Good evening. Thank you for coming. Maybe just for people who don't know me, my name is Li Ping, and I'm the Shih Tso for this practice period. And Shih Tso is the head student. Maybe some people say it's a modest student, and I was saying earlier, it's not because I'm a modest student to become Shisou, it's actually that Shisou is turning me into a modest student. Like getting up early and doing the wake up bell. So just kind of share a little bit with my experience as a Shisou. And people usually, you know, run into me in the hallway or different tea time will ask me this question, like, how is the Shiso doing? How is the Shiso thing going? I'm usually very positive, saying, yes, very good, really good, wonderful.

[01:02]

And here are the certain things I really want to share with you. I really love the fact that I have a Benji. Not only, you know, she schedules the tea, She washed my oyoki balls. And the other day, I locked myself out. She got me in. So it's been wonderful to have that relationship and working with somebody and feel taken care of in a very helpful way. And I also get to run every morning for four minutes. I think my friend Mike, if he's here, he'll be really proud and happy because he used to complain saying, you always do this slow moving, you know, Tai Chi thing. You need to run. You need to do some, get your cardiovascular going. So I think the four minutes will get me at least, you know, really get me sweat in the morning or in the morning.

[02:08]

And I have a bad habit of forgetting to drink water, even though I always tell my patients to. But these past weeks, I've been drinking a lot of tea. So that's a good thing to develop. I was always scared about the idea of giving talks, especially in the Zen Center Buddha Hall, a very serious place. I remember when I first told Tia, you know, I said, I don't think I can give a talk. I don't know enough. I cannot teach. And she looked at me seriously, and she said, you are a Shusou. You are a head student. You are not a teacher. You're not expected to teach. I said, oh, thank God. That's great. I was so relieved. I thought to myself, I can be a student.

[03:12]

That's what I have always been here as a Zen student, and I feel I need to study even more. So that's why I feel I can sit here and not feel like I have to teach anything. I can just share with you my study, my incurring in this path, and my practice. So Tonight, I thought about what would be interesting. And something came to my mind. I said, I'd like to talk about virtue, cultivating virtue. Not in the sense of how do I practice to be a virtuous person. And I don't think that way. But more just like the teachings on virtue Since I studied Zen, like from those different teachings, well, the teachings come up, and also how the virtue teaching comes out in Qigong system, in the Qigong system that I've been trained, and also one of the classics, the Tao Te Jin, because the Tao Te Jin, the Jin is the Bible, or there's a sutra, and the Tao is the...

[04:36]

the way, and de is the virtue. So basically Tao Te Ching is a book on the way and on the virtues. And the virtues that connect with the Tao that in accordance with the Tao. So those three places I've seen the teachings on virtue over and over. And so I want to kind of just like point them out. Maybe we can all look at them. and how this virtue becomes such an important part of all these different traditions, Taoist tradition, Qigong tradition, and Zen tradition. In this practice period that is led by Abbot Paul Heller, and the thing is sila, and samadhi. Sila is the precept, samadhi is the concentration. So to me, the precepts are the guidelines for our behaviors, actions, and they are the practice of virtues.

[05:50]

Maybe it's not phrased that way. So here I want to just kind of, how many of you here actually are not familiar with Zen practice or Zen teachings? just cures. Just a couple hands. So excuse me that I'm repeating myself. Maybe it's good as a community we revisit these teachings. So the ten grave precepts basically says I will not kill I vow not to take what is not given. I vow not to misuse sexuality. I vow to refrain from false speech. I vow to refrain from intoxicants. I vow not to slander. I vow not to praise self at the expense of others.

[06:56]

I vow not to be avaricious. I vow not to harbor your will. I vow not to abuse the three treasures. So that's the basics. And the book that I just got a hold of from Paul, you can see there's all the precepts, many, many more precepts in detail in the Buddhist tradition. In the Theravada tradition, there are 256 for men, and there's 350 precepts for women. So there are lots of guidelines about how you behave your actions and for the purpose of cultivating a wellness. I would say the virtue that is in line with our Buddha nature. And there's another source of, in the Buddhist teachings, the loving kindness meditation that we chant here

[08:02]

every week. So that's more kind of more direct mentioning those virtues. So here's part of it. I'll just pick out some lines. This is what should be accomplished by the one who is wise, who seeks the good and has obtained peace. Let one be strenuous, upright and sincere, without pride, easily contented, And another part. Let no one deceive another, nor despise any being in any state.

