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. On occasion, I'd like to know how many... People are here for the first time. Well, welcome to Green Gulch, to Green Dragon Temple. Sometimes I like to ask people also before a talk, what would you like me to talk about? And the last time I asked... one person said the moon and another person said women women in Buddhism so I thought I would take as a jumping off place the moon the moon today is the full moon and some of you might know that

[01:26]

This particular moon in 2013, June 2013, it's called a, somebody's coined the phrase supermoon. It's the time of the year when the moon is closest to the earth, the perigee. And not only is the moon closest to the earth, but it's a full moon closest to the earth. So it's, it's, It looks bigger, it looks brighter, and I saw photos that compared telescopic photographs of regular full moon and one of these perigee full moon when it's the closest to the Earth. It looks quite a bit bigger. So this full moon of June is called, you know, each moon has a name In June, it's the strawberry moon or the rose moon or the flower moon.

[02:31]

Now, we just had the solstice just a couple days ago and the beginning of summer, and so these names, strawberry moon, rose moon, we really feel that. We see the strawberries. But I was having a one-on-one conversation with someone kind of a Skype personal interview, and they were in Australia. This was on the solstice, and it was the winter solstice for her. She had a hat and blankets. She was sitting someplace where she has her little zendo set up. She had a muffle hat and blankets, and it was winter solstice for her. And the moon in the southern hemisphere is called... The June moon is called the oak moon, the cold moon, and the long night's moon.

[03:34]

Somehow this was very helpful for me in loosening my ideas and concepts that I know what June 21st is. It's the longest time day of the year and it's warm and it's strawberries and it's summer. But that's very conditional, right? That's for us in the northern hemisphere. But that's not some universal. And all things are like that. All things are like that. And when we uncover our strong opinions and strong attachment to this is the way things are, this is what a friend is, this is what, you know, this is who I am, this is who you are. And then we can be very disappointed, very saddened when something doesn't fit into our strong conceptual worldview.

[04:49]

The pain around that, the disappointment and the pain and sometimes clinging, holding tighter to our view or wanting people to think the way we do, this causes enormous pain and suffering. So the moon is used as an object of meditation, I would say, in many, many different contexts. Buddhism, it's brought up as an image to contemplate by many different teachers to help us with our tendencies, our human tendencies, to see things as permanent, my way, my way or the highway, and it should be like this, and our pain at finding how things are ever-changing, not meeting our expectations, and unfolding according to vast causes and conditions that we can't control.

[05:55]

So the moon, as an object of meditation, can help us with this, can remind us. So I wanted to bring up some of these examples and see how that resonates with you. Last night the moon rose at about 7.56 and I was reading about this perigee moon and that it's the biggest moon and I couldn't see it. We're down in the valley and because of the hills around us and I just was longing to see that moon so I just got in the car and drove up to Panoramic Highway and parked the car and there she was coming up over the East Bay, over the hills across the bay. And it did look bright, bright, bright, and big.

[07:01]

But I didn't catch it as it just rose, which I think probably is when it looks the biggest. But I had this longing to see it and just gaze on this moon. One image that I want to share with you is it's the teaching of what's called the reality body or the truth body of the awakened one, of the Buddha. The reality body or the truth body. So the... the teaching from a particular sutra, golden radiance sutra, and this was also, this saying was also taken and put into a Zen story, into a koan, but the Buddha said the reality body of the Buddha or the truth body of the Buddha is like space.

[08:17]

The truth body of the Buddha is like space. It responds to beings or takes form like the moon reflected in the water. So the truth body of the Buddha or the truth body of awakened reality can't be conceived of even. It can't be grasped. It can't be held. And yet, and yet, when beings are suffering, when beings need help, this reality body of the Buddha takes form in response to beings. Otherwise, it doesn't take form. It takes form in response to being. And then there's this metaphor like the moon.

