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. Okay, so good morning. Good morning and welcome to Green Gulch on this beautiful autumn morning. Last week at this time, it was pouring rain. Literally, I mean, not literally, but as they say, cats and dogs. It was coming down. And this morning is just mid-week. It's still a beautiful autumn day here at Green Gulch. Autumn, we just went into... I'll just keep going and hopefully it will.

[01:03]

So you should all be well rested. And also it's the, you know, the election is almost over. We can celebrate. And today is the Youth and Family Day. So we have the children here. So many children. And today is also just a little over two weeks of Thanksgiving. So Today I'm going to talk about giving thanks, about being thankful, about gratitude, about how natural gratitude is to us, and if it isn't natural, how we can find gratitude, how we can bring gratitude into being. But first, for the young people, I'm going to read a story. This is a Thanksgiving story, and It's a very interesting story about Thanksgiving because it's true. But I had never heard this story before.

[02:05]

And it's a long story, so I'm not going to show all the pictures, but I will show some of them. And this story is called Thank You, Sarah. And it takes place a long time ago, about 150 years ago. Here we go. You think you know everything about Thanksgiving, don't you? How the Native Americans saved the pilgrims from starving. How the pilgrims held a big feast to celebrate and say thank you. Turkey, pumpkin pie, cranberries, the works. Well, listen up. I have a news flash. We almost lost Thanksgiving. Didn't know that, did you? It's true.

[03:06]

Way, way back, when skirts were long and hats were tall, Thanksgiving was fading away. Sure, the folks up in New England celebrated it. They'd roast a turkey and invite the relatives when the harvest came in. But not in the South, not in the West, not even in the Middle Atlantic states. More and more, people ignored the holiday. Thanksgiving was in trouble. It needed a superhero. And here they show a picture of what you might think a Thanksgiving superhero would look like. A tough, big, strong, hefty guy. No, not that kind of superhero. Thanksgiving needed a real superhero. Someone bold and brave and stubborn and smart. Thanksgiving needed Sarah Hale.

[04:10]

Now, I know what you're thinking. She doesn't look like a superhero. She looks like a gentle little lady. And here's a picture of Sarah Hale, the gentle little lady. She doesn't look like a superhero. but never underestimate gentle little ladies. Sarah Hale was every inch a superhero. Not only did she fight for Thanksgiving, she fought for playgrounds for kids, schools for girls, and historical monuments for everyone. She argued against spanking, against dull stories, and against very serious things like slavery. As if that weren't enough, she raised five children. She wrote poetry, children's books, novels, and biographies. She was the first woman magazine editor in America, and she even composed Mary Had a Little Lamb.

[05:19]

How did she do all these things? She was bold, brave, stubborn, and smart. And Sarah Hale had a secret weapon. Her secret weapon was a pen. When Sarah saw something she didn't like, she picked up her pen and wrote about it. She wrote letters. She wrote stories. She wrote and wrote and wrote until she persuaded people to make the world a better place. Nothing stopped Sarah. So here is Sarah with her pen and with her five children. And once her five children are asleep in bed at night, She starts writing letters. Sarah Hale loved Thanksgiving. She wanted the whole country to celebrate it on the same day. When folks started to ignore Thanksgiving, well, that just made her really upset.

[06:22]

She picked up her pen. Sarah wrote letters, thousands of letters, asking politicians to make Thanksgiving a national holiday. She wrote magazine articles asking her readers for help. The people of America listened. They picked up their pens and wrote. When the letters arrived, the politicians listened too. One by one, some of the states officially made Thanksgiving a holiday. But that wasn't good enough. Sarah Hale wanted the whole country to celebrate together like a family. So she went to the top. Sarah wrote to the president himself, Zachary Taylor. He refused. Did that stop Sarah? No. She waited for the next election and she wrote to the new president, Millard Fillmore. He said no. Did that stop Sarah? No. She was bold, brave, stubborn, and smart.

