This podcast is offered by the San Francisco Zen Center on the web at www.sfcc.org. Our public programs are made possible by donations from people like you. Good morning. I don't know if you all know who I am. I'm from Green Gulch Farm. My name is Hu Schrader. I'm the abiding abbess. It's very nice to be here. This is my home temple. First time I came to Zen Center, I sat on these tatami mats and listened to talks, so it's always a little strange to be on the other side, but very happy to be here. So in the spirit of the season, I want to share with you a story that I read for the children's program at Green Gulch a couple of Sundays ago, and it's called The Gift of Nothing. So this story, according to People Magazine, is a sweet tale with a Zen message.

[01:08]

So maybe you know these characters. The cartoonist Patrick McDonald does, I think Mutts is the name of his series. It's been around for a long time. And these two characters, there's a dog and a cat, and the cat's name is Mooch, and the dog is Earl. It was a special day. The two houses in the snow. And Mooch, the cat, wanted to give his best friend Earl a gift. But what to get him? He had a bowl. He had a bed. He had a chewy toy. Squeak. He had it all. Mooch thought and thought, what do you get someone who has everything? Poor Mooch. I don't know if you can see these pictures with question marks all over his head.

[02:18]

And then he finally just kind of laid there. And then all of a sudden, nothing, he says. He would give Earl the gift of nothing. Nothing. But in this world filled with so many somethings, where could he find nothing? So he looked all around the house. Mooch often heard Frank say that there was nothing on TV. But as far as Mooch could tell, there was always something on TV. Blah, blah, blah. Mooch often heard Doozy and her friends say there was nothing to do. But as far as Mooch could tell, everybody was always doing something. They're having a snowball fight here. Millie came home from the store and said, there was nothing to buy.

[03:19]

So Mooch went shopping. And here he is, probably at Nordstrom's. I'm not sure where that is. Everything's for sale. Mooch looked up and down every aisle. He found many, many, many somethings. The latest this, the newest that. But as far as he could tell, nothing was not for sale. So Mooch went home, very discouraged, and sat on his pillow. Sound familiar? And he just stayed still as cats often do. And not looking for it, he found nothing. That's this page. So he went and got a box and put nothing in it.

[04:22]

Then Mooch thought, hmm. Maybe Earl deserves more than this. So he got a bigger box. Now that's plenty of nothing. And then Mooch carried the big box across to his friend's house. For me, said Earl. Mooch, you didn't have to give me anything. Who told him, thought Mooch. Mooch's gift. Question mark. There's nothing here, said Earl. Yes, said Mooch. Nothing. But me and you. They're hugging. Earl's tail is wagging. So Mooch and Earl just stayed still and enjoyed nothing else.

[05:32]

and everything. So, the gift of nothing. So there's another kind of a story. This one I want to tell you is a verse from the Book of Serenity, which many of you may know. A collection of koans characterized by their translator, Thomas Cleary, as grandmotherly, loving, and very subtle. Which is also the way I think the Soto Zen school tends to think of itself. Grandmotherly, loving, and very subtle. So here's the verse. Source and explanation variously are all made up. Passing to ear from mouth, it comes apart. planting fields, making rice, ordinary household matters.

[06:39]

Only those who have investigated to the full would know. Having investigated to the full, you clearly know there is nothing to seek. Zifong, after all, didn't care to be granted the title of Marquis. Forgetting his estate, he returned. Same as fish and birds. washing his feet in the Changlong River, the hazy waters of autumn. So I like this verse for a couple of reasons. The mention of planting the fields reminds me of Green Gulch in the summer and making rice of our next delicious meal. Knowing there's nothing to seek reminds me of this children's story that I just read to you. the gift of nothing. Nothing other than knowing that there is nothing to seek. Knowing that we are already present, already complete, and already together.

[07:46]

I also like this line about passing from ear to mouth, it comes apart. Passing from ear to mouth, it comes apart. Just like what I'm saying right now. There really... is nothing to say. Nothing that lasts for very long. And then it comes apart. But somehow we don't seem to mind hearing the same old stories told over and over again. So I'm going to tell you one of my favorite ones that has to do with giving. Giving is a very important concept in our Zen training program. And in Sanskrit, this word giving is dana, often referring to the offerings, usually of food or robes or medicine that were given by the laity to the monks to support their practice. And that kind of giving is still very important. The giving that is at the heart of our Buddhist teaching and understanding, however, has to do with giving ourselves, just as...

