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. How many are new to City Center? First time here? Welcome. I wonder if we could turn to each other and say your name. Then I'd like you to say to each other something like, may you have ease, or let there be ease, or something like that. Give it a try. Thank you. Let me write.

[01:15]

So my name is Kaydu Lanshut. I want to thank Rosalie Atanto for the invitation. I saw her. And, of course, to Blanche, my teacher. So not too long ago, on April 30th, I was at a vigil before May Day of some interfaith religious leaders were there, or teachers. And at one point, they had people turn to each other and say hi to each other. And this Catholic nun said to me, Keith, And I thought, that's nice, you know, but I was like, wow, I like that, you know, to say peace. And I'm like, well, what do we Buddhists just always say? You know, I know a lot of people say namaste, but that's not Buddhist. And so I thought, well, maybe ease.

[02:21]

Ease would be the word. Or may you have ease. I know that a lot of people may think that, you know, we come to Buddhism to find calmness and and peace, and in fact, those things are available. And yet I think, my thinking these days is that really we come to cultivate, to access, to fall into the ease that we already have. In fact, you know, in Buddhism, the word, many people think that Buddhism is about suffering, right? And the Pali word for suffering or the translation that's usually suffering in Pali is dukkha. And there's also been other translations such as dissatisfaction and dis-ease, which is my favorite because to me it really gives the sense of a bodily and a tone that we tend to have.

[03:26]

And when you think about whether things are easeful or dis-easeful, I think it's much more manageable. And also, I think for the most part, when we meet people, let's say when we invite them into our home, we want to give them ease, right? Someone comes to your home and says, oh, please sit down. Can I get you water? So I think it's much more approachable to think of it as, how can I have more ease or how can I access the ease? that's in my life, that's between me and other people, that's in a situation. So today, I thought I'd talk a little bit more about ease because it's officially summertime, as of 10.04 on Thursday night. And summer is a time of ease, wouldn't you say? School's out, you're on vacation.

[04:27]

There's certainly lots of festivals and fairs. And I remember, I think when I've been here almost 18 years, in a couple months, 18 years, I've been in San Francisco. And I think the first few years I was here, I went to every fair and event. And I loved it. But I often found that at the end of the day, I was just really tired. The people have... that experience also? Or you go on vacation and you come back and you feel like I need a vacation for my vacation, right? So, which brought me to thinking about some teachings, in particular the teaching of Kama Chanda or one of the five hindrances, right? Kama Chanda is usually translated as sensual desire or as sense desire. So the five hindrances are typically talked about in relation to these are mind states that come up that prevent us from being able to meditate.

[05:37]

In the beginning of meditation retreats, often there are talks about the five hindrances. So the five are, the first is central desire, second is aversion or ill will, The third is sleepiness, sloth and torpor. I love that word, torpor. It's that dull and heaviness, right? Restlessness, usually worry and anxiety, and doubt, and very specifically skeptical doubt. And in terms of meditation, it's the doubt of what you're doing, the practice or the teaching. Or, you know, why the heck am I in this retreat? That kind of doubt. Is it really going to help me? All this pain and suffering I'm feeling. So, again, classically, these are the teachings on difficult or challenging states of mind during meditation.

[06:39]

States which tend to arise, which makes it hard to meditate well. By well, I would say that it makes it difficult to settle into meditation. concentration, calmness, and subtleness, or into mindfulness, the ability to be settled, calm, and have clarity of mind, so that you can have clearer perception, and therefore, have more discerning choices, or make your choices in a more discerning manner. Wisdom, basically. A way to think of it is it are things that make it hard to relax and be of ease in whatever is happening. So these are, again, tendencies or habitual mind states that tend to arise.

[07:41]

They're obstacles to awareness. And another way to put it, which I appreciate, is careless attention. what's going on. So if you have careless attention, these are states that tend to erupt. Now, you're saying, well, I'm not in a meditation retreat today, or today's not a one-day sitting, so why is she telling me how to meditate? I just came today, maybe the new people, to see what this is about, right? But, you know, these are, if they're habitual mindset, you know, I always say to people, who are new to practice and they're getting ready to go in their first retreat, be it a one day or a five day or a seven day or a ten day or a month or three months, is that nothing happens there that doesn't happen at home or in your regular life. This body, this heart, and this mind, you take wherever you go.