[07:26]

Sarah wrote to the next president, Franklin Pierce. Wouldn't a national day of Thanksgiving be wonderful? No, Pierce grumped. Sarah wrote an elegant letter to President James Buchanan. She gave all the reasons why America would be better off if everyone gathered on the fourth Thursday in November to give thanks. President Buchanan disagreed. Sarah felt like the stuffing had been kicked out of her. Everything was going wrong. America was at war at this time, the North against the South. This was the Civil War, and it happened about 150 years ago. States that had promised to celebrate Thanksgiving changed their mind. The country was falling apart. It was a bleak and scary time. Did that stop Sarah? No way. Nothing stopped Sarah.

[08:29]

Superheroes work the hardest when things get tough. She picked up her mighty pen and wrote another letter, this time to President Abraham Lincoln. America needed Thanksgiving now more than ever. A holiday wouldn't stop the war, but it could help bring the country together. She signed the letter, folded it, and slid it into an envelope. She wrote Mr. Lincoln's name and address on the envelope and stuck on a stamp. She mailed the letter. She waited and she waited. And then Lincoln said yes. President Abraham Lincoln said yes. In 1863, Lincoln made Thanksgiving a national holiday, a day for all Americans to give thanks together. It took Sarah Hale 38 years thousands of letters, and countless bottles of ink, but she did it.

[09:31]

Nothing stopped Sarah. That bold, brave, stubborn, and smart lady saved Thanksgiving for all of us. Thank you, Sarah. And the last picture in the book just says, thank you, Sarah, and it shows all these people gathered around a big table eating Thanksgiving meal and celebrating Thanksgiving together. So thank you, Sarah. There's even Macy's Day Parade creatures in there, balloons, football players celebrating Thanksgiving. So that's a true story. And it's also, there's a couple nice things about this story. One is, you know, if you really want to do something, Do it. You can do it.

[10:33]

If you really care about something, don't give up. It took Sarah Hale 38 years to get Thanksgiving as a holiday, but she didn't give up. She didn't give up even if the President of the United States didn't agree with her, and she didn't give up if several presidents didn't agree with her because she thought it was really important. And she thought it was important not just for herself, but she thought it was important for the whole country, because the country was split by war. It was a divided country. The whole country was falling apart, and it was a scary time. It would be wonderful if everybody just took a day to give thanks together. And the second nice thing about this story is the last page, which just says, Thank you, Sarah. Because this whole book is a book to say, Thank you. Just like Thanksgiving is a holiday where we say thank you. That's the only reason for the holiday is to say thank you and to feel how grateful we are, to be thankful for the wonderful things we have.

[11:43]

You know, our family and our friends, food and clothes and all the things we have. And also, of course, we're grateful for this beautiful world we live in. with the blue sky and the green grass and the lovely clouds and the warm sun and the animals and the plants. This wonderful world we live in. And it's a good thing to be thankful, not just on Thanksgiving, but every day. And to say thank you. If someone gives you something, you say thank you. If someone shares something with you, you say thank you. Or if someone says something nice about us, we say thank you. Thank you. So today in the children's program here at Green Goats, you'll be talking about being grateful and being thankful. So thank you for coming, children and parents. And thank you, parents, for bringing your children.

[12:45]

And you can leave now for the rest of the children's program out in this beautiful, misty day. Please enjoy this beautiful day. Thank you. I like the story. You like that story? Good. Yeah, that was a good story. Good. Yes. Do you know that I have a book on my math? On your math? Oh, on your math book. Good. Thank you. You're welcome. Thank you. Thank you. What? Oh, you want to see the book? I'll have to give it back. I'll have to have it back.

[13:49]

Where is it? Well, where's your mother? Where's your mom and dad? She could borrow the book if you bring it back. It's okay. All right. You're welcome. Or not. Or not. Thanks. It says, Senior Dharma teacher. It says, Senior Dharma teacher. down we can discuss outside of it. So good morning again.

[15:57]

So it's true about Thanksgiving. I mean, I can't tell you how many people I've talked to who say Thanksgiving is their favorite holiday. And I'm sure you've had this experience too. It's a pure celebration of gratitude. You know, who couldn't get behind that? In that children's book that I read, the illustration at the end showed, you know, I'm sure most of you couldn't see it, but there was this huge table, Thanksgiving table, with people and creatures and beings all around it. People of all different ethnicities, people in Muslim clothing, people in Jewish religious clothing, you know, and as I said, football players, even some turkeys and some... I don't know why they'd be grateful, but... And some of these balloons from the Macy's Day Parade.

