This podcast is offered by the San Francisco Zen Center on the web at sfzc.org. Our public programs are made possible by donations from people like you. Good morning, especially to the young people who are here, who are doing an admirable job of being very quiet and Very nicely done. Thank you. I was going to tell you a story this morning about someone who was very faithful. Someone who was very true and constant. Faithful means really, really trustworthy. You can really trust a person who's faithful. who's faithfully devoted to what's best for you.

[01:03]

And this is a story about somebody like that. Kind of like your parents who are faithfully devoted to your welfare, though you don't always agree with what they have to say, as you may have noticed sometimes. Can you all hear me okay? How about in the back there? So this is a story about a faithful friend, not a parent, and his name was Peel. And it begins with a lord and a lady, as these stories often begin, who were very happily married together. However, they really wanted a child. And alas, they could not have a child. The Lord was traveling in a foreign country one time, and he met a wizard.

[02:09]

And he told the wizard what the problem was, that they weren't able to have a child. And the wizard said, oh, don't worry, here's an apple. Give this apple to your wife, and in nine months, she will give birth to a baby. So he was very excited. He went home and he gave the apple to his wife. The wife, the lady, asked her maidservant to peel the apple because she liked just the inside of it. So the maidservant peeled the apple and the lady ate the apple. The maidservant also wanted with her husband, also wanted a baby and wasn't able to have one, so she ate the peel. She ate the peel, the lady ate the apple. Is that clear so far, what happened? Nine months later, sure enough, the lady gave birth to a beautiful baby boy whose complexion, his skin color, was very white,

[03:22]

pale white, like the inside of an apple. Within the same hour, the maidservant gave birth to another baby, also a boy, and his skin color was very red. They call it ruddy. He had a ruddy skin color, and he had red hair. And... He was red like the outside of an apple, like the peel, which his mother had eaten nine months before. So the lady and the Lord called their son Pom, and the maidservant and her husband called their son Peel. Peel and Pom. They were really good friends. Right from the start, they were almost the same. They were exactly the same age. Well, an hour apart, but very close. And the Lord and the Lady gave them the same education, and they were really good friends.

[04:26]

And then when they got older, when they got to be teenagers, they got interested in girls. And then when they were a little bit older than that, like late teenagers, like young men, they got very interested in young women. hanging out with them and doing things with them and having fun and living it up. The young men and the young women, Pom and Peel. So one time, Pom met a young woman whose name was Eleanor. And Pom and Eleanor fell in love. After a while, they fell in love. Their relationship matured for a period of time, and then they really They really liked each other very much. So they wanted to get married. But there was a problem. Eleanor's father, who also happened to be a wizard, did not want them to get married.

[05:29]

We don't know why. They don't say why in the story, why this is so. But he did not want them to get married. I don't know, maybe he didn't like Palms so much. It's kind of hard to say. but he did not want them to get married. But Pom and Eleanor really wanted to get married, so they decided to run away. And they were going to run away and go and get married. The wizard, the father of Eleanor, discovered that they had run away, and he got very, very angry. And he said some things that were really terrible. he cast three spells on Eleanor and Palm. The three spells were that he said, I'm so angry, when they go to get married, they're going to see a white horse, a black horse, and a red horse.

[06:32]

And Eleanor is going to jump on the white horse, and that will be her undoing. That means terrible things will happen to Eleanor and to Palm. That was his first one. And then he said, well, if Pom and Eleanor survive that, then after the wedding, as they leave the wedding, they'll meet three little cute dogs, a white one, a red one, and a black one. And Eleanor, because she loves dogs, will take one of the dogs in her arms and that will be their undoing. This is, he's saying this out loud. This is his spell that he's casting on. on Pom and Eleanor. And then the third one is that if they survive both of those things, then that night, on their wedding night, when they're in bed together, a red giant will come and hurt them.

