This podcast is offered by San Francisco's Zen Center on the web at sfcc.org. Our public programs are made possible by donations from people like you. Good morning, you bright beings. Wonderful to have you all here. And as I walked into the Buddha Hall, I could feel this very deep settledness. It was quite... nourishing, quite delicious. So I don't know if you were aware of it yourselves, but it's palpable. And it could be because you're here on a very special day. We are in the midst of a three-day sushin, three days of intense and sitting, and some of us are joining just for today. And this particular sushin and sitting is marking the conclusion of a six-week practice period, a period of intense study in which we have been studying what is called in Buddhism the Brahma-veharas, which are also known as the divine abodes, the heavenly abodes, or the four immeasurables.

[01:09]

So we are studying and practicing how to embody and cultivate these particular loving abodes. And maybe that's part of what I'm also feeling, your practice of love as you are taking up this particular endeavor. For those of you who don't know me, my name is Tenzin David Zimmerman, and I live and practice here at San Francisco Zen Center, and I've had the honor of leading the particular practice period that we are concluding today. This morning, I'd like to offer a little encouragement for those of us who are sitting, the sishin, or one day sitting, particularly around how to extend the practices of the brahma-viharas from our practice on the cushion out as we go back into the world or to our lives or wherever it is that we are going next. And so to explore not only our relationship to the practice for this one, but also our interpersonal relationships and our relationship to the wider world.

[02:15]

So I'll attempt to say a little bit more about that. So the Japanese word sushin can literally be translated as to touch the mind. To touch the mind. It also can mean to receive the mind, to convey the mind, or to gather the mind. So it's an opportunity to intimately discover and deepen into our minds and hearts Because in our practice, the mind and heart are not two separate things, fundamentally. It's just one thing, right? So how is it that we come home to our minds, come home to our hearts, come home to ourselves and discover what it is to peacefully abide, as many of us are attempting to do today, right? With whatever our experience is in this very moment's. So we do this through the simple activity of following the breath and focusing our attention on direct experience, the direct experience in this case of just sitting, which is our fundamental practice, zazen, just sitting.

[03:35]

So we do sushin as a group because it supports each one of us. And it gives others support as well, so we can have a strong container for our practice together. It's very encouraging when we can sit with others. Not so easy when we do it by ourselves. Maybe you've noticed that, huh? So, I would propose we're practicing mindfulness for ourselves as a path of liberation, a path of liberation for suffering. But there's a little secret in Zen mindfulness efforts aren't ultimately about ourselves or just about ourselves. They're about our relationship with all being. In touching our own hearts and minds, we realize in time that we're also touching the hearts and minds of others and that in doing so, we connect to a much vaster world.

[04:44]

of being. Engel Pat O'Hero, who's the abbess of the village Zendo in Manhattan, wrote, Through the quiet awareness of meditation, I began to realize the freedom of experiencing myself as a relationship rather than as an entity, a separate being. The courage that meditation gave me was the courage of my wholeness. So we come home to peacefully abide in our own wholeness, and in doing so, we connect with the wholeness of each of us and the whole world. It's all one being, all one life. How do we sit connected to all one life? What is that experience for you? In his wonderful book, Awakening Together, the Spiritual Practice of Inclusivity and Community, Dharma teacher Larry Yang, who's one of the founders of the East Bay Meditation Center in Oakland, speaks to several dimensions of mindfulness and their relation to a greater sense of wholeness.

[06:05]

So he has a chapter in the book called Awareness Within and Awareness Without. And in this chapter, he describes these dimensions as awareness. mindfulness of our internal experience, mindfulness of our external experience, and mindfulness of the experience of mutuality or mindfulness of both internal and external experience. Being held simultaneously with equal regard. So the internal and the external, simultaneously held with a sense of equanimity and balance. And in discussing these three modes of mindfulness and how we might engage them, Larry references a particular teaching of the Buddha from the Pali Canon. And he writes, the Buddha taught very clearly that mindfulness is a relational practice that does not stop with being aware of just our own experience.

