be with you as always. This is the Wednesday evening Dharma Talk with San Francisco Zen Center. And our speaker for the night is Henzon, Roger Hilliard. Roger came to Zen practice in 2007, is currently serving as the head student, the head monk for our study of karma this practice period. And Roger is currently serving also as the shikha of city center. Wonderful to be with you all. We'll begin with the sutra opening verse, which you'll find in the chat. Please chat along with your microphones muted. An unsurpassed, penetrating and perfect dharma. It is rarely met with, even in a hundred thousand million kalpas, having it to see and listen to, to remember and accept.

[08:28]

I vow to taste the truth of the Tathagata's words. Good evening, everyone, and welcome. It's so very nice to be here with you all. I want to first of all thank David Zimmerman, the abbot, Nancy Petran, the tanto, and also my teacher, Shosan Victoria Austin. And it's so nice to see so many old friends and new friends and friends yet to be. So may we all embrace and encompass this. I do want to make a little single shout out to a friend from Minnesota, I believe, whom I haven't seen for a while, Killian, who he and I took. The precepts together back in 2009. So hello to you. Hope all is well. So tonight I want to talk about the garden of karma. And we were born into this life, I believe, with supreme grace.

[09:31]

An undeserved gift. The grace of karma. Because I actually consider karma a grace. not because we asked for it, not because we begged for it, not because we were good and deserved it, solely by grace. And that grace allows us the garden of karma, which is a way or a tool for us to open and look at, realize, sometimes to cast off and sometimes to bring on right action, right behavior, right speech, right meditation. And this garden of karma is a wonderful, Wonderful opportunity for us to reunite consciously, purposely, mindfully, bodily with our authentic, our genuine, original, actual, true self, our authentic self or our Buddha nature. For this, I'm very grateful. So the question is, how do we tend this garden? What does that mean?

[10:33]

We garden this karma. And what do we do and how do we do it? We've been offered a way out and a way in. And obviously, we have a choice. We can ignore it and let the garden go to weeds and seed and continue on its course of its own. But we also have the opportunity to cultivate it, nourish it, and flourish it. To quote Shosan Victoria Austin, karma is an art. For so long, I've considered karma this deep and dark and torturous and terrible place to go where all my misdeeds, and believe me, I have more than a few, are stored away and will come back to haunt me. I hear about the storehouse of karma, and I think of some dark, deep, forbidding place to go.

[11:38]

You know, it's not something I wanted to turn my attention to. It's not something I wanted to practice with. It was not something that I wanted to involve myself in. But given that viewpoint, why would I? You know, I want to avoid it, suppress it, repress it. And it's full of all kinds of negative things and habits. And now I'm hearing, oh, not only are they mine that I created, but they're my generational, my parents and my ancestors. And so at all costs, I want to run from it. But, you know, karma, the garden of karma, we think of it in that way, can be a sweet, beautiful, and wonderful place. You know, you can think of streams running through it with little eddies. You can think of trees and fruit trees and vegetables growing and birds singing and butterflies. You know, that's probably... idealistic, and as idealistic as that other viewpoint I described with the dark, dense, forbidding place.

[12:44]

But if we work with this garden, this opportunity that we've been given, we can transmute karma. We can change our karma. We can create beneficial karma. We can create love and joy and compassion in this world. So transmutation is the action of changing or changing a state of being into another state. In gardening, this is sometimes done by plowing the previous crop into the soil to increase organic matter and add nitrogen. But my tendency is if I want to start gardening, I don't want to do it this big, I want to do it this big. Which reminds me of one time I lived in Texas and I was working for a relatively large natural foods, organic foods company. And I said, I want to be a farmer.

