Welcome to the Wednesday Dharma Talk at San Francisco Zen Center. Tonight, our speaker is Sozan Miglioli. He has been at the Zen Center for about six years. He ordained as a priest with Ed Sadazon. And before that, he was practicing in a different lineage of Zen in Argentina. And he currently is the president Zen Center. It's a very important job. And he's also been the facilitator and guiding teacher of a group of Spanish-speaking Zen practitioners, which used to meet at our temple in San Francisco and probably now meets online and is probably a much more wide-ranging group as a result. So without further ado, I will chant the opening verse and so Zen can begin. unsurpassed penetrating and perfect dharma is rarely met with even an hundred thousand billion compass having it to see and listen to do remember and accept

[10:57]

I vow to taste the truth of the Tathagata's words. Thank you, Brian. And it's a pleasure and an honor to be speaking to you today here. I would like to thank also Nancy De Tanto, Nancy Petrin, for the invitation to be here to speak, to take the Dharma seat, and Abbot David, and also I want to thank Rinzo Ed Salisan, who's my teacher, for his very wise and compassionate guidance on this journey. And as Brian said, my name is Sosa Miglioli, and I'm currently serving this community as a president.

[12:02]

I am originally from Argentina, and actually I first came to Zen Center in my honeymoon. My wife, Paula, and I decided to start our honeymoon in San Francisco, then we were going to go south. And of course, in coming here, we decided that we wanted to know the San Francisco Zen Center. I had read Zen Mind Beginner's Mind, so we knew about the place, we knew. And we came. Here we are. Actually, it's going to be 10 years since that happened, since our honeymoon. 2014 was my first practice period here. So that's around eight years. And then we moved in after living for six months in Japan. We moved as permanent residents to Zen Center. And yeah. the Spanish group has grown, and it's amazing to me how things have changed in the last couple of years.

[13:06]

And this change has also had many consequences, I guess, for many people. And many of these consequences have been probably painful and difficult, creating a lot of suffering for humanity. And also some some of the things that happened, I think were deeply transformative in good ways. And of course, one of those positive transformations, I think is the fact that we are talking here today. And thanks to the tools like Zoom, space and time is not so much of an issue now. And we can connect from wherever we are. And this has actually, I think, opened many spaces of connection for many people in the world. And I just would like to acknowledge that and be grateful for this possibility. It's been life-changing for many people. And because of the pandemic also, regretfully, we still don't, we have not opened for public zazen or for public ceremonies.

[14:14]

I hope we do soon, I really do. And I'm not sure how many of you have been present in one of the San Francisco Zen Center services or ceremonies before. And those who have, maybe you know this, and for those who don't know or have never been here in person for any of these ceremonies, these ceremonies usually have a structure. It can get more complex than this, but basically the structure is that it starts with an offering in the altar, and then there's chanting of sutras. and final dedication. Offering, chanting and final dedication. It's put in like a simple service, a simple ceremony. And I say this because one of the dedications we do, one of the dedications that it's chanted by the Kokyo, the Kokyo is the person in the assembly who is in charge, part of the team who is

[15:15]

moving forward and ringing the bells and chanting. The Kokyo is a person who chants and leads to chanting. And the Kokyo does in one of our ceremonies, or actually many of these ceremonies, the final dedication that part of it says the following. I'm going to read this dedication. With their understanding and strength, may the true Dharma be renewed in the age of decline. May their power and liberation sustain us in our unceasing effort to free all beings so they may dwell in peace. May the wheel of Dharma and the wheel of nourishment forever turn in this temple. May this land be peaceful and free from calamity. And may we practice joyfully together with all beings. So this is a part of the dedication or in Japanese it's called the echo. that is expressed at the end of most of our services. And I think it's a beautiful expression.

