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. Good morning. I'm grateful that I have a voice. We'll see how it holds up. This is the first day of nine days of where the most important thing is to make friends with yourself. So if you can just do that, as things come up, stewing in our own juices, each thing that arises is actually oneself.

[01:18]

So to meet whatever arises with some Well, loving kindness. As if, oh, this is an old friend. Even though it's something I'd rather not, or some feeling I'd rather not have for some old friend who was mean to me. And we had a parting of the ways. And that, yeah, here, shows up again, you know. So this is a very, very challenging practice. And is supported by concentration and

[02:25]

in the hara, bringing your mind attention to your hara, belly energy. So I have a specific suggestion for this practice is to be aware of how your mudra with the thumbtips Thumbtips just touching. This is a chance to really work with this mudra, to hold it and let it hold you. Hold the mudra in a way that's light, letting it have its own space. If you get too much tension in your shoulders or arms, you can let your hands come down for a little while. but then take up the mudra.

[03:28]

It actually doesn't take much muscular strength to hold this mudra. It's a process of letting go of anything extra and letting the mudra have its own life and energy. So you can experiment with it. But the point where the thumbtips are just touching or just almost touching his place. I think of it kind of like the, I don't know, there used to be spark plugs. There used to be spark plugs and we would set the gap on the spark plug, right, so that there'd be so many millimeters of space that would fire, right, when the distributor would send the energy, the electric charge, spark plug. a little spark would fly across that gap. So I think of this space here, the thumbtips, is like that.

[04:33]

Sometimes we say you can just hold a piece of very fine paper between your thumbtips, but if you're very tuned in to the concentration of that point, it's like there's a little gap and just a little spark. And then have that focus of attention be connected to the place directly in your back, which is about where the lumbar vertebrae sit in your sacral vertebrae. Somewhere right in there, maybe L1 or L2, right in there. So be aware of that place and the energy here and the energy there. So then keeping that in mind, and also your tongue tip just touching behind the teeth on your upper palate.

[05:33]

Also just touching. So it kind of immobilizes your tongue. You don't need to talk during Zazen, right? So your tongue can just be touching. And then opposite that, this place at the base of the skull where the... where the top of the spine meets the base of the skull. So that's the tongue tip right here and being aware of this point right here with a sense of lifting, lifting and receiving energy that's coming up through your vertebrae, through that column of mind. Sometimes... Sometimes we think of mind as the brain, but this whole body is mind. So it's wonderful to sit, and if you're at home, so if you're sitting here with awareness of these points I just mentioned, then there's a sense of being right at home.

[06:43]

And then being right at home, you can welcome in a friendly way whoever shows up. So this can be a very friendly, joyful practice. Nine days of improving friendly relations. Not that they're not already friendly. This practice is In a minute I'll read some of the statement from Dogen and from Hong Xiu. Dogen has a fascicle called Zazen Shin. Zazen Shin may be translated as the point of Zazen. The point of Zazen is not... We might think, well, what's the point of Zazen?

[07:49]

But it's not really answering that as it's answering... What is the practice and focus? Refined concentration of Zazen. And Dogen opens by saying, Great Master Yao Shan was sitting. And a monk asked him, When doing steadfast sitting, what do you think? And Yao Shan says, Not thinking. And then the monk says, how do you do not thinking? And Yao Shan says, beyond thinking. But this beyond thinking can be misunderstood as with the idea, oh, it's someplace else. Like at the end, like if I follow my thoughts and then keep following my thoughts and follow my thoughts and go beyond the end of thoughts.

[08:54]

but actually it's coming beyond thinking is already right here it's not at the end of some stream of thoughts it's that beyond thinking is beyond the beginning of thinking or prior to thinking maybe it would be better translation say prior to thinking so noticing you know how this works is this practice that we're doing. This is a practice throughout the whole day, the whole nine days, sitting, walking, standing, lying down, waking up, working, having a bath, cooking, serving, This is the same practice through the whole.

