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. I'm interested in who we are and maybe you're interested in who each other is. I'm wondering if the first-time workers would raise their hands, people who are here for the first time as work period workers. Wonderful. And how about first-time students, the new students who've just arrived? And I'm interested in workers who's been coming for 10 years or less. among the workers. And how about 10 to 20 years?

[01:02]

Yes? And how about 20 to 30? Anybody? Yeah? Yeah, John Bermel, I knew that. What? And we have returning students, people who've been away and have come back to Tassajara, and we have continuing students. There's all kinds of categories. So those of us who live here, who've been in the practice periods and are staying on, are the continuing students. So it's my pleasure to welcome all of you who've come in to help and to appreciate all of those who are continuing. on. So this is our Sangha or community of practice for these days and weeks together. The Buddha talks about having noble friends and noble conversation and that's a way of understanding Sangha and there's certainly a lot of that going on around the dinner tables at least.

[02:19]

We're sharing our kindness and our helpfulness and probably also sharing our irritation and our disappointment and our hurt and able to begin to trust that we can make mistakes together, that we can get mad and get over it, and that's all. And I commend all that to the students who are continuing all summer long as a good teaching. Everybody we know now was once a complete stranger. And so here we're discovering new friends and strangers are becoming more intimate. The Buddha talks about kalyanamitta, or spiritual friendship, another way to think of sangha.

[03:25]

And whether you're practicing in the zendo or not, some of you are coming to the zendo, some of you don't, and that's fine. Still, I feel this bond together as we take care of this place and work side by side. So the shika, Jingguan kindly looked this up for me. The shi is to know or perceive or be aware. And the ka is a guest or visitor or stranger, a traveler, a customer. So the shika is aware of the guest, aware of the stranger. And I think we're all doing that together. I think in that way we're all shika-ing, welcoming each other. Practically speaking, I found out the shika oversees the cabins, the dining room, the bag lunch, the bathhouse, the pool, and the stone office in the summer.

[04:33]

And all those crews and the guests. So taking care of the guests' experience, the crew's experience, and bringing... all of it back to practice over and over and over, whatever that means in the role that we're playing at the time. And welcome, what is welcome? Hospitable, cordial, courteous greeting. We've been seeing a lot of that. Receiving someone gladly into one's presence or one's companionship. That's also welcome. But it made me think, who is guest and who is host? You know, John Bermel is hosting us all, and so are the mountains, and so are this place that we all love. It's holding us. Guest is the person who's the host.

[05:39]

How can I say this? If you've been here one day longer than the new person, you are the host. They are the guest. They don't know what you know, so they're looking to you for, how do we do it here? We're all guests of this land and this valley. I think about that when there are mice in the cabins, you know? Who's the host and who's the guest? This is their territory. And we are now all hosts for these guests who will come this summer. And so taking care of each threshold being painted and every little piece that's coming together to make their experience a good experience. So that's all the external guests and hosts, but what about the internal guests and hosts that visit us in the Zendo or any number of other places?

[06:47]

I have a poem to share with you by Rumi. And Rumi was, I just discovered, a contemporary of Dogen. So Dogen was born in 1200 and Rumi was born in 1207. And so the wonderful spiritual flow that was in the world at that time came out of these two people. Here's Rumi's poem called The Guest House. This being human is a guest house. Every morning a new arrival. A joy, a depression, a meanness. some momentary awareness arrives as an unexpected visitor. Welcome and entertain them all, says Rumi, even if they're a crowd of sorrows who violently sweep your house empty of its furniture.

[07:49]

Still, treat each guest honorably. He may be clearing you out for some new delight. The dark thought, the shame, the malice. Meet them at the door laughing and invite them in. Be grateful for whoever comes because each has been sent as a guide from beyond. This being human is a guest house. This vessel is a guest house. And every morning a new arrival. I think Zen would say every moment a new arrival. a joy, a depression, a meanness, they're simply arising phenomena in us. The mind secretes thoughts and feelings the way the adrenals secrete adrenaline. No different. So in our zazen practice, we're learning to be the guesthouse that can host anything that comes.