[07:08]

In the Satipatthana Sutta, the formal teaching in which the Buddha gave detailed guidance on mindfulness practice, and how to expand the practice into the experiences of our lives, the Buddha says, the noble ones abide in contemplating internally. They abide contemplating externally. They abide contemplating both externally and internally. And this is a refrain throughout the sutta that repeats several times. Buddha is inviting us to be aware of more than just ourselves. He's inviting us to be aware of our communities, our culture, and our world. And finally, to be aware of the relationship between all of ourselves in the totality of our experience together. So Larry goes on in the book. Anyone read the book or seen it? A few of you have.

[08:11]

I would highly recommend it. It's a wonderful book. So he goes on to discuss the importance of balancing both inner awareness and the individual and personal action that it gives rise to, and the external awareness and the collective action in the world that arises through the enactment, the enacted intentions of groups, communities, and cultures. And ultimately he stresses the importance of being mindful of both internal and external impacts. Impacts on ourselves and others that our individual and collective intentions and actions have. So with increased awareness of this interrelationship, there comes a greater learning and greater wisdom into what kinds of personal and collective intentions and actions we might wish to cultivate.

[09:14]

in order to create conditions that are conducive to the awakening and the liberation of suffering and happiness for each and every one of us. So how do we create the conditions for everyone to be free and happy? This is what this is about. We may be studying for ourselves and come here about our own personal lives. I want to be free of suffering. I want to be free. How do I create a life that is free? But in the end, your life isn't free unless others are free. And we really get to understand that the longer we practice, right? So now it's understood in Buddhism that when cultivating internal presence and studying our relationship with our internal experiences and environment, the quality of our mind is crucial to practice. how we relate to our internal experience is going to impact how we relate to our external experience.

[10:20]

So this is why cultivating beneficial states and qualities of mind, like the brahmavaharas and the six perfections, or paramitas, are important. So if I'm having a storm inside and I'm not treating myself with kindness and compassion and gentleness, if I'm criticizing myself and speaking to myself from a place of self-hate, how do you think that's going to ripple out into the world? Even though it may not be immediate apparent, it can be felt. It's going to infuse and inform the way that I relate to others. Because if I can't love myself, I can't truly love other beings. So what is it to love ourselves as a part of loving a greater connectedness with each other? So when we cultivate positive states of mind, we become more aware of the negative and painful states of our mind that lead to suffering, not only for ourselves again, but for others because they get expressed outward in some way.

[11:31]

So coming back to the Brahma Viharas. The Brahma Viharas are described as four positive states of mind that when cultivated help to overcome negative Emotions that affect not only ourselves, but others. And for those who may not be familiar with the Brahma Viharas, those loving or immeasurable states of mind and heart are... You guys remember? Those who have been studying? There's a test. You can't leave Sashin until you get all the answers, right? You might be here for a little while. Good start. We'll start with metta, which is what? Loving kindness. And the second one is? Oh, you said it the first time. Compassion. Compassion. Which is karuna, you know. And the third one is? Sympathetic joy. What's the Pali? Mudita.

[12:34]

And the last one? Equanimity. Equanimity, right. Which in Pali is? Upaka. Very good. You guys all pass. All right. I guess you can leave at the end of the day. So the Buddha taught his own son. He taught his own son the Brahma Viharas. It was that important to him that his own son knew. So he instructed his son Rahula in this way. He said, Rahula, practicing loving kindness to overcome anger. Loving kindness has the capacity to bring happiness to others without demanding anything in return. So it's an unconditional kindness. He said practice compassion to overcome cruelty. Compassion has the capacity to remove the suffering of others without expecting anything in return. Again, it's unconditional.

[13:35]

It's not a tit-for-tat kind of thing. Practice sympathetic joy to overcome hatred. Sympathetic joy arises when one rejoices over the happiness of others and wishes others well-being and success. Sometimes that might be the hardest for us. We see others happy. We're kind of going, well, where's my happiness? How come they can be happy? Where's mine? I want to be happy too. So what is it to celebrate another's happiness without a sense of envy or jealousy in return? And then finally, practice equanimity. In the sutta, the actual phrase is non-attachment. It's translated sometimes as non-attachment. Practice equanimity to overcome prejudice. So equanimity is the way of looking at all things openly and equally. Non-discriminatory. This is because... That is. Conditionality.

