Effort

00:00
00:00
Audio loading...

Welcome! You can log in or create an account to save favorites, edit keywords, transcripts, and more.

Serial: 
SF-00155
Description: 

Sunday talk

Photos: 
Auto-Generated Transcript

the money

how does a lot of people here this morning she gets a little too warm we can open up some of these stories for a priests are you comfortable sofa
i'm just curious how many people
for how many people is this your first time here
you

tomorrow is labor day
and
this happens to be the one hundredth anniversary of labor day to you know that the first labour day
was actually
well in eighteen ninety two a fellow by the name of peter mcguire was a carpenter in new york decided ah the organize a parade
in honor of labor and ten thousand people showed up at the prayed
and there was fireworks and a picnic and two years after that president grover cleveland
declared it a national holiday so in eighty ninety four labor day was
established so it's hundred years
and i've always
like that bumper sticker that says under labour and you seen it because it has so many possible meanings
labour the word labor means exertion
it actually has it's exertion and toil and striving for usually for wages not for profit
wow
and there's a connotation of a
difficulty labour carrying a heavy weight and toiling under them
it also means via
talbert pains or contractions or the whole process of childbirth called labor as well
so it's work but work of a particular kind
now the word ah work itself
and the word that we used in in then for work or temple work is different than the usual the word and japanese for work and the word for the work you do in the temple or two different words work is she got home i believe and temple work
is samuel which
samo is actually a thousand in action so in zen work has been is a place for work as part of the practice
and it's honored there's an old saying a day of no work is a day of know eating as part of the spirit of being in a monastery in the community
so that spirit of work samo our temple work or zazen inaction is little bit different feeling than labour or toiling for wages
but the word work in in the the etymology of the word work is gets a little bit closer to this idea of samo the word work
ah the root of it
ah is to make
and it's associated with in greek a word that means energy or liturgy so those are associated and
also in latin a word for tool or organ or secret rights or i worship
and this route also is the word right at the old english is w r h y t a writer or something like that which is like right or will like a wheelwright real rate center which we have is the person who made the wheels was the wheelwright
so that's the maker of the wheels and that route
is associated with worship so i thought that was pretty interesting worship means worth plus ship and to worship is
ah can love and have allegiance toward some
sacred object or figure or deity or energy
and
cause various ceremonies and rituals that express that love and reverence our worship so i feel like samo is closer to this kind of worship expressing our love for our life and four hour for each other
in expressing it this through this kind of activity
at work samuel
we are finished a seven day intensive sitting in the beginning of august and on the first day of that seven days
d m
grab anderson the abbott who was leading the session asked us
if
we were
i'm ready or how we felt about
making a vow to be present for the next seven days
and he didn't say make the vow and it was more a discussion what about that what about looking at these decks seven days and having an aspiration and a vow to be present for seven days and i remember someone in the back of the room raise their hand and
said
i don't want to do it i'm i don't want to do it because i know this going to be a lot of pain and i don't want to be present for it for all that pain
which i thought was very honest actually very honest response
and i took a look at that because i thought i remember thinking why i've already made their bow and made it plenty of times i'm you know i am dismiss present
nineteen ninety four her
pretend the more i reflected on it i realized
i'm i'm it doesn't matter if you've said once or understand intellectually as a good idea to be president and yeah i think i'll be present you actually there's some effort involved in being present
i was looking at some old notebooks than ahead of ah
thoughts you know ammunitions and
inspirational thoughts and i found on from and seventy eight and it said cultivate alertness so note to myself
that was that was number of years ago and
it it doesn't matter if you make some decision at some point it causes and conditions in the world in the universe do not necessarily
help you to keep this while being present there's lots of distractions and lots of things they draw you away so to make a vow to be present takes effort it takes effort actually moment after moment you can't do it kind of once and for all it's something that has
to arise over and over again
to be alert and to be present takes effort
i recently came back from vacation where there was a we were granted some movies and we saw the movie the seven samurai
which i had seen a long time ago but one of the scenes in the seventh samurai you know the story of the seven samurai it's the same as the magnificent seven there's a town farmers who are being attacked by brigands and they go and ask
right to help and they retrieve them one by one they start with one who's the leader and then he looks around for the other six and he tests these various samurai that he sees walking about him
oh one of the ways he test them is he sends a messenger and has says come and see me
where i am come and talk with me and then he has someone hiding behind the door so that wouldn't walk in the door there's some of the big stick rate of bomb over the head as they come in
and the first samurai they asked to come in in that way immediately grabbed the stick and through the guy over and you know and say what's going on here what are you what do you trying to do
very fast immediate i mean there was no he was in no danger you just
the next fellow who came didn't even stepped through the threshold he saw the shadow of the guy waiting behind the door right in that doorway and stopped and said is is some kind of joker you what's happening completely alert to well what was about to befall him
this reminded me of a time when i was in college ahead of friend who was practicing zen and must have seen this movie because they said would you attack me
you know without me knowing it
and we're on campus together and they wanted me to kind of jump out from behind doorways and and
so he could test his alertness and
i didn't i didn't do it
so alertness and presence takes a kind of effort now in
buddhism there's something called the six perfections and the first of those is giving the second is morality or ethics the third is patients and the fourth is something called joyous effort which i want to talk about
the perfection of joyous effort
it's also sometimes translated as vigor or strenuous nice but i actually like joyous effort best
ah so joyous effort is the mind that turns towards wholesomeness and virtue
so it has allowed to do with what the motivation of this of your mind is what are your intentions and aspirations almost more than the actions themselves we can't necessarily tell by an action what the motivation is so the motivation for wholesomeness and virtues
is joyous effort
and just to say some more about joyous effort
there's four types of joyous effort the first is
called putting on the armor and it's it's kind of a militaristic
term but the bodhisattva which is the being who vows to hold off their own of
enlightenment until everyone else has been enlightened puts on the armor of this vow to save all beings and not abandoned being so it's a kind of armor figuratively speaking that you put on and same with joyous effort you put on this armor of not having discouraging thoughts
