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. Well, good morning, Green Gulch and other Zoom friends from who knows where. So today's... First day of daylight savings. So, which to me, that means gardening or a walk after dinner. And also a few days of jet lag as my body clock adjusts. Take it easy out there. And also, happy pie day. Pie day, in case you didn't know, is a carefully preserved celebration in math departments across the country, possibly the world.

[01:04]

On Pi Day at Mill Valley Middle School, where I used to teach science, students bring pies to their math classes, eat as much as they can, and then pass the extra pies around the school. There are always a lot of pies. since most of the 1,000 plus students have a math class and most bring a pie. But my guess is that most math departments, the celebrations are probably suspended this year. So we'll be back next year, I'm sure. I just read this morning a wonderful sentence about this in the New York Times. The famous mathematical ratio, estimated to more than 22 trillion digits and counting, is the perfect symbol for our species' long effort to tame infinity.

[02:10]

Today, I want to talk about Dharma friendship, about Sangha, in the widest possible. iteration of that. I will begin by reading to you from book four in Dogen's Wimmonki, talk number five. In this rather momentous talk, Dogen introduces his disciple and Dharma friend, Ejo, as Dogen's first shuso. For me, it's also striking for the beautiful and crystal clear language with stories of the ancestors, lots of images of nature. It's a long passage. I'll tell you when it's concluded. So Dogen says, ponder the fact that someone realized the way by hearing the sound of bamboo, that another clarified the mind at the sight of peach blossoms.

[03:20]

How could it be possible to differentiate smart bamboo trees from dull ones or deluded ones from enlightened ones. How could there be shallow or deep, wise or stupid among flowers? The flowers bloom every year, yet not everyone attains enlightenment by viewing them. Stones often strike bamboo. Yet not everyone who hears the sound clarifies the way. Only through the virtue of long study and continuous practice, with the assistance of diligent effort in the way, does one realize the way or clarify the mind. This did not occur because the sound of the bamboo was especially wonderful. nor because the color of the peach blossoms was particularly profound.

[04:25]

Although the sound of bamboo is marvelous, it does not sound of itself. It cries out with the help of a piece of tile. Although the color of peach blossoms is beautiful, they do not bloom of themselves. They open... with the help of the spring breeze. Practicing the way is also like this. This way is inherent in each of us. Still, our gaining the way depends upon the help of co-practitioners. Though each person is brilliant, our practicing the way still needs the power of other people in the Sangha. Therefore, while unifying your mind and concentrating your aspiration, practice and seek the way together.

[05:36]

A jewel becomes a vessel with polishing. A human being becomes benevolent and wise with refining. What jewel glitters from its inception? Who is brilliant from the outset? You must polish and refine. So do not demean yourselves and do not relax in your practice of the way. An ancient said, do not spend your time in vain. Now I ask you, does time stop? though you hold it dear? Or does it continue, even though you lament? You must know that it is not time that passes in vain. It is the person that spends it in vain. This means that human beings, just the same as time, have to devote themselves to the practice of the way.

[06:46]

instead of spending their time in vain. Thus, put your minds together in studying and practice. So that is that rather long excerpt from this talk. It's a wonderful talk. In this talk, Dogen emphasizes the importance of practicing over time together. That passage, though each person is brilliant, our practicing the way still needs the power of other people in the Sangha. Therefore, while unifying your mind and concentrating your aspiration, practice and seek the way together. A jewel becomes a vessel while polishing. A human being becomes benevolent and wise with refining. This teaching in this talk, practicing over time together, is the companion to the teaching of taking a step from the top of a hundred foot pole, which I spoke about the other day, in which our full commitment and courage in this moment is emphasized.

