An unsurpassed, penetrating and perfect dharma is rarely met with even in a hundred thousand million kaphas. Having it to see and listen to, to remember and accept, I vow to taste the truth of the Tathagata's word. Good evening. It's really wonderful to be here with all of you this evening. And I'd like to start by expressing my gratitude to Tonto Nancy for inviting me to give this talk and to my teacher, Sojin Roshi. And this evening, I would like to dedicate my talk to all beings, humans, animals, birds and plants that are suffering due to the wildfires.

[01:08]

that are currently burning, and in particular to the firefighters who are risking their lives to protect the lives and homes of others. And of course, to all those who are suffering from the devastating impact of the raging fires of greed, hate, and delusion that are happening throughout the world. So that includes all of us. very deeply impacted recently when I read that part of the reason that resources are so thin for fighting wildfires this year is because there is a great dependence on prisoners working as firefighters and that they're not very available right now because of how terribly COVID has impacted all the people in our prisons. So there it is, the climate, the economy, the greed for cheap labor, racism, and the pandemic.

[02:17]

They're not separate in any way. They impact everyone. But they impact the most vulnerable of us far more than others. And the impacts are becoming increasingly severe. And then there's Jacob Blake, yet another black man shot by police. So tonight I carry all of this and more in my heart, in my mind, in my body. And we all carry it in our hearts, minds, and bodies, and in the larger societal or sangha body. For many of us, there's no longer enough time and space to sit with and resolve these losses, these griefs. They add up. and they accumulate. We vowed to wake up, and part of what we wake up to is not only our own suffering, but the suffering of others and the suffering of the world.

[03:23]

So what I want to talk about tonight is to share some of the teachings that have supported me over the years and are supporting me particularly now during these times. Before preparing for this talk, I had not thought of them in quite the way that I'll talk about them now, that I hope that you will find something helpful or encouraging in what I have to offer this evening. First of all, I want to say that one of the challenges of these times is that there is just too much information and too many new ideas. And I find that I have a need, a hunger for clarity, for a simplicity that does not ignore or trivialize the complexities of our lives, that helps us orient ourselves and see a way forward. The kind of simplicity and clarity that Zazen offers, where we just sit down, adjust our posture, follow our breath, let go of thoughts, and simply be present with what arises.

[04:41]

simply be present with what arises. The instructions are simple. The actual practice is not easy, but it contains whole worlds, whole lifetimes. It's incredibly rich. So the Buddha said repeatedly, I teach suffering and the end of suffering. And there's a story I've told a number of times that once A layman went to see the Buddha. He had heard that the Buddha was a wonderful teacher and could help to end suffering. So the Buddha said, excuse me, the layman said, so I hear you're a great sage. May I ask you some questions? And the Buddha said, yes, please ask. And the man said... So I'm having trouble with my work and went on to outline the specific challenges he was having in his work life.

[05:47]

And he asked the Buddha, can you help me? And the Buddha said, no, I'm sorry, I cannot. So the man said, well, then I'm having troubles with my wife. Can you help me with that? And the Buddha said, no, I'm sorry, I can't. And man was getting frustrated, and he said, well, I thought you were a great sage and that you could help me with my problems. And the Buddha said, there are 80 kinds of suffering in the world, and 79 of them I cannot help you with. Man was a little put off, but he did ask, so what's the 80th one? And the Buddha said, it's how to relate with the other 79. So the end of suffering is not the end of pain or difficulty, but the end of the extra that we add to our experience.

[06:53]

What is our relationship to what arises in our lives, to what arises in the world, which is not in any way separate from what arises within our own experience? And how can we relate to all of it more skillfully? So, there are four very basic aspects of the teachings that are particularly meaningful to me right now. And I realize that they reflect the elements of mind, body, heart, and time. So in terms of mind, there is awareness. In terms of effort, there's the body, the embodiment.

[07:55]

The aspect of the heart is love. And the aspect of time is patience. I think I said the second one backwards. The aspect of body is effort. Right, effort. So in Pali or Sanskrit, our usual terms vary a little bit. Awareness is sati. Effort is virya. Love is metta, like the metta sutta. And patience is kshanti. All of these factors appear repeatedly in various lists in Buddhism. There are many lists in early Buddhism. There's even a list of lists. But this is my own list.