[17:00]

But they were all gathered around this table celebrating together. So, it's a universal holiday, a holiday to celebrate gratefulness and gratitude. It can be very straightforward and inclusive. Inclusive rather than divisive. Now today you'll be glad to know I'm not going to say anything about the election, even though for these last many months, for many people this has been a divisive experience and sobering and I think even frightening. Today we're going to take a respite from that. There are things that are more important than that. The things that happen in the world, good and bad, positive and negative, are important. And what we do about them and how we respond to them is important. But in the midst of all this, our own state of mind is more important.

[18:05]

It is, after all, our state of mind that determines how we respond to the joys and sorrows of the world. and how we respond to the joys and sorrows that we ourselves experience, and the suffering and the joys and the sorrows of others. Buddhism calls this world we live in the Saha world, S-A-H-A, Saha world. And it's a Sanskrit word, Saha, comes from a word meaning to bear or to endure. So Saha is this world in which people must endure suffering. the world of suffering and of difficulty. But it's also the world in which Buddha made an appearance to help living beings and to instruct them. So this world is also the place where it's possible to transform a world of suffering into a world of not-suffering. Or you could say, into a world of something wider than suffering, something that includes suffering

[19:14]

that doesn't negate it, but that understands and appreciates even the difficulties. It's the world in which we can practice becoming a Buddha ourselves, one who helps others, a being who helps. Those who live in the Saha world, who have weathered much suffering, actually have real power to help others. as the Buddha did. Because we have suffering, we can work with suffering. We can work with our state of mind so that even in the midst of this Saha world, it's possible to exist with ease and with equanimity and with gratitude and with thankfulness and with kindness. A kind mind and a wide mind. And it's with this mind that we can help others. In Zen, working with our mind, with our state of mind, is what we call practice.

[20:21]

So I'm going to talk some about our Zen practice. There's a woman named Pat Enkyo Ohara. She's the abbess at the village Zendo in New York. And she wrote a poem. She wrote this very short poem. And in the first line of the poem, she's being asked a question. And then in the rest of the poem, she gives her answer to the question. She asks me, why Zen? Clear blue sky, sunlight glancing off the branches, sound of leaves, this little black-headed chickadee whistles. My life, so clear, so direct, gratitude for this mind moment. Zen is a practice of awareness, both in our daily lives and especially in meditation, zazen meditation, just paying attention to what is.

[21:31]

The word zen comes from the Sanskrit word jhana, which when it went to China was transliterated as chana, and when it came to Japan was transliterated as zen. So zen is jhana. And this original Sanskrit word jhana means focused awareness. It means paying attention. And jhana, the word, is usually translated as meditation. Zen is the meditation school. But it also means focus and attention in our everyday lives, awareness in our everyday lives. So zen, zen covers our entire lives. There's this old Zen story. A student said to Master Ichu, please write for me something of great wisdom. Master Ichu picked up his brush and he wrote one word, attention.

[22:38]

And the student said, is that all? The master wrote the word again, attention. And now the student was getting a little irritated. said, that doesn't seem like some great profound wisdom to me. Master Ichi wrote it again, attention. Three times in a row, attention, attention, attention. I had that as a sign on my door for a while. Attention, attention, attention. Then the student said, what does that word attention mean? Attention means attention. So this is some great profound wisdom. This is a profound teaching. Why pay attention? So that we can experience the world as it is, clear and direct. Clear blue sky, sunlight on the branches, wind in the leaves, the chickadee whistling, and the gratitude that arises when we experience the world directly and immediately.

