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 by people like you. So I'm going to start with a story from the Book of Serenity. This is Case 12, Deetsong Planting the Fields. The master of Zueshan joined with Fayan, Wudang, and the master of Jinshan to travel beyond the lake region of East Central China. Coming to Jiang province they were blocked by rain, snow, and swollen valley streams. So they put up at Di Tsang's temple west of the city. There they encircled the brazier and ignored Master Ditsang.

[01:04]

So Master Ditsang approached them. Well, where do you come from? He asked. Svesan said, from the south. Diksan said, how is Buddhism in the south these days? Ditsang said, there is extensive discussion. Ditsang said, how can that compare to me here, planting the fields and cooking rice to eat? Ditsang said, what can you do about the world? Ditsang said, what do you call the world? So I think you have all probably seen the images on TV and in the papers this week of the Buddhist monks who were walking barefoot in the streets of Burma leading their people in protest of their government.

[02:24]

When I heard about what was happening there from a friend, I think it was on Monday, My stomach clenched and I was very afraid. We've heard these stories before and very rarely do they turn out well. In 1948, the year I was born, Burma was part of the British Empire. and at that time they were given their liberty. Since then they have been ruled by military leadership and in 1988 in protest of that leadership 3,000 people were killed by their government. And so again this week I don't know how many people have been killed

[03:28]

I only know 10 have been reported. One picture of a Japanese cameraman was on the front page of the New York Times. He was holding his camera and continuing to film and later on he died. The monks have been locked in their monasteries and many have been arrested and beaten and we don't know where they are. the news that we have is coming from people's blogs, you know, through the internet, because the international news agencies are not being allowed into Burma right now. So people are sending these little messages, you know, like they used to do in bottles, right? Please help us. Please see us. Please hear our cry. Even our own president, George Bush, has

[04:33]

denounce the violence of the Burmese government. Where are you from? From the South. How is Buddhism in the South these days? There is extensive discussion. How does that compare to me here planting the fields and cooking rice to eat? What can you do about the world? What do you call the world? So this morning we're all sitting here in a Buddhist temple on the coast of California. Our farm and our garden have had record crops and profits this year. The guest program is flourishing, repairs are underway, and our board of directors has approved

[05:34]

a long-range plan for Gringolch Farm, including a formidable capital campaign. And even so, this koan, this puzzle, what can you do about the world? What do you call the world? Is probably the major concern of my entire life. When I was a young child, I think I must have been no more than eight or nine, I went into my older brother's room and looked into his closet. I'm not sure what I was looking for. I found a number of things. Among them, I found a book, a Life Magazine publication with black and white pictures, very large,

[06:36]

the battlefields of World War II. And these pictures were from the aftermath of firestorms, atomic bombs, and plain old gunshot wounds. And all of the people in the pictures were dead. And I mark this experience of this journal as the beginning of my spiritual life. A great grief began to grow inside of me. And alongside of that grief, there grew a deep and overriding confusion about what I could do or what anyone could do about the suffering of this world. Also with this book, there was a phonograph record that I listened to.

[07:43]

And it was speeches by the world's leaders of that day. Franklin Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, Adolf Hitler, and Harry S. Truman. And each of them was speaking to inspire their people to win that war. I think it was probably that same year, because my family lived in San Francisco at the time, that we were being taught, I think you all probably were taught, who were my age, to duck and cover so that when the nuclear war with the Soviet Union began, we could hide under our desks. Very good training for third grade. By the time I had gotten to college, I had intended on becoming a high school history teacher.

[08:51]

But by then, the President of the United States had been assassinated. So had his brother, Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X had all been killed. There was a war in Korea, Vietnam, South America, Africa, the Middle East, and the southern United States. By the time I left college, I had a degree in political science. I was a registered socialist and I spent a year in Sweden looking for somebody who could discuss political reason. When I came home, I took the first job I could find in the trust department at the Bank of California. So when I look at myself through those years, this deep confusion and this deep anxiety and this overriding grief are all mixed together.