[09:03]

Let none by anger or hatred wish harm to another. So with a boundless mind should one cherish all living things, suffusing love over the entire world, above, below, and all around without limit. So let one cultivate an infinite good will toward the whole world. Let one practice the way with gratitude. not holding to fixed views, endowed with the inside, freed from sense appetite. So, a lot of us here are very familiar with these teachings, and that's a little bit introduction of the Buddhist way of talking about it. And in the Qigong tradition, the heavenly essence Qigong tradition, that some of you here are very familiar with, but I think most of you are not. But just I want to share with you, and the teaching basically will see the similarities and what comes up over and over again.

[10:10]

And there's the eight virtues and the eight principles. that the students study Qigong when they come, not just learn the exercises, try to be healthy or strong, but actually they are the guidelines also for their mind cultivation, virtue cultivation. So the eight virtues goes like this. Success without arrogance is deemed position without abusing power. Honored, without pride, challenged, without loss of will, facing fortune, righteous and lawyer, facing sexual desire, without nude thoughts, in relations with others, kind and tolerant, at work, selfless and devoted. And the eight principles, be respectful of teachers, dedicated to the Tao,

[11:15]

Be courteous and agreeable. Be a good team player. Be efficient and effective. Be patriotic and law-abiding. Be disciplined and keep confidentiality. Be thrifty and diligent and good at home management. Be loyal and faithful to promises. The Qigong was more designed for people actually as lay practitioners. And my teacher calls it entering the world practice, that your practitioner live in the world and do the cultivation. So that's why you can hear us talking about home management. And also in the three levels of moral cultivation, And the first level, the lower level cultivation, is benefit oneself as well as others.

[12:18]

So when you're benefiting yourself, you'll benefit others. So the self is in front. And the middle level cultivation is benefit others as well as oneself. As you're more concerned of other people's benefits, their well-beings, and why you'll benefit others, you yourself also are taken care of. And the upper level cultivation is sacrifice oneself to benefit others. So that sounds very familiar, that upper level cultivation in the Qigong is the bodhisattva way, that you forget self, for the sake of all others. And in the goals to benefit the world, it says bring health to the world, bring hope to the world. bring joy to the world, bring strength to the world. So that gives you a little sense of, in Qigong practice, how the virtues are taught, how this is an important part of the practice as well.

[13:28]

And in the Tao Te Ching, this is a book about the virtue and the Tao. So basically, The total book is 81 chapters. And you can see there's more than 20 or 30 chapters that talk about virtue. So I'm just going to pick a couple of them. If you're not familiar with this, I really highly recommend you read about Tao Te Ching. So chapter eight. And the highest form of goodness is like water. Water knows how to benefit all things without striving with them. It stays in places most by all men, therefore it comes near the doubt. In choosing your dwelling, know how to keep to the ground.

[14:30]

In cultivating your mind, know how to dive in the hidden deeps. In dealing with others, know how to be gentle and kind. In speaking, know how to keep your words. In governing, know how to maintain order. In transacting business, know how to be efficient. In making a move, know how to choose the right moment. If you do not fight with others, you will be free from trouble. or some translation, you will be free from blame. So the metaphor saying how the Tao is like water, same here, so the highest form of goodness is like water. So talking about the Tao, the Buddha nature, and... is like water, how it benefits all things, how it can be yielding, can be soft.

[15:36]

Maybe a couple more. Bend and you will be whole. Crawl and you will be straight. Keep empty and you will be filled. Grow old and you will be renewed. He does not make a show of himself, hence he shines. Does not justify himself, hence he becomes known. Does not boast of his ability, hence he gets his credit. Does not brandish his success, hence he endures. Does not compete with anyone, hence no one can compete with him. So I'm not reading the whole thing. Here there's a really interesting sentence that comes up a lot in my Qigong study. It says, keep empty and you will be filled.

[16:39]

Keep empty and you will be filled. And in the virtual teaching, Qigong also talking about how you entering in a no position. So when you're sitting in class, you're receiving... and you're putting yourself in a low position. And it's the same thing, you keep your empty, then you can be filled. And when you're in a low position, then the higher places thing can flow into you. There's a very good metaphor my teacher used. He says, the ocean can be so vast, can hold so much water, it's because the ocean puts itself at the lowest place. And in the Qigong practice, how you hold yourself, how your attitude, put yourself in the lower place, actually the energy from the universe, if it's in a higher place, and you are putting yourself in a lower place, actually from height to no, the energy from the whole universe will naturally flow to you.

