Well, I want to start by just saying welcome to the Zen Center, welcome to this Saturday morning program, and also I acknowledge we have some visitors from across the country and around the state who are here for something called branching streams, which is a group of affiliated sanghas. And we also have a one-day sitting happening today. And today marks the beginning of a six-week practice period. And on top of it all, it's Saturday. And tomorrow will be Sunday. I appreciate, very much appreciate seeing all of you here.

[01:00]

And not just seeing you here, but also I appreciate the opportunity that your presence gives me to reflect and consider and deliver this Dharma talk. And in order to prepare for these 40 minutes of words, 30, 40 minutes, however long, in order to prepare for this talk, I've spent a longer time actually reflecting, reading, considering, and in fact, actually, there's no way I could use up everything I kind of thought about. You wouldn't want to hear everything I thought about on the way towards these words. But actually, all that work I did is left behind in me, and it's a gift for myself that giving a talk creates. So giving a talk like this is especially beneficial for the lecturer because these words double back, actually, and leave me richer for the experience.

[02:13]

And I make this point. I say this, what is a fact, among all the facts that we could mention, I mentioned this particular fact because, well, what I said is true about giving lectures or giving talks, it's also true about giving in general. It's also true about generosity in general, in completeness. I mentioned that this is the beginning of a six-week practice period, and this practice period is going to focus on something called the six paramitas. And the six paramitas, the six perfectionists, are giving ethics, patience, energy, meditation, and wisdom.

[03:15]

There's not time to talk about the six parmetas. I want to focus on giving, but also I want to lay them out there. Say those words out loud, because they are going to be words that we continue to reflect and investigate in the next six weeks. I used English. words there, giving. But there are older Pali and Sanskrit words for these paramitas. And giving is also referred to as dana. Some of you may be familiar with that word, dana. I said dana is the first of the six paramitas, but actually there's also a list of paramitas that are ten paramitas. And six paramitas, or ten paramitas, or talking about the first paramita, Odana, really, actually, there is just one truth in Buddhism, and that's the truth of waking up.

[04:34]

This one truth, this one fact, Our great founder, Shakyamuni, manifested in his entire body and transmitted down to this time. This one fact of waking up might seem, depending on our disposition, depending on our nature, our karmic baggage, might seem near or it might seem far. So in order to teach this one truth about waking up, in order to encourage the diversity of humans, the wide range of people in this room and in this world towards this waking up. In Buddhism, we sometimes take this one fact, waking up, and we divide it out in different ways.

[05:39]

We might divide it by two. And dividing it by two, we might talk about Nargajuna's two truths. Or we might take this one truth and use, we divide it into three and talk about the three jewels, Buddha, Dharma, Sangha. Or we might talk about the four noble truths. Or we might talk about the five skandhas or the six paramitas, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. But really these different schemes are ways to make accessible, to kind of approach the iron mountain. of waking up to find maybe a more gentle path of it. And while the story of Buddhism, maybe, has just one plot, it's also a woven net. And these different

[06:40]

Teachings of the Dharma, the six paramitas, the four noble truths, etc. These are like a woven lattice, like a lattice in a garden that allows our aspiration, our life, to hold on to different pieces and to be sustained and held up. But really, it's just one truth, which is waking up. So today, as I talk about giving, as I talk about the first paramita of dhana, I personally, I understand that what I'm trying to wrestle with is the matter of how we enter into the path of living our life. And how do we enter into...

[07:47]

the path of living our life completely so that our life is a gift to others as well as ourselves, so that we're not living a life as a demand on the world, but as a overflowing gift to the world. And I want to take a moment to say some things about in the practice of Buddhism, in the history of Buddhism, how giving has been thought of. because it's not a static teaching, Buddhism. Some things have changed, some things have come forward. So originally, I say originally, anyway, at one point, at a time which we might call, in the teaching of what we might call the Theravadan school, there was discussion of two paths of practice, not one. There was a path of practice for householders, for people who live entangled with family, children, jobs, etc.

