Good morning, everybody. Thank you so much for coming to Green Gulch for the Dharma Talk today. Dharma Talk will be offered by our abiding abbess, Fu Schrader, and she'll be taking her seat momentarily. A live transcript has been enabled, so there's an automated subtitle option for this talk that you're welcome to turn on or turn off as you'd like on your own device settings, and feel free to message me in the chat if you have any questions about that. Once the abbess takes her seat, we will chant together with her the before lecture verse, which I'm putting into the chat window momentarily. So please chant along on mute if you'd like. surpassed penetrating and perfect normal is rarely met with even in a hundred thousand million of us having it to see and listen to to remember and accept I bow

[09:35]

To taste the truth of the Tathagata's words. Good morning. It's gotten very complicated. Our ritual. So I want to welcome everyone in this room. It's nice to be in this room together. for so long we've been just online with each other and it's really great to come back into the zendo especially i want to welcome the farm and garden and land apprentices who i had the good fortune to meet with yesterday and so hoping that you'll be able to join us for the summer those of you who wish to thank you for coming and i want to welcome uh through this small aperture here i was thinking of this as a peephole through time and space All of you in the online sangha, the Sunday sangha, I'm so grateful you're able to join us as well.

[10:39]

I can't see you, but I have some faith that you can see us. You look a little like E.T., as a matter of fact. I'm grateful for the magic. So what I want to talk about this morning is magic, inspiration, what inspires us. I think we've all been going through a lot of challenging and pretty uninspiring news cycles the last few years, maybe our whole lives, illness, warfare, political confusion, very kind, racial violence, starvation, losses, personal losses in our own lives. These are hard times, maybe always hard times. But it seems that within the darkness of the bad news, a light has always arisen within our species. For the Buddhist tradition, that light we call awakening.

[11:44]

This word Buddha means to be awake. So awake is a quality that humans have. We're born with this quality. And sometimes it's just a brief glimmer we have for ourselves of what that is, what that might be. And other times it's a mind-altering transformation, as it was for Shakyamuni, as he sat under a tree 2,500 years ago. So I want to propose that those times, whether they're brief or long in duration, take place when we are inspired by life. Awakening takes place when we are inspired by life. And I think that inspiration, as I said, comes in a great many forms at surprising times. One of the students was talking about how he saw a banana slug crossing the road. And another student mentioned taking a walk in the snow at dusk.

[12:53]

And for both of them, Those were moments that surprised them. And they felt something really new happened at that time. Some glimmer. Some awakening. Where have I been? Banana slugs have been here a lot longer than we have. Where have we been? So the reason I want to talk about inspiration this morning is because of one such surprising moment that happened to me the other day while I was reading the news cycle. Most of it the bad news cycle. But along with that, there was an article about a world-renowned chef by the name of Massimo Bottura. Any of you know Massimo Bottura? No, I didn't either. However, he is Italy's most famous chef, and his three Michelin-starred restaurant, Osteria Francescana in Moderna,

[13:54]

is the two-time winner of the best restaurant in the world. But that's not the part about the story that was inspiring to me. That was interesting. But what was inspiring is what I read about him. It was in this article, what he did next. It said that despite his standing as one of the world's greatest chefs... Massimo Bottura says to this reporter that the pinnacle of his achievement is his Refrittorio Ambrosiano, excuse my Italian, and its 12 global spin-offs. At Refrittorio Ambrosiano, dinner guests are greeted by name and served a three-course meal prepared by volunteer chefs who have been trained in the finest restaurants in the world. The set menu changes daily depending on what comes in with the morning's delivery. That morning, the delivery contained wilted arugula, chicken very close to its sell by date, two ugly to be sold oranges, and only enough shrimp for about half of the anticipated guests.

[15:02]

And yet by dinnertime, the supermarket castoffs had been transformed into a feast. The shrimp sauteed with the arugula for a pasta starter and the roast chickens slathered in fragrant orange glaze. Dessert was a rich mousse made from donated chocolate and almost past its prime whipping cream. The 100 or so guests at these nightly offerings are living on the streets of Milan. They're homeless, they're runaways, unemployed, and refugees who are treated with kindness and respect. Bottura thinks of this restaurant, as he says to the reporter, as a catalyst, not only affirming the dignity of the guests, and drawing light and art into neglected neighborhoods, but also focusing attention on the growing global food waste crisis by turning surplus food, otherwise destined for landfills, into nutritious and tasty meals freely given to those who have been cut off from the vital resources of their planet.