[14:35]

This is because that is. Myself and others are not separate. Do not reject one thing only to chase after another. I call these the four immeasurables, says the Buddha. Practice them and you will become a refreshing source of vitality and happiness for others. You become a source and wellspring of happiness for others. What a gift. What a power. Pretty amazing, huh? If you can offer that to others. So the various meditations and practices of the Brahma Viharas that we've been taking up this practice period are essentially taught as a means to dissolve the illusion of separation. And practicing helps us to overcome an attitude or a sense of us versus them.

[15:36]

And basically, it breaks down or dissolves any sense of the boundary or limitation that our own fixation to self, a sense of a separate self, might arise or create between ourself and others. So we can look at the Brahmadiharas, at these teachings, as a way of cultivating a boundless, inclusive heart. I like to say radically inclusive. Do you want a radically inclusive heart and mind? Or do you want a small, little, limited heart and mind? You get to pick. It's your choice. I think to have an inclusive heart and mind, a radically boundless, inclusive heart and mind, is kind of the point of our spiritual practice. and it's an important part of our emotional and spiritual development. So that's why it's given so much emphasis here in Buddhism. Here at San Francisco Zen Center, we regularly chant a sutta called the Loving Kindness Meditation or the Metta Sutta.

[16:49]

Anyone familiar with that? A few people? Okay. So the Metta Sutta is one of the initial teachings by the Buddha on the importance of cultivating the Brahma-Viharas. And he encourages us in the Mata Sutta to train the mind and heart to be compassionate at all times. This is a training. We have these capacities already, but we have to develop and train our minds to stay with them at all times, to be strong in them. So he encourages, he offers a flavor of encouragement with these followers. few lines here. He says, with boundless friendliness for the whole world shall one cultivate a boundless heart in all directions without obstruction, without hate, and without ill will. Standing or walking, sitting or lying down whenever one is awake. May one stay with this recollection or this intention, remembering this intention.

[17:56]

This is called the best and most sublime way of dwelling in this world, of being alive in this world, of being at home in this world. If we truly want to dwell in a state of peace, I imagine that most of you share that wish, to live skillfully and obtain complete liberation from the endless cycles of suffering. This is the way to live. with a boundless heart, one not obstructed or bounded by greed, hate, and delusion, but one that is virtuous, wise, and calm. So the Brahma Viharas are relational practices. That's their function. And as relational practices, they are said to serve as the foundation of all respectful, healthy, and dignified societies, communities, families, and interpersonal relationships.

[19:05]

So we can endeavor to cultivate these qualities to support nurturing a more harmonious world. The late Theravada monk, Nayana Ponika Thera, said the following. He said, these four attitudes, the Brahma-viharas, are said to be excellent or sublime because they are the right or ideal way of contact towards living beings. They provide, in fact, the answer to all situations arising from social contact. They are the great removers of tension, the great peacemakers in social conflict, and the great healers of wounds suffered in the struggle of existence. They level together social barriers, build harmonious communities, awaken slumbering magnanimity long forgotten, revive joy and hope long abandoned, and promote human alliance against the forces of egotism.

[20:14]

So by practicing the Brahma Viharas, we widen the circle of our concern and care beyond ourselves, and come to understand the ways in which we can be active participants in the healing and the awakening of the world. And what the world needs right now is more healing, don't you think? Anyone agree? A few sharp heads? Yeah, yeah, right? There's so much persistent, heartbreaking, personal suffering and social suffering, right? Suffering on a worldly scale. And this includes, on a global scale, these ongoing wars that seem to never end, right? There's tribalism, there's environmental devastation, economic inequality, there's still slavery, there's sexual slavery, right?

[21:19]

There's racism, homophobia. and other persistent social injustices. So I really feel the world needs right now such need of radical and compassionate action. And yet, an appropriate response might be hard to come by, particularly when we ourselves feel pretty overwhelmed by all this. If we can't find our own equanimity in the midst of all this distress, how in the world are we going to reach out and help others, right? We're going to get overwhelmed, destabilize ourselves, right? So we might actually be kind of inclined to turn away from the suffering of the world, right? To maybe leave our busy, hectic lives full of lots of responsibilities, Maybe run off to a monastery or a Zen center somewhere. Come to a sitting or a sushin or maybe even move in, thinking I can leave all that behind in some way.