[23:44]

But So often we find we don't experience the world this way. The clear sky or the cloudy sky, feeling of the sun or of the rain or the wind in the trees or the wind whistling through the city streets. This mind moment can be obscured by our mind, caught up in thoughts and emotions. So the teaching of pay attention means not just pay attention to the world around us, Also, pay attention to our mind, to our thoughts and our emotions. We make it easy to notice our mind in zazen, but because we are sitting still, without distractions, and we're sitting in this ancient posture, balanced, alert, straight back, eyes are slightly open, chest is open, shoulders are relaxed, so we are at ease and we're alert at the same time.

[24:48]

This posture itself is expansive and at the same time focuses and grounds us. And of course, even though we say mind, we're not just paying attention to our mind when we sit, we're also paying attention to our body. Provisionally, we talk about mind and body as if they were two separate things, but they're not. You know, we can't separate mind and body. Al Cutchins, who spoke here on Sunday a few weeks ago, he said that Emotions are a collection of physical sensations that we attach a thought label to. Emotions are physical sensations that we attach a thought label to. So to practice awareness of emotions in zazen and in our daily lives is to pay attention not just to our thinking, to our thoughts, but also to our emotions as they express themselves physically in our body. Our body is a gateway to to awareness of emotions. This kind of noticing, this kind of awareness changes things.

[25:58]

To notice what we're thinking and what we're feeling creates a little space in this complex and tangling mixture of emotions and thoughts that is us. A moment of noticing is a moment of disengagement, a moment of letting go. It's a moment of, as one of our founders, 13th century Zen master A.A. Dogen said, taking a backward step. We take a little backward step and we look at ourselves. And with this comes some disengagement, some ease, some more objectivity and freedom. Dogen calls this the backward step that illuminates the self. It illuminates us to ourselves. Practice doesn't mean that we try to stop our thoughts and our emotions or change them into something else. Rather, we notice.

[27:02]

We pay attention. We notice our state of mind and body. We pay attention to our state of mind and body. So we do this during zazen, and we can do this in our everyday lives, we can practice taking this backward step. In other words, we can practice Zen wherever we are, whatever we're doing, just paying attention. We pay attention to the sound of the wind in the trees, the sunlight as it shines through the leaves, and the feeling of our breath as we breathe in and out, the feeling of our body as we move, and we pay attention to our own inner state of mind and body. Particularly when we're having some difficulty, some emotional difficulty, we can take a backward step. What are my thoughts? What are my emotions? How do I feel? Emotions have the quality, particularly difficult emotions, have the quality of being pretty much all-consuming.

[28:10]

often little space in there to take any kind of backward step. But yet, at the same time, this is exactly when it's most helpful to do so. Practice paying kind attention to the body itself, this collection of physical sensations that constitute an emotion. We can come into contact with our emotion through our body. We can touch into the body. We can touch into this vital mind moment of the body. Now, back to gratitude. Because when we practice this way, when we practice Zen, when we practice jhana, paying attention to what is, one of the things we find out is that gratitude is innate to us. It is our nature. When thinking calms down, when there's even a little space around our thinking and our emotions, then gratitude naturally arises.

[29:19]

Gratitude for just what is, for our life, so clear, so direct. For, you know, this actually beautiful Saha world and this invaluable lifetime we have to practice with the joys and sorrows of the world. When we practice paying attention to our own thoughts and emotions and our fears and our desires, we find that we're not so driven by them. We've observed them enough and seen through them time and again, time and again, that we kind of wear them out. And when that happens, you know, then gratitude arises. So we don't need to put so much weight on our desires or our preferences or how we wish things would be. You know, our desires and our preferences are there, and our emotions and thoughts, they're always there. They arise, and we look at them, and we may act on them too, but we're not so consumed.

[30:26]

We're not so subsumed and caught by our desires and wishes for things to be different. And we have something else that we trust. Something else we trust is what you could call our true self, you could call it our Buddha nature, always there underneath, you know, or coexisting with our thoughts and our desires. You know, we don't actually need much else. We don't need the things that we think we want or need so much. You know, of course, we all still have our lives that we're completely involved in, these complicated, complex lives. We have all these complications. But at the same time, Through our practice, our lives can have a more settled and grounded quality, an easeful quality, non-grasping quality, more of a contentment, equanimity, and a spontaneously arising gratitude. We have gratitude for the people in our lives and even the problems they bring with them.