[16:19]

And I want to go back to a line there. May the wheel of Dharma and the wheel of nourishment forever turn in this temple. Wheel of Dharma and the wheel of nourishment. And these two wheels are very important. you know they're so important that in our dedication in our echo we ask for them to turn forever in this temple always keep turning and today I'm going to talk about the wheel of nourishment or maybe I'm going to talk about both because I'm not sure I can talk about the wheel of nourishment without also relating to the wheel of Dharma but I'm going to focus today on the wheel of nourishment and to start saying something about the wheel of nourishment, I would like to go back to Buddha's enlightenment, to the moment that Buddha was very weak. As an ascetic, he was very weak and nearly died because of the lack of nourishment and because of hunger.

[17:25]

All this that happened before he sat under the Bodhi tree and got enlightened. And some of you might know this story. I'm just going to read a small passage. In the beginning of his journey, Siddhartha was an ascetic. The ascetics denied themselves many basic needs. For example, they stayed up all night without sleeping. They sat in the hot sun without shelter. They held their breath for several minutes. And they also fasted or stopped eating for many days at a time. They hoped to find spiritual truth through self-denial. Siddhartha grew skeleton and weak. Finally, he realized his self-mortification was going to kill him and would not lead to enlightenment, and then realized that what was actually needed to advance spiritually was a middle way, neither sensual indulgence nor harsh austerities. One day of Siddhartha's 35th birthday, Sujata, the daughter of a local village headman, saw the declining Siddhartha and made him an offering.

[18:39]

A bowl of sweetened rice cooked in milk. It was this meal that gave Siddhartha the strength to sit under the Bodhi tree and awaken. It was this meal that nourished the Buddha and made the whole Buddhist tradition possible. He felt pure joy inside. And he said, I can't sustain a joy like this if I don't taste, if I don't take any food. So better I eat something. And it was at that moment that the village maiden appeared carrying a bowl of rice and said, here, eat. And Siddhartha accepted the rice. And this was his decision towards life. I really like this story. I think it has so much meaning. And I like this part of it. It was his decision towards life. So the wheel of nourishment turned, and the Buddha was strong enough to sit and be enlightened.

[19:46]

So nourishment is really important in our tradition, starting with the Buddha's enlightenment. And there's also another chant that we usually do in Zen temples and centers, and it's called the meal chant. And maybe many of you have chanted this before, and it's usually done before eating. And part of this chant says, now we set out Buddha's bowls. May we, with all beings, realize the emptiness of the three wheels, giver, receiver, and gift. And these three aspects, the giver, the receiver, and the gift, are very important when we think of the wheel of nourishment, this wheel that we hope turns forever in this temple and in our lives. The giver, the receiver, and the gift. There's no beginning and there's no end in the wheel of nourishment that has a giver, a receiver, and a gift. It's maybe like a wheel of a car.

[20:52]

Where does it start? Where does it end? It just goes round and round. No beginning, no end. And the same thing happens with the wheel of nourishment. As long as it's in motion, as long as it keeps turning. There's no beginning, there's no end. And even though we usually say that there's no separation between giver, receiver, and gift, there's no real beginning, there's no end, because the cycle of nourishment can start from the giver, as it was the case of Sujata, when she gave the rice, the cooked rice, to Siddhartha, to the Buddha, it can also start from the receiver, which became later an important part of Buddha's life, until today. That wheel of nourishment that starts from the receiver is what we could call the begging bowl in our practice.

[21:53]

And this goes back to the times of the Buddha, the Buddha's begging bowl. It's in this case where the receiver is setting in motion the wheel of nourishment by asking for it, by extending the compassionate hands of need. Buddha's bow and this is this is of course as I say very very old comes from the times of the Buddha and also in our Zen practices this is a tradition or something that's been done for centuries and Sanghas and temples have sustained themselves during the Wheel of Nourishment in the way of asking Buddha bow by using this boat. And I think it's really, really important to understand that by doing so, we're not just turning the wheel of nourishment, but we're also turning the wheel of Dharma.

