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 by people like you. I'm going to try to yell as best I can. You may notice we have no electricity, so it's a little dark and there's no amplification. If you can't hear me just... Let me know. Is that so far okay? Good, thank you. So are you all all right in this big storm? I hope you didn't have too much damage or harm or too much cold or rotten food. This is our third day without electricity, so it's kind of like camping. too bad.

[01:00]

So I thought a lot about Benjamin Franklin last few days because I was writing this talk and by candlelight and with a pen. I haven't done that for a very long time on a yellow paper. Took me back a long way to college. So I'm not sure I can read my own writing but I'll do my best. So, but first of all, I wanted to tell a story for the young people who came today. Thank you so much for coming. This story comes from the Native American tradition, from a book of stories called the Pueblo Stories and Storytellers. of summers ago some of the kids from my daughter's school and some of her friends and some kids from here went to the Navajo land to meet with children, Navajo children.

[02:10]

We had such a wonderful time so I've been very inspired ever since to tell stories about the native people who lived here before white people came and changed the name of this land to America. So Long, long ago those people lived in small houses called Pueblos and in the winter time they would gather together in small rooms with a little bit of light and an elder would tell a story. So this book is a collection of stories told by the elders to the children and to the village people. And the one I chose for today is called The Twins. An old couple lived in this village. They had never had a child, but they always prayed that someday they would. One morning after they had offered the son a morning prayer and corn meal for the day's blessing, they heard a baby cry.

[03:17]

Do you hear it? Can somebody make a baby cry for us? Thank you. They didn't know if it was a trick. or if it was real. And then it cried again. Thank you. But they could not tell where the sound came from. So the old man went north to look and the old woman went south to look. Each found a baby and came back exclaiming, look what I found. certain that someone would be coming to look for the lost babies, so they went to the leader of their village for advice. The leader told them, you must wait for four days. If no one comes to claim these babies as family, then they are yours. Well, four days came and went, and nobody came. The old man and the old woman were very happy. And the people of the village were happy too, because the old couple had good hearts.

[04:23]

And now, in their old age, they would at last have children. And the children would someday take care of the old people. Did you know that was going to happen? Don't forget. Okay. Well, the twin boys, for that's what they were, grew very fast, very fast, much faster than normal children. And they learned all that the old man and the old woman could teach them. They played only with each other and not with the other children of the village. It was said that they ate flowers, danced with butterflies and spoke with animals. The twins dreamed many things and from these dreams they learned much that no one else in the village knew. The old man and the old woman knew that these were very special children and so they sent them on a journey to a certain sacred place. Four days, the twins returned.

[05:24]

When they returned, they were fully grown. And they were painted in black and white stripes with corn husks in their hair. As the people came out to see them, the twins began to entertain the villagers. They teased, they laughed, and they clowned, and the people laughed too. Now, a powerful witch man also lived in the village. And when he heard the people laughing, it made him very angry. The people were afraid of him, for he had caused the crops to fail and children to die when he was angry. The witch man tried to hurt the twins, but he could not. They had great power too, and they had learned many more new things during their journey. So the witch man challenged them to a contest. He told them that the one who lost must leave the village and give up his life. The twins accepted the challenge.

[06:28]

So the twins fasted and prayed for four days until they were ready. And on that day the witch man brought a large pottery jar into the village. He put it upside down and then when he turned it over he commanded water to flow. The water flowed out of the jar, running like a river, nearly filling up the plaza before suddenly it disappeared. And then corn and beans and squash appeared, growing, flowering, ripening, right before the eyes of the entire village. But then the growing things withered and disappeared. The twins praised him for his skill and power, and in spite of himself, the witch man was very flattered. Twins said to him, well, it's too bad that you couldn't make it last. All of those good things disappeared. The people laughed and the witch man became very angry, screaming, you begin.

