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. Welcome to Beginner's Mind Temple. How many of you are here for the first time? Wow. All the first-timers sat on that side of the room for a quick exit in case things get to be tough going. Well, welcome, a special welcome to you on this beautiful Saturday morning. I was worried that I would repeat myself, repeat a... I'm talking on the same topic that David Zimmerman and Artanto talked on Wednesday yesterday. But there's enough new people here that I think it'll be OK.

[01:00]

So we're in the midst of a practice period, which is a time in which we intensify our practice here at the city center. And the theme of the practice period is the six perfections. And we're using a book by Dale Wright called The Six Perfections. And the first sentence in his introduction is, the question my life presses upon me, whether I face it directly or not, is how shall I live? As what kind of person? And I suspect if you're sitting in this room, that's a question you've asked yourself. How shall I live? What kind of person? What's this all about? I mean, it doesn't take very long in life before you ponder the magnitude of this event called being a human being.

[02:04]

As each day, as science advances, the number of billions of galaxies with billions of stars, it impresses upon us the scale and complexity of the world we live in. And if you've bothered to watch your mind, which is the first thing that happens when you sit zazen for 30 minutes, you're amazed at the scale and complexity of your own mind's activities. Your dreams, your hopes, what kind of meaning you have in your mind, the meaningless of what's going on around us in the world, the feeling of love, loneliness, possible things we can do, the impossible things to do, it's really actually when you step back and say, this is not an easy question to answer. How should I live my life?

[03:05]

What kind of person should I be? So how do we face this question? I think the first thing is that we face the question. We actually A lot of people say, well, gee, that's really, that's too big a question. I think I'll just focus on making a living and getting along with my friends. But maybe it's worth a little deeper exploration. And Buddhism has an answer for that or offers a path. And I've come to really appreciate the fact that there is a path, a way. And they claim in Buddhism that the most important thing a human being can do is to figure this question out. To look seriously at the responsibility involved in being a human being and the opportunities that have and to realize that you have the freedom to live your life according to how you think it best should be lived.

[04:19]

And although there's varying circumstances that people are born into that make things more or less difficult, I think those who take this challenge up, no matter what their circumstances are, are going to live a fulfilling life, an awakened life. So the Buddhist... view on this is they have a term called bodhisattvas that are basically people that have decided to dedicate their life to the awakening of other people or basically to be very helpful to the world and all creations and they've come up with this path of six perfections as the way to do that. The six perfections being the practice of generosity, ethical conduct, tolerance, energy, meditation, and wisdom. So, in previous talks that we've had here, we've talked about generosity and how to practice the perfection of generosity.

[05:40]

And we've talked about ethical conduct and what it means to live a life where you're at least trying not to harm other people, trying to be helpful. And two guidelines for that is A, kindness, and B, mindfulness, actually paying attention to what's going on in your own mind, what's going on in your body and heart, and what's going on around you as best you can. But since those topics have been covered, I'm going to take an attempt to review the third paramita called kashanti, patience, tolerance, forbearance, endurance. These are all different translations of this practice. And the heart of this practice is the fact that life is hard. Life is...

[06:44]

full of suffering. There's your own personal difficulties, your own physical difficulties, your own emotional difficulties. If that is enough, there's your friend's difficulties, there's sickness, old age, death, and then the enormous injustice in the world. We were reminded just last Thursday about the kind of suffering that seems to continue with no meaning at all in our society and in the world. So the question is, how does one deal with this? What's the approach to this? And Kashanti, the gentle forbearance, the endurance of hardship, and the acceptance of truth of life is one of the six ways.

[07:54]

Gentle forbearance is really a spirit of forgiveness. Any injury given to us is forgiven, and the occasion is used as an opportunity to reveal the essential harmony in life. if you can convert an injury to you into something about a harmoniousness between you and the other person. In Chinese, the ideograph or the symbol for Kashanti is formed with a sword over the heart. Damocles' sword. Remember there was, I think, a servant of the Lord, Damocles, who said, oh, you've got such a good life being the king. You can get whatever you want. The king had him magically trade places with him, and the servant noticed there was a sword hanging over him by a horse's hair. So what is this about?