[08:59]

Mooch gave himself to his friend Earl. And in order to do that, we first have to understand who we truly are and what it is we truly have to give. And there's another line from the poem about that. We have to investigate to the full. Investigate to the full. So giving is the first of what are called the six perfections. These can also be thought of as the bodhisattva training program, the six perfections or the six paramitas. The program was given in a very simple language by the Buddha so that anyone could understand and practice it. So the six, maybe you know them already, giving, the first, morality or ethics, patience, enthusiasm, concentration, and wisdom. And these six can also be thought of as antidotes or antibodies to what the Dalai Lama calls our pathological emotions.

[10:07]

Pathological emotions are greed, hate, and delusion. Giving conquers greed, patience conquers hate, and wisdom conquers delusion. These other three perfections... that are involved in transforming our negative emotions are the perfection of morality, perfection of enthusiasm, and the perfection of concentration. So these six have been packaged together in a particular order so that each one of them in turn supports the next. So for example, giving supports ethics, as in giving your word or giving your fair share. And ethics supports patience, as, for example, waiting patiently for your turn or waiting for negative feelings to subside before speaking or taking action.

[11:10]

The perfection of patience supports the perfection of enthusiasm by helping us to find a balanced response to the arising of our human passions, our likes and our dislikes. And the perfection of enthusiasm in turn supports our ongoing commitment to a life dedicated to the welfare of others. A life concentrated on the practice of the six perfections. A life of becoming who we truly are meant to be. You know, bodhisattvas here to serve at the well-being of the world. So such a life is manifested in the story I'm going to share with you now story about the perfection of giving. But it's also about how the image of a bunny got onto the moon. These are not sounds we ever hear at Gringold, you know, like a fire engine that close.

[12:22]

It's kind of amazing. Not startling to you, is it? So when I first came to Zen Center, it's been almost four decades now, I was told there was going to be a full moon ceremony up on the roof of this building. And I'd been coming here for maybe a year or so, just going downstairs to the Zendo and then going home. So I thought, well, maybe I'll check it out, see what that's all about. And it was a very strange ceremony for all of you who have been to the full moon ceremony. There's something like 36 bows in the ceremony, and all the while you're chanting and bowing and so on. It's quite rigorous, actually. And at the same time, the full moon ceremony is one of the oldest rituals that has been practiced continuously since the time of the Buddha.

[13:25]

And it's practiced in accordance with the phases of the moon. So... At the time when the full moon was up, the monks would come together. They'd come out of their forest sanctuaries and recite the precepts. And then they'd recommit themselves to a holy life. So on that particular evening, up there on the roof, the person who was leading the ritual began by telling us a story from a collection called the Jataka Tales, in which the Buddha's former lives, both in human and animal form, are recounted. So these stories are particularly popular with children because the humans and the animals are quite virtuous. And they're very brave and their leader usually comes along to save the day, a real hero. So the leader in a future life turns out to be none other than Shakyamuni Buddha. So often these tales have a lot of different characters who are interacting and get into all kinds of trouble.

[14:27]

And then the bodhisattva intervenes to resolve their problems and bring about a happy ending. So here's the story. Once long, long ago, a monkey, an otter, a jackal, and a rabbit resolved to practice charity on the day of the full moon, believing a demonstration of great virtue would earn them a great deal of merit. When an old man entered the forest begging for food, the monkey gathered fruit from the trees and the otter collected fish, while the jackal pilfered a pot of milk curd from a nearby farmhouse, having called out in a not so very loud voice, does this belong to anyone? The rabbit, on the other hand, who knew only how to gather grass, felt very sad at having nothing to offer the old man until realizing she could offer her own body by throwing herself onto the fire that the old man had built to keep himself warm.

[15:34]

Just as the rabbit leapt into the air, the old man revealed himself to be Chakra, the lord of the gods, who then saves the rabbit by transforming the flames into lotus petals. Chakra, being deeply touched by the rabbit's virtue, uses a nearby mountain to form the likeness of the rabbit on the face of the moon for all to see. It is said that the lunar image is still draped in the smoke that arose when the rabbit cast herself into the flames. Have any of you not seen the image of the bunny in the moon? Yeah? Oh great, because I brought a drawing. So the next full moon is going to be January 1st. And once you see the drawing, it won't be hard for you to find the money in the moon. Now when the moon is rising, it will look just like this. And then when it's setting, it's going to look like that.

[16:39]

So that could be tricky, but just look for the ears and that'll help. If you want to borrow this, you know. So anyway, the story of the bodhisattvas giving her life for the welfare of another had a very big impact on me at the time in my own life when I was kind of worn out from trying to get something or someone who would make me truly happy. And it was kind of a remarkable idea to me that giving rather than getting could be the true source of happiness for human beings like me. So the next step was to try and understand what it means to truly give. And as you all know, we are now deeply into what's euphemistically called in our culture the season of giving. And I'm sure you've all gotten envelopes and emails and phone calls soliciting donations for the many independent organizations that count on us in order to survive, including the Zen Center.