[07:33]

And that will be their undoing. Those are the three things he said. And the last part of it was if any person says one word about this, they will turn to stone. That was that. Boy, that was really bad news for Palm and Eleanor. It looked like bad news for them. It turns out okay, though, as you will see. Now, as he was saying those things, a crow was flying in the sky. And that crow heard the wizard cast those three spells. Later that day, he was sitting in a tree, the crow was, and telling, he was a crow that could speak. And he was telling, yeah, they're really helpful, those speaking crows. So he was telling his crow friends what these three curses were and so on and so forth, all about that.

[08:41]

And guess who was sitting at the bottom of the tree? Any guesses? Peel. You're right. I didn't realize it was so easy. Peel happened to be going for a walk in the woods and he was sitting at the bottom of the tree. He was taking a break because he was tired. So he was sitting at the bottom of the tree and he heard the crow say all of these three things. So at that point, he decided because he was such a faithful friend of Pom and Eleanor's that he was going to save them. But of course, he couldn't tell them what was going on. or else he would turn to stone. That was part of the spells. Sure enough, their wedding day came. Sure enough, as they were headed for the wedding, they saw three horses, a white one, a red one, and a black one. And Eleanor was about to leap on the white horse when Peel, who was hiding in a bush, because he knew behind a bush, because he knew that this was going to happen, he ran out from the bush.

[09:43]

He kind of pushed Eleanor out of the way, got on the white horse, and galloped off. This was very disturbing to Pom and Eleanor. They didn't know what happened. They didn't know why he was doing that. So Eleanor got very upset about this and thought, well, maybe this guy Peel is not really such a good friend after all. And later they asked him, why did you do this? We were on our way to the wedding, to our very own wedding. And you're pushing people around, us? And all Peel would say was, I cannot say a word. We know why he couldn't say a word, but they didn't know. He was going to turn to stone, exactly right. Definitely. That would definitely not be good for him or for his friends for that matter.

[10:45]

So they did get married later that day. And then when they left the wedding, there they were, three cute little dogs, a white one, a red one, and a black one. And Eleanor was about to pick up the... Thank you. The black one or the white one. She was about to pick one of those up. Peel is hiding behind a bush. He comes running out. He knocks Eleanor out of the way, grabs the dogs, and runs off. They are really, really upset at this point, Pom and Eleanor, because they don't know what's happening. So Eleanor feels like this person should go to jail. This person is a criminal. He's doing terrible things to us. They go to ask him what's going on, and you know what he says. I cannot say a word. Finally, they're having their wedding dinner that night. They did get married with all of these mishaps.

[11:49]

They did get married. They're having their wedding dinner that night. While they're having dinner, Peel sneaks up to their bedroom with a sword and hides under their bed to protect them from the red giant. They have their wedding dinner. All the guests go home. They're going to go to bed. They're in bed, Pom and Eleanor. They're enjoying each other's company. And then we hear thump, thump, thump. The red giant is coming. In the darkness, Peel is coming. gets out from under the bed, brandishes his sword, waves it around at the giant, scares the giant away. The giant runs away. While all of that's happening, Eleanor and Pom light the candle. They didn't have electric lights then. They light the candle, and there's Peel with a sword in his hand.

[12:52]

No giant. Why are you here? I cannot say a word. That was it. That was it for Peel. So Eleanor was so infuriated, she insisted that Peel be prosecuted. That means go to trial and get put in jail, and he was going to be put to death. He was going to be hanged because of the terrible things that they thought he had done, which he had really done because he was their friend. So there he is sitting in jail, languishing, about to go to his own execution the following week. And Pom and Eleanor come and visit him one last time and ask for an explanation for his crazy, terrible behavior. And he says, well, since I'm going to die anyway, I might as well tell you.