[09:05]

This is about the fact that to live a life is to live a life with this possible sword piercing our heart. Because a life without love would be a life of loneliness, a life closed off to the world. But to drop the wall on your heart and open yourself to love is to expose yourself to that sword that can come down at any moment when you lose that love or one of your parents die, your friends die. So the practice of patience is to be willing to love the world, to open your heart instead of walling your heart off or fruitlessly trying to arrange the world in a way that you don't have any exposure to this pain.

[10:08]

but instead to accept that as part of life, to withstand the possible suffering that comes from loving life, opening up to life, connecting with life. I thought this was a beautiful paragraph from Dale Wright's book, so I'm going to sort of read it because I thought he put it together. Kshanti means able to bear, able to withstand, And in that dimension indicates a strength of character, a composure, and a constancy of purpose that allows one to practice in spite of enormous difficulties. Emphasizing the basic dimension, this third perfection could be translated as the perfection of endurance or the perfection of composure. Bodhisattvas who have trained in this virtue are imperturbable and well composed. calm, and focused in the midst of adversity.

[11:12]

Through deliberate self-cultivation, they build the capacity to withstand danger, suffering, and injustice, to resist the onslaught of negative emotions, and to think clearly under the stress of turmoil. They attain an, quote, admirable constancy that even in the face of enormous opposition, equips them to move effectively when others have been overwhelmed. So isn't that wonderful if we had the composure and constancy to act, even in the midst of great difficulty, because patience is not a matter of just, oh, whatever's going on, I'll accept it. Patience is knowing and having the composure and calmness to be able to act appropriately in difficult situations. So Robert Akin in his book decided to give us an example of

[12:31]

when someone feels resentment towards you or some injustice or is angry at you, and how can you turn that into a moment of harmony? And so this is the case that he decided to choose, and I thought it was an interesting enough case for a variety of reasons that I'm going to share it with you. This is case 64 of the Book of Serenity. Head monk Jijo asked Fion, in opening a hall as a teacher, to whom do you succeed? That is, who was your teacher? Who did you succeed from? Who are you the successor of? Fayan said, Dijon. Jijiao said, you are very much turning your back on our late teacher, Ching Chang. Fayan said, I didn't understand one saying of Ching Chang's. Jijiao said, why don't you ask?

[13:32]

Fayan said, in myriad forms, a single body is revealed. What is the meaning? Jijiao raised his whisk. That's kind of a stock answer to that question. Fayan said, this is learned at Ching Chang's place. What about on your own part? head monk. Jijiao was the head monk at this temple. Jijiao had nothing to say. Fayan said, how about in myriad forms a single body is revealed? Is this a facing myriad forms or not a facing myriad forms? Is this erasing the forms or not? Jijiao said, not a facing. Fayan said, two The students all around said, a facing.

[14:36]

Fayan said, in myriad forms, a single body revealed. That's it. Wonderful case, right? Many times we sort of like try to describe the circumstances under which this thing, this dialogue between these two people took place, but it turns out in this particular case, Wang Song, who does the commentaries to the Book of Serenity cases, actually did that. He told us the back story. So I'm going to read you the back story, which will help clarify all of this. So here's Wang Song's commentary. Thayan studied for a long time with Ching Chang, then succeeded to Dijon. So he studied a long time with his teacher, Chang Chang. Chang Chang's senior monk, Ji Zhao, in the past, used to discuss and evaluate past and present stories of happenings with Master Fion.

[15:40]

And in his heart was irritated at him. So he led a group to go especially to Fu province and interrogate him. So, obviously Fionn and Jijiao were good Dharma friends practicing together under Ching Chung and probably maybe for 20 years because it says studied for a long time. And if you're involved in the spiritual life, if you've gone down to Tassara and practiced for years and years, you develop these deep friendships with somebody. And especially in a case where let's say you're the two Dharma brothers and you're going to be taking over the temple and running it together. If one of them leaves, you're not happy, and according to this commentary, he was quite unhappy and so irritated that he went to go and confront Fionn, who had gone off and founded his own temple.

