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. If you're crowded, you can spread out a little bit more. everybody. Is there anyone here for the first time? A few people. Well, special welcome to you. This is called Beginner's Mind Temple, so it's always a gift for us when people are here for the first time. And to make it even more easy, we are all beginners and always are, even though we might not remember that.

[01:04]

You know, we think we arrived somewhere, but then we have to deal with just new stuff and are beginners at that, you know, every step of the way, actually. And Suzuki Roshi, when he came here a little more than 50 years ago, he was in many ways a complete beginner. He didn't really know the language. He didn't really know the culture. He brought with him his love of practice. And that's, I think, what kind of sustained him. And that was also exactly why we are able to sit here today because he was willing to just, you know, come to this culture.

[02:13]

He had some connection, you know, he was here to be the minister of the Japanese congregation at Sokoji, and he had his priestly ministerial duties to the community there, but... In Japan, very often the temple priests, after a period of training in Zazen, they don't necessarily sit much in their own temple. They do memorial service, they take care of the community, their members. But he had a big love, and some do, so it's not like they don't, but it's quite varied. And he just loved to sit, which is actually at the basis of Buddhism. And the sitting can take different forms. The Tibetans sit in a different way, or their sitting expresses itself in a different way than our Zazen, or in the elders' tradition in the Southeast Asia, it expresses itself in different forms.

[03:27]

But in some ways, All traditions emphasize practice, some form of practice. So what I want to talk about today is interconnectedness, non-separation, dependent co-arising, which is kind of a technical term in Buddhism. It's different than codependent. See? Very different, a very important difference. So even though even codependency has something to do with dependent co-arising. So it's not separate from it, but it's definitely not the same thing. So we're not advocating codependency here. Which is actually pretty tricky when you have an inclination not to misunderstand the teachings,

[04:29]

according to that inclination, which is of course true for all of us because the constructs we have about who we are and what the world's like and how we have to protect ourselves and how we can or cannot engage also are very active in how we understand the teachings. The path of awakening is fraught with misunderstandings, possible misunderstandings. But that's not a reason to not take it, regardless of what tradition. Because if you keep practicing, if you keep looking, if you keep paying attention, if you keep listening, those misunderstandings will clarify themselves over time.

[05:30]

So it's not like we should get it right from the beginning. It's more like do we cultivate a steadfastness, a possibility, a container of practice that supports us to wake up. So that's the other thing, is Buddhism tells us that all life is precious. So in the Metta-sutta, it says, may all beings be happy, whether weak or strong, in high or low realms of existence, small or great, visible or invisible, may all beings be happy. That's an expression of how precious all beings life is in all its diversity, in all its contradictions, seeming contradictions, the life in you and the life around you.

[06:43]

And Buddha, when he woke up, when he was on a quest to understand kind of what this life was, with so much suffering and so much inequality and so much things he couldn't really grasp, didn't make completely sense. Just on the surface, he went on a quest and he tried many, many traditions. And till he finally, after trying it all, Not right at the beginning, he tried a lot, like we have all tried many things already by the time we're sitting here today, you know, and learned from them. So we all come with wisdom of experience. He decided to just sit down and not move till he would get it. He didn't know what he was going to get, but he felt like, now I've...

[07:50]

done so many things now, I'm practicing not doing. And not doing, you could say, is a way of, the practice of not doing or non-doing is a way of allowing things to reveal themselves rather than trying to unwrap them. It's kind of Just being still and letting what is, is in the way it is, but being interested. And the root of the word interest, interesse, is actually the Latin for interbeing. So it's very interesting that... Curiosity or inquiring mind, which is a still mind that has an interested component, is attentive, is curious without wanting to define.

[09:08]

It's more like, what is this? Wow, it seems like it's this, but keeps asking what is it or how is it? not necessarily even what is it, but how is it, and how is it now, and how is it now, and how is it now, is interbeing. That quality already is a form of interbeing, which we are all the time, all alone. There's no moment of our lives we are not interbeing. It's just the nature of life, of this world. Um... You know, one of the big perks is that now I have warmer robes to wear because they're lined, so I'm more hot. Keeps you on your toes. You know, you get used to something and then they give you more or they take something away and here you are a beginner again.