[17:48]

And I thank you very much. for your generosity to us. And yet there's a more insidious aspect of the season of giving that was initially mastermined by Mr. Macy back at the turn of the last century in order to boost sales at his department store with Christmas lights and a resident Santa Claus, thereby transforming what had once been a rather minor holiday, according to my grandmother anyway, the birth of the baby Jesus, into a commercial feeding frenzy with barely any resemblance to the Christian liturgical event that the holiday is intended to commemorate. Have you noticed that? I remember hearing that some people were asked in another country who also celebrate Christmas, but more in the spirit of Mr. Macy, what is this celebration about? And a number of them said, oh, it's Santa Claus' birthday.

[18:49]

So I think it's never too late to be a little wary of the pressures on those of us who were raised to think of giving as the list of presents that our loved ones were expecting under a tree on December 25th. And yet, you know, tearing through that pile of gifts on Christmas morning was the only view I had of giving as a child growing up in the 1950s when... there weren't any other cultural or religious traditions on display. And since that time, I know there have been many efforts to be more inclusive and generous and to show respect to the Holy Days and the celebrations of Muslims, of Jews, Hindus, pagans, and even Buddhists. And unfortunately, I've heard that this year those efforts have been somewhat shockingly denounced as a war on Christmas. How painful is that? And what does that do to our soft-hearted bunny who offered herself to the hungry man sitting without shelter in a lonely forest?

[19:59]

I think maybe what we're seeing and fearing is a war on kindness and generosity and honesty and compassion. A war on virtue itself. And maybe that's always been so. That within each of us there are two competing tendencies that compel us into action when we're confronted by limitations of both the human and the natural resources of the world. Limitations of finances. Limitations of parking spaces. Of fresh water, fresh air, fresh produce. And one tendency compels us to try and take, get our share. And the other tendency... compels us to give. So that's where the practice and training of the bodhisattva begins, when we begin to recognize our own behaviors, our own pathological conditioning of greed, hatred, and ignorance, which on one hand leads us to ever greater selfishness, and on the other hand, toward a more just and generous life.

[21:09]

So one way to approach the practice of giving is to look at the other side of giving. You know, the opposite tendency we have, which is possessiveness and taking. And I think, unfortunately, that may come a little more naturally to us, you know. It seems like that. My toys, my mommy, my home. One of our little ones recently came running into the dining room at lunchtime and went right up to the table to grab some bread and pushing past the line of silent meditators who were waiting politely for their turn. And his dad said to him, you need to wait with me. And he looked at his dad like he was nuts. Why do I have to wait? He said. I don't want to wait. I want my bread now getting louder and louder. We all kind of looked at him. Well, it's hard to explain to a three-year-old why you have to wait.

[22:13]

It's hard to explain to adults. So not to be possessive of anything is closely related to not being possessed by anything or anyone, as if we're under some kind of magical spell. And that's why it's said that greed arises from delusion. and from intoxication with our delusions, these mysterious and compelling forces, the products of our own imagination. It seems as though there's some kind of dream that's dreaming us, at times turning into a nightmare. At the finale of the full moon ceremony, there's a recitation of the 16 bodhisattva precepts, which themselves are an elaboration of the perfection of morality, of ethics. And among those precepts is this one. I vow not to be possessive of anything. Followed by a teaching verse written by Dogen Zenji.

[23:16]

One phrase, one verse, that is the 10,000 things and the 100 grasses. One Dharma, one realization is all Buddhas and ancestors. Therefore, from the beginning, there has been no stinginess at all. One phrase, one verse, that is the 10,000 things and the 100 grasses. One Dharma, one realization is all Buddhas and ancestors. Therefore, from the beginning, there has been no stinginess at all. In the dictionary, possessive is defined as showing a desire to own things and an unwillingness to share what one already owns. And greedy is defined as showing an intense and selfish desire for things, especially for wealth and power. So this precept of not being possessive of anything is primordial in that it brings my attention

[24:23]

to the most basic ideas I have about myself and about my possessions. My hands and my car, my daughter, my community, my opinions, my understanding, my country, right or wrong. Great wars are being fought to acquire or defend what I say belongs to me. That mass movement of delusional human beings that is totally terrifying the world as we speak. So as soon as we vow not to be possessive, that vow acts kind of like a radioactive isotope. And inside of our bodies it causes a kind of impulse or a little shimmering as we grasp onto that which we have said we will not do. get near to killing, when we get near to stealing or lying or sexualizing, we kind of feel something start to happen there.

