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. Morning. Oh, this is our fourth day. And, um, I wanted to continue with some of the simple teachings that I brought up that Dogan gave us. Body like a mountain, heart like the ocean, mind like the sky. So yesterday I talked mostly about the first of these three, body like a mountain. So today I want to say some more about the other two verses, heart like the ocean and mind like the sky. So all of these verses are metaphors that are deeply familiar to us living here at Green Gulch, actually living here on planet Earth.

[01:05]

You know, there's a mountain above us, and there's the ocean below, and all through our days and nights, there's this soft covering of the sky. So first I want to share some thoughts on verse number two, heart like the ocean. We've been talking during this intensive about a sutra that has the word heart in it. Great wisdom beyond wisdom heart sutra. So I wondered how it feels inside of you to imagine your heart, your feelings of tenderness and compassion for the world as though they were an ocean. So wide and deep. Unfathomable, as we say, of the ocean. And yet filled to overflowing, even as... The glaciers melt and the sea levels rise. So it seems as though realizing the greatness and the inclusiveness of our hearts as oceans is what Dogen has in mind for us as we enter more and more deeply into the vastness at the center of our quiet sitting.

[02:08]

There really isn't much we have to do in order to see ourselves that way beyond taking our seats. out of which this mysterious process of discovering ourselves begins. You know, our true selves as seen through the eyes of the awakened ones. And we really don't know what will happen to us as we sit there together. And maybe we'll remember what it is that brought us here in the first place. For the Buddha, it was a concern for the suffering of humankind that drove him to leave the palace and sit down under a tree with great determination. And like us, he too had no idea what would happen as he sat there. And yet he had some great hope of finding a pathway to freedom from suffering, both his own and that which he had witnessed in the society of his own day, a society that I would imagine isn't much different from our own, you know, with the lying and the killing and the stealing, sexualizing, slandering, and so on, all of which we know very well.

[03:16]

So I think it's easy to see that all of you were also brought here by compassion for suffering beings, including yourselves, and for a deep wish to set us all free. And that's what I think Dogen meant by heart, you know, oceanic heart. Without such an understanding of what we are doing in this place, going down to that zendo and sitting... Without an understanding that's grounded in compassion, I think sitting would be a huge waste of our time. Kind of like kids hiding under the covers hoping that the monsters won't find them if they can't see them. So although this approach, just sitting, may not be fast enough to save any beings today or this week or this year or even in our lifetimes, finding a pathway to freedom may still be the best chance we have to alter the course of human history. just as it was altered over 2,500 years ago with the birth of a little baby boy.

[04:18]

In a teaching that was given by our Chinese Zen ancestor Dongshan Liangjie, he asks us a provocative question about the motivation for our practice under the heading of a teaching called Service. For whom have you washed off your splendid makeup? The cuckoo's call urges you to return. The hundred flowers have fallen, yet the call is unending, moving deeper and still deeper into jumbled peaks. For whom have you washed off your splendid makeup? The cuckoo's call urges you to return. The hundred flowers have fallen, yet the call is unending, moving deeper and still deeper into jumbled peaks. So these verses reflect the same spirit of determination for giving one's life in the service of others, but also in service of our own essential nature, this fundamental kindness and hopefulness that brought each of us in search of a way.

[05:30]

It's called the bodhicitta, the thought of enlightenment, a way-seeking heart. The Chinese word for service is fieng. I'm not sure how to pronounce that. in English spelled F-E-N-G, which also means to hold something devoutly or to honor, to pay homage, to esteem, to offer service. When a student asked a teacher, what should I do when I feel discouraged? The teacher replied, do something for someone else. So in this first line of Dongshan's poem, he uses words to conjure the image of a woman washing off her makeup in order to prepare herself to meet with her own true love. So this verse is a metaphor for the first step that we take in renouncing devotion to self-centeredness, what the Buddhists call worldly affairs, the world of profit and material gain, of competition, of infamy or of glory.