[10:12]

So I need this now. So if we understand, if we... So Buddhism says everything that appears, everything that is a phenomenon, phenomenon, is subject to change. It didn't make itself. None of us made itself. Herself, himself. They were our parents, and before them were their parents. And if they didn't have parents or some people that had sexual intercourse, they wouldn't exist. And so where does it begin? I mean, beginningless. And that's how we came to be. We didn't just decide, I want to be, and poof, here we are, you know, independent.

[11:16]

There's no way. So all things are subject to change, are impermanent, are not reliable, are not worthy of confidence. This sounds pretty often... First, when I heard that, I thought, that's not so nice. You know what? I can't rely on you. I can't have confidence in myself, in you, in this, in my teacher. I don't know if I like that. But when you look deeper, it's actually a big relief because it helps us to not get caught in fixed, static views of reality. people, things, life itself.

[12:20]

And also the view we have of ourselves, because it opens us up that if everything is continuously changing, the possibilities are endless. So the possibilities of change are endless. And we can see those. We dream of them. And then Gandhi has this wonderful saying that Blanche Hartman has by her door. And each time I walk to my office, I actually read it because that's where it goes around the corner. But first, you just walk towards her door. And it says, you have to be the change you want to see in the world or be the change you want to see in the world. So we actually can't just say, oh, you know, in Washington they should figure it out and fix it the way we want it.

[13:26]

We can actually start right where we are, and when we know what the qualities are we would like to have in our life, and we all do, very deep down, and sometimes just right in our face, we can start being that way. So I don't have to wait for you to be kind to me in order to then think, okay, then I'm kind to you too. Or when you're not kind to me because you're caught up in something and I just happen to come your way and be in your way, I can still be kind to you because that's how I would like the world to be. and that I would like people to be to. And then I don't have to keep a fixed view and think, oh, next time I see you, oh, you're not going to be kind. I can just be there and see who and how you are today.

[14:34]

So when we understand deeply in our bones, when we have realized it, that All things continuously change and also condition each other. So this robe conditions me to some degree because it just is warmer than if I have a thinner robe. It affects my whole body. You all, we all, condition each other all the time. You know, if a group of women live together in the same household, they start to menstruate at the same time, even though when they begin, they may have their menstrual cycles completely all over the map of the month. If they're in the same space, on a continuous basis, like every evening, and they just live in the same house, this thing starts lining up. So our bodies line up.

[15:40]

We don't know, we don't go, oh, I feel you, you know... shoving my menstrual cycle around. But it's happening. And we are all half open systems. Our breathing rhythm, our heartbeat, our digestion, our sleep is regulated by the people that we share the room with. Babies need that regulation. They have not stable rhythms, whether digestion, sleep, heartbeat, and breathing. If they are in a relatively stable environment that keeps their needs met with some continuity so that there is a sense of safety and

[16:46]

and relaxation there, those systems stabilize. And that becomes part of their body. That's what their body learns. So if those people grow up and then they get into a crisis, they are less quickly destabilized. If babies are in an environment where there is erratic behavior, scary things, unreliability, the bottle or the breast is not there when it's needed, or there is too much energy coming towards them, or not enough, too much noise, or not enough, these systems remain fragile. And when they later get into a crisis, a loss or an accident, you know, a physical illness, accident or an illness or a fight or a separation or war or an earthquake, anything, they have much harder time to keep stable.

[18:05]

They are in much more danger to destabilize and fall apart. I mean, everything of life is interconnected. And everything keeps continuously influencing us. So it doesn't mean if you had an unstable childhood for the rest of your life, you're doomed. Because when we know what our circumstances are, we can also look what circumstances support us. So if we're... a little bit in danger of being fragile to destabilization, then we can pay attention that we don't move every two weeks. We try to create some more stability in our lives to support that. So, if we recognize and understand

[19:13]

our complete and essential non-separation, interdependence, interbeing, and that everything we do impinges on all beings. So Dogen says our practice permeates the entire sky and the whole earth. Every of our actions has an effect. Every little thing has an effect. We all sit in this room and breathe the same air. What you're breathing out, I'm breathing in. What they breathe out in India, we breathe in. At some point, what happened in Japan with the tsunami is arriving at our coasts. The debris, the... radioactivity, everything. There is no boundaries.

