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 evening, everyone. Welcome to Hoshinji, Beginner's Mind Temple, on this beautiful winter wet evening here. And... For those of you who may not know me, my name is Tenzin David Zimmerman, and I'm the tantra of the head of practice here. And I'm delighted to be joined tonight by my Dharma sisters, Kyoshin Wendy Lewis and Jison Tova Green. And we're here together to launch the practice period, the winter 2018 practice period. And I have to confess the thought that I went through my head as we were kind of futzing up here is the more teachers you get up here, the more futzing you have going on.

[01:02]

So we'll try to keep that to a minimal. And this is probably the only time that we'll give a Dharma talk together. But we thought it would be a beautiful way to launch the practice period because we are co-leading, co-teaching, and it felt right to do this. So... Whatever it is that brought you here, whether or not you're here for the practice period, here for the first time out of curiosity, or just been coming back again year after year, welcome, and I'm so glad you're here. So as I mentioned, this is the start of the winter practice period. It's a nine-week practice period, and the theme that the three of us have chosen is deepening practice through the six perfections. And what's going to be happening then is all the Dharma talks for the next two months will be in some way revolving around, turning over, going through, exploring, unpacking the six perfections, the six paramitas, which is a fundamental Dharma teaching.

[02:12]

And a lot of that will be exploring for each of you. What's your understanding of the six perfections? and how do you take them in, explore them, and hopefully embody them in your life in some way. What's going to happen this evening is each of us is going to take turns speaking. So I'll do kind of introductory remarks and introduce you, kind of set a context, and then introduce you to the six paramitas. And then Wendy's going to speak about the aspect of cultivating our character through the perfections. And then Tova is going to wrap up by speaking to how the perfections are relevant to our current times and the ways that we can use them to engage the wider world. So all practice is about this one and this one simultaneously. So how do we attend to all manifestations of life at the same time, whatever level capacity that we have?

[03:17]

We always need to keep this interdependency in mind in some way. How many of you have never participated in a practice period before? Can you raise your hand? Welcome. Welcome on your maiden voyage to a practice period. In Japanese, the term is ongo. And what this is is basically a seasonal event that happens in which we come together as a community to deepen our commitment to study, to being together as an expression of practice, and to living a life together. as one body and one mind as much as we can. So what is it to live a wholesome life? And, you know, it's easy to think of that word as wholesome meaning good, and there is an aspect of good, goodness that we want to cultivate in our life, but I often think of it as wholeness, an inclusive life.

[04:21]

How much of life can we include in this moment and see it in all its fullness? and aliveness, so living life in that particular way, settling in and connecting to that particular expression of life. A practice period is a tradition in Sōtusen, it's one that goes back all the way to Buddhist time, when during the rainy seasons, like tonight, for example, this is perfect, the monks who were traditionally wandering about in the forest would stop wandering. and come together during the time to take shelter, and in that opportunity, then begin to study more intently together. And so our life as residential practitioners for those who live here is based on that particular model. So we've just decided to extend the rainy season to the whole year and take advantage of that. So this way of life...

[05:24]

has its roots in a 2,500-year-old tradition, which for me is kind of comforting in some way to know that this is a tried and tested way of being together that has deeply nourished and fulfilled and encouraged people for thousands of years. And now we have the opportunity to practice not only residential, but as many of you are doing as commuters. So you live at home, and then when you have an opportunity, you come here to the temple, taking part in the temple activities and the Dharma classes and lectures and teas and everything else that might be available during this time. And there are also many, many people online now. We started an online practice period several years ago, And I know that people from Malaysia, England, Ireland, South Africa, South America have taken part in practice periods through the miracle of the Internet and will continue to be doing so.

[06:31]

So I like to think of the way in which our practice together, the circles of practice just keep widening. more and more as technology allows us this opportunity to totally encircle the globe with the Dharma in this way. One of the questions that we want to encourage you to entertain during this evening and also in the coming weeks is, what do you want from this practice period? What do you want from this intensive time of study for yourself and together? And particularly, how do you want to engage the six paramitas? How do you want to engage your own wisdom? What is your own wisdom? All of these teachings are constantly calling forth your own wisdom in some way.

[07:32]

Each of us here is sharing our particular wisdom, but wisdom is being met by wisdom. And so how is that coming forth as you unfold and engage with the practices of the paramitas, the perfections? How do you want to engage your life during this time? What may be a slightly different way or a different approach that you want to take with your life? Something, a new habit perhaps that you want to cultivate that you might consider beneficial for you in some way. And also, how do you want to engage others? What kind of relationships do you want to nurture and take care of and cultivate as not only expression of the paramitas, which is the rich opportunity to do so, but also, again, that heart wisdom. What does your heart want from you, of you?