[06:32]

By renouncing worldly affairs, by taking off our splendid makeup, we enter into the way of the Buddhas. awake, at peace, and at work for the benefit of others. This verse is brought to life in the activities of our daily living. We get up at the sound of the bell, we wash ourselves, drink some tea, and then walk quietly and mindfully to the zendo. Once there, we arrange our bodies on a cushion or in a chair, and then we wait. So the question is, is waiting a method for awakening or is it awakening itself? And if so, who is it that's waiting to wake up? You know, there's really only one possible answer. The one waking up is you. So here's a teaching from Zen Master Dogen. When one displays the Buddha mudra with one's whole body and mind sitting upright in samadhi,

[07:37]

everything in the entire Dharma world becomes the Buddha mudra, and all the space in the universe completely fills with enlightenment. When one displays the Buddha mudra with one's whole body and mind, sitting upright in samadhi, everything in the entire Dharma world becomes the Buddha mudra, and all the space in the universe completely fills with enlightenment. This is a pretty big assertion of what we have come here to do. And yet for Dogen, it's the truest and most basic instruction for a human being to display the Buddha mudra with your whole body, your whole heart, and your whole mind while sitting upright in Samadhi. And that's it. It's quite simple. And yet what is perhaps assumed but not stated in this particular teaching is that we do this together. In fact, the word Samadhi literally means placing together. You know, placing the self, the falsely imagined and isolated self, me, together with all things.

[08:45]

All of you. And thereby becoming who we really are. And that is the entire universe filled to the brim with enlightenment. And in such moments, a joyful and instantaneous reunion with our true self. Heart like the ocean. Mind like the sky. In my understanding, this placing together is the most important thing that the Buddha saw at the moment of his awakening. He saw that he was the Buddha Mudra and that the Buddha Mudra was and still is reality itself, just like this. The inescapable presence of the present moment in which we human beings are at once either trapped or free, depending entirely on how we see it. On this day and every day, for that matter, we are given this opportunity to reflect on the present moment and to see for ourselves that there is nothing whatsoever outside of this, separate from this or excluded from this.

[09:53]

And given that, nothing whatsoever can be done about the present moment because it is what we are, what we truly are. We are alive together. It's all we've got and all we will ever have. And therefore, we take very good care of it in the Buddha mudra with all of its horrors and delights. Deeper and still deeper into the jumbled peaks. This is our life of karma, meaning action. Our life of awakening. And therefore, what are you going to do today? And yet, as the Buddha knew from his own experience as a confused human being for over 30 years, it's not so obvious or easy to understand how it truly is or what we can or can't do about it. He also knew as a human being how to keep himself very busy running around in all directions.

[10:55]

For example, he had tried starvation and meditation and celibacy, looking for a way out of his suffering. his desires of his anger which to the great relief of humankind he eventually found you know right there right here in the present moment many years ago um in the zendo i gave zazen instruction to a class of sixth graders who for the most part were sitting pretty quietly um and attempting to complete what i think for them was a very big challenge and that was to sit still for 10 minutes So at the end of that time, I rang the bell and I asked the kids how that had been for them. And this one little boy, who I will always remember, he's probably in his 30s by now, raised his hand and said, somewhat amazed, no one has ever asked me not to do anything before. And then he said, and then I said, how was that for you? And then he said, it was really nice.

[11:57]

It was really nice. So all of you have sat before and have a much better idea than those kids did about what happens when you're asked not to do anything for a while. But still you signed up once again to not do anything for most of today, for most of this week. And just what is your motivation? Do you even know? I think it's important to remind ourselves now and then that going to the Zendo is something that we have asked people do and hopefully may even want to do i for one have always found it difficult if not impossible to settle down in situations that i don't want to do or are not of my choosing and therefore it may be necessary for us to work that over in our own minds those various notions of wanting or not wanting or whether this is voluntary or mandatory as those thoughts begin to arise Now, this is a very familiar form of resistance to such things as scheduled events at Green Gulch Farm, especially this one, this not doing that we are doing here today.

