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. So welcome, everyone, to Beginner's Mind Temple. Welcome to those who are here in the Zendo and those who are participating from your homes online. I'm curious, is there anyone who's here for the very first time? Special welcome to you. My name is Tova Green. I use she, her pronouns, and I'm a resident priest here at City Center. Today is a very special day.

[01:00]

for several reasons. This morning we celebrated Buddha's enlightenment. I'll talk a little bit more about that. It's a holiday, well, not exactly a holiday, but a ceremony that we do every year. It's usually on December 8th, but we... We have it coincide with the last day of our sesshin, Rohatsu sesshin, which is usually five or seven days, and this year it was five days. Today is the last day of sesshin, and it's also the last day of our two-month practice period. So many things to... some endings and some celebration today.

[02:01]

We'll also celebrate the end of our practice period later. I want to thank Central Abbott David Zimmerman for inviting me, as well as Eli Brown Stevenson and Timothy Wicks, our Head of Practice, to co-lead this practice period. It's been a wonderful journey. And I reflected a lot about what a journey is and what our path of practice is during this eight-week period. And the title of my talk today is Everything is Connected. The last time I spoke, I... I used another line from this three-line way of encapsulating our Zen practice that I learned from a poet, Jane Hirshfield.

[03:09]

She says, everything changes, everything is connected, pay attention. So last time I spoke about everything changes, which is still true. And today everything is connected. And pay attention is something that is very vital to our practice and our lives. And I'm going to try to weave together a few different themes today because everything is connected. The first one is welcoming beginner's mind, which is the topic that we've been taking up during this practice period. And that includes the ten ox-herding pictures. It's kind of a metaphor for our path of practice. And also we've been something about the life of the Buddha and his enlightenment and why that's important for us.

[04:11]

And then our own path of practice and possibly seeing something about our own path that connects with the Buddha's path practice. So I'm going to share a poem which I have shared before. It just seems so relevant to all of these themes. It's called The Way It Is by William Stafford, the late William Stafford. Just a little glimpse of William Stafford's life. He spent most of his adult life in Oregon, and he was a conscientious objector during World War II. So he had to do alternative service, and he did outdoor service in a work camp. And he would get up early before everyone else and use that time to be quiet and to write. So the way it is.

[05:15]

There's a thread you follow. It goes among things that change, but it doesn't change. People wonder about what you are pursuing. You have to explain about the thread, but it is hard for others to see. While you hold it, you can't get lost. Tragedies happen, people get hurt, or die. And you suffer and get old. Nothing you do can stop times unfolding. You don't ever let go of the thread. So hearing that, you may wonder, what is that thread for you? When did you first notice it? How do you experience it now? So that thread I think has to do with this path of practice, what brought each of us here today, what brought some of us here all week, what brought some of us here for years, and the way in which

[06:49]

we can learn through our practice to welcome everything, welcome all parts of ourselves, and welcome others. So the essence of welcoming, so we studied a book called Welcoming Beginner's Mind by Galen Ferguson, and it's... You know, the usual idea of welcoming, if you're a host, is to provide an enjoyable or it could be a listening ear. It could be to provide a glass of water, to provide an open door. And Galen Ferguson takes that and... in a slightly different direction, welcoming is our true nature. And I'm going to quote Galen Ferguson.

[07:54]

It's not the result of years of hardcore spiritual practice. It's the mind of not knowing what is already here with us. Our true nature is like the sky, the ocean, a mountain, the moon, the stars. And it's like yesterday, Timothy Wicks referred to it, describing it as magnanimous mind. And sometimes we can experience that in a period of zazen or during sushin. And Tim also spoke about the silence. It's sometimes more accessible when we're silent and still. So Galen Ferguson explored welcoming through referring to these 10 ox herding pictures.

[08:56]

They're pictures that originate, at least the ones that he used in China many centuries ago, and have been, I would say, depicted in different ways. by different artists and also often they come with a verse and they describe a path of discovery. I'll just name them because I think it helps to imagine the pictures. The first one is seeking. seeking for the ox. The ox is a metaphor for our mind and sometimes you might want to think about what if there were an animal that you would be that would represent for you this kind of powerful being that you may not feel

[10:12]

so comfortable with initially. For some people, actually someone in our practice period thought of a bison and wrote a song about it. Could be a tiger. Could be the waves of the ocean. But these pictures are about an ox or a water buffalo, which was a sacred... a very hard-working animal in India and China, particularly India. I'm not sure about China, but India. So the first ox-herding picture is of a person who's on a quest. There's a... He or she or they are just not sure what they're looking for.

[11:14]

And then they see in the next picture traces, footprints of this ox. And they're curious. They want to follow the footprints. And then they catch a glimpse of part of the ox, substitute your animal or whatever. feels like a good metaphor for you. And that can have to do with perhaps your first experience of meditation or visiting a Buddhist center somewhere looking for something that might help you feel maybe easing some painful situation in your life or some curiosity you have about something you might not know what it is, but that's bigger than yourself, but not seeing it as part of yourself yet.