[08:55]

And there was a path of practice for renunciates, for monastics. And these two paths, one for the layperson and one for the renunciate monastic community, had much in common but a few things different. The monastic way of practice, the minunciate way, mostly simplifying it, but involved the threefold path of ethics, concentration, and wisdom. Shila, samadhi, and prajna. And the householder way shared two of those. Shared... ethics and a shared concentration. But where wisdom was the focus of the renunciate, the third aspect of householder practice was not the cultivation of wisdom, but the cultivation of a generous heart, of giving.

[10:04]

So dana was included in the householder way, and prajna was included in the renunciate way, in this particular way. snapshot, which as soon as the picture is taken, of course, things change. And, you know, even as I say this thing about, well, there's these two ways, you know, and the Deravadan said this and that, yeah. I feel personally, I realize that this, in a way, it's like a straw dog to set up this Deravadan said this and all, you know. It's almost as though the The teaching of the elders is itself an expression of the bodhisattva ideal because they offer the skillful means of making these contrasts. I don't want to say one is better or another, but it was historically a focus on lay practice.

[11:06]

The aspiration of a lay practitioner was to support the temple. through generosity, through giving. And in some ways that remains true, but also as Zen has developed, as the Mahayana has developed, there's another way to think of it as well. Going back to this householder monastic, giving as an expression of the way to manifest life in that scenario, there's a truth to the fact that giving is a great virtue. And it was an absolute fact that the earliest monastics in Buddhism and renunciate monastics today also

[12:11]

didn't engage in work that produced material goods. They weren't farmers. They weren't carpenters. And they relied on the support of the lay community around them. And this charity was essential to allowing the Buddha Dharma to continue. And a part of the teaching back then and now was that even a small gift given with a completely open heart would accumulate tremendous merit. It would accumulate tremendous merit. So we can perhaps imagine some of the reasons why being generous is positive and good.

[13:20]

It's a good thing to do. We can perhaps, just without much effort, see it as a beneficial activity. When we're established in generosity, then somehow, magically, ill will towards us sometimes dissolves or goes away or minimizes. And people enjoy hanging around with somebody who doesn't hoard, but shares and is not just materially, but also with their time and attention and love. But sometimes, though, being generous Even though it is positive and good, sometimes generosity can be motivated by selfish reasons. Or even also sometimes generosity can be motivated by reasons that are cloudy and we don't even really understand exactly what it is we're expecting back from that gift we gave.

[14:23]

Somebody might support... teacher, for instance. And that's a great thing, but maybe one of the reasons they're doing it is because they want the teacher to like them. In a way, that's not just a gift, then. That's a commercial transaction. And in time, from the earliest beginnings of Buddhism, as it grew and spread and dispersed through different countries, the community of practitioners became more varied than just renunciate. It became inclusive of householders, inclusive of people with families and jobs and what we might call laypersons or householders. And in this new path of practice,

[15:27]

The understanding of dana, the understanding of giving, changed as well. There is a, well, I'm going to provide, I'm going to read an anecdote, an exchange between one of the great Chinese ancestors named Yapujo, who's, one of whose claims to fame was at the As he became older, he was a very hard-working person. And as he became older, the students in his temple hid his shovel because they were concerned because he was aged and in some ways not in the best of health, but he would put a full day of workout into the fields. And they hid his shovel, and when he couldn't find it, he sat down and he said, A day of no work is a day of no food, and wouldn't eat until his shovel was returned to him.

[16:35]

So he could contribute in the work, like a gift of his activity in that way. So this is the person I'm talking about here. So Yakujo had a student who asked him, by what means can the gateway of our school be entered? So this is one of those set-up questions. What is the... Essential teaching of Buddhism is another word. But he said, by what means is the gateway of our school, Zen school, entered? And Hyakujo replied, by means of dana paramita, by means of giving. And then the monk said, well, according to the Buddha's teaching, the Bodhisattva path has six paramitas. Why have you mentioned only one? I just wanted to test. What are the six Paramitas? Now's the time. Giving, ethics, patience, energy, samadhi or meditation, and wisdom.