[09:56]

Always being present prior to thinking. And when you notice that you're getting, say, involved in reactions to the friends that show up, then it's time to, oh, come back to prior, to come back to hara. this morning I was very grateful to have the tofu and ginger and the miso soup I thought this is perfect this is really good for what ails me having all this ginger probably be really healing and then I'm sitting here and it seems like there wasn't enough to go around seems like And I thought, oh, I took too much. They should come back and go to each bowl and take some tofu out, go down the row and fill up the pots and serve the rest of the people.

[11:08]

I don't know what happened, but somehow then more and more came. I was expecting there to be an announcement that said no seconds in the second bowl or the third bowl. But anyway, something happened. But then I was thinking, I started thinking, we need to grow more soybeans. Why does it take so long? We have to grow more soybeans. And then I remembered this last week I was talking to my brother who said, Cousin Glenn wasted a lot of fuel cutting, harvesting his soybean crop at the hill, which is some land that my grandparents used to own. He said, Cousin Glenn harvested and it was only four bushels to the acre. I don't know if that means anything to anyone here. Does that mean anything to anyone here? Four bushels to the acre? What would be average, say, a reasonable crop?

[12:16]

Not so many farmers here. This is supposed to be farmer's zen, right? Soto's zen, farmer's zen. The average is, well, people think if it's 40 bushels to the acre, you have a good crop. And then people keep trying to shoot for more, like 50, 60 bushels to the acre. But four is pathetic. And you can't... You know, it's a big question. Is it worth even running the machine over the field and harvesting four bushels to the acre? Probably costs more than it's worth. But then, how do you cover the expense of all the work and preparation of the field? So this year, however, in most of the places in Iowa and Nebraska, and I think they've got enough rain, and so I think nationally it's a big soybean crop but that doesn't help my cousin Glenn he has to try again next year and absorb the loss so all that was happening while the servers were looking for more tofu someplace

[13:46]

finding where did you find it back in the kitchen thank you for that and then I know it was anyway it was a chance to I think deepen appreciation and recognize oh we have some assumptions we have some assumptions that there'll be enough food to go around you know but that's not the case for many people on the planet today. So we do the chant. We do have some understanding of the effort that went into this food. But actually, it sounds like we don't have so much understanding of the effort that went into this food.

[14:50]

And the beautiful soybean, the beautiful plant, what a beautiful plant, that can do so much that we can't do. We can't turn sunlight into protein just by standing out in the sun. having a drink of water and opening up our hands. We can't do that. So this is part of recognizing our interdependency with sunlight and the earth. The reason that the soybeans were only four bushels to the acre was because no rain on his field this summer. Day after day after day, no rain. So the soybeans were still alive, but they were just hanging in there.

[15:54]

Finally they got some late rain, but then they got a frost and that killed the plants. So farmers are watching every day. Temperature, rain, sun. How are the plants doing? All around the planet, there are people hovering over their little fields or big fields and wondering, you know, how is it going to be this year? So when we say that we consider how it comes to us, I hope that sometimes you reflect on the earth, the sunlight, the people. we plant the seeds and then tend the plants. So we have nine days with those kind of distractions.

[17:02]

But each distraction can actually deepen your life. Each thing that comes up. is a chance to deepen your life. So Dogen includes in this Zazen-shin, he includes a whole section on the practice and teaching of Hong Shi, Hong Shi Zhengzue. Some of you know the book Cultivating the Empty Field. Taigen Leighton translated many of the teachings of Hongshir in that book. And there is a translation of a poem that Hongshir calls the acupuncture needle of Zazen. Acupuncture needle of Zazen.

[18:05]

Which has this sense of concentration. I have a couple of translations here. The one that I was most familiar with begins this way. The essential function of all Buddhas, the functional essence of all ancestors, is to know without touching things and illuminate without encountering objects. Knowing without touching things, this knowledge is innately subtle. Illuminating without encountering objects, this illumination is innately miraculous. So there's more to it, there's more to this, but I'll take a moment to reflect on that. So this, to know without touching things and illuminate without encountering objects.