but to just put out this effort over and over again thank you in as a kind of armor that you were that keeps
keeps your yourself generating encouraging words and and allows you to be forceful in your exertion which is the second kind of joyce effort were in every more moment you find the forcefulness and the energy to exert yourself
and the third type of joyous effort is firmness like a mountain so over time to continue this practice overtime you need a kind of firmness like this posture crossley good posture
stable and from so you can continue
and the last is non complacency
which is looking at your life and feeling not feeling necessarily says i like you've done you're done you've you've made your vow to be president so now you can go on to somebody else it actually feeling not so satisfied which also keeps keeps your effort going
ah non complacency
no one of the the main opponent to joyous effort to this perfection of joyous effort is
laziness
and laziness does not have the kind of moral overtones that i think we have
in our
society you know we're lazy bones it's almost someone who is morally corrupt or something but in buddhism it's it's just one of the afflictions one of the many afflictions or negative states of mind that come up his laziness and it laziness is a mind that turns away from wholesomeness and turns
away from virtuous actions ah and turns towards unwholesome this so
ah even if you possess wonderful marvelous good qualities of generosity and all sorts of things if you have laziness it actually makes it very difficult to to practice in to accomplish
your way and to
to accomplish your joyous effort
no laziness personally
is a difficulty so this whole lecture can be in i can think of it as an encouraging words for me
laziness comes also comes in three types and the first is
indolence riches i should the word itself means in or not and dolores
or pain not wanting to have any pain or gets the can improve which reminds me of that fellow who honestly say i don't want to be present because it's gonna be too painful
so indolence is turning away from these situations where that might cause pain or good pain and indolence actually you know the way we use it is a habitual ah
this interest or not wanting to do work
i habitually
so it's also attachment to sleep and dreaminess daydreaming especially attachment to sweep which is sound
ah can be a real problem really enjoying the pleasures of sleep and and dreaminess for me i can sleep i can sleep forever it feels like
and every morning them alarm clock rings is is
is difficult sleeping through my alarm clock is not difficult
so maybe some of you have this kind of problem to have
really being inclined towards ah sleepiness and inactivity actually liking inactivity sort of the couch potato type and it's it's not i'm not putting any moral judgment on it's it's a tendency some people have other people have other tendencies like
inclinations towards excitement and exciting as and restlessness but this particular one affliction
well i certainly have and the second type of laziness
which we often don't think of as a kind of laziness that's why it's it's interesting that it's called laziness is
ah attachment to worldly affairs or and unwholesome actions not that worldly affairs on necessarily and wholesome it also goes back to your motivation so
ah turning away from one's practice or
cultivation of the way and am being or the list in what i was studying listed you know smoking and drinking and these kinds of things but also interested in warfare and
certain activities that really draw your away and divert your attentions not that these things on in some instances are not for the benefit of others but in many cases it's a it's a kind of laziness not wanting to it turned towards wholesome activities
and the third kind of laziness is called discouragement
and this laziness includes a mind that's constantly saying i don't have the capacity practice i'm not good enough really
a man would just given all up that kind of mind and has this
ah
it's
in in the buddhist looking at this from a buddhist standpoint is a kind of his laziness
so
there are ways to deal with these kinds of laziness businesses that will help you to dispel them
there's a story about suzuki roshi who also i guess had trouble getting up turns out getting up in the morning it's hard to believe the story is that
when he heard his alarm clock or the wake of bill rate wicker is rung rung throughout the monastery or throughout green gulch in the morning he would his practice was to just get up get up and get into the bathroom get dressed in a washed up and go to the zendo
and there's a story that it and tests a hero one summer his cabin was changed from one came into another an arrangement of the room was a little bit different and the next morning the wake of bell rang in remini he got up and rants direct smack dab into the wall
which had been in his other cabin where the bathroom door had been
the this kind of activity this kind of spirit is joyous effort you know
the
and it dispels any kind of laziness now
there's another type
you know the snooze alarm you know give it a little hit get another extra five can i make it in
this is a this tends towards a kind of laziness and
there are around
there are ways to dispel laziness
that nobody wants to hear bob but i will tell you anyway
because i i vow to hear about them i found some
the main thing that will help you to dispel this laziness which is an opponent to joyous effort and without joyous effort you it's very difficult to practice actually so festival you have to bring up to mind you have to bring to mind and go over what the faults are of laziness you know if you don't
see any reason not to
be lazy it's kind of hard to
practice these things so so you bring to mind what what the faults are
in the main things that help you with this or to bring to mind impermanence and
the fact of your own death the fact that death is right there
so impermanence
is the fact of life that all things change there's nothing to be gotten ahold of and time you don't have all the time in the world and it goes very nicely with our the fact of death death
a meditation on death is a universal meditation that's appropriate for everyone
and there's certain phrases you can say such as
death will come the life force will be cut off and there's a an eighth century poet named shanti deva who goes into this in fervent
currently in depth where he talks about the lord of death doesn't wait doesn't care whether you've so got some projects going that you haven't quite finished or have some things you haven't attended tour that you haven't really taken the time to cultivate the way and to practice you are going to wait until
certain things were finished and taken care til the kids went to college or till you got a better job or whatever whatever you one whatever i've put off
until the next day the lord of death
how does really doesn't care about that at all it says come on we're going and at that point if you feel like well at that point i'll throw off my laziness than really make joyous effort to be present and to be alert and it's it's too late and you don't have the you may not have the energy you may not have the
a physical capabilities changes may be going so fast that there's no chance so these these kinds of
annotations really are
very useful to dispel to shake off the the kind of
lassitude and indolence that we may have lassitude is an interesting word it it means also this disinclination to work and tiredness and weariness comes from the route that means tired and weary and nord alas you know
last you know i can't do it alas and a lack
it's interesting to think of that as a kind of laziness rather than whoa or that this this is a state of mind this doesn't have to do with necessarily your conditions you can change by by your own state of mind by your ability to bring forth
joyous effort you have we all have this ability
so we don't like to think about these things and yet the sureness the sureness of impermanence and death are undeniable and these actual they can help you and joyous effort is joyous you know to