[07:34]

And they did. One twin turned toward the other and he said, little brother before me. Go bring some ashes that I might make a cloud. little brother before me, said the other, though of course no one knew which of them had come first. When the brother returned, he handed the ashes to the other. The twin took them and blew on them. It caused his brother to sneeze and cough and it made the people laugh. But no clouds came. Then the other twin came and he took the remaining ashes and he threw them into the air. but they came down and made him gray all over and again the people laughed but still no clouds appeared the twins made the people laugh even though they were afraid of what was going to happen if the witch man won the witch was deeply angry but he waited finally one twin began to talk and then the other they talked quietly and then more quietly

[08:46]

everyone grew very quiet and listened. They listened very carefully and the twins talked about the clouds they had seen, they talked about rainbows, they talked about thunder and lightning, they talked about the fresh smell of wet earth and the green things that grow soon after the rain. And pretty soon one twin blew on his cupped hands And a cloud arose and grew very large. Soon it was raining. And then it began to thunder and flash lightning. It rained harder and harder and everyone ran laughing into their homes. When they came out of their houses the next morning, they found the witch man had vanished in the lightning. The twins were the first kosa and they became the leaders of the village. For many, many good years. So, given that this is an election year, I thought this was a good story for all of us to think about what kind of leaders we want.

[10:01]

Do we want leaders who make us afraid? Or do we want leaders who make us laugh and who are in harmony with the rain and the flowers and the people? What do you think? You five, magical, special, six. What kind of leaders do you think you'd like to have? You get to vote, you know, very soon. Well, then I'll let you go. But you come back, okay? There's a program for you if you want to go. Thank you for coming. I did like this story because it's an election year and because I think most of us are thinking about leaders and what it means to be a good leader, what's a bad leader, what are lies and what's the truth, illusions and reality, clowns and wicked shaman.

[12:02]

I have been quite afraid. most of my life especially around election years and Seems like for pretty good reason things haven't gone my way very often And I think I've been afraid probably even before that and which is one of the reasons I became a Buddhist in the first place I was looking kind of like a rabbit looking for a hole and But the surprising thing is that when I came to Zen practice, that the hole that I found didn't go underground. It actually went through the middle of my forehead. That there's a hole in my head. And there's a hole in your heads as well. Which perhaps put more nicely, we could call spaciousness. So spaciousness inside of us. And within that spaciousness, there is room for us to turn and to visit and to run around.

[13:16]

So that's kind of what I want to talk about today, how we find that spaciousness within ourselves. So I think what I'll start with is a little Buddhist theory, and then I'd like to read to you a poem that was written by Zen ancestor many, many centuries ago. And in this poem, he basically illustrates a way of thinking and a way of being that is more free and alive, kind of like the rabbit, free to hop around in all directions. And able to find that hole. The one that runs into open space. The hole to freedom. So basically what the Buddha taught was that we human beings are born with a terrible affliction.

[14:21]

And he called this the fundamental affliction of ignorance. And it's no one's fault. You can't blame your parents or your ancestors. It's basically a natural outcome of the way we're built. And the way we're built leads us to believe that we are separate from the world around us. Our eyes face out, our arms reach out, our ears out. So we actually imagine that it's so. that we're in and everything else is out. As though there were a formula that said me plus everything else equals the universe and that that formula made perfect sense. Me plus everything else equals the universe. Now I think it's possible for us to see how that doesn't make any sense but

[15:30]

it's not so easy for us to experience it, to experience the truth of non-separation. So one of the ways that we can study this illusion that we're separate... is by doing what we do here at Green Gulch, and that is living together. In fact, someone said to me recently, you always disappear. And I thought, well, that's funny. I don't experience myself as disappearing, you know. But from the point of view of being together, if one of us isn't there, it's as though we've vanished. We are no longer part of the universe. this is one of the ways we can study the truth of together, separate, alone, isolated.