[09:19]

reflected in the water. So if you picture the moon, and I did see it over the bay last night, and I'm not sure if we'll be able to see it tonight. It's kind of foggy and cloudy, but anyway. The moon reflected in the water. is this teaching image. It's more than metaphor or parable. It's the reality itself of moon and water is proclaiming the teaching. So we have two moons, right? We have a moon in the sky, and then we have a moon that's reflected in the water, and the two of them are related to each other. Intimately, the moon that's in the water, you can't get a hold of that moon.

[10:22]

If you tried to grab it in the water, it would just be splashes and broken up light. And same with the moon in the sky, we can't grab the moon in the sky. However, there they are, the moon in the sky, the moon in the water, And neither of them, the moon, this is another teaching that continues with this moon in the water from a letter, actually, that was written to a lay practitioner by a Zen master, Zen master Dogen, wrote this letter, which became a very famous piece, almost like an essay. called Genjo Koan, or actualizing the fundamental point. And in this piece, Dogen says, enlightenment or realization is like the moon reflected in the water.

[11:31]

The moon does not get wet, nor is the water broken. Or, yeah, it's the water. The water isn't broken. There's this relationship. And each of us, this moon in the sky, you might say, is used as a way to meditate on realization or enlightenment or waking up to the way things are. This moon in the sky, and especially this moon that I saw last night, The light is vast and great and shines on everything. It doesn't matter what the object is, whether the object is small or great or teeny tiny. It doesn't matter. The moon shines equally on everything.

[12:34]

And everything equally reflects back the moon. The shining is on each thing and each being reflects the moon, no matter how small. So in the Genjo Kohan it says, the moon is reflected even in a puddle an inch wide. The whole moon, the whole moon in the sky and the vast sky is reflected in dew drops. If you... study a dew drop, everything's there. So this teaching is, you know, you could say it's metaphor, and it's both metaphor and the reality of how we exist right there, moon reflecting in the water, moon reflected in a puddle an inch wide or a dew drop,

[13:39]

That means, you know, this is poetic language of Dogen, but each one of us is like a teeny tiny dewdrop. And dewdrops, you know, they vanish pretty quickly. You know, they don't last. Dewdrops on the grass. So each of us has a life... Each of us is a life that we're living out that is not everlasting and not, you know, we have a duration for a certain length of time, some shorter, some longer, but everybody, there's an outside range there. And whether we have great accomplishments in our life or whether we have very modest, doesn't matter.

[14:41]

That's a kind of discriminating comparative way to think about our lives. Each one of us completely reflects and shines with this light of the moon without exception. There's a poem that Dogen wrote that also takes this same image of moon in a dewdrop, and it's a waterfowl merges out of the water, shakes his bill. Each drop reflects the moon. So this kind of dynamic movement and, you know, shaking the bill. each one of those drops that only lasts for an instant, each one has the whole moon right there.

[15:48]

So this is the reality of our life. Now, along with these images of the moon reflected in the water, there's also, and I want to bring this in, which is the teaching of compassion, which is essential for our Buddhist practice, I would say. Without compassion in your practice life, it's just going through the motions. So there's a wonderful old story known in Asia, I think, maybe pretty widespread in Asia. It's a Jataka tale, a tale of... Shakyamuni Buddha before he became the Buddha. There's many, many tales when he was an animal. They're a little bit like Aesop's fables. And in this one, it's how the rabbit went into the moon.

[16:54]

In Asia, there's a rabbit in the moon and not a man in the moon. So in this story, there were three animals who were very good friends. A fox... and a monkey, and a rabbit. And this was kind of an odd combination of animals, because usually foxes and rabbits don't hang out together, and monkeys. Anyway, but they were very good friends and spent time together all the time, and it became kind of famous that these three were such good friends. Well... As it happens, when things become famous, somebody wants to test it. Are they really such good friends, or do they really get along? Let's see. So Indra, the god, one of the gods, Indian gods, disguised himself as an old, old man, kind of emaciated, hungry person.