[13:47]

So I went out to the fields. This is in the panhandle of Texas, the High Plains, where they grow dry land wheat because there's not enough water to grow otherwise. However, it does produce a high quality wheat, a hard red wheat. high protein wheat. So I went out with my friend who was the farmer and I said, yeah, I want to farm. Let me do something. So he said, okay, get up there in that tractor and go a mile and a half that way and turn right and go a mile that way and then turn right and come back a mile and a half and then turn right and go another mile and then move over one furrow. and a furrow is about three feet wide. Well, in the dust and the hot heat, that quickly ended my desire to be a wheat farmer. So what I'm suggesting to you is when you want to transmute your karma, don't try to do it all at once.

[14:49]

Take your time, approach it slowly, work with it, nourish it, and cuddle with it even. You can do this And it doesn't have to be an overwhelming task. 45 to 95% of what we do is habit. So our consciousness has all these seeds of our karma, and what we water is what will grow. So given that we have up to 95% habits... We have to slowly work over these. We have to slowly break them down. We have to slowly create new habits and patterns of living and being. In organic and biodynamic gardening, this has often begun with turning the old crop and stubble back into the soil, as I mentioned. We need to use karma to free ourselves from karma.

[15:53]

That's from Trey Legg. Kiya Ban, who wrote the book Karma, that is the text we're using in this practice period. So we need to use karma to free ourselves from karma. So that means to me, we need to create good karmic habits and good karmic being in order to free ourselves from karma. We can begin this process by reviving our soil and mulching the ground. Once again, to draw on my experiences from gardening and such. I lived in a place where there was a rice mill nearby and I contracted with them to get a truckload of rice hulls. And these were beautiful and they brought them to me and they dumped them on the ground. And I used these to mulch my entire garden. And what that did, that kept the weeds down and allowed the the vegetables to grow up, and it reduced the amount of water that I needed to garden with.

[17:00]

And I had most wonderful results with that garden, primarily due to that mulch. And this translates, we can do this in our own lives. If we mulch the karma of our garden, if we mulch it by putting in new properties, by putting in mulching materials, and letting that suppress the weeds, letting that suppress what we often call our negative karma. So one of the ways to approach this is through the practice of the second paramita of Celia or the perfection of morality or ethics. So this particular perfection or paramita is about the cultivation of character. And I think, well, I'll speak for myself again, certainly my character can use some cultivation. And it has improved over time, believe it or not.

[18:03]

Transmutation is possible, but it's still not perfect. So this cultivation of character, we cannot do by thinking ourselves into right action. Sometimes I think, okay, if I think about this hard enough, If I, oh, yeah, I'm going to substitute patience for my impatience. Well, that's a thought. And that does not always translate into right action. But we can act ourselves into right thinking. So we cannot think ourselves into right action, but we can act ourselves into right thinking. And I think this is the heart of that second paramita. Because when we begin working with it, when we begin studying with it, when we begin practicing with it, we start practicing commendable acts. We start practicing more compassion.

[19:07]

And slowly as we do this, we become more and more of that person. And that's the change, the transmutation that occurs in the practice of that second paramita or silya or cultivation of morality or ethics. So we're now beginning to work with some very deep things. We're beginning to work with our ancient, twisted, generational, ancestral karma. And that's deep, and that can be problematic. But it's a process that's well worth it. And again, if we go back to that picture, that concept of Karma is the garden or the garden of karma. We can have joy in that and we can watch ourselves slowly change, become another person, a different person, become a person who manifests those ethics and that morality that we want to pursue. And as we create that, then those old negative habits, 45 to 95 percent, become more suppressed.

[20:15]

and they don't pop through that mulch. So this is an ongoing practice and an ongoing path. Bill Wilson, who was the founder of AA, wrote, despite the happy transcendence of the difficulties of yesterday and today, we nevertheless deeply realize that our negative traits are still with us. Therefore, Our constant responsibility is continuous practice. We hear that in Zen very often. We have to continue this practice. We can't just tend and create a beautiful garden and walk away and assume it will be so forevermore. We can have the joy of tending our garden, of watering it, of weeding it as much as might be necessary, is nurturing it and working with it. and those others around us. So Bill goes on to say, you know, therefore our constant responsibility or our continuous practice should be that of taking a fearless look at our afflictions or our negative karma as we go along, better to undertake their mending.

