This podcast is offered by the San Francisco Zen Center on the web at www.sfzc.org. Our public programs are made possible by donations from people like you. My ears are... What happens to your ears? Sometimes they get... Anyway, it feels like I'm talking from inside a cloud. So, I just wanted to mention that. I wanted to talk today about a very, very basic teaching called the Four Dharma Seals. Seals, like... And before I begin that part of the talk, I wanted to recite a poem, and this poem is inscribed on the great Obancho, the temple bell, the large bell that's been ringing for the last 15 minutes, and

[01:28]

Often people are just sitting here quietly waiting and practicing meditation and listening to that bell. I think of that bell as a community bell because when it was cast, it was cast in Japan, there was a call for anyone who would like to contribute metal to go into the crucible. I'm not sure exactly, the cauldron or however they create the bell. And when there's precious metal included, the sound of the bell becomes more clear. I think some people donated some old silver from their grandmother. And so... this Obancho or honored big bell sounds throughout the valley when it's rung.

[02:42]

And the inscription on it embossed or that was cast within the bell says, well, I should mention that Green Gulch Farm is also called Green Dragon Temple. Green Dragon Temple. So the bell says, awakened by the sound of the old bell, the sky-headed, sea-tailed, green gulch dragon stirs the fine mists and rain of right dharma for east and west. farming and greeting guests, the pre-voice of this old bell is not hindered by the wind. Awakened by the sound of the temple bell, the sky-headed sea-tailed green gulch dragon stirs the fine mists and rain of right dharma for east and west, farming and

[03:55]

and greeting guests, farming and greeting guests, the sound of the bell is not hindered by the wind. It's not the last line. This is what happens when you memorize things, the pre-voice. The pre-voice of the old bell is not hindered by the wind. So this bell was from the 70s, I think, early 80s, and it includes the dragon that's awake. The dragon in Eastern culture is the animal of awakening and energy for practice, it's not thought of as something dangerous that you would want to slay, although it carries the pearl of great wisdom under its chin.

[05:06]

So it's hard to get a hold of that wisdom because the dragon flies and dips and swirls across the ocean and So it's awakened by the bell. And if you picture Green Gulch, the sky-headed, if you think of Hope Cottage, way up on the hill, and the dragon, you know, the curve of the valley down to the sea-tailed, with its tail at Muir Beach, right in the ocean, sky-headed, sea-tailed, Green Gulch dragon, stirs the fine mists and rain of Dharma. And then this last line of farming and greeting guests. This is, you know, embossed in this medal, the bell, our pledge, our commitment to farming and farming in all senses of the word.

[06:08]

I think farming the land, taking care of this valley, farming the land, our own hearts and digging deep and sowing the seeds of transformation in all the myriad ways that we're committed to and greeting guests. This is not just an insular, you know, exclusive kind of place, community. This is open, open. In fact, our covenant with Mr. Wheelwright, who gave us, made it possible for us to be here, was that we remain open to the public, that the public have complete access, and that we engage in agriculture. So these are the real basic commitments of Green Gulch Farm, Green Dragon Temple.

[07:12]

And yesterday we had the honor of hosting a community event for the Marin Community Foundation. And 150 people came and had lunch with us and explored Green Gulch, different tours of the garden, the farm, the architecture here, meditation hall. So it was a wonderful... community event and community in the widest sense. Communing, exchanging, communing means to exchange intimate conversation. So to have an intimate conversation with ourselves, with whoever comes here, with the guests, the hosts and the guests, intimately exchanging life. so that who is host and who is guest, sometimes we can't tell.

[08:21]

So the need for community, in the deepest sense, our own physical bodies are bodies that respond to other human beings that are regulated and balanced by living with others and to be engaged in community life in all different ways, not just Green Gulch community, but all the ways that we can be is healthy and balancing and in alignment, really, with how we're built as psychophysical beings. We need other beings. So this last line where it says, farming and greeting guests, the pre-voice of the old bell is not hindered by the wind.