[17:46]

So that's one of the important virtues, to be humble, to be modest, to be open. to be receptive, to receive. So we look at all these different traditions and talking about similar things. And in the Zen tradition, we also say that we are Buddhas. Each one of us is Buddha. And is there such a thing of cultivating virtue? Do we need to cultivate virtue? Two things come to my mind, and the Southern School and the Graduate School. The Southern School, the Huenen School, the Sixth Patriarch, is you're already originally pure. You are originally, you are the original pure.

[18:49]

There is no dust to clean. That's the servant school. You're already a Buddha, and you're already endowed with all virtues. There's no such thing of cultivating virtue. And the graduate school, the shenshu, the shenshu is, you know, the mirror, we're collecting dust, and you need to polish, and you need to clean the mirror all the time. So that's more in graduate school, how... But in the Tao Te Ching, it says, he who cultivates the Tao is one with the Tao. He who practices the virtue is one with the virtue. So in the graduate school, there is that action that you take on, there is that cultivation that you actually making that effort, which reminds me of the teaching from Suzuka Yoga. and lots of stories about Suzuki Roshi, how he looked at each person.

[19:54]

He looked at each person, and each person is Buddha, is the perfect Buddha. And he bowed to each one, and as you are the Buddha, he was bowing to. And it was beautiful stories about how he was exemplifying the teaching and the understanding of this, we are all Buddhas. Our original nature is Buddha. But one time he made a comment. He said, you are perfect the way as you are, but you can still use some improvement. And that, I think, is really the good way of saying, yes, you are already perfect. You are the Buddha. But you can still use some improvement. It sounds like contradicting. And that's why when I think about talking about the virtue, do we actually making that effort?

[20:59]

Or we think that we're ready, just perfect the way we are? How you find that place, that you actually look at a place that you work with this, either precepts or the virtues. Rev. Anderson, in his book, Being Upright, if you want to study the precept, that's a really good book to study. And he has a paragraph. I think it's a really good point. Trusting your Buddha does not mean that you identify yourself with Buddha. It's not something special about you that makes you Buddha. It is simply you being that is Buddha. It is not that you are a virtuous person, so virtuous that you are Buddha, but that you being you is virtue.

[22:05]

Maybe, relatively speaking, you have a little bit of virtue, or maybe you have a great deal of virtue, but that is not important. The point is that being what you are is your fundamental virtue. So I want to put all those out there and maybe what cultivating virtue means to you, what the virtues mean to you. I thought about what do I think about the ways of cultivating virtue, how we can actually have some practice. And we're actually doing it. First thing I thought was repeating, repeating the virtues, repeating the teaching. That's why we're chanting the loving-kindness meditation that we do. And in China, when we study Qigong, before each class, we're chanting the eight virtues and principles.

[23:14]

And at Every month, we have four months only. We do the vows, you know, vow not to kill, vow not to have full speech. And all those things, we are repeatedly saying the teachings and remind ourselves of the teachings. And that's one way. And the second way, I think, is checking, like, with your own conduct. Check in with yourself. Am I, yeah, am I being kind? Am I being patient? Am I tolerant? Am I giving? Am I generous? So that's another way of doing it. And also a very important thing is listen to other people's feedback. Sometimes somebody give you feedback, maybe not pleasant to your ears, maybe not comfortable, maybe the way they speak to you.

[24:14]

that doesn't really make you feel you can listen to. But those are all the good moments. It's part of learning, yeah, what are they trying to tell me? Am I doing something that I might make an improvement or change? And another thing is to learn to see virtues, see virtues in each person, and recognize virtues and appreciate virtues. One story about Suzuki Roshi was, I think in the Shining One Corner was the name of the book, and a student came to have doksan with him, and the student was complaining about somebody that they had a problem with. And Suzuki Roshi said something, if you want to see virtues of somebody else, you need to have a calm mind. So that basically brings to our practice of meditation, our mindfulness practice is not separate with our practice, with all this sila, with the virtue practice, because we need to have that calm mind, that mindfulness that we are able to

[25:38]

you know, see what we're doing, ourselves doing, and catch ourselves when we are, you know, act a certain way or say certain things that can be heard for. And learn from each other. That's another way of working on this. In the community, and you see people around you, how... how they are living their life, how they exemplify the teachings. Over the years living in this community, I look around, I really have lots of secret admirations for a lot of you. I can list quite some, and I wish that as present, as Paul Heller, as enlightening as Tia, as dedicated as Blanche Hupman, as tender as Jordan Thorn.