[22:27]

Leave behind the stress-filled cries of the world and just kind of focus on my own healing and solitude. Good luck, the rest of you. I'm here at a Zen center. And yet, and yet, as the jewel mirror samadhi reminds us, turning away and touching are both wrong, right? For it is like a massive fire burning within and burning without. You got to do something, folks. recently came across a Facebook post that a friend of mine, who's also a Buddhist teacher, had shared on her page. And the post was a picture of a street plaque noting a location in Louisville, Kentucky, or Louisville, if I got the accent right now, I'm not sure, where the American Trappist monk and writer and social activist Thomas Merton had an insight.

[23:49]

And the plaque reads, A Revelation. Merton had a sudden insight at this corner on March 18, 1958, that led him to redefine his monastic identity with greater involvement with social justice issues. He was, quote, suddenly overwhelmed with the realization that I loved all these people. He found them walking around, shining like the sun. So I was really inspired by this text and I went to look up the original source of it and found out that it's actually rather famous and it's known as the Walnut Street Epiphany. And apparently Merton had this insight at a particular time in his life when he was becoming disillusioned with his writing career and the notoriety that had come with it.

[24:52]

He had become very famous, apparently, particularly after the publication of a collection of writings called The Seven Story Mountain. And so after a period of time, he decided that he wanted to kind of stop writing and retreat from public life and resume his calling as an anonymous contemplative monk. Anyhow, Merton was mauling over this idea one day when on the way to the dentist, it's said, he had this epiphany, right? So enlightenment can strike you in any moment, even on the way to the dentist, right? So here's the full description of his experience in his own words. I was suddenly overwhelmed with the realization that I loved all these people, that they were mine and I theirs. that we could not be alien to one another even though we were total strangers. It was like waking from a dream of separateness, of spurious self-isolation in a special world, the world of renunciation and supposed holiness.

[26:03]

The whole illusion of a separate holy existence is a dream. Not that I question the reality of my vocation or of my monastic life, but the conception of separation from the world that we have in the monastery too easily presents itself as a complete illusion. I have the immense joy of being human, a member of a race in which God became incarnate. As if the sorrows and stupidities of the human condition could overwhelm me, now I realize what we all are. And if only everybody could realize this. But it cannot be explained. There is no way of telling people that they are walking around shining like the sun. How do you explain that to others?

[27:07]

So Merton describes his transformational insight as one of Waking from a dream of separateness, of spurious self-isolation in a special world. Where have you heard that before? In Buddhism, right? The dream or delusion of separateness is considered to be the very root of our discontent and suffering. When we fail to see our fundamental connection, what Thich Nhat Hanh says, our interbeing, We reinforce behaviors that further our separation. We end up walling off our heart, not understanding when we shut people out and when we lash out in anger. We are also hurting ourselves. From this delusion grows grasping and hate as we try to maintain what we think should last forever.

[28:14]

while protecting ourselves from what we think will destabilize our delicate reality. We do this on a personal level as well as an interpersonal and a society and a global level. What call for walls are you familiar with? Have you heard any calls for walls recently saying we need to separate ourselves from those others? This is happening, right? When one person or a few people think this is the way to be, it has a global impact, global pain that just tears through our nation, our communities, the fabric of the world. So this illusion of separation is then structured into our cultural expressions, our communities, and all the governing ways that we go about living our lives.

[29:19]

So we become witness to all kinds of inequities. Economic, gender, racial, environmental. Again, endless. And in the process, no one is happy. No one is happy under these conditions. because the root of these conditions lie in a delusion about who we truly are. We are a we, not an isolated I. So Merton's epiphany, that retreating from public life to isolate himself in a monastery again, would not, in the end, really get to the heart of his spiritual practice. which he came to understand was deeply a matter of serving others. Right? To be in service of the we. So his insight, if you know anything about his life, actually led him to study other spiritual traditions, including Buddhism.