[13:57]

And he starts to tell them about the three spells that he heard that he wanted to prevent. And he told them about the horses part of it. And he turned to stone up to his hips. They began to get the idea, Pom and Eleanor. They said, don't tell us anymore. We don't want to know anymore. We've made such a terrible mistake. We're sorry. We're sorry. But Peel said, no, I might as well tell you the rest of it. Then he told them about the dogs. And he turned to stone up to his shoulders. And then they were really, really upset and crying. Pom and Eleanor were crying. You're our best friend. You did this for us. How could we have treated you so badly? So on like that. He said, well, I might as well tell you the rest of it. And as he finished telling them the last part about the red giant and about how if anyone said a word, they would turn to stone.

[15:10]

And he turned to stone, the rest of them. So then he was just like a marble statue. He was not sitting zazen. I think he was sitting in a chair, but he was sitting very, very still. And Palm and Eleanor, of course, were very grief-stricken for the big mistake they had made in not trusting their faithful friend, Peel. They didn't know what to do. Then it occurred to Eleanor, wait, I know the person who cast the spell can undo it. She hadn't been in communication with her father because of this big fight they had had about getting together with palms. So she wrote to her father and her father came and she was the apple of her father's eye

[16:10]

And he and she made up from the fight that they had. Eleanor explained the situation. Here is our dear friend Peel, who was so faithful to us. And Eleanor's father, also a wizard, said, oh, I've got just the thing. And he pulled out a vial, a small bottle of balsam. That's what it says in the story, balsam. I don't know what that is, but anyway, he rubbed that balsam all over peel, and peel came back to life. And that was really, they were really all very happy, and the three of them went to have dinner together at a delicious restaurant, and then they just went on their merry way. So that's the end of that

[17:39]

You can tell me if you see a connection. Starting at the beginning of this year, I've been studying Suzuki Roshi's words. Specifically, I decided I was going to start to study the talks that he gave that are collected in the book Not Always So, the second collection of his talks. Just in case you are very, very new to the situation and you don't know who Suzuki Roshi is, he's the Japanese Zen teacher who came to the United States in 1959 and eventually founded San Francisco Zen Center.

[18:41]

and therefore is the founder also of Green Gulch Farm. Along with Zen Tatsu Richard Baker, who was his American successor, who actually, it was after Suzuki Rishi's death in 1972, he died late 1971, in 1972 that Richard Baker arranged and worked to have... to have us purchase, to have Zen Center purchase Green Gulch Farm. So I began looking at Not Always So, and actually I started with the introduction, which is not Suzuki Roshi, the introduction is by the person who... compiled the talks in Not Always So, namely Ed Brown.

[19:43]

So I want to mention a couple of things. It's got numerous gems in it, I feel, that introductory essay of Ed's. And I want to mention just two of those that convey, I hope, I believe, convey the feeling of Zen practice. not exactly maybe what Zen practice is all about, maybe that would be a way to say it, but maybe just the feeling of it, what the quality of it is, almost like texture, what the texture of practice is for us. So there are two little parts here. The first part is something that Ed says about Suzuki Roshi's teaching. What he says is, this is a quote from Ed, Suzuki Roshi's words offer us the opportunity to awaken the teacher in us.

[20:53]

Our own aware inwardness. Or I might say it a little bit differently. Suzuki Roshi's words offer awareness the opportunity to awaken the teacher in us, our own wisdom. So this seems very important to me, that his words, Suzuki Roshi's words, the teaching, his teaching, his style of teaching, But we could say, I dare say, I would say, the style of Zen teaching has to do with awakening the teacher in us. In other words, teaching is not the usual kind of teaching.

[22:00]

It's different than the usual way. In other words, it's not transfer of information a transfer it's not even a transfer of knowledge and it can't be a transfer of wisdom because wisdom can't be transferred in that way exactly you might say it's almost the teaching is almost more like encouragement awakening the teacher in us in you in me excuse me this is very encouraging and and very generous there's a teacher here there there you know in you so it's not a matter of some import it's not a matter of bringing something in that's not there before that wasn't there before but rather bringing something forth