[08:43]

So, What happens, though, is that, of course, you are setting up a container or a condition to make it easier to see these things. For instance, in your life, I know that when I've been at a meeting at work, when you say that all these mind states could arise in an hour or two or three or four hour meeting, desire to be elsewhere or desire for something to eat or drink, maybe ill will towards somebody in the meeting, right? Sloth and torpor, right? Restlessness or doubt. So again, I want to talk, obviously there are many, so today I want to concentrate on sense desire, the first hindrance. So when we think about desire, again, in Buddhism, most people think about the Pali word tanha, T-A-N-H-A. And tanha literally means thirst.

[09:47]

And the implication of it is that it's a craving. Or Gil Fransdal calls it like an obsession. And I appreciate those words. However, in the sense desire, this desire is chanda. Or the whole thing is kama chanda. So for Machan Brahm, who's... the abbot of Odhiyana Monastery in Western Australia. He studied with Achancha and translated a lot of the Vinaya, or the ethical conducts for the monks and nuns, into English. So he said, Kamachanda is not just sensory desire. There are times when the English translation of these terms leave much to be desired. And when people just follow those English translations, they miss so much. I learned a lot of the Pali from the Vinaya.

[10:49]

There, these terms are given a very practical explanation because they are used in life. So Chanda is what you have to do if you cannot attend a meeting of the community of monks. So the very, you know, gender separated, right? So you can't attend a meeting, so you want to give approval and agreement to what's happening there. You give your chanda to go ahead in your absence. So it's agreement, approval, consent. This means that you're buying into, giving into this, you want it, you approve it, and you allow it to happen. It goes on to say, it's as if you give your approval for the sensory world to be your consciousness. In your mind, you accept it, approve of it, and you play with it.

[11:53]

So all chanda, it's letting it completely occupy the mind. So it's much more subtle than just mere desire. And the kama part of kama chanda is what is comprised of, and what's called kama loka, which is the Pali word for the world of the five senses. Therefore, kamachanda is acceptance, agreement, and consent for that world to occupy you. That's why the hindrances of kamachanda are anything from the extremes of lust to just being concerned with how the body is doing. Thinking about the letter that you have to write afterwards, about the rain pattering on your roof, by your kuti, that's your meditation hut, or what needs to be built next, or where are you going to go to next. That's all in the kama loka, the world, the senses. That's all kama chana. So what I find really interesting about this definition and this very clear way of seeing desire, sense desire, is that it's defined as our approval for the sensory world to be our consciousness.

[13:10]

in our mind, we accept it, we approve of it, and we are letting it completely occupy the mind. Which means, if you think of it that way, is that we then have the ability to choose not to have this, right? So if you let Kamachanda take its course and go its unmerry way, then you are approving, consenting for it to occupy your mind completely, which means that you can choose not to have that, right? And that's what you do when you want to practice meditation and build calmness and discerning. And you can also do that in life, right? So it's not wrong, right, to have sensory input, to have sense desire. But the question is, one, do we know when it's happening? so that we can then choose, is this what's useful to me in this moment?

[14:12]

I think that often when I go to fairs and I go to something I really like, if I'm not able to balance how much I take in, that's when I get tired. And often when I get tired, I get irritated, right? I make bad choices. I buy things I don't really want. I eat things I don't really need to eat, right? So... So again, sense desire is the first on the list of the five for a reason. It is said that even if you got rid of the other four, if you're able to let them go, just a moment of sense desire can help you again. Now, in the Buddha's enlightenment story, we can see this. Now, in the Buddha's enlightenment story, it said, you know, the brief version is that he decides... and sits down and says, I'm not going to get up until I realize the nature of life, basically. And there are different variations whether he sits still for seven days or for 49 days.