[22:56]

That's why I said, I don't think you can talk about one without talking about the other. And yes, of course, you know, we do this outreach in many ways to sustain ourselves and our temples, but it's so much more than that. Because it's actually a deep and transformative practice, both for who asks and for who gives. Buddha said, I have to eat. And Sujata gave the rice. Giver, receiver, and gift. And this is not something that we usually or traditionally do in the West. Many of you might know about the practice of Takuhatsu in Japan. practice done by Zen monks and Takuhatsu is a traditional form of alms or dana generosity that Buddhist monks in Japan practice and you might have seen maybe pictures of the monks with with their cone hats and and and with their robes and the bowl walking you know these monks travel to various businesses and residences near to the temples and they

[24:09]

Chan Sutras, and they extend their begging bowl to get alms. And this tradition of Zen, actually, as I say, it's from the time of Shakyamuni Buddha, but it has been passed along with this begging bowl to the lineages of the present day. It just continued. So when I say that I cannot say something about the will of nourishment without saying something about the will of Dharma, you can see that or I'll say some more actually about how Takahatsu brings the monastery directly into the marketplace how these monks immersed in this activity of asking create deep connection of nourishment and Dharma through that action through that begging bowl and the Takahatsu activity is actually a deep lesson of humility it's a deep lesson of vulnerability because there's no hiding there's no way to disguise what's being done you know the monks are out there they're walking they have their bowls they're exposed and the fact that we need each other's support is basically a plain sight so in this way for monks takohatsu is part of one's practice it's

[25:40]

Part of one's practice to free from desires of possessions and free from your ego, free from attachment. The monks go walking in the streets or in the alleys of the cities and they chant Ho, Ho. And Ho means the reign of Dharma. The reign of Dharma. They're asking for something but they're offering something. And then when somebody gives something to the priest, put something in the bowl, in the begging bowl, then what traditionally happens is a Hmong recites a verse, the verse of dhāna or the verse of generosity, I think it's called. And the translation of this verse goes something like, the virtue of two kinds of offering, offering of material and offering of dharma is boundless.

[26:40]

The perfection of generosity is completed and benefits all beings in the whole Dharma world. So that's what the monk says when he receives something in the bowl. The virtue of two kinds of offering, offering of material and offering of Dharma is boundless. The perfection of generosity is completed and benefits all beings in the whole Dharma world. the whole reign of Dharma. Dharma. Nourishment and Dharma going together. These two wheels that hopefully forever turn in our temples. So I would say that in many ways, Dharma needs nourishment to survive. You know, as Buddha taught us in the story of Sujata and the rice. Nourishment is important. And actually I'm sorry to say, but I've seen many times, and probably here in the United States it's the same thing, but in South America and Central America, I've seen many groups of Zen, many centers closed or closing because of the lack of resources, the lack of nourishment.

[27:59]

So, in that, in that wheel not turning, the wheel of Dharma can also be affected. would say that in turning the wheels through this practice of asking you know making money or filling the bowl in this takahatsu takuhatsu activity and don't get me wrong it's it's important you know we we need the resources but it's not the main point the main point here in this this activity of of asking of offering the buddha bowl it's a the practice of acceptance the practice of humility of poverty and in a way to address the arrogance of our times of materialism and consumerism it's just a you know a way of seeing that and seeing how we interplay in in all of that so the alms round the asking

[29:15]

enables the practice of poverty and humility. And I would say maybe it also helps the practitioner to overcome vanity because we have it, you know, and the ego is there and loves to be looked at. So turning the wheel of nourishment by extending our Buddha bowl, I think teaches us some of the most fundamental lessons of the Buddha. It teaches us that we are mutually dependent. It teaches us to share everything. It teaches us to accept what comes to us, to be generous, to be humble, both in solitude and in society, to be modest. In some ways it can also help to resist the uncontrolled acquisition of goods or things. You know, to throw off your ego. To have the courage to be fully visible in our practice.

