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. Thank you for coming, all of you in here and all of you out there somewhere listening to this. I wanted to recognize the deep suffering in the world at this moment, the unprovoked aggression toward the Ukrainian people, as well as those in the midst of challenges in Afghanistan, Sudan, Yemen, and numerous other countries, including our own. The stories and photos in this week's news showing the a staggering amount of suffering. The extent of devastation and loss is overwhelming.

[01:04]

The world has always been plagued by the dynamics of racial, economic, and political violence. But the lens of the Internet has offered a heart-wrenching, close-up view of the devastation of thousands of lives shattered, and the country shattered as well. The root of aggression is often traced to inequality and power, inequity. Can we study that same aggression that also arises in ourselves? And when we do notice how we do care for it, how do we care for it when we do notice that aggression? Can we take the time to study it? From a distance, when we look at the natural world, listening to the birds and coyotes around Green Gulch, they seem at peace.

[02:06]

But that's just our idea of what's going on. There's a whole lot of posturing out there, aggression and sheer dominance in the natural world that mirrors our own. Suzuki Roshi said, that you must be very patient if you want to understand Buddhism. But he was seeking a better word than patience. The usual translation of the Japanese word nin is patience. But he said perhaps constancy is a better word. We read this recently in our morning stand-up meeting. And I realized I don't know what constantly means. And that's why I include it in this talk. Constancy is the quality of having a resolute mind or purpose. Steadfastness.

[03:09]

Suzuki Roshi said, you must force yourself to be patient, he said. But in constancy, there was no particular effort involved. There was only an unwavering ability. to accept things as they are. The two partners of constancy, or steadfastness, effort, are transiency and continuous practice. When you are sitting in the middle of your own problem, which is more real to you, your problem or yourself, or you yourself? The awareness that you are here right now is the ultimate fact. This is the point you will realize in Zazen practice. In continuous practice, under a succession of agreeable and disagreeable situations, as you may face in the coming week during Sashin, you will realize the marrow of your practice.

[04:19]

People who know the state of emptiness will always be able to dissolve their problems by constancy. or if it's easier to think about patience. The basic teaching of Buddhism is that everything is transient and will change. And there is a constancy in our effort to practice with the transient nature of all things. Can we live our lives fully engaged, wholeheartedly, all the time? This is the theme of Dogen's essay on continuous practice. On the great road of Buddhist ancestors, there is always unsurpassable practice, continuous and sustained. It forms the circle of the way and is never cut off.

[05:19]

Between aspiration, practice, enlightenment, and nirvana, there is not a moment's gap. Continuous practice is the circle of the way. This being so, continuous practice is unstained, not forced by you or others. The power of this continuous practice confirms you as well as others. It means your practice affects the entire earth, the entire sky in ten directions. although not noticed by others or by you, it is so. You should accept knowledge as if you are hearing it for the first time, but this doesn't mean to receive various pieces of information merely as an echo of your own opinion. It means you should not be surprised at whatever you see or hear.

[06:24]

If you receive things as an echo of yourself, you don't really see them. You don't accept them for what they actually are, due to our own preconceptions. No other activity besides zazen will appease your suffering. I have an idea that continuous practice has an appearance. of the Buddha ways like the flowing river. Our activity is Buddha. Not this or that person has our actual intentional activity is Buddha. Not this or that person, but our actual intentional activity is Buddha. Our activity mirrors our intention. Each moment of consciousness has an intention. Sometimes the mirror is hard to look at.

[07:26]

It's not reflecting something that the most important thing is. Reflect and look again. Continuous practice is not necessarily something in the world. Love, but it should be the true place of return for everyone. Continuous practice is not necessarily something people in the world love, but should be the true place of return for everyone. In other restless postures, you will have no power to accept your difficulties. But in Zazen posture, which you have acquired by long, hard practice, your mind and body will have great power to accept things as they are, whether they are agreeable or disagreeable. Zucki Roshi says, actually, it's easier for those who have difficulties in sitting to arouse true wake-seeking mind than for those who can easily sit.

[08:37]

I wanted to shift gears a bit. and talk about what's happening at Green Gulch this spring. We lost a great, beautiful old friend this week, the tall 100-plus-year-old cypress near the teahouse and parking lot. The cypress has been in decline for many years and appeared dead with a fungus near the base. Many were worried that it would fall on the teahouse and nearby buildings. and I was asked to find an arborist to remove it. We had the spring equinox ceremony at the base of the cypress to celebrate the beginning of spring and to give thanks for all the life the tree has supported through time. Many of you remember the seasonal beehive in the tree trunk of the cypress. The bees decided to stay the winter this year, and so we've accommodated by them by cutting the tree,

[09:46]

above the busy nest, about 25 feet up. We'll miss the iconic cypress beauty and support, as well as the often used raven nest in the very tip-top branches of the tree. There were no eggs in the nest while arborists removed it. Continuous practice with old age, sickness and death is extremely difficult. Many thanks to this elderly, sentient being, beautiful even in its passing. I think everyone remembers walking by, looking up, seeing it from almost anywhere at Green Gulch. That tree's been pruned, that all the deadwood has been pruned off it year after year, trying to keep it together.