[16:31]

We can help each other. We can see each other like mirrors. I see you. I don't see you. Where have you been? Where are you going? And the Buddha taught that until each of us realizes the truth of non-separation, we will not cease. arguing, fighting and contending with each other. That fighting, contending and grabbing for things is basically caused by this illusion that we're inside and everything else is out there. So either I need to protect this vulnerable self, the rabbit, or I need to go get something for it to protect it, something it wants. So One of two ways. We push or we pull. Over and over again. I can't see a thing.

[17:44]

These are my cues. I'm going to turn this light on. Okay. There we go. So the Buddha said to us that the cause or the source of this affliction is very close at hand. It's actually right inside of our very own minds. So we don't have to look very far to find the source of the illusion. It's within our own imagination. I used to say to my daughter, who's no longer quite so young... Honey, the problem is not in the cookies. It's in your noodle. It's in here. But this isn't so obvious to us. So we have to say again and again, the problem is in our noodles. And the solution is through this hole in our heads. The opening that allows some other possibilities to enter.

[18:50]

Some other ways of seeing the world. The way the Buddha described this illusion and the truth of it is in a wonderful verse from a poem called the Dhammapada, which I like very much. And the Buddha said, this is a very ancient verse from the earliest teachings. What we are today, what we are today comes from our thoughts of yesterday. And our present thoughts build our life of tomorrow. Our life, the whole thing, is a creation of our mind. What we are today comes from our thoughts of yesterday. And our present thoughts build our life of tomorrow. Our life is a creation of our mind. He beat me. She cheated me. They defeated me.

[19:52]

They robbed me. Those who think such thoughts will not be free from hate. He beat me. She cheated me. They deceived me. He robbed me. Those who think not such thoughts will be freed from hate. For hate is not conquered by hate. Hate is conquered by love. This is the eternal law. Those who do not know that we are here in this earth to live in harmony fight against each other. This is said thousands of years ago. In an election year, no doubt. Those who do not know we are here to live in harmony with each other fight against each other. So basically in these verses, the Buddha is acknowledging that each of us is a great magician, or shaman, or illusionist.

[21:01]

That each of us has the power in our own minds, in our own imaginations, to conjure the world in which we live. You don't usually think of it that way. Or maybe you do, but do you? No, not so often. So I think we basically suffer because we have this great power, but we're pretty much unschooled in how it's used. So I was thinking of the example of Mickey Mouse in Disney classic, The Sorcerer's Apprentice. He knew how to make the broom go, but he didn't know how to make it stop. Do you remember that one? The brooms going up and down with the water buckets. He breaks it in half and it splits into more brooms. The ending scene when the sorcerer comes home. So we're kind of running out of control.

[22:03]

And we don't understand. We're looking around for the cause of our problems. it's important for all of us to appreciate that there's no one here in this room who's not capable of taking from this assortment of rather fuzzy data, sounds and smells and shapes and light, color, notions, and forming rather defining stories about what's happening, about who we are, where we are, And what we're going to do later this afternoon. Now this is the power of the great magician. Our thoughts of today create the world of tomorrow. Today is from our thoughts of yesterday.

[23:05]

And on and on and on. So... Because we're so good at this, it's a little bit like having a nose. You know, we barely notice how this ongoing story making is forming our lives. I've told this story here before, but it really struck me because it probably was one of the first times I had considered that I was telling stories. Just all the time. It was quite a few years back in my early days at Zen Center. And a man named Gregory Bateson came to visit. And this was also kind of the early years of computers. They were still pretty clunky. They made noise. And, you know, they had holes along the sides in the printers. And Gregory Bateson said that they had invented a computer that thought just like a human.

[24:07]

And in order to test the computer, they typed in... Do you think like a human? And the computer clunked for a while and it printed out. That reminds me of a story. As some of our conjurations are perfectly harmless, you know, like band-aids or bread, clarinets. But others of them are really designed strictly for terror. Hand grenades and bazookas, tanks, atomic bombs. I recently had a visit from my extended family, which is quite large family, around my mother's passing away. So I got to see and visit with my nieces and nephews and grand nephews and nieces and I was feeling very happy to see them all as they were growing, kind of like magic because I hadn't seen them for a while.