[17:56]

And he came upon them in the forest. The three of them were all together. And he said, I'm very, very hungry. Please, could you help me? Please get me something to eat. Oh, and the three of them, yes, of course we'll help. And the fox went off and fished, actually, and got a fish and brought it back for the man. And the monkey went and gathered roots and berries and nuts and things and gathered them. And the rabbit was looking around and looking around and couldn't really find anything to give this old man. wanted to join with his friends to help him. And then this rabbit got an idea. And he came back and he said, build a fire, build a fire. And his friends, the monkey and the fox, gathered wood and they built a big fire. And then the rabbit threw himself onto the fire and offered his whole body as a gift for this old man, to feed this old man.

[18:58]

And Indra was so moved by this gesture, this full body offering, that he didn't allow him to be killed, one story. He restored him, and then he placed him up in the moon to live forever, and really to teach compassion, because this act was compassion, a compassionate... giving without thought of self. Is that right? So the rabbit in the moon kind of recalls, for many people who know about this story, you look at the moon and you remember compassionate giving and selflessness and care. And there's also a bodhisattva This is a being who has vowed to live for the benefit of others named Guan Yin or Kanon in Japanese, Kanon in Chinese, Guan Yin.

[20:10]

And there's many, many manifestations of Guan Yin or this Bodhisattva of infinite compassion. And one of them is called the Water Moon Guan Yin. And when you see the image, she's often sitting... in robes, very quietly, often by water, with willow branches, willow as the healing plant, aspirin comes from willow, and with a huge full moon behind her. So this image kind of laminated together, you might say, of compassion, infinite compassion in the moon and water. water moon, this full moon in the sky as a compassionate life. The other day I stopped off at our farmer's market.

[21:18]

Green Gulch goes to Mill Valley on Fridays and sells vegetables. bread and flowers, herbs, and we have a farmer's market here after lecture, so please do your weekly shopping here, freshly harvested produce. And it was wonderful to walk around the farmer's market, and I'm sure a lot of you enjoy going to farmer's market. And in this farmer's market, there was an old fellow, an old farmer, farmer who kind of reminded me of like meeting somebody in a fairy tale, actually. He was kind of hopping around his stand. It was right next door to ours. And he was selling fruit, stone fruit, beautiful stone fruit, peaches. And they were just fragrant. You knew that they hadn't been picked too early and ripened on a shelf somewhere. They were like ready to go. And he was hopping around and I bought some peaches.

[22:21]

And he sang a little ditty while he was hopping, saying, Fruit for you and money for me. Fruit for you and money for me. And it was sort of like meeting Rumpelstiltskin or something, you know, in the forest, you know, the way he was. He had this little hat and was completely kind of unabashed about, you know, it was like just this exchange of energy. You give me these things and I give you fruit. He's got plenty of fruit. He doesn't need fruit. We do this little... energy exchange, and he was dancing away. This is summertime here in California, and later I wanted to recite a poem about peaches, which, it's not only about peaches, it's about peaches and our life together, actually. So I want to come back to our peach poem. Back to this image of the moon in the water.

[23:40]

Now, Dogen, this particular Zen master from the 1200s in Japan, wrote an entire, he was prolific, he wrote an entire, they're called fascicles, or chapterette essay, on the moon. A whole long, this one's pretty long, chapter on the moon. And where he allows us to study with him these images as teaching and helping us to have this enter us in a way that's not only metaphorical, although poetically and metaphorically this helps us open, open, open to the teachings. And at the same time, not a metaphor. but the reality of our life together. The word in Japanese for moon is tsuki.

[24:45]

Tsuki. And there's a character that's usually used for moon, and it's used also for the word month. Sometimes we call, you know, each moon is each month. The word month comes from moon in English. But he doesn't use that character. when he's using the word moon, which is just translated in moon in English, he uses another character which, when you read that character, it says tsuki, but it's not the character that's usually used. Instead, it's a character whose meaning is, it has a double meaning. It's like a word picture, kind of a word picture, play on words, but visual. So these characters that he uses, when you see them, you say tsuki, and also the meaning of those characters, besides being moon, means total dynamic functioning.