[09:32]

And that last line is, what is that? What's a pre-voice? And what do you mean hindered by the wind? And I was turning that... This poem, by the way, was written by the abbot of Gringold at the time we were established in 1972. Zentatsu Richard Baker wrote this poem. And the pre-voice, sometimes there's a phrase, the pre-voice of the 10,000 things. The pre-voice of the 10,000 things, I would say, is their interconnectedness And I'll come back to that when I talk about the four Dharma seals. But this pre-voice of this sound of the bell, the silence before we hear the bell, is not hindered by the wind. And what came to me around this phrase, not hindered by the wind, there's...

[10:41]

There's a teaching of the eight winds, the eight winds, which it's interesting. I always forget, you know, a couple of them, you know, these eight winds. It's very, very basic. These winds that blow us around, you know, it says the pre-voice of the bell is not hindered by the winds, and these winds can blow us all over the place, up, down, and all around, pick us up and turn us around. And these wins are gain and loss, good reputation and bad reputation, pleasure and pain, and praise and blame. So you can imagine those as wins. running after praise, you know, and then we don't get praise, and then we're thrown down into blame, and then that was painful, and then pleasure, and then, oh, I've got a good rip, bad rip, just up, down, all around.

[11:56]

These are the eight winds. And if we're, what is the practice of not being thrown around by those winds, not being hindered by the winds? You can't stop the wind. There will be praise and blame and pleasure and pain and good reputation and bad reputation. We can't somehow get out of that, somehow go to a place where there's no such thing. The winds blow and how can they not hinder us? What is our practice in the midst of the winds? I sprained my ankle a couple weeks ago. And I am now in a position that I thought would be comfortable, but it's not. So I'm going to move my sprained ankle into another spot. Pleasure and pain. So the pre-voice

[13:07]

of the old bell isn't hindered by the wind. What is the pre-voice? The poet Jane Hirschfield, who is a Mill Valley resident and a practitioner of Buddha Dharma, I was told the story was that a friend of hers was writing a book and she was asked to either comment on it or edited or helped in some way, and it's a big book, I think, and Jane said she had seven words to describe Buddhism. And some of you may know this wonderful poem, the seven words describing Buddhism. Everything changes. Everything is interconnected. Pay attention. Seven words. Everything changes. Everything is connected.

[14:10]

Pay attention. That's a wonderful thimble, thimbleful? A wonderful haiku, you know, just of our Buddhist practice. And it reminded me of the four dharma seals, the four seals. So these four seals, you know, if you think of what a seal is, it, you know, to authenticate something, you know, if you have a particular seal of someone's name or their, or the seal of, you know, the state of California embossed, a seal on a document shows that it's authentic. This is the real deal. This is, it's been authenticated and there used to be a practice of, in making contracts in ancient times where the seal would be on two pieces of paper, two copies of the contract and the seal would be stamped so that half was on one side and half was on the other and

[15:35]

that would show that they were in a contract because you would put those together, it would make the whole seal. So these seals, if you can picture these four teachings, when these are present, it's said that these are Shakyamuni Buddha's teaching and if the teaching has all four of these seals, it's authentic teaching from Shakyamuni Buddha, these four Dharma seals, Buddha Dharma seals. So the seals are, these four are sometimes given in different orders. So I'm going to do this in this order. The first seal is everything, changes.

[16:36]

Everything is impermanent. Everything. Everything is impermanent or everything changes. And the second Dharma seal is the teaching that there is no abiding self or no separate. It goes along with the first teaching. Everything changes. Everything is impermanent. And you could almost say, and therefore, there's no substantial separate abiding self, either of a person or a thing or a place. It's always changing. So therefore, there would be nothing abiding or separate And I think in Jane's poem, she starts out, everything changes, everything is connected.

[17:41]

And I think the kind of concomitant teachers around no teaching about no abiding self is along with that is you could turn it upside down or the other side of it is everything is connected. If there's no separate selves, things and people and places, and then everything is connected with everything else. So everything is connected, it goes along with that. Everything changes. There's no abiding, separate, substantialness, separate, or everything is connected. And the third... The third seal, and Jane doesn't really say this, she says, although it's embedded in there, she says, pay attention.