[09:01]

We learn to sit upright in the middle of turmoil or bliss and let it come and let it go, whatever's appearing. So to welcome, I said, was to receive gladly into one's presence or companionship. That might be a stretch for some of the things that show up in zazen, but maybe we can receive them willingly. to be just open and willing. And this being human is a guest house, so we have the internal arisings, and we have the arrivals on the outside, people who come here. you like someone or you maybe even fall in love with someone or you really don't get along so well with someone.

[10:05]

But can we just hold those as new arrivals and welcome them or at least willingly open to them? And he says, treat each guest honorably that comes here and I think that the things that arise in us come from our habit energy or from our karmic conditioning, the way we shaped our lives in order to cope with the things that we had to cope with. And so, in a sense, to honor them because they were protecting us. They were helping us through our life. But now, we don't need them so much. And so we can say hello, acknowledge, let them go. over and over and over, and then maybe they begin to let go. These are our Dharmagates, that phrase.

[11:11]

He says they may be clearing you out for some new delight. So to look at these tendencies, and abide with them a little rather than just shoving them away is to release the energy that they've been holding and who knows what's behind that it's available to us then Be grateful for whoever comes because each has been sent as a guide from beyond. So maybe in Zen we would say a gate into a deeper understanding of our nature. So we're learning here to practice with. You hear that phrase a lot around here, practice with it. Whatever arises internally, externally, we pause.

[12:19]

We go to our breath. We go to our body. We let it register. So often we're grabbing for a pleasant experience or pushing a negative experience away. But here you're just letting it register, just feeling it, seeing it, investigating it but not analyzing it. And then checking it out with... teachers or in relation to the teachings that you may be reading or with your Dharma friends. I wonder what's going on with this. So that's what I want to offer you and mainly I want to hear your questions if you have any about Tassajara or about our practice here. or your comments about anything I've said.

[13:20]

Key. Yes, Suzuki Roshi says, what does he say? It's okay to greet them, but you don't have to invite them in for tea. So I think meeting them and not turning away, you don't necessarily have to entertain them. And maybe come back for another visit later. Read the poem again.

[14:49]

The Guest House This being human is a guest house. Every morning, or every moment, a new arrival, a joy, a depression, a meanness. Some momentary awareness comes as an unexpected visitor. Welcome and entertain them all! Even if they're a crowd of sorrows who violently sweep your house empty of its furniture, Still, treat each guest honorably. He or she may be clearing you out for some new delight. The dark thought, the shame, the malice, meet them at the door laughing and invite them in. He and Suzuki Roshi disagree about that. Be grateful for whoever comes because each has been sent as a guide from beyond.

[15:53]

We talk a lot about our forms and ceremonies, the very specific ways that we enter the left foot over the threshold. Those forms provide, to me, mindfulness trainings. Where can you be? If you're stepping over the threshold, You can't be really anywhere else if you're going to do it with the correct foot. And also walking in and bowing and shashu bow in the quadrant and then around to your cushion and bowing too and away. Acknowledging it's a body practice. We're bringing our body to the body. present moment and acknowledging our place of sitting and turning around and acknowledging our fellow sitters because this practice is very difficult to do alone.

[17:32]

And so just the body in the present moment is for me what a lot of the forms are about. And the ceremonies... The bowing is also bringing the body into the practice, and the chanting, focusing entirely on the breath and the body chanting. And then if you listen to the words, we are dedicating the merit... the beneficialness of these activities to all beings, giving away the energy generated in those activities of respect and verbally and physically

[18:47]

acting out our understanding of the teachings. How is it for you to come into it, all these particular ways? I think we bring a, I must do it right. A lot of people come with, oh, I've got to do it right, oh, I'm making mistakes, and that's hard to get in the beginning, but we all do it and we welcome newcomers into it completely. The other thing that all of that does is to, over and over, showing us what arises.

[19:54]

Whatever arises in response is how we study the mind in our Zen practice. So feeling intimidated. Ah, feeling intimidated. What is that? Could have a hundred different feelings at that moment, and that's the one. Interesting. What's that? you were gonna say? I would say just let the body keep entering in and see what happens. Yeah? Can you talk about how the forms were developed over time?

