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. Well, good morning and welcome. Thank you, all of you, for coming. Hello to those online friends. Thank you for being here. As always. So as many of you know, my name is Jiryu, and I'm the Tonto here, head of practice. So as the head of practice, I'm quite involved. Does the sound okay? A little echoey? Maybe it's too close to me. about now no no now can you this okay yeah maybe the talk should be over then so part of my job as the head of practice is to care for the practice calendar and the dharma events that we do here and one of the things we often do in the spring is called the spring practice period

[01:27]

And we had a spring practice period planned. We had our bags packed and our robes ironed for a spring practice period at Green Gulch. But then, due to various conditions, including two years of COVID and how that's impacted the flow of people and staff, practitioners here at Green Gulch. So we realized at the last minute that we really had to change the plan and not do the spring practice period that we were intending to do. So this morning we're starting our alternative to practice period, our spring formal practice. And I wanted to take this chance to reflect a little bit on that change and about our practice. and on what this opportunity is, this opportunity that we have now to be practicing together.

[02:36]

So as we all know, and maybe part of why we love and support Zen Center is because here at Green Gulch and Zen Center and really any Zen temple, a big part of what we do is to make our best effort really work hard and carefully to set up traditional conditions for practicing the Buddha way. So we set up forms of practice and we train them and we teach them and we schedule them. We say containers for practice, various systems and structures that we try to put in place to support this practice. And we try to do this, and this is the dance or the middle or the pivot. We try to do this offering of formal practice containers and structures really sincerely and wholeheartedly while also holding in mind that basically this whole universe is not in our hand.

[03:53]

There's not so much really in our control. And we can't always get what we want or do what we want. And that the whole point of Zen, the thing we're making these containers to try to support us all to realize, is that we can and long to be free of needing things to go any particular way. We want to be free from needing really any fixed form or container or system or structure. Not because they're bad, just because they can't laugh and they won't stay put. So I think this, you know, I'm talking about Green Gulch and practice periods and formal practice in that way, temple practice. But really, I think Zen students generally, all of us are in this dance, at this pivot.

[04:57]

We're all trying to do the best we can to be diligent in cultivating, you know, in sitting zazen every day and cultivating and maintaining the formal practice. And we also know, hopefully, I think we do know, all of us, in the back of our mind or maybe even at the forefront, We need to have a light touch with this discipline. We need to have a light touch with these forms. And that the essence of what we're up to, what the whole project is for, can't be based on our success at achieving discipline. I have mastered my environment and body and mind. It can't be about that. We know that. It's not, you know... It's not about achieving control of our schedule to practice Zen. So holding these two things in mind, I think all of us Zen students are in that tension.

[06:03]

And I say that not in any way to demean or diminish the real power of our efforts to make these good conditions for practice. we have the wisdom we touch at some point in our life. We feel or glimpse the wisdom that what we do with our time really matters. And so from that wisdom that what we do with our time really matters, we use our time for things like formal practice. We try to take some time away from the mundane, busy affairs of life and turn it towards our cultivation, our spiritual, And we know, too, that where we are matters. It's really important where our body is to how we are and what we can offer.

[07:12]

So there's a wisdom to that of knowing, I want to come to Green Gulch because it really matters where I am. Or I want to go to my sitting corner. And wherever that is, it matters where I am. And of course we know that it matters a lot who we're with. The Buddha talks a lot about this. It matters. We're not in control necessarily of who we're with, but it really matters who we're with. And so we come on a Sunday morning, for example, to Green Gulch, online or in person, from that wisdom that who we're with really matters. So this is all the stuff that we try to do with what we do and where we do it and who we do it with. We're trying to manage this the best we can. Norman Fisher, I love this phrase he uses. He's talking about Japanese monastic practice. But I think for today at least, it's easy to take what he means more generally to refer to all of this stuff that we're trying to do in our practice as plan A.

[08:19]

So practice period is plan A, you know. Sashin every month at a mountain temple in Japan, you know, that's plan A. Green Gulch Sendo, the Green Gulch Sangha, it's traditional practice, it's plan A. And next to plan A, well, plan A is a wisdom. There's wisdom in plan A. It's a really good plan. It's way better probably than the other plan that we had to whatever that other plan has been or is for you. So next to plan A, there's a steeper wisdom. I don't know if it's steeper. Another wisdom. which Norman calls Plan B. And the wisdom of Plan B is that we accommodate to reality and that we really, as a priority, practice being flexible and unstuck and responsive to the actual and ever-changing conditions of our life.