[30:21]

And how important is that? How humbling is to accept, to recognize that we need each other. How vulnerable it feels to extend that Buddha ball. Raising money and goods, actually, I think, and I've read in many places, how this activity has raised the visibility of the Dharma for centuries. And what can today's Zen centers learn from our ancestors, with the fundraising efforts that come from them since the time of the Buddha, even before that? this activity of Dharma which is turning the wheel of nourishment and today Takahatsu it's still performed in Japan and as I said before I don't think it's a you know something that happens too much in the West although I've seen some sanghas engaging in this ancient practice but it's not common because also maybe today there are also different ways to extend the begging bowl of the Buddha

[31:47]

Yes, there's Takahatsu, the traditional way, you go out there with your bowl, but there are different ways. Last week, and you might have received an email, some of you might have received an email about this, we started our annual Zenathon at San Francisco Zen Center. This thing that we do each year, this fundraising, this campaign that we do each year. But the interesting part of this is that it's a peer-to-peer fundraising campaign. It's one person asking another person. So I kind of like to think about the Zenathon as one maybe modern expression of Takuhatsu. And I say this, I think they're similar because the way it works is that an individual person, one practitioner creates a personal fundraising page online in the Zenathon site.

[32:49]

And this becomes a cyber begging bowl of sorts. It's the online begging bowl. And what we do is we go with this online begging bowl to our friends, our family, people we know, and ask for aunts to support ourselves and the temples. So each one of these pages acts as a sort of begging bowl. And the interesting part of this, and I've had many conversations with people doing this or not doing this, wanting to engage, not wanting to engage, and we have people helping create the pages, we're trying to make things easier, and it's not. Asking is not easy in our world today. Turning this wheel of nourishment through our Buddha boat is not easy.

[33:50]

Because in many ways, I think, we have been taught not to ask. But maybe instead of asking to produce, to create. No, like asking kind of seems like a marker of weakness of some kind or, you know, not being able to accomplish success in our lives. We were, in general, of course, I don't want to talk about any particular case, but in general, we've been taught In this culture, yeah, asking puts us below something, you know, in need. So we feel ashamed usually and vulnerable when we ask. Asking is not something that we want to do. So that's why I think that in these kind of modern ways of Takuhatsu, like the Zenathon, same thing happens, you know. It helps us as practitioners to address the arrogance of our times of materialism, in these times of consumerism.

[34:56]

Yes, it's, you know, we're not there with a physical Buddha ball, but still we're asking. And this asking enables us to deepen our practice of humility, of poverty. You know, it helps us to overcome vanity. And then also by giving, other practitioners, other people become part of this cycle of giver, receiver and gift. Now the Wheel of Nourishment is kind of beautifully closed and therefore turns. So there's no separation. And in many ways, when we ask, nowadays we do feel separated. We feel, as I said, maybe less, maybe ashamed. But actually this is a deep communion, a deep communion of giver, receiver and gift. You know, it's a unique opportunity to bring forth the practice of togetherness, the practice of Sangha.

[36:06]

And that's what's happening with the monks out in the streets with their bowl, ho, and people giving something and becoming part of the same thing by giving something. And when we engage in these activities, especially this peer-to-peer fundraising activities, we create a term that I actually love, which is we foster a culture of philanthropy. And in creating this strong culture of philanthropy, the wheel of Dharma and the wheel of nourishment turn endlessly, in good times and in bad. We've seen this. The immense generosity of the community in so many ways, and I saw that in my position as president, towards this practice, towards this organization, in times of need, in COVID, it's moving.

[37:14]

I just don't have words. Because This keeps you rooted in relationships. There's relationships that get very, very deep in this giver, receiver, and gift interaction. Culture of philanthropy. Remember, I was surprised when I first learned about the meaning of the word philanthropy. I love this definition. I'm not sure that everybody knows where philanthropy comes from. Philanthropy comes from these words, love for humankind. It comes from the Greek word phyllos, which is loving, and anthropos, which is humankind. So philanthropy actually means love for humankind. And I think that love for humankind is precisely where you should focus if you want to improve your culture.