[16:41]

This is kind of like a family business. You and your brother are sons of a farmer in the Midwest, and You're going to run this farm together after your dad's going to pass it on to you. And the older brother runs off to San Francisco to get into high tech. Leaves you holding the bag. So you come out to San Francisco to confront him and tell him, how could you dishonor our father who had left this farm to us? Or you can imagine many other circumstances. Certainly in my case, when my father was a scientist, and so of course the family business was science, and I ran off and got my master's in physics and math to be a scientist, and then I went to Tassara to become a monk. Why did you do that? He came to ask me. This is a common thing. And sometimes it can get quite bitter.

[17:45]

I had a friend who... stayed behind and took care of her parents while the brother ran off, sought his fortune across the country. And then when the parents died and the parent left a little bit more money to the daughter who had stayed and take care of him, and the brother came back and said, well, this isn't fair. We should have split it equally. They got into a big fight. And then they didn't speak to each other for 10 years. You know, this happens. So how do you build up these resentments? There's a rupture in your relationship. So anyway, back to our story. So Master Fayan was informed that this contingent of monks from Ching Chang's temple were coming. And he went out to greet... He was especially polite and observed the statuses of guests and host, each held to whisk as teacher during tea.

[18:47]

So this is kind of like I was thinking of Henry V the other day, you know, the armies approach the field. Anyway, in this case, it's going to be Dharma combat. They set up a little table. They're serving tea. Jijiao suddenly flushed and raised his voice saying, Elder! and opening the hall as a teacher, to whom do you succeed? Who do you claim is your teacher? The master said, Dijon. Zhao Zhao said, aren't you turning your back on our late teacher, Ching Zhang? I was with you in his congregation for dozens of years, discussing and evaluating the past and present. There was never any difference between us. We were totally together. And why did you suddenly choose this other teacher instead? So Wansang goes on and says, comment on this. This thing is not a matter of many years, nor does it lie in long study.

[19:51]

For example, there was the enlightened overnight guest. How can it be judged by outsiders? This thing he's talking about, this thing is not a matter of your... Choosing who your teacher is is not a matter of years spent with a teacher. It does not necessarily lie in long study. For example, there was the enlightened overnight guest. The enlightened overnight guest is a reference to one of the disciples of the sixth patriarch. The sixth patriarch was one of the founding giants in the Zen tradition. And one of his disciples, apparently, according to the stories, was traveling along, arrived, and the sixth patriarch said, well, why don't you stay the night? The guy said, well, okay. He stayed overnight. They had a discussion. And all of a sudden... His life was turned around completely. Or as they would say in the old stories, he was awakened. And he left the next day. The overnight guest. He met his teacher in one night.

[20:54]

That's a legendary brief encounter with a teacher. Well, so maybe it's worth going to ask, well, how did Fayan meet his teacher, Dijon? What turned him away from Ching Chang? And this is another one of those very famous koans. So he'd been studying with Ching Chang for quite a while and it was very common in China after you had studied with a teacher for a while to go on a pilgrimage and go meet other teachers and just sort of see if you could improve your practice. So he was on pilgrimage with some of his friends, and they were sidetracked by a storm, a snowstorm, and they were forced into the nearest monastery, which happened to be Dijon's monastery, where Dijon was the abbot. And this is the case, as it's listed in case 20 of the book in Serenity, so Dijon asked Fayan, where are you going?

[22:06]

And Fayan said, around on pilgrimage. And Dajan said, what is the purpose of your pilgrimage? And Fayan said, I don't know. And Dajan said, not knowing is most intimate. It's a very famous story. And with that, Fayan was awakened, enlightened. He had found his teacher and he went off. His life was completely changed and founded a a new monastery and actually ended up being one of the, he was one of the five founders of one of the five sects of Zen in China. So this is an interesting thing just to think a little bit about when Daizan said, what is the purpose of pilgrimage? He's not asking, what is the purpose of going on a pilgrimage? He's asking, what is the purpose of your life?