[25:26]

I said I wouldn't do that. Here I am. So that's how the prohibitory precepts are designed. They're designed to create a reaction inside of us. So in this way, we can actually begin to see how we humans are built to seize the day. You know, our eyes and our ears, our nose, our mouth, our hands go right after whatever is right in front of us. It's how we're designed. Can I eat it? Can I make love to it? Can I take it home for later? We're grabbers by design. And yet as Dogen says, to carry ourselves forward and experience the myriad things is delusion. which is exactly the opposite of Buddha's enlightened vision, that the myriad things come forward and experience themselves is awakening. That the myriad things come forward and experience themselves is awakening.

[26:35]

And yet, even though we have these teachings in mind, some of the more clever Buddhists simply downshift to a more subtle level of possessiveness. such as acquiring virtue, like purity, holiness, or perfect zazen attendance, dharma transmission, my shakimuni buddha, my practice. This is called the golden chain, another kind of trap. Suzuki Roshi called these gaining ideas, which in our case as dharma students refer to an intense desire for enlightenment. I think it's pretty hard for us to admit that. I've asked people in classes, how many of you are here to get enlightened and hands don't go up? Maybe one. Good for you. But I think we all have a secret wish. Yeah, I think that would be nice. I think I might like to get enlightened.

[27:37]

So they call it the red hot iron ball. You can't throw it up and you can't You can't excrete it out of your body. It's kind of stuck there. And although it's not unwholesome desiring to be enlightened, it's a pretty good guess that desire itself is precisely what's thwarting our efforts. And I like to use the example of the Chinese finger puzzle. The harder you pull, the more stuck you get. Freedom is, on the other hand, actually going the other way. Giving up, letting go. Raising the white flag. Surrender Dorothy. Give up. Let it go. Pema Chodron said that renunciation is to renounce that which doesn't work. So renouncing, gaining ideas is something that we need to be reminded of again and again. Reminded to bring our awareness and our affection to something that's already here.

[28:40]

That's already happening. Like right now. nothing to seek, nothing to gain. It's already ours. And it has been from the very, very beginning, from that first breath of fresh air that each of us took as a newborn. Suzuki Roshi says that our effort in our practice should be directed from achievement to non-achievement. Usually when you want to do something, you want to achieve something. you attach to some result. Moving from achievement to non-achievement means to be rid of the unnecessary and bad results of such an effort. When there is no gaining idea in what you do, then you do something. In zazen, what you are doing is not for the sake of anything. You may feel as though you're doing something special, but actually it's only the expression of your true nature.

[29:44]

It is the activity that appeases your innermost desire. But as long as you think you are practicing zazen for the sake of something, for some achievement, that is not true practice. So the other kind of gaining idea that is not so wholesome is the desire for recognition of our attainments once we think we've gotten some. In the old tradition of the Pali canon, making false claims of one's spiritual prowess was among the five gravest violations and grounds for permanent expulsion from the Sangha. So I think the best advice I give to anyone is wait for your friends and teachers to tell you how you're doing and whether there's any cause for celebration yet. And fortunately for all of us in the Soto Zen tradition, the celebration of one's enlightenment generally takes place long after you're dead.

[30:46]

In the last 20 years or so, Zen Center has started including a much softer version of the prohibitory precepts or the grave precepts during certain ceremonies such as weddings or baby blessings. And they're called the 10 clear mind precepts. So they're the same as the ten statements, prohibitory statements, but they're given as affirmations rather than as prohibitions. For example, the complement to not being possessive of anything is the practice of generosity. Knowing how deeply our lives intertwine, I vow to be generous in all material and spiritual matters. I really appreciated when Shohaku Okamura was here a couple summers ago during a Genzo A., When he said to us, in Soto Zen, we emphasize doing good rather than not doing evil. By staying busy doing good, we are left with very little time for doing evil.

[31:51]

Have you noticed that? Those of you who live at Zen Center? Do you have any time to be evil? So here at Zen Center's three temples over the past few weeks, most of our resident students and others who come from outside have been staying very busy doing pretty much nothing, or what we call Sashin. And Sashin is very much in keeping with the spirit of the gift that Mooch gave to his buddy Earl, the gift of nothing. Nothing but all of us being together, sharing ourselves and our unconditional love for this beautiful world. and one another. May it continue to be so. Thank you all very much. Thank you for listening to this podcast offered by the San Francisco Zen Center. Our Dharma talks are offered at no cost and this is made possible by the donations we receive. Your financial support helps us to continue to offer the Dharma.

[32:54]

For more information, visit sfcc.org and click Giving. May we fully enjoy the Dormen.

[33:03]

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