[38:22]

if we want to deepen our bonds as a Sangha. Philanthropy, love for humankind. So from this perspective, philanthropy is not just about turning the wheel of nourishment, raising money. It's just part of the mission of our organization and other organizations that are nurtured, you know? And everybody's nurtured in that interaction. The benefits are far reaching. And this culture of philanthropy, this culture of love for humankind, is actually an attitude. No, it's an understanding, a behavior. That when it happens, it's firmly established. And then it brings together, it encompasses everyone in the mandala of the Sangha. All of us engaged in this practice of love of humankind. I think, can connect with our vows of saving all beings.

[39:26]

I don't know, at least for me, saving all beings sounds pretty close to the definition of philanthropy, of love for humankind. So I would say that the importance of understanding the role of the wheel of nourishment in our practice is really important in our culture. Sometimes I have a feeling that we can get the idea there's no place in our practice for money matters. Fundraising is a modern Western activity that dollars and dharma are somewhat incompatible, that maybe we should have a small administration, things should be minimized in favor of what we can call the pure practice. Focus on this wheel of dharma, not so much in the wheel of nourishment. And of course, I want to be clear about this, we need to monitor our motivations for collecting funds, for fundraising, for going out with a Buddha ball, and then our intention in the act of using these funds and our interactions within and outside the Sangha when we're talking about money.

[40:37]

And I also think that we shouldn't make the assumption that adequate funding for Dharma centers is not possible. or that it's somewhat detrimental to practice. I truly don't think that. Quite the contrary. And not just, you know, this individual ask, or this individual takuhatsu activity, or Zenathon activity, this peer-to-peer. Actually, for many centuries, there has been a very highly organized approach to fundraising in Japan, you know, temples. called Kanjin. Maybe some of you know this term. Kanjin was adopted by our Zen ancestors in Japan. And Kanjin drives are still a part of temple life in Japan. It's an organized way of raising funds to turn the wheel of nourishment. So the same way that Takuhatsu is a peer-to-peer form of generosity interaction, of bringing the Sangha together, of closing those rings of giver,

[41:43]

receiver and lift. Kajin is a way that more as an organization, resources are raised. And I think, I try to investigate more about this and it seems that it started as early as a Heian period, around 794 Yeah, 794, I think it was 185 CE. And this is until today one of the main sources of revenue, one of the main sources of nourishment for the temples. Actually, the work of kaijin or fundraising conducted by the monks, these monks are called kaijin hijiri, which means kaijin saint. And the same way that with Takahatsu, with turning the Wheel of Nourishment in this peer-to-peer one-on-one walking with your Buddha bowl, the Wheel of Dharma and the Wheel of Nourishment turned together, the main ideas behind Kaijin was that any size donation from anyone was encouraged and welcome.

[42:57]

The opportunity for anyone to participate was and is as important as the amount of the gift. And again, you know, while it did raise money, it does raise money to nourish the temples, to keep the Dharma alive, Kaijin for many centuries also raised the visibility of Buddhism. And it was, I think, a vital element of the teachings, as we saw before. And why, right? It's not just because of all this connection of... of humility and you know vanity and this interaction that brings us together and just becoming this wheel turning with the receiver the gift and the giver but what really happens and it happens today is that when you start one of these activities of fundraising you tell a story

[44:08]

you tell a story of why. Because telling these stories of why these funds are important to the temple, why these funds are important to the community, it also gives the monks, or whoever is engaged in this, an amazing opportunity to teach the Dharma. And as a matter of fact, kanjin campaigns were an important element in the spread and the popularization of Buddhism. especially medieval Japan because they were telling a story they were saying why this is important why we should connect this way what is going to happen through the generosity of everyone involved it's a story about how doing this is important and how we can engage in the togetherness of the giver-receiver and gift wheel.

[45:14]

Actually, kanjin monks became very popular at some point in Japan, and governments started asking or using kanjin monks to fundraise for other things like bridges or roads. I gather they got pretty good at it. But we're telling a story. and we're sharing that story together. Dharma centers and practice places need this wheel of nourishment turning in order to make practice opportunities available for everybody and for caring for their students and teachers. And I think In many ways, people want to feel a sense of belonging. And to know that in engaging in this, in becoming one, a difference is made.

