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 morning, bodhisattvas. I used that greeting... Because this morning I woke up with the sound of the one hit of the Han that the Shuso makes before she goes in to bow to Manjushri and get the bell. And... rolled right out of bed, as is my habit, and came down to the Zendo. And I got down to the Zendo before the first sound of the bell, the Densho, and opened the door to go in, and it was all dark in there.

[01:11]

I liked that way. It was all dark. The lights were not on. The candle wasn't lit yet. And yet, I was probably feeling a little pleased with myself for being there. early. And yet, even in the dark, I could see there were more than ten people already in the sandal. I could feel the compassionate vow of the bodhisattva in the room already. And that is the essence of the bodhisattva vow. is the wish to be enlightened so that you can actually understand how to live your life with compassion as the main engine. There's a quote here from my favorite website, brotherdavidsgratefulness.org, from his holiness, the Dalai Lama,

[02:21]

says, compassion is not religious business. It is human business. It's not a luxury. It is essential for our own peace and mental stability. And it is essential for human survival. And it was compassion that sent the Buddha to out of the palace compound and into the world to try to find how people could be liberated from the obvious dukkha that he saw in the world. When he saw first a frail and aged person and said to his chariot church, Chana, what's that? That's an old person, Lord. Will that happen to me?

[03:26]

Yes, it happens for everyone. And then he saw a sick person, and then he saw a corpse, and then he saw a holy man, someone who inspired him to leave the luxurious life of the palace. and try to understand how to help beings free themselves from the suffering of the world. And as I've mentioned pretty much every time I lecture, and probably will as long as I'm lecturing, the Dalai Lama has given us helpful instruction for how to begin our day if we're concerned with the suffering of beings. Every day, he said, I think as I wake up, today I am fortunate to have woken up.

[04:30]

I'm alive. I have a precious human life. I'm not going to waste it. I'm going to use my energies to develop myself, to expand my heart out to others, to achieve enlightenment for the benefit of all beings. I am going to have kind thoughts toward others. I'm not going to get angry or think badly about others. I'm going to benefit others as much as I can. And this also brings me to a couple of other favorite poems I have that I hope will encourage your practice today. One is Katagiri Roshi's poem, A Peaceful Life. Being told that it is impossible, one believes in despair.

[05:41]

Is that so? Being told it is possible one believes in excitement, that's right. But whichever is chosen, it does not fit one's heart neatly. Being asked what is unfitting, I don't know what it is, but my heart knows somehow. I feel an irresistible desire to know a mystery human is. As to this mystery, clarifying, knowing how to live, knowing how to walk with people, demonstrating and teaching, this is the Buddha. From my human eyes, I feel it's really impossible to become a Buddha.

[06:44]

But this I, regarding what the Buddha does, vows to practice, to aspire, to be resolute, and tells myself, yes, I will. Just practice right here, now, and achieve continuity endlessly, forever. This is living in vow. Herein is one's peaceful life found. And I have one more prayer, a metta prayer. from my beloved Dharma sister from Berkeley, Maylee Scott, who died some years ago.

[07:56]

Maylee was a dedicated peace activist. She sat many hours of zazen in vigils in various places out at Concord, Naval Weapons Base, at the UC campus, at Lawrence Livermore Laboratory. And she taught in Arcata. She's one of the people who went with me on my first trip to Japan to practice at Rinsulin. And her metta prayer... is may I be well, loving, and peaceful. May I be at ease in my body, feeling the ground beneath my seat and feet, letting my back be long and straight, enjoying breath as it rises and falls and rises.

[09:09]

May I know and be intimate with body-mind, whatever it's feeling or mood, calm or agitated, tired or energetic, irritated or friendly. Breathing in and out, in and out, aware moment by moment of the risings and passings. May I be attentive and gentle toward my own discomfort and suffering. May I be attentive and grateful for my own joy and well-being. May I move towards others freely and with openness. May I receive others with sympathy and understanding.

[10:15]

May I move towards the suffering of others with peaceful and attentive confidence. May I recall the bodhisattva of compassion with her thousand hands, her instant readiness for action, each hand with an eye on it, the instinctive knowing of what to do. May I continually cultivate the ground of peace for myself and others and persist mindful and dedicated to this work, independent of results. May I know that my peace and the world's peace are not separate, that our peace in the world is a result of our work for justice, May all beings be well, happy, and peaceful. I particularly like how carefully Maile has woven together her compassionate concerns and instruction in mindful sitting.

[11:41]

So we are studying in order to really understand how the body is concerned with great vehicle practice. We're studying the great sutra on the great Satipatthana Sutta. The translator has made a note here in his introduction. It says, it is sometimes Satipatthana is the name for an approach to meditation aimed at establishing sati or mindfulness.