[08:59]

And I had the thought, maybe it's sort of my playlist for the multiple pandemics. So this is how I'm playing them, playing with them right now. And I'm finding them helpful. in navigating these unprecedented times. The way I'm thinking and talking about them tonight, and in my daily life, is not so much on the absolute level, but more on the relative level of our everyday lives. And of course, they're not in any way separate. So, awareness. Awareness is the translation that I prefer of sati, which is usually translated as mindfulness. It's a very foundational teaching in Buddhism. And sati is not the same as the quality of awareness in zazen, in just sitting.

[10:06]

Sati is an awareness of things in relation to things. and awareness of their relative value. It's not just the emptiness of experience. So there is discrimination present. But it's a very particular sort of discrimination because it's specifically in relation to whether something is conducive to awakening, to freedom from suffering, or whether it leads to further suffering. Any feeling Anything that arises in our experience exists in relation to a whole world of feelings that may be wholesome or unwholesome, skillful or unskillful. In the Satipatthana Sutta, the Four Foundations of Mindfulness, the practitioner maintains awareness not only internally but externally.

[11:09]

This has not always been so much emphasized in Western Buddhism, and I have really appreciated Larry Yang's commentary on this. However, the formal aspects of monastic life, especially ethics and precepts and monastic decorum, how a monk or nun comports him or herself, fully expresses and embodies a deep awareness of non-harming and care for oneself, not only for oneself and for others. But what Larry Yang was pointing to was really a mindfulness of others, of imagining, kind of an imaginal empathy of what's going on for another person. And I found this to be a very wonderful practice. Many years ago, I was practicing active listening with a couple of other people.

[12:18]

And at some point, something shifted for me where I wasn't just trying to do the exercise, wasn't just trying to repeat back skillfully what I was hearing, but was listening at a much deeper level. And it felt like interpersonal zazen. So this experience that we're cultivating, this way of being in Zazen, becomes increasingly available to us when we're with other people. All the same qualities of acceptance, generosity, patience, can be alive with ourselves and with others. So this awareness is also noticing when we turn away from what is difficult, noticing when we cling to comfort or ideas or certain notions of how we should be, or how others should be, or how the world should be.

[13:35]

This awareness is about not being in denial, about letting ourselves be present, with the whole world. And this discernment is also related to curiosity. Is that so? Is that really so? Checking our stories. Noticing that we're telling stories. Having wholesome doubt. Questioning. In daily practical terms, we can learn. We can educate ourselves. We can open our minds. We can expand our awareness and become more flexible. So the second factor I've been working with is effort or virya.

[14:42]

And I said body, but it really is body and mind. I've been following a little bit Reverend Barber's The Poor People's Campaign, a national call for moral revival. And I was watching a little bit of the program on Monday. And Reverend Barber was, he was saying, he was preaching, he was proclaiming, he was telling it. He said, It's no good being woke if you don't get out of bed. And I love that. I thought, right? Awareness without appropriate action is hollow. You can't just be woke. You have to get out of bed. You have to go do something. And Reverend Barber talked about staying in the fight, about not giving up when there are glitches or setbacks.

[15:47]

Virya, right effort, can really help us with this. So the roots of the word virya reflect the power of the warrior, the great energy and effort required to prevail. It's an effort to do what's skillful. And included here are courage and fearlessness and an open-eyed engagement with both the inner world and the outer world. So how do we cultivate right effort? One of the traditional ways is through archetypes or images, role models that inspire us. So having some sense, some model for what it could be like to be undaunted in the face of challenges. There are so many excellent models

[16:50]

bodhisattvas who work tirelessly for the benefit of beings, including alleviating inequality or harm or injustice. And then in order to sustain the quality of our effort, so we're not over-exerting ourselves or exhausting ourselves or others, we need to cultivate both mental and both physical and mental energy. So in physical terms, exercise, diet, and rest are very important. Please do not neglect these things. The quality of our energy should be sustained and sustainable. When I studied Tai Chi, there was a a term sung, that meant to be both alert and relaxed, kind of like a cat, relaxed and alert, watchful.