to have these opponents are be dispelled and allow you to practice joyous effort is joyful oh and
so it's for your benefit actually these things are for your benefit so my benefit so it's helpful to it's not like on gonna you know i've gotta get up and
that state of mind is one of these laziness as this is like the indolence or
ah discouragement
so the bodhisattva the enlightenment being
ah practices these perfections and the perfection of joyous effort
no i haven't
a story that illustrates this that i wanted to one
read maybe i won't read the whole thing how are we doing here this is a story maybe a lot of you know this story already
this is called the little engine the little engine that could you know
no this story was written in nineteen thirty first printing was ninety three so it's really old what are we any for it's it's an old story and it has on some
rhetoric that i actually kind of choke on which you might also about good ol boys and girls mostly but it actually illustrates very beautifully
this body surf the state of mind that can throw off laziness do you remember the story how many have you had the story read your million for tens okay well for those of you don't know the story it's about an engine that was traveling along i'll show you the pictures
that was puffing and chugging along carrying this
like many different cars for filled with dolls and toys in good things to eat for a little boys and girls that's a stuffed animals and milk and oranges and apples and lollipops for dessert and it was trying to get over the mountain down to the valley had to go over this big mountain down to the valley before the children woke up in them
warning well what happens is the engine just kind of guys on the track and it tries it tries and tries but it won't go another inch so there they are stuck came down on the bottom of the mountain so the the clown whose one of the main protagonists of the stew
sorry
gets out and says will you know let's that were here comes a shiny new engine said the funny little clown let's ask him to help us so we waves down the shiny new engine which is that yellow one and the shiny new engine
our comes to all halt and they say please shiny new engine won't you pull out train over the mountain our engine has broken down and the boys and girls and other side won't have any toys to play with are good food to eat unless you help us
now it's it's a big engine shiny new engine and but this is what the shiny new engine says he snorts i pull you i am a passenger engine i've just carried a fine big train over the mountain with more cars than you ever dreamed of my trainer sleeping cars with comfortable bruce
a dining car were waiters bring whatever hungry people want to eat and so on and so forth i pull the likes of you indeed not
now when i was a kid i thought it was just mean you know i thought it was just don't care i mean
wow
but actually now that i look at it's just laziness you know this guy could have pulled a very easily but it's the kind of laziness that's attached to kind of worldly unwholesome ideas power i've got you know dining cars
sit in soft armchairs you know i don't have to bother with you this is
puffed up and laziness you know has nothing to do a joyous effort so that's the first
kind of laziness very nicely illustrated by the shiny new engine so
then the train is very sad the dolls and toys are sad and but the little clown who has an ending rising up a spirit he says passenger engine is not the only engine in the world here comes a great big strong one let's ask him to help us so we waved the flag again please open
these big engine called all the dolls and toys won't you please polo train over the mountain this is this one here and they ask again
and the big strong engine bellowed i am afraid engine i have just pulled a big train loaded with big machines over the mountain these machines print books and newspapers for grown-ups to read i am a very important engine indeed i won't pull the likes of you and he also puffed up off to the roundhouse so same kind of thing
could have done it very easily being strong just pulled a big pretreatment heavy machinery but just didn't want to be bothered and also was attached to power and fame
ah so the clouds has cheer up he's ready to go again here comes another one he looks very old and tear but our train is so little perhaps he can help us they just have a very small train here comes this other and this was the old one and the train comes to a stop and they ask again please kind and
and it's over it now this one size
this is another kind of uneasiness i am so tired i must rest by wearing wheels i cannot pull even so little the train as yours over the mountain i cannot i cannot i cannot so is this old engine net was a good size engine but and their trainers very small
but you know he's got to hear this is discouragement both the the laziness of discouragement i can't do it i don't have the capacity remind you know i cannot i cannot get the internal message and and also wanting to go and rest and sleep so i think maybe a little bit attached to sleep but
i'm not sure
he did say was so tight he may be entire but anyway
i think mostly discouraged i don't have the capacity i can't do this you know
so off he went saying i cannot i cannot i cannot well then they were all really sad but a clown with a resurgence of
hope so if here's another engine a little blue engine a very little one maybe she will help us happens to be a woman but
the
so the very little engine coast
chug chug chugging merrily along if she sees the clowns flag she stops immediately the other ones they had to kind of get out the haste up that we gotta talk stops immediately this is the body safra as speaks first she says right away they don't have to say previous kind engine she says right away what is the matter my friends or budisa for always speaks
first sees the problem is alert present goes forward
re
if they all little blue engine when you pull us over the mountain the good little boys and girls and so forth and so forth please please help us well first she kinda looks at her capacity and gives a realistic appraisal
not very big said the little bridge and they used me only for switching trains in the yard i have never been over the mountain so she slipped can i do this or cafe you know but they urge or we must get over the map
the very little it really engine looked up saw the tears in the doll's eyes and thought of the children and and then she said i think i can i think i can i think i can and she hitched herself to the little train joyous effort here no laziness ready to go she can
and pulled and pulled and tugged and slowly slowly slowly they started off the toy com jumped aboard and all the dolls and the toy animals began to smile and cheer puff puff chug chug when the little blue engine i think i can i think i can i think i can i think i
i think i can i think i can i think i can i think i can up up up faster and faster and faster and faster the little engine climbed until at last they reach the top of the mountain down in the valley the city hooray hooray cried the funny little crown
and all the dolls and toys the good little boys and girls in the town will be happy because you helped us kind little blue engine and the little blue engine smiled and seem to say as she puffed steadily down the mountain i thought i could at kodak
good i thought a good
so
that town i really do feel that
brings it home you know it's it's a state of mind that one has ah
that really makes all the difference what one's motivation and intention is now
i wanna make something very clear because there's a possible mis understanding that can happen around joyous effort and laziness
whereby one thinks that it's got to be this
non-stop put it out steam and on and on and on and it you think about that your mind kind of rivers you know your thoughts like i can you really say i can't do this i wish i'd never heard about san if this is what i've gotta do but there's actually it's pretty well it's not immoral