[12:26]

And then getting closer and actually touching this ox and maybe going a little deeper until you are able to ride the ox but still feeling there might be some struggle, you might need a little direction until at some point you feel comfortable with the ox and that picture has in the ox herding pictures is the person riding the ox and playing a flute totally at ease and in a sense there's no struggle the person and the ox communicating without words and then there's a picture where the ox disappears and it's just the person in nature

[13:35]

you know, forgetting, perhaps forgetting the ox. And then the next picture is just an ENSO, an open circle, no ox, no ox herder. And sometimes this one, that picture is thought of as enlightenment or, you know, there's this phrase that We sometimes hear in Dogen's teaching, dropping off body and mind. It's hard to express it in words. And we don't stop there. The next picture, which is the ninth picture, has to do with returning to the source. And it's just an image of nature. And then the last one has to do with being in the world.

[14:43]

And sometimes it's called returning to the world with gift-bestowing hands. And if you're thinking of your own path of practice, perhaps you have spent some time, a practice period at Tassajara, or longer, or you have done a Sashin, and then you return to your home. your work, your family, your friends, but something has changed. And although these are ten pictures, this path is not linear and there can be more of us up and down or in and out. It's not linear. In some ways, for those of you who have been practicing in the sishin, you may have experienced all of those states, and some of them perhaps more than once.

[15:48]

So as we think about our own path, we might want to also learn a little. You may be familiar with the Buddhist path already. But I'm going to just mention a few of the key moments in the life of the Buddha that help us understand why we celebrate Buddha's enlightenment. We also have holidays celebration ceremonies for Buddha's birthday in the spring and Buddha's parinirvana, Buddha's leaving the world. I think that one's usually in February. But Buddha's Enlightenment is really the only time where we celebrate by circumambulating the zendo, tossing flower petals and having people sound the drum as we chant the Heart Sutra in Japanese.

[16:58]

And it's very joyful. So partway through the ceremony, Eno chanted these words, On this winter morning many centuries ago, after long and patient struggle to find the truth, a human being looked up and saw the morning star for the first time and was set completely free, laying down his heavy burden once and for all. realizing unsurpassable peace, heart opened wide as the sky. And then from his mouth came forth a great lion's roar. I was, am, and will be fully awakened simultaneously with the entire universe. So that, we don't know for sure, that's what the Buddha said, but...

[18:00]

It's pretty powerful. I will be fully awakened simultaneously with the entire universe. So connecting with everything, nothing left out. So the Buddha, who originally his name at birth was Siddhartha Gautami, was born into a wealthy family. His father had a lot of power in the community. His father's name was Sudhana. And when Siddhartha was born, his father gathered together a large number of wise people, friends, some spiritual people to help him think about what his son might become.

[19:08]

And there were a few wise men, wise people in that group who made a prophecy that Siddhartha would either become a ruler himself like his father or a a man of the world, or he would have a spiritual path. He would take a spiritual path. And his father really wanted to encourage the first option, not the second option. So he created a situation where the Buddha was, or Siddhartha, was in a way kept inside the walls of his home, It was a large home and gardens and so on. But he was not allowed outside except for one time when he was young. And his father took him to a celebration of the planting of fields and left him in the care of two nurses.

[20:23]

And he was sitting under a tree, a rose apple tree. And the nurses left. And he was alone and began looking around. And what he saw as the land was being plowed under, he saw a lot of creatures who were being killed and felt the pain of those insects. as they were dying. And it prompted a deep pain for young Siddhartha. And then he decided he would just sit under the tree. And during that time, he experienced a state of deep concentration and also openness and this sense of being one that was one with the tree. everything around him that was actually very joyful.

[21:26]

And that is something he remembered later in his life. So as he grew up, he was still spending his time inside this home. He became very curious about what might be outside the walls. So he asked the charioteer named Chana to help him get outside the walls. And he was taken on a ride in the chariot. And first he saw a man who was stepping, walking with a cane, bent over. moving very slowly and Siddhartha had never seen a person like that and asked the charioteer and was told this was an old man and there were many people who experienced aging.

[22:35]

And then they saw someone who was very distraught and in pain and Chana explained that that was a person who was ill. Siddhartha had never seen someone who was ill. And then they passed some people carrying a corpse. I've actually seen that in India. People in a funeral procession will carry a corpse through the streets of the city. So that was a man who had died. And then further along, They passed someone whose head was shaven and was wearing yellow robe who looked very peaceful. And Chana explained that this was a monk, a man who had renounced the world. And Chana was praising the ascetic life that this man represented.

[23:45]

So when Gautama returned home, he became very thoughtful and a shift had occurred in his view of the world. So he was aware of the suffering that lay in wait for everyone without exception. realized that he was not comfortable any longer being so separate from the experience that others were having, and also that he wanted to see if there was some way he could help people find some relief. And by that time, he was about 29, So the story goes. And he had married, his wife was named Yasodhara, and they had just had a son.