[19:10]

So you know, in the Song of the Jewel, Mere Awareness, it says, turning away, touching, both wrong. Turning away, touching, both wrong. So this practice of being friendly is a kind of composed friendliness. Not turning away. So the first, say, act of friendliness is to not turn away. And at the same time, to not turn away is also not to, he says, not encountering objects. So that is to not make an object out of what arises. To see the emptiness, to see the Buddha nature of what arises. So not turning away, we might feel, oh, I might feel, oh, there's something. And it seems so substantial and so real.

[20:14]

This may be some sensation in the body seems so substantial. This may be some thought or memory. This may be some emotional state that comes up in which someone else is to blame. And they seem so real. And what they did wrong seems so real. So not turning away is to be willing to be present with whatever that is that arises. simply being present. And not so easy to be present without encountering objects, without making, substantializing your experience into something more, I'll say, permanent than it actually is. So this is a place of careful, careful investigation.

[21:21]

Now another translation of that, so that first translation is from Taigen Leiden and Yi Wu. Another translation of that is like this, the hub of Buddha's activity. The turning of the ancestor's hub is known free of forms, illuminated beyond conditions. As it is known free of forms, knowledge is subtle. As it is illuminated beyond conditions, illumination is wondrous. So here it's saying they took the... phrase the essential function and said essential function is like a hub like the center everything's turning here the hub of the buddhist activity and how it turns is free of forms this is to know things without being caught in thinking that they're forms so free of forms

[22:43]

And illuminated beyond conditions. So, beyond conditions. Knowing that they're understanding conditions. Understanding the conditional arising of things. This beyond is also the same beyond as being prior to. Illuminated prior to conditions. I'm going to have to write my own. I think the beyondness can be confusing. When we say, when we do the robe chant, a field is far beyond form and emptiness. You might try a field prior to form and emptiness. Because this field that's beyond form and emptiness is right here. This present moment. So this goes on. I better read the rest of it so I'll continue with this translation when knowledge is subtle there is no thought of discrimination when illumination is wondrous there is not the slightest hint you can be clueless no clues

[24:09]

Where there is no thought of discrimination, knowledge is extraordinary with no comparison. With no thought of discrimination, knowledge is extraordinary. So this is quite different than our usual knowledge idea. This is knowledge, no thought of discrimination, no thought of comparing. So usually our knowledge is all involved in comparing. No thought of discrimination knowledge. And so this knowledge is extraordinary. Where there is not the slightest hint, illumination has nothing to grasp. Water is clear to the bottom, where the fish swims without moving. The sky is vast and boundless, where the bird flies away and disappears. So that's all the poem from Hong Xiu. And after citing that, Dogen offers his own.

[25:14]

Dogen says, the hub of Buddha's activity, the turning of the ancestor's hub, moves along with your non-thinking and is completed in the realm of non-merging. The hub, he's taking the same phrase, the hub of Buddha's activity, Turning of the Ancestors Hub, he starts out exactly the same way. But then he says, moves along with your non-thinking. And it's completed in the realm of non-merging. So this is pointing out a little more about Dogen's understanding, non-thinking. This Buddha mind moves along, moves in stillness with your non-thinking. It's already complete, he says. It completes itself. It's completed in the realm of non-merging. So although we may want to close the gap, we may want to have things merge, or we ourselves may want to merge because we're feeling separate.

[26:26]

Dogen's saying this is already completed. The non-merging is already complete. So consider that as you find yourself wanting to do something, to close the sense of separation, as you said, to try to get closer to your own horror, try to get closer to your own breath. Consider this phrase. It's completed in non-merging. Things are already complete. You are already complete. The friendship is already complete. You don't need to make friends. Except in the sense of having maybe some attitude that denies what is. So then one has to address that attitude.

