This podcast is offered by the San Francisco Zen Center on the web at www.sfcc.org. Our public programs are made possible by donations from people like you. Good morning. So today is my last Dharma talk of the sushin and the practice period. I have a party planned. Neither I nor, this feels really loud, is it? What do you think? Neither Tovan nor I have ever given three Dhammatats in a week before. And I think Tovan actually gave four because she did the last Wednesday night one in the practice period. So this is a challenge for us.

[01:02]

But when somebody invites you, when the abbot invites you to lead a practice period and a sashim, neither Tova nor I are going to say, no. I don't know how to do that. I think we both are going to say, I think I can, I think I can, I think I can. And then just hope. So it's really good to be here on this occasion. And you know how a song will get stuck in your mind? So for the last couple of days, the Egei Koso Hotsuganmon has been going through my mind. I can't shake it. I hope it helps me. Or maybe it means study it, or I'm not sure what. At least it's my favorite champ, so it's not too bad that it would be going through my mind.

[02:07]

So today I want to talk about our Sashin and how it expresses our interdependence and points to the truth of emptiness. And I also want to bring up in the same context the last bit of Shantideva's Guide to the Bodhisattva Way of Life. Is that what it's called? Guide to the Way of the Bodhisattva. Which is about dedicating the merit. So I'll get to that in a moment. First, I want to talk a little bit about sashim and particularly service. And I really love the service forms and especially during sashim, I notice it, how everything fits together like a hand in a glove.

[03:15]

All the parts fit together. It sometimes happens when we have a small session like this that there aren't just legions of Doans ready to help out. So some new people get to do it, to learn the Doan positions and be Doans for this week. And lots of people got their start in their Doan careers that way. It's a wonderful thing to do. And then next time we have more Doans. So one of the things I notice is that we're all so familiar with the forums in a certain way that if any little piece is missing or out of place, you kind of know it, even though you may not know exactly what it is. There's this little gap or something. Something happens, and you go, oh.

[04:18]

And that particularly tends to happen during breakfast, the meal chat. You know that place where either the Shusso or the Kokyo says, this morning meal of 10 benefits nourishes us in our practice. Its rewards are boundless, filling us with ease and joy. And that line is said by the Chisseau, when there is one in this practice period, there isn't one. And I know how it's written on the card. I know that if you didn't know it, you'd have to kind of sit there and figure out what you were supposed to do. So sometimes there's this little gap that we feel. It's very commonplace for there to be a little gap. And when I was, you know, I used to sometimes end up filling in for somebody like me. maybe fill in for the co-kill. But since I was a fill-in substitute, I was mostly just forgetting that I was a substitute and just standing there enjoying service.

[05:22]

And then there'd be this gap, and I would think, someone is supposed to be doing something. And then I'd realize, oh, it's me. So we feel those things in our bodies, even if we don't know them in our minds exactly. And now we have a new abbot. So our abbot, Ed, you know, was very familiar with the forms and immersed in our life. I'm going to say 30 years ago. I haven't done the math to see if that's correct. But he hasn't been around yet. the forums intimately here for a long time. So now he officiates at all the important ceremonies and some services. So sometimes he asks me how to do things. And it's very embarrassing because there are things that I do myself.

[06:28]

You know, I do it with my body. But when it comes to saying, do you do this or do you do this? Sometimes I don't know. I wonder where that is located in us, that kind of knowledge and information. Sometimes we say, oh, I don't know it in my mind, but I know it in my body. And it can feel that way because it seems like our body can be on autopilot and know what to do. But that's not really what it is. You know, it's some body-mind place. And I think we have a community version of that, a sangha version of that, and that's the thing that goes, hmm, something's missing right now. So anyway, I always admire how much everything fits together, and as you do all the different positions, you see it more and more, and then you may actually officiate at the service, and then you know how all the pieces fit together, and it's really so beautiful and inspiring.

[07:41]

And I love it that we invoke the presence of the ancestors during our dedications, during our chanting, and they're here, you know, they're across the room, and then we bow, and so we're all bowing together, us and the ancestors, kind of all beings of all time, or all our teachers and ancestors of all time. So I love it. And we're chanting these ancient forms that we've inherited that are so beautiful. And in the Zendo, meal practice is the same way. We kind of alternate. One time you may be a server, and another time you're an eater, and another time you're a cook or a food prep person. And we talk in our chant about the emptiness of giver, receiver, and gift, how they're really all the same.