[20:16]

You think they are, but they are very permeable. So, you know, Robert Thurman says something. Once you have adopted such an attitude of infinite interconnectedness, you naturally want to liberate not just yourself, but all beings from suffering. The Buddha calls this the conception of the spirit of enlightenment. It is the soul of the Bodhisattva, the person who dedicates him or herself to helping all beings achieve total happiness. When you open to the inevitability of your infinite interconnectedness with other sensitive beings, you develop compassion. It just comes naturally. You learn to feel empathy for them.

[21:19]

You love them. You want their happiness. You want to keep them from suffering, and you do so just as if they were a part of you. You don't think your behavior makes you special. You don't congratulate yourself for helping others, just as you won't congratulate yourself for healing your own leg when you hurt it. It's an interesting thing. You know, we cut ourselves and we don't go, well, you're really good, you're healing yourself. Just as you won't congratulate yourself for healing your own leg when you hurt it. It is natural. Excuse me. It is natural for you to love your leg because it is one with you.

[22:25]

And so it is natural for you to love others. You would certainly never harm another being. As the great Buddhist adept Shantideva wrote, how wonderful it would be when all beings experience each other as limbs on the one body of life. So Buddha said all sentient beings are endowed with the potential to realize this, to realize that we are not separate. And when we realize... And so that's... It doesn't matter. In the Metta Sutta it says, you know, whether in high realms or in low realms, whether visible or invisible, whether... big or small. In other Dogen writings, it said whether sharp-witted or dull-witted, there's no difference.

[23:33]

So we can't say, well, I can't do it. I don't have the talent for it. We all are endowed with this. It comes with being alive. But most of us, it's like in seed form. It's kind of an image that helps me. So for most of us, this needs cultivation. This seed needs attention, needs cultivation. And all traditions, all spiritual traditions have ways to do that. They have prayer, they have different forms of contemplation, meditation, rituals, which are creating environments that cultivate and take care of our potential to be fully human, fully alive, and fully awake, is how Pema Churton says it. She says, we all have this.

[24:35]

We all are capable to fully wake up, to be fully human, and fully alive. And then she says, and all the ingredients for that are always present. They're never not present. And they are present in the specific particulars of your life. So it's not like, oh, if I had your life, then I could wake up. Because you have a boat, or you don't have to work, or you do have to work, or you do have work, whatever. It's not anywhere else, but in the very specific... and particulars of your everyday life. All the ingredients are always present. So if we cultivate a practice, and I'm going to get there, what our way of cultivating the practice is, and not to say that that's a better way, it's one way of many ways.

[25:43]

There's so many people that not one tradition or one way would work for everybody. Even though we're not separate, we have each one a completely, completely individual and solitary path and life that nobody else can walk for you. So what helps you walk your path? So Our tradition helps some people walk their path. And even on that same path, if you talk to them, it's very individual how they walk through that same practice or how that same practice helps them to be completely who they are and to become who they are beyond what they think they are. There are many, many traditions, but they all share practices that help people to be present in the moment of their life, wherever they find themselves.

[27:04]

That goes through all the traditions. Some do it with movement, like the dervishes, They do it with movement. We do it with seemingly the opposite, by sitting still. But the aim is exactly the same. To get us, to help us to train ourselves in the capacity to pay attention, to be mindful, to be in touch with this body and this mind. and this heart, to be still, to stay close and do nothing, to not be doing, to be present. And there is a way of that silences or quiets the mind that is always busy telling a story about whether we're doing it right or wrong, or whether the others are doing it right or wrong, blah, blah, blah, it's going on all the time.

[28:17]

So, you know, if the Gurdjieff people had to learn very complicated movements, And they were so complicated that their mind was so busy with doing those, they had to forget about themselves. But they had to be completely in touch with their body, or still do. I think there are still groups that practice that. And the dervishes. You can't be thinking of something else when you're twirling. You have to be completely in your body. You can't separate yourself from... looking at yourself from outside. And you have to be completely in touch with your environment because otherwise you're going to bump into something, into the other one or something else. And we do it by sitting still. Some people do it by walking in nature or sitting in nature. For some people it happens when they are creative or play an instrument.