[27:32]

So this is something that we do on a very intimate scale and also is the same issue that people have with divisions among nations. So the way one is divided in oneself is also replicated again and again and again karmically. in divisions among nations. So tomorrow is Veterans Day. This is November 10th. Tomorrow is November 11th. Veterans Day came from Armistice Day. Armistice Day was the 11th day of the 11th month. And on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month, they ended the war to end all wars.

[28:38]

What we now know is the First World War, right? So France and Germany and Great Britain signed the armistice agreement, ending all hostilities in the Western Front. And that later, it was some months later, they actually then signed the official Treaty of Versailles. which turned out to maybe be a contributing cause for World War II, right? But at that time, people were relieved. Millions and millions of people had already died in battle. And I was reflecting on that, and I imagine everyone in the room is affected by that. And you may not be so clear how your own life is affected by that. But many of you maybe do know in my own case the grandfather that I never knew was a non-combatant medic and he he breathed mustard gas which damaged his lungs and then he got tuberculosis and but he made it back and

[30:06]

and lived for another 16 years during which time actually a year after he came back my mother was born but he could never stand up because his coughing would become too severe if he stood up so he spent his whole remaining life in bed So I imagine that each person in the room has some, if you may reflect, you have some way in which you're connected through your ancestral lineage with the war in Europe at that time. Well, that was World War. Many other countries were involved. So I would like us tomorrow to ring the bell.

[31:10]

Ring the Dencho at 11, 11. 11, 11. You can ring it nine times. I checked the schedule. Tomorrow's a silent day. Tomorrow's a silent day and let's see. So we just start sitting, we end Kinhin at, so we end Kinhin, we have Kinhin at 11. And at 11.10 we have Zazen. So at 11.11 somebody could ring the bell just like one minute apart for nine times. We like to do things as nines or threes. About 108, well that may be too much. I mean it's really not too much. But the nine times will stand for 108. And it will stand for Each bell counts for 12, so that makes 108.

[32:16]

And many people around the world are recognizing this at this time of day. So I think around the time zones, as it goes around the globe, 24 hours at each 11th hour, people will be pausing for silently, maybe in most cases silently, having a few minutes. But we're already doing silence. So to join with the activity, and I sent a message yesterday to the abbesses of Green Gulch and City Center, inviting them to do some recognition. it's quite sobering to realize that the effort that goes into resolving conflict and then how it gets stirred up again.

[33:23]

And how we human beings have such a propensity for objectifying our enemies. not seeing that our enemies are ourselves I was just had I can't remember that I can't remember exactly but it was people remember the car the comic strip Pogo some people remember Pogo anyway there's some Pogo's yes but there was some some scene is that is like this Pogo and you know Albert and the alligator and various characters are they're all kind of gathered together and they have their little flags and they're charging up this little tiny hill you know to and then one of them says and then and the word is ah they see they see they see their

[34:39]

their friends over there I see we have sighted the enemy and he is us great wisdom from Pogo I should track that down to find a more complete we should probably have the whole comic strip put up on a big billboard some place or something um But then I wanted to, so Dogen lived in the 13th century, right? And also in the 13th century in Afghanistan, where there's a war going on right now, right? In Afghanistan, there lived someone, Jalahuddin Rumi. This is a poem that probably most of you know, so just to remind you today. Anyways, Rumi, Sufi poet. and wrote commentaries on the Quran so this is called the guest house this being human is a guest house every morning a new arrival a joy a depression

[36:09]

a meanness. Some momentary awareness comes as an unexpected visitor. Welcome and entertain them all, even if they are a crowd of sorrows who violently sweep your house empty of its furniture. Still, treat each guest honorably. He may be clearing you out for some new delight. The dark thought, the shame, the malice. Meet them at the door laughing and invite them in. Be grateful for whoever comes because each has been sent as a guide from beyond. So this, again, is beyond. and this beyond is also prior.