[16:11]

So what I found so inspirational about this man It was not his talent as a cook. And although food was a medium in which he was doing his work, it was his action in the world at that moment when he was being spotlighted for his gifts and the choices that he made about how to function in that light. How to turn the light of attention away from himself and toward those people in this world least likely to benefit from his special talent. least likely to eat in a restaurant or to be served by kind and courteous waiters. So somehow his exuberance for food and for life was wide enough and inclusive enough to break through the cycle of his own privilege, one that most of us share. And to share that strength and talent with the greater gathering, the human family and the more than human family. of living beings.

[17:15]

So this story was for me a lot like the Jataka tales, which are told in the Buddhist literature about the bodhisattvas, the beings who are devoted to awakening and who shine their light into dark places. In the case of Massimo and set a table there, a banquet table for the benefit of others. A long time ago, I heard a description of the difference between heaven and hell. Maybe some of you know it. In hell, there are banquet tables that are set with scrumptious food. And the sound of moaning fills the halls of hell as the hungry guests are given chopsticks too long with which to feed themselves. In heaven, the table is set the very same way. However, the guests use their long chopsticks to feed the people across from them. How kind and simple is that? So here we are living on a farm that grows delicious vegetables, bakes and prepares delicious meals.

[18:26]

And since our earliest days of receiving the use of this valley, it's been a real question for us, too, of how to make the best use of this land. this coast Miwok land in the light of our Bodhisattva ancestors and in the spirit of feeding those across the table from us. You know, we've always been giving food away, give leftovers away at vegetable starts to our neighbors for their community gardens. We've always composted our food scraps and produced vegetarian lunch for what used to be a rather large Sunday gathering. And yet we need to always ask ourselves if we are doing enough. Can we ever do enough to rebalance what is so dreadfully out of balance among the living beings of this world? And of course, that starts with ourselves.

[19:30]

With the humans, as we call ourselves. And it starts with our sincere effort to be kind and to be wise. So that perhaps we too can be catalysts as Massimo has been making use of our skills to feed a hungry world. I don't know, I really don't know, of course, and I don't think any of us will live long enough to know whether these trends toward ever greater inequality and irresponsibility among humans is going to slow or reverse. see how this species with its great capacity for invention and creativity could combine those talents with our great capacity for wisdom and compassion in order to turn toward a greater good toward a greater inspiration for our human world to feed and protect and care for all beings as if we truly are one family of biosphere

[20:34]

For me, the greatest catalyst for changing the world lies within the way that we humans think, which, of course, includes the way that I think. There was a time not so long ago when I was in despair of somebody coming along to fix all of the things that were going wrong in this world. Where were the politicians, the scientists, the philosophers or the priests, mechanics who could fix things? What are they doing? Why is it taking so long? So somewhat out of that despair, I became a Zen student. And I took a vow to save all beings. I vowed to save all beings. And I thought, well, I'm just going to have to do it myself. You know, like the bunny in the moon. There's a Jataka tale about how the bunny got in the moon, which I had heard on my arrival at the city center, you know, 40 some odd years ago. The bunny throws herself into a fire to feed a hungry mendicant.

[21:40]

And so I thought to myself, well, I'm going to leave this sorrowful world and throw myself into a monastery until I figure out what to do next. And so I did. Toward the end of the article about Massimo Bottura, he says something very insightful about that very error in my own thinking. He said, in the beginning, I thought I was going to change the world. And then he said, now I realize it's all about getting everyone to change the world together. Everybody has the ability to contribute to positive change. It starts with all of us in our own kitchens. It starts by looking at an old carrot or a stale crust of bread and catching a glimpse of gold. So this shift in thinking Massimo had is from a self as the center of it all to a self as part of a whole.

[22:44]

And I often think that Zen practice has to do with making that same shift from a shift that's about me to about we, about us. I've often overheard newer students shifting at times in their conversations about themselves, you know, where they went to school and where they grew up and so on, to saying such things as, well, we grow food at Green Bulge. We drive tractors and we do dishes and we sit together pretty much every day of the year. And we care about this world and we wish to do something to heal what can be healed. And we are going to do this together. So we wish. So stories about helping the world in the way that Massimo and many others are doing is part of the cycle of news that I think needs a little more visibility. You know, the good news. And the Buddha's awakening was good news.