[08:34]

What is it asking of you? in terms of how it is that you are connecting with others in some way. Listen closely to that during this period of time. It's a great opportunity. So many of us come to spiritual practices, such as Zen, or to Dharma centers, such as Beginner's Mind Temple, seeking in some way to transcend our suffering. And whatever way that suffering may be manifesting for you, Oftentimes, traditionally we'd be talking about old age sickness and death. But I think for many of us, the most immediate thing is just the everyday mundane types of suffering and difficulties and challenges that we face. So there's a wish to transcend our suffering, to find and experience a place of happiness and ease and joy. Hopefully some way that there's a constancy about that. But I think...

[09:35]

more so, underlying even a little bit more deeply than just the wish for happiness, is a way to discover and create a meaningful life. So even if you are experiencing suffering, that suffering is happening within a particular context of meaning. You understand that there is a teaching that can come forward in that suffering, that in some way will offer... something greater for you to rely on as you try to negotiate what it is to be a human being. And so yearning to live lives of meaning, of value, of compassion, of care, and being supported by the teachings of the Buddha and other Dharma teachers And once again, acknowledging that hopefully what you are connecting to is tried and true in many ways.

[10:43]

The Buddha taught that the path to living a more peaceful, meaningful life begins with intention. With directing the mind to what it is that is most important. So underneath all this is that question. what is most important to you? And out of that, how do you want to direct your mind and efforts to address and make manifest that which is most important? For Manayana Buddhists, which the Soto Zen is within the Manayana tradition, means cultivating a mind of bodhicitta. And bodhicitta is an intention of awakening. Specifically, it's a spontaneous wish to attain complete awakening. Sometimes you can use that other word, enlightenment. And that this spontaneous wish for awakening is actually motivated by a great compassion for all sentient beings.

[11:56]

So it's not only about this one waking up. It's a deep wish for all beings to wake up. And in waking up together, we are liberated. And in this process of awakening, what is simultaneously happening is that we're allowing to fall away the attachment to the illusion of an inherently existing separate self. So as we let go of self-clinging and open our heart minds, we naturally begin to include others in this process. Bodhicitta has been described as the mind of a bodhisattva, a state of mind of the bodhisattva. And for those of you who might not know what a bodhisattva is, bodhisattva is an awakened being committed to living entirely for the benefit of others. In fact, a bodhisattva is so committed to seeing through the illusion of self

[13:01]

that they have extended their identity naturally to include others. And it's this radical extension of their identity that gives them great energy, diligence, and effort, which we'll come to know as the fourth perfection, or paramita. And so they just go on endlessly living their lives and making their best efforts on behalf of a motivation of love and compassion for all beings. So whenever they see another being in need, they just naturally act in a way to support and help that being who is in need. And even when they're helping themselves in some way, they're seeing how is it that I can help myself in a way that I'm also simultaneously helping others.

[14:06]

So there's no distinction for a bodhisattva between self-care and caring for others. Again, one life together. Now, of course, the logistics of doing that can be kind of challenging at times. And this non-dual view informs all of their activity. So what are their six perfections? I'll just say that the path of the bodhisattva is the path of the perfections. And the perfections are essentially guides in our practice. They are virtues to be cultivated in order to strengthen practice and again, bring us to awakening. And they actually describe the true nature of an awakened being. And so we'll be exploring this. The true nature of awakened being, which is in Mahayana practice, our true nature, our Buddha nature, we'll say. And by cultivating these perfections, we bring our true nature fully into expression, into our lives.

[15:15]

So what are these six perfections? I'll just quickly list them. Dhanaparamita, which is generosity, sometimes translated as giving. There's sila paramita, translated as morality or ethical behavior. There's also kshanti, which is patience or tolerance or forbearance. All those terms are at times used. There's virya paramita, which is effort, energy, and vitality. There's jhana paramita, which is meditation or sometimes translated as concentration. And then finally, prajna paramita, which is wisdom. So in the coming weeks, we're going to take turns unpacking and visiting each of these. And what do they mean at a deeper level, and how it is we might live them and embody them. The word perfection is a translation of a Sanskrit word, paramita, which I've been using kind of interchangeably between perfections and paramita.