[13:01]

The term sati is related to the verb sarati, to remember or to keep in mind. It is sometimes translated as non-reactive awareness, free from agendas, simply present with whatever arises. But the formula for satipatthana doesn't support that translation. Non-reactive awareness is actually an aspect of equanimity, quality fostered in the courts of Satipatthana. But the activity of Satipatthana definitely has a motivating agenda. The desire for awakening, which is classed not as a cause of suffering, but as part of the path to its ending. So here again, is the bodhisattva vow in there to wake up in order to understand how to help beings.

[14:20]

So you see, this separation between Theravada and Mahayana is not as great as it is sometimes made out to be. we're all practicing for the benefit of beings, whether we're practicing in the old tradition or the newer tradition. So as he talks about Saripatthana, He says, as a compound term, satipatthana can be taken in two ways, either as sati-patthana, foundation of mindfulness, or as sati-ipatthana, the establishing of mindfulness.

[15:27]

Scholars debate as to which is the proper interpretation, but in practice both provide useful food for thought. The first interpretation focuses on the objects of meditation practice, the focal points that provide mindfulness with a foundation. Or to use the more idiomatic English phrase adopted here, a frame of reference. Altogether, there are four. The body in and of itself. Feelings. in and of themselves, mind in and of itself, and mental qualities in and of themselves. The in and of itself here is crucial. In the case of the body, for instance, it means viewing the body on its own terms rather than in terms of its function in the context of the world.

[16:35]

For in that case, the world would be the frame of reference. Dropping any concern for how the body's beauty, agility, or strength fits into the world, the meditator simply stays with the direct experience of its breathing, its movements, its postures, its elementary properties, and its inevitable decay. A similar principle applies to the other frames of reference. So now we're more ready to look at the actual practice. The second interpretation of Saripatthana, Saripatthana, focuses on the process of the meditation practice, on how a frame of reference is established.

[17:51]

The sutta gives three stages for this process, applied to each frame of reference. The first stage, as applied to the body, is this... The monk remains focused on the body in and of itself, ardent, alert, and mindful, putting aside greed and distress with reference to the world. Remaining focused refers to the element of concentration in the practice. As the meditator holds to one particular frame of reference, amid the conflicting currents of experience. Ardent refers to the effort put into the practice, trying to abandon unskillful states of mind and develop skillful ones in their stead, all the while trying to discern the difference between the two.

[18:52]

Alert means being clearly aware of what is happening in the present. Mindful, as mentioned above, means being able to keep the frame of reference continually in mind. As these qualities work together they bring the mind to a solid state of concentration. So this would apply to each of the frames of reference of body, including breath and mind and feelings and we call it formations.

[20:03]

mental formations. So, the second stage of Saripatthana is described that practices thus, one remains focused on the phenomenon of origination with regard to the body, on the phenomenon of passing away with regard to the body. or on the phenomenon of origination and passing away with regard to the body. The phenomenon of origination and passing away covers events either directly or indirectly related to one's chosen frame of reference. Directly means changes in the frame of reference itself. For instance, when focused on the body, one may notice the arising and passing away of breath sensations within it.

[21:11]

Indirectly here means events in any of the other three frames of reference as they relate to the body. For example, one might notice the arising and passing away of feelings of pleasure or mental states of irritation in connection to events in the body. Or one might notice lapses of mindfulness in one's focus on the body. So if you want to know more of the details of the practice of mindfulness as it is discussed in the Satipatthana Sutta, I can give you the whole sutta to read. What I wanted to talk about mainly today was our motivation in doing this practice.

[22:14]

What gets us to roll out of bed at five in the morning and go to the Zendo? What is it that's so important in our lives that we will take a week of our life to spend as focused as we can get? on the body, the breath, the mind, the feelings, the mental formations. And I thought, what are we doing here? Well, I think, you know, as we live our life, at some point we begin to notice more directly some of the aspects of suffering in our lives. We begin to notice, for example, that we, along with all things, are subject, or with all living things, are subject to illness, injury.

[23:31]

And we see that we really, you know, this is the nature of a living body. We notice that we are subject to aging and all the infirmities and inconveniences of aging. Of course, given the alternative, we generally choose aging for as long as we can. But nevertheless, it's happening. And we may notice at some point that every living thing dies, including me. And this was the first thing that got my attention in my own life.

[24:42]

When I realized, oh, it isn't, oh yeah, later when I get old. It could happen at any moment. As it happened to a friend of mine when I was 42 and she was also. And we notice the impermanence of everything. We can't hold on to anything. Everything that we love and care about will not stay with us forever. But we also may notice that all of our actions of body, speech, and mind have some consequence. So our only true belongings, lasting belongings, are our actions.