[15:16]

That's where that happens. Now, in a version in which he sits for 49 days, it is said that the first week is when he's under the Bodhi tree and can let go and be calm and at ease. It's in the fifth week The fifth week is when this happens. It's when the version of Mara, Mara is the demon, it's often thought of as the demon that comes to try to tempt the Buddha from getting off of the seat. His vow to not move until he has attained enlightenment. And, you know, versions already, they throw arrows at him, you know, to try to scare him from getting up. demons come. And then at the end, Mara, in the fifth week, sends his three daughters. Often it's said that they come and they dance and they, you know, tempt him, right, with sensual desire.

[16:19]

Now the names of the three daughters are Tanha, Rati, and Raga. Now, I already told you what tanha means, right? Craving. Rati is love attachment. Notice not love, but love attachment and pleasure. And raga is often translated as attachment, passion, or desire. And it's defined as hankering after things. And it produces frustrations. So even the Buddha was tempted by desire. Now, in real life experiences, we can see this. You know, I realize that I don't do it so much these days, but I'm often aware, even in a one-day sitting, people have been here for a one-day sitting.

[17:27]

How many have been here for one day or more sitting? Many of you. So I don't know if... You're aware of it in yourself or have observed it. I know that I can feel the tendency to want to do this, is that after breakfast, you know, we get out of the zendo. Basically, it's pretty structured, right, from 5.40 in the morning until after breakfast, right? With this, we do this, then we do this, then we do this. And then there's a break. And what do most of us want to do? Go get something to drink or eat, right? coffee or tea or something, or else we come and look at the board, you know, to see where am I sitting, what's for lunch, you know, who's doing what, you know. I know I come. I come at, you know, I don't live here anymore, so I come in the morning and I look for where I'm sitting, whether I'm on a serving crew or whatever, and yet I want to come and look at that board. And in fact, I see people, you know, waiting for the bathroom up here.

[18:31]

And they're all those bulletin boards with the notices, and they're like studying them with like total concentration, right? So this tendency to want to have some kind of sensory input is super strong, right? So if we're careless with our attention, then it's really easy to fall into that. And there's nothing wrong with that, mind you. But if you've decided to be in a container in which you can cultivate and activate and access certain mind states that are more accessible to calm, clarity of mind, and wise discernment, then probably not a good idea. This is why the instruction in retreat is to keep your eyes down, right?

[19:33]

And not look around. You're not supposed to read or listen to music, right? Now, so how do we work with that, right? So there are, in the teachings, antidotes to the five hindrances. Sudhaka, who's a Western Buddhist order, now they call themselves the Tri-mya-ra, sorry, Tri-rat-nya. Use my pronunciation order. He has what he calls the five qualities to develop through the five hindrances. So for sense desire, you want to develop interest in whatever is going on in the present moment. For ill will, You want to develop loving kindness. For restlessness and anxiety, you want to develop relaxation and calm. Torpor and sloth, energy and enthusiasm is useful.

[20:40]

And doubt or indecision, you want to cultivate or access, confidence, trust, faith. So sense desire, the antidote is interest. And you could say, wow, I'm already interested in what's on the bulletin board, right? So I'm doing it. But notice this interest in whatever is going on in the present moment. Now, again, this comes down to the part, this is why I like that careless of attention is a hindrance, is that we have to choose, right, to agree not to do the things that won't help us cultivate calmness, clarity of mind, and therefore more probable wise response or wisdom. So instead, in the classic teachings on the commentaries on the Satipatthana Sutta, which is the sutta on the four foundations of mindfulness, we are asked to do six things instead.

[21:47]

So six things are conducive to the abandonment of central desire. learning how to meditate on impure objects, devoting oneself to the meditation on the impure, guarding the sense doors, moderation in eating, noble friendship, and suitable conversations. There are many ways to talk about how to work with the hindrances, but I appreciate these because they involve things that we just don't do, right? Noble friendships. and suitable conversations. So I want to kind of put these six ways actually into four ways of working with it. And in fact, the first two is how to practice when sense desire has already arisen. When you recognize and accept that you have sense desire, you find yourself in front of the bulletin board, right?

