya for quite a while here, and he's saying, I know the Buddha gave him the robe and transmitted to him, but did he give him something else besides this golden?

[39:31]

The robe had these golden sleeves. They were said to be made of golden felt. Did the Buddha, you know, hand on to you something beside this? You know, what else did he give you? Come on, tell me. Isn't there something else? Let me in on it, please, you know. shop. He says, Ananda. Yes. Yes. Yes. Ananda. Yes. Ananda. Yes. Ananda. Yes. The two of them together. Kashapya and Ananda was just one call and response. He called Ananda's name, Ananda, immediately responded without thinking, gee, well, how come he's calling me?

[40:39]

I wonder, just, Ananda, yes. I would say this is deep, deep compassion. deep compassion, kashapya, you know, just cut through. What was he fishing for? What else did he want? Ananda, yes. It's enough. Ananda, yes. There's nothing you're lacking, Ananda. There's nothing you're lacking already. You are abundantly filled with dharma. Yes, express that completely. There's nothing lacking. There's a call, you respond. And this take down the banner pole in the front. The banner pole in India, when there was going to be a debate between two teachers about the Dharma, they would put up these banner poles.

[41:51]

And then I think they would take down the one who... lost the debate or, you know. So, you know, erecting some banner paw that says, I'm about to, you know, teach or speak the Dharma. Something that you put out that set forth. This is who I am. I'm gonna... And he said, take it down. You don't need it. It's enough. You're enough. And... you know, Ananda was completely, completely realized his true nature and stayed with Kashapya teaching and practicing after that. So this isn't enough to realize your true nature. This is an important point, I think, over and over we hear this, that this settling, this matter,

[42:52]

Now you can really work for the benefit of all beings. Now your vow that you've taken and aspired to all these years for countless, countless kalpas, now you can really work for the benefit of all beings because you actually see it's Ananda and Kashapya are non-duals. self and other is non-dual. So you can really be compassionate because helping self and helping other is not different. So when we have, when we cling to our old, you know, accomplishments, our own sense of who we are, when we're clinging to that, it's already over, it's already past.

[43:56]

How about this moment? How about what is the call now? Rather than dragging in our own old who we are. Take down the banner pole. You don't need it. You don't have to put up. This is who I am. See, remember me? I'm that one who, I don't know, said that really good thing that one time. It's over. It's over. But you know it's not over? Ananda, yes, it's not over. That's right this morning. So all of us have this capacity to live in that way, this Present and responding. What gets in the way of that? What are the obstacles? All sorts of things, you know, can be obstacles to Ananda, yes?

[45:01]

One is, and this is also one of the supports of joy. Ananda's name is joy. One of the supports of joyous effort is rest. Four supports of joyous effort are aspiration, thinking of our practice as engaging in it with full enthusiasm like a sport, and I can't remember the third one right now, and rest. Taking repose and rest are essential for joy. So the obstacles to compassion might be we are overextended, we are overwrought, and we're constantly doing this. We can't even hear. So call and response is the name, I would say, the name of infinite compassion.

[46:16]

And we're being called and requested all throughout the day in big and small ways, internally, externally. Yes, so may you be encouraged and feel enthusiastic. and feel joyous effort in taking up this practice of compassionate response, appropriate response, and look into it, test it, ask about it, reflect on it. The more one does so, the more one develops and deepens that which is our birthright, really. Thank you very much.

[47:22]

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. For more information, visit sfcc.org and click giving. May we fully enjoy the Dharma.

[47:49]

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