[23:46]

Awakening of generations that follow his inspiration. The Buddha gave teachings about awakening, the how-to that traveled the Silk Route, and now the global airways for the benefit of those who listen. and who openly share what they've heard. He said that enlightenment is already here. It's right here, right now. He said that just this is it. Just this gathering of life seeking after itself and seeking to benefit each other. Enlightenment is the wish to benefit others and the how-to of compassion. And yet Suzuki Roshi said that enlightenment is a very tricky thing for us to think or to talk about. If we talk about enlightenment, it turns into a concept or an idea, a product of our thinking mind.

[24:52]

Enlightenment. There I did it again. And although Enlightenment is an okay thing to say. It does tend to lead us to think it's something other than the thinking mind itself. Other than just this is it. And then he suggests the best thing we can do as students of awakening is to just sit before we say anything about what we think is out there or who is out there. So this just sitting in Japanese is called Shikantaza. Just sitting. Just this is it. And yet it's not only while sitting, as Dogen Senji says. It is every moment of awareness. Is just this. Just this is it. Got that? Sudik Roshi then says there is no need to be bothered with fancy explanations of Buddhism.

[26:04]

If you say Buddha, [...] that is the way. Everything is Buddha. Sitting is Buddha. Lying down is Buddha. Each word is Buddha. That is our way. That is Shikantaza. When you practice Zazen with this understanding, that is true Zazen. And someone then asked him, Are there any differences between the way you practice Zen in the United States and the way you practice in Japan? Roshi replied, Zazen practice is the same. I don't feel much difference. Wherever I go, I feel as if I'm in Japan. And then he laughs. So it's difficult to answer your question. American people or Japanese people, we say, but if we start to practice Zazen, it's nearly the same. And that's because we all have the same problems. And again, he laughs. So I would say that along with wisdom and compassion, the other most inspiring thing that I found among the Zen Buddhists, beginning with our founder, Shinya Suzuki Oshii, is a sense of humor.

[27:19]

Kind humor. That liberates us on the spot from a certain tightness in our practice that signals self-centeredness. such as my opinion, my view, my preferences. We all have the same problems, Roshi says, and those problems are a result of a primal ignorance about ourselves and about our place in the world. For some, that primal ignorance brings suffering to those around them. And for others, ignorance of how the human mind works brings untold suffering to themselves. But in either case, we are separated. from each other by laws and by walls and by violence of every kind. Which brings us back to the new cycle that leads many to despair. Which is why the Buddha said to all of us, there are four truths about this human life. The word truth is also understood to mean that which is in accordance with reality.

[28:23]

As in the four true things. The first truth or the first true thing is the truth of suffering, dukkha. In some translations, the truth of discontent or the truth of our incapacity to be satisfied. Just like those dinner guests in hell. Discontent comes in a variety of forms, as we all know. There is the discontent of aging, of sickness and of death. There's the discontent of being with things that we don't like. And there's the discontent of being separated from the things that we do like. Both of which are examples of not getting what we want. So this first noble truth or first true thing arises together with the second noble truth. The origin of suffering. The origin of suffering. So suffering is caused. The cause of suffering, according to the Buddha, is desire or craving.

[29:31]

In Sanskrit, tana, which means thirst or wanting. Mostly wanting things to be different than they are. Too hot, too cold, too salty, too slow. The third truth is called the cessation of suffering, which is the beginning of the how-to. For living a life of greater ease and joy. Not only for ourselves, but for each other. Bringing joy and ease to others. In this way, we think of those guests at the banquet table in heaven. After you, would you care for more dessert? Giver, receiver, and gift. Arising together in each moment. What you give, what I receive is the gift. cessation of suffering is the ending of craving the cessation of suffering is the ending of craving the craving that's based on one self-centered view of the universe craving that arises from ignorance from regret and from fear fear about the future regret about the past and ignorance about this very moment that we are in together

[30:52]

The causes of suffering are overcome through the arousing of what Tension Roshi was calling during the January intensive, our grandmother mind. The mind that says, I will try my best not to let anything bad happen to you right now. I can't promise, of course, but I will try. Grandmother mind moves the banana slug off to the side of the road and rescues those who have slid off the side of the snow-covered mountain. Grandmother mind awakens us from our bad dreams about ourselves and about others while helping us decide what to wear as we greet the new day. Grandmother mind is wise and kind and yet doesn't put up with too much fooling around. As she says on the Han out there in Cloud Hall, don't waste your life. The fourth noble truth is called Marga, meaning the path. Or the way to the cessation of suffering.

