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. Good evening. I'm wondering if anybody's here for the first time tonight. Welcome. Anybody else? Welcome. So we have just began a practice period this last Saturday. And the title of the practice period is Aligning All Activities with the Heart of Buddha. Late Practice. You know, most of the residents here at City Center actually work a regular job outside.

[01:07]

So they live here, they practice here, they come to the Zendo in the morning and have house jobs to keep everything going and work in the kitchen for a shift and feed us. And then, in addition to all that, they have a regular job outside. So they keep carrying the practice work from here into the business world, and they come back here. And that is very different from the other two practice places that San Francisco Zen Center, that are also San Francisco Zen Center, Greengold Farm, where only a few people have a job outside, but most people live and work there. on the farm or in the garden or in the guest program and then Mountain Zen Center in Tassajara in the Carmel Valley, off Carmel Valley in the wilderness which in the winter is a closed practice place, a monastic practice place where we have two, three months practice periods and basically nobody leaves and comes.

[02:24]

It's a closed container and During the summer, it's a guest season, but the students are in the valley. They're in Tossohorn to help take care of the guests and the place and everything. So city center is the most porous and most, in that sense, diverse population because some of us do work within the place, feeding us, keeping the place going. the administration, which is kind of also a mix between business and practice. And we have also some employees which work for us and with us. So the aim of this practice period is to actually create a container for all of us that are in it and everybody else that's speaking with us and is interested to look at how how do we embody this practice?

[03:30]

How is that practice actualized in our activities? So the symbol that I'm co-leading this practice period with a lay entrusted teacher, Marsha Angus, and we also invite a lot of lay teachers to come and speak on Wednesday evenings, and maybe they share a little bit with us how, what in their life kind of led them to choose the lay path. Because in the tradition here, what has been laid out when it came from Japan to here was everybody was a monk or everybody was a priest or a nun. But there wasn't a practice like we have where men and women practice in the same building and families. practice at Green Gulch. And so Suzuki Roshi said, you're here in the United States.

[04:30]

You're neither really lay people and you're not completely priests, even for the priests. He didn't feel like we were priests like they are in Japan, where they have temples and are supported in a different way by the society. We just are curious about, in this practice period, to see what is lay practice, or what helps lay practice, which we all share to a large degree. And so we've been thinking of what could be, or what is a symbol in our traditional world of bodhisattvas. You know, we have a bodhisattva of compassion, and we have a bodhisattva of wisdom, and we have a bodhisattva of the great vow, which is Jizu bodhisattva, and then we have Samanta Bhadra bodhisattva.

[05:44]

And I asked Blanche if I could borrow her Samanta Bhadra bodhisattva that lives in her doksan room and office, and placed him on the altar so we can all see her, him. It's an androgynous being. It's not gender-defined, actually. Enlightened beings are beyond gender definition because they represent for all of us our capacity to be awake and to be fully human and fully awake, and that has no gender. That comes in all the forms that we have and are and live. So I too have quite a long history with Samanta Bhadra.

[06:46]

When I... first came to Green Gulch in 88, there was a picture of this being, which I had no idea what it was. I didn't even know its name. There was a picture of a bodhisattva on an elephant, not a lying down elephant, but a walking elephant. And it was in the Tenzo's office, the kitchen, the cook's office. on the altar, and every morning when we worked in the kitchen, we would do a little service in front of the altar and bow. And I just liked the image. I just liked this being on the elephant. I never knew its name. At that time, it didn't matter to me. And then I left after a year, and then I came back. And the picture wasn't on the altar anymore, but my task was, I was working in the office at that time, and my task was to sometimes go and clean up the offices downstairs below where the students were living.

[07:55]

There were office spaces. And I would find... the being on the elephant somewhere on the bookshelf. And each time, you know, between books or on the top of books or somewhere in a corner, and I would just dust it off and give it a nice place and just liked it. And then it disappeared again. I never saw it for a long time. And then a couple of years later, I go to the Goodwill at Green Gulch, and there's that picture. So I took it home. And I think along the way, over those years, somebody once told me that this is Samantha Badra, which never really meant much to me. I never had read anything. But I started to, because we do, you know, In the meditation hall we have, and also in the evening, we do a meal chant.

[08:58]

And so in the meal chant, we chant the names of Buddha, ten names of Buddha. And so it goes down from Vairajana and other Buddhas, and then it goes to Manjushri, Bodhisattva, Great Wisdom, Samantabhadra, Bodhisattva, Great Activity, Avalokiteshvara, Bodhisattva, Great Compassion. So I thought, well, he's in the middle between wisdom and compassion. And actually, at that time, I think we called it Shining Practice Bodhisattva. Do you remember, Blanche? Yeah. So that's how I learned it, Shining Practice Bodhisattva from Antabhadra. So I thought, oh, you know, he's in the middle. So he or she is that being that brings wisdom and compassion into... action into what we do. It's how those two get into the world through Samanta Bajra, through the practice.

