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, everyone, and welcome to Green Gulch Sunday Talk. I've been having a little trouble with my microphone, so if there's any problem, please let Kogetsu know, Jenny knows, so that we can take care of that. I wanted to say that I was scrolling through the gallery while I was listening to the bell, And it was very nice to be able to see so many people.

[01:01]

And I realized there's someone mentioned to me how parched they feel, parched with not having contact with family and friends for so long. And that word really resonated with me. But we have this technology, and this is the way we come together. Yesterday, I was at the Noah Bode talk that Tenshin Roshi gave, and he bowed to each person and said their name, which is a practice. And it took a long time. There were a lot of people there. However, I know when my name was said and I bowed to Kenshin Roshi, I felt so welcomed and that just part of things and that I belonged at this event.

[02:08]

So I want you all to feel that way, welcomed, that you belong, that we're here together. The other day, actually last week, I gave two different lectures. And the technology was a little different than this. I think it was Zoom and Facebook. They showed it on Facebook. And there was no gallery. There was no people. It was just me and my picture. And I couldn't tell if anybody was there, actually. And it was very odd, very strange. I heard people did show, but I didn't get to see anyone. So I'm very glad to see you. Today is a major holiday in the Christian religion, Easter. It's also the end of Passover, which is a major holiday of the Jewish religion.

[03:12]

And it's also this coming week, April 8th, is... the traditional day for Buddha's birthday to be celebrated. So springtime, you know, for millennia, for probably as long as human beings have gathered some celebration, noting some marking of this time of year, this... in the Northern Hemisphere, this springtime, this renewal, birth, coming forth of new life. And of course, it's always birth and death. It's always the great matter of birth and death. We don't have one without the other. It's also...

[04:14]

The myth of Demeter and Persephone is the springtime where Persephone comes out from the underworld where she's been for six months and is reunited with her mother, Demeter, with great rejoicing, great happiness, and this feeling of the moistening of this parched life without connection, without contact, being separated. is part of that old myth and the ceremonies that are probably lost now that came with that myth. So I wanted to say a little bit about Buddha's birth, the story of Buddha's birth. And some of you may know this story. However, my sense is that the telling and retelling of these stories in the liturgical calendar of the year is this cyclical looking again at these stories I find important and necessary, really.

[05:33]

And we see our first take of this story of the Buddha's birth or Buddha's enlightenment or whatever the story might be, And then the next year, the next year when we're different and we've changed, the story changes. And our feeling about the story, the meaning of the story, the significance of it in our life. So many of you may know the story of Buddha's birth, but I will tell not a long, long story, but the main points of the story. Now, just a while ago, I brought up, you know, this renewal and springtime and rejoicing and birth and regeneration. And I just want to say, just as I had said, birth and death always come up together. Just to note, this spring, we have many sad moments

[06:43]

events, mass shootings, several, many mass shootings, what's going on in Burma, the George Floyd murder trial and the re-traumatizing as we go through what we need to go through to... find justice, and yet the pain and the grieving and the reopening of these wounds for many people, many, many people around the world. And this is necessary. This is our life. So I don't want to forget that in the midst of these stories of delight and celebration. Also, the violence against Asian people of Asian descent, Asian Americans, Pacific Islanders, which has grown exponentially in the United States and probably around the world.

[07:55]

To note that the horror of that unfolding that we're seeing and the that surrounds all of these actions that I've mentioned and these occurrences. So I don't forget that. And we can't forget that. And we're not being asked to forget that, but we hold it all. Can we hold our life with everything that it brings? The story of the Buddha's birth, it starts with the conception, actually. Buddha's parents were Queen Maya and Suddhodana. I probably do not pronounce that correctly. His father, the king of the Shakya clan.

[08:58]

And they... were together and had not had any children. And after many years, 20 years, I think, Queen Maya, one night, had a very profound, numinous dream. And the dream was that she was greeted by a six-tusked elephant carrying... a lotus flower in his trunk. A white elephant with six tusks came to her, gave her the lotus flower, and then entered her right side. That was the dream. And when she woke up, she felt it was an auspicious omen. And lo and behold, about a month later, she knew she was with child. And she carried this child for 10 years.