[08:09]

Here, Dogen emphasizes the other side of practice. how we change over time through our commitment to the way and to each other. These aspects of practice are not mutually exclusive, are not actually different at all. And it brings to mind, to my mind, the two poems of the Platform Sutra. The first from Shen Shio, who is the favored disciple of Hong Run, which in Red Pine's translation goes like this. The body is a Bodhi tree. The mind is like a standing mirror. Always try to keep it clean. Don't let it gather dust. As the legend goes, Hway Nang, a poor woodcutter from the southern hinterlands,

[09:13]

having heard lines recited from the Diamond Sutra, resolves to devote his life to practicing the way and travels north to Hongran's temple. There he impresses Hongran with his understanding. But as a newbie, he is sent to work grinding rice for the monks, which he does for many months until this poetry event. Gui Nang composes a poem in response to Shen Xiu's, which goes like this. Bodhi doesn't have any trees. This mirror doesn't have a stand. Our Buddha nature is forever pure. Where do you get this dust? In the story of Gui Nang, these two approaches might appear to be set up in opposition to each other, though I doubt it was that simple.

[10:18]

In any case, Dogen is saying otherwise, that we practice both aspects together. Suzuki Roshi taught this as well, and we find it in his statement, Each of you is perfect the way you are, and you could use a little improvement. I think this is a pivotal point for us in our practice and understanding of Zen. That is, understanding the unity and interaction of these two aspects. Practicing with others asks our trust and respect for others. while learning to trust and respect ourselves. It also requires gratitude and forgiveness for others as we learn to be grateful and forgive ourselves. Sometimes forgiving others is easier than forgiving ourselves.

[11:33]

So by forgiving others, we can learn the difficult task of forgiving ourselves. Practicing with others can be dangerous territory because we so easily get it wrong. We put others on a pedestal, thereby confirming our suspicions that we are worthless. Or we can stand on a pedestal, thinking others are less than us in some way. We can become so irritated with something about another person that we practically can't see the light of day. We can carry resentment for others and for ourselves for resenting others for years.

[12:39]

Yet, in the midst of all that, we change without unnecessarily noticing. Our sharp edges wear down a bit. A lightness and sense of humor emerge along with compassion and understanding for ourselves and for others. The practice of trust, respect, gratitude, forgiveness work quietly, even secretly over time among Dharma friends. within the Sangha community, which can be as wide as it is. And none of these practices can be quantified. That is, once, say, the practice of bringing trust to mind is established, trust spreads far and wide.

[13:48]

It doesn't belong to me. It never did. It is as though I found it trapped and unleashed it, released it. Or, more like, allowed it to release itself. This is the power of Dharma friendship, of Sangha. So I love the part about how we could... about... How could we differentiate smart bamboo trees from dull ones or deluded ones from enlightened ones? How could there be shallow or deep, wise or stupid among flowers? There is something here about self and other, that we are as confused about merging self and other as we are about separating self and other. Bamboo is just going about its business being bamboo, and flowers are going about their business being flowers.

[14:59]

It does not make sense to take personally what flowers are doing. The person who awakened with the sound of a tile hitting bamboo should not think, oh. I just received a secret message from tile and bamboo. The message was just for me, sent as a blessing from them. They must have been watching me all this time. They must be my personal guardians. And so on. Dogen tells us the obvious. The flowers have been blooming in spring all along, and rocks have been striking bamboo all along. There was nothing unusual about those moments of flowers and bamboo. What was unusual is that the person's eyes, the person's ears, perceived for the first time what has always been there.

[16:11]

The enormity of our lives is always hiding in plain sight. Hiding because we are busy with other things. Actually, it's not that anything is hiding. It's that we are walking around with our eyes closed, our ears closed. Self and other is such a mystery. We are all interconnected. We are all made of the same stuff. Present on earth at the same time. Yet we walk around feeling separate. Are we separate? Or are we interconnected?

[17:15]

Dogen is talking about flowers and bamboo as though they were separate from us. But is he really? That each of us has our own particularity, our own body, our own location, our own sphere of activity, and our own responsibility. is exactly our point of intersection with others. Because others have their own particularity as well. And we meet others only in a particular place and moment. We move in and out of each other's sensory fields in a particular time and way. There is nothing outside of this particularity. Nothing else is needed. It's just our attachment to the concept of self that trips us up.