[31:55]

This path was outlined by the Buddha in his very first sermon. Called the turning of the wheel of the law. The Buddha later said that the path is enlightenment itself. And enlightenment is the path. It's the way you live your life. Right here. Right now. There's no other place. There's no other time. So easy to say. And so very hard to realize. So the path that the Buddha outlined in the first sermon is called the Eightfold Path. And you can think of folds the same way you think of folds in a piece of cloth. They're all part of the whole. Just as each of us is part of the whole. The whole to which we belong, the whole of life, and the whole work of life. So the first fold is right view. The second, right intention. Right speech. right conduct, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, and right meditation.

[33:00]

Those are the eight. And all together, they cover the three main teaching categories of the Buddhist tradition. Ethics, concentration, and wisdom. Shila, Samadhi, Prajna. Each of these folds help us to make sense through reasoning about what we are, where we are and how we might best behave now that we are here. Zazen helps to make sense by doing it, by being it, being what we have reasoned to be true, that just this is it. So here are a few of the ideas behind each of the folds as were outlined by the Buddha in his sermon on the path of liberation. So right view, the first fold. Is a result of an inspired insight into our profound connection to this world. In each and every moment. Without a gap. Without a break.

[34:02]

Since the first living thing. Oh, we wouldn't be here. We are very old. Each of us. And right now. Each of us. Without giving it a thought. Is taking a breath. And without giving it a thought. Is exhaling. That error. It's amazing and simple. And yet without that simple and profound connection to the world, life as I know it would quickly end. The primary insights included within right view are impermanence. Life will quickly end. No self, no separate self apart from the whole. And suffering. as addressed through an understanding of the four noble truths, the four true things. So right after right view is right intention. Right intention. Intention is based on knowing that our actions have consequences, that what we do matters and has an impact on others.

[35:09]

By knowing that, then we can choose to follow a path within this lifetime to awaken ourselves and to help others to do the same. This is called the bodhisattva's vow. I vow to live for the benefit of all beings. How? By trying to help them awaken and them help me to do the same. Are you awake? It's very easy to say, but it's not so easy to know what to do. Even grandmother gets tired after a while. I've heard grandmothers say that the best thing about being a grandmother is sending the children home to their mother or their father or whoever it happens to be that takes care of them and provides them with a home. So these first two folds, right view and right intention, come under the heading of wisdom, of prajna, of knowing, understanding. The next three have to do with ethical behavior in this world. And for us, practically speaking, our behavior,

[36:13]

within this community. And those three are right speech, right conduct, and right livelihood. These three folds are the way that the Buddha taught his monks good manners. And without good manners, those young mendicants would not have been welcomed in the villages through which they traveled and would certainly not have been fed. And without the community of monks, the teaching of the Buddha would not have gotten any further than the sight of his awakening. So to this very day, how we treat each other through our speech and conduct will determine whether or not this community will live, will inspire others to take a chance on just sitting in this old hay barn. The story that Tenshin Roshi told during intensive about the two Dharma comrades who questioned each other about the teaching while one was busy sweeping the pathway is a story of friendship, as he said, about, excuse me, but I think you're too busy, or too noisy, or too angry, greedy, or confused.

[37:23]

Can we talk about that? Can we open ourselves to be in question about our speech, our conduct, and our work practice? It's a very hard thing to do, and it's embarrassing, and it's irritating, and I can testify. Without that conversation between myself and my teachers and my Dharma comrades, I think I would have left this valley and this practice a long, long time ago. So here again are the three folds that come under ethical behavior. Right speech, not lying, not speaking rudely, not telling one person what another says about them in order to hurt their relationship. Right conduct is not killing or injuring others, not taking what hasn't been given to you. No sexual misconduct and no possessiveness of any kind. Right livelihood is not letting food go to waste, not letting humans or other living things go hungry, not giving poisons to anyone, no toxins, intoxicants.