[16:24]

Param, the first part of Paramita, means the other side. And Ita, the second part, means gone. So Paramita literally means having reached the other shore. It can also mean transcendence or perfection. That's why the word perfection is sometimes used. The Theravanna monk, Thanissaro Bhikkhu, mentions that there are two etymologies for Paramitas. They carry one across to the further shore, or param, and they are of foremost importance, or paramah, like paramount, importance, in formulating the purpose of one's life. So we go back to intention. The paramitas, the perfections, are foremost in clarifying and expressing our deepest intention. They serve basically as rafts. to carry us from the shore of suffering to the shore of liberation, awakening, joy, and ease.

[17:33]

And before I turn over the talk now to Wendy, I just want to say that in Zen, the six parameters are grounded in meditation practice. Everything is actually grounded in our meditation practice. So whatever it is that we're doing on our cushion, we carry it forth. into the world. And the paramitas are a special feeling for life. A way of seeing life with wholeness. Again, a radical inclusiveness. And seeing how it is that all of our interactions and experiences with all beings is already complete. And in that sense, already perfect. perfection in the sense of wholeness. Your life is whole and complete, just as it is right now. How do we see that? And how do we live that, if that's so?

[18:38]

So, I'll turn it over to Wendy. So, David talked about the mind of the bodhisattva, bodhicitta. And how we arouse this mind can be intuitive or sudden or gradual or maybe a sort of a moving between all of those. And it's generally accompanied by a sense of the past, you know, how we got to where we are, and a sense of the future. What is this taking us towards? So that's connected to our karma, which is our past, like everything that brought us to this moment and all the incremental moments that arise. And this karma is every choice we face provides us with an opportunity either to embrace or to break the hold that the past has had on us.

[19:50]

So this is a realm of kind of unconscious, semi-conscious, and self-conscious choices and actions. And our awareness kind of struggles to evaluate these and make sense of them. So by our karma and our intention, we're pulled and guided and struggle with And even when we make intentional choices that are selfless or selfish, we really don't know how things are going to come out. So a lot of what we're doing as we practice with the perfections or any of the teachings is What are these consequences? What are these consequences? What are these consequences? And then how do I work with those?

[20:53]

So these teachings, all the teachings of Buddhism, offer this possibility of self-cultivation that is both joyful and embarrassing. Because it's this development of self-understanding, which means we have to see who we are and how we are and how this is all going on and how we relate to other people and all that sort of thing. In other words, the unfolding human condition. So, you know, whether each one of us fits into some particular group or groove or... whether we act as an irritant or an inspiration to others, we're providing each other with these opportunities to both see us and for all of us to see ourselves.

[22:00]

So in this way, we're all involved, even if we're not perfect. We're practicing the perfections, we're not perfect. And so part of the, that's kind of the joy, this kind of, just as we are, we're doing this work. And then the embarrassment is that we're never going to be fully approved as we are, and we're never really going to get everything right. So we're tangled in all of this. There's, you know, things like cultural stasis. suffering, preferences, ideologies, and beliefs that include us or exclude us. So the paramitas offer the development of non-attachment, as David was saying.

[23:03]

And this is composed basically of renunciation, morality, radical hope, and the hints and promises of freedom. So the teachings are both mental exercises and direct efforts that we engage in to develop and mature our behaviors and our perspectives of ourselves, others, the world. So they provide a system of training. Now in my experience with these six perfections, I find that they completely take me apart and completely put me back together again, over and over. So in a way, it sounds like this is a lot to take on. Do I want to do this? And, you know, actually, at this moment, that reminded me of I used to cross-country ski.

[24:05]

And I'd always be very excited about going. And for the first 20 minutes, I would think, what is it I like about this? And then I'd forget. And I would just be skiing. So there's a similar thing. As you get started, you're like, oh, like you're pushing against something. And then it starts to kind of open something. And so it's a lot to take on, and it sort of develops this ease. Some of it, of course, is fairly obvious. We can see lots of things about ourselves. And work on them. And this is all taking place in the context of practice, something we intend, something we give our energy and our conscious sort of awareness to that puts these things in the context of why we're doing them, how we're doing them.

[25:12]

And they allow us to take a fresh look at our lives. Oh, hmm, learn something. So we arouse bodhicitta, way-seeking mind, through both our successes and our mistakes. And we become more accountable for consequences and our efforts become more flexible. start to, things become a little more familiar and we can move differently. Just like skiing. You know, get warmed up. And the example of the Bodhisattva evokes both our admiration and the sense of reflection. Now, what is it that makes me put that outside myself? And then sort of reflect back, well, how can I take those attributes on? And Wright says, to make use of the bodhisattva model, we need as much self-knowledge and imagination as we need outward appreciation and imitation.