[20:55]

I don't think so. I don't know, and I'm curious about that. When we read him, I wonder, and maybe if some of you know, please offer, but... How did we get from there to here? And if he walked into our zendo, what would he think? I do feel... I trust them and I feel a kind of faith that we are enacting our practice and that... Even here I've seen them evolve, so I can imagine over the centuries they've evolved a lot, but I kind of trust that evolution because it feels like the way we are with one another is a testament to the way we're practicing, and so I trust them.

[22:13]

What's your sense of the evolution since you've been here? Of the evolution? Of the forms here since you've been here. Oh, well. Not necessarily specific. Well, that's what I mean. What's your sense of it? No theme. Just observing. Oh, this is how we do it. Oh, okay. Especially with each practice period, each three-month practice period, we have a new practice leader. not new, but different, from among our abbots or former abbots. And so the abbot comes, and we hear we're going to do this ceremony this way, and we say, okay, because last practice period we did it this way, okay. And they aren't huge changes, but it makes for flexible mind or suffering, so take your pick. LAUGHTER I decided on flexible mind.

[23:18]

Yes? A little louder. Many of you must have spent time or visited other monasteries or other Zen centers here in America and maybe in Japan or elsewhere? How different are these forms in different places? Well, this one has been at Zen Center 12 years and hasn't really visited other places. Diane, before I came, I was in a little tiny temple, not living there. They were similar, but it was so small.

[24:20]

It was so small that we didn't have the full-blown. For example, here we have three people at each service. If you're in service, the doan is playing the bells. The tinkin is playing the drum. And the kokyo is leading the chants. In her temple, we did all three. We didn't know that there were three positions. But that's not really a form difference. It's just expediency. So I would say hers were very similar in the soto sect. And she was improvising a lot because we didn't know how to do things. So she was carrying her own incense for quite a while. Didn't have a jiko walking behind her. Other people who've been to other temples, other practice places, want to say something about that? Speak...

[25:22]

A little bit louder, Cameron, so they can hear you. This is the first song I've been in that the acharyas are evoked. I find that very inspiring to evoke that webinar included in the quality of the book. I feel that the quality of the song that is remarkable. We've got many, many teachers who decided to each side of them. And that's certainly very different. Would have one. Yeah. It's a great benefit. All different energies, all different experiences and impacts. All different ways of relating. So I think that could be extremely helpful. The others are just... The differences are just form.

[26:41]

In some sign guys, they change the form every month. And the point of that is to not get too attached to something and not think, oh, I know the form. And they don't. I feel certain about this, and I feel secure with this, and it's changed sporadically. Sometimes not on a set date, but sporadically, just to sort of get you off balance. Okay, with the dinner's going. Okay, anything else? Yes? Well, two things, eh? One, just on that, I had an experience when I practiced in two or three different temples in Soto lineage, all in Suzuki Roshi lineage, or category.

[27:48]

And when I started out, I'd been at this temple for about a year, or a year and a little bit, just long enough to learn all these forms, you know? And I hadn't been other places. And I just got it so I could get it all right, you know? And I knew how it should be. It was very calming to go in there and know how it should be, you know? And then one night, I can remember this feeling that came over me. We had invited a very distinguished teacher from a different tradition. Not even Zen, it was a different tradition. And this teacher, very venerated teacher, came into the Zendo. We'd arranged for, you know, somebody to carry incense. It came into the Zendo to give us a talk, and they just bungled everything of all these cherished forms that I had become so attached to, and it was such a liberation for me. I was like, wow! I was freed up from having to actually be latched onto these things that I learned. And then when I went to sit Sesshin or to do practice period at other temples, they just kind of said, oh, so this is how we're doing it.

[28:57]

And I was, oh, okay. And it wasn't, but I learned it this way, or I, you know, this is, because it's all just to facilitate our flexibility of mind, and our settledness, and being here. And some of them are, you know, the same or similar, and some of them are vastly different, and it's all to serve our waking up. It's not to get something right. There's not some magical thing that happens if we do it all in a certain coordination. It's not like some incantation that We do it all right. Something magical will happen. Yet, you know, and there's a certain poetry to it almost, like a beauty, I think, of having a, there's a certain almost artistic appreciation that I've felt viscerally sometimes in a service. For instance, when it's all sort of beautifully orchestrated, yeah, like an orchestra, you know, and it all kind of tunes in together. I mean, the bells, the doshi coming in, there's a certain set, you know, beautiful feeling.