[46:21]

And of course, I don't have time today to go deeper into the dana paramita, right? The first of all the perfections of wisdom, the generosity. what that means to our practice. So it seems to me that there are several important things that we can learn from our ancestors. You know, the practice of Kanji and Takahatsu. And one is that giving is an opportunity to connect and to belong. To become one. And it should be offered. That culture of philanthropy should be something that It's always there turning this wheel of nourishment, love for humankind. You know, and there's many aspects for this. Another thing that is important is that in, you know, managing these donations, in managing this nourishment with care, I think that also brings or further strengthens the relationships inside and outside the Sangha.

[47:37]

and it helps to make for the Sangha a place for itself in the larger community. It's this big cycle of nourishment that I would say now that it doesn't even end with the giver, the receiver, the gift, but everything that happens with the gift keeps turning this wheel of Dharma. In investigating about this fascinating activity of kaijin, I didn't actually know about this before, I found that Dogen no less, most of you know Dogen, the founder of our lineage of Zen, the Soto Zen School. Dogen in the year 1200, he himself wrote a fundraising appeal for the construction of a monks hall at Kanondori Inn in Uji. This was in 1235. So Dogen wrote a fundraising appeal.

[48:40]

told a story. And it's interesting. I'm going to read part of this now. He emphasized the importance of a broad base of support for the project, but no matter what the size of the gift was. And there is a letter, this fundraising appeal, that I found And it was translated by Michael Wenger and Aswaki Tanaka, it seems. I'm going to read a couple of parts of this. This is Dogen fundraising. I find this fascinating. Dogen says, We respectfully make this announcement to all Buddhas in the ten directions. Sages and monks in the heavenly and human worlds, the eight types of beings in the dragon realm, generous men and women. We wish to construct a training hall with small donations from people's pure heart.

[49:43]

For some years, ever since I returned to Japan from China, I have vowed to establish the monastery. But there has not been a place suitable to support monks formal practice using bowls and robes. Now we have acquired an excellent place. Although it is still covered with weeds, and not yet functioning, we plan to build a training monastery here. We urgently need Monk's Hall right now. We plan to build one seven-kent square, that's 70 feet square, with no interior walls. We will set up long platforms to reside on, where we will practice day and night without fail. We will acknowledge gifts by installing the donors' names in the center of the sacred image. The myriad syllables of the seed wisdom will honor the donors and everyone. Those who attain the way in this hall will be guiding masters of the assembly.

[50:48]

Truly, they will be knowledgeable and reach not only the human realm, but transform beings in the heavenly realm and the dragon's palace. Those in the realms of magic and darkness will also listen. This Dharma wheel transmitted from Shakyamuni Buddha can reach everywhere. I think this is an amazing example of Dogen turning the wheel of nourishment and the wheel of Dharma. So we extend the Buddha bolts in our practice as a way of practice itself. We turn the wheel of nourishment and turn the wheel of Dharma. and we turn the wheel of dharma, and we turn the wheel of nourishment. And in doing so, we set in motion the endless cycle of nourishment that is so important for humanity today. And I would like to end with another quote from Dogen.

[51:52]

There's neither virtue in what is meager, not evil in what is bountiful. Regardless of wealth or poverty, when the mind of greed arises, people lose their beautiful minds. The Buddha mind is a mind that knows what is sufficient. There is neither virtue in what is meager, nor evil in what is bountiful. So let's keep turning these wheels together. Thank you very much. May our intention equally extend to every being in place. With the true merit of Buddha's way, beings are numberless.

[52:58]

I vow to save them. Delusions are inexhaustible. I vow to end them. Dharma gates are boundless. I vow to enter them. Buddha's way is unsurpassable. I vow to become it. Thank you very much, Sozan. I believe everyone should be able to unmute and say thank you and good night if you wish. Thanks, Sozan. Thank you. Thank you, Sozan. Thank you, Sozan. Thank you.

[53:58]

Thank you, Sozan. Thank you, Sozan. Thank you, Sozan. It was a gift. Thank you. Muchas gracias. Gracias, Michael.

[54:18]

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