[10:59]

And finally, this year, there was no new growth on the tree. I wasn't overly worried, as Nsuki wasn't actually that worried either, but many people were. And I certainly didn't want to be responsible for the tree falling on a building. especially the tea house. Thank you, Fu, for the ceremony. That was lovely. Wendy Johnson came and offered a few words. We had it in the dark, like 6.15 in the morning or 6.30 in the morning. It was very atmospheric. All of us living here are stewards of both Zen practice and the land. Even if you work in the kitchen, you're part of this land stewardship team.

[12:04]

As you walk around, we all care for the beings in this valley. As a community, we create and make a wholehearted effort to take care of the watershed as we shift from each new season and situation. This is practicing constancy in our efforts and creativity in how we meet the ever-changing transiency of drought, plants, and animals in our watershed. We're relying on past experience of caring for the earth, but we need to shift our habits to adapt to new situations. Historically, along the coast, the summer weather and moisture we receive is quite predictable. Fog for weeks on end, up to nine weeks was my, why I've lived here was the longest. They were very long weeks. And Diagon, who has died, used to go out every day to the ridge or town just to get a little sunshine on his face.

[13:16]

And I remember him well every time we have a really foggy day. We missed that fog. We depended on that fog to grow lettuce. All the brassicas like moisture and that light. Unfortunately, we can no longer depend on months of fog to keep the valley cool. The drought is changing the way we planned and how we take care of the soil and the watershed. Finding solutions to these problems require a nimble response. The farm is considering moving toward no-till planting, which would help provide a porous soil structure, increase organic matter that facilitates growth, root growth, water retention, and overall healthy soil structure. On the land and garden, we're planting more natives, retiring garden beds.

[14:25]

and in general, reducing the number of annual flowers we grow each year. We're in the process of studying models to improve the capacity of existing reservoirs, enabling us to eventually remove the Zendo Pond as a water storage basin. The dream is to have the Green Gulch Creek flow freely down to Redwood Creek and the ocean, the Pacific Ocean, Directly. This would create a more stable habitat for plants and animals. The coho salmon, if it was enough rain, could make it further up the creek. The western box turtle could find a nice pond further up the creek. All summer long. That's the dream. That's what we're moving toward. We don't know when we'll get there. but we're doing the investigation now.

[15:26]

I've been reading some books lately on the environment, and I want to talk about one of them, which I was very moved by. I wanted to recommend reading Diana Beresford's She's Irish name. I'm not sure how to pronounce that. She's a well-recognized author, kind of a genius. She has several PhDs and masters in various disparate subjects. She's a medical biochemist, botanist, climate change visionary. She's been living in Canada for decades. She has a unique understanding of modern Western science and ancient knowledge and shows how interdependent all of our natural systems are and the role our forests play in earth and ecology. She's created, I was really inspired, I don't think, I would love to be part of this. It's a huge operation.

[16:40]

She's created an ambitious bio plan as a step in encouraging ordinary people to develop a new relationship with nature, to join together, to replant the global forest. She's used it as a tool to mend the holes in the fabric so that the forest will be planted, the seas will have fish and marine life, the air will have more oxygen and less carbon dioxide. She's extremely persistent in her ecologic teaching efforts. You can say she embodies Suzuki Roshi and Dogen's constancy or steadfast effort. and continuous practice in the transient nature of all things. She created a film about Forrest. I can't remember the exact name of it.

[17:45]

I watched half of it last night. And she shows where in Ireland they cut down all the trees on various islands or parts of the coast. And the water right next to that island became void of life as well. The whole ecology was based on that forest, on that piece of land. The same thing has happened in northern Japan. They thought it was a good idea to cut a forest. And then they found... that all of the sea life couldn't prosper. The whole system was completely interdependent. She wrote several books. The one I read most recently is called Sweetness of a Simple Life. In a sense, that's what we have, the sweetness of a simple life.

[18:47]

We don't always recognize it. how sweet it is until we go out in the world and have perhaps other experiences. He also talks about in Japan, and perhaps other places, they have forest bathing, where you go into the forest at Shinto temples. Apparently there's forests, and they're very popular to walk into, and you receive all the aerosols from all of those different trees and pines. Has anyone ever seen that before, or been in that, or felt that when they go into a forest? Just that sense of you don't recognize that apparently she's a biochemist and she recognizes, she's analyzed all of the various aerosols that affect people, that heighten their sense of well-being.

[20:07]

I finished with a poem an old friend gave me who no longer lives here. The poem is by Miroslav Olud, who is a Czech poet. Officially, the heart is oblong, muscular, and filled with longing. But anyone who has painted the heart knows that it is also spiked. Like a star. And sometimes bed-raggled. Like a stray dog at night. And sometimes powerful. Like an arch angel's drum. And sometimes cube-shaped. Like a draftman's dream. And sometimes gaily round. Like a ball in a net. And sometimes a thin line.

[21:22]

And sometimes an explosion. And in it is only a river. A weir. And at most one little fish. By no means golden. More like a gray, jealous... Is that a fish that's pronounced correctly? Louch? It certainly isn't noticeable at first sight. Anyone who has painted the heart knows that first he had to discard his spectacles, his mirror, throw away his fine point pencil and carbon paper. And for a long while, walk outside. That's all I have today.

[22:34]

Please take care of each other and the places you inhabit with care, with constancy. Give as much as you can to others, but also to the land, to the animals. Share what you know. Thank 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 Dharma.

[23:26]

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