mystic thing it has nothing to do with
moralism it has to do with negative states of mine now one thing you we can't do is mistake laziness and rest so in practicing joyous effort there are
for powers that are necessary to have one his aspiration which i've been talking about which is this intention
aspiration
i'll skip that one joy and the fourth is rest now rest
is very important for joyce effort you make joyous effort and then you take a break we actually have in our schedule like procession we have breaks after every meal longer breaks and you are encouraged to take a break and i know that there are some people who sit through their brakes and i remember this
a test are they would say well i'm going to after a meal i'm going right back are you thinking it'll taking the moral high ground supposedly i'm gonna sit every minute other day but the schedule says take a break and relax take a break rest have a cup of tea and then you can go back with
renewed effort we knew joyous effort if you don't rest
you you really run yourself into the ground so we have to rest and that the yearly schedule tasks or the yearly schedule green gulch includes interim today's the first day of my regular schedule we've just had a couple weeks of interim where we get up a little later we have a little more sleep a little less intense
schedule this is all in order to allow people to relax and then we knew their efforts so they can really have joyous effort and not
and realistically
ah
act in such a way that you dissipate your strength so lazy that laziness and rest are very different things rest is for the power of joyous effort it supports it it's necessary laziness is the opponent i just wanted to make that clear so that
there's no misunderstanding
kay thank you very much
man
tension
yes really enjoyed your talk her photos
you thoroughly enjoying three yeah
since
yes we have to qrm
the last two our concentration and wisdom protection administration perfection of wisdom so all six are giving morality patients joyous effort concentration and wisdom
the last one wisdom
i'd like to know about the last one protection of wisdom yeah how do i get it
elegant
well
the perfection of wisdom
it's a tough challenge was perfect
a set of the perfection of wisdom on how do you hear that
one thing about the perfection of wisdom is that is on incredible i mean that's part of them
that's part of the is very elusive you cannot get it in the way we understand reaching out and getting something and having it so
the pressure para mi coach coaches the perfection of wisdom
there's an entire
in a body of literature and sutras and so forth back talk about this teaching over and over and over again to at in different ways to try and impart what this wisdom is i think the main thing
and actually there's admonitions about not talking about it because it's they say it's difficult to understand how this is actually and when you hear it and don't understand it you may be
this isn't a put down and off that this is the suit jersey
you made tremble and be cowed and i'm fearful and suffered because the the teaching is the teaching of emptiness or shunyata which is the non inherent existence of
phenomena
so so that the perfection of wisdom is this knowledge
that there is nothing that is inherently existence and at the same time there's the appearance of phenomena and so we have compassion for the suffering we see in the beings that we see her suffering and we also know through
our own realization that there actually isn't anyone there in the way we usually think right now so those two things the merging of those two things is the question apart meters the perfection of wisdom and it's some the hearts of dredge the perfection of wisdom to the essence of the proof
section of wisdom that we chant
so how do you get it

i think come that you have to examine the mind that wants to get anything that sees things outside itself as separate from and wants to get those looking at that mind which is a mind delusion and
interpreting that
have a pet
that's pretty good
approach to power meter by the way is is when personified is female
that's a tire there we don't we don't actually have a drawing but gum
recently at the grandage museum there was oppressed apparently took it was about two years ago maybe there is a
i can't remember what to show us but there was an almost life-size figure crushed apartment in full lotus extremely beautiful she's on the cover of a book called are the mother of the buddha's by lex hixon they they have a photograph of that figure and she sits and unheard of see it's
her left side is a is a book which is the impression upon me to suit themselves so in a carving a stone figure there's the literature itself the pressure parameter sutures are in there
because they are
a man by the name of lex l e x hickson
i believe lex hixon is this what you teach tuesday night well
if people sign up or we're going to have we're going to talk about the earliest of the passion of her meta chemists which is
a verse summary and a sutra and eight thousand and lines they call me
it's a thirty two syllable line anyway but in english translation so we're going to look at that stadium
when i'm not sure the class is gonna be a goal because than enough people signed up so far
if you're interested to sign up do pre register because
it's helpful for the instructor to know whether it's gonna be a golden because your one prepares and then nothing happens i think there's one person who sign up so far on the list so my you say up okay so there's more people here
yes
i just asked our cargo for sounds bookstore there but you might come in
but yours today
it said something like
raising sir
it's lucky someone does it
sort of like it's a tough job but
someone twenty someone's willing to do it because industrious people bring us industry raising people bring our civilization can
well i think you know
it's it's how you use the word i mean i would there's also this some study i read about hunting and gathering people and v m give lots of napping you know they now a in long naps during the day and and they create things their days are spent in this kind of relaxed
do you know someone might say well they're lazy but the rest they have ceremony rest incorporated into the daily routine and
so i don't know if i'd call it laziness in a way that has been defined but i like that car somebody's gotta do it
is that a a gary larson fingers
ha
for north american thinker moroseness because to me i'm not sure i know right that it implies something emotional grand it's not necessarily laziness that tv a little bit of depression involved but the to seem to be served
rounded up together something like
thread an inability to come forward because of a certain
his craziness and an unwillingness to break through
are holding back with some kind of an excuse rather than just been really enjoys the present or whatever comes
similar to her things
awakened certain ideas
i hadn't powder years
you know i really felt i had to be careful in this lecture to not
you know there's the can see to take something like this and then to use it you know in a moralistic beat yourself you know one more one more handy club
i'm not depressed and you know it's it's just laziness you know like i could imagine how one could use it that way so i did want to be careful to not give it a kind of top tone that way and at the same time you know if it does hit
the mark if you do say hey you know that actually is an aspect and looked at and
an open it up but this is not to say that someone can't be sad or clinically depressed or
you know all sorts of states that we get into
anger sometimes you know and resent fullness and stubbornness can look a certain way to so it's really talking about a particular really a particular state and it's you know some aspects about it
also there's the elements there
if you want to serve do something about an answer
yes to baroness eyes i saw that allowed in
oh the america when i came here many many years ago i was associated with them