[08:49]

You can't. separate them and say, this has a firm boundary. This is gift and this is giver and this is receiver. They're all so mixed up together. And that also is a form that we inherited that's really an ancient form and it's inspiring to do that. So I promised I would talk about Shandideva once more. I know you're waiting. And the Guide to the Way of the Bhattasattva is founded on several structural underpinnings. One is the Perfections of Paramitas, which I've mentioned. And one is the Sevenfold Offerings. So these are seven practices that prepare the mind and heart for awakening. or another way of saying it is their traditional ways of gathering merit.

[09:56]

And this chapter is about dedicating the merit of our good actions, our beneficial actions, to others. So the seven practices are making offerings, frustrations, confession, rejoicing, requesting teachers to present the Dharma, asking teachers to remain with us in the world as opposed to taking nirvana. So that's the Bodhisattva vow, you know, that you will stay in the world with everyone until everyone enters nirvana. You'll be the last one across the threshold. And dedicating the merit. And so we do some of these every morning during service. As you can see, we make offerings and we do prostrations.

[11:01]

We chant the repentances and refuges. So that's confessing. And we dedicate the merit. And probably in a lot of our chants, we do rejoicing, too. So the list begins with offerings and ends with dedicating the merit. And I find them rather similar, and both are really beautiful, the way they're written. So both are practices of letting go and giving away, giving to others. And in the process of giving away the thing, if it can be called that, actually increases. When you give, there's more to give. And when you dedicate the merit and give away the merit, there's actually more merit there.

[12:02]

And they both focus as practices, they both focus us outward and away from self-absorption. So they focus us... on other people's needs and what will be beneficial to other people. And that's beneficial for us in itself. And that's really how these practices work, is they're beneficial for others. You do them as if to be beneficial for others, but actually they're probably mostly beneficial for you. It's interesting in the description of the offerings that Shantideva gives that these things... So he was delivering this teaching to monks at Nalanda University who don't have resources. They don't really have anything to give away.

[13:03]

And so he would describe natural things, parts of the natural world. and offer those, things that don't belong to anybody. So one of the famous and beautiful lines is offering flowers on a distant mountaintop to the tapagata. That's such a beautiful image, I think. So he, in his verses, gives mountains and lakes and forests and flowers, fruits, beautiful sky, forest groves, and also imagined things. So he seems to have a very vivid imagination. And I wonder how many hours of meditation he spent imagining these things. Palaces, very elaborate and extravagant.

[14:04]

Palaces and fine clothing and perfume and incense. wonderful material things to give away. So merit, which they speak of dedicating the merit or giving away the merit, I think that's a rather odd idea to Americans. It's an odd idea to me because I'm kind of materialistic and I think in terms of things and what is merit and how can you give it away. So I was a little surprised when I looked it up in my Google dictionary and found such an accurate definition, a definition that really fits this context. Spiritual credit held to be earned by performance of righteous acts

[15:06]

and to ensure future benefits. So I think that's just exactly what he's talking about. And the fact is that we may not believe that in merit as something that ensures future benefits or can be given away. And I think that and also the quality of imagining the things that are given as offerings and the fact that some of them are natural and not owned by anyone, to me, points to their emptiness and substantiality. That's how I understand it. They're not solid things to grasp onto. They're the beauty of the world. They're our sharing of ourselves.

[16:08]

They're our sharing of our beautiful life together. So I think this is a teaching about big mind, and it really points to the emptiness of giver, receiver, and gift. So I want to look at merit from sort of a who, what, where, when, why perspective. That appeals to me. I had aspirations to be a journalist when I was a little girl. So I remember writing lead paragraphs that contained that information and thinking about that. So Shanti Davis' example in this text of the merit that he wants to give away is the merit from writing The Guide to the Way of the Bodhisattva.