[23:04]

that is already inside, inside each of us. It's a very, very optimistic perspective on our human nature. You know, as we say, we have all that we need. The teacher is there. Just wake up. Hey, wake up in there, you know, like that. So this awaken the teacher in us, encourage our own development, our own coming forth, is echoed in traditional teaching and echoed in the mythic story of Shakyamuni Buddha, who at the end of his life, according to certain mythic versions of his life at the very end of his life the very last thing that he said was to his disciples who were gathered around him was don't necessarily listen to what i've just told you for the last 40 years you know don't necessarily listen to the sutras to the teachings to the you know what's supposed to be true

[24:34]

Rather, examine your own experience. Go deeply into your own life and your own experience. Check it out in a deep way. And what you find there is trustworthy. He didn't say it exactly this way, but something like this. Then if the teachings that I've given you or others have given you... matches and works with what you discover in yourself, good, use them. And if it doesn't match, don't worry about it. He was not holding on to his own words, not holding on to his own teaching, but encouraging that wisdom coming forward in his disciples. So one of the phrases Suzuki Roshi used to use to describe this process is wisdom seeking wisdom.

[25:43]

So how I understand that is, again, there's something in us already called wisdom. That in us already called wisdom seeks wisdom. Or a phrase that I use and I've mentioned in this here before is human beings are prajnatropic. You know, tropism, you know, like heliotropic, right? Heliotropic means that a plant will naturally incline toward the sun, helio. It's tropism, it's natural inclination, it's natural innate urge, even beneath instinctual, we, of course, don't really understand how such things happen, but it's innate urge is toward the sun.

[26:56]

Prajna is the Sanskrit word for wisdom. So I say we are prajnatropic. We have a natural inclination toward wisdom. This is wisdom seeking wisdom. And it has two sides. Just like a plant, in order for a plant or a flower to grow, you have to do cultivation. You have to do something active, you know, water and, you know, give it good nutritious soil and say hello to it on an occasional basis, you know, encourage it. Come on now. I have an office in the city and the plants in my office in the city vary greatly in their vigor and spirit. I got this beautiful, beautiful plant with these very thick leaves.

[27:59]

I don't know what the name of it is. And since it has been in my office, it has lost its leaves and more leaves. Every day I pick up leaves. It's like being in a graveyard, that part of my office. There are other ones that are just like, they just love it. I don't remember exactly why I brought that up. Prajnotropic? Thank you. Prajnotropic. Oh, there's the cultivation. That was it. There were these two sides. One is the cultivation side, which is, we might say, our more active side. The other side of our practice... Because it's wisdom seeking wisdom. It's not Steve seeking wisdom, Joe seeking wisdom, Barbara seeking wisdom. It's wisdom in Steve, Joe, Barbara that is seeking wisdom.

[29:00]

The other part is for us to get out of the way. For us to get out of our own way. And, you know, our Zazen practices, we could say our Zazen is the art of getting out of our own way. The art of, it's called shkantaza, it's called just sitting. Just sitting means get out of the way and just be there fully, completely, with no reservation and no obstruction. No obstructing obstruction would be a more accurate way to say it. So the teaching and our practice has these two sides to it. One is a more active kind of doing, you might say, and the other is taking away the extra unnecessary doing that we are so terribly fond of and often caught in.

[30:12]

So again, I want to go back to the, so awaken the teacher in us, and I want to go back to a traditional teaching that, in the traditional literature, Buddhist literature, that refers to this kind of thing. And what I'm talking about here, for those of you familiar with it, is called bodhicitta, or bodhicitta, a more technical word. way to say it, would be bodhicitta otpada. Otpada is Sanskrit and otpada means to produce. It means arouse, wake up, bring forth. Produce or bring forth. Chit, chit or chitta, bodhicitta or bodhicitta otpada, that C-I-T-T or C-I-T-T-A means thought or mind. And bodhi is like Buddha comes from the root to wake up.