ron stone church that helped me come here and i can pick up at least one person that was her eyes were grimy and am
there was a sooner now is gonna sound like a value judgment and and it is
a puritanical streak to it like right it's immoral not to be
i'm lazy it's a know there was some
at least that's how i can you found so it has to know when you're approaching the ago
you
impulse in yourself and me and word wrap your head
grow some rubbing his on and or there's other energy that you're talking about which actually was be really to lay outside and he said it's more like an allowing
to come
so instead of pushing or something like that when he so it's it's kind of because nothing as a definite solution or can say well from now on i'm going to come forward yes and i go to the enthusiastically present i wish it could be that way that there is something to read it sooner
elusive credits
certainly tend to arise and i think that energy that you spoke of vets we can call puritanical or canavan self righteous you know
or someone takes the moral high ground on ketamine phrase have been using today
there is a kind of thumb
burnout is associated with that somebody you know it's like you can go that way so long and it's a kind of i'm a lot of stuff goes out out out and weeks out energy and ideas and then you get angry at people you know because they're not
you know putting out enough effort or you know
all sorts of stuff come up with self righteousness and
of furious do gooder activity and i'm not saying everybody who does good works is in that category but i think you all know the kind of people i'm telling my and
there's often lots of other things involved in that kind of energy which is a kind of laziness that's the laziness
oddly enough that second type which is attached to worldly actions and unwholesome actions were you doing these activities
for fame and gain or for all sorts of ideas so we look at these people will say oh there's joist effort or we might we might be fooled and yet it's not it's it's it's thin in a joyce effort is kind of a deep wellspring you know
so it's it's really you know in negotiate we can find ourselves going off into why i'm getting up every morning whereas the rest of 'em you know are comfortable
i remember category roshi i went to visit him he passed away years ago he had been teaching at zen center under suzuki roshi then he started his own temple minneapolis and minneapolis was not really like the bay area in that you know lots and lots of people are interest
in buddhism in all different schools and so forth so there's a small group and we went there and there is maybe two people in the zendo and us we had come from san francisco
two of us and he just came in he did his bowels he sat he did service full service and i had the feeling that this was not
this was not in order to have a big group in are going and be the head honcho somewhere this was his effort that just it was just going on like a stream unsullied if you're there you there if you're not you not this was his practice and it was so inspiring because it felt so
while you understand why i was back but i felt
you know i reflected back on now
my own small mindedness you know and looking around who's there and who isn't or
you just do your practice and you don't look around you know
and there was one other thing and was going to say about that anyway
you just reminded me of an image of work that's been really helpful meaning for me
find myself about mother teresa
in a or context she's gone into a cease fire in lebanon and or she's focused on one orphanage for disabled children and that's all she's going to do is how those kids in our christmas
war is going on around them but there's one shot of her standing at a tap has almost no water coming out and holding water bottle and voice over in her voice says something like small actions undertaken with great love so she it's like you know the same as
woman who you know people would give her millions of dollars or she asked standing there doing this various simple name and i i find that really is very meaningful to me because it takes away out that
my grandma he asked you about having a big of fact
the other trains in the earlier story want to have a to fash
anderson couple of
i'm leaning into the me get that back and we've really good as the
his word and don't pay back this action
yeah must select a or health
this past week i was on vacation for weekend there is a towel show here which i missed but i heard that term itself you go to i know some of the residents for their read i heard that wendy johnson knew a lot of you know she's was head of the garden for years did a kind of monologue that reminded me in a where she she did out loud her internal voice
and she was gotta get this whole i get a whole thatcher than sony i can home faster move over there is that will tell you what it was
and is this internal dialogue doing you know we're holing out the morning commute communal work some right can remember we do it instead of second period thousand and we all go down to the fields and this wendy's letting it out what what goes on you know is everybody
leaning into your own
if can you say something at that getting from the people the staff were the and i mean this both literally and figuratively but getting from the step where the alarm goes off and nature of and pushed the snows and that question again
a to the joyous effort or you just zoom up and
the
while the it is effort i think that's the the point it's not that unless you're the type who wakes up easily as a morning person is somebody here who gets up at two thirty or three the they go to bed early the but their morning person they do some studying and then you know where go
reading the go thousand for the five o'clock period but they've been out for hours no problem so it's not talking about that person
but where it is effort you know and you have to
you have to help yourself you have to bring up why it is you have to review why it is you want to do this practice you have to you know there's some some of the things to break up the i'm the one about being the
the laziness of discouragement as you review that those in the past reject people just like me the the buddhas and ancestors of the past who who had realization of their true nature where people just like me i am no different from me or i am no different from the them
and
those in the past just the same as i am i am the same as there and i have to do put every you have to if it's not unless hear that morning type it's not you it's every morning the alarm goes and you it has a higher what i was doing because i do have trouble getting up the alarm
would go and as soon as it when i would put my hands and gosh show which would be in some strange population in here
right i was because that would remind me you know that i want to get up for zazen and i sort of if i could keep him in show showed like i could kind of come forward you know i know somebody else who offered incense first thing from their bed and a little it would offer and you know the smell the incense
looks like they would remind us of this is what i want to do but that's the effort you know
ah so you i think one first has to decide what they want to do what is their intention clarify that and then
do what you can to help yourself through internally stayed in your aspiration you know make your vow and then maybe there is some trick like
like putting your alarm clock i know someone else put their alarm clock at the other side of the rooms that he had to get up to go
a against as right i have to sit with when i heard you say that and grow
someone
chalk on a blackboard inside with which think about unhappy are rising and he brought back at my level rise and shine
the
i guess what would happen if your i've learned to value that time of the scenes and the way because it seems like it's closest to true nature can i actually get my alarm i shed shows that i can have two periods ever happened before i have to get out