[24:53]

And Gautama named the child Rahula, and there's some discussion about whether this is the best translation, but it was better. something that was holding him back. And he decided to leave home one night. He had a horse. He mounted his horse and rode out of his home initially with Chana. Chana brought the horse back, I think is the story. And... He set out to find a path, to find a way to meet the suffering of the world and yet to find a way of not being so focused on himself and his own ease and pleasure.

[26:09]

And he searched for six years again, the story goes, initially trying to find a teacher. And he studied yoga. He found a teacher who was able to reach elevated, or I think you might call it concentration, but also elevated states of mind through yoga. And Siddhartha became very adept at that, and so much so that this teacher invited him to join him in teaching, but he realized that those states were very fleeting. They didn't last. And then he tried, a second teacher had the same experience. Then he noticed that there were many people who were trying to reach this state of freedom through renunciation and

[27:10]

So he practiced eating very little, wearing very little clothing, particularly when it was cold, putting himself through very difficult conditions and eventually becoming extremely weak. And apparently, actually we saw in a museum a statue of the Buddha as a renunciant where you could see his ribs in the rib cage. And he somehow realized or remembered that experience he'd had as a child of feeling peaceful and joyful under the rose apple tree And he decided to start eating again. And he had five companions who were also renunciants, and they were appalled when he started eating again.

[28:13]

But he realized he needed to regain his energy. And he found a place where he could sit under a tree, sometimes called a Bodhi tree. And the place that's now... called Bodh Gaya in India and settled into meditation. And then during this long night of meditation, he was visited by Mara. It was in a way a depiction of a shadow self that we may all have. But Mara tried to scare him, to tempt him with visions of women and to kind of distract him.

[29:17]

And the Buddha's response was to put his hand down, touch the earth and feel supported by the earth. below him, and Mara was unable to dissuade him or distract him, deter him from sitting there. And then, so the story goes, when he woke and saw the morning star and said those words, that he had an experience of what would later be known as the Four Noble Truths, that there is suffering. And his formulation was that suffering was caused by craving, craving things we don't have.

[30:24]

And there's a path to be free of craving. He used the word nirvana. And then there's a path to get there, the Eightfold Path. So Suzuki Roshi talked about this journey of the Buddha. And Tim referred to this in his talk at the... the beginning of our Sushin. Suzuki Roshi said, it's important to be yourself by practicing the right way of life. This is why Buddha could not accept the religions existing at his time. He studied many religions, but he was not satisfied with their practices.

[31:29]

He could not find the answer in asceticism or in philosophies. He was not interested in some metaphysical existence, but in his own body and mind here and now. He found, when the Buddha, so once he was enlightened, he... was called the Buddha, which means the root of Buddha, B-U-D-D, is awakening. When he found himself, he found that everything that exists has Buddha nature. That was his enlightenment. The state of mind that exists when you sit in the right posture is itself enlightenment. So he said everything has Buddha nature. And then later on, Dogen, our ancestor in Japan, changed it to say everything is Buddha nature.

[32:40]

And Buddha nature is just another name for human nature, our true human nature. That takes us back to our own journeys, to our own experience. Let's have some water. The question is, and yes, please feel free to sit in rest position, what brought each of you here today? For some of you, it might be like the ox herder in the first picture, looking for something, some words or an experience that may help you in a difficult time or bring you a sense of connection with others.

[33:48]

For those of you who've been sitting Sashin, you may have experienced many hindrances, which Eli described in a talk, as well as moments of ease or even joy. You may feel encouraged to continue exploring this path. And for some of us who've been on this path for several years or longer, we too may have had challenging moments. during Sashin, dealing with physical pain or difficult memories, feelings of grief, despair, fear, or anger. We chose to spend these days, five days for those of us who have been sitting together in person, three days for those who have been sitting Sashin online. We chose to spend these days in the company of others, dear sangha, feeling the support, the energy of everyone doing zazen, walking meditation, listening to Dharma talks, going on walks outside, doing exercise, and returning to zazen.

[35:10]

And this is very precious, even if this is your favorite. your first time sitting in this sendo with others. We may need the support of one another in the days to come and in the coming year. So I would encourage you to remember to touch the earth in whatever place or form that has meaning for you. Remember that sangha is available to you In January, this whole building, Beginner's Mind Temple, will gradually, fully reopen. May it be a place of refuge, renewal, and connection for you. Remember that teachings and teachers are here to support your practice. Remember the thread. So I'll end by...

[36:16]

sharing this poem one more time. The way it is. There's a thread you follow. It goes among things that change, but it doesn't change. People wonder about what you are pursuing. You have to remember. You have to explain about the thread. but it is hard for others to see. While you hold it, you can't get lost. Tragedies happen, people get hurt or die, and you suffer and get old. Nothing you do can stop times unfolding. You don't ever let go of the thread. Thank you very much for your kind attention. Thank you for listening to this podcast offered by the San Francisco Zen Center.

[37:23]

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.

[37:42]

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