[31:24]

B-U-D-D is the root. So bodhi is awakening. So awakening, mind, production. Produce the mind of awakening. Or we sometimes call it the thought of enlightenment. Producing the thought of enlightenment. Bodhicitta otpada. And in the traditional, I don't know what to call that, in the traditional understanding of the sequence of practice, of Buddhist practice, meditation practice, Zen practice, bodhicitta is thought of as a moment in one's life when one turns toward the path. When you turn toward it, again, just briefly, this is represented in the mythic story of Shakyamuni Buddha's life.

[32:28]

After he saw the sick person, the old person, and the dead person, he then saw a monk, and he said, oh, I'm going to do that. And he went home and shaved his head and ran away from home. That's considered to be a moment of bodhicitta, of turning toward the path. And we may be able to identify such a moment in our own life, actually. Maybe if not a moment, then a year or a decade of when this movement happened. It's often associated with some difficulty arising in our life. That's prime motivation for our practice. We may be going happily along and then something happens We say, well, wait a minute. What's going on here? And if that opens up widely enough, then that gives us the chance to turn toward the path, toward the way.

[33:31]

Marga. Tao. So that's the traditional understanding. Dogen, Ehe Dogen, again, just... In case you don't know, he is a 13th century Zen master, very important in the lineage of Suzuki Roshi. Suzuki Roshi referred to Dogen a lot, and many teachers do. And he was quite brilliant. He was brilliant in his understanding, but also a deep practitioner. One of his qualities was that he often would take the traditional teachings and kind of turn them on their head and twist them around and do all kinds of unusual things to them as a way of enlivening them.

[34:33]

So he wrote a short essay called Hotsu Vodai Shin, which means the same thing as Bodhicitta Odpada in Japanese. Hotsu is... Arouse bodai is awakening. Shin means the mind or the heart. So arousing the heart of awakening. Hotsu bodai shin. And he said that this Hotsu bodai shin, bodhicitta odpada, this is not something that just happens one time in one's life and then you turn on the path. No, no, no. Not like that. Actually, Hotsu bodai shin happens again and again and again on each moment. is a continuous activity. It's not, you know, oh, you do it and then it's over. So it's reflective of this simple thing that Ed said about Suzuki Roshi.

[35:39]

Awaken the teacher in us. So awaken the teacher in us doesn't mean... oh, now the teacher is awake and the teacher has taught me what needs to be taught and now I'm, that's it. Awaken the teacher in us means awaken the teacher in us and awaken the teacher in us and awaken the teacher in us and awaken the teacher in us. Our practice is awaken the teacher in us. And you may notice that there's no end to that. That's part of We say our practice is endless. That's what it means. There's no end to this movement, to this going. Even if you get to Buddhahood, as they say in the ceremonies, will you continuously observe the precepts? Will you continuously practice?

[36:39]

Even if you've attained anyuttara samyak sambodhi, And the official answer is yes. Yes, I will. There's no end, which makes sense for our life. So it's a work in progress, an ongoing project. Which brings me to this second part of the introduction. Ed is talking about what Suzuki Rishi said and taught about enlightenment. And he quotes Suzuki Rishi as saying, enlightenment is to forget this moment and grow into the next.

[37:41]

That's what enlightenment is, to forget this moment and grow into the next. So if we can forget this moment, which means, I think, importantly, it means loosen our grasp, loosen our grip, on this moment, if we can loosen our grip on this idea, if we can loosen our grasp on this habit, on some prejudice, some prejudgment, on some stuck place, sufficiently so that we are ready for the next moment, sufficiently so that we're ready for what is otherwise known as reality, which is the next moment, which is what's happening next, now, and now, and now.

[38:53]

If we can allow ourselves to open and relax sufficiently to be there for the reality of the next moment, that is enlightenment. So just as the teaching is not, what do you call it, not an import and not some information, but rather encouragement, so in this description of enlightenment, in this description of practice, it is not a state. It is not a thing or a state. It's more like an activity. Forget. It's a verb. Forget this moment and grow. Two verbs. Grow into the next. It's an activity or an attitude.