[18:43]

And the third seal is there is suffering, there is distress, there is stress, there is anxiety. This is also one of the four noble truths, the truth of suffering. And so when Jane says pay attention, and you can pay attention to everything changes, pay attention to everything's connected, pay attention to our life, and what do you see? What do you see when you pay close attention? You may see that there is birth and death, sickness, old age, there is loss. There is being forced to be with beings that you don't get along with, that you don't even like, that you dislike, and finding you have to be with them, and being separated from those that you care for and love and long for.

[19:55]

This is all the Dharma seal of the truth of suffering, or there is suffering. There's also the suffering, well let me go to the fourth seal and then we'll come back to the four. So the fourth seal, the fourth Dharma seal is nirvana is tranquility or nirvana is peace. Now I don't know about you, but the word nirvana I think was, I think I imprinted on that word in my teens or something as, in an incorrect way maybe, that it was some bliss, heavenly place that all your problems would be gone and you could go there.

[21:06]

What does Tina Fey say in 30 Rock? I want to go there. Do you know that show? I heard that she got that from her daughter, who was little, like three years old or something, and when she was told about Disneyland, her little daughter, her daughter said, I want to go there. Anyway, so the same with Nirvana. Nirvana, Disneyland. I want to go there, you know, as if... there was this some place to get rid of all our problems and go there and go somewhere else, any place else. So I think that's a misunderstanding. And this Dharma seal, nirvana is tranquility. Nirvana is peace. Nirvana is sometimes the root of the word means to, well, there's two roots that I've One is to uncover, to uncover.

[22:09]

Another is to blow out or extinguish. And I think that tends towards the meaning of I want to go there somewhere else and extinguish all this difficulty. So as the fourth seal, what are we talking about when it says Nirvana is tranquility? So coming back to the seals, we'll go through. Every time I say the word seal, I think of... Dharma seals. So the first one, everything changes. So this is something that we can intellectually hear and say, yes, of course, I understand that completely. I see that, and yet the depth to which this is true is, you know, to open our eyes to this, to accept this, to open our hearts to this teaching of everything changes.

[23:22]

And of course, sometimes we're very happy that it's changed, and other times, you know, it's bad news that something's changed, and we can't stop this ever. flowing, arising and vanishing life. This is the life that we share. This is the community ferry boat. We're all in the boat together. And this, along with this, everything changes or nothing is permanent. There are practices that go with this because if everything is changing this speaks directly to our tendency to want to grasp and want to cling to and want to hold on and not have things change or to push away change or to pull pushing and pulling and grasping it so this to meditate or reflect on or turn over and over in the deepest way

[24:35]

this teaching of everything changes also goes right to the heart of our own grasping tendencies, our own pushing away and grasping. And the teaching that there's no abiding self also speaks to this as well. If there's no... abiding self but a changing and ever-flowing self than attachment and grasping and a self-centered, a life based on self-centeredness we can see as a life of not in alignment with reality. And when we're not in alignment, just like in our posture, or in yoga, or in our ethics, or whenever we're not in alignment, there will be, and this flows into the third teaching, a life of suffering.

[25:49]

So the suffering comes from all these things that I mentioned, old age sickness and death, being forced to be with those we don't love, being separated from those we do love, and also the suffering of the fact that things that are pleasant and pleasurable and that we love will end, and we know that. So right in the middle of pleasure, there's this... So this suffering comes... You could say the cause of suffering embedded in these four is the teaching of cause and effect. So this suffering arises when we are not living in accord with and in alignment with those first two teachings.