[21:32]

So I have a lot of mending to do. You may or may not probably got a good amount, too. I don't want to put that on you, but it seems like we all do, particularly when we consider it's what I've done, what I've inherited from generations, my parents and ancestral ones. So with this 45 to 95 percent of habits, it takes a long time. It's a slow effort and worthwhile effort. to get us out of these habits. So when we use Celia to practice being more unethical, this calls for meditation, one of the things, so that we can observe our thoughts, our motives, and our actions. So when we sit in meditation, oftentimes, you know, things will come up. I mean, particularly when I've sat in long periods of meditation or a seshin, which can be up to seven days,

[22:35]

You know, strange things, thoughts from my past arise. You know, things I've not thought of until that moment, you know, going back to when they began. And that could be a long time in my life. I'm somewhat of an old man, although hopefully I still got it. Well, I appreciate this being able to be this chuseau because once again, I have an opportunity to grow and blossom. Just like my garden of karma, it continues to grow and blossom. But at any rate, with meditation, in deep meditation, sometimes thoughts arise in situations or things that occurred that I'd forgotten about as many as 50, 60, even 70 years ago. So letting those things arise and not trying to run and hide from them And not getting stuck in them, but accepting them and realizing that oftentimes this is just a pattern that's occurred time and time again in my life.

[23:44]

So meditation can really offer a wonderful, wonderful tool for us to garden in karma. It offers a wonderful opportunity to see some of our motives and thoughts and actions that have occurred. So it's not about cultivating negative habits and not nourishing them. It's about tilling the soil then and fertilizing and watering our garden. So I'd like to offer seven strategies towards transmuting your karma. These are techniques that you can use, practices that you can use along with your meditation. separately from your meditation. And these I've worked with a bit and I know that they've been helpful and they could be helpful for you too. So those seven strategies to transmuting karma are, first of all, identify your karma.

[24:50]

And that goes back to the meditation, realizing that these things are there and they do come up. Now this may sound extreme, but I think not. Second thing is to sever ties to toxic things and people. Don't keep doing the same old bad habits. Use Celia. Use that second paramita to start building non-toxic things, to start building loving things, compassionate things, to start nurturing your garden. And sometimes we all have a habit of... hanging out with the wrong folks. And not that other people are bad, but some of them just don't contribute to our well-being. And a lot of that can be habitual or even addictive on our parts. But look at that. And the beauty of Sangha is, amongst those practitioners, amongst us practitioners, is that we're hanging out with good people, basically.

[25:56]

We're hanging out with people that have... Pretty much the same motivations that we do. We're hanging out with people that want to be helpful and are helpful and offer us an opportunity to be compassionate towards and to be helpful towards. Again, breaking down our negative patterns and our negative habits. So one, identify your karma. Two, sever ties to toxic things and people. And the third one is, this can be really difficult. Learn from and take responsibility from your mistakes. Now, I'd much prefer to deny my mistakes and bury them and not acknowledge them, ignore them, push them back over there. And least of all, I don't want to take responsibility for that. I wouldn't have done that except he or she did that or they or them did that.

[26:57]

That's why I did that. I didn't mean to. I didn't want to hurt anybody. I didn't want to do that thing, but they forced me to. Well, that's not true. And going back to the second one, if you start to sever ties with toxic people, you'll have less people around to blame for your mistakes, and you'll have more responsibility to take for them. And lo and behold, acknowledging your mistakes, learning from them and taking responsibility is not so bad. You can grow from that. The plants, the vegetables in your garden can grow from that. So the fourth thing is perform good actions and deeds. And that again goes back to Celia. Start promoting, start working with, start creating. good character, good morality, good ethics.