[31:30]

We should be grateful for people and the problems they bring with them, because without problems we wouldn't have a path. We usually want to get rid of our problems. But actually, they're always showing us our path of practice, what we need to look at, what we need to pay attention to. Sometimes we're so upset with someone that we can't even talk to them, let alone find some skillful way to respond. Sometimes we're so upset and frustrated by the ills of the world, and there are many, and they are never-ending, that we cannot respond skillfully. There's a temptation to respond with anger and with divisiveness. All of us, of course, have these kinds of difficulties with other people, and we experience frustration and anger and fear, sometimes very great frustration and anger and fear at the state of the world. But there's always something we can do to help ourselves.

[32:34]

And at the same time, because we're helping ourselves, we're also... helping others, helping ourselves and others be able to adequately respond to and adequately meet various difficulties and various woes of the world. We can pay attention to our state of mind. We can practice compassionate awareness of our state of mind. We can practice kind and careful awareness of our state of mind. And as we practice like this, we find that we can see others with more clarity and understand them with more compassion. Rather than judging them, we can see how unskillful behavior comes out of their own difficulties, their own suffering. And to be able to understand others this way, with eyes of compassion, understanding of compassion and kindness, is one of the greatest joys of this lifetime. And there is joy inherent in all things, even difficulties.

[33:42]

This Saha world is also what's called a Buddha field, the field of our practice and effort and the field of our realization and our understanding and of our ability to help others and help the world. The fundamental gratitude that we have, you know, actually seems to be for having a human life. this rare and wonderful human life. Suzuki Roshi once said, the purpose when I talk is just to express my appreciation, that's all. So you can say the purpose of our life is just to express our appreciation, that's all. Our appreciation for this life. Blanche Hartman was a Zen Center teacher for many decades. Many of you knew her, I'm sure. I knew her for a long time. And she would often say, just to be alive is enough. So I knew Blanche for 40 years, and she died just a few months ago.

[34:44]

So I thought, well then, what about when we're not alive? Well, you know, at that time, not to be alive will be enough. Suzuki Roshi, in Zen Mind Beginner's Mind, he talks about how he went to Yosemite and saw the waterfall. And he talks about how our life is like a waterfall. You know, there's this waterfall starts at the top and it comes down like a mass, you know, water slowly coming down. But it's actually, you know, all these millions of tiny, tiny droplets. Originally, the water is one stream and then it falls over the edge and it's separated into many tiny streams and drops. So Suzuki Roshi said, And I thought it must be a very difficult experience for each drop of water to come down from the top of such a high mountain. It takes time, you know, a long time for the water finally to reach the bottom of the waterfall. And it seems to me that our human life may be like this. We have many difficult experiences in our life, but at the same time, I thought the water was not originally separated, but was one whole river.

[35:54]

Only when it is separated does it have some difficulty in falling. Before we were born, we had no feeling. We were one with the universe. After we are separated by birth from this oneness, as the water falling from the waterfall is separated, then we have feeling. You have difficulty because you have feeling. When you do not realize that you are one with the river or one with the universe, you have fear. Whether it is separated into drops or not, water is water. Our life and death are the same thing. When we realize this fact, we have no fear of death anymore and we have no actual difficulty in our life. When the water returns to its original oneness with the river, it no longer has any individual feeling to it. It resumes its own nature and finds composure. How very glad the water must be to come back to the original river. If this is so, what feeling will we have when we die? We will have composure then, perfect composure."

[36:56]

It may be too perfect for us just now because we are much attached to our own feeling and our own individual existence. So this is true. It might be too perfect for us just now because we are attached to our life, our individual existence. But this is okay. Of course we're attached to our own life and our individual existence because right now we are an individual drop of water. So part of our effort is to appreciate our temporary separateness and appreciate the difficulty in falling from the top of the waterfall to the bottom. Appreciate, and at the same time through our practice, to have some actual experience of the bigger picture, the whole waterfall, the timelessness and the oneness. Suzuki Roshi said, When you realize this, you will find the true meaning of life. And even though you have difficulty falling upright from the top of the waterfall to the bottom, you will enjoy your life.