[10:00]

lunar months. And as was the custom, she wanted to return to her own home to give birth. And she was walking with her retinue and while, you know, she was soon to give birth and she stopped at the Lumbini and a beautiful park. This is near Kapilavastu, Kapilavastu, in Nepal, southern Nepal. And she stopped at this beautiful Lumbini Grove, and the sow tree bent down to give her support as she was walking. And she... gave birth while standing there holding on to the sow tree. She gave birth to Siddhartha, Siddhartha Gautama.

[11:05]

Now, there were many auspicious things that happened next. For one, the baby Buddha was able to walk immediately. And he... took seven steps, seven steps, and then he pointed up with his right hand and he pointed down with his left hand to the heaven and the earth. And he spoke, the little baby Siddhartha Gautama said, above the heavens and below the heavens and earth, alone and the world honored one." So picture this little baby saying that after walking, taking these seven steps. And there were many auspicious omens. The world shook in many ways.

[12:07]

Flowers rained down on the mother and child and the whole retinue. And then Water, both warm and cool water, flowed from the sky to purify and wash the baby, the baby Buddha. So these were the elements of this wonderful, wonderful birth, this really auspicious birth. And in our ceremony, in the ceremony for Buddha's birthday, one of the main things we do is have a pagoda covered with flowers, a small little pagoda covered with flowers, and a little figure of the baby Buddha standing there with his hands. And then we bathe the baby Buddha with sweet tea.

[13:08]

This is reenacting all these things that happened at the time of the Buddha's birth. And in the Japanese ceremony, hanamatsuri, hanamatsuri means festival of flowers. Flowers is one of the main parts, the main offering, lots and lots of flowers. So you might... Just like any story, any myth, there's layers of meaning, layers of meaning for a child and for an adult. What does this story mean? What does this mean to us? What does the Buddha's birth, coming into this world of the Buddha, how is this a meaningful thing for us?

[14:13]

to mark and remember. And what do you think about what the baby Buddha said? I alone am the world honored one. What does that mean? I alone am the world honored one. So aside from just a spring celebration of new birth, the elements of this story resonate in different ways for me. Both in the Buddha's birth story and in the Buddha's enlightenment story, which is another kind of birth, you could say, the Buddha says, the Buddha awakens or is born with all beings and the great earth.

[15:14]

And when the Buddha says, I alone am the world honored one, this I alone, the world honored one is our own Buddha nature, our own awakened mind, which is one, where there's nothing inside or outside of it. There's nothing subjective or objective. It's just one. So this I alone and the world honored one is also talking about our true nature is one. One. One suchness that cannot be divided. And at the exact same time. At the exact same time of this limitless oneness, there is the limits of our life and the myriad appearances of this oneness.

[16:20]

Out of this oneness comes myriad appearances, 10,000 things. Each of us, everything we see, smell, taste, think, our appearances arising. from this one mind, this one oneness. So all beings, when Buddha is born, it's also saying all beings are born together. Just like when Buddha awakened, all beings awakened along with Buddha. Because Buddha and all beings are non-dual. And As the Lotus Sutra says, only a Buddha and a Buddha can fathom the reality of our existence. So we are all together with Buddha, our Buddha nature. These seven steps that the baby Buddha took really means the entire universe.

[17:29]

Some commentaries say he went in four directions with these steps. And so the entire universe comes together for this to occur. And not only for the baby Buddha to appear, but for each of us and each moment. That is the entire universe coming together, being born in this moment. completely interdependent and independent. This oneness is independent. You can't compare it to anything. And at the exact same time, interdependent with all things, appearing and disappearing. And this bathing, you know, in the story, the...

[18:35]

heavenly beings poured down these warm and cool water. And in the ceremony, we take ladles of sweet tea poured over the Buddha's head. And this kind of anointing or purifying is because things are already pure just the way they are. With all beings, I wash body and mind free from dust. and shining within and without. This bathing is, we bathe the baby Buddha because already the Buddha is pure. We're not making the Buddha pure. It's more celebrating this way that the Buddha is and our own Buddha nature is. So this is a kind of rejoicing and

[19:37]

Because the way we rejoice when babies are born, when babies come into the world, there's often enormous great joy and delight. And over and over and over again, we find delight in this rebirth, new birth. Now, the Buddha came into the world. Because of vow. This is part of what we understand how it is that Buddhas come into the world. They don't come by kind of karmic conscious retribution or fruit of karmic actions. Buddhas come into the world out of vow. And the vow is... to awaken all beings, to open Buddha's truth to all beings, to demonstrate, display, and show sentient beings the Buddha Dharma, to realize with others and to help others to realize their true nature and to enter Buddha's way.