[30:02]

And there's a certain kind of spark of joy or playfulness or something when something goes amiss and somebody drops the incense on the floor. You know, it's like, oh, wow, this is what's happening. This is how we're doing it today. And what do we do in that moment? You know, yes. Yes. Right. And what happens in here? I remember being Kokyo, the chant leader, leading the meal chant. And in that meal chant, during our practice periods, you have to play the clackers. And if you don't, nothing happens. And I was in new Kokyo, and I kept thinking, what's going on? Finally, the Eno, who was our... leader said, Kokyo. And I grabbed them and hit them because then I realized, and I burst into tears because it was like this chasm had opened up.

[31:04]

And it was one of the strongest teachings I've had about that, about what happens in that moment when you're completely at sea or you're completely in your mistake or whatever. that's what arose for me. Other things would arise for other people. It's huge, this gaping hole. This conjunction with the poem, then, this reminds me of the line in Genjo Koan, that carries so forward and experience myriad things as delusion, that myriad things come forth and experience themselves as awakening. That this sense of reaching out to get something, or, you know, or carrying ourselves out to experience particular things. Here's what I'm going to set out to achieve or experience, or here's how my day is going to go, versus allowing things to come forth and manifest how they do, and that something will happen.

[32:08]

And this is, maybe you could, I'm wondering about, some guests are more appealing than other guests. Yes. And I find myself sometimes having a tendency to say... The ones in here? In here. Yes. To want to carry myself forward to experience certain guests within here. Or to want certain guests to come forth, but not others. And there's a certain sort of mind... that approaches that. You know, that's a different mind than a mind that is settled and allows, as you said, stillness within turbulence. So what's the role of equanimity? I mean, how does our practice support that flexibility?

[33:13]

Well, we shouldn't cling to equanimity either. And so I think flexible mind is... It never ceases to amaze me how we have to continually arouse the effort of awareness over, over, over, over. It just doesn't get automatic in a way. And so becoming aware that you're... Wanting flexible mind, for example. And just seeing that. Or wanting equanimity. Sally. Yes.

[34:15]

It's the nen, you know, it's the intention and the devotion. Did you say nen? Yes. As in nen, nen, ju, shin, ki? The forms then, you know, sort of emphasize that, you know, it's like, I can't get it, but I'm devoted. The forms will then channel you to this devotion. And for me, that's important. The forms for that reason. Yes, I do. Devotion. For protecting life. Is it now? Now, now. Yes, and the ceremony, too.

[35:21]

The ceremonies, to me, are acts of devotion and expressions of devotion, not to an object, but just devotion arising. The vehicle. Oh, it's time to stop. One more. I really appreciate the chance that we do and the service that we have. I don't know how they were selected, but their instructions, the particular chance that we use has so much instruction and it's like, you know, one could spend years on certain passages. It's like the light goes on somewhere along the way. And certainly I believe that's how they were designed originally.

[36:25]

And I think the fact that we chant the same rhymes, at least for myself, it's like hearing it again and [...] again, saying it again and again and again is what really makes the light go on. And memorizing. Then those phrases float up at the most opportune moments. Just like a little teacher sitting in there quickly. What would you say to those of us from devotion does not come naturally? I would say what comes naturally to you. What is your expression or what is manifesting for you? So when I first came into this practice, I was very opposed to organized religion, rituals, didn't want anything to do with it. What happened? What happened?

[37:30]

I think about sometimes when people come in and they're new and they're not devotion type, then it can feel very... not just intimidating, but off-putting and just like, you know, aversion comes up. They'll come and see you for practice discussion. Well, thank you for being here, for being hosts, for being guests, for practicing in Sangha, and for all the devoted labor. Thank you for listening to this podcast offered by the San Francisco Zen Center. Our Dharma talks are offered free of charge, and this is made possible by the donations we receive.

[38:32]

Your financial support helps us to continue to offer the Dharma. For more information, visit sfcc.org and click Giving.

[38:42]

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