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 evening. My name is Keith Baker, and I'm a priest here at the Zen Center. Welcome. Thank you, David, for inviting me to this lecture. And thank you, Paul, my teacher, for the gift of his teachings. Any one of you here for the first time? Oh, I see a few hands. Wow, how cool. Welcome. Okay, tonight, I want to talk about mindfulness.

[01:03]

The sign is mindfulness, and mindfulness practice is very popular nowadays. Schools, self-help programs, workshops, books, and so on. Most of them agree about the basic definition. set aside judgment and self-criticism, and pay attention to your thoughts, your feelings, and body sensations. So, a short definition. Each group's a little bit different. Most add their ideas, teachings, and support. their own viewpoint. Now, the simple definition is the same for Zen practice.

[02:10]

But our teachings have a fourth lesson. Perception. Altogether, Zen has four areas used for mindfulness practice. I will briefly explain practicing mindfulness using these four areas. First, we pay attention to body and feelings. Pain, sickness, usually not a problem, and that's fine. But we often miss other things. other people's feelings and they're easy to overlook. Pain and illness are a good start. Carefully feeling pain or discomfort in the body can help you to understand how your body operates and how it interacts with the mind.

[03:22]

Some feelings are direct. They're easy to understand. Being tired. You need sleep. Doing thirsty. You need water. But many... Some... Oops. But many feelings of the body sensation are related to emotions. Why? Long ago, we had less or no consciousness. Feelings controlled... our body's reaction directly. We reacted using little or no thought. We relied on animal instinct. Instinct allowed body and mind to go and react without thought. Long ago, that was good. We had less consciousness.

[04:28]

So if you stop to think about a sensation, some large animal, some large animal might eat you. Now we have consciousness. We can think and consider our actions. Often we don't. And why is that? We still have instinct. It still influences us. Mindfulness can help us understand how instinct and mind sometimes interact together. Second, emotions, feelings. When they pop up, pause. Allow them to arise. Sometimes we stop them from... arriving fully.

[05:29]

Why? Maybe they had too much emotional energy. You can lose a lot of opportunity if you suppress your feelings. Try to avoid becoming inattentive when feelings arise. When we touch our feelings, we gain understanding. Maybe we start to wonder, why did this feeling arise? What caused it? You can rely on feelings to have information for you. Third, pay attention to your mind and your thinking process.

[06:31]

Examine your options. Listen to yourself when judgment and criticism arise. Become clear and thoughtful and understand your mind. Why do I believe this or that? Where'd that opinion come from? But the lesson here is not to become sidetracked from observing. The goal is to watch from a distance. Strong emotion or inner struggle can derail your intention to remain the observer. Avoid self-criticism.

[07:34]

That is not mindfulness. But if you notice yourself criticizing yourself, try to pay attention to that too. Try to retreat back into an audience when you notice that you have jumped onto the stage. Fourth, Perception is we see a thing and give it an identity, a label. That's fine. That's necessary for us to get along, to interact, and to communicate together. But if you stop and think about it, it's just a label. This fourth area of mindfulness is the most abstract.

[08:39]

This area of practice suggests the Zen quote, don't believe everything you think. It's funny, but deeply true. If we pay attention to how and why we perceive things, we can understand how we sometimes become stuck with labels and misunderstand reality and miss the opportunity to see other viewpoints. The order of these four areas starts with the body. then the mind, next the feelings, and last examine our perceptions. That is a natural process.

[09:44]

It starts from outside and moves inward. Excuse me. I noticed that most non-religious groups didn't include the fourth area. Not directly. Some included a little bit, but it was usually vague. Like, you know, this would help, you know, I think it's actually like I thought, it helps the whole hand function. I believe that's how we move from outside to inward. Anyway. Now I want to read aloud two sentences from the Django Kaan.

[10:49]

The first sentence, when you see forms or hear sounds fully engaging body and mind, you grasp things directly. Okay, that describes the lecture up to now. Using mindfulness, we learn about the body and mind. How they work together. How we can understand more skill. How we can that can help us to understand things directly. From the dictionary, directly is defined with nothing or no one in between. That means nothing blocks our view.

[11:54]

Our perceptions become clearer. with less bias. The second sentence, that myriad things come forth and experience themselves is awakening. Often, when I see that sentence during our morning chant, I pause. always grabs me and my attention. It has deep meaning for me. But way back to the first time I heard that sentence, I imagined many different things such as stones and leaves and furniture and dishes.

[12:59]

Everything all running along and talking and laughing and experiencing themselves. Yeah, weird, right? Zen teaching is very strange for a newbie. Later on, I understood this teaching. It's about our perception and connection to everything. Everything has Buddha nature. And so on. But I don't want to ruin your adventure with my opinions about that sentence's meaning. You all, check it out yourselves. The point that I want to make with these two sentences, well, it's our connection to things relies on the interaction with all four.