[09:42]

This is the way of practice, you know, that's like water or willow or bamboo. Always just taking the shape along with conditions. Rather than carving out. Carve out. The way you carve out. I'm going to carve out time in my life to practice. So that's plan A, you know. And plan B is like flowing with the actual conditions of our life. Finding our practice in the actual conditions of our life. Without carving. Carving anything, without needing at least to carve, you know, when the wood resists. So this plan B wisdom is the wisdom that knows that our practice can't just be about getting the conditions right. It can't just be about getting the conditions right. Plan A is the Dharma talk and plan B is the crows.

[11:02]

Something really beautiful opens, you know, when we can follow that. And not insist. But really meet what is. It's also just a good strategy to be able to meet our life as it is, rather than get into controlling and carving and making practice happen. Because, of course, you know, most of us have been a human being for some time, and we've noticed that we can't really, you know, get what we want when we want it. We can't always be doing what we want to do. We can't always be where we want to be and be with who we want to be with. This is Fu. Our Abbas reminded us last week is like the classical definition of suffering. This is suffering.

[12:14]

The way we want to do something we're not doing and we don't want to do what we're doing. I really feel the Buddha really understood us. Like he understood me. I don't want to be doing what I'm doing. And I want to be doing what I'm not doing. And there's some unease there. I want some things that I don't have, and I don't want some things that I do have. I want to be with some people that I'm not with. And now and again, I don't want to be with some people that I am with. Apparently, we've been going on like this for thousands of years, and it hurts. It's limiting. It's suffering. So the great insight of Plan B, insisting on nothing, flowing with conditions, is that there's already some suffering baked in to this carve-out space for Zen kind of mind.

[13:21]

The mind that's doing that is also the mind of suffering. of trying to control this beyond control situation. So in plan B, we go right to the source. And we notice that as we loosen our grip on life, loosen our grip on having things go how we think they should go, that our suffering really does lessen. We don't stop caring and we don't stop helping and we don't stop trying. It's just our suffering lessons. If all this Zen practice just becomes another thing that we want, another thing we're trying to succeed at or achieve or get reality to accord with, we're just feeding, we're just watering those same old seeds of dissatisfaction. I'd like to become intimate with my mind that isn't satisfied.

[14:38]

Just meet that with compassion and care. There's always something that's not quite right. Have you noticed? So this is dukkha, right? Suffering. This idea of the wheel that's a little off. There's a little rub. So there's always, like, I'm always about to practice Zen for real. Once the demands change, you know, once the demands on me change a little bit, then I'll really practice Zen and meet my life just as it is. Or, you know, once I get to the Zen, though, then I can just meet my life and practice Zen. Or, you know, once practice period starts, you know, February 8th, I'll be able to meet my life. and live how I want to live. Or, you know, once I get home from work, then I'll be able to meet my life. Once the kids are asleep, you know, then I'll be able to really meet my life just as it is.

[15:45]

So we can never catch up. It's never quite time. So I think we don't usually have this habit of mind in clear view. If we look at it and think about it, it's a very strange idea. That somehow the present situation of our life as it is, is blocking us from being with our life as it is. There's something in front of me now, there's something happening now, that's keeping me from, as Suzuki Roshi says, becoming one with what it is. Just move out of the way so I can become one with everything. So I wish things were a little different so that I could really be with them. So, of course, our real practice is to go beyond this way of thinking. And going beyond this way of thinking is vital if we're going to practice continuously. And this is one of the things that I want to keep bringing up whenever I can and maybe share and hear from you these months.

[16:55]

is what is it to practice continuously? Continuous practice. If practice is about certain conditions, then how it can't possibly be continuous. And also, if our practice is about certain conditions, then we can't really be bodhisattvas. It's hard to show up for others. I'm thinking this morning about Jizo Bodhisattva, our friend and support and great Dharma companion, Jizo Bodhisattva, who descends into hell. Any hell... in order to be with and support beings in their practice.

[17:57]

So I had this thought this morning that Jesus really could practice anywhere. Jesus could be in any pure land, you know, at the best practice period, you know, in the cosmos. Jesus could be there. And, you know, but Jesus is free from that kind of thinking that Jesus should be doing the best practice at the best practice place. And so Jesus can be right here. In our Zendo, even though it's not practice period, Jesus will come practice with us. So I want to be able to be with suffering beings and my own suffering self. And so I see that having this idea, this understanding that my real practice is to practice with whatever is happening is totally vital to my Bodhisattva vow. I want to say a little bit about continuous practice.

[19:01]

So continuous or constant or everyday practice. It means that we extend our zazen. Basically that we practice zazen all day long. That we extend our zazen into any and every moment of our life. So we sit a little bit of zazen, sometimes five minutes, sometimes a couple of hours, and then we extend that zazen through the entire day and night. This, I think, is what we're up to here at Green Gulch and in Zen practice generally. The problem I've observed in myself and in talking with others, though, is that when we think about extending Zazen throughout our day, we maybe have the feeling that we should be extending the feeling of Zazen.