[26:46]

Those are all our leaders here. Just a lot of them as diligent as Daigaku, just looking around as generous as John Catherine, as good-hearted as Philip Brown. I just catch different faces. as thorough, attentive as on a phone. And so, so many of you have taught me about your practice and your virtue. Show me the virtue. So that's, yeah, that's all I want to say. And I know there's some, this is actually a big topic. I do have time for questions. So I don't know if you have any questions. And I have this deal with Paul.

[27:48]

If I cannot answer, I'm just going to look at him. He'll give me A, B, C, D and pick one. That's what I was good at when I was in school. Good question. Patience. I'm sure there are a lot that came to my mind. It depends what kind of occasion I can I can be very, very patient if I'm teaching a movement. But I find sometimes if somebody asks me questions, I get very impatient.

[28:53]

I mean, just like a repeat of that question. Not when I'm teaching Tai Chi. I find I have lots of patience with Tai Chi teaching. I don't know why, but... But sometimes I find I really need to work on my patience. Yes. You think all of the precepts I know have an opposite? For instance, when we vow about to steal, we could say we vow to be generous. Yes. Doing that to all of the precepts, which one is your favorite one? My favorite one. Well, as a Zen student, we shouldn't pick and choose, right? They're all great virtues. They're all great virtues. They're inspirations for me. I aspire to be just like all the people I just mentioned. There are many more people that I didn't get to mention.

[29:58]

Oh, Sant. Hi, Janine. I've noticed that one's relationship with the three sex, that there is a consequence in energy, that when they're ideal sense of maybe you have a quote like Sheila, and that when you cross a line, you feel it effectively, whether it's in Hawaii or in some other way. I'm just wondering, because we feel so, because we are so affected by being here in Hawaii and being people about it. Have you ever heard about this together in that way? Have we thought about it? Definitely. I think actually, not just me, I think a lot of people here, I heard in different talks that They all have this experience when you're crossing the line, when you know the precepts, and you have a doubt whether you're doing the right thing, you actually have a bodily sensation.

[31:16]

I think that's the same with me too. I think I shared with some people at the tea once, I was cooking breakfast, and I think I was roasted some almonds. And so as a cook, I was like, OK, I need to taste how these almonds taste, like it's cooked or not. So I'm taking one. It was really good. So I start to reach for the second one. So the second one wasn't really for my work, for my job. I was like, I really want to eat it. So I definitely thought myself, like, hmm, I think what is my feeling? I definitely have part of my experience. And part of me kind of, wow, this practice is too powerful. The more you practice, and there's something stopping you.

[32:18]

And sometimes I would do things, I would say things, or maybe hurtful, wasn't thoughtful, I already said it, and it's later I catch it. but didn't catch it right away. But later, I would definitely feel discomfort or painful, and those kind of feelings would come up. And I feel like I had to go to the person, apologize, or explain what I meant or what I did to resolve that. Anybody else? Wow, we get to go to bed early. Yes, one more question. My practice general? Wow, that's a huge question.

[33:19]

The problem is that Paul just to avoid looking at me, so. Honestly, I can think of a lot of things, but it humbles me. I'm working about it. Lots of gratitude. I think when I first came, I definitely had this sense of arrogance. And I wasn't intending to study Zen. I wasn't intending to find out what people were doing here. It actually took me a long time to go to the Bizarre Instruction.

[34:29]

maybe quite some time. I was really caught up in the tradition that I was, you know, trained. And there was sense like, oh, we do this, you guys might do this, you know, that's compared to mine. I think the reason that maybe I was talking about virtue also, I just thought, people in this community taught me about, which, I mean, they've joined their actors. So it's quite, quite a movement. So it's kind of good. And one other poem, I have this song to give you a signify. I was going to have you close your eyes.

[35:31]

I was going to ask my friend to help me, but she refused. So it's a very simple song. I hope this is to relax your body while you're listening to it. The song is called Half Moon is Climbing Up. Half Moon is Climbing Up, Shining on the Dressing Table of My Girl. Please open the curtains. Please open the curtains. And pick a rose and gently throw it down. And pick a rose and gently throw it down. So, very simple poem. It's like a poem. 半个月亮爬上来 一来来 Come on. Come on. Come on.

[36:36]

Come on. Come on. Have a good night sleep.

[37:20]

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