[38:34]

And of course, not damaging the environment on which all life depends. Right effort is the sixth fold and applies to everything that we do. Our wholehearted effort when speaking, when resting or playing, when sitting, when working, when studying, all day long, wholehearted, fully engaged. Traditionally, right effort included noticing the arising of unwholesome states of mind and refraining from acting from there. This is called a wise restraint. And then in turn, generating wholesome states of mind and endeavoring to practice the path of awakening by acting from there, which you like coffee with your dessert. The seventh fold, right mindfulness is obviously being in your right mind. As the Buddha kindly said to a young woman who had gone mad with grief.

[39:39]

over the death of her child. Regain your sanity, my dear sister. Regain your sanity. Mindfulness, which is a well-worn notion these days, is also being aware of what you're doing with your body and your mind, of your actions and your thoughts as you do them. I began to study tea ceremony years ago with Suzuki Roshi's widow, Mitsu Suzuki, in order to practice mindfulness. That was my idea. well, I'll do something really pleasant and study tea. I don't know about the pleasant part, but it was required a great deal of mindfulness, which I don't believe I had much of, as Suzuki Sensei helped me to realize. She would say to me every week, Fusan, how many times have I told you little front side to side? Fusan, little front. side to side, meaning first you pick up the tea bowl with your right hand, a little toward the front of the bowl, and then you hold the bowl with your left hand at the side, and then you pass it back to your right hand at the side before you set it down.

[40:53]

How many times must I tell you? Well, apparently every week. So I can testify that mindfulness is challenging. And yet, what else would help us to know where we are and what we're doing while we're there? And if you really want to know, Amaya Sensei is one who has become a master of the craft of how to put things where they belong. Check with her. I know she'd be happy to help. Developing mindfulness can help us to see the four true things. which in turn help us on the path of liberation from suffering for all beings. This is the mission that we are on for the Buddha. And I'm afraid we're going to need a little extra help, but no pressure. So lastly, there is right meditation, which for us here at the Zen Center is what we're doing right here and right now.

[41:56]

Always here and now. Calming the mind and discerning what's real, what's true. What is the true thing? And so to repeat what Suzuki Roshi said to us before he went away, there's no need to be bothered with fancy explanations of Buddhism. If you say Buddha, [...] that is the way. Everything is Buddha. Sitting is Buddha. Lying down is Buddha. Each word is Buddha. That is our way. That is Shikantaza. When you practice zazen with this understanding, that is true zazen. So may true zazen be an inspiration for all of us. Thank you so much for your kind attention. Do we chant and then do question and answer? Why don't we chant and then we'll do question and answer.

[43:00]

My intention equally extends to every being and place with the true merit of Buddha's way. Things are numberless. I vow to save them Delusions are inexhaustible. I vow to end them. Dharma gates are boundless. I vow to enter them. Gunna's way is unsurpassable. I vow Who will be taking questions now.

[44:22]

So if you have a question or comment or an inspiring story that you'd like to tell, I think we'd all appreciate it. Also, people online, I think, can ask. Please, if you'd like to ask a question here online, please send a chat message to GGFZendo.com. And Kogetsu Induzendo can share that question with Fu if there's time. She'll start with people in the hall. You can recycle one if you like. Nobody, dear. Maybe I can think of one.

[45:25]

Alina, thank you. Good morning. Let's see if I get this right.

[46:59]

You're asking about putting right together, as in right view, right intention, with inspiration. How do you get it right? How do you get whatever it is you're doing in the moment? How do you get it right? Is that right? Is that close enough? I thought about that word a lot. I forget. I've looked up the translation. What's the Sanskrit word? Because it's That's an English word, right? But the way I like to think about it and the way I've come to think about it is more like writing. It's a verb rather than a noun. Right view would be really hard to hit. I would miss it. I couldn't possibly hit right view or right intention. But writing my views or writing my intention, to me, the image of a sailboat. You can't sail if your mask doesn't move. So writing views and traveling on the path is about adjusting as you move. There may be a point which is kind of right on, but all of us know that that's just more like a reference.

[48:06]

Like, whoa, that felt balanced. Now I'm over here. But I'm using that as a reference point rather than just I'm just going to stay over here. I don't really care about what's over there. I do care about what's over there and about what's in between. And it's that curiosity. creativity that looks for how to write, how to be in relationship with what's right, what's wrong. I think it's always a verb. We're verbs, we're not nouns. So it's this process of writing our wayfaring, finding the passageway through in the dark, because we don't know what's next. We don't know what's going to happen after we leave this hall today. How do we stay alert and upright to meet what's next? Again, it's about being prepared, being open and awake, and then curious. How's that sound?