[10:06]

And I safely could say I was completely void of course. What can you do about the world? What do you call the world? Well, I did have to pay my rent and to buy groceries and to... begin to repay the large student loan for my unmarketable degree in political science. So the next step I took was to marry the vice president of the bank. Well, he asked, so what could I say? Sadly, the marriage didn't last.

[11:14]

We tried. At one point he said to me, he was a nice man. About 20 years, my senior. What do you want? Excellent question. And I said, I have to go. But I didn't know where. I just remember driving across the Bay Bridge. We were living in Lafayette. with all of my windows of my old BW bug rolled down and vowing never to enter again into any agreements that I couldn't keep. So I moved to Jackson, Wyoming. I lived on a ranch and I didn't think about the world at all for a goodly number of years. We went fishing and we went skiing and kayaking and river rafting and horseback riding and we hung out at the bar and we smoked a lot of dope.

[12:20]

And I think I thought I was happy. I'm not so sure anymore. By the time I left Wyoming, I had shifted my allegiance. the socialists to the environmentalists and I decided that people were going to have to fend for themselves. I was going to work for the welfare of the planet and all of the more worthy creatures that depended for their life on her well-being. At the age of 29, while I was working at the Trust for Public Land, I literally bumped into the San Francisco Zen Center. So on a Saturday morning at 8.15 I went to the city center building and I was given meditation instruction by Linda Ruth Cutts.

[13:24]

She said a number of things. Cross your legs, sit up straight, hold your hands like this, and wait for the bell. And it worked, you know. I thought, okay, maybe the instruction will come later. still waiting so that was over 30 years ago you know I learned to meditate like a young Burmese monk but still I think for me and for them these burning questions still remain what are we going to do about the world and what do you call the world Suzuki Roshi told us that we should give our cows a large pasture. But he also said you should keep an eye on them.

[14:30]

So do we tell the government of Burma that we have our eye on them? How about the government of the United States of America? How about Israel or Palestine? Louisiana? California? or Texas. How many eyes do we have? How many eyes do we need? In Buddhism there is a beneficent being called Kuan Yin or Kanon. I believe she's sitting behind me here and also behind Manjushri on the altar. her fault.

[15:36]

So Kuan Yin is depicted in statues and in paintings as having, sometimes anyway, as having a thousand arms and hands. And in each hand there's an eye for spotting trouble and for bringing appropriate relief. So I've always thought that this bodhisattva represented the community, the community, the global community of like-hearted people. In the teachings about the bodhisattvas, the bodhisattvas of compassion, She is inviting us to look inside of our true life. How our life truly is. How our life is an inconceivable and mutually supportive world system.

[16:48]

How we all belong to one another. we are all sisters and brothers on this planet, this tiny little planet Earth. And we are invited to look into the heart of the enlightened vision, the vision of non-separation, the same vision that Shakyamuni Buddha had on the morning of his awakening. At which time he said my favorite line in Buddhism, the entire world in the ten directions is the true human body. The entire world in the ten directions is the true human body. And I think we all know this true human body in our own hearts and minds.

[17:51]

when all together we shiver as each new terror strikes this beautiful earth. I felt very close to everyone around this globe when the two towers were hit, you know. I felt so close to our common experience in that moment of being sickened by the horror But pretty soon that world vision, that world consciousness was broken and distracted by acts of vengeance and declarations of war. Where is our authority as gentlemen and gentlewomen to steer the course of nations?

[18:56]

To refrain them from acts of violence. Where is our authority? To whom can we register our complaints, our concerns, our outrage? For whom are we practicing the path of peace? Yesterday morning at 10.15 I came here to the Zendo to join a yoga class that was being led by Patricia Sullivan, wonderful, wonderful yoga teacher who I've known for many years. Last summer Patricia had asked me if I would co-lead a five-day Zen and Yoga workshop at Tassahara with her this past summer. And I said to her, Patricia, I haven't touched my toes for over 20 years. And even though I'm really honored and I would like to join you, the only condition would be that you promise not to hurt me.

[20:07]

And she agreed. So it turns out that this retreat... was a transformative opportunity for my life. It gave me an approach to these big questions, this puzzle, this two-part koan, you know. What are you going to do about the world? What can you do about the world? And what do you call the world? And there's also explicit instruction concerning this koan in the commentary itself in the Book of Serenity. And although many times I have read wise words over and over again, it's somewhat rare to actually taste the wisdom. And at other times, a very small taste creates a major transformation of my life.