if it is such rich such a rich experience
and and it it just feels wrong
to hear the alarm jump up and jab and and grow well
you know what we're talking what i'm talking about is giving examples zone upaya or skill means so i'm telling you what worked for one person suzuki roshi or what worked for seventy eight tessa her what worked for me and what we for you and it's it's finding what works for you is what we're talking about
there's not like the right way to do it as get up when you hear the alarm necessarily if you want to get to the zendo and that time is very important that you want to write your dreams down you need you know you want to have some time to be in that half state there then you set your alarm fifty minutes earlier half an hour earlier so this is the this is not
proscriptions or formulas it's each one of you can be thinking what is it that would help me to do what i have aspired to do what i have vowed to do and it may be one way or another for each person so don't misunderstand the anecdotes mistake them for the
you know the law the land or something
i mean just move my hackers and have caught over here
could you know as my stay and make exceptional any more time to adjust to the motorcar possession rather than a horizontal because or past and what
i've been to the ethical
are being as an hour
so years after a time
yes so each person that you have to really study you're still yourself which is the study of buddhism you steady yourself what works for you what
but it's the idea that i can't do this this is you know that mind the buddha it's the heretical besides you know because the buddha ashley says and then there's this quote i read today a net a flyer any any being with consciousness can develop you know so why are you
you saying i can't do it you know it's it's really young
it's very self defeating and besides that it's what are the things they set the buddha who never spoke falsely said this i'm and encouragement
yes each person somebody i know gets up and face if they get a or gets up if they get off there is alpha too fast they faint so you have to know who you are
guess
it's almost always it
grab one context i asked
is on your time but
yeah
the attributes of
yes at once their brains in addition to work there i can see how addiction and warfare your idea of it i somehow don't care how is poisonous please
based on the definition of laziness as turning away from the wholesome and virtuous action whatever whatever it may be for me it's kind of catalog mind you know it's like looking at the vermont country store catalog again you know after i mean
you know that kind of
it's it's a
it's a certain it's
i don't know what it is but so warfare is just one example of something one might be attached to win
perhaps because it's been going on because it's when perhaps because smarted remarkable piece on yeah or
you know the i'm taking up wholesome actions or ignorance you know these things are all based on laziness
is a subsidiary emotional affliction it's not one of the main ones and it stems out of ignorance so is a whole bunch of unlike like wrath and jealousy and laziness as one of these
and if you go back further it just comes out of ignorance basically ignorance greed hate dilution ignorance
these states come out of that so if you're
if you're aware of what is wholesome activity and know it then you would choose that because an awesome activity actually is detrimental to yourself and others one would think but through ignorance which is a version or averting from are turning away from we go to these other things as
and you know in some ways of
it's like it's all or most if you could say it's all ignorance were just turning it around taking a look at it from this particular aspect that were calling laziness for the sake of chinese some flashlights into some corners we might not have looked at before but dumb
our what i felt so interesting was the one that we often call activity and effortful stuff they were calling laziness because it was turning away from holes and doesn't matter how much activity you're generating or how many how much you're running around ah if it's turning away from
wholesomeness they're saying it's laziness okay
going
he heard talk this growing never used and
pregnant or maybe there's this point i have made the decision perfect
last week unable to sleep because i really was exhausted and this quite as paint kitchen that that i have less than half i have
that and also have like been as can reply to lay back processes and as close to the positive ones and that can do harm lazy as to indulge
that processes and that's an important than ever and i also want to ask of i'm here to buddhism am right in our details are what the relationship between ride and statues and i read three the statutes on
don't know why graphical why how to relate to have physical statue he is it just adds to remember that at you or know about that statue era you might be able to check
i'm
a relationship to these figures practice figure she may com is some
you know it runs the gamut i think many of us grew up in a tradition where
one of the ten commandments was thou shalt have no other guys before ye ye you and graven images and then whole realm was verboten was was taboo was the worst you know so there's that that we bring from judeo side of the judeo christian and i guess people
who were brought up in catholicism i used to figures and relating to figures and have a sense of kind of what one might
how we might relate and then there's other people who you know figures are there might have been one figure but that was body and you know where the so there's quite a range and is very scary you know because we bow in the direction of these particular figure so oh what am i bow down to
and now it's gonna happen and i don't believe in this
so this is some
i think has been a perennial problem for many people so my understanding and my
do you know the fit what the figures out that are in the sand do you know that to match okay you can lean about his via are be interested to know what your vague few analysts move without even knowing
which isn't rubio you don't actually believe it if you don't want to so on the main altar we have the big full size more than full size seated figure with the am holding the staff which is manjushri which is the body soft for this enlightenment being of
wisdom and it's traditional to have it in the zendo heat key in this case the wisdom pressure parameters wisdom female personification and mrs male and he usually carries a sword which cuts through delusion and that's an appropriate symbol to have in the xander know our boo
as do is also a buddha hall meeting in a in a traditional temple and a zen center in san francisco there's the zendo receipts as and then there's a buddha hall where you do ceremonies and lecture and
services and that's a little more freely you know you have rosendo usually doesn't have flowers that has just greenery on the altar kind of subdued
not too much color for because of distraction and so pretty simple but this is a combo so we've got rosendo an buddha altogether and me a big flower arrangement right and we also have shakyamuni buddha whose was given to us by
the association on that was founded to promote alex's waxes teachings society for the
she can remember right now philosophies and the word anyway they gave us that shakyamuni buddha touching the earth figure so that's was placed in sits right in front of manjushri so you have wisdom than you have the
who brought fresh teaching and then opposite them on the other side where with electricity is underside said is the figure of gisele who is the figure personifying compassion and that figure is a very it's almost androgynous but it is male and a story
about that is
ah it was a woman who made very strong bows to save all beings who then was became jizo became a male this male form later on in her reapers rate
so the jesus figure is the compassion you so those are the figures and one can relate to them
as way i like to talk about it as one's own energy that you already have of wisdom compassion and
