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, everyone, and welcome to Beginner's Mind Temple. Welcome to everyone. Is there anyone who's here for the first time? I'd like to offer a particular welcome to you. And perhaps I should explain to you that there are some people here who are in the middle of what's called a one-day sitting. So they've been sitting meditation all morning. And when we're finished talking here today, they'll go back down to the Zendo and sit for the rest of the day. And why would anyone do that on a lovely day like this? So there are various ways to respond to that question.

[01:04]

There's one verse in the Dhammapada that says, wisdom arises from practice. Without practice, it decays. Knowing this two-way path for gain and loss, conduct yourself so wisdom grows. So that's one response to why in the world we do that. We're faced with this world we're living in, which is full of wonder and difficulty. And wisdom might be helpful to find out how to make our way in this world, how to live with some ease and joy and connection and peace. in a world in which there is so much that we need to work with that sometimes interferes with our ease and joy and peace and feeling of connection.

[02:16]

Or the monk Kobanchino who came over as a young man to help Suzuki Roshi when he was establishing the first Zen monastery outside of Asia, Tassahara, and Kobanchino Roshi came fresh from the monastery and showed us how to do the chants and bells and formal eating in the meditation hall and many of the sort of, I mean Suzuki Roshi had been to the monastery 40 years before, when he was a young man. But he asked for some help from this particular young man who was a remarkably wonderful person and teacher. And he said once, when you realize how rare and how precious your life is,

[03:27]

And that is completely your responsibility, how you live it, how you manifest it. That's such a big responsibility that naturally such a person sits down for a while. It's not an intended action, it's a natural action. So we... find ourselves in the middle of this life which is both a wonderful and precious gift and also requires some wisdom and compassion in order to live it well. And the Dalai Lama has given us a good guide for how to begin each day in focusing our

[04:31]

our intention and attention on how to live this precious life that we've been given. He tells us that he begins each day. He says, each morning as I wake, I think, today I am fortunate to have woken up. I am alive. I have a precious human life. I'm not going to waste it. I'm going to use all my energies to develop myself, to expand my heart out to others, to achieve enlightenment for the benefit of all beings. I'm going to have kind thoughts toward others. I'm not going to get angry or think badly of others. I'm going to benefit others as much as I can.

[05:33]

So this is the mind of the bodhisattva. It's called bodhicitta, the mind that aspires to wake up, to become wise enough to know how to live in the world in a way that benefits beings. This is called the Bodhisattva vow. And Suzuki Roshi talked a lot about right effort. And he said at one point, he said, Zen is making your best effort on each moment forever. And that really caught my attention. Traditionally, right effort in the Eightfold Path, one of the elements of the Eightfold Path, is right effort.

[06:45]

And traditionally, right effort is sort of four things. It's about cultivating the mind of a bodhisattva. It's about relinquishing unwholesome thoughts which have arisen. Now, unwholesome thoughts, you can think of thoughts that are grounded in the three poisons of greed, hate, and delusion. Sort of a shortcut. I mean, in the Buddha's teaching, there is a whole development, what's called abhidharma, of the psychology or how the mind works. And there are many, many factors in our mind. And so there are many, many ways to classify wholesome and unwholesome thoughts. But essentially, unwholesome thoughts are thoughts which are entangled with the three poisons of greed, hate, and delusion, sort of as a shortcut.

[07:48]

We can talk about unwholesome thoughts in that way. Thoughts which lead to distress and discomfort and dissatisfaction, discontent. So the first of the four efforts is to relinquish unwholesome thoughts which have already arisen. And the second effort is to prevent the arising of unwholesome thoughts which have not yet arisen. And the third is to cultivate wholesome thoughts which have not yet arisen. And the fourth is to maintain wholesome thoughts which have arisen. So this right effort in the Eightfold Noble Path is about cultivating a wholesome mind, cultivating a mind which is grounded in non-greed, non-hate, and non-delusion or wisdom.

[09:02]

or seeing things as it is. And there's a quote that... There's a wonderful Benedictine monk, Brother David Steindlrast, who practiced with us in the very early days of the foundation of Tassajara. when Suzuki Roshi was still there. And his great teaching, which has been very, very beneficial in my life, is focused on gratitude. He wrote a book many years ago called Gratefulness, the Heart of Prayer. Actually, he calls it Gratefulness. And he has a website called gratefulness.org.

[10:10]

You might want to check it out sometime. And I sort of subscribe to their sort of daily Thought for the Day. And one of them came up a few weeks ago, and I decided to print it out because it seemed worth keeping. It's a quote that says, change the story and you change perception. Change perception and you change the world. Your world, our world is made up of our perceptions. And that reminded me of the... Buddha's teaching in the Dhammapada, the opening of the Dhammapada, points out once again that our mind is what makes our world.