[18:03]

There's also a lovely story about Suzuki Roshi, that he was moving rocks at Tassajara with some of his young students in the hot summer sun. And they were all getting very exhausted, and they were surprised that Suzuki Roshi could go on working. And they asked him how he did it. And he said, it's because I rest on every moment. So it is possible to find a way of working, of sustaining energy that has nothing extra added to it. And I would suggest that you watch for that when it happens during the course of any day. There are probably moments when this is happening, when you're not even aware that you're giving everything you have, but it's not a push.

[19:11]

It's not something extra. So notice that and pay attention to that. See what you're doing and how you're doing it and how you might cultivate that. because that will also help you to notice when that relaxed quality is not present, when there's something extra, and then you can have the awareness to let go of that. Much of this learning for both mental and physical virya happens in the body because extra Extra mental stress or striving shows up a lot in the body. Sitting in a lot of Zoom meetings lately, I'm in one position, so it's a little bit like sitting zazen in the sense that I'm sitting much more stilly than I usually would.

[20:18]

I've had a lot more opportunity to pay attention to my body and noticing what supports alert awareness, and what really drains my energy. So in terms of a more mental aspect of virya, and to give some further articulation to what I was just talking about, there's a traditional teaching called the four right exertions, or the four right efforts, which are abandoning, guarding, developing, and maintaining. So abandoning what is unwholesome, what is hindering our practice, what adds stress, what is difficult, dropping it, letting it go. So learning to let go is not so easy.

[21:18]

We kind of know how to hold on, but it's not so easy to know how to let go. Years ago at Tassajara, we had a dog named Madra. Madra was a willful dog, but we did undertake at some point to train Madra, and one person in particular was in charge of training Madra, and one of the rules that we learned was don't let Madra win, because Madra was very used to winning. So the human always had the ball last or the stick last, And one day Sonia, who was doing the training, Madhra brought the stick but wouldn't drop it. And Sonia just kept saying, drop it, drop it. And finally Madhra dropped it, just opened his jaws and dropped it.

[22:21]

And I watched this whole thing and I was amazed. because at that time I was having tremendous difficulty with my thoughts. They were persistent, they were, it was very hard to calm them. And I thought if Madra can do it, I can do it too. And I would do this thing with my jaw where I would just in the zendo quietly go, I would just open my jaw a little bit and it was amazing. because just in relaxing my jaw, I could let go of my thoughts. And that was the first time, I think, that I had really realized that when I relax my body, I can relax my mind, just as much as when I relax my mind, I can relax my body. And I think this has so much to do with the importance of posture and zazen. It took me many years to be able to

[23:22]

sit fully upright and find ease within that posture. But now when I sit in zazen, the whole posture calls me to settle my mind. It supports me settling my mind. Another story about letting go from a different point of view was from Lee Lesser, who was... She gave a talk at Tassajara, and she was talking about holding on. And so she said, make a fist and hold it as tight as you can. Hold it, hold [...] it. And she said, really notice what it's like to be holding on tight. Really be with it, pay attention to it. And now, without doing anything at all, Let go. Don't open your hand, but let your hand go.

[24:27]

Let go of any extra tightening and see how it unfolds of itself, which was very challenging to do. But that instruction to notice how we're holding on and to be completely with it really helps in letting go. So being intimate with the holding on helps us to let go, helps us to abandon. It's not throwing something away. It's not getting rid of it. It's being present and intimate and letting it go. Nothing extra, not grasping. So this is one of the ones that we most often think of. is abandoning what's already arisen. But the next one is a little less familiar.

[25:30]

It's guarding against, so it's not guarding against, but it's the non-arising of unwholesome states of mind before they've arisen. So it's like you can see that you could get angry or upset about something But there's actually a little choice point in there, a little decision where you're like, yeah, no. I think not today, not now. I don't have to pick that up. There's just that little space, that little moment of choice. I don't have to go there. And noticing Noticing before something arises and setting it down, there needs to be some awareness of the subtleties of arising before you're fully caught by it to see just the seeds of it.