effort actually the buddha's sitting there and vowing to sit
you can say this is a way that these are brought forth
for me to relate to in a certain way and so when you bow in some ways you're bound to your own self your own enlightening your own wisdom your own compassion
and
it thinking of them as other than you might not be so helpful taking them as what you can bring forth very helpful and from the little that figure and kind of big one is that female know it's shocking anybody who was male and
and that term refers to not compassion that well shakyamuni buddha was
ah the teacher in this world system who brought forth would at least the awakened one buddha means that the root of the word buddha is brewed which means awake and he was awakened one and buddhism is awake is amidst it's the religion
in of being present and wake that's what it's all about and in the figure down in the garden that it's yes those are we have a number of them are other look at their canine's really rather low-key touche ross which are also compassion figures and in female form so we have the gso in mail for me if the
i have a low-key touch bar in female so it's this same energy that you know depending on the culture or the artist even was brought forth having their traditional figures they have attributes you know they have certain things they do with their hands that denote their teaching or bestowing you know fearlessness or
all sorts of things that the murderer show but they're all for you you know their to connect with your own aspirations in your own most innermost what's most important to you
right
i actually had other questions along the way the are doctors now he would talk about
reincarnation
yeah
home
where to get the idea that am
get can happen you as speaking as a night person haven't we all need six three to eight or nine hours later we are and as long as you get as ours and the other times i've always wonder where's it written that it's better to do it in the morning
religious practices or or do what in the morning get up get up
and joy
and talk to one
yeah
some people do yeah traditionally early morning and before bed are supposedly good times to do meditation in lots of different conditions so but you know everyone's got their own rhythms and constitutions and
it may be hard to sit with a group you know there's a question
he want to sit with a good yeah yeah
happy
the in reincarnation that's very interesting somebody young asked for a practice discussion with me last week to talk about that very thing and how disturbed she was about
it and so on us over so let's see
i
the poodle when he was asked about that
as far as i know you know said in about others' lives and future in what's gonna happen in various things that he may very well have been able to tell didn't answer because he wanted to bring the assembly or the person was asking back to the importance of being a
wake in the moment what is going on now what is that the speculation about what may be or what may not be may not be conducive to bring yourself to the present and what's going on in your life right this minute right now not even minute read this moment
are you awake so he wouldn't answer there's a whole list of things he just wouldn't answer about you know that ah
he you know maybe he could maybe couldn't but it it was beside the point so in some ways and ah
it's not talked about all that much i think because then does emphasize so much
the present but there is you know dogan who's the japanese founder of this school you know there's many things where he write that the importance of life and death is the main main thing of our life birth and death is the main camp
and many people come to practice because of birth and death because of a
death of a loved one or
ah
when we're i fear fear of death and silver so that birth and death are extremely important and not wasting your time you know this
and the han it it has a poem at the end it's don't waste time at the end of these poems that we chant in the morning it it admonishes us to not waste time this is precious human life we have and we'd never know when as i said the lord of death will come to not waste your
time and in the monastery every year three and a day every day with a three or and eight in the date there's a ceremony and we clean cleaner rooms and we do communal work and then we bow to one another which is a thank you for having practice diligently for the last three or four days four days and then there's a chant in
it it says on
ah we should practice like a fish in a puddle what pleasure is they're here we should practice as if to save our heads from fire and it's the same that this eighth century poet i was trying not to says you should practice if someone threw a snake in your lap a dangerous snake and yet
want to get it like off you know how you would act at that point or if your head was on fire what you would do it's with that spirit to practice this is joyce effort to so it because death you know is we never know so don't waste time this is very important and brought up all the time
but you know
dogan says you know it is an established teaching in buddhism that life does not turn it to death and death does not turn into life life is life and death is death so we have lots of ideas about it and this person i spoke with
she had just been involved with a medium who brought back channeled and very dear friend of hers who died in this person was speaking to an works at all about you know what doesn't mean if she was so disturbed you know
because she didn't want to believe and do so there's a whole realm of the psychic and a cold and the intermediary realm that
can can really you know in some ways may be of use and and other ways me get one really diverted from what's at hand which is studying their life and what is happening now and making that effort over and over again so
i'm
so in some ways you can talk about reincarnation as what is the next moment what are the actions that you were doing now that produced the very next moment what are the words you are speaking and because you can be reincarnated the very next moment into a hell realm because somebody sexy in the face why because you
called him an amer
that's the that's the place where buddhism or and zen in particular places the energy and the emphasis

right
he be present why is it painful to be president
i'm
well i think in this machine
what the person was talking about was actual physical you know your knees are burning and aching and
the funny thing is is that the more present you are the less you know it's more the the fighting against it that's the pain it's as you if you are willing to just sit there
a movably
something will change they'll be some other understanding of what's going on but
being present means being present for whatever comes your way and it may be painful sensations pleasant sensations are neutral sensations so it's not that being present always means pain but if you're going to be present there will be pain you can't
get out of it
stuck

well i don't see it as stuck i see it as the only way you know the only ways to stay right there because anything else any other struggled to get away or two i'll think about tomorrow allah scarlett o'hara it's just it comes back tenfold you know i you don't take care of your real
nation ships even if they're painful the words you have to have to here and after that have to be said if you don't take care of that
you know there's contortions and torques in it gets all it gets to be a really big mess but it may be painful to hear what someone has to tell you or
to say something that needs to be said
so it's to me it's like the only gate the only way is everything else is kidding yourself and could be laziness as well you know
i was looking at these old notes that i have and in i think was nineteen eighty two i asked me i was giving a talk at test time and i asked my daughter who was thinking
two at the time what shall i talk about she said don't move there might be a tiger