[39:54]

An attitude that I'm calling, you know, a synonym would be open and big mind and available and ready. That is the attitude of, that's enlightenment. That's as much as enlightenment as we're going to get. It's not some fancy state of mind, as we often think it is. In fact, right in that little section, Ed says, Suzuki Roshi cautioned us against sightseeing practice. Sightseeing practice is, You go to some fabulous site, and they, wow, wow, this is really far out, man. If people say that anymore, I don't know that they do. Probably say, you know, dating myself there, but anyway, they say something equivalent to that, right?

[40:59]

Because it's awesome. It used to be up for things, and now you're down for things. Anyway, sights, sightseeing. The other thing about sightseeing is it's very fabulous, these beautiful sights. Like I was thinking of Point Olmstead. I think it's called Point Olmstead in Yosemite Valley, where you look out, and it is a sight. Wow, what a sight. You know, Half Dome and all those other... fabulous sights out there. So the thing about sightseeing, oh, the other thing about sightseeing, which as we know, is if you go to someplace where people sightsee, there are a lot of people, they have cameras, iPhones, and they take the picture of the sight and then they leave. And then they say, oh, see, I have this sight over here. Here it is. Beautiful sight.

[42:01]

Right in my palm. That's what Suzuki Rishi was cautioning us against, not to have that kind of idea of enlightenment, not to have that kind of idea that that's what our practice is about. Our practice is not about that, he said. Our practice is about forgetting this moment and moving into the next, growing into the next, living into the next. So let me just mention a few more things about this that I want to do. Oh, so one is this idea, I think, part of why many of us are attracted to this idea of enlightenment or this idea of practice is because it is non-consumerist. It has nothing to do with consuming something.

[43:04]

It has nothing to do with, oh, that's, which would be like, not sightseeing practice, but supermarket practice. Oh, I like that one. I'm going to take this enlightenment over here. I think I'll have some of that over there. It's not, you can't buy it. It ain't for sale. So. And I think that that is wonderful in our life. It's wonderful in our life to come upon something for which there is no quid pro quo. There's no coin you can put in the vending machine and get enlightenment out at the bottom. It doesn't work that way. Not even our... If your effort is like that getting something out of it, then that is understandable but not quite the feeling of the practice.

[44:13]

The other helpful thing about forget this moment and grow into the next is that it matches reality. So specifically what I mean is are the four Buddha seals. Not the sea creatures, not that kind of seal. The seal that you put on an envelope, people used to put on envelopes, the four Buddha signatures. It's like a signature. The four Buddha seals are impermanence, everything changes, anatman, no... Inherent self, which means everything is connected. Suffering and nirvana. Those are the four Buddha seals. So to forget this moment and grow into the next works perfectly with a world where the next moment is different than the last one, which is our world.

[45:31]

everything changes. Nothing stays the same. So it's very handy, it's very useful, it's very accurate to have a practice that helps us get with that program, get with that way that things are. And in fact, if we live according to everything changes, everything changes. and nothing has an inherent nature, if we live a life that includes those truths in our life, if we don't live a life that includes those truths in our life, then that's dukkha, that's suffering. If we do live a life that includes those truths in our life, then that is nirvana. Again, that's as much nirvana as we're going to get. Nirvana is not some other place. Not some other thing. Nirvana is simply. Living in accord with how things are.

[46:33]

Called. Change. Called. Connection. Jane Hirshfield. Is a wonderful. Poet. Zen practitioner. Teacher and old friend. Of a number of us. Um. and actually was just featured on the Writer's Almanac, which is a thing that Garrison Keillor reads every day on the radio. He reads a poem and talks about various other things, and he just read and did a poem of Jane's. Anyway, Jane was asked if she could boil down Buddhism to just a few simple things. And she said, well, it basically boils down to three things. Everything changes, everything is connected, pay attention. Pretty good, pretty good. She got two of the four Buddha seals and pay attention takes care of the other two as well, I guess.