[27:59]

And slowly, what you do along those lines will become part of you. And you won't have to be consciously saying, oh, I should go over and pick up that piece of paper off the floor. Oh, I should go over and ask that person if there's something I can do to help them. So the next thing, again, gets a little personal. and sometimes is not easy to acknowledge, but defy your weaknesses. So to do that, you really have to know your weaknesses and become acquainted with them. And again, this goes back to meditation, where you start seeing some of those weaknesses. So you can defy them. You don't need to give in to them. You don't need to practice them. And as you're performing good actions and deeds, like the fourth one, It builds strength. It builds that muscle where you don't have to react and act in that manner.

[29:00]

So you can defy your weaknesses. And the sixth one kind of repeats what I've been saying here is take new action. Don't do the same old things. And when you see yourself, observe yourself, and it comes up to you, oh, I'm doing the same old thing again. Do something different. Do something more positive. oh, I tried weeding that plant and watering it in my garden of karma, but that maybe was a little too much water. Maybe I should give it a little less water and push the mulch in a little more. Or maybe I need to trim it a little bit, prune it a little bit to make it work. So take new action. And the seventh one is a big, big, It's forgive everyone. As long as you are sitting around, standing around, going around with all these people in your life that you're resentful towards, that have created all your problems, are responsible because you would be really happy.

[30:20]

You would be really good if... if they hadn't happened or hadn't done that. More than often, you'll find that you had a part in what went on in that situation. So forgiving everyone is one of the biggest, most beautiful things one can do. And it sometimes takes work. It sometimes, oftentimes takes a lot of time to do that. It's not easy, but it can be done. To review, the seven strategies for transmuting our karma, the seven strategies for gardening in our wonderful, beautiful garden are, one, identify your karma. Two, sever ties to toxic things and people. Three, learn from and take responsibility of your mistakes. Four,

[31:21]

Perform good actions and deeds. Five, defy your weaknesses. Six, take new action. And seven, forgive everyone. Those are the traits of a good, good gardener. So the perfection of morality and ethics is an activity. And it's an activity that's driven by the three pure precepts. I vow to refrain from harmful conduct. So I am vowing to do that. It doesn't mean I'll do it each and every time, but I'm making a vow to work in that direction. I'm making a vow to practice that as much and as well as I can. So no longer do I want to indulge in harmful conduct. The second is I vow to cultivate beneficial conduct. So, again, I can't do that every moment, but I make a vow to cultivate it, create it, practice it, do something new, take new action, perform good deeds and actions.

[32:38]

And the third pure precept is I vow to benefit all beings. So as much as I can, I want to benefit you and [...] all of you and all of us and myself included. Don't forget to benefit yourself. It says all beings, not all beings minus one. So that includes yourself. So benefit yourself by cultivating that garden, nourishing that garden, practicing in that garden. So I'll close with this quote. The perfection of morality or ethics, in other words, the transmutation of karma, like an eagle in flight soars far beyond the conventional into the empty blue skies of love and delight.

[33:39]

And that's a quote from Norman Fisher, a beloved Zen teacher, previous habit and author and poet. So please, please. Continuously tend your garden and soar like an eagle. Thank you very much. May our intention equally extend to every being and place with a true merit of the does way. Beings are numberless. I vow to save them. Delusions are inexhaustible. I vow to end them. Dharma gates are boundless. I vow to enter them. Buddha's way is unsurpassable. I vow to become it.

[34:41]

Thank you very much. Thank you to the Assembly. Thank you to the Shusoh. The Garden of Karma. Now it's time for some conversation. So if you have some questions or comments, please feel free to raise your Zoom hand and I can help call on you. Looks like Shosan will be first. Hi, Hanzan. I've got a question about your seven methods of gardening of a Bodhisattva. The question is, did you make those up or where did they come from? How did you come up with those? Well, a combination. I somehow found them on Google and they weren't listed as the seven strategies to transmit karma, but they somewhat fit.

[35:49]

And then I... I gardened them, if you will. I took what I found on Google for seven strategies for whatever, and I gardened them and put them in terms of how one might work with one's karma. Thanks. Thank you. Eva. know, you know, Zendo events identity. I'm curious, how do you benefit all beings? And I mean this metaphorically, how do you benefit all beings when they're playing the giants? Well, I like to bet on the giants. And I like to bet with people here in the Zen Center.