[22:50]

And then the second two are ways to work with how to set up conditions so that sense desire is less likely to arise. Now, in Buddhism, conditionality is really important, right? Because everything comes out of causes and conditions. So if we can work with how to set up conditions, then that's useful. So I want to talk about how we can... So first, how to work with it. So we focus... on practice more, right? So this is kind of second on the list, kind of. Devoting oneself to the meditation on the impure. I read that more as devoting yourself to the practice itself, right, to the meditation. So if you want to build concentration, which is calmness and subtleness, then you actually, first you do acknowledge, right, the sense desire that you're having. But then you kind of put it in the background, and you actually focus your attention on the condition that will bring calmness, which for sense desire is the jhana state or the practice of one-pointed concentration.

[24:09]

So that's, for instance, you come back to your breath. You keep coming back to your breath, or you come back to counting your breath, or if you had a koan, you come back to the koans. Just keep coming back. You know that sin's desire is there, but you don't suppress it, but you just leave it in the background and you keep coming back to one point at concentration. You are careful with your attention. So second is that you actually then focus on the object more. So you bring more attention to the object of desire. Now, again, in the classic teachings, they put it as, like number two here, learning, number one and two, learning how to meditate on the impure object.

[25:11]

And in the olden days, I want to say, the classic way of practicing with it is you actually go to a cemetery. And you observe the impureness of the body. And it's kind of like aversion therapy. So if it's really gross, then you're like, why would I be attracted to X? Because his hair will fall out. He's full of pus. His teeth will rot. Do you understand? So that's the classic way. Now, obviously, many of us can't do that. in this society, or we can get in a lot of trouble if we try, right? Or don't have the access to it. So it's more, I think, focusing really on the object and how it is that it might not be what you think it is. Now, sometimes you have to actually put a lot of attention, and a lot of it has to do with just keep bringing your attention to just the object, not the story of the object.

[26:18]

An example I have of this is, now here's an example how sense desire is really prevalent. If you, how many here have done a Vipassana retreat? Vipassana is mindfulness, to mindfulness practice. And there's something called a Vipassana vendetta, a Vipassana romance. And it means that, you know, I mean, you know, In Buddhism, right, we respond to things. We like it a lot. So that's the romance. We hate it. So that's the vendetta. Or we're confused. You know, when you're confused, you don't know which way it is. So the tendency is when you go in a retreat, you know, I don't know, we could think of a Zen name for it. But basically you find somebody. And in a Vipassana retreat, you're silent, right? There's no interaction with other people. You eat by yourself. You... often are in your own room, right? So the interaction with people is less.

[27:20]

So it really shows up more how you tend to project these things on people. You always find somebody that you just like, oh, you really like or you just hate them. You haven't even talked to them, right? You hate the way they walk or whatever, right? So when I was in this retreat, I was going into a one-month. I was going to do a one-month and the second half of a two-month retreat. And the first three days, I noticed this man. And I would have this story come up where he would come to me and he would ask me out. And then I would say, oh, no, I can't. I'm a lesbian. Right? And then my fantasy... It just go over and over and over. You think, you know, sometimes we think, well, if I'm rational about it, it will go away.

[28:21]

But this is what I mean by the habit of mine. It's just that it didn't go away for three days, over and over in my mind. Not even, I didn't even have to see this person, right? He would just come up, I'm meditating, and he comes up and says, will you go out with me? I'd be like, oh, no, I'm a lesbian. I can't. And, you know, I could see myself go like this, right? And it was just confusion, you know? It's just like, how could this happen? I've been a lesbian for a long time. Why would I have this kind of a, see, so this is an example, a very obvious example of how, you know, it's kind of discriminating, indiscriminating, right? How it just happens. So, of course, you know, actually in that same retreat, there are, six teachers and it's 28 days part I was in. So a teacher would talk every night and on the seventh night they would have, you could put a question in and they would just answer the question.