[17:16]

So that's a very substantial amount of merit, I would think. And the example I want to think about for me and for us is sitting this sishin, participating in this sishin or supporting it in one way or another. And in both cases, the merit may be something that we give to someone to benefit them, or we may say it that way, express it that way. But of course, the text, Shantideva's text, benefited people tremendously and still does. And this machine is benefiting us and the people we come in contact with. And both of them have a benefit that's endless, that's completely impossible to define or quantify. And the more we give it away, the more there is.

[18:19]

So extravagance is the right thing. to do. And Chantideva expresses himself very extravagantly in these verses. So how is merit created? I guess what I really want to talk about now is who created the merit, for example, of this sishin. Did I do it? Did you do it? Did we do it alone? Did we do it together with the people in this room. So I just came up with a little list. I won't go too far, because I know that would be painful. But first on the list would be Suzuki Roshi, who brought us this practice, and his teachers in Japan, and their teachers and ancestors in...

[19:22]

China and India, Buddha himself, the members and supporters and priests and monks and nuns of all Buddhist temples and practice centers everywhere because they keep Buddhism alive and support us to continue our practice, Everyone who ever worked at City Center or Tassajara or Green Gulch or Green's Restaurant, because those entities support us and support practice in general. Julia Morgan, who designed this beautiful building, and the Temple Emanuel Sisterhood, who supported it being built. George Wheelwright for making it possible for us to buy Green Gulch so that people who wanted to practice organic farming could be introduced to Buddhism as part of that program.

[20:29]

The growers, producers, sellers, and delivery people who have ever provided us with food and supplies, including people in foreign countries. The hippies and beat poets and artists who congregated among Suzuki Yoshi and helped Zen take root in America in the 60s. The people who work for Monterey County and get involved in grading the road into Tessahaya every spring so that we can have a guest season, which is income for us. students who come here to practice from foreign countries. So what I noted, I will stop, that's enough. You can imagine that I could keep going and going and going.

[21:33]

But what I think I see is that it includes all locations, all time, that includes all beings throughout space and time, helped us to do this machine. And I think you know that. I don't think that's news, actually. So dedicating the merit or giving it away is an antidote to our usual self-absorption. And there are various groups of people that Shantideva dedicates merit to, or gives merit to. One is the Buddhas and ancestors.

[22:38]

So when we offer our merit to the Buddhas and ancestors, It fosters in us devotion and veneration and gratitude for what they've handed down to us. And those are good qualities that help us to be happy and grateful and soft and appreciative. He gives merit to the sick and the poor, which helps us to cultivate compassion and and generosity and fellow feeling for our human beings, the feeling of all of us being in the same boat. So I want to read one of those verses to people who are sick and suffering that he wrote.

[23:42]

May beings everywhere who suffer torment in their minds and bodies have, by virtue of my merit, joy and happiness in boundless measure." So I feel that the boundless measure is expressive of his way of speaking about this. He isn't just alleviating or ills. He wants people to be enlightened and happy and in realms of bliss and awakening. And he also dedicates merit to beings in hell, which has the implication that some of these people may be despicable people who have done evil things that we might feel deserve. what they're getting. And that cultivates in us loving kindness and compassion and is an antidote to holding grudges and having fixed ideas about people.

[24:58]

So it's a softening and opening about the potential of people to be better than they are. he writes, may those caught in the freezing ice be warmed. And from the massive clouds of Bodhisattva's prayers, may torrents reign in boundless streams to cool those burning in infernal fires. So I think the important thing is the massing clouds of Bodhisattva prayers. I think the idea is that when we can open to someone who's suffering, who may live a low life, may do evil or have evil habits and treat them kindly, there's a real possibility that they may be so moved by that that they'll have a change of heart and change their life and their ways.

[26:06]

And in us, it's can we see the possibility of good in everyone, which is very important. And it makes me think of Martin Luther King's famous phrase, darkness cannot drive out darkness. Only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate. Only love can do that. So he continues his verses for hell beings. May the hail of lava, fiery stones and weapons, henceforth become a rain of blossom. May those whose hell it is to fight and wound be turned to lovers offering their flowers. And when they see the seething lava flood of hell, extinguished in a rain of blossoms, drenched in scented water, at once fulfilled in bliss, they'll ask, how can this be?