[30:31]

Right? To start a dialogue between his Christian faith and Eastern faiths. Right? And he also became involved in political and social action. Merton became worldly in the sense that he embraced his role as a spiritual advisor to movements of peace and social justice. All of this, that change was inspired by his realization, by realizing the light that he saw in everyone was love itself. reading Merton's epiphany, his Wall Street epiphany. What immediately came to mind for me was a text that we had been chanting here during the practice period as part of our noon service rotation. So one day we chant the loving-kindness meditation and the other day we chant a text called Tori Zenji's The Bodhisattva Vow.

[31:38]

And here are the opening lines of that particular vow. When I... a student of the Dharma, look deeply into the real form of the universe, everything reveals the mysterious truth of the Atatakara, which is another word for the Buddha, or the thusness, thus come. This truth never fails. In every moment, in every place, all phenomenon can be none other than this radiant light. Everything is this radiant light of Buddha. So Tori Zenji, he was a Japanese Rinzai teacher who lived in the 1700s, and he was a prominent Dharma heir to Hakuin, if anyone knows the Zen lineages. And he had what might one describe a kind of stay-at-home nature, which kept him from kind of public acclaim.

[32:42]

Even though his work as a priest and a monk, he did a lot to keep the Rinzai tradition going. So in his own quiet way, he had a deep impact. So Zenji's vow goes to speak to how all bodhisattvas, for those of you who aren't familiar with that particular term, a bodhisattva is an awakening being who is dedicated to helping others, other beings, to awaken to truth. And hence, by awakening to the truth of who they are, to be free of suffering. So these bodhisattva, these awakening beings, we say in our tradition, are all the Buddhist ancestors, all the Zen teachers. And upon realizing that... none of us are other than the radiant light and truth of suchness. They are compelled to treat all beings with great compassion, care, and tenderness.

[33:44]

So this chant goes on to say how the ancestors and the Zen teachers treat animals and birds and even those humans who might treat us unkindly, they still treat them with great kindness and compassion. So the sutra tells us that the bodhisattvas practice and train their minds so that in every thought, like a lotus flower blooming, open to reveal a Buddha, extends the compassionate light of the tattakara equally to all beings so that all in the world may grow in wisdom together. So today, those of us who are sitting, we're going to be chanting Tori Zenji's Bodhisattva vow as part of our noon service. And I was deeply moved when I made the connection between Merton's epiphany that spurred him into the path of social justice and Tori Zenji's expression of the Bodhisattva as compassionate vow.

[34:55]

Both men, in their own spiritual tradition and language and metaphors, according to what we might call the divine light in all of us. In Christianity, you might call that light the light of God. In Buddhism, we call it the light of suchness or awareness itself. And in both instances, the recognition of this mutual light compels them to act on behalf of the healing of the world, and particularly the healing of suffering that rises from the delusion of being a separate self. So both of these men, these monks, were describing a boundless, luminous love, the same love that animates and empowers the Brahma Viharas as well as the Bodhisattvas. So in Zen sometimes, some people criticize Zen,

[35:59]

saying that it doesn't focus on love and compassion enough, particularly in comparison to the early Theravada teachings. Has anyone heard that criticism? A few of you? So in early Buddhist teachings, the teachings of love are more explicit. The importance of love is just stated outright. You see it in the text. But the thing is, in the Mahayana and Zen traditions, love is already understood as the foundation of practice. Love is the Buddha way itself. The practice of love is our Zen way. And this becomes very apparent once you really understand the bodhisattva path. It's nothing but an expression of love. It's a deep expression of lived love perfect love, of profound love.

[37:03]

In its expression of profound care and connection. So you could say the bodhisattva path is love manifest. Such a vow, a vow to stay in the world of samsara, to stay in the world of suffering until all beings are free, is nothing but love. This vow serves no other purpose than to realize love. Now, throughout the practice period, I've been offering a definition of love. And this particular definition is, love is the knowing of our shared being. And I was suggesting happiness is the knowing of our own being. And love is the knowing of our shared being. So then the love that suffuses the Bodhisattva's activity is the knowing of our shared being. And it's this knowing that compels the Bodhisattvas to act.