[25:21]

So they were all much bigger and doing interesting things with their lives. And one of them who is a beautiful young man named Michael, he can do backflips and has just joined the Marine Corps and he did that because he wants to help his country and to protect democracy and freedom and the American way of life. That's what he said and that's what he thinks. And last year he played football for a high school team in the foothills of the Sierra Nevadas. And I'm not sure he knows there's any difference between the two. He still gets up every morning and runs five miles. And I would like to ask you to add Michael's name to your prayers. So what the Buddha said is that whatever we make out of this world is like a magical show.

[26:34]

like a magical city, a magical gathering like this one right now. We made it up. We work hard to make these things up. We have schedules and bells and incense and clothing. And you drove here in your cars. We offer parking. complicated. And because we're the magicians, we really have only two choices. We either choose to create in the light of wisdom and compassion, or we choose to create behind the veils of darkness in the forces of greed, of hatred, and of confusion. and it's entirely up to us.

[27:35]

That's both the good news and that's what scares me. It is an election year. So if we accept the proposition that we are powerful magicians, then the question maybe is how do we improve on our performance? How can we do better at working together to reduce the terrible harm that is being caused to our planet, our one sacred refuge? Maybe that equation of me plus everything else equals the universe isn't so wrong when it comes to planet Earth. Without it, we are going to be in big trouble. But we won't know it. clear that we can't control all of the events that occur in our world or in our lives.

[28:50]

I mean, a tree falls on my house, on my car, or on my leg. You know, that's not the kind of activity that the Buddha said our special magic is able to control. What we're able to control or to address is our attitudes, our judgments, creativity and our reactivity. When the tree falls on my house, my car or my leg, I say it's your tree. Black magic looks for someone to blame and it looks for an advantage to oneself. White magic or Buddhist magic looks for causes and And cure. Like a physician or like a really good auto mechanic. How are we going to fix this problem we got here?

[29:52]

Makes us happy to want to fix things. Make them right. So Buddha said that studying causes is the first step in the path to freedom. studying causes. And the path to freedom depends on our healing, this imaginary split between ourselves and the world. This is the primary cause. The cause of our suffering, the first noble truth, is ignorance. This fundamental affliction. And ignorance drives our desire. Our desire for self-protection. and our desire for acquisition without ignorance we are free to stand in the rain and get wet it's a gift coming to us all the time I think you may have heard this description is the difference between heaven and hell and in hell there's a banquet table you all heard this one

[31:11]

These are reading glasses, so I can't actually see you. In hell, there's a banquet table. Everyone's seated at the banquet table, and there's piles and piles of food, and each of us has a long set of chopsticks, which are too long to put the food in our mouths. So that's hell. In heaven, it's the very same scene, only we use the chopsticks to feed each other. That's heaven. The best place to study causes is within the sanctity of our own body and mind. You know, we start here. We look at ourselves. And we begin to open this hole in our heads. You know, let in the fresh air. Study the Buddha way.

[32:15]

Study the self that you believe you are. Finger points at me. the beginning of practice. The beginning of hope. And the beginning of cure. It's right here. So Zen Master Dogen who founded our school said that studying the Buddha way is studying this self. And Shakyamuni Buddha first teacher said that The self that we need to study consists of two main parts. The body and the mind. So, is that okay with all of you? Does anyone have a problem with that?

[33:16]

You do? They're separate. Good. He said they're separate. She disagreed. Okay, this is good. Now we got something going here. So there is a problem. And the problem is that what I just said, and I'll say it again, Shakyamuni Buddha said that the self we need to study is made up of two main parts, the body and the mind. And I said, does anyone have a problem with that? Well, the problem is that I just performed this trick that we do as human beings to separate the world. I said something. That's all I did. It's like the lady in the box with the magician and the saw. And by saying something, I cut myself in half.