[21:04]

That is... That is from the Lotus Sutra, what I just mentioned, and this vow to awaken with all beings and to help all beings. That is the only purpose of the Buddha, to come into the world. So the rejoicing and the celebration, that's for us too, not just for baby Buddha to appear, but this vow that allowed us Buddha to come into the world is to open, demonstrate, and display, have us realize and enter the Buddha way to relieve suffering and the causes of suffering. So I wanted to bring up a Zen story that has been turning for me. There's one

[22:05]

particular part of the story that when I hear it, I often, I have a visceral response to it. And I just thought I would, it came up in a class the other day, and I just thought there's something there for me right now to look at. And so I took some time with this case. Now, this case is called Feng Shui's Single Atom, which maybe doesn't sound very interesting. And it is in the Book of Serenity, as well as the Blue Cliff Record. And Dogen Zenji also collected koans. He has a collection of over 300, 301, I think, koans that he didn't comment on, but he collected, put them together.

[23:11]

And part of this koan is in that collection as well. And Suzuki Roshi lectures on this. So the story is Feng Shui. who, by the way, was a teacher in the Rinzai or Linji lineage. And his teacher was Nan Nuran, a great teacher in the Linji lineage. And there's slightly different versions, so I'm going to kind of put them together. But Feng Shui was giving a Dharma talk, sitting up on the... up on the altar, and he said, if you set up a single atom, and it's also translated as a single speck of dust, the nation flourishes.

[24:21]

If you do not set up a single atom of dust, The nation perishes. The nation perishes. This is what he said in the lecture. And then later on, Shwaydo, who comments on koans and has verses of koans and is in the Blue Cliff Record, said he held up his staff, this is a teaching staff, walking staff, but teaching staff, and said, are there any patched-robed monks who will live together and die together? That was Shuedo. So I'm going to say the kawan again.

[25:25]

Feng Shui got up to give a Dharma talk, was on the... the altar on his seat and said, if you set up one speck of dust, one atom of dust, if you raise it up, the nation will flourish. If you do not raise up a speck of dust, the nation will perish. And Shweido or Secho in Japanese, raised his staff and said, are there any patrobe monks who will live together and die together? So, the part of the case, that last line from Shuedo, this question, are there any, carrying his staff, I think, not to forget, he held up his staff and said,

[26:30]

Are there any patch road monks who will live together and die together? So there's various commentary verses on this koan, and there's some in the commentary and also in another rendition of this koan. When Feng Shui says, if you raise up a speck of dust, the nation flourishes. And then there's an interspersed kind of comment. It says, the peasants, the old peasants will furrow their brows. If you don't raise up a speck of dust, the nation will perish. And the peasants will rest in peace and shout hallelujah. So what is that all about? So I'm... And how come this is speaking to me?

[27:38]

In the commentary, and Suzuki Roshi as well in his lecture, talks about this raising up of a speck, doing something, picking up... something and trying to do something. How can we pick up a speck, even a speck of dust in oneness? How can you pull anything from whence, from where would you pull a speck if you're totally one? If the nature of reality is just one, where are there specks even? Who can pull a speck away? Who would be pulling it? So this is a kind of, you know, we can turn and look at the teachings of the absolute and suchness and non-duality, and it doesn't make sense that you can pick up a piece of dust even from where and who would pick it up in oneness.

[28:51]

However, This is the limitless world of the absolute, you know, maybe the first principle. However, Buddha nature is not just sort of merging with that. Buddha nature is the limitless and the limited. And the limited are the 10,000 things. Each thing. which is an appearance of this oneness in that form. And if you look carefully at the limited, completely carefully, you will see that it is empty of separate self. It is completely interconnected. Still, in our limited way, in our conventional life together, in our world of birth and death, we do things. Not to forget that we can't, what, that our doing, what is our doing?