[21:15]

From the commentary, Zen Master Jingliang said, communion with the source is one's own practice. Communion with the source is one's own practice. Communion by speech is showing it to those who are not yet enlightened. This statement is based on a teaching by the Buddha to Mahamati, in a sutra called The Descent of the Great Vehicle in Talanka, in which the Buddha said, there are two kinds of communion. Communion with the source and communion by speech. Communion with the source takes place by means of transcending all progress. By utterly detaching from the false conceptions of speech and symbols by going to the realm of non-indulgence through which by the process of self-awakening the light shines forth.

[22:35]

This is called communion with the source. So last week my Dharma brother Myolehi sat here and spoke very eloquently about communion with the source about the need for retreat each of us must learn to take the backward step that turns the light inwardly and shines on the body and mind itself he also talked about our need to cut a pathway through the tall grasses that have overgrown and surrounded our lives Buddha went into the desert. No, he didn't. He went into the forest. It was Jesus who went into the desert. Is that right? Buddha went into the forest. Jesus went into the desert. And Moses, where did he go?

[23:40]

Where? Up the mountain. He went up the mountain. That's right. Here, what we do every morning, quite early, is come down to the Zendo. And we sit here with our legs in the shape of a pretzel, sitting upright and waiting for the summer fog to clear. This is called communion with the Source. What is communion by speech? It means teaching the various doctrines of the preparatory practices. For example, yoga, zazen, mindfulness, generosity, enthusiasm, kindness. These are the preparatory practices. Avoiding signs of difference or non-difference, existence or non-existence, and the like.

[24:45]

So these are the teachings of non-duality which are foundational to understanding the Buddha's wisdom. Using skillful techniques to explain the truth as needed. This is communion by speech. So it sounds like these two things, these two approaches are opposites. that one is going inside and the other going outside. But actually they are true partners of the dance. Like the left and right foot and walking. It's hard to say which is the front foot and which is the back as you're moving forward. Front foot, back foot. same time we need to name these feet well I don't know if we need to but we did right and left and we need to name our relationship to the world and to each other inside and outside up and down we need this we need this training in order to be ready for the big job of fulfilling our deep vows

[26:19]

to save the world. Because until we learn that inside and outside are fantasy, we'll try to save the world by ourselves. And we can't do that. That young girl looking at pictures of the Second World War, she can't do that by herself. She didn't know she wasn't alone. We have to work together. We have to know what the Buddha saw at the time of his awakening. We are one people and we have one world to save together. And we have to get going. universe in the ten directions is the true human body.

[27:26]

So here's the tricky part. In order for us to live as one people, as one body, first of all we have to separate ourselves from one another and go into the forest alone. We have to go on retreat. Going on retreat means that we have to stop thinking, stop feeling, stop acting, stop eating, stop indulging, stop trying, stop moving, stop believing in who we are. In other words, we have to stop making progress and detach ourselves from false views so that the light of itself will shine forth.

[28:35]

This is communion with the Source. So what I learned on this yoga retreat was that I must take care of this body and mind continuously stepping on the left foot before I can direct the effort of my life toward caring for others, stepping on the right foot. I had been pretty much skipping the first step altogether. I wasn't taking care of myself. I was eating too much food. forgoing exercise of any kind neglecting my own ligaments and my own meditation practice in order to spend time with others or in order to sit like a toad on my bed doing nothing at all I do believe that my daily endeavors were useful

[29:51]

Maybe for the toad part. But what was happening for me is that my usefulness tank was running out of gas. I couldn't sustain my enthusiasm for much of anything. The toad was growing large. don't teach and they don't practice that way. They don't hop around on one foot in mid-air, only in their dreams. So even though in Zen literature we do not describe the body as a temple, in fact we call it an old rice bag. we are taught to treat our bodies like a temple, to care for them like a temple.