[26:35]

And that can be challenging because with those difficult things, we often don't want to know when they're coming. So we might get very angry or despairing or depressed or whatever it is. because we don't want to see that that's happening. But when we get more familiar and more comfortable with it, we can actually see it when it just starts, and then there's more room. So the next one of the four right exertions is developing or cultivating the wholesome factors that have not yet arisen or have not yet arisen in this moment. So there are many many wholesome factors in buddhism there are wonderful lists of lists of the paramitas and the brahmavaharas and um you know the list goes on so i would say choose one and cultivate it whatever feels most supportive and most appropriate for you at this moment

[27:47]

And don't worry about difficulties with it. If you chose it, it's probably because you're working with it and you haven't achieved the state of that that you're hoping for yet. So if you're rowing a boat, if the day is bright and calm, it's easy. And if the day is stormy, it's difficult. But if it's difficult, then you develop great capacity. So it doesn't matter how successful you are. It's like sitting. Just continue to cultivate it day after day. And then there's maintaining or sustaining the continuous practice of wholesome factors. So... This is, I think, in many ways a practice of appreciating. So whenever a wholesome factor is present for you, when someone says, oh, I really noticed the way you did such and such, or you spoke to that person in a very kind way and I was having a hard time with them, or whatever it is, practice appreciating your own practice.

[29:13]

and the good qualities in yourself. Because whatever we notice, whatever we give our attention to, tends to grow, tends to develop. And what we don't pay attention to sinks away. So we tend to pay attention to what's difficult, and we're wired to do that. But when we pay more attention to what's good, to what we want, We can cultivate it. This isn't being a Pollyanna. This is choosing what we give our attention to, what we choose to develop and grow and cultivate in ourselves and in others. So it's important to be skillful, even in how we develop or abandon these wholesome unwholesome or wholesome qualities.

[30:15]

So that brings us to love. Metta, like the metta sutta, loving kindness. So this is about the particular quality of mind with which we meet what arises in our own experience, with people, and with the events in the world. The brahmavharas, the divine abodes, which are loving-kindness, compassion, sympathetic joy, and equanimity are all ways that we meet different kinds of things. Loving-kindness is kind of the fundamental approach. It's a basic friendliness or welcoming or inclusiveness with whatever and whoever arises. an availability, a warm availability. And then compassion is meeting suffering.

[31:21]

Sympathetic joy is how we meet the wonderful things in the world. And equanimity is, I was thinking, that's like the ideal of a good mother loves all her children equally. So there's no picking and choosing. There's maintaining this warmth of feeling toward everything, even when it's difficult. You know, the Dalai Lama said, my religion is kindness. I recently learned that fear is not a hindrance in Buddhism, which surprised me. I would have thought that fear would have been included somehow among hindrances or unwholesome factors, but I was reminded of this because I read a quote from James Baldwin.

[32:26]

Neither love nor terror makes one blind. Indifference makes one blind. So if fear is not a hindrance to our practice, or to awakening, what is it? The problem is not the fear. It's the ways that we try to avoid the actual experiences that we're having, including the experience of fear. So fear itself is not the problem. It's trying to get away from the fear. So how do we meet fear when it arises? if I practice finding even a little bit of space around difficult experiences when I sit, bit by bit I am learning that I will not die, that others will not die, that I have more and more capacity to just be present and to allow more and more of my experience.

[33:39]

So there's an... intimacy with experience that is very encouraging. This is how practitioners develop fearlessness, is by sitting with fear. So there is a loving attitude, a kind attitude, even toward the frightened being of my own mind. not being so identified with the fear and seeing the frightened part of ourselves that we can have great compassion for and we can have a warm curiosity. How is that for you? So there is also this practice of patience, of not trying to fix or control or change what is happening in this moment. not trying to make it be otherwise.

[34:43]

So patience, kshanti, or forbearance. Dale Wright says, the patient person is content to be wherever he or she is right now, no matter what the situation happens to be. Contentment, in this case, is not letting go of effort and striving. What it releases is is the struggle, the unnecessary conflict that stands in the way of lucid assessment and sustained conviction. Accepting the reality in which we stand, don't indulge in moods of resentment. Or you could say, don't be a hater. Hatred never ceases by hate. Hate only ceases by love. So if things are going badly, responding badly will just make it worse. And I really like Gil Fransdahl's very brief synopsis of the four right efforts.