[25:56]

Total dynamic functioning. So in reading this fascicle, every time and I don't really read Japanese, but if you're a reader of Japanese, every time you came to the place where he says moon, also besides it reading tsuki, it also means total dynamic functioning. Total dynamic functioning and the moon. And moon and total dynamic functioning as one to hold that in one's body-mind. And this moon in the water, and he brings up moon in the water, is how we actually exist.

[26:58]

We are both, and this image of the moon in the dewdrop itself, says and expresses how we exist. We are both evanescent, impermanent, short-lived, basically, conditioned, completely conditioned by our society and our culture and our preferences and our language and totally conditioned And at the exact same time, that way that we're conditioned means we are connected with every single other thing that is also conditioned. We're not separate beings. The dewdrop itself is water, which is made up of whatever it's made up of and is...

[28:04]

and evaporates and heats up and we're conditioned. We're not some separate, solid, permanent entity. We're affected by everything else. And we might experience that as suffering sometimes, but that very suffering proves and expresses the total dynamic functioning of our life. which is interconnected with every single thing. And that interconnection is called empty of separate self or emptiness. So everything that's conditioned doesn't have separate permanent self. It just has a provisional name and a provisional color. We say dewdrop. or Linda, or whatever it is, that's provisional.

[29:09]

We call it, we call each thing, we have a name, you have a name, this room has a name, the sound of raindrops, we have language for that. And it's provisional. It's the winter solstice in Australia. It's the longest night moon in Australia. Each thing is provisional, is for this moment and these conditions. And if we try and grasp onto it as an unmoving, permanent thing, we will suffer. But when we flow and are flexible and bend, we won't break. be able to accept the truth of our life. So this moon in the water, the moonlight reflected in the water or in the dew drop is empty of separate self.

[30:24]

It's an image of how we are together which is completely connected. And at the same time, we're a particular thing. We are a particular thing with a name and a house or a place to live, hopefully, or a place not to live. Whatever it is, we're very, very, very particular, unique, unrepeatable beings at the exact same time. This is called middle way. This is moon in the water. The vastness of the moonlight in the sky in the water. So our tendency as human beings is to kind of grasp or want to lean and be one or the other. Look, let me just be a dewdrop. That's enough. I don't want to hear about the vastness of the moonlight in the sky.

[31:28]

I can't. Or I just want to be fastest, I don't want to hear about dewdrop. But the truth is, middle way is both together. We can't have one without the other. Because the reality has these qualities to it, these truths of how we are together. Which is really a celebration. And I think our meditation, our zazen practice, is a kind of celebration of that in the most simple way of moon reflected in water. And in that golden radiant sutra where it says, the reality body, if the Buddha, the awakened ones, is like the sky or space, It responds to beings like the moon reflected in the water.

[32:29]

Responding to beings is that compassion. So right within all these images, as I said before about the rabbit and the moon, is responding to beings. A compassionate way in this world. Compassion. born of our interconnectedness that we can't get out of or give away. And Buddhas appear in the world with a vow to help beings like the moon reflected in the water. So I travel to San Francisco for meetings a lot.

[33:37]

I go over the bridge, and I often listen to the radio and PR. And this past week, There was a couple of things, maybe you heard them too. One was about, and this struck me kind of funny, it was about the importance, how people experience food as tasting better and more enjoyable, and when there's some ritual around eating food. Now this, I think, has been known forever, you know, in spiritual communities and really around the family table. to have some kind of ritual around our meals. But they did this experiment with, it was kind of a silly experiment. They had candy bars and the control group could eat it any way they wanted, just munch it down.

[34:38]

The other group had to break it in half, wrap half of it, set it to the side, open this other half and break off pieces and eat them individually and then eat the other half. And then the report back was that the ones who wrapped it up and ate it slowly savored it more, and it was much more delicious, deep flavor of the chocolate and all the overture. You know, they could really, really taste it. And the folks who just gobbled it up, it's like, what chocolate? You know, they can barely remember. And we know this, right? If you're standing in front of the icebox and munching, it's like, did I just eat a turkey sandwich? I don't know. I can't even remember. Where was I? And that compared to, we have meals in the Zendo here formally. In fact, these raised platforms, this front board is like a dining room table. That's where the set of bowls is placed.