[37:12]

This beyond is each has been sent as a guest. So this being human, Rumi is saying, this being human, this body, this body-mind being human is a guest house. We feel that way, right? We feel that there's me and then there's everything else. So this is to investigate this very carefully, to know that all the guests that may be arriving are oneself. I'll read it one more time. This being human is a guest house. Every morning a new arrival, a joy, a depression, a meanness. Some momentary awareness comes as an unexpected visitor. Welcome and entertain them all, even if they are a crowd of sorrows who violently sweep your house empty of its furniture.

[38:30]

Still, treat each guest honorably. He may be clearing you out for some new delight. The dark thought, the shame, the malice. Meet them at the door laughing and invite them in. Be grateful for whoever comes because each has been sent as a guide from beyond. So this is similar and also different from Dogen's statement. In the realm of non-thinking, in the realm of non-thinking, everything is already complete. It is completed and non-merging. So this guest, this visitor arriving...

[39:36]

is Rumi's making more dramatic. Something more dramatic here. Something. Some awareness that arrives unexpectedly. And yet, you may know, you may feel, oh, this is somehow familiar. It's just that I'd rather have a different guest show up, right? so this is a practice of profound friendship making friends it was Chogyam Trungpa actually who first told me this is our practice just make friends with yourself it's completely ordinary to sit down Sit down.

[40:38]

Suzuki Roshi just says, sit down and see what is. See what is and notice that, okay, I may feel that, oh, there's some boundary here and there's everything outside of it. And then the wind rustles and some leaves fall and you know, oh, they're falling right here in my own body. Any questions? Tomorrow is a silent day. I should say just a little more about silent day. Silent day, we haven't done it yet this practice period. I saw the hand and I'll come back to it. Silent day, we will sit. The schedule will be a little different. So instead of sitting an hour and then 40 minutes, we'll have several 40-minute periods.

[41:44]

And then when it comes time for the robe chant, we will do the robe chant. But then we won't have any other chanting. Or talking. Or dokasan. We'll all just sit together. And at 11, we'll hear the bells. For Armistice Day that became Remembrance Day that became Veterans Day. And when we do service, we will just bow. So we'll do nine bows for the morning service together, and then after that, everyone just bow on your own, bow at your own speed. And work with your breathing. Let your bowing and breath participate with each other. Usually I like to rise with inhale and exhale completely at the

[42:52]

end of the frustration it's kind of a good feeling just simply bowing letting it all go and then the end of the day will be we'll do the refuges in Pali but otherwise very peaceful However, you never know what the noisy mind might produce. The brain has to keep producing thoughts and our habits are wanting to have something rather than not knowing. So it's a chance to notice the persistence of habitual mental formations and the persistence of thoughts.

[43:53]

a good chance to notice. So, yeah, there's a hand up over there. Yes? I have a question about the mood drop. When we're holding, should it be physically touching the lower abdomen? Or simply in the vicinity? Should it be pressed against the body? Well, it doesn't have to be pressed against the body. Usually in contact, but lightly. But you can experiment. Where does it want to be? Does it want to be a little bit away from the body? So it's good to see. Where does the mudra warm up? Where do you feel some energy? And having some... spacious feeling within the mudra and also with this whole with the arms away from the body a little bit that's also part of that mudra so exactly where the arms are and that's something to continue to develop a feel of intimacy with thank you kitchen

[45:16]

Real kitchen. Not mere substitutes. Okay? Yeah. Yes. I'll start with people who are on the regular list and then I'll, during the course of the session, I'll see everyone. If there's something that's urgent, you can always let Myo Zen know, and then he can make some arrangement if something's urgent. Otherwise, eventually, we'll get around to people. Yes? Well, you'd have to ask whoever wrote it and their editor if it was a typo.

[46:45]

But we, in some of the things that we produce and some of the things that I've written intentionally did not capitalize Buddha. The Buddha can sometimes refer to Buddha as absolute and sometimes refer to Buddha as there are many Buddhas. So, lowercase. Is that okay? Okay. Ah, yes.