[11:17]

It says, all experience is preceded by mind, led by mind, made by mind. Speak and act with a corrupted mind, and suffering follows as the wagon follows the hoof of the ox. All experience is preceded by mind, led by mind, made by mind. Speak or act with a peaceful mind, and happiness follows like a never-departing shadow. He abused me, he attacked me, defeated me, robbed me. For those who carry on like this, hatred does not end. She abused me, attacked me, defeated me, robbed me. For those not carrying on like this, hatred ends.

[12:24]

Hatred never ends through hatred. By non-hate alone does it end. This is an ancient truth. Many here do not realize that we here must die. For those who realize this, quarrels end. I have to say that that speaks to me because, in fact, when I realized that I personally was going to die, I was 43. You would think that I might have known it by then, but it wasn't very up close and personal.

[13:30]

It was just, oh, yeah, sure, everybody dies. I'll die. but then suddenly my best friend had a headache, was diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor, and died. And not long after that, I got a very severe strep infection, which became septic shock, and I almost died. And the combination of those two made it very clear, this teaching that's in the Tibetan tradition, because death is certain. Time of death is uncertain. It's not necessarily just when you get old. You never know. And when I realized that, I became...

[14:35]

really focused on the question, how do you live if you know you're going to die? And started doing a lot of reading of the sort I'd never paid any attention to before, and investigating various spiritual traditions. And in the course of it, somebody told me about the Berkeley Zendo, and I went there for Zazen instruction. And I hope some of you who were here for Zazen instruction today may have the same good fortune that I did. Something about it caught me completely, and I started sitting every day from then. It was July 3, 1969. So how do you live if you know you're going to die? I mean, how we live this life is really what practice is about, what Buddhism... I mean, when the Buddha discovered, as the story goes, he had been very protected when he was young, and he was already grown up the first time he...

[15:58]

saw or noticed, he didn't leave the palace grounds and he was protected from seeing anything that would indicate suffering in the world. And so as a grown-up, he first saw old age, sickness and death. And the same question arose in him. How do you live knowing about this? Because before that he didn't really know about it. I think for all of us, this question arises when somehow the rubber meets the road in our life. So in the course of searching, as I said, I met Zazen and then I met Suzuki Roshi because he used to come over to talk at the Berkeley Zendo where I started.

[17:00]

every Monday morning. And he talked about right effort. And he talked about effort with no gaining idea. And that really confused me. How do you make effort with no gaining idea? I'm so accustomed to everything I do is to accomplish something. And so this question of what is effort with no gaining idea became big in my mind. He says, when we practice Zazen, we limit our activity to the smallest extent. Just keeping the right posture and being concentrated on sitting is how we express the universal nature.

[18:07]

Then we become Buddha and we express Buddha nature. So instead of having some object of worship, we just concentrate on the activity which we do in each moment. This is our effort in Sazen, just focusing our attention on what we're doing in each moment. And since we're limiting our activity, we're just sitting and breathing and being alive. So we can appreciate the gift of being alive. We can notice how wonderful it is. just to be alive. Sometimes when I'm sitting zazen, and usually this is only when we have a long day, more than one day seshines, and one becomes quite still and quite focused and quite concentrated, and sometimes it feels as if I can actually am experiencing the metabolism of each of my cells.

[19:22]

You can feel... just the life energy in this body directly. Just with each breath, the oxygen being metabolized by the cells, you can just feel the liveliness in each cell of your body when you become still enough and focused enough. And you realize what a gift it is to be alive. And that, of course, really helps you cultivate gratitude or gratefulness. Gratefulness. So what, you know, practicing... One of the things that Brother David said once when he was talking with us, he came over during a monastic training period.

[20:23]

He was living in a monastery that's just... just due west of Tassajara over the mountain near the coast. And he was talking about his monastic practice. And he said, among other things, the thing that stuck in my mind was, well, if I want to love everyone the same, then I have to be celibate or very promiscuous. LAUGHTER But that caught my attention, this aspiration to love everyone the same, seemed like such a noble aspiration to me. I really, really, I still remember that because of that. And truly, when you're around Brother David, it feels like he can do that. Paul is doing a retreat with Brother David pretty soon, aren't you?

[21:41]

It feels like he can love everyone the same, which he's been practicing and aspiring to for many, many years. I don't know how long he's been a monk, but quite a while. at least 50 years, I would think. It's just the way that I felt about Suzuki Roshi, who'd also been practicing about 50 years by the time I met him. He taught us that we should see everyone as Buddha. And it seemed to me in watching him that He actually could do that. So these aspirations that we have when we enter practice, if you live long enough and practice long enough and sincerely enough, you might actually be able to see everyone, every being as Buddha.