[26:30]

So one of our great friends in this endeavor is what's called critical thinking. We listen to and we apply and we question. and be open to the teachings and what they show us, what they take away from us, what they give us. And they, as you know, this is happening as they're leading us through familiar and unfamiliar experiences and sort of insights or experience and investigation, which is one of the other themes of the practice period. So during this process, there are times where we can kind of bask in the sense of tranquility and ease and these moments of peace. And then we also sort of squirm through these moments of recognition and discomfort.

[27:36]

But the effort... has this sort of promising liveliness and vitality to it, you know, through the tangled undergrowth and these beautiful paths. And one of the depths of the teachings is that... Whatever may happen in our lives, we can develop a foundation for going on no matter what happens. So Dale Wright proposes, enlightenment and all of its components from generosity to wisdom are moving targets. As we move in whatever direction, our horizons move.

[28:42]

always luring us out of complacency and into the quest for richer forms of human excellence. So as we begin this practice period, or if you're just interested in the six perfections and might be studying them or other Buddhist teachings, you can consider the possibilities of both internalizing and externalizing these deep teachings for our benefit and for the benefit of others. And I'm going to read a poem, which I don't usually do, but this one comes up for me a lot. And I think it just includes a lot of stuff. And some of it doesn't sound so good, but then it's okay. It's called Brief for the Defense by Jack Gilbert. Sorrow everywhere. Slaughter everywhere.

[29:44]

If babies are not starving someplace, they are starving somewhere else with flies in their nostrils. But we enjoy our lives because that's what God wants. Otherwise, the mornings before summer dawn would not be made so fine. The Bengal tiger would not be fashioned so miraculously well. The poor women at the fountain are laughing together between the suffering they have known and the awfulness in their future, smiling and laughing while somebody in the village is very sick. There is laughter every day in the terrible streets of Calcutta, and women laugh in the cages of Bombay. If we deny our happiness, resist our satisfaction, we lessen the importance of their deprivation, We must risk delight. We can do without pleasure but not delight, not enjoyment.

[30:45]

We must have the stubbornness to accept our gladness in the ruthless furnace of the world. To make injustice the only measure of our attention is to praise the devil. If the locomotive of the Lord runs us down, we should give thanks that the end had magnitude. We must admit that there will be music despite everything. We stand at the prow again of a small ship, anchored late at night in a tiny port looking over to the sleeping island. The waterfront is three shuttered cafes and one naked light burning. To hear the faint sound of oars in the silence as a rowboat comes slowly out and then goes back, is truly worth all the years of sorrow that are to come. Thank you very much.

[31:47]

So both David and Wendy have referred to some of the qualities of mind of the bodhisattva. And how the paramitas, practicing with the paramitas, can help us to awaken and experience a big mind, a magnanimous mind. These are some phrases that E. He Dogen uses in describing a mind that's awake and responsive to the conditions around each of us in our relationships. to ourselves, to others, to our community and to the world. So what gets in our way when we try to cultivate that kind of mind? And one of the things that I want to just touch on is the...

[33:03]

tendency that we may have to hold on to a point of view sometimes we call them fixed views a view that we hold on to really tightly perhaps it's a belief or a way of being that has served us at one time in our life it may not be so helpful to us in the present but it's familiar so we tend to hold on to it and I too have I have a couple of poems that I'm planning to weave into my talk. So you're going to have a lot of poetry tonight. This is a poem by Yehuda Amichai. He's an Israeli poet who lived from the early 19th century, 20th century. He died in 2000. I think he was born in 1924. And this poem is called The Place Where We Are Right. from the place where we are right flowers will never grow in the spring the place where we are right is hard and trampled like a yard but doubts and loves dig up the world like a mole a plow and a whisper will be heard in the place where the ruined house once stood so

[34:31]

doubts and love so sometimes when we become aware of our fixed views we can begin to question them and to expand so that we can cultivate that wholesome inclusive mind that David mentioned. These fixed views can also create a sense of us and them friends and enemies and What can help us bring those walls down is a sense of self that's based on a recognition of how interconnected we are. And that leads me to another poem by Yehuda Amichai. And this one I heard Paul Haller read many years ago, and it stayed with me. It's called Jerusalem. On a roof in the old city, laundry hanging in the late afternoon sunlight. the white sheet of an old woman who is my enemy, the towel of a man who is my enemy, to wipe off the sweat of his brow.

[35:39]

So the old city of Jerusalem used to be a place that was mainly the home of Palestinians. I think that with the changing situation in Jerusalem, it's not that way anymore. but there was a primarily Palestinian part of Jerusalem and primarily Israeli part. In the sky of the old city, a kite. At the other end of the string, a child I can't see because of the wall. We have put up many flags. They have put up many flags to make us think that they're happy, to make them think that we're happy. So that sense of the poet who is Israeli knowing that people on the other side of the wall are like him. They too do their laundry. The children, perhaps his children, fly kites.