[38:07]

Because the Bodhisattva knows we're not separate. Everything they do is done from the place of knowing, an intimate awareness of shared being. The Bodhisattva knows that any thought a being separate self and acting on that thought of a separate self is delusion. It's the seed of suffering. Right? And it only perpetuates more suffering for ourselves and for others. Right? So they keep in their mind, they train their mind at all times. They make their mind, they make the home for their mind at all times. the recollection of shared being. So whenever they're walking, sitting, lying down, doing all their ways, all the days, they're practicing this way of love, knowing and living and expressing shared being.

[39:12]

All their activity is illuminated by this love. And hence, they see the sun of inherent Buddha nature, in everyone, in everything. And they only want for everybody to realize this, right? So all these teachings, all this yuck, yuck, yuck that I'm doing here, right? It's my feeble attempt to help you to understand for yourself that you are this luminous shared knowing of existence itself, right? I'm just pointing. Check this out. Check this out. Consider this. You've got to do the work. I can't do it for you. I'm sorry. I can't. You get to do the work. And then once you do the work and the light starts coming through, you're like, oh my God, I want to share this with others. And that's what all us so-called Zen teachers are trying to do. Share that with you.

[40:15]

Because it brings us great joy and freedom. And we want you to experience that same luminous liberation. So whether you're sitting with us today, ongoing sitting, or if you're going to go out into the world, let's make our best effort to keep love, the knowing of our shared being, in the forefront of our hearts and minds. So that it infuses and suffuses everything that we do, like the sun shining indiscriminately over everyone and everything. So I'm going to close now. There's no Q&A today, so I'm going to just take an extra couple minutes and share one more thing with you. And I want to share with you a metta prayer, a loving-kindness prayer, that was written by Maile Scott. And for those of you who don't know her, Maile Scott was a Zen practitioner who was based for many years at the Berkeley Zen Center.

[41:21]

And she was given Dharma and transmitted by Sojen Malweissman, who is a former abbot at the San Francisco Zen Center. He's still the abbot at the Berkeley Zen Center. And Malie also founded the Forest Heart Temple in Arcata, California. And she did that in 2000, shortly before her death. And throughout her life, Malie was passionately committed to social justice and devoted much of her time to work in prisons and homeless shelters throughout California. And she was also very involved with the Buddhist Peace Fellowship, where she served on the board of directors and helped to envision both the Buddhist Alliance for Social Engagement as well as the Buddhist Peace Fellowship's prison program. So she wrote her rendition of the Metta prayer, the Living Kindness prayer, in 1994. Before I read this, I just want to encourage you to kind of take a moment and turn inward.

[42:24]

Focus on your breath. Focus on your being. Focus on your sense of presence, right? Connect as I breathe in, as I speak these words, breathe them in on the inhale. And as you exhale, breathe out the felt sense of their loving kindness. Breathe out. Share it with others, right? so that any attention, any benefit that you may receive from these words may also radiate out like the sunlight to others. Extending the bodhisattva vow, may all beings be free. So this is what she said. This is what should be accomplished by the one who is wise. May I be well, loving, and peaceful. May all beings be well, loving and peaceful. May I be at ease in my body, feeling the ground beneath my seat and feet, letting my back be long and straight, enjoying breath as it rises and falls and rises.

[43:38]

May I know and be intimate with body-mind, whatever its feeling or mood, calm or agitated, tired or energetic, irritated or friendly, breathing in and out, in and out, aware, moment by moment, of the risings and passings. May I be attentive and gentle towards my own discomfort and suffering. May I be attentive and grateful for my own joy and well-being. May I move towards others freely and with openness. May I receive others with sympathy and understanding. May I move towards the suffering of others with peaceful and attentive confidence. May I recall the bodhisattva of compassion, her thousand hands, her instant readiness for action, each hand with an eye in it,

[44:49]

the instinctive knowing what to do. May I continually cultivate the ground of peace for myself and others and persist mindful and dedicated to this work, independent of results. May I know that my peace and the world's peace are not separate, that our own peace in the world is a result of our own work for justice. May all beings be well, happy, and peaceful. Thank you for your kind attention. Thank you for listening to this podcast offered by the San Francisco Zen Center. Our Dharma Talks are offered free of charge, and this is made possible by the donations we receive.

[45:54]

Your financial support helps us to continue to offer the Dharma. For more information, please visit sfcc.org and click Giving. May we all fully enjoy the Dharma.

[46:07]

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