[49:10]

Is that good? Okay. Thank you. Christopher. Oh, the kitchen's leaving. Bye. Bye kitchen. Thank you. Always. Food. Yes. The holy, holy work. Christopher. So when I what could you say a little bit more about those two contrasts in your mind, how they do or don't fit together? Forget inspiration.

[50:19]

Thank you. Yeah, good, thank you. It brings to mind. Christopher asked about, he has a quote that he has on his door this year. It has to do with, forget about inspiration and develop your habits, develop habits. That habits will take care of you when inspiration is not there. You'll have this kind of through line of habits. Is that right, Christopher? Is that a quote? Yeah. What came to mind for me was something Bruce Lee said. You all know who Bruce Lee is? Yeah. he's getting kind of old now yeah some people don't Bruce Lee was a famous kung fu or kung fu star on the movies in the movies died young and mysteriously anyway very interesting Bruce Lee said that you do not rise to the occasion you fall to the level of your training

[51:46]

So that's to me is like we're doing something that we don't really know if we know. I don't really know if I know how to sit zaza. And every time I sit down in the morning, I don't know what's going to happen. Do I know how to sit zaza? I've done it a lot. But do I know how to do it today? I don't know. So I don't know if it's a habit that I've developed over many years of sitting. I still don't know. So in a way, it's always open to an inspiration of something really. totally unique happening because it is totally unique what happens in the present. Never happened before. It's a non-repeating universe. So I do have these habits that I have taken on. I've chosen which habits to cultivate and which is to let go. My bad habits, trying to let those drift away. So I feel like I have engaged in reconditioning certain ways of behaving. over many, many years of choosing which ones to repeat and which ones not to do.

[52:51]

I'm not very good at the piano because I didn't keep practicing. So, but I am fairly good at, I forget what, something. Something, it must be something. Anyway, but I'm enjoying. Whatever it is I cultivate, it's got a lot of joy for me and inspiration because for me, I think the Dharma is inspiring. So I can just kind of go into that cave of thoughts and inspirational teachings and be very connected. You know, that's kind of a habit I have now is to read the Dharma. Kategori Roshi, who was one of Suzuki Roshi's helpers who came from Japan in the early years and had his own Minnesota Zen Center, was Kategori Roshi's temple. And he told me, I was a brand new student acting as his jisha. He said, just read a little Dharma every day. And so I have. When I get up in the morning, I have a cup of tea and I read a little Dharma. And I've read hundreds of books that way.

[53:52]

So that little habit, that little piece of advice from that teacher that I chose to take on has become a kind of mainstay of my practice life. I don't know if that connects to you for you. Is that OK? Works? OK. Thanks for your question. Someone else had a hand up. I saw just a minute ago. Remind me of your name. Merit. Yeah, thank you. That was partially answered, but I had a general question about something you've said about the practice sort of boiling down in the sense that the competing Buddha and all your activity or the notion of finding Buddha in all your activities throughout the day and sitting. I'm curious about the role of study and studying the Dharma and how that can be integrated, especially as an apprentice or fairly new to the practice, and to what extent that should balance or supplement for things like right view or right understanding.

[55:03]

Yeah, so Merit was asking about the balancing study with activity, with doing various things in the day as though, you know, just think of yourself as being Buddha. It's a really good thing to take on. Just consider yourself to be Buddha, consider yourselves to be awake, and then see how you do. So, I mean, that's just a good starting place for whatever you're doing, you know, and then you can see if you're, where's the writing of that, you know, like, would Buddha do that? Well, I don't know. Well, he's, he or she's doing it, or they, so it's like an, it's like that kind of orient, orienting marker on the thing that cannot be marked, you know, like the ocean. So we do use these words and this language coming from our study to mark the ocean. Oh, here's where I got inspired. I think I'll mark it. Well, we know that doesn't work, but still we keep making this effort to mark the vastness of our lives with something that matters to us that we can actually hold in our thoughts, make habits of those things.

[56:09]

We have a limited time here. And so what are you going to make a habit of? What are you going to bring into your life that will support you? And what's your aspiration? So it's very personal. Like each of us has our own aspiration, where we want to be five years from now, 20 years from now, when we're old. So to try and align yourself with your aspiration. And for us here, studying the Buddhist teaching, studying is a big part of how you do that. Because if you don't know what the Buddha said or this generations of teachers since then, it's pretty hard to see how you align, how to align with that inspired practice. Is that okay? You have more? No, that's good. Okay. Thank you. Thanks for your question. Yes. I know.