[22:46]

You might actually be able to love everyone the same. It's worth working for. Meanwhile, we can just begin with noticing what's going on in our mind in this moment and this moment and this moment and making the effort to relinquish unwholesome thoughts which may arise, making the effort to cultivate wholesome thoughts, which have not yet arisen. And I received a last practice period we were focusing on compassion and we were studying. I was teaching a class on Shantideva's Guide to a Bodhisattva's Way of Life, in which he talks about cultivating wholesome states of mind,

[23:58]

And he talks about also cultivating what are, among other wholesome states of mind, what are called sometimes the four unlimiteds or the four Brahmaviharas, heavenly abodes, loving kindness or friendliness, compassion, empathetic joy. and even-mindedness, or equanimity, or impartiality. And so we focused on that, on those Four Unlimited somewhat, in a class that I was doing. Recently, I received a letter. It was in an envelope that had my name on it with a flourish, Blanche City Center, and then apparently some glue and some sparkles.

[25:12]

It was clearly not just any old letter. And I wanted to share it with you. I sure hope I brought it. Dear Blanche, this is, and she mentions her name, from the Shantideva class last spring. I am at Tassajara this summer for six weeks, and then I'm moving to Iowa to go to a music school there. I write to you because today I am grateful. I am even grateful that I am grateful. Which is actually me too, you know. This... Real charge of gratefulness came to me when I didn't die, when I had a heart attack. And I just realized as I was stepping out of the hospital, I thought, wow, I'm alive.

[26:15]

I could be dead. The rest of my life is just a gift. Oh. My whole life has been a gift from the beginning. It was... just an overpowering feeling of gratitude for being alive and not taking it for granted anymore. And I still can't take it for granted anymore. I don't think I'll, thank goodness, I don't think I'll ever be able to take it for granted anymore. So I'm even grateful that I'm grateful, which reminded me of you. I deeply appreciate your teachings on gratitude, especially your Dharma talks. Thank you. Also, there was something that happened a few weeks ago that reminded me of the Shantideva class. I'm working in the dining room, and for a while we had a guest who asked lots of questions about the food. I think she had a lot of dietary restrictions. I actually liked her personally a lot, but would sometimes feel frustrated when I didn't know the answers to her questions.

[27:23]

One evening she asked me if there was gluten in the wheat-free dessert, and I went to the kitchen to find the guest cook and ask, and I felt a little bit frustrated, especially since I don't even know what gluten is. It turned out that the dessert was gluten-free as well as wheat-free, but I still didn't have an attitude that I wanted. It was almost as if I were thinking, okay, now I have the stupid answer to the stupid question. And then I didn't feel good. As I was walking back to the dining hall, I thought, empathetic joy, empathetic joy, empathetic joy. I got back, and I still didn't feel empathetic joy, so I just told her the answer to her question kindly. I started to do other things, and about 10 minutes later, after just saying empathetic joy to myself, I did start to feel it. So I went up to her and said, I'm so happy for you that you could eat the dessert tonight.

[28:27]

Chocolate pudding is wonderful. And then she was happy, and then I was happy. How wonderful life is, especially at Tassajara. Thank you for your teaching and your practice. Gratitude, loving kindness, and smiles. That was such a gift to receive that letter. If we... make our effort to cultivate wholesome thoughts which have not yet arisen, sometimes they arise. What a great thing. We can work on it together. When you feel discomfort with your state of mind, as she was feeling, look at it and say, oh, I wonder if I could cultivate a different state of mind. I think I'll give it a try. I recommend it.

[29:30]

And I like this confirmation that it can work if you really work at it. I wanted to share a little bit, going back to the right effort. No, maybe I won't. I see that my time is getting late here. So I'll recommend to you the chapter on right effort in Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind that I was going to share with you, but I see that it's all written down here. And so you can check it out yourself. But I'll just share again this quote from Suzuki Roshi.

[30:34]

When we practice zazen, we limit our activity to the smallest extent. Just keeping the right posture and being concentrated on sitting is how we express the universal nature. Then we become Buddha and we express Buddha nature. So instead of having some object of worship, we just concentrate on the activity which we do in each moment. This activity which we do in each moment is how we live our life. In this moment, this moment is where we live our life, moment after moment. We're not alive yesterday and we're not alive tomorrow. We're alive now. Maybe we're alive yesterday and we will be alive tomorrow, but actually when we're alive is right now, right here with whatever is in this moment.

[31:46]

Just this, in this moment, is our whole life, moment after moment. I hope you can live it with gratitude and sympathetic joy and friendliness. For the benefit of all beings, which of course includes you. 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. For more information, visit sfcc.org and click Giving. May we fully enjoy the Dharma.

[32:48]

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