[29:25]

And I remember somebody had the question, I always think about sex. Why do I think about sex? You know? And so she gave a whole talk, her long answer about it. And really, you know, one of the things that she talked about is that, you know, you're, the rising of the sexual or sensual desire is often because we want connection, or it's the energy of life force, right? So, you know, now that I'm aware that this tends to happen, that's why I just go sense desire, sexual desire. But it doesn't, I don't go with the story anymore. Does that make sense? So the third way, so these are now ways to work with how to prevent the arising of sense desire. So the third is what I would call guarding. So on the list it's number three and number four. Guarding the sense doors and moderation and eating.

[30:29]

So in Buddhism, so understand the sense doors. Again, when you go and retreat, you go far, far away. so that loud noises aren't around so much, right? But you agree not to read, not to write, you don't bring music with you, you follow the schedule, or these are the instructions, right? And to set up a container in which there's less distraction, and very specifically, less distraction to your sense doors, right? In Buddhism, the sense stores are that. So you have, actually in Buddhism, you have six senses, right? Eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, and then mind is a sense, right? So, for instance, in Buddhism, when you have an eye organ, your eye, then you have an object of sight, the glass. And so when your eye sees an object, it's called contact.

[31:33]

And in Buddhism, then what happens after that is what's called Vedana, which is a feeling tone that comes up. And there are only three feeling tones. I've already given you the hint. What are they? Aversion, desire, or confusion. Or delusion. It's confusion. So... Then comes after that, so I really appreciate the translation of feeling tone, because it's not just a feeling, and it's a tone. It has that quality of something you can't quite just rationalize or understand with your mind. So the feeling tone arise, and then from that comes pa pancha, which is translation is proliferation. The whole story begins. And this all happens in like A nanosecond, right? It happens all the time right now. I'm sure you walked into this room and without you knowing it, you either liked something or didn't like something or not really sure what to do, right?

[32:42]

So with that then comes a story, right? Like that guy, right? I liked him for whatever reason and so he asked me out and then I had an identity crisis. But basically, you know, there was a response. Does that make sense? So in Buddhism, if you cut down, you guard against the possibilities of the senses causing a lot of distraction and turbulence. Because the story then makes you want to do something. I like it, so I want more, so how can I get more? I don't like it, so how can I get away? I'm not going to sit next to that person. Or you walk, when you do walking meditation, you walk away from them. You understand? Right. So that's the sense doors. So moderation in eating. In the teaching, it says, how is he, the monk, or she, moderate in eating?

[33:46]

Herein, a monk takes his food after wise consideration, not for the purpose of enjoyment, a pride of beautifying the body or adorning it with muscles, but only for the sake of maintaining and sustaining this body to avoid harm and to support the holy life. Thank you. Thus I shall destroy the old painful feeling and shall not let a new one rise. Long life will be mine, aimlessness and well-being. So the teachings is very much about not eating beyond your need. not for pride and greed, et cetera. Eating for sustenance. Now we think of it often as an amount of eating, right? One or two meals or eating less. But it's, again, remember how sense desire is very pervasive and can be very subtle. I have a story.

[34:51]

This time I'm in a two-month. retreat, right? And in this retreat, you go to a buffet line. It's not here where you're served on the, you know, eat on the board, as someone put it, or Yoki, right? So you get in line, and as, you know, people are going by, you can see what's on the table that you're going to go get, right? I remember for, you know, 56 days, right? We only eat breakfast and lunch. So for breakfast, One day, there was granola with blueberries, dry blueberries. And it was kind of a granola that wasn't too sticky and crunchy and a lot of chewing. And I put with it some yogurt, vanilla yogurt, and then cut up some apples and put it on top. And I really enjoyed that breakfast. Now, by the way, I didn't eat dinner, right? So breakfast was... I really broke my fast, right?

[35:53]

And it was really enjoyable. Now, you know, I'm in my second month when this appeared, right? So you think I would have settled into calmness, clarity of mind, wise discernment, right? I noticed that once this blueberry granola had appeared, that every day I would be in line looking down thinking, Is there granola? One day, there was only one apple in the fruit bowl. And I was at the back of the line, and I remember just watching that apple, hoping nobody would take it. And then, one day, there was no granola. I'll tell you, I don't even remember what I had for breakfast. It was just not granola. And, however, what I noticed, though, is that the roof of my mouth felt raw.