[14:05]

Body, mind, emotion, and perceptions. They all work together and support each other. Hmm, oh well. I would like to share a poem from my favorite poet. I handed it out for all of you. I hope you took one. If not, please share. I'm going to use American Sign Language. Therefore, my signs are not going to exactly match the paper. I choose to allow the English idioms. Why? It's an English-hearing audience. The poem's name is Mindful.

[15:10]

Every day I see or hear something that more or less kills me with delight, that leaves me like a needle in the haystack of light. It was what I was born for, to look, to listen, to lose myself inside this soft world, to instruct myself over and over again in joy and acclimation. Nor am I talking about the exceptional, the fearful, the dreadful, the very extravagant, but about the ordinary, the common, the very drab, the daily presentations. Oh, good scholar, I say to myself, how can you help but grow wise with such teachings of these, the untrimmable light of the world,

[16:29]

The oceans shine. The prayers that are made out of grass. I like the way she reversed the order. She starts with the experience of clear perception and then works backwards. Her journey into joy starts when she realizes her purpose. Not just understanding, but she owns it. How did that happen for her? She taught herself again and again. The whole process started with her paying attention to it all. It grew from the earth.

[17:35]

The plane experiences. Eventually, it touched the sky. Her process? Very acute description for mindful practice. Mindfulness is everywhere. During my journey with different practices and religions, mindfulness always showed up. Different names, different descriptions, various ways, but the same thing. We all came here for different reasons. Curiosity, pain, loneliness, I started Zen practice. Why?

[18:37]

One day, I realized my religion was not working. My purpose was gone. I dabbled with different meditation practices. Eventually, I found Zen. Zen practice works best for me. I arrived 15 years ago, and I'm still here. Still, much learning to be done. The name of our temple was a big influence. Beginner's Mayan Temple. A perfect fit. Why? Why? I needed to start practice all over again, like a beginner.

[19:38]

Zazen means the Japanese word shikakansadza. The English translation is just sit. It's perfect medicine for me. Zazen's a special practice included in mindfulness. Or you can say, mindfulness is an expression of Zaza. No matter, it's either or. It's easy to understand the instructions. The concept is simple. Still, we tend to complicate things. We bring drama into our lives. We immerse ourselves in study, become stuck with words, concepts. None of that is bad.

[20:43]

We need it. It helps. We study, hear, true, but the foundation is Zazen. During Zazen, everything is set aside. one core lesson we teach here when we are doing zazen correctly we are complete whole we've arrived home but we must stand up and leave as endo with practice, we learn to take zazen with us outside and practice all day. Naturally, if you're sitting in a zento, you don't talk, you don't move around, or try to think of specific things.

[21:56]

No. I'm saying we take the mindfulness part. We pay attention to everything. Opportunities for mindfulness practice. They're everywhere. Always available. Your challenge is to learn to notice the opportunities for mindfulness. I want to encourage you to choose mindfulness often. All four of the mindfulness areas are equally important. But I tend to linger with the perception practice area. Why is that? Contemplation of the body, mind, and emotions.

[23:01]

I was familiar with those before I arrived. Paying attention to my perceptions, that was new. I arrived here, I continued practicing the body, mind, and emotion. And by adding the fourth area changed my understanding of the other three. Why? I'm skeptical. I like critical thinking. arriving, I never really examined my examining process. I never witnessed my mind's process of constructing opinions, beliefs, or perceptions. First time you see that happen, it's a mind blower.

[24:05]

One time, a student asked Suzuki Roshi, to describe Zen using a short sentence. He answered, everything changes. Wow, simple answer. But it also means mindfulness practice is always necessary. I don't mean to become exhausted, I mean the opposite. we learn to practice using awareness. Mindfulness is like a sphere. If you continue to look around the curve, you see the awareness viewpoint. But it's a single sphere. When mindfulness grows,

[25:12]

Our awareness grows also. Our skill for knowing what to do next will improve. I can't think of anything more liberating than really knowing what to do next. But I don't want... to give the wrong impression. We become skillful and gain more insight. However, we never arrive at that 100%. And that's fine. We never finish. Our efforts to do what is best for the next moment become the practice. Not busy work or effort, but the kind that softly asks, what's next?

[26:18]

To gain wisdom, we need teachers. And we need to teach ourselves. Formal teachers, peers, and people we don't get along with. Most important, ourselves. Well, my friends, we're near the finish. Choosing mindfulness practice for my topic was easy. It's special. Sometimes it's an adventure of a lifetime for us. Our born purpose. I want to give encouragement and motivation. Research and learn about mindfulness practice.

[27:24]

Experiment. Forever and always, things will change. That's awesome for me. You can depend on that. We resist change. Sometimes we try to force change. Paying attention to change over and over helps us to navigate through change and understand it more. It's always to use mindfulness. It doesn't hinder. It's a natural thing to do. So, allow yourselves to become an audience of one.