[26:52]

Everything changes. and there's no separate or abiding self, or everything's connected. When we're not in alignment with those two teachings, then there's suffering. And the nirvana is tranquility, nirvana is tranquility, is when we live in accordance with or make our efforts to live in accordance with these first two teachings. Everything changes. No abiding self, no separate self. Then there's peace, then there's tranquility. In the midst of birth, death, sickness, lamentation, loss,

[27:54]

Right in the midst of our life, right in the midst of our life, not going somewhere other, right in the midst of our life, when we're in alignment with four seals, there's peace and tranquility, even in the middle of painful situations. So this teaching is... you know, very, very basic, and at the same time, and it's, for those of you who have been practicing and studying and coming to Dharma Talks, and this is not news, you know. And I think our effort is how do we settle ourselves, settle into these teachings, accept and, you know,

[29:00]

I have felt the tendency to fight against or to close up around these basic teachings, to at times find it difficult to open to this, to let go of my habitual way of But no, no, can't be. And also the deep, the deep, what's called ignorance. When we talk about ignorance in Zen or Buddhism, we're talking about the ignorance of these four, you know, living a life based on ignoring in various ways that everything changes, that there's nothing we can do. grasp in a substantial way at our ignorance of and belief in a separate self that we feel we can verify in some way.

[30:18]

These are strong, strong held views and in some ways practice of studying these views, studying how we're holding, studying our grasping mind thoroughly, that in itself is how we wake up to the reality of our life. So again, this tendency to, well, I want to go there, away from all this, and skip over the studying part, skip over the deep reflection in each moment on these truths, the tendency to want to just get away from it. So coming back to, there's a line in a teaching called the Genjo Koan, the

[31:30]

The issue at hand, this issue at hand is our interconnectedness and our ever-flowingness. And in that teaching it says those who are greatly, who have greatly realized this delusion that we have, who have great realization about this delusion of separateness and the delusion of substantialness and non-flowing. Those who have great realization of this are awakened. Those who have great delusion about how this works are deluded. So the inclusive study, the deep study in this deep study and seeing how this is in our own lives is transformative.

[32:35]

And it's not that it somehow takes it away, but we understand how it works. We understand, and our actions then come into alignment, and we can see, we can catch ourselves in our activity based on ignoring these teachings. So this basic tendency to ignore that everything changes, even though we know it's true, intellectually we know it's true, is at the root of our painful, different kinds of painful situations. this teaching of everything changes or impermanence.

[33:47]

There's a wonderful teaching about these four different horses, four horses, and you can find this teaching in Suzuki Roshi, in the Zen master Dogen, and also earlier the Shakyamuni Buddha taught about, used this example as a way to study how we're relating to this teaching of impermanence. So in the oldest teaching, in the Samyutta, Agama, Suttas, the Buddha brings up the four horses. Someone, a non-Buddhist person comes to him and says, you know, teach me. what are the teachings of Buddhism? I want to know everything. And the Buddha remains silent.

[34:49]

And after a time, the Buddha having noble silence, this person says, thank you, thank you very, very much. You have changed my entire life. Thank you so much. And goes off. And Ananda, the Buddha's attendant, for many, many years, says, you didn't say anything, Buddha, you didn't say anything. What did this person understand? You didn't say a word. And the Buddha said, he, and then he offered this teaching of the four horses, and he said, there are four kinds of horses. There's the one that runs at the shadow of the whip. the one that runs when the tip of the whip hits the hair on its back, the horse that runs when the whip hits its skin, and the one where the whip has to reach to the marrow of its bones.

[35:58]

And he said about this gentleman who had come, he said, he ran at the shadow of the whip, Now, I think there's lots of ways we can turn this teaching, but in this, the whip, in this case, that whip is the teaching of impermanence, the teaching that everything changes. And to be able to run at the shadow of the whip, or to run, or to practice, to practice thoroughly when, and the Buddha says, when you hear of some distant village somewhere that had a flooding and people were hurt. And upon hearing that, you take up the practice thoroughly and begin on your path. That's running at the shadow of the whip. Someone who hears about their own hometown, their own village, where there was some earthquake or disaster,

[37:07]

You hear that? That's like running when the whip of impermanence hits your skin, the hair, actually the hair of your back. And then the Buddha says when you hear of your own parents dying or something happening to them, that's like the whip hitting your skin. And then when you look at your own impermanence, your own death, your own ultimately unavoidable demise, our own death, if you run then, that's the whip hitting the marrow down to the marrow. So this teaching of everything changes or impermanence, we can, sometimes it doesn't come home, you know.