[10:06]

So then I was invited to go. So I took the picture and I gave it a frame and I hung it up in my room and I liked it. And so then I went to Tassajara and was invited to be head monk Tassajara. which also we will have a head monk here, Lilip, which is going to be our head monk for the practice period, and is a person who has a job, has an office, her own work, and lives across the street, but has been practicing here for many, many years. So I was invited to be in that position at Tassahara. And I had packed my, all my stuff had been, driven to Tassajara, and I packed my last bag, which I was going to take with me, and suddenly I think, oh, I'm going to take this picture with me, Samantha Badra. I just felt, oh, I need to take Samantha Badra with me, and he'd fit just exactly into my little suitcase.

[11:11]

It was really quite lovely. So I put it up in the Shuso cabin at Tassajara. Shuso is head monk cabin. There's a wall that where that picture just fit perfectly, and there was a little ledge underneath, a wooden ledge, you will know, you know, but beside where you go to the bathroom on the right. So there he was, and every morning I just bowed to Samantha Badra. And then I had to give a talk. You start giving talks. And I told this story and I said, I have never read anything more about Samantha Bhadra or no more besides the name and the story I'm making up that it's the conduit for compassion and wisdom into the world. And please correct me if that's not true. And I had to bring this picture along. So I gave this talk.

[12:12]

And then... You know, at Tassajara, during practice period, you sit many, many periods of sas, and the whole morning, basically, you sit meditation, and then in the afternoon, you work for a few hours to just maintain the place, and then you go back to sitting or studying. So I needed to go to the bathroom. After I gave the talk and sat some more, I went and walked home to my cabin, and And it was a beautiful fall day. The sun was shining. And there's a little bridge. Before you get to the cabin, you walk over the creek. And on my doorstep is a figure about this size. Kind of the sun shining on it. And someone had put a red maple leaf twig in front of it. And it just stopped me on the bridge. I didn't know what it was, so I got closer, and it was a tiny little carved figure of Samantha Baldra on an elephant.

[13:23]

It was sitting on my doorstep, so I felt like I can't just step over it. You know, I can't do that. So I lifted it up, I opened the door, and then I put it on the ledge. where the picture was above it, and the two elephants are walking in opposite directions. So I went back and sat there, but it was like, oh my God, I said something about this figure that has followed me through my years at Zen Center, and I said something, and now he shows up on my doorstep. And I have to now, you know, live with this being that just showed up. I had no idea where it came from. And it was such a... I mean, it was like I now have to live up to what I've been saying, even though I don't exactly know what it is.

[14:30]

So at the work meeting I said... I said this happened. Samantha Bader just appeared on my doorstep after I spoke this morning. And the two are now, you know, exchanging their news from the different universes. They're coming because their elephants are actually walking in different directions. And please, if he needs or she needs to go home, put the note on my... on my door, and I will either give it back to you, or if you don't want to know who it is, I'll put him back on the doorsteps. But until I hear something, he's just living there. So I continued to bow every day to this being, and it was just an amazing event. So when the practice period ended after three months, I said, Before it ended, I said, well, Samantha Badra is still there, so if he needs to go home, you have to tell me.

[15:34]

Otherwise, she will come home with me. So nobody wanted it back. I don't know who gave it to me. It's still living in my house. And so when we decided to use Samantha Badra as the... embodiment of practice. That memory came back and that story which kind of keeps waking up from time to time in my life. And you know it's about embodiment of practice and it's a practice, a body practice what we're studying maybe in this practice period because We will look at what actions actually will support our intention and will manifest the intention we have.

[16:41]

And what helps us, what kind of rituals might help us, or creating some verses we can say, or to really... manifest and embody what our intentions are. So, you know, in the repentance we say, you know, all my ancient twisted karma from beginningless greed, hate, and delusion born through body, speech, and mind. So, how we How we physically behave creates karma, creates consequences. So how can we be aware of how we move, how we handle things, how we relate to each other, because our body language confers a lot of information all the time.

[17:53]

we can say something and our bodies can convey something else and the other people pick that up. And sometimes that's quite confusing, you know, because you get double messages or conflicting messages. So are we willing to really be in our bodies and be curious about, you know, when am I aware of my body and when am I not, you know? One for me, one great wake-up example all the time is the swinging door from the kitchen to the dining room. Do I just walk through and let it just fall back? Do I pay attention if there's someone behind me? Do I pay attention that there is a swinging door behind me that people want to go through and I'm in the way on the other side? And I find myself in all different places with that.

[18:56]

And it's always a wake-up call. And it changes. If I'm aware of that and if I pay attention, then I have more of an opportunity to really live the intention I have rather than a habit or a distraction or a preference. So it's how do we embody our everyday life? So Samantabhadra is also, I mean, then I heard later, you know, the Avatamsaka Sutra, the Flower Ornament Sutra, there's lots of written about Samantabhadra.