[17:46]

There are six Paramitas. Everybody got 100 on that test. And his students, Yakujo's students said, well, there are six paramitas, how come you just mentioned one? And Yakujo, who was a cantankerous person, said, foolish people fail to understand that the other five paramitas all proceed from dana, proceed from giving. And that by the practice of giving, all the others are fulfilled. And then the monk said, well then, why is it called Dana Paramita? And Yakujo said, Dana means relinquishment. Dana means relinquishment. And the monk said, relinquishment of what? And Yakujo said, relinquishment of the dualism of opposites. Relinquishment of ideas about good and bad, pure and impure, being and non-being.

[18:52]

Complete and radical relinquishment. That's what I say. He didn't say complete and radical. That's my addition. So dana, the practice of giving in Zen means relinquishment. And this points to an aspect, an important part of what real giving, real generosity includes, which is in making a gift, we surrender control to it. And it's not really a gift if we expect reciprocal action. And even though, but even still, even if we wholeheartedly and completely, because life is complicated, you know. So even though we might, with the best of all, purest intentions, with no, you know, in that without being and non-being manifested in your gift, et cetera, you make a gift to somebody. Well, now, then the next person, they have to deal with that. They've received something from you and it gets complicated because then they maybe have issues about being indebted to you.

[20:01]

So giving becomes complex. The Japanese have a word for thank you, which means arigato, arigato. And I don't speak Japanese, but I have been informed and I've read that arigato, which means thank you, practically, it actually also means I have difficulty. In other words, it means your kindness makes it hard for me to respond with equal grace. So giving is something that sets in motion a relationship. And another part of giving, another part about giving is it's not just that Being generous has positive karmic consequences. It's not just that being generous is something good to do, but there's a flip side because not giving, not being generous, this has karmic consequences as well.

[21:10]

This affects people and ourselves. It affects ourselves first and maybe others as well. So not giving is problematic. And in Zen, one of the reasons that Zen practice can unfold forever and seem rich in areas that we never imagined is because there's a way in which we can fail to make a gift when we go to the zendo and sit and don't take advantage of that opportunity. So there's lots of ways that we might hold back from being present in zazen. And I want to mention two. The first way we might fail to make the gift of our intention in zazen, the first way we might have the idea that we're so busy, so tired,

[22:20]

so bored with it all that we just simply don't even go to the Zendo. We don't sit down. We don't take the time to sit down, turn around, face ourselves, face our breath. So that's one way. But then the other way is when we get to the Zendo, when we actually walk in, sit down, or go into our living room and sit on a cushion in a corner, we waste our time there with day drinks and thinking, with thoughts and plots and anticipations. Sometimes when we think, if we were to think about being generous or giving, we might imagine that there is a difference between the person who gives a gift and the person who receives the gift.

[23:34]

We might I think that in this particular piece of the puzzle that these are two pieces that maybe connect, but they're two pieces. But the way we are encouraged to understand this in Zen, in Buddhism, in our tradition of waking up, the way we're encouraged to understand this is, and as we say in our meal chant, May we with all beings realize the emptiness of the three wheels, giver, receiver, and gift. Giver, receiver, and gift. And this is an exhortation that's true not just at mealtime, in that particular gift, but also in all ways. In a very modest way, even like to go to the gym, we can... We exert ourselves, we give ourselves over to that, and really the beneficiary is ourselves.

[24:43]

This is a gift we give ourselves to, making the effort to be healthy. And while only perhaps a few of us might have the resources, financial resources, that would enable you to make a significant, really big material gift, to some situation, institution, problem, whatever. Every one of us has the capacity to, while only some persons, or maybe not many, can make materially enormous gifts, but we all have the capacity to make the gift of our life. All of us are responsible for how our day unfolds. Really, the only thing we have at the end of the day is have we risen to, have we lived the day in a way that has turned towards awakening?