[20:11]

So you said Zazen, and then maybe you have some feeling, and then you hear about extending Zazen into your day, so you might feel like you're extending that feeling, bringing that feeling along with you all day. I don't know if some of you have this feeling, But when we're walking in the hills, it should feel like daven. And when we're washing the dishes, it should feel just like we're in the zendo. And when we're weeding the grounds in the sun or in the wind, it should feel like it does in the early morning in here, in the zendo. That is the path of utter frustration, disappointment, and I think will basically make you an angry person. I really believe that from experience. That understanding has made me an angry person. Because chances are very good that you're not going to feel, it's not going to feel like you're in the Zendo when you're not in the Zendo.

[21:17]

Because the feeling of being in the Zendo is conditioned, is actually created by being in the Zendo. That's what that feeling is. The feeling is when you're in the zendo, it feels like being in the zendo. So if we think that our extending practice or continuous practice is to carry that feeling around with us, I think we're climbing a steep and fruitless hill. So what if instead of keeping the feeling, what we're trying to keep is the practice, keep the effort? Extend the same effort that we make in Zazen. Just keep meeting each thing fully. Keep opening our heart. Keep connecting with what is. Connecting with our body and our breath and letting, observing our thoughts, caring for our thoughts, letting our views soften when we can and even fall away.

[22:24]

And by some magic they do. So whatever you're doing in the zendo, whatever you're doing in zazen, keep doing that all day. But don't expect it to feel like zazen all day. Don't aim for some zazen feeling all day. Aim for the feeling of what you're doing. I think this is clear. I think you all know this. And it's feeling really important to me this morning. to remind myself. So Suzuki Roshi says, as you know, if you've ever heard me give a Dharma talk, you know that Suzuki Roshi says, even though we are right in the middle of the woods, it is still hard to appreciate the feeling of the woods. When we can really appreciate the feeling of the woods, that is Zazen. Sharing the feeling right here, right now, is the fundamental or basic thing for Zen practice.

[23:30]

To share our feeling with people, with trees, and with mountains, wherever we are. And to share in the feeling of those things around us. So instead of, like, how do I get that practice feeling back? which is maybe a question we have when we want to practice all day long. How do I get that practice feeling back? The question, maybe a better question to ask is, what does it feel like right here where I am? What does it feel like in this? What does this room feel like? What does my body feel like? Another time, Suzuki Roshi says the same thing in a different way. He says, when you are you, you see things as they are, and you become one with your surroundings. It's so cheesy to talk like this, but I'm just really warming up to this becoming one with our surroundings.

[24:49]

Do you know that feeling or have some appreciation? It seems like, yeah. Suzuki Roshi really is talking again and again about becoming one with our surroundings. Letting down the guard. Participating. Letting our body and heart and mind participate in what's around and letting all of that in. So he says, when you are you... You see things as they are and you become one with your surroundings. There is your true self. There you have true practice. You have the practice of a frog. So, of course, you being you, as you are right now, moment after moment, it doesn't depend on any particular thing. You're not more you in Zazen.

[25:56]

When you are you, you see things as they are and you become one with your surroundings. There is your true self. Last night at Green Gulch, there was an opening ceremony for our spring formal practice that was put on by the frogs and coyotes and the owls. They all got together and planned a ceremony for us welcoming and opening our spring formal practice. And it's quite beautiful. And, you know, springtime at night at Green Gulch is really a wonderful thing. And honestly, it's not too hard on a night like that to kind of become one with the frogs, you know?

[27:13]

And that's really precious. The problem is, you know, we get the idea that frogs are what there is to be one with, and the place to do that is in Lizendo. Lizendo is where I go to become one with my surroundings. How about just when we're doing some task, I think we can actually practice in this way right now and today. When we're doing some task, the opportunity is to give ourselves fully to that and just become one with our surroundings, one with that activity, just doing that task. And when we're resting, we're just resting and fully being the surroundings, that activity, whatever we're doing. There's the sights and the sounds and the smells, these objects and beings. Totally inconceivable and totally connected once in a lifetime.

[28:34]

appreciate this a lot about our tradition, seemed to be a little, he was worried about a zendo. He seemed like he was a little bit worried about making a zendo. I'm like, well, I guess we should make a zendo, but I think people are going to get confused because they think that's where they're going to go to be one with the frogs, you know? And then when not in the zendo, they're going to be, I wish I could go back to the zendo to be one with the frogs. Maybe better to not have the zendo. So you don't even have that idea, so you can just be one with the frogs. what your actual life, our actual life. And I see that, I feel that a little bit in Dogen too, in the sixth ancestor, this kind of like, I guess we're going to do this sitting in a Zendo, but it's going to confuse us. So I think our practice, our special plan B opportunity here with, you know, this long work day at Green Gulch Farm, like many of you at home, you know, this long, day of not doing zazen, with the right mindset, with the right intention, can truly become an opportunity to do continuous and sincere practice.