[28:29]

Listen to yourself. Listen to other people. Pay attention to everything around you with a receptive mind the goal is to participate fully with life and at the same time watch it all happen when mindfulness practice becomes a habit you shall discover yourself doing it automatically mindfulness becomes the best choice for the moment. Sometimes difficult, sure, but the result is awesome. Thank you. Oh wow, 15 minutes left. Does anyone have any questions?

[29:32]

Wow, I must be good. Everybody's awake. Cool. I find that the practice of mindfulness itself is actually paying attention is easy, but remembering to pay attention is hard. What are your suggestions or what are your tools for... remembering to pay attention throughout the day, particularly with complicated tasks like emails and cognitive tasks. Oh, so that was your question, right? Oh. How do I pay attention to emails?

[30:42]

How do you remember to pay attention? Funny that. I continue to look back. I back up, and then when I back up, I'm paying attention. Sometimes I become so, what's the word, you know, engrossed and connected. But as soon as I disconnect, I come back again. And I just take a couple steps back and I am there. It's not always easy. You know, sometimes I'll forget. And, you know, then I'll believe it's real. But, you know, then it comes back to me. Okay, all I need to do is be that audience inside.

[31:49]

That audience of one. Because if I forget during the day, it's okay. You know? And then I remember one time, oh, I did it once. You know, that's a success. And I remember two times the next day and three times the next. So I continue to have successes in becoming that more, it happens more often. Is that understandable? Was that clear? Yeah, definitely. Okay, thank you. We have a minute for two, 30 more questions. Okay. So you started running a few years ago. Yes. How has that, has there been any change in your mindfulness for Zaza practice when you're running?

[32:51]

Oh, that is a great question. Sometimes I fall. Sometimes I fall. Sometimes I'm fine. But I try to feel the steps. My feet touching the earth. my breaths and my lungs, what I see, my perceptions. But, you know, it's interesting to try to pay attention and become mindful and take care of what you're doing with each careful step. Sometimes I'm paying attention to the wrong things and, well, you know, that happens. But I think that everything that we do, everything that we have is a mindfulness practice opportunity. And if running is difficult, and I'm paying attention to that, it's the difficult part that I can or can't stop running.

[34:03]

I think about why is it difficult. I go there, and then I continue running, paying attention to the running. And so, yeah, it's really true. It's good. It's a good goal, you know, to pay attention to my body. And if I fall, you know, that's okay, because I get to see something different. Sometimes it's a beautiful day. And that's why I run. You know? I'll have five miles of a beautiful day and be able to see so much and the sunshine and the warmth, but those steps, that way, that path, that elevation, that thing that trips me up and makes me fall, I learn how much I can enjoy the day and how much I need to pay attention to my feet touching the earth. And really,

[35:06]

I'm trying to answer you that running is part of a responsibility, an enjoyment, an ability to see things. It's both the responsibility and the enjoyment. Okay, so I think I have to try for one more. Okay. I'm sorry, did you have another? Yes? Please. Go ahead. Of the four aspects of mindfulness you mentioned, did the level of perception and quality of perception change as your deafness events? Oh. A lot. When I became hard of hearing, it was one thing.

[36:09]

When I became completely deaf, wow, I lost, you know, access. You know, hearing gives you access to so much. So my perceptions really change. And people sometimes can hear me, you know, throw the dishes into the cupboard. Or, you know, someone says, shh, don't have to remind me to be quiet. And I'm like, okay, so I carefully set the dishes, cover it out. And the reason is that I cannot hear that contact. So if, you know, I'd be a newbie, and I'd try to put things away quickly, and someone says something to me like, you know, You need to put these things in. I'll forget some noise. And I can, you know, people can hear themselves, but I can't hear myself.

[37:18]

And so loud noises like those dishes in the cupboard are something I don't perceive anymore. So, you know, I have become a louder person, and I'm not aware of my loudness. And that's changed my perception. And that's happened in so many different areas of my life now. that, you know, I can't describe, I could go on and on about this, but, yeah, I think that, you know, of the five things, you know, that we have, I would say, oh, five, four, I'm sorry, four, my life, I think that, you know, we have a deaf culture out there. And I've never become, I'll never become hearing again. I, you know, what's happened has happened. And so I will never identify as someone who was born deaf and grew up, you know, in a hearing world, because I grew up hearing in this world.

[38:26]

And so my identity is someone who's like deafened. And that is a very different thing for someone who's born deaf. or who's born hearing a romance hearing, you know? And so it's a little murky, but it's what I'm doing. Did I answer your question again? Okay. Okay, well, I'm so sorry. Our time is over. Thank you for listening to this podcast offered by the San Francisco Zen Center. Our Dharma Talks are offered free of charge. And this is made possible by the donations we receive. Your financial support helps us to continue to offer the Dharma. For more information, please visit sfzc.org and click Giving. May we fully enjoy the Dharma.

[39:21]

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