[20:05]

And the Lotus Sutra, is he in the Lotus Sutra or is he the patron of the Lotus Sutra? I don't know. I read it somewhere. I can't remember that. So I still have lots to learn about Samantabatra, and I'm totally not a scholar, so forgive me. But he also is known as having made ten great vows, and I just want to mention two right now because I think they're beautiful to just take with us. And one is to rejoice and join others' merit And I think that is really to practice enjoying somebody else's joy and somebody else's happiness or success and not get caught in comparing or envy.

[21:11]

And joy is a very physical feeling. I mean, all the feelings we feel with our body. We don't feel them outside of our bodies. And the other one is to live harmoniously with all living beings, which was the topic of the last practice period. And I think actually it's a continuation for how do we live in harmony with all beings. I think it's probably about time to go to bed. If I listen to my body, what time is it? Oh, good. Five minutes. Good. Then we can go to sleep. Which is a body practice.

[22:15]

Do you have any questions or comments? Okay, so he said... Shundo, our director, was just the head monk at Tassahar in the last practice period from September to December. And he and the central abbot, Neogain Steve Stuckey, did, recited the ten vows of Samantha Bajor every morning and bowed with every vow ten times. Great, every morning.

[23:21]

They did that together. And he said, that's a lovely practice that we could recommend or you recommend and to let everybody know. Would you like to recite? I didn't write all kind down. You didn't memorize them. Okay. But you can ask us again and I'll write them down. I didn't bring them all tonight. Yes, that's a lovely practice. Yes. Saying your intention out loud for the day and bowing is really helping to keep it alive and keep remembering it and keep giving it energy. Anybody else? Yes, Richard. In my body. But it's a body practice?

[24:23]

That's a good example. I mean, you can, if we stay with a bell, you can strike, you can sound a bell based on an idea. You know, now I'm just gonna sound it. Or you can really actually be in your body, feel the weight of the striker, and play with the bell to find how much energy do you need actually to bring out, to call out the fullest sound of that particular bell. Or you can, in the morning, when you drink your coffee or your tea, usually we are not very present when we do that, when we lift up the cup. So... When you are in your body and you want to really be in your body, you actually start paying attention.

[25:45]

How much energy do I actually need to pick up this cup? And it's often way less than we expend. Often we lift something with so much energy that at the same time we have to actually... put a brake on to not do too much. I mean, how many of us have gotten so used to the front door that first when the new automatic closing, we almost fell in. You know, because we were... And that is actually, we weren't really completely there when we started. It took us a while. So that's one example. It was very funny. Also, if you open it, you almost fell backwards, you know, because it just came, you know, before you had to, you know, you had to fight it to open it. You know, it was like, I'm resisting you. I'm not letting you in and I'm not letting you out, you know.

[26:49]

So, and now it's very smooth. It's beautiful. Yes, Blanche. Oh. that that closer was original to the building, the old, the one that was replaced, and that was so hard to overcome. Yes? unlike in Tibetan Buddhism, our statues aren't used for visualizations.

[27:52]

They are representations of particular... which is, you could say, similar. The Tibetans just have a huge array because they have all the variations of feelings and possibilities of human experience in manifestations and use them for visualizations. But here we have them as reminders, I would say. I mean, I actually have never thought about that question. You know, I never had that question. But when I look, so when we bow here, we bow to Buddha who represents that we, each one of us, also has that same capacity to wake up. So we bow actually to our capacity to wake up. So it's, he's like, was a human being like we are, and he woke up.

[28:58]

but we have the capacity to. So we don't bow, like, to a god. And then there are, like, four of those major areas, like wisdom and compassion and activity, awakened activity, which is Samantabhadra, and the vow, the great vow, which is chiso, which we don't have here. in this building, but there's one at Green Gulch, which is like how having an intention is part of waking up. So it's the vow. And they have figures for that. I think humans always tried to create something that would manifest, make it visible, what is actually something that is ephemeral.

[30:12]

You know, you can't put your finger on. So they remind us. So we have Buddha, the meditating Buddha here on the main altar. And we have guardians of the Dharma, which are kind of warrior-like on both sides. And we have a Tibetan statue that is Tara, which has to do with compassion. And we have Amida Buddha, which has to do with infinite life, that there's a realm where there's no coming, no going, no birth and death. That's beyond, before or after anything manifests. where the emptiness that where everything comes from. So maybe you give me some feedback, people who know more about that later. I just made it all up right now. Yes, Valerie.

[31:16]

showed up in the little final presence. I spent months inquiring who gave that to me. And it finally dawned on me that maybe nobody gave it to me. That maybe that was a manifestation of my inmost request. And how it arrived was a mystery. So I might offer that Yes, that's how it felt. It felt like I spoke about him or her and she showed up. There I am. You talked about me, now deal with me. Now we'll see if you mean it in some ways. Thank you. May we fully enjoy the Dharma.

[32:44]

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