[36:53]

And we usually bet dish shifts. We each have a dish shift. So we bet on the dish shift. So the loser has to do the other person's dish shift. And I think it benefits them as it benefits all beings because it teaches them humility when the giants win. How's that? Acceptable. I'm just seeing others. If all my hopes and... and love is going into the Giants, how do I benefit those who are opposing again? Well, to be really honest, Eli, the last time I bet on the Giants, I lost. And I had to do the dish shift. So it taught me a little bit of humility. So as I said, when you benefit all beings, it's not all beings minus one. Oh, Raj, it's so great to see you again.

[38:02]

Yeah. For me, it's like wonderful to hear this spin about the garden of karma and the blessings of karma, because karma, you know, when we hear the ancient twisted karma, it sounds terrible. Like we're caught up in this horrible net. And, you know, the Buddha said that being born as a human being is the greatest possible thing. blessing anyone can possibly have. And so if we can see karma as a positive thing, I was wondering if we could just say more about that, how we can create our own positive karma. Well, thank you. Are you coming to us from Thailand? Yeah. You get the long distance award. Thank you. Good to see you. Over like the last year and a half and such. When I was on Zoom all the time, I saw you often. So I remember you here in person years ago.

[39:05]

So good to see you. So, well, those seven strategies, I think they help to create karma and they help to create joy and happiness. And they change from that dreadful, dark idea of our ancient twisted karma. I don't know that it is so dark, but that's my picture of it. And it had been my experience of it. This is something to be avoided. So by doing esteemable acts, by, you know, practicing the three pure precepts, I think that that we find goodness and joy and that we need to look at that our karma or the term I'm using, our garden of karma in a negative way. But an opportunity, because as Buddha said, is one of the greatest things which you quoted about being born as a human. And it's that opportunity to transmute ourselves as human beings that it doesn't always go the way we want or the way we would like or things do occur, but it's still that opportunity to manifest ourselves in our authentic self.

[40:20]

So I think that's what can be done with working with our karma. It's a tool that's been given to us and offered to us. Thank you. Julian. Hi, Roger. Hey, buddy. It's so inspiring to hear you talk. It's awesome. And to hear that you're so, I'm so excited. So my question is, I don't know, when you said the seventh one, forgive everyone. I was like, I came out here because I was kind of angry and I was like, oh, just felt relief. I can forgive.

[41:20]

But it also seems kind of difficult. Is it difficult? It is for me. Yeah, me too. So you went 2,000 miles, but that helped you forgive, is that correct? I've got to forgive all the time in order to make it work. Thanks again, Rogers. Lovely to see you. Likewise. Lovely to see you. How's that son of yours? You must be big now. Yeah, I got to forgive them. I got two of them. I work. Yeah. A little work. They're great. Wonderful. I remember him coming to the Saturday Dharma talks. Yeah. Is it like a two or three or something? Yeah. Great to see you.

[42:26]

And Forgiveness is definitely a practice and one that we don't necessarily do perfectly, but we can continue to work upon it. And I do believe that it comes. And part of it is acknowledging our own mistakes or our own part in whatever might have occurred that has caused us to have this resentment. Thank you. Thank you. I always have things to say. I'm sorry. If anybody else wants to talk, you're welcome to. But I have a situation that happened yesterday that I think I could use advice on in terms of karma. I live in a, let's just call it an apartment complex, and there was a crime that occurred in early September where one of my neighbors was attacked and I saw him be punched.

[43:35]

And there are a lot of different neighbors and everything. And by yesterday, the research guy, the investigator for one of the perpetrators was going around trying to talk to people, and he got me, and I was kind of clueless and didn't, you know, I didn't know who he was, or I should have asked for more information. But anyway, everybody's been advising me not to talk to him, but I had already started a conversation. So the question is, do I continue to provide my honest, truthful perspective in a case which I actually eventually did find out But one of the perps is just like totally horrendous. And there's like all these other things that he's being accused of, including kidnapping. But do I do I participate karmically by talking more to the investigator, even though, you know, whatever, I'm just going to take my own perspective.