[35:40]

And the meal... We do it with a lot of ritual here, but it's even modified. It's a modified ritual. We had visitors, visiting priests from Japan come, and there was just a lot more that we're not doing. But anyway, we were doing a lot. And you chant, there's drums, there's offering of the Buddha gets served first, a tray with little miniature bowls. And then the servers come in and they wipe the meal board and then more chanting. You open your bowls and then the food comes and you receive it and you don't eat it yet. You just get to appreciate the smells and how it looks and the chop. Ooh, the kitchen made such beautiful little pieces. And then after everybody's served, then there's more chanting and then you... raise your bowl and you take the first spoonful, everybody together.

[36:44]

Oh, that spoonful. Oh, that brown rice cereal is like heaven. So I encourage you to come to a one-day sitting or a seven-day sitting or even, you know, we have modified meals that are taken in silence for the first ten minutes or so. But you can do this at home. What kind of ritual do you have at home? Do you set the table? Do you all sit down together? Do you serve each other and wait till everyone's served? Do you say grace or some kind of words of appreciation? And, you know, to understand that this is how we appreciate and are truly nurtured with ritual. this kind of ritual. So I encourage you to find your own rituals, whether they don't have to be Buddhist or Zen rituals, and each of us has our own.

[37:50]

I think you already do. But to consciously create ritual space around food. And there's also been studies, just parenthetically, that people with eating disorders, which is epidemic in this country, having some ritual around food is very... healing for that particular difficulty. So that was one thing I heard on the radio heading over the Golden Gate Bridge. And then another thing was about veterans and the high rate of suicide and how it's growing. And this dovetails with this article that I read in the New Yorker this past week which some of you may have read as well, about a Buddhist monk, Buddhist priest, named Nobutsu, I think is his name, Nemoto.

[38:52]

And this was a man who decided, after a kind of a life-changing experience, a terrible accident, to become a Buddhist priest. And... What his life's work is, is working with suicidal people in Japan, and he has a website. He has all these meditations and workshops that he does with people, very similar to our hospice volunteer training, those of you who have done that, where you can confront in a meditative, contemplative way your own death, and the... Inevitability as well as not knowing when. Inevitability of one's death and taking the time to turn that and meditate on that reality.

[39:57]

And anyway, he, just those of you who may want to read the article, it's very... In Japan, the suicide rate is very high, higher than the United States, and many young people, and so he has this website, and he would also take calls 24 hours a day from people and write back to every email and be there for people until he got to the place of... exhaustion and burnout and where he felt he couldn't do the work anymore. And then he realized, plus he carried it, he couldn't just let go. He carried it and worried about these people that he was talking with, as I'm sure many of you have had this kind of experience of worrying about someone. Anyway, at the end, what he realized was I can't do this anonymously with people.

[41:03]

And he made it a condition that they had to come to him at his temple, face-to-face, to talk about what was going on. He couldn't just do phone and emails. He couldn't do it anymore. And many, many people just, they stopped contacting him. But others found their way. He lives in a remote temple. And this one person who was, I can't remember the Japanese word, it's a... which many young people are in this state where they don't go out of their room, and they're on the video, doing video games and internet all the time, and their parents bring them food on trays. And I'm sure this is rampant in the United States as well, probably all over the world, this phenomena, really. Anyway, this one person who wanted his help, felt he couldn't go on anymore, decided... He hadn't been out of the house in years.

[42:05]

He'd been on the internet the whole time. But he decided he was going to go and talk with this priest. And so he left the house walking. And it took him five hours to walk to where this temple was. And during that time, he was moving and sweating and walking uphill and felt his body. He was like, oh, I have a body. Again, you know, and exertion and breathing and sights and sounds and smells and other people. And by the time he got to the temple, it had been this huge thing for him to leave the house at all. But to make this five-hour walk, when he got there, he told the priest, I'm okay now. I know what I need to do. And he didn't even talk with them. He just turned around and... knew what he needed to do to take care of his life.