[47:47]

So when guests arrive... Yeah. So how do I greet the guest? Do I resent their arriving? So do I resent something that's coming up? Or do I feel some ill will or anger? So that's a, or am I even just a little short? Do I turn away? Oh, I'd rather, I'd rather, you know, or am I embarrassed? I need to, I need to acknowledge that's an opportunity for repentance and confession of my shortcomings. Right there. So in the middle of sitting, I can say, oh, I acknowledge my shortcoming here.

[48:51]

I'm turning away from this. Sometimes it's useful even to see, oh, you know, we talk about Suzuki Roshi's idea of a wide field and give everything space. And so that's having a complete open mind, but then there may be something that, oh, I'd rather it not be in that field, or I'd rather it be dark. As soon as I notice that, I say, oh, that's something to confess my shortcoming. A misdeed, having a thought that objectifies something as separate. In the end, Any thought that objectifies anything is a misdeed. So that's a lot of confessing and repenting.

[49:54]

You get that? Does that make sense? Yeah. So someone said, yeah, we should put it up on the gate, you know. No mind objects. A place free, you know, Tasahara, Zen Shinji, a place free of mind objects. If you have no mind objects, then you can't repent. You've gone beyond repenting. But until you're free of mind objects, you have to continue repenting and confessing. Yes? Are these pain deaths? These are... Yeah, yeah, oh. They've paid a lot. They've suffered a lot, yeah.

[51:05]

They've paid, let's see, that's an interesting question, but I'm not sure how seriously you meant it. So what's the price of admission to my mind? My feeling is they've already paid. They've already paid. So now it's my job to be the host and be generous. ask them to pay more even though there may be some other guest in the room who says they didn't pay it's not fair you shouldn't treat them so kindly some other guest in the room you get a whole room full of guests some other guest in the room I say

[52:17]

They didn't pay. Or I was here first and now you're giving them more attention. So then it gets to be kind of a challenge. How to help the guests make friends with each other? The one who thinks the other one should pay. The one who thinks, the other one who just arrived is like, what, the 13th fairy? You know, and what's it, Sleeping Beauty? Or is it some other story? Anyway, it's the 13th fairy, right? The one who comes and brings the curse, right? Everybody else is having a good time, and someone else shows up and says, curses? I was not invited to your party, and I'm cursing you all, right? So even that one, you know, you say, oh, you really were invited.

[53:24]

Somehow something got messed up in the delivery, right? And so you were actually invited, but we just didn't know. We actually had lost track of your address. So please come in. And then, how to deal with curses. This is a big challenge because it may create a whole storm of confusion. So again, come back to Hara. The generous, warm mudra that can include everyone that shows up as prepaid, bona fide, welcome guests. I like that question, actually. Yeah. When the phone says he may be clearing you out for a new delight, is he always clearing you out for a new delight?

[54:32]

Don't count on it. Don't count on it. So, you know, is there a universal march toward benevolence or are some things just damaging and have no redeeming? Ah, ah. There is such a thing as cultivating the way and fruits of practice. So this is in the direction of activating beneficial bodhisattvas and realizing benevolent Buddhas. So it is cultivating that direction and supporting the fruits of the practice.

[55:34]

And at the same time, it's a big mistake if you have the strategy, okay, I'll accept you on the condition that you're clearing me out for some delight. This is unconditional love. And it's present moment practice. So the present moment practice is the delight that's right in the midst of sorrow. The delight that's right in the midst of grief. the light that's right in the midst of having no preferences. So we can't be too clever, you know, entering into negotiation.

[56:41]

I mean, it's not good to be so clever that we get involved in negotiations with the guest and say, oh, okay, well, I'll give you a cup of tea if you move the furniture around so I don't bump into things anymore. Be prepared to stumble and fall down. And then get up. Thank you. 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, visit sfcc.org and click giving.

[57:37]

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