[35:53]

Don't make it worse, and if you can, make it better. So patience is more than passive endurance. It's the energy to move through suffering and without allowing it to take us over completely, to be completely caught up in it. And sometimes, of course, that happens, just like being caught by a wave, in which case we patiently allow it to pass until we're able to orient again, swim to the surface, take a deep breath, and continue. So this... patience, perseverance is kind of somewhere, I think, between patience and effort, this not giving up, coming back again and again, not becoming hopeless, despairing, cynical or bitter, and letting go of all attachment to outcome, meeting each person, each moment with full acceptance and without denial.

[37:07]

This is what's happening now. So this is not giving up on the outcome you're working for or the effort toward that outcome, but letting go of the clinging to outcome. Maylee Scott, a wonderful teacher at Berkeley Zen Center, heard what she said so often was, devotedly do. She showed up at protests every week for a long, long time, the missile site, and that was her practice. And she maintained this profound steadfastness that inspired so many people, even though there was no evident result or outcome from showing up there week after week. She was committed, and it wasn't dependent.

[38:07]

on the outcome. So the world is not going to magically change when the fire season ends, or on November 4th, or on January 20th, or when the pandemic ends. We are all engaged in a marathon and not a sprint. Traditionally, time has had a long view. In Buddhism we talk about lifetimes or kalpas, a very long view of things. Indigenous peoples speak in terms of seven generations. In our time we tend to have a very short sense of expectation. Things should happen quickly, immediately. And there is this sense of urgency to act.

[39:10]

So how do we balance this sense of urgency, of action, of needing to act now, quickly, but not to be driven, not to expect the results that we work for overnight, not to be discouraged And I think that's the most important thing. With whatever urgency we work, how to not be discouraged by not having it happen in the way or at the speed that we want it to. So as we continue to run and walk or crawl or periodically rest during this great marathon that we are all engaged in together even though we can't be together in quite our usual ways right now let's all be as aware as we can of each other and of our own state of being to guard and sustain our own energy and to encourage each other to love and accept those around us to practice patience

[40:34]

Breathe deeply, rest on each moment, and never give up. We are so incredibly fortunate to have teachers, teachings, and practices, and community. These jewels are incredibly precious. Please take very good care of yourself. and others. Thank you. Thank you very much, Linda. We will move into the closing chant now as a transition into what may be time enough for maybe one question. So the closing chant should appear in the chat in just a moment. equally extend to every being and place with the true merit of Buddha's way.

[41:49]

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 vada's way is unsurpassable i vow to become it linda time enough for perhaps one yes please If you would like to make a comment or ask a question, please open your participants window to raise a hand. Terry. Thank you so much, Linda, for your talk.

[42:55]

It was very helpful to me. I'm wondering, The main thing I'm doing now is a blog and trying to respond to the world and communicate to others. And this week I'm watching the Republican Convention so I can say something to my readers about it. And if you can help me, give me some... on how to sit there and, you know, I don't know what to do with my mind while I'm sitting there. It's in a, just a total tumult of trying to reject everything. And I, I just, I, if you could suggest anything, you suggested many things and, and I think that, that there's help there. So, well, um,

[43:58]

I usually write my talks based on advice from J.D. Salinger, who in one of his novels, the Glass family novels, the eldest brother, Seymour, wrote a letter to the younger brother, the narrator, Buddy, who was a budding writer. And Seymour said, Remember that before you were ever a writer, you were a reader first. So just sit down and fix in your mind the one thing in all the world that you most want to read right now. And then you just sit down shamelessly and write the thing yourself. Okay, thank you. You're welcome.

[45:01]

Right on time. Thank you so much for the evening. Linda, would you like to offer any closing word before we unmute and say goodbye? I'm deeply grateful for you all. I can't believe how fortunate I am, and I hope we all are, to have community who shares our values that we can connect with in one form or another on a regular basis when I realize that many, many people do not have this in this way, and it is so precious. So please continue to nurture it together. Thank you very much. Thank you. Good night everyone.

[46:00]

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