[36:47]

And with that awareness, it's possible to bridge some of that feeling of separation that keeps us apart. So working with any of the paramitas can lead us to a great awareness of our interconnectedness so that we can cultivate that big inclusive spacious mind. And that is the mind and heart that enables us to listen deeply and respond appropriately. The mind and heart from which moral actions may flow naturally. Dale Wright, whose book we're studying in the practice period, his book on the paramitas, calls the second paramita morality. It's practicing with precepts, and I like the titles of the two books that I often refer to, Being Upright and Waking Up to What We Do.

[37:58]

as expressions of morality waking up being more aware of our thoughts and actions and developing an ability to stand upright so that literally it has to do with posture but figuratively so that we can make decisions about what we do and say that come from our place of feeling connected with all beings so that we naturally don't harm. We don't harm others by our actions or our words. In talking about the first paramita, dana paramita, or giving, Del Wright offers us a study of dependent co-arising, which is... how each phenomenon, each of us, and actually this gathering tonight is a dependent co-arising.

[39:06]

We owe our lives to those who conceived us and to our ancestors' generations back, to all those who took care of us, taught us. And as we become more aware of how... much we have been given in order to live the life we live, there comes a natural tendency to express generosity. Out of our appreciation for all that nurtures us and has nurtured us in the past, we want to give something back. And that is... the mind of the bodhisattva, that mind that lives and is lived for the benefit of all beings. So I want to talk briefly about how it can be helpful to look at the lives of people who inspire us to be our best selves.

[40:18]

And those can include people we know, people who lived in the past, as well as the archetypal bodhisattvas, such as Kuan Yin, whom bodies compassion, Jizo Bodhisattva, who makes a great vow to save all beings, even those who have died, and Samanta Bhadra Bodhisattva, the bodhisattva of engaged activity, So as we learn about those archetypal bodhisattvas and the qualities that they embody, we can turn towards those qualities and develop them in ourselves as well as people we know whose actions we respect or admire. And I'm thinking in particular as I was writing this

[41:19]

the poet Naomi Shihabnai came to mind as someone who I greatly admire. Some of you may have met her. She does a workshop at Tassajara every summer with Paul Haller. And growing up, Naomi as a child lived in Ferguson, Missouri, and then her family moved back to Palestine. Her father was Palestinian. and came to the States, met Naomi's mother and they lived in the States for a while and then went back. So she had an experience as a young person of living in two very different cultures and her father was a refugee and a journalist and when he lived in the States he was a newspaper writer and editor And he conveyed to her through his words and some of his teachings his passion for his culture and also the sense of injustice about having had to flee his childhood home and about the state of the Palestinians.

[42:41]

Naomi wrote a very beautiful article in 2014 about the connections between Ferguson and Palestine, where she grew up. So I wanted to read a poem of Naomi's that has some words of her father, and it conveys the feeling of her father who was able to both experience a lot of discrimination and pain in his loss of his home and homeland, but also an ability to love and connect and appreciate the life that he was able to develop here in the States.

[43:43]

It's called I Hate It, I Love It. by Naomi Shehevnai. Sometimes, working at the newspaper, reading about my people's oppression, I wanted to shred the stories instead of print them. Then take a long walk down to the Manhattan Cafe and have a plate lunch with Dan, who owned the place. His people were from Greece. Ask Dan why humans are so mean to one another. but don't you love this country, he'd say. And I'd say, sure I do. I hate it. I love it. He'd talk and listen anyway, then give me more butter for my bread. I liked how he shrugged his shoulders and found a smile somewhere inside to pull out. That's what I tried to do too, especially in my business, the news dispensing business. It was always strange how one thing was news and another wasn't.

[44:51]

Who's to say, or what had been twisted by the time it reached me, also strange, and what my mother, who never heard of it, might think about any of it, sitting in her stone house with hundreds of years in the walls, but not the real family home she loved so much, the one we lost in Jerusalem, which we didn't talk about often because it was like a person who had died in another country and we had never been able to wash the body. So I think that poem powerfully conveys the experience of someone who had great loss and also great capacity to build new relationships. and to do his work the best he could, and to raise a daughter who I think inspires many, many of us who know her poetry and her just friendly, open manner, very encouraging.

[46:05]

So I just want to end with a wish that... our practice of the paramitas may support us to cultivate big mind, magnanimous mind, spacious mind for the benefit of all beings. Thank you. Being here, thank you for joining us on this voyage. 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. 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.

[46:59]

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