[34:23]

Body and mind. No blood, no screaming, no pain. Why not? Why not? Well, this is the magic trick. We use words. We use words and then we forget that the words and the stories don't actually have much to do With reality itself. In fact, it doesn't bother reality at all, what we say about it. You know, damn weather. Hate it in California. And yet we continuously produce our opinions, our views, our ideas, our stories, our threats of violence. You know, constantly assaulting reality.

[35:26]

with our stories, our dreams, our fantasies. Like the magician cutting the lady in two. That's the problem. The problem is we forget to look at the way that we do the trick. It's like the shell game, you know? Keep your eye on the shell. Where is it? Where's the pea? It's so fast and we're so good. And we forget. Again and again. And we're fooled by words. By language. By our own ideas. Which we assume are correct. He thought he was right. And so did she. And so do we all. And in that being right. Sometimes we fight. The Buddha said. I hold no views. For or against. I am a man of peace.

[36:31]

It doesn't mean I don't listen to them or consider them or talk about them. I don't hold them. I don't hold my opinions and fight. We are here in this world to live in harmony with one another. Those who do not know this fight with each other. This is the Buddha way. Warm hand to warm hand. So reality cannot be captured by words. I mean we all know that. Reality is like the sky. You know, words and stories just fly right through it like birds without leaving a trace. Burma shave. No problem. The sky doesn't mind. Doesn't complain.

[37:36]

Just abides. Vastness. Limitlessness. Opinionlessness. So when we forget about this trick... And we forget about ourselves as the magicians, as the twin clowns or the wicked shaman. Either way, we produce the world of both ill and goodness out of our actions, out of our thoughts, out of our beliefs. It's happening anyway. So our work as students of the way is to see how it works, to see the workings of the mind. Keep our eye on the ball. So unless we wake up from our enchantments with dreams and with words, we will never know how to end the violence and the fear that is plaguing our planet.

[38:50]

It won't matter whether we vote. in the next election or not. This wheel of suffering will continue to spin through all time. It's our job to interfere, to put a stop to it, and to become free. In that way we can help the world and we can work together, become a force together I want to read to you an amazing poem that was written by Sekito Gisen, who was an ancestor in our school. He lived in the 8th century in China. And he saw this trick that the mind plays with language. And through seeing the trick, he became liberated. And so then he used the trick itself to write this poem in order to show us what we're doing.

[39:58]

how we're creating this world, how we're splitting ourselves and splitting our ideas into parts, body and mind, light and dark, right and wrong, self and other, up and down, east and west, north and south, and on and on and on, is and isn't. So this poem is called Sandokai. Did I say that? Sandokai, which is Japanese word. And Suzuki Roshi was very fond of this poem. He actually wrote or gave 12 lectures on the Sandokai, which is published in this book, wonderful book, called Branching Streams Flow in the Darkness. These were lectures he gave at Tassahara before passing away, like a bird in the sky.

[41:00]

So this is another bird that you might consider. And I find it very encouraging to read these words. Even though I can never remember what I read. So I read it again. Suzuki Roshi translates Sandokai as a feeling of friendship. between the many things and the one. Feeling of friendship between the many things and the one. This is a non-separation. Between the many things, we could say everything and the one, me. Feeling of friendship in that way or a feeling of friendship between the source of our life, the part we can't see or know or taste or touch or understand and That which we don't know which is a lot bigger than that which we know.

[42:04]

A feeling of friendship between knowing and not knowing. That we're comfortable in the not knowing. Not knowing is sometimes called the source. The source of our life. The source of what we know. It's also called the dark. What we know is called the light. Dark and light are not separate. They depend on one another. No dark, no light. So the poem begins, the mind of the great sage of India, the mind of the great sage of India, that would be the Buddha, is intimately transmitted from West India, While human faculties, that would be us, are sharp or dull, the way has no northern or southern ancestors.