[23:08]

What is the meaning of your life? What are you doing with your life? This is the question I brought up earlier in the lecture. And for some reason, Fayan, even though he was an incredibly advanced student, and this is kind of maybe part of the tradition of being on a pilgrimage, we don't know. I remember when Jiaojo, one of the most famous teachers in our tradition, who had studied with his master for 40 years, and when his master died, he went on a pilgrimage for 20 years, and he said, meet a seven-year-old, I will sit at his feet and learn from him if they can teach me something. So part of it is, but maybe who knows why, for some reason, Fayan was open. He was vulnerable. He didn't come up with some fancy answer to what was the meaning of his life. I'm sure he knew many of them. He just said, I don't know. I'm not sure.

[24:10]

thinking maybe that Dijon would give him some secret sentence, some answer that he could hold on to. But what a good answer. Not knowing is most intimate. Not knowing is enough. Just not to know. suddenly recognized, as one often does in spiritual practice, that he had what he needed all along. He didn't know it. The way is right beneath your feet in every blade of grass. Be yourself. Accept the karma of your life and just be willing to share that with others. That is enough. Anyway. Having such a meeting often changes one's course in life, and it certainly changed Fion's, and he went off to establish his monastery.

[25:21]

So, back to our main story. So that's Fion, why he established his own monastery. Jijau is still angry and was being factional and sectarian without a thorough mastery of faith. critical analysis, and arbitrarily gave rise to slander and detraction. That's Wansong's comment on Jijiao's behavior here. But Fionn deeply pitied him because they were close friends, and so he came up with this answer. Instead of saying... Well, you know it's okay to change teachers. It's quite common in our tradition to change teachers. And besides, I wrote a letter to Ching Chang and told him that I had met Fayan and was going to pursue his way. And Ching Chang wrote bad and said, great, I met Dijan, and I love Dijan and have a great time. And if I don't die first, I'll come visit you.

[26:26]

Now, he didn't do anything like that because that's defensive, right? He said, I didn't understand one saying of Ching Chang, which is not at all true. I mean, he understood a lot about what Ching Chang said, but he thought it was an interesting opening, trying to turn the situation. So Ji Ji said, well, okay, I'll answer your questions that you didn't understand. You know, ask me something. And Fayan said, in myriad forms, a single body is revealed. What does this mean? What does this mean? In myriad forms, a single body is revealed. This is really the heart of the koan. This is one of those classic statements. Last practice period we studied Sando Kai, the harmony of difference and equality. Yes, the myriad forms, all of you look totally, you're each completely unique.

[27:30]

And yet, there's a oneness here, a connection deep within us all, between us all. It's a connection that we can't even understand. In the Sandokai, it was the darkness. You can't see how intimately connected we are to each other. I was thinking about gravity the other day, you know, like, Like gravity flows between us, right? Two bodies, what is this force that's always between us at all times? Gravity connecting me to the earth. So, how do you harmonize both the total unique difference amongst us and that connection between us? Which way do you go So that was the question and Jijiao raised his whisk.

[28:38]

This is a kind of stock answer to the question of the absolute and the relative. We have the absolute oneness and the relative difference of everything. What is the answer? You raise a whisk. A whisk means you're a teacher. Like a stick is that way too. So if I raise my stick. Got it? So that works sometimes. Sometimes it works. We have a lot of stock things we do in ceremonies, like in the shuso ceremonies. That's when the head monk gets his question and answer at the end of a practice period. In Japan, it's all completely rehearsed. All the questions are canned and all the answers are memorized and they just go through this routine. We're sort of critical of that. Because when we do our chusot ceremonies here, it's real. Like a student asks a question, the chusot, they got an answer, and they don't know what the questions are. But still, there are parts of the ceremony that are scripted.

[29:41]

There's a beautiful apology that happens at the end that you just read from the script. And you would think if you were just reading a script, it wouldn't be as powerful. The meaning wouldn't come through as much. But every person that I've heard in a chusot ceremony that reads the apology statement like the script says, it just feels totally right. So we know that. My wife is an actress and she spends a lot of time making sure she understands the lines of the play. She doesn't just go out and make up things on it because those words were written. There's a meaning in them and if you do them, so it's not completely obvious. Sometimes the scripted answer, you know, the stick has the complete meaning and you don't need anything more and at other times there's no meaning there at all. And that was the case here. At least that's what Fayan said. Well, you learned how to do that at Ching Chan's place. I learned that too. But what about on your own part?