[44:42]

But or do I refrain from helping the investigator for the attorney for the perpetrator? That's your question? Yeah. Okay. Which way influences the karma? Well, I'll tell you what I think would influence the karma in a positive gardening way. Your neighbor that was harmed in some way or another, have you taken them tea at all? Have you taken them cookies or gone and talked to them and sat down with them and just, you know, in a friendly nature? Yeah, on the day of the event, myself and several neighbors were concerned about him and tried to get him to call the ER and we got him water and ice. They got him an ice pack and stuff like that. On that day, the situation is really spurious because I've never met this neighbor before.

[45:44]

And the details of the situation ring. They sound like a drug deal that's gone bad. So it's really complicated. And I don't know what my attitude is. I have expressed my concern and good karma to my neighbor. But then what? Well, then perhaps you just need to remove yourself from the situation altogether. And sometimes that's the best action that we can take. But then are we not failing to have compassion for someone who is being accused of a crime? Well, how about having compassion for oneself? That's a good point. And you have reached out. Maybe drop that neighbor a card.

[46:45]

Just, you know, nice card saying... Just checking in, saying hello. Hope you're doing well. And then just you don't have to participate in this whole thing. And look at your motives and look at your own what thoughts and habits are coming up for you. This is an opportunity for you to study karma. Yeah. But you don't necessarily have to act and do something to resolve this situation or participate in it. I guess it would be the cutting ties with toxic things and people. That could be. Back out. Right. Further communication unless I'm called to court. But there are other people that have more interesting evidence than I do. Right. I'm just a tiny little. Maybe it's about taking new action. I think it's about taking less action. Okay. Thank you.

[47:46]

Thank you for the feedback. Thank you. more questions? Peter. Thank you so much for your talk, Roger. I am really impressed. You sounded so good. It was two or three weeks ago. And you sounded even better this evening. And I really liked your metaphor of the garden as far as karma being action.

[48:55]

And a garden is where we can take action. The whole idea of cultivating is a very useful metaphor. So, you know, I guess I'm just wondering what advice you might have for us cultivators and gardeners that aren't a green thumb. Continuous practice. I think that's the answer. You know, I don't know. I mean, I'll tell you, I had a real success as a gardener one time. I lived in New Mexico, and I had a nice big garden. And this depends, so it's answering your question. I entered three zucchini in the New Mexico State Fair, and I won a blue ribbon and $2.50.

[49:57]

Now, I won that blue ribbon and that $2.50 because not that they were the biggest zucchini, but because they were three small ones, all incredibly similar in color and size. So when you say you may not have a green thumb, you may, you just don't realize. And it's not about growing the biggest zucchini or the biggest kale patch, what have you, you know. So if you continue to practice, I'm sure you will be successful. And sometimes we are surprised by our successes. I guess in the meantime, I'll have to forgive myself. Thank you for your time. Please do. Shuso, we've got about one more minute. Would you like to offer a closing word? Well, I think I already offered it, and I will say it again, quote to quote Norman Fisher, the perfection of morality and ethics, like an eagle in flight, soars far beyond the conventional into the empty blue skies of love and delight.

[51:13]

So please continuously tend your garden and soar like an eagle. Thank you so much, everyone. Thank you, Roger. Thank you all. Good night. You should be able to unmute if you'd like to. Thank you very much, Roger. Thank you all. Good night, everyone. Thank you. Thank you, Roger. Thank you, Roger. Thank you, Roger. Yeah, okay. Yeah, thanks, Roger. We're all gardeners in this life. We're all composters in this life. What was it, Chauncey the gardener? Remember that movie? Wait, what? Chauncey the Garden. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Chauncey the Garden. Yeah. It's like a garden. Yeah. Good night, Rog. Okay, good night, everybody. Good night. Pleasure being with you. Bye-bye.

[52:12]

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