[38:01]

So just a couple more little stories here. One is about Homeless Kodo. Homeless Kodo. I want to read you a poem that he wrote. Actually, it wasn't a poem. It was kind of a saying. He was called homeless. He was a Japanese priest, Kodosawaki Roshi. And he was called homeless because he didn't have a temple of his own. He refused to accept a permanent position in a temple. He kind of went from temple to temple in Japan. He taught in the early part of the last century. And recently a book of his sayings has been collected together by Shohaku Okamura. And it says, Rain No umbrella. Getting soaked. I'll just use the rain as my raincoat. So, you know, fundamentally, our understanding and our practice is this. Wherever you are and whatever your state of mind, this can be your practice.

[39:14]

Rain. No umbrella. Getting soaked. I'll just use the rain as my raincoat. Here I am. Things as they are is my practice. Things as they are is my raincoat. My difficulties themselves are my raincoat. How do we practice like this? We just say yes to our experience, whatever it is. We use the rain as our raincoat. You could say the basic question of Buddhism is, suffering exists, how do we end it? And the basic answer is, the way to end it is not to end it, it is to understand it. and not understand it intellectually, but understand it by just being it, by realizing it. This is called realization. Suffering can't be eliminated any more than old age and death, but it can be understood, and it can be appreciated as just what is. This life brings with it suffering, and still we're grateful.

[40:17]

So we practice awareness in zazen, And we practice awareness in everyday life. And awareness brings about freedom. Freedom doesn't mean we don't experience suffering, but our reaction is different. Something changes. The problem is no longer a problem in the same way. There is more ease and more equanimity in the face of life's inevitable suffering. And there's compassion for ourselves and for others. We realize ease within difficulty, not apart from it. So there is this traditional practice in Buddhism called metta, loving-kindness, where you practice thinking thoughts of loving-kindness toward other beings, especially those you have difficulty with. So there was a teacher, Achan Sumedho. He actually is a teacher, a Dharma teacher in the Thai Buddhist tradition in England. And he had a very hard time in his relationship with his father. His father never showed love or positive feelings toward him.

[41:21]

And throughout his life, he had this feeling that his father didn't like him. So he took up the practice of metta, loving-kindness, toward his father. But he had great difficulty doing it. He couldn't bring up loving-kindness for his father. All the other thoughts, you know, of how he'd been hurt would come up instead. Then he would think, I'm a terrible person because I can't feel love. Then he realized that he could have metta, he could have loving-kindness toward his own feelings. his own negative feelings, his inability to accept. He said, once I began to accept my negativity about my father rather than suppress it, I could resolve it. When we resolve something with mindfulness, with awareness, we can let go and free ourselves from its power. And when we resolve something with awareness, instead of our negativity and anger, gratitude and compassion can arise. So he remembered that his father had wanted to be an artist.

[42:24]

And then the Depression came along, and he had to take a job selling shoes to support his family. And when World War II came, he was too old to enlist, but he still felt like he had to do something, so he took a job in a shoe-building factory, a job that he didn't like, but he felt like he had to do it. After the war, he went back to the shoe business because he thought he was too old to find another profession. And Achan Sumedo says, He had sacrificed his own preferences to support my mother, my sister, and me. So he found, you know, that with awareness, acceptance arose, and gratitude, and a kind of wider understanding of the whole situation. Actually cultivating loving kindness and gratitude, you know, these are time-honored Buddhist practices. We can actually take notice of the blue sky. Notice how the sun comes through the leaves. Understand that others are going through a hard time often and appreciate in spite of this how many good things they do.

[43:30]

We can appreciate how we are supporting each other constantly and we can let go as much as possible of the complaining mind and let in gratitude, you know, for what is, for what just what is. Gratitude fundamentally for this very lifetime There's an Inuit poem that says, there's only one thing, just one thing, to see the great day that dawns and the light that fills the world. 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. For more information, visit sfzc.org and click Giving.

[44:34]

May we fully enjoy the Dharma.

[44:36]

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