[30:55]

My teacher said that one of the things he had noticed about Suzuki Roshi was that his toenails were carefully clipped. So at the end of Patricia's class, we all got to lay down in everybody's favorite yoga posture called Savasana. It means corpse pose. You put your blanket up under your chin. Rest your arms. And she even placed a little bean bag with lavender fragrance in it on my eyes. And then she said, I'd like to invite all of you to explore that experience of yourself that is not embodied. It is not a leg, a nose, an ear, a tongue, a sneeze, or a nail. That vast, mysterious source, out of which we are continuously born, and into which we continuously die.

[32:17]

breath after breath, step after step. This is called walking. The mountains are walking. Communion with speech, communion with the source, what do you call the world? So what I have begun since my retreat with Patricia at Tassajara this summer is a daily practice of taking a break. I go where I feel most at ease. I stretch my ligaments. I eat modestly. And I enjoy myself as a moment of peace. In other words, I practice what I preach. And I feel a lot happier in my own skin than I have in a long, long time.

[33:27]

And a lot happier about going back to work. Much of the Buddha's teaching was initially directed toward those who had already more or less gone on permanent retreat. and monastics, hermits, ascetics, home leavers, introverts. But the others came to the meadow where he was teaching as well. The ministers and the kings, the merchants, the laymen and laywomen. They came because they were hurting, or they were lonely, they were grieving. They were angry. They were just like us. And out of his deep compassion the Buddha spoke to each of them according to their tasks in the world and according to their ability to understand.

[34:34]

And as a result the Buddha's communion by speech flourished and traveled to millions of people for thousands of years. And it's traveling still. There are small pockets in many places in the world where people are living in harmony with one another. Where their speech is well considered. And their kindness to one another is their culture. The Dalai Lama calls this tradition the religion of kindness. And there are places still where the blessings of this religion affect the people and the land. Small places.

[35:39]

In Burma the monks understand and live by these teachings. But what I want to know is what happened to their brothers, the ministers, the merchants, the soldiers, and the kings. How did the left and right foot stop walking together? I don't think we have to look to Burma for an answer to this question. I think we need to look to our own leaders and to ourselves. What are we doing? How have we come to walk in such a strange and disconnected way? I was at a meeting of the Marin Interfaith Council Board, of which I'm very fond, very fond of all the people there, like-hearted people.

[36:50]

And our representative to the Marin Community Foundation came and she asked us, what would you like the foundation to be doing in Marin County? Pretty great opportunity. I said, teach ethics to children. Another minister said, end the death penalty and reform San Quentin. Another said, low-cost housing. And another addressed the disparity in education, the progress of education in this county for the children of the people of color. So none of these were new ideas. There are no new ideas. However until these old ideas are installed into our culture, we cannot live the way of peace.

[37:57]

We will not be people of peace. The right foot and the left foot will not walk together. you do about the world communion by speech tell people how you feel tell them what you think sincerely and often especially your children what do you call the world communion with the source take good care of yourself be gentle and kind and non-judgmental because after all you and I are doing the very best we can and yet Suzuki Roshi said there's always room for a little improvement I want to end with a poem by our dear friend and an accomplished yogini

[39:10]

Jane Hirschfield, from a book called Life Prayers, Affirmations to Celebrate the Human Journey. O baker of yeast-scented loaves, sword dancer, seamstress, weaver of shattering glass, O whirler of winds, boat swallower, germinate seed, O seasons that sing in our ears in the shape of O. We name your colors mutton fat, kingfisher, jade. We name your colors anthracite, orca, growth tip of pine. We name them arpeggio, pond. We name them flickering helix within the cell, burning coal tunnel, blossom of salt. We name them roof flashing copper, frost scent at morning, smoke singe of pearl.

[40:15]

From black flowering to light flowering, we name them. From barest conception, the almost not thought of, to the heaviest matter, we name them. From glacier lit blue to the gold of iguana, we name them. And naming, begin to see. And seeing, begin to assemble the plain stones of earth. Thank you very much. Thank you for listening to this podcast offered by the San Francisco Zen Center. Our programs are made possible by the donations we receive. Please help us to continue the practice of giving by offering your financial help. For more information, visit sfcc.org. and click giving. May all beings be happy.

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