[30:01]

What is, what is the true doing that we're doing? So this picking up a speck of dust, um, in the commentary before it, it talks about raising the banner of the teaching. This was, uh, when a teacher sometimes would come to a town and was going to be giving a talk, they would hoist up a kind of flag or banner saying, you know, the Dharma is going to be spoken here. So when you raise up a banner and say the Dharma is going to be spoken here, one must be very, very clear about what's happening because one, When you do anything, even for good purpose, for good reason, establishing a teaching, establishing, and Suzuki Roshi in this talk was from 1971, July.

[31:04]

It's the last year of his life, actually. He just had five months or so before he died was at Tassajara talking about the establishment of tasahar practice, and this monastery, making this monastery for Zen training. This is picking up an atom of dust. When you pick up this atom of dust, the nation flourishes, but the peasants have these furrowed brows. And Suzuki Roshi did pick up lots of pieces of dust, you know. One of the old peasants, I remember when we got 300 Page Street, I came to visit in 1970. We had gotten it in 69. And there was an older, probably wasn't all that old, he was older than me, who had been a student for many years of Suzuki Roshi's, and at Bush Street, at Sokoji.

[32:14]

And... He moved to 300 Pace Street, as did almost all the students who lived in the flats in Japantown on Bush Street and Pine Street. And this particular student, who's no longer alive, took the name on Nanda. And he didn't like that we got 300 Pace Street. It was too big. There was too many people. You didn't get to... be close enough with Suzuki Sensei. He called him Suzuki Sensei. And, you know, too many rules, too many regulations. He liked it back in the day when it was just us folks practicing together with Suzuki Roshi. He would have liked not to pick up that piece of dust. Then he would have been in peace. And, you know, hallelujah. just going along the way it's always going along. But that is not what happened, you know.

[33:20]

And not to forget that when we pick up a piece of dust, when we try and do something, even for the best reasons, even with great intentions, even with as much wisdom as far as our practice eye can see, still, The peasants may frown, and still there may be unintended consequences. There may be, even with the most sincereness, sincerity of our practice, things happen that people are not happy about. So, right now, there's a lot of work being done. During, you know, all three temples of San Francisco Zen Center have been closed during COVID for quarantine and with very strict protocols.

[34:24]

And now with the vaccinations and there's changes. And Tassajara is closed again for a second summer. And we're discussing, there's a lot of discussion going on. What kind of Zen center are we just going to go back exactly to how things were? Was that the most beneficial for beings? For our great intention to practice Zazen and study the Buddha Dharma and carry on Suzuki Roshi's way for all beings is the form. is the speck of dust that's been raised? Maybe we need to raise up some other speck of dust or set down one speck and raise up another.

[35:26]

And there will be much furrowed brows, I think. I won't even tell you some of the things I've heard about some of the changes. That would be premature. However, if we don't pick up a speck of dust, the nation perishes. If we didn't take up our online Zoom events, all these relationships and caring for the Sangha members and being together during this unusual time of separation, It would wane. It would have waned. And who knows, you know, the damage done by not coming forth. But I think some people are not happy with all of this online stuff.

[36:28]

They want face-to-face. They want real contact. That makes sense. So there's furrowed brows and frowning. This is a piece of dust. that we have raised up. And so many people have, not just San Francisco Zen Center, all the groups all over the world are doing their best to continue to offer the Dharma as best we can. And, of course, so many other... groups and churches and temples and synagogues and non-profits of all shapes and sizes doing their best and making that change. Or if they didn't pick that speck of dust up, the nation would perish.

[37:34]

Yeah. So this picking up dust there's always positive and negative there's always good and bad beneficial and not beneficial there's no way you know we wish often we wish can't I go somewhere you know where there's no one of the koan says where there's no hot and cold you know where it's just peace you know And that peace, it's not that it has not found a peace, a tranquility, a deep serenity in our life, but it is in the midst of birth and death and good and bad and Buddhist and sentient beings and mistakes. And this is the muddy water. This is lotus and muddy water.

[38:41]

There is no place we can go in our limited life, in our life of a sentient being that is somehow outside of that. And in this koan, it says that Shweda, when he raised up his staff and said, are there any patch-rope monks who will live together and die together? And in the commentary, it says he was dripping mud and water when he said that. So Shwedo got kind of right in the middle of raising up something and flourishing and not raising up something and perishing. And who's happy about it? Who's not happy? Who is it good for?