[47:40]

So let's see. Oh yeah. forget this moment and grow into the next, an aspect of practice that, I don't know how to say it, may not be so emphasized sometimes, is how this practice attitude has different modalities. So what I mean is, we can practice zazen and Forget this moment and grow into the next. Which is called shikantaza, which is called following our breath, which is called counting our breath, which is called sitting still like a mountain. That's one way we practice.

[48:43]

But also with another person. You know, a spouse or... parent or a child or a friend or a bus driver or the person in the car that just cut you off on the freeway that person you know we can practice forget this moment and grow into the next in that sphere in that sphere of of of life that's enlightened activity to forget this moment and grow into the next I remember Suzuki Hiroshi told a funny story once where he was studying. And his wife, who we used to call Okusan, which means wife of. I think it's what it means. So his wife, because she was in a different part of the house, she would hit these clappers. That meant come to breakfast.

[49:44]

So he's studying and he hears the clappers. And this is the way he relates it. but I'm a Zen master. I'm studying. I'm doing something important. I'm not going to go to breakfast now. She's clapping away at the clappers, you know. And then finally he realized how foolish he was and stopped studying and forgot that moment and grew into the next. So in your relationships, in our relationships, we notice Well, we don't notice so much when we are. How we notice is when the other person is able to forget this moment and grow into the next, or not. They don't seem to be forgetting this last moment. Their idea about the way things actually are, otherwise known as the truth. So it takes place in that sphere, and

[50:51]

In wider and bigger spheres, I think there's a way that this can be talked about that makes sense in terms of our nation, in terms of peoples, in terms of nations. As a nation, are we grabbing, grasping, holding on to some idea? of who we are and what's right and who, et cetera, et cetera? Or can we forget this moment and move into, grow into the next? What a treasure that would be for the Israelis and the Palestinians and the people of the Middle East and the people who are not in the Middle East, all of us. What a treasure that would be. how great that would be as if as a nation, as a people, as a human species, we could practice forget this moment and move into the next, grow into the next, instead of being stuck, stuck, stuck.

[51:59]

Being stuck is called greed, hate, and delusion. That's what it's called. Last thing I wanted to mention about this teaching is there's a practice period going on here at Green Gulch, and people try very hard during practice period. Let me change that. People try very hard all the time. Sometimes it's more obvious. During practice period, it's more obvious that we're sitting a lot of zazen and... trying to listen to the Buddhist teachings. It's very luxurious in one way and easy, and in another way, it takes a significant effort. Forget this moment and grow into the next means don't evaluate your own practice.

[53:06]

whether we're in practice period or our daily life, we can easily be caught in evaluation. Now, some people tell me that we have to be cautious about too positive an evaluation. But I'm much more familiar, and most of the people that I talk to, are much more involved into negative evaluation. Oh, my zazen is not good. This was terrible. I can't concentrate. How do you concentrate? I can't do that stuff. Et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. About their own practice in the narrow realm or sometimes it's wider and wider negative self-evaluation. So, Dogen, in another work of his, says that what we think about realization, otherwise known as enlightenment or awakening, what we think about realization has nothing whatever to do with realization.

[54:26]

It's not like, well, if you just polished it up, it would be like realization. No, it's completely irrelevant to realization. This is a quality of forget this moment and grow into the next. The quality of it is we don't evaluate our own practice, our own life. That's somebody else's business. Somebody else can take care of that. The emphasis in our practice is on our effort. on our sincere effort. If we practice single-mindedly, that in itself is negotiating the way. That in itself is the way.

[55:28]

Practicing in a devoted manner excuse me, devoted and faithful manner. Excuse me. That is the way. That is realization itself. And that's 100%. Even if it's 80%, it's 100%. even if by your evaluation you're only doing 20%, it's 100%. Okay, thank you. 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 to realize and actualize the practice of giving.

[56:36]

by offering your financial support. For more information, visit sfcc.org and click Giving. May we fully enjoy the Dharma.

[56:50]

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