[13:08]

And who did sign us up for this anyway? Was it Jiriu or the Eno or was it me or was it you? You know, it's hard to say. Maybe we are all signing each other up for this project of finding our way out of suffering. I, for one, wouldn't even be here without all of you sitting together, displaying the Buddha mudra. And that's the truth. I remember some years ago that Reb called Zen Center the I want to do this Zen Center, which I personally found very helpful as an ongoing reflection of the many decisions that I made over the years to continue training as a priest, as a resident of this community. Again and again, I had to express that commitment by filling out various applications and by accepting positions in this community that were offered to me, a number of which I really didn't want.

[14:09]

And that required a great deal of adjustment in my attitude throughout the day. And yet the real request that we are making to one another here at Green Gulch Farm, which can at times be obscured by such things as filling out applications, is is for this opportunity to display the Buddha Mudra with our whole body and mind, not only here sitting on cushions, but throughout the day in whatever we're doing, whether we say that's what we are doing or not. Truly, the Buddha Mudra is reality itself, and reality always wins. And yet I think we all know that this request from inside our hearts our utmost request is very tender and may take quite some time to be revealed, even to ourselves. In the Buddhist tradition, it's called the bodhisattva vow, the wish to live for the benefit of all beings. And how do we do that? By showing up completely, just as we are, with no gaps and no excuses.

[15:14]

They're not needed. How to live for the benefit of all beings was for the Buddha, as for all of us, something that needed to be learned, which is why we brought ourselves to a place like this one, where there are teachings and teachers and something unfathomable and seemingly mysterious that we long to learn about ourselves and about each other and about the world. Approaching this mystery directly isn't possible since, as I said before, it's just what we are, a great and wonderful mystery. Outside all notions, such as gain or loss, self or other, upside or downside, better or worse, what we really think and what we really are isn't like any of that, isn't like how we think, how we usually think. The great mystery of reality is itself doesn't submit to limitations of our human language.

[16:15]

So the best we can do for each other is to use our limited words carefully and precisely in order to create the conditions for realization. Conditions that have been practiced for thousands of years, such as these that Dogen Zenji enumerates in the Fukanza Zengi. A quiet room is suitable. eat and drink moderately, cast aside all involvements, and cease all affairs. Do not think good or bad. Do not administer pros and cons. Cease all the movements of the conscious mind, the gauging of all thoughts and views, and have no designs on becoming a Buddha. From there, Dogen goes on to suggest that having tended to our posture, clothing, breathing, and thinking, that we simply settle into steady, immovable sitting position, the Buddha Mudra, as all of us together wait for the signal ending the period of Zazen.

[17:25]

The word realization means the act of becoming fully aware of something as a fact, such as the Buddha proclaimed at his own birth, I alone am the world honored one. It's a fact. Realization also means to cause something to happen or to give physical form to something. In other words, to become what you have realized. And in this case, to become the Buddha mudra with your whole body and mind while sitting upright in samadhi. And then as that young boy observed after sitting quietly for a few minutes, not to do anything at all Someone once said that Zen can be discovered best by going through an exhaustive list of what it is not. And I think you may have already gotten a sense of that while chanting the Heart Sutra in the morning. No eyes, no ears, no nose, no tongue, no body, no mind, no suffering, no cause, no cessation of suffering, and no path leading to the cessation of suffering until finally there is no attainment with nothing to attain.

[18:34]

So whatever is left over at the end of that recitation is what the Buddha is said to have realized the morning of his awakening, when everything he thought he was had completely vanished. According to the Heart Sutra, what was left over was this mantra, gate, gate paragate, parasam gate bodhi svaha. The word mantra itself comes from the Sanskrit root meaning mind. So a mantra is the thought behind our speech or our actions. It's the impulse or intention that's deep within our hearts to do something. But what? To kill people or to protect them? To love our neighbors as ourselves or to hate them? We have to choose. And then we all have to work for it, you know, to the end of our days. Although the mantra at the end of the Heart Sutra sounds a little less mysterious when it's translated into English, gone, gone, completely gone, gone beyond, bodhisvaha, still it leaves us to wonder, you know, who's gone and gone where?