[30:43]

What is your understanding of the relative and the absolute? And he had nothing to say. He had been exposed. He was too busy just being his teacher, just being, he hadn't developed his own way. There's a very sort of, there's many famous stories about this, but when someone was questioning Deng Zhang at a memorial service he was doing for his life teacher, he was saying, did you agree with everything your teacher taught you? And he said, I half agree and I half disagree. half agree and half disagree. If you study with a teacher for a long time, and our tradition emphasizes a long time of studying, even though sometimes you can get something very quickly, there's a bond that develops.

[31:46]

It's kind of like, I had this wonderful quote. Yes, someone shared this quote from Francis Muriac, which is, we are molded and remolded by those who have loved us. are molded and remolded by those who have loved us. Though the love may pass, we are nevertheless their work. So clearly, Fayan was molded and remolded by his teacher Ching Chang, but you just don't. That's half of it. The other half is you have to find your own way. You have to stand on your own feet. You have to answer the question of what is the meaning of your life for you, your life, which is different than anybody else's life and certainly different than your teacher's life. So it's both things. And this is what Falyan was pointing out to Jijang.

[32:53]

So Wong Sang continues on. The ancients would respond to the wicked with good, respond to the angry with kindness. After that, they would open them up and awaken them with equanimous Buddha wisdom. This senior Jijao succeeded to Fayan, but this was still not enough to requite Fayan's profound virtue. So, in this interchange, what happened is, Ji Zhao gave up his resentment and realized that Fayan had actually something to teach him. And maybe that's secretly why he went to visit Fayan. He probably knew there was something still that he needed to develop. And he and his entire congregation then raised a great cheer.

[34:08]

In myriad forms, a single body is revealed. They were all one single whole body of practitioners together. So Fayan was being very kind and helpful to his good friend who came. There's a little more commentary by Wang Song. Attachments to his teachers and all attachments rivals human entanglement. Oh, wait a minute. I've confused myself. Oh, I know what I wanted to say here in the end. There was one other... was one other sentence that I don't know if I read that was part of the commentary that I think is kind of interesting to point out. Wang Song says, human sentiments and the power of the way are as separate as sky and earth.

[35:16]

Did I share that with you? This was one of his comments about this question. Human sentiments and the power of the way are as disparate as sky and earth. human sentiments, attachments to our teachers, rivalries with our fellow monks. Of course, maybe most of you who don't live in Montessori don't believe that such things exist. Rivalries between monks, getting too attached to your teacher, things like that, but maybe that's because we keep it quiet. But just assume they do occur. Even rivalries between teachers sometimes occur. All these human entanglements. Human sentiments. We are constantly hurting each other. We are making a mess of things.

[36:19]

This is a human life. And that sentence says, this is as far... I want to get that sentence again because I love it. I hope you are all practicing the great perfection of patience. Endurance, tolerance, forbearance. It's interesting, you know, so many pages

[37:24]

I remember the theme of it was that human sentiments and the power of the path are as vast as the sky and the earth, which would make us think that there's a great difference between the power of the path, the power of the way, and human sentiments, especially those messy human sentiments that are always mucking around in our mind and life. But, Whenever you've looked at the earth, have you ever noticed that the sky is right down on top of the earth? The sky is completely connected to the earth. The power of the way is completely connected to your messy life, to every aspect of your life. It is those things that is where you practice. It is through practicing with the mess of your particular life

[38:41]

that you find the wholeness of life. It's in those particular things. There is no difference between the small details of your life and the vast sky of your life. And that is why practice is always with you, no matter what you're experiencing. sound the toll of the bell. Our time has come to an end here. Any of you that would like to pursue this particular subject, I'll be available in the dining room to talk some more.

[39:44]

Thank you very much for your patience, your forbearance, if your knees hurt, your endurance. I've often thought sometimes sitting for seven days, which we do in Sashin, living with our physical difficulties and our emotional difficulties and our crazy mind. It's one of the great ways we develop the capacity to practice endurance, forbearance, the beautiful third precept. Thank you very much. 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. Your financial support helps us to continue to offer the Dharma. For more information, please visit sfzc.org and click Giving.

[40:48]

May we fully enjoy the Dharma.

[40:51]

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