[29:46]

We forget all about the feeling of the zendo, but we just continue the same effort. So I think what's important, the active ingredient or the critical, fuel really for this practice is intention. I just want to say a little bit about intention and then we'll close. So intention doesn't, when we talk about intention in our practice, it doesn't mean like what I intend to get. And I often feel this when I formulate the question or ask the question, what is your intention? Sometimes I answer it myself or I hear someone answer, with what they want to get. When we talk about intention, we're talking about what kind of effort do you want to make? Really, how do you want to live? So I intend to feel great. It's not really an intention in the way that we're talking about it.

[30:51]

And part of the power of the Zendo is that it reminds us, it's a very intentional place, sanctified by these decades of intention and observance. And so often we come in here and we feel close to our intention. We feel close to the wisdom, innate wisdom, that's asking to be heard in ourselves about how we want to live, how we want to meet each moment of our life. In our school, in Mahayana Buddhism, the teaching is that we each have in our heart, in our core, in our belly, a deep intention. And at different times, maybe it has different words, like the intention, I want to see things as they are, accept things as they are, and nourish things as they grow. Or I want to live with a whole heart and a warm heart and a soft mind.

[31:59]

Or I want to do Buddha practice and manifest Buddhahood in this very body for the benefit of the suffering world and all living beings. These are some words for an intention that you might have and feel. And our practice is to invite and try to touch that intention. certainly when we're in the zendo, but all day long. What is that intention? Why am I doing this? So we make the sincere and sustained effort to uncover and contact and steep in that fundamental intention. That intention is in you and it goes with you. The intention is not in the zendo.

[33:03]

The intention lives in the altar. In the little cabinet inside the altar is your intention. So you have to spend as much time in here as possible to be near it. The intention is in you. It's in your whole body, in your whole heart. So can we practice touching that and feeling that and letting that intention do the practice? So one more teaching. This is from Dogen in Bendowa. This is maybe a koan for us, something you might consider turning over as you go forward into your very busy day. Those who say that the mundane world interferes with the Buddha Dharma. So I say so. We're going to have a practice period which is Buddha Dharma and then the mundane world interfered like people need meals. Mostly it's the main thing that interferes.

[34:05]

And who's going to make them? So that is very mundane and it's interfering with the Buddha Dharma. This is my attitude. So I am that one. I am one who says that the mundane world interferes with the Buddha Dharma. My job interferes with the Buddha Dharma. My family interferes with the Buddha Dharma. My computer and my phone interfere with the Buddha Dharma. You all, when you're not, you know, going my way, interfere with the Buddha Dharma. So those who say that the mundane world interferes with the Buddha Dharma only know that there is no Buddha Dharma in the mundane world. They do not yet know that there is nothing mundane in the world of the Buddha Dharma. Very beautiful and profound.

[35:06]

really life-changing teaching. If we could get this, I think we would really be okay. We would really be able to practice, continuous practice, wherever we are. So to say, I have to work in the kitchen instead of the Buddha Dharma is knowing that, yeah, there is not Buddha Dharma when you're mired in ordinary life. ordinary affairs, the busyness, the craziness. There's not Buddhadharma there. But what that mind, what that person or that mind does not yet know, but can, he says yet, which I appreciate, does not yet know that if we're in the world of Buddhadharma, there is nothing mundane. There is nothing mundane anywhere. There is just surroundings to become one with. They're just objects to actualize our intention around.

[36:09]

As Tenshin Roshi has been saying, they're just things to be compassionate towards. This thing is interfering with my compassion. That's just the next thing to be compassionate towards. This thing is interfering with my Buddhist practice. That's just the thing to do the Buddhist practice with. So let's please not say that the mundane world interferes with the Buddha Dharma. Can we know that? In the world of Buddhadharma, when we're in touch with our intention, there is nothing outside of that. There's nothing mundane. There's nothing interfering. So, you know, is there some mundane thing that's interfering with your practice of the Buddhadharma? Let's be honest about it. so that we can study that thought. Yeah, I think that is interfering with Buddha Dharma.

[37:13]

Another way to say it is how really, how do you want to live this short and inconceivable life? And what is stopping you? Is there something stopping you? from living in the way that you want to live? Is there some mundane thing actually hindering your practice of the Buddha Dharma? Can we live the life, live the way we want to live with respect to that thing that's obstructing us? I'm very appreciative of your kind attention and your sincere practice. You're taking the time and being in this place.

[38:26]

Any benefit that comes of our making this effort and turning these teachings together, we offer for the benefit and well-being and liberation of all suffering beings. Thank you very much. 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 sfzc.org and click Giving. May we fully enjoy the Dharma.

[39:22]

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