[38:14]

It doesn't come home until it comes closer, you know. We need to be, to really have it hurt when we finally turn and let go of our, and stop ignoring, let's say, and take up this reflection, self-reflection. So, just a few more words about this teaching of no abiding self. And the other side of that coin is completely connected with everything. If I arise, it's not in a vacuum. Everything arises with me.

[39:15]

The air I breathe, the sun, the mists and the rain, all of you people who are here today, this is all coming together in a connected way. And we make stories up of our separation. We have lots of stories, I have lots of stories, of how we're separated. And that is, Suzuki Roshi has this, had a scroll that said, a piece of stone in the air. Not sure what the characters were for that, but piece of stone in the air. And this is kind of what we do. We make substantialness, stone, separate pieces of stone or ideas, very concrete, conceptual ways of dividing the world up, but they're in the air. There is no stone in the air that can float around in the air.

[40:17]

So these ways we have of viewing the world, living in the world, this is our karmic consciousness, this is This is what's there to study. There's no other way to study it but studying right here, right now, how we conceptualize the world in this divided, substantial nuggets. And the more we study that, the more we see it's impossible. And there's a joy in that study, I think. Whether we ever come to the end of the study or not, within that study is change, has to be, and transformation and a growth in wisdom which meets this ignorance.

[41:25]

So in community, this intimate exchange of, you know, that can be difficult when we are holding on to something substantial and believe in it, and the other person's holding on to something substantial. And, you know, what do you have here? You've got fists, actually, is what you end up having sometimes. So... You know, how do we, how can we open, open to each other? And this is whatever community you're in, community of work, community of family, one's own interpersonal community of all the beings and parts of ourselves, and community of practitioners, sangha. This is one of the great, this is the treasure of Sangha, a place to uncover together and find peace.

[42:46]

Nirvana as tranquility and peace is living in accord with everything changes, everything's connected, And then studying that, paying attention. And our suffering, there's the suffering of, you know, that's not discretionary suffering of pain and loss. All those things do not go away. But the more we understand, the more we understand the teaching, the more we can respond when those things arise in our life in a way that's calm and flexible and peaceful and can help others too. So it's not that those things stop magically, it's that we understand how to practice in the midst of those things.

[43:56]

So the suffering and finding our composure in suffering means not ignoring those teachings and the tranquility. So, I just want to mention that today is a World Food Day. I don't know if, I didn't know this, I just, someone sent me an email around this. And there's a number of demonstrations about labeling GMO, genetically modified, what's the O stand for?

[45:04]

and marches in Washington, and we also have all the expressions going around in the Occupy Wall Street, Occupy San Francisco. I received an email from the Buddhist Peace Fellowship about Occupy Oakland. They're doing a meditation actually right at 12.30. and in conjunction with Occupy Wall Street. So there's community, intimate exchange, and communing all across the country, whether one is in support or not in support, is each person's prerogative, each person's understanding and relationship to it. Tenshin Roshi and I went down to Occupy San Francisco last Wednesday just to see what was happening, and a number of people went from here to sit last week, and probably more people will be going as an expression of support, and the expression was to sit, to sit together.

[46:31]

to sit upright, eyes open, and study what is arising, study what's happening, paying attention. So this is... There's some changes going on here. And inquiry and response. And what is our response? So I'm going to end again with the bell. You can go and look at the inscription if you want or take a rubbing of it. It's right on the bell. By this Japanese bell, the sky-headed, sea-tailed, green gulch dragon stirs the fine mists and rain of rite dharma for east and west.

[47:41]

Farming and greeting guests, the pre-voice of this old bell is not hindered by the wind. Thank you very much. Please help us to continue to realize and actualize the practice of giving by offering your financial support. For more information, visit sfcc.org and click Giving. May we fully enjoy the Dharma.

[48:23]

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