[36:59]

You know, I remember I didn't put milk in my granola. I put yogurt and fruit. And I liked it so much. You know, lunch, you don't eat much in a retreat, especially by the second month. So because I was so into my granola, I hadn't even noticed that the roughness of it was actually... had caused roughness to the top of my mouth. So only when I didn't have it that I was then like, oh, right? The habitual tendency of sense desire can be very pervasive. So the last category is how to cultivate or prevent. This is towards the prevention of the arising of sense desire. So five on the list is noble friendship and suitable conversation. In the Samyutta Nikaya, or the connected or group discourses, the Buddha said about noble friendship, the entire holy life, Ananda, is noble friendship, noble companionship, noble association of a monk, Ananda, who has a noble friend,

[38:21]

a noble companion, a noble associate. It is to be expected that she will cultivate and practice the Noble Eightfold Path. So having, by noble friend, they mean friends who are in the same alignment as you. In this case, who are willing to be careful about their attention. So this is why we need Sangha practice and a Dharma friend or teacher, or both. And six is suitable conversation. There's actually a whole list about things you shouldn't talk about that are not noble. You shouldn't actually talk about food and drink, clothes, couches, garlands, perfumes, your relatives, cars, village, town, cities, it goes on, provinces. And notice at the end note says, talk about what happened and what did not happen. Such and similar talk, I shall not entertain. So you make the effort not to. Thus, he, she, is clearly conscious about it.

[39:25]

Goes on to say, but talk about austere life, talk suitable for the unfolding of the mind, talk which is conducive to complete detachment, to freedom from passion, to cessation, tranquility, higher knowledge, enlightenment. Namely, talk about frugality, contentedness, solitude, etc., concentration, wisdom. Such talk I shall entertain. Thus, she is clearly conscious about it. So in summary, desire itself is not wrong. Desire for food, shelter, safety, love, connection, compassion. But the question is, are we aware One, what is it that we are paying attention to and where? Where is it that we accept, agree, and consent to put our minds and attention and interest towards?

[40:34]

Do we know which world we are occupying in meditation or in any moment of your day? Are they wholesome desires? Dhamma-chanda, desire for the truth or the dharma or the truth, or kusala-chanda, desire for well-being, goodness. So what I appreciate about this teaching is that it really gives us a sense that we make a choice, or we can make a choice. We practice so that we have the ability, we build confidence and trust in our ability to place our attention where we want it and therefore have choice. So the quality of minds, what qualities of minds are you cultivating and are recognizing and bringing your attention to?

[41:39]

So the fact is our life are in the senses. It's how we work with it, how we are with it, that we're talking about. And we practice to really know where our minds, our heart, and this body is, and to build a confidence that we can have volition and choice. So life is useful when we can rest in just being in our senses? Can we just be at the point of contact and not lean into the like, dislike, confusion, and then proliferate unwise behavior action?

[42:40]

So, Seke Harada Roshi, in the essence of Zen, says, when we are seeing, hearing, tasting, touching, smelling, and thinking, while doing these things, there seems to be something lacking, some dissatisfaction remains. Due to the fact that the ego self always intervenes as an observer, it isn't possible to be one with the true self. When we really see and really hear that things seen or heard disappears, self and object, subject and object, the condition is one, in which the division or the distinction has vanished. This is the condition where something is really seen. And actually, he talks about, this is the end, when he talks about the Buddha's enlightenment. And he said, at dawn, on that one particular day, he, the Buddha,

[43:47]

suddenly awakened to the true self while looking at the morning star. At that instant, he was liberated from all suffering and delusion. That is why we say that at that moment, he became the way. Until that time, there is no doubt that Shakyamuni saw the morning star every day. He often saw it, but until he became the way, He saw it without really seeing it. So summer is here. Enjoy it. I plan to. And may you bring care and attention to yourself and your companionships and your situation. And may you have ease. Thank you for your attention. For more information, visit sfcc.org and click Giving.

[45:08]

May we fully enjoy the Dharma.

[45:11]

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