[19:45]

But most importantly, how does this have anything to do with me? Which is why this word bodhi at the end comes from Sanskrit meaning to understand completely. the end of all those questions. Why me? The word Bodhi shares the same meaning as the word Buddha. Awake. Why not you? I think what's true of the Heart Sutra is true of our Zazen practice as well. Whatever is left over after you have settled into your seats will best be discovered by what it is not. And again, from the Fulkanza Zengi. Zen Master Dogen tries to help us to understand Zazen in this way. It is not pursuing words or following after speech. It is not learning meditation. It's not the practicing or realizing of supernatural powers. And it's really not the wasteful delight in the spark from the Flintstone. Until finally, at the very end, he tells us what it is.

[20:47]

It is simply the Dharma gate of repose and bliss. The practice realization of totally culminated enlightenment. The Buddha mudra. with whole body and mind sitting upright in samadhi, if only for a moment, you know, just like this one. Body like a mountain, heart like the ocean, mind like the sky. In talking about how we wake up to the sky-liked nature of our minds, Suzuki Roshi emphasizes the central place of meditation, of mindfulness, and of continuous practice. Constancy, he says, our continuous practice we should always live in the dark empty sky the sky is always the sky even though clouds and lightning come the sky is not disturbed even if the flashing of enlightenment comes our practice forgets all about it then it is ready for another enlightenment it is necessary for us to have enlightenment one after another if possible

[21:56]

moment after moment. In the Nikayas, which are the texts of the early Buddhist school, enlightenment, or bodhi, is presented as the deepest knowledge of the causes and conditions by which human beings incarnate into material form and experience suffering. In other words, a profound insight into samsara, the cycle of birth and death, best known through the varieties of complaints that we humans register. along the path. It's too hot. It's too cold. I'm too tired. I am too busy. Too thin, too fat, too quiet, too noisy. And therefore, Bodhi is most importantly the realization of the pathway by which one ceases to be enslaved within that cycle of complaint. Following his own awakening, the Buddha said to us that the causal mechanism for the problems we are having arises from none other than our thinking.

[22:57]

So may we all find that very pathway to freedom, like birds through the sky, by using our time today to fly up and out of our rigid ways of thinking. And may we all find the courage to express that hard-won freedom for the benefit of all beings. from Shohaku Okamura's excellent book called Realizing Genjo Koan, the key to Dogen's Shobo Genzo. Our usual approach to fixing ourselves is by trying to repair our conceptual maps, our mind maps. In Zazen, on the other hand, we let go of the map and just sit down on the earth of reality. Letting go is, on the one hand, the complete rejection of any thought, based on our limited karmic experience. Yet on the other hand, letting go is the acceptance of all thoughts as mere secretions of the mind and elements of an incomplete map of reality.

[24:01]

We neither negate anything nor affirm anything in Zazen. And we can do this because we are simply sitting facing the wall. So I want to close with another poem from what has become a very favorite set of teachings for me. These are the early nuns declaring their freedom, first from the household life and then from samsara, a book called The First Free Women. This one is an offering from the nun Chitta, meaning heart-mind or mountain-ocean-sky. Somehow I kept climbing, though tired, hungry and weak, old too. At the top of the mountain, I spread out my outer robe on a rock to dry, set down my staff and bowl, took a deep breath, and looked around. It was windy up there. As I was leaning back against a large gray rock, the darkness I had carried up and down a million mountains slipped off my shoulders,

[25:14]

and swept itself away on the wind. Bodhisattva. Thank you very much. Thank you for listening to this podcast offered by the San Francisco Zen Center. Our programs are made possible by the donations we receive. Please help us to continue to realize and actualize the practice of giving by offering your financial support. sfzc.org, and click giving. May we fully enjoy the Dharma.

[25:49]

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