[57:10]

Amila? noah you're noah i'm sorry yeah um i'm really curious about understanding desire and how desire doesn't to inspiration or aspirations and kind of i guess that's my understanding of desire and that maybe desire That's a really good question. And it's one that we all ask over and over again. Well, isn't desire part of life and part of wanting to be good or wanting to be helpful? Isn't that a desire? And I would say yes. And it's a wholesome desire.

[58:10]

The main criteria for what makes it awakened in a sense is that you're desiring for the well-being of not just yourself. It's not that your own person goes, I want a lot of this and I want a lot of that and I want it now. You know, as we build fences and walls around our property and around our families and around our possessions and make sure that we have lawyers to protect us, you know, that kind of desire, I don't think is very inspiring. I don't know, maybe it is, but I don't find it inspiring. So I think it's the inspiration, like this chef, you know, he wanted to be the world's greatest chef and he is, but what did he do with that? He turned it into generosity. So I think the more you accomplishing, you want to be a great violinist, you want to be a great teacher, whatever it is, or not even just good, good enough, that that desire is, how is that benefiting others? Because their happiness, your happiness depends on theirs.

[59:14]

All the sadness in the world we feel, you know, it hurts us to have so much suffering. So as that suffering is addressed by other humans, by us, then our own anxiety and suffering and sadness can also begin to recede a bit. So I think it really has to do with what's the purpose? What is your desire for? Does that make sense? Okay, yeah, sure. I'm sorry for the fact that Massimo Guterra is working within this area of expertise in emotion. The examples of deaths have been inspired from where you were particularly awake and alert to materials. I don't care about Apollinaire?

[60:23]

Yes. Yes, you are. You are allowed your specialties, your talents, your gifts, your inspiration. And of course, you don't do those things for yourself. Massimo doesn't cook for himself. I mean, I suppose he could, but he cooks for his rest of his clients and for his guests and for the homeless. He wants the joy of his craft, that in the face of those who eat his food. Same thing with artists. Same thing with musicians. It's one thing to play your violin really well at home, but really what's exciting, I think, is when you play for, you know, at the high school performance, when you practiced hard and you are up in front of your friends. So I think we like to share our gifts. I think that's the whole point of giving. Giver, receiver, and gift is the sharing of our passions, of our desires, of our love for beautiful things. So I think that's kind of intuitive that we know that. I'm not sure what you meant about Zen, masters not being what, particularly... Well, you know, Dogen wrote a book about the cooking, about the Tenzo, Kyokun, it's all about the chef in the kitchen and how equivalent of the practice in the Zen-do and the practice in the kitchen, you know.

[61:46]

Every grain of rice is cared for, that you treat food like you would handle food, like you'd handle your own eyeballs. You know, it's a very inspiring text. Well, that wasn't so inspiring, but that tender care that you take for ingredients and so on, not wasting. And Suzuki Roshi was famous, his wife told us, for always buying the least desirable vegetables at the store. He'd buy those ingredients. Floppy carrots and his wife would say, well, why do you do that? And he said, well, no one else would buy them. I feel sorry for them. So, you know, we have that spirit of this kind of way of looking at things in a much broader and more generous and compassionate way than just the usual kind of thing that we would expect. That's what surprises us by the Zen teachings, I think, or by any teaching of spiritual nature. It's not just the material. It's how you treat the material, how you care for it. So there's an invisible force called care, compassion, wisdom that we cultivate.

[62:49]

But how do you show it? Well, how you clean the dishes, how you walk across the floor, how you greet one another. Good morning. It's an option, but it's one that we appreciate. So I think it's letting the invisible be visible through our actions. our speech. Okay, I'll see you later. Thank you for your question. Oh hi Kelly. How do you recommend I stay aware Yeah, that's a great question. Yeah. Oh, for them.

[63:50]

Yeah, confused. OK, so Kelly asked about how to not fall into despair when you read the news, because the news is, as we know, pretty discouraging. And it always is. I mean, that's the kind of news they look for, right? What bad things are happening? And we're drawn to it. I'm compelled to read the news. I read the news cycle quite a bit. It's almost like I'm braced for, oh, no, don't do that. Don't send tanks in. Please don't do that. Don't throw that. Don't set off that bomb. Don't hit them with a drone. I mean, I'm kind of hoping it won't happen. There's a sort of a wish. Please don't do that. And then there's a thing that happens, right, which is what I don't want. So there is a willingness that I didn't have when I was, for quite a while, when I was younger, to not look at the news, to not read the news. When I was in the monastery, I didn't look at the news.