[27:29]

And thus the denizens of hell will see the one who holds the lotus. So one of the... of a bodhisattva is to enter the hell realms and to be with the people who live there, to teach them, inspire them, and just be with them, just be present with them as a witness to their suffering and their condition, to be sympathetic and help. I love these drawings of the Wheel of Life that depict all six realms including the hell realms, and each one has a picture of a bodhisattva in the middle of it. So it helps us to see that if the abusers of the world, the people who do harm and cause suffering, could awaken bodhicitta,

[28:35]

or the desire to awaken all beings, then there wouldn't be cruelty in the world anymore, and there wouldn't be any need for whole realms. I also notice as I look through this chapter, or as I read through this chapter, But Shantideva really goes on and on in a very imaginative way. And he seems to be offering merit to everybody he can think of. And he's pretty thoughtful. So he includes many, many groups of people. And as I said, when he does this, the amount of merit increased. so it's not like you have some account that you can use up.

[29:36]

It just gets more and more. And may the blind receive their sight, and may the deaf begin to hear, and women near their time bring forth, like Maya Devi, free from any pain. So Maya Devi was Buddha's birth mother, and the legend is that she started home to her family to have the baby, which was traditional at that time. And the baby was ready to be born before she got home. And she found this beautiful park and was delighted in the park and picking a leaf off of a branch and had the baby standing up enjoying Limbini Park. So that's the kind of birth. that he is wishing for women everywhere. May children and the old, the weak, protectorless, bewildered in the wild and pathless wastes, and those whose minds are dulled, and all who are insane, have pure celestial beings as their guardians.

[30:54]

And that's an example to me of really being very thoughtful, thinking of people that we wouldn't immediately think of, people who are usually hidden away in our society. But he calls them forth and offers them merit and help in the form of protection. And he also offers the wish for beings to have spiritual inspiration and well-being, to be awakened, to be bodhisattvas, to be buddhas. And thus, by all the merit I have gained, may every being, leaving none aside, abandon all their evil ways, embracing goodness now and evermore. From bodhicitta, may they never separate and constantly engage in bodhisattva deeds.

[32:03]

And may they be accepted as disciples by the Buddha and turn aside from what is demon's work. So I think that's his alternate wish for all beings. And he devotes his merit to that effort and that cause. And I want to close with, I said that this book has several underpinning structures, and one of them is this verse by Nagarjuna, and I don't think you have to think too much about how it's a structure for the book, just enjoy the verse. May bodhicitta, which is the mind of awakening, the wish for all beings to awaken, may bodhicitta, precious and sublime, arise where it has not yet come to be. And where it has arisen, may it not decline, but grow and flourish ever more and more.

[33:10]

So I think that's all of our wish for this Sashin and for our practice period. It's my wish for all of you. And... and for me, and for everybody. Thank you. Are there any questions? Yes? You just keep talking this way for a few more hours. Can't, what? It would be nice. It's lovely to just delight. Thank you. I'm glad you're enjoying it. It takes a certain kind of mind. to be in that space and enjoy it. And I'm glad that's happening in the room. Yes. How does something like Sushi cultivate Bodhichita? You tell me. I can see it in your face.

[34:16]

So you tell me. Right now. I know, I know. But you're in such a nice, soft, generous frame of mind that it's okay, right? So that's how it helps. It's one of the ways. And we see emptiness. and experience it in our bodies and minds in just the ways that we've been talking about and the ways that we feel right now, I think. Yes? Like you had to say, but I'm wondering, is it not pulling some sort of fixed idea to believe that, you know,

[35:20]

who is sane, who is not sane, or who is good and not good. Is that a fixed idea? Well, yes, if you have that idea, it is a fixed idea. And we live in the relative world, and we are aware that it isn't the only world, that there is a world where there aren't those divisions. But we tentatively make those divisions so that we can talk about anything or think about anything. And I think that's exactly one of the things we're working on is being in touch with that other place where there's a unity of giver, receiver, and gift and sane and not sane. Thank you. Should we stop?

[36:23]

Thank you very much. Thank you for listening to this podcast offered by the San Francisco Zen Center. Our Dharma talks are offered at no cost, and this is made possible by the donations we receive. Your financial support helps us to continue to offer the Dharma. For more information, visit sfcc.org and click Giving. May we fully enjoy the Dharma.

[36:49]

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