that there was such a great topic and on your home or make spoke about it
ethnic minority and on we actually saw a mom lights that was cited down the last field by six thirty at night between where the horses are in our last field of mountain i not a bobcat that amount mine
no no less bought a week ten days ago supply by week ago
so don't move there might be about my
is
you explain
chip

well
the young buddhism arose in cultures you know two thousand and five hundred years ago or culture in india was a certain way
ah with women men and women having very particular roles women being
not having very many opportunities being like channel i guess possessions of the father of their husband and so forth so buddhism arose in that culture and the buddha shakyamuni buddha the historical buddha was quite a gal tarion
during that time he had anyone terms of who could enter the order untouchables are allowed to which was head of unheard of and women after some prodding were allowed to enter the order as well i leave their families and
take on the religious life but at the same time they were various
more rules for women in there were cultural kinds of structures that were there buddhism itself teaches
that there's no difference between men and women in terms of buddha nature or in terms of ability to understand and realize one's own nature so but this teaching was not necessarily carried out in the cultures which just like refining and zen center but the problems there in the culture of sec
tourism and racism and paid the patriarchal
you know societies way of viewing things it's not like were immune from any that it all happens right here too so
and the same in those culture so in india and then in china and japan and
a berman laos and vietnam and all those places the women's role was
subservient to to the men so buddhism has this
ah reflected in some of the writings but the teaching itself if you go back to the buddhists the teaching of the buddha there is
there is nothing that categorically says in a women are not able
so it's changing as buddhism came to the west out of the asian countries
it's taken on the changes of our society the culture of our society which includes feminism and psychology those are the two main
you know streams of western culture that are changing buddhism quite radically and dogan whose and suzuki roshi to with suzuki or she came from japan where the temples were basically segregated there was monks and nuns priests could marry boat in the training monasteries you didn't sit side-by-side men and women
but when he came to america since center has always been just about fifty fifty and we've always sat in the same you know meditation altogether
so and dogan also
you know he says it's laughable is this in the shop so his main work of ninety kind of essays he says it's laughable to think that because
men have
does he see it as a in
that quote
the i think he actually says it's laughable to think that because men have penises that they're somehow more enlightened or can be more enlightened men and women keeps says it's some it's laughable to joke but that's kind of some of the things that were were said you know men have more know building this meant but you have to sort through some of the things and into
caravan countries
persona
burma some of these places the women i i remember woman presents under went to city in thailand and she was very tall women but women were never supposed to be higher than the man
issues so she had to constantly find lower ground to stand on while she was talking with cook the meal amongst and they were doing work outside she that you can't touch something you can hand something directly men and women she had to lay her tool down and then the monk would come and pick it up from where she made account so
there's lots of these things that are embedded in
you know the daily life the practice place or the monastery that are and in the rules of supposedly buddhist monks and nuns but they are very culturally
it's a cultural expression rather than my feeling rather than a british expression
so that's you know that's just the tip of iceberg but and and if i feel things are changing definitely in the united states
i just got cancer share a different kind of effort when wrong we've been talking about which arm
i mean was watching comedy from that's worst one
that's why i shouldn't be weren't quite empty and want to jump out of that some software for another kept in your actual take some effort say wait what i'm feeling is a emptiness right now i'm not really in any of way during words and productive activity and
feels more on we said something around the track of all us said with the happiness and take some effort that point to start from just jumping into the visual activity stay with
the interstate routes look at the expressed my austere open my state of monarch
that's exactly right that's joyous effort that's turning towards wholesomeness
and
it's a joist effort does not necessarily have to be any activity at all it can be sitting quietly doing nothing that when that's exactly right
so yes that's exactly i think we mistake
activity of any search for you know this kind of vigor or
a joyce effort but it made it may not it may not be anything but someone sitting calmly you
how we doing here
if i just had a question about being present
as human beings what we've learned growing up this filter information relates to keep us from going crazy because which again everything
round us
we bathed
immobilizing teachers and that that's one thought and another story is to on take a great scientist or a great musician or since you have someone like that that might be very very present in the creating of work with they're doing
but at the same time in the giving into the creation it seems that there has to also be a great deal of lack of presence towards perhaps tonight a spouse while the person who's hating you or the food itself
two because because the concentration on that particular venture some great so i was just wondering how how did we feel that
and
well the were mine works is that we can only focus on one thing at a time actually
empathy company finished but but even when we think we're
scattered we actually are focusing on one thing at a time but very fast so what you said about youngster i'm having to filter are human body in our senses and the six sense fields and six sense organs including the mind do you know a sound arises as
and the oregon response that the oregon is not the ear itself but the capacity to respond to a certain kind of stimuli bad actually arises and
we can only turn our attention to one at a time of those things
so we do filter out we do filter out for the good of the organism you know what what can be managed
i think we also sometimes filter out as a child
in terms of emotional conditions
we turn away from things that we can't bear you know painful situations or actions of those around us that we love that are too much we also turn away from those
fire on survival so and can't be present we can't be present for those because we'd we'd flip out or something or as canada
we read
be harmed greatly we're not ready we can't our body and mind can't receive
the truth of something maybe were young so we tune out or go numb or various things for own survival so i think we know we can do we do do that
and a lot of sometimes buddhist practice his undoing some of that or now when we are ready when we do have the capacity to with stand the pain and look we look back at some of these and untangle on we look at and steady our lives in a certain way or in therapy you may
do that too so
so that's a president now that we have because these things to keep coming up
the all things bubble up in the present
so as for musicians and people who have you know abilities to have one point in mind one point in this is not is also amoral you know a thief a good thief can have one point in this of mine and get in and out of that bank without leaving a
fingerprint in you know they have to be very present and
alert
but it