[43:05]

So these stories, you know, and thinking of the importance of connecting with others, even if it's frightening, connecting with one's body. daily movement and breath and stretching and eating with consciousness. And these practices will sustain you and enliven you and also help you with joyous effort and enthusiasm to be present for others and help others and become water moon. bodhisattvas who who want to offer and are able to offer with this brief life that we have what makes it worthwhile so this

[44:28]

that I want to recite. I recited it two times in public. It's by Li Yong Li, a Chinese poet. And as I said before, it's about... You can tell me what it's about. I can't tell you what it's about, but it's called From Blossoms. And I'll make some comments because after the poem, but in learning it by heart, which... happens when you learn poetry by heart is the meaning of it began to unfold and unfold. And what I thought it was about, I saw there was more to it and more to it. And hopefully it lives within me and I can draw on it forever. So this is called From Blossoms. From blossoms comes this brown bag of peaches we bought from the boy at the bend of the road where we turn toward signs painted peaches.

[45:40]

From laden boughs, from hands, from sweet fellowship in the bins comes nectar at the roadside, comes succulent peaches that we eat, dusty skin and all. comes the dusty skin of summer, dust we eat. Oh, to take what we love inside, to carry within us an orchard, to eat not only the skin, but the shade, not only the sugar, but the days, to hold the fruit in our hand, adore it, and adore than bite into the round jubilance of peach. There are days we live as if death were nowhere in the background, from joy to joy to joy, from wing to wing, from blossom to blossom to impossible blossom to sweet impossible blossom.

[46:54]

So in learning this pulp by heart, I noticed that it had the word dust, dust, and dusty many times. The first time I read it, it was just peaches, you know, succulent, nectar bites, summer, peach farmers dancing around saying, fruit for you and money for me. It was just that, you know, I'm in a brown bag of them. But it's that dust, dusty skin. We eat the dusty skin. It was like dust from dust. From dust to dust. From dust we come and dust we go. You know, right within this jubilance of peach, this round jubilance of peach was our impermanence. our own death, our own non-everlasting nature.

[48:10]

Right there, right there within, peaches at the roadside. And then later when it says to take what we love inside and to eat not only the skin but the shade, You know, we eat the peach and we eat all the, you know, shade is another word for, like in Divine Comedy, you know, the shades are the ones who are in the underworld, right? So there it was again, you know, in this sunny summer days of peaches, right there, always right there. In each moment of our life, right there, is light and dark together, is sun and shade, is our life and death.

[49:13]

We can't separate them and choose one over the other. And in the last part, there are days we live as if death were nowhere in the background. There are some days like that where it's just joy, from joy to joy to joy, from wing to wing, from blossom to blossom to impossible blossom, to sweet impossible blossom, as if, but we know death is in the background, we know this, which is how it is that that peach is so It's right there. We can't pull them apart. I'm going to recite it again.

[50:24]

From blossoms comes this brown bag of peaches we bought from the boy at the bend in the road. where we turn toward signs painted peaches, from laden boughs, from hands, from sweet fellowship in the bins comes nectar at the roadside, comes dusty peaches that we eat dusty skin and all, comes the dusty skin of summer. See, now I'm ruining it. I'm not ruining it. I'm just forgetting. I'm just getting mixed up. Oh, to take what we love inside, to carry within us an orchard, to eat not only the skin, but the shade, not only the sugar,

[51:27]

days to hold the fruit in our hand and adore it and bite into the round jubilance of peach. There are days we live as if death were nowhere in the background, from joy to joy to joy, from wind to wing, from blossom to blossom to impossible blossom, to sweet impossible blossom. Thank you very much. May we fully enjoy the Dharma.

[52:32]

@Transcribed_UNK
@Text_v005
@Score_97.73