[39:41]

Who is it bad for? And he just cuts through with his staff, you know, raising this staff. Whoa! Are there any patch robe monks, meaning practitioners, really? You know, the raksu is made of patches. The okesa is made of patches. In the old traditional way of sewing Buddha's robe, that's the form. But it is a field far beyond form. It is a formless field. And in that formless field of between good and bad, leaping clear, he asks, are there any patchwork monks who will live together and die together? And that's, for me, the turning phrase for this. whole story, really.

[40:46]

Are we going to live together and die together? We are in the same boat with all beings. We can't get out of the boat and swim to some lovely island where we're going to be safe. Our safety is right in the middle, practicing with all beings. And the joy, the endless joy of practicing together, the bliss body, really, this is the bliss body of the Buddha, the Sambhogakaya, is the practiced body that's endlessly practicing in both joy and sorrow. There is, as you probably well know, to practice with someone who's in sorrow or to be practicing with our own sorrow, there is a deep, almost unnameable joy that comes there as well.

[41:56]

So in the Buddha's enlightenment story, you know, he realized his true nature saying, marvelous, marvelous, all beings without exception are completely and thoroughly awakened, except they don't realize it. All beings and the great earth, nothing left out. How could it be left out of what it is? It just, it is. And he, for a while there, thought, I don't need to teach because all beings, without exception, are already awakened. Except they don't realize it, but they are. And then there was a request, you know, it says in the story, from Brahma. You know, there are beings who would benefit, who have, you know, who are very... close to really understanding your teaching. Please teach.

[43:01]

And the Buddha came down from the mountain. It is the image. And he picked up a speck of dust. And the nation flourished. He is coming down from the mountain to teach and to walk the earth, Roseapple Island, and teach. was throwing his lot in with all sentient beings who are not separate from Buddha. Only a Buddha and a Buddha together realize the true form of existence. So down from the mountain he came, picked up a speck of dust, and we've been listening and practicing and... taking to heart and vowing to practice in the same way since then.

[44:03]

And our vow to keep practicing that way forever is the Buddha body right now, right here, right now. That is the never-ending, everlasting, endless Buddha body. We are... creating that together endlessly with our own practice. But that is not to say that there are not the nation parishes as well. There are, you know, reading about a Buddhist country that is gunning down their children and citizenry and is heart-rending. And yet, we know Buddhist countries who have gone to war, who have used the Buddha Dharma in various ways that are not how it was intended, not for the benefit of beings.

[45:15]

So when you pick up a speck of dust, the nation flourishes, and yet, It doesn't mean that there's just one thing happens. And yet each thing that happens is Buddha Dharma. You know, just like in the Genjo Koan, you know, as all things are Buddha Dharma, there is birth and death, Buddhist and sentient beings, practice, realization. birth and death, there's all these things, they're all Buddha Dharma. As all things are Buddha Dharma, there's the 10,000 things, good and bad. And as each of these myriad things, this is Gencho Koan, is without an abiding self, there's no Buddhists, no sentient beings.

[46:22]

No birth, no death, no realization, no delusion. Who are there any? Or who are the patch-robed monks who will live and die together? Are there any? May there be, may there be many, may there be endless numbers who are willing, knowingly and willing, this is the Bodhisattva, knowingly and willingly pick up a speck of dust. Knowing that it is not separate from our Buddha nature. but also knowing that it is not, that we cannot be outside of the truth of suffering.

[47:32]

Still, we have to, we have to practice for the benefit of beings. So, Suzuki Roshi in this lecture at the end says, it's good, of course, to establish Zen Center. This was when it was, before it was San Francisco Zen Center, it was just Zen Center. Now there's so many Zen Centers of all places all over in the United States, and of course, all over the world there has been for millennia. Suzuki Roshi says, it's good, of course, to establish Zen Center, but if you are involved in small, selfish idea, then you cannot see Buddha's face. You cannot see Buddha's face again.

[48:35]

It is not visible. We study Buddhism to have enough courage to do something with it, with people. Big mind, you know, this big mind is limitless, but we are limited and we establish our practice in the middle of our delusion. This fusion of big mind and small mind is Buddha nature. You can't have one without the other. And big mind, as Suzuki Roshi says, accepts, can accept anything, can accept things as it is. So thank you very much for your coming today and your attention.

[49:45]

And I felt the benefit of talking with you, just your... your attention was beneficial for me as I turned this story with you. So thank you very much. 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.

[50:28]

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