[25:52]

Therefore, we need to attend to our motivations and our actions. These things I just mentioned are called the five-somethings, and I can't recall what they are. I thought they were the five... Hmm? Well, when I look that up, it doesn't come up for me. I'll have to try again on my computer. I tried remembrances, I tried contemplations, but the contemplations are what we do at Meal Chant. I will have to try again with remembrances. You can help me on my computer, please. But noticing these five, then we need to turn to what are our actions? If these are only true belongings, how shall I live this life?

[27:02]

And this, of course, is something that has been some suggested guidelines for how to live our life. have been given to us by the Buddha as well. But first, we need to cultivate our concern for ending suffering and bring our mind to enough focus that our actions are in accord with our intention, with our aspiration, so that we notice before we say or do something that might be harmful, that might be...

[28:09]

Here are some of the results of old age. There is a specific word that I want, which is not coming to me. Skillful. So to notice the arising of unskillful thoughts that might lead to unskillful actions and be alert and see, oh, This is likely to lead to an unskillful result. This is not to do. This is one of the great functions of mindfulness, is that when we are alert and aware of what's going on in our body and mind, we can see immediately, if we see anger begin to arise, we can say, oh... Anger is unskillful.

[29:14]

It often leads to unwanted results. Let me see if I can get it under control before it gets out my mouth. We have some guidelines about what kinds of actions are skillful and what kinds of actions are unskillful, and we have a lifetime of experience. of what works and what doesn't work. We don't have to just depend on somebody else's observations. If we're paying attention, we can depend on our own observations. And if we want to live a life of compassion, if we want to live a life of ease and joy, we need to pay attention to what we do and say in order not to take ourselves down a ruddy road and have to survive all the bumps that that provides for us.

[30:26]

So that's why I like so much Maley's poem, because it just reminds me again and again of what I really care about, how I really want to live this life, And if I'm not living it that way, then how can I bring it back to where I want it to be? You know, the fact of the matter is we are so deeply interconnected and interwoven with everyone and everything in the world that our actions always have some effect somewhere. And we're all completely connected with everything in the world.

[31:32]

There isn't really any other. This notion we have of self and other Where is the boundary between self and not self? There's too much connection to say the boundary is at the skin. Suzuki Roshi said one time, all right, we got it right here. He said, wherever you are, You are one with the clouds and one with the sun and the stars that you see. You are still one with everything. This is more true than I can say and more true than you can hear. And I don't know how many of you remember Lou, but when he was five, he had a direct personal experience of this boundarylessness.

[32:37]

And he ran in the house and he said to his mother, Mother, Mother, I just saw God. But as he describes the experience, it was this experience of being connected with everything. And it became sort of the focal point of his life in a certain way, to understand that experience and to... live in that world of connection. And I can say from my own experience that once you have a moment of really realizing your interbeing with everything, the boundless oneness of everything with everything, you can never completely forget it. It is more real than I can say.

[33:45]

And it's the second thing that led me to practice. After I suspect that my awareness of my mortality made me more open for the possibility of the experience of identity. with the riot squad policemen at San Francisco State that just grew from identity with this being that I had thought was the opposite of me into boundarylessness that just kept expanding and expanding to include everything. I would love to live in that world, but somehow... It escapes me most of the time. But I know that that is truly how the world is.

[34:46]

And that's what Suzuki Roshi is telling us. Wherever you are, you are one with the clouds and one with the sun and the moon and the stars that you see. You're still one with everything. And I understand why he said that's More true than I can say and more true than you can hear. But be alert and aware for those moments when that feeling of connection happens. Let it in. Realize that that's truly how the world is. This is why Thich Nhat Hanh speaks so much of interbeing. It's not just that we're connected, we're intimately and vitally and inextricably connected with each other.

[35:51]

Which is why our compassion includes all the beings around us. And one last quotation from Brother David's website from the great Rabbi Hillel. Take care of yourself. You never know when the world will need you. So that's one of the reasons that we need to include taking care of ourselves in this study of... body as great vehicle practice. To take care of this body, you never know when the world will need you. Please continue your inspiring practice. It's a privilege to sit Satsang with you.

[36:55]

Thank you for listening to this podcast offered by the San Francisco Zen Center. Our Dharma talks are offered at no cost, and this is made possible by the donations we receive. Your financial support helps us to continue to offer the Dharma. For more information, visit sfcc.org and click Giving. May we fully enjoy the Dharma.

[37:22]

@Transcribed_UNK
@Text_v005
@Score_98.3