[64:54]

However, people tell you, whether you look at it or not, did you hear what happened? And, you know, so-and-so was assassinated. Oh, my God, no. So the news will arrive to you. unless you lock yourself in a vault or something, you will get the news and it will be hard. And so how we develop our own internal world in order to hold, be big enough. My therapist used to talk about being big enough inside, having enough space inside for the news, for your own personal losses. You know, this mother who lost her child, regain your sanity. You have to be bigger. There's more of you than just that one loss. There has to be, because we've all lost loved ones. Everyone has lost a loved one. So that's how he helped her become sane again. He sent her to try to find a mustard seed from the household where no one had ever died, and she couldn't find a household like that. So she regained her sanity. She became part of us. So I think joining together with the good-hearted people, I used to belong to the Marine Interfaith Council, and I really enjoyed my relationships with the rabbis and the nuns and the imams.

[66:06]

And one of the things we knew about each other is that we were not like-minded, but we were like-hearted. We all wanted the same thing for humanity. We wanted children to be fed. We wanted educated. We wanted them to be taken care of. You know, there was no difference in our hearts. And I think that there are lots of like-hearted people. And I think that's the good news part. How can we all make sure we're making enough noise about the actions that we're taking in the world? So it's a balance. We're trying to balance, you know, something that's way out of balance right now. And that's the sad part. But the good news is this has been going on a long time. And generations of people have found ways to find that light for themselves and to share that light with others, not to despair. I think despair is kind of vague. You know, that's the thing we want to help, like porpoise.

[67:06]

We want to help each other get up from there. Don't do that. We need you. We need you. We got to keep going here. So I don't know, Kelly, we can talk some more about that, but thank you for that question. It's really an important one. You know, Son, what time do you have? 11.20? Okay. Is there one more question? I would like to know more about So the question comes from, I'm not sure who that's from, but how to practice with your tired grandma mind when you get tired of being mindful and you want to go back to being speedy and careless and just doing things as fast as you can. And she didn't say that, but then just lay on the couch and watch TV.

[68:09]

Well, I think we all have a bit of that. You know, it's like that's enough. Grandma's had enough right now. You guys, you kids go out and play. You know, I'm going to rest. I mean, without resting, without taking breaks or vacations, as we all enjoy, or days off that we all enjoy, I hope we enjoy. I think that that kind of pressure on us to whatever job we're doing, whatever work we're doing, just becomes like, yeah, pressure. It becomes like a relentlessness. I need to take the saddlebags off, the mindfulness saddlebag off every now and then. know do some some of those fun puzzles on my phone like to do those you know tetris i got all the way to 600 tonight so there are things that we all do that help us to rest to relax to take off the the job the big job otherwise we can't keep going you know we need to have a fresh fresh day a fresh start enthusiasm if we

[69:19]

fall into despair because we just fail, we can't get it done, then there's a loss to all of us if we drop out. So I'd rather you rest and you take all the time you need to rest. One of my friends who worked very hard and had some very sad, sad things happen with her family. I said, okay, when you get five years, you don't have to do anything for five years. She said, great. And she hasn't. But time's coming closer. She's going to hit her five years pretty soon. So I think we all need to recognize the value of rest and care, self-care. And that's really primary. So I hope you do that. And grandmothers do. They're happy to be grandmothers. Mother was very hard. For all of you who've been mothers, it's very hard. And it's full of... Rewards, but not from your children. Well, eventually.

[70:20]

It takes a little while before they come home again. You know, I really appreciate you, after all. It's like, okay, great. Okay, maybe that's good. All right, thank you all again. And please have a good day. Thank you. We'll get to you. Thank you everybody so much as always for coming to our Dharma Talk today. We really appreciate your company here. In the chat window now, I'm going to put a link if you feel you can make a donation to Zen Center. We really do rely on your support and anything you can offer is really sincerely appreciated. Thank you again for being here and see if you'd like to unmute and say goodbye, please do so now. Thank you, Fu. Thank you for driving, Jiri.

[71:22]

Thank you for driving. Thank you. [...]

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