[25:59]

Have we met the people who we relate to, know, and love? Have we expressed to them what a gift it is? to be friends with them. And the practice of Buddha, the practice of the Buddha way, the practice of giving, of not hoarding, the practice of zazan is something that is found in intimacy, is something that is found, is something that is manifested in in intimacy with ourselves and with others and with our breath and with our intention. And this intimacy is completely present every instant.

[26:59]

It's completely the truth of everything. breath, every sigh, every thought that we have. And in this practice of the Buddha way, there is no possibility of failure, just as there is no possibility of success. There is just the sweetly, sweetly certain fact that our life always is turning towards awakening. Our life always is moving towards accomplishing the way. There is a teacher in the Theravodin tradition. He's an Englishman, but he lives in the States.

[28:02]

He lives in Sonoma County or Mendocino County. His name is Achon Amaro. And in a magazine called Shambhala's Son, recently, I don't know, actually I'm not sure when it ran, but I recently read this article. There's a story about his mother and her mother's gift that she made to him. And he tells about this. He says when he was 12, when he was a young boy, He was a growing lad, and his mother would make a cooked breakfast for him every morning. And English breakfasts can be substantial affairs, you know, with bacon and fried bread and eggs and oatmeal. Anyway, so his mother every morning made this substantial breakfast for him and then sent him off to school. And then she would meet him... At the end of the school day, where the bus left him off a mile or so away from home, and she'd meet him in a car, and then she'd drive him home, and she would fix for him cream donuts that he would have as a tea.

[29:15]

And then later, not that much longer after that, it would be dinner time. And he and his siblings would sit down for a significant evening meal that... It was very nourishing and he, as he described himself, he was becoming quite the burly lad. One day when he got off the bus, his mother wasn't there. And he waited a bit and walked home and found his sisters and he heard that his mother had been taken to the hospital. And when they went to the hospital, altogether to meet her, they found out that she was suffering from malnutrition. That in order to make the limited money that the family had stretch far enough so that the kids could eat enthusiastically, she had not been feeding herself. Just eating the smallest bits of the scraps of what they hadn't finished.

[30:22]

Finally, this reached a point where she collapsed and was taken by ambulance to the hospital. And he said that none of his, he hadn't noticed this and none of his sisters had noticed it as well. And when they went to visit her in the hospital, she apologized for the fuss and actually said that they should really be out playing and doing their homework and things. They didn't have to worry about her. Please go home, she said. I'll be okay. And that's an extraordinary example of giving a gift. Maybe the message I want to say from this story of John Amaro's mother is don't look for Buddha anywhere else but in the quality of your heart. and the quality of the hearts of those around you.

[31:25]

So practicing zazen is the effort to be intimate with every instant. It's the effort to be intimate with ourselves, the wall that's right in front of us, the sensation of our fingers as they touch each other as we hold ourselves open to mudra, and practicing zazen is something that also continues when the bell rings and the period of zazen ends and we get up and walk out of the street. intimacy of our intention, the intimacy of giving and the careful attention that we place that we can train ourselves in through practice is something, is a gift that never ends. And I want to read now a poem about

[32:53]

what I believe is about intimacy. And also, well, let me just read this. It's called Famous. It's by a woman named Naomi Shehab Nye. The river is famous to the fish. The cat sleeping on the fence is famous to the birds watching him from the birdhouse. The tear is famous briefly to the cheek. The boot is famous to the earth, more famous than the dress shoe, which is famous only to floors. The bent photograph is famous to the one who carries it and not at all famous to the one who is pictured.

[33:58]

I want to be famous to shuffling men who smile while crossing streets, to sticky children in grocery lines, famous as the one who smiled back. I want to be famous in the way a pulley is famous. or a buttonhole. Not because it did anything spectacular, but because it never forgot what it could do. So let's, I hope, we all don't forget what we can do. Thank you.

[34:52]

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