[43:15]

So that's the first verse. So this mind of the Buddha, which is limitless, contrivance, free of our ideas about it, unbounded and reaches everywhere. This mind is intimately transmitted from east to west, north to south, up to down, in to out. It's everywhere transmitted. You know, it's in your kidneys, it's in your toes. There's no place this mind does not reach. So the other thing I want to point out is that as I read this poem, I would like to invite you to use your magical powers to conjure, and you have a choice here, just so you know how powerful you are.

[44:23]

You can conjure either a scale, like a scale of justice, or a teeter-totter. And on either side, either end of these devices, we're going to place two opposite concepts. So, in the beginning of the poem, we have Buddha's mind on one side, human mind on the other. Okay? And then he puts east and west. North and south. So he's doing this trick. He's showing us the mechanism by which we split the world. And then he's putting it back together again for us. The whole poem is human mind, Buddha mind. Not two, not one. Back and forth. Like a child in the playground. That we play inside this great unlimited mind of Buddha.

[45:27]

And watching how we play, learning how we play with language, making our world... Like kids at the beach. Watching how we do this is how we practice the mind of liberation. The more you see the trick, the less you're fooled. The greater your opportunity for freedom. So I'm not going to go into this poem at all. If you would like to do that, you can read the book. What I just want to do is read it to you and ask you to keep your eye, your quick eye, on these opposites as they occur in the poem. And also on the resolution that Sekito Gisen gives us over and over again, separating and putting back together again.

[46:29]

This is just for us an opportunity to learn about how we do this trick. Because the great hope for our world is in us. We are the great magicians and musicians. And it really is up to us, which is what makes me feel encouraged. And as I said before, it's also what I'm afraid of. Maybe we won't. Maybe we can't. So I'll read the poem and then just let it fade away. And then we can take a little break. Today there's kind of a different day because we are without lights and so on. So maybe you already know we're not able to offer lunch or muffins. So we can take a little break. Or what? So we would like to ask you to take a little break after I finish talking.

[47:38]

And then any of you who would like to come back will have a question and answer period. And then that's the end of our morning program for today. Okay. So here it is. The harmony of difference and equality. The mind of the great sage of India is intimately transmitted from West India. While human faculties are sharp or dull, the way has no northern or southern ancestors. The spiritual source shines clear in the light. The branching streams flow on in the dark. Grasping at things is surely delusion. According with sameness is still not enlightenment. All the objects of the senses interact and yet do not. Interacting brings involvement, otherwise each keeps its place.

[48:40]

Sights vary in quality and form. Sounds differ as pleasing or harsh. Refined and common speech come together in the dark. Clear and murky phrases are distinguished in the light. The four elements return to their natures just as a child turns to its mother. Fire heats. Wind moves. Water wets. Earth is solid. Eye and sight, ear and sound, nose and smell, tongue and taste. Thus, for each and everything, depending on these roots, the leaves spread forth. Trunk and branches share the essence. Revered and common, each has its speech. In the light, there is darkness, but don't take it as darkness. In the dark, there is light, but don't see it as light.

[49:46]

Light and dark oppose one another like the front and back foot in walking. Each of the myriad things has its merit expressed according to function and place. Phenomena exist. Box and lid joining. Principle accords like arrow points meeting. Hearing the words understand the meaning. Don't set up standards of your own. If you don't understand the way right before you, how will you know the path as you walk? Progress, practice is not a matter of far or near. But if you are confused, mountains and rivers block your way. I respectfully urge you who study the mystery, don't pass your days and nights in vain. Thank you very much. This podcast is offered by the San Francisco Zen Center.

[50:52]

on the web at www.sfzc.org. Our public programs are made possible by donations by people like you.

[51:00]

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