[18:25]

So, are we separate or connected? Is a question that exists in language and concept. The question itself dissipates in the practice as the practice takes hold in our body and mind, as we stand and sit side by side on earth in this strange and precious life form. Dogen lets us know that it takes big effort over time with the companionship of others to open our eyes, land in our own bodies and breath, and that making a big effort is already enlightenment. Because enlightenment does not depend on our experience.

[19:41]

It is already our birthright. Opening our eyes is a process of allowing eyes to open of themselves. It is the nature of eyes to open of themselves, just as it is the nature of flowers to bloom with the help of the spring breeze. But since our big bully self is always weighing in on whether it succeeded or failed, and so on, Our attention to allowing eyes to be eyes is easily deflected. Myself thinks these are my eyes, and I control my eyes. I decide where to look and when to open and close my eyes. So, where's my enlightenment? I'll grab my eyes and my ears and my exquisite mind and go search for my enlightenment.

[20:49]

Allowing eyes to be eyes to open of themselves in their own time takes a big effort. It takes trust in practice and a subtle discernment of concepts like self and how these concepts came to function as the tail that wags the dog. I spoke, I think, last week about tools, how all these things that we identify as ourselves, we can just sort of shift our mind and think of them as tools. And as tools, we pick them up to use them, and we put them down when we don't need them. I think self is such a tool. buy a car and grocery shop and do what we do take care of ourselves and take care of others but the self is a tool that we can put down and that is so much of what we learn in practice instead of carrying around this heavy tool that we're not using right now we can put it down

[22:19]

This is why Dharma friends are so central to our practice. Even in silence we communicate. We see others and are seen by others. How we are seen by others is a little different from how we see ourselves. And it's not a matter of who's right and who's wrong. Rather, a matter of seeing our larger selves. seeing ourself from more than one angle through the eyes of another and incorporating over time this multifaceted self and allowing this self to take a break. Dogen has a beautiful passage about the dynamic of Dharma friendship. It's short. And this is from, it's a short passage, it's from the previous talk, which is book four, talk four.

[23:33]

One day, Dogen instructed. An ancient has said, associating with a good person is like walking through mist and dew. Though you will not become drenched, gradually your robes will become damp. This means that if you become familiar with a good person, you will become good yourself without being aware of it. Suzuki Roshi said something like this, too, about walking through the fog without noticing how or when you become damp. for the good person, the question might arise, where can I find such a person?

[24:33]

Well, it turns out that pretty much anyone will do. Anyone who has the ability and commitment to walk with us. And walking together means both persons are becoming good. And at some point, may see each other in this way. And this reminds me of something Maureen Stewart Roshi said. Maureen Stewart Roshi was the abbess of the Cambridge Buddhist Society, and unfortunately she died of cancer in 1990. She died on the same day as Katagiri Roshi. She said this, when you see a flower, really see a flower, the flower sees you. That's the quote.

[25:41]

So you see the flower seeing you, you and the flower intersecting, each in particularity, yet merging, shattering all the rules. Like flowers don't have eyes. What is this seeing? So what does it take? What does this practice take? What is required of us is just keep walking. Keep practicing the way. Opening to the way. In our body, given to us by our parents, and evolution on this planet, held together by the Earth's gravity, in our breath, given us by the Earth's atmosphere, walking in the sun's light.

[26:42]

This is the activity of Sangha, of Dharma friends. So our practice is both meeting each moment fully committed courageous, with open hands, not holding on to concepts, stepping off a hundred-foot pole, as well as walking together over and over again, polishing mirrors, washing dishes, brushing our teeth, showing up day in and day out, regardless of the outcome, living tenderly and totally committed. 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.

[27:47]

For more information, visit sfcc.org and click giving. May we fully enjoy the Dharma.

[27:56]

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