[29:19]

And there's a moment when even though you have to practice at some point, suddenly the music uses you. You are the instrument of the music. You're not making music. So there are innumerable ways how this happens. So helps us, what helps you. And you may already have it in your life. You may do it here and there. Not necessarily knowing that that's what you're doing, but feeling like an interest in keeping doing it. Because it makes you feel at peace. It makes you feel

[30:21]

more relaxed. The effect is that you're more tolerant, that you're kinder. So Suzuki Roshi was really and must have been a really amazing, amazing person because he related to everybody he met. The way he met them was he met that seed, that potential in them. He didn't meet whatever personality or, you know, however they manifested. He met them right in their heart. And everybody felt incredibly, incredibly encouraged just by meeting him.

[31:30]

And when you read in his stories or shining the light in a corner, I can't remember how it's called. to shine a light in one corner, there are just quotes from people that experience how they met them. It was each time different. It wasn't like he had one way and applied that to everyone. Even though he had one way, how it got expressed was infinitely varied. Just right for that person and just right for that person, but because it went to that underlying sameness and that... trust in the potential and that engagement of that potential that lies in all of us to be awake and to be fully ourselves. And Thich Nhat Hanh, he created an order that is

[32:40]

called the order of interbeing because that's kind of, he put that at the basis of his understanding. And I think in some ways for many of us it's easier to get to nurture the feed of compassion and wisdom which is being fully awake and human and alive by by seeing how interconnected we are. That compels us, or that wakes us up. And so his whole order is created around that. And he created these precepts that go a different order than ours, but they're the same, but he starts just at the other end. And the first one is, the first two, when they meet twice a week, And first is for the children. For the children, they have two promises.

[33:42]

And they go, I vow to develop my compassion in order to love and protect the life of people, animals, and plants. And then the second promise is, I vow to develop understanding in order to be able to love... and to live in harmony with people, animals, and plants. And then I tell you just one sentence of his other precepts for the adults. And what I find so wonderful about him, he has the capacity to put it in very simple words I think just go straight to your heart. I promise to develop my compassion in order to love and protect the life of people, animals, and plants.

[34:50]

You just want to be around these people that vow that way. I vow to develop understanding in order to be able to love and to live in harmony. with people, animals, and plants. So with these simple sentences, he also says, there is no compassion possible or love, real love, unconditional love possible without understanding. You can't separate the two. They're two expressions. They're interdependent for it to work. Otherwise, we have foolish compassion. or we have cold understanding. You know, we have abstract understanding which doesn't really meet the life in front of us. So the first precept, which is also wonderful because it's right at the base of how we forget that we're not separate, is do not be idolatry

[36:05]

Is that how you say it? Idolatrous about our or bound to any doctrine, theory or ideology, even Buddhist ones. So there. You know, it's all systems of thought are guiding means. They are not absolute truth. So we can't just settle down and think, I've got it. This is not how it is. Second, do not think that the knowledge you presently possess is changeless, absolute truth. Avoid being narrow-minded and bound to present views. So keep remembering that even though right now this is how you see it, this is how you understand it, this is how your understanding actually makes you freer, but it's going to change.

[37:17]

It continues to grow. It's no place to put your feet down. You know, in the Heart Tutra it says, a bodhisattva has no abode. A bodhisattva never just says, I arrived, and I'm going to plop myself down here, and now I wait till everybody meets me here because I've got it. Everything keeps moving and changing, so there's no end to learning. Third, do not force others, including children, by any means whatsoever to adopt your views. Isn't that interesting? Do not force others, including children, by any means whatsoever to adopt your views, whether by authority, threat, money, propaganda, or even education.

[38:22]

However, through compassionate dialogue, help others renounce fanaticism and narrowness. You keep to find ways to be with them so that all together we can renounce fanaticism in any place. We can be fanatic about taking care of how the sheets are folded. And you can tyrannize your family like that. You know, it can be anywhere. It can be something big or it can be something really small. Fourth. Do not avoid contact with suffering or close your eyes before suffering. So this is very poignant for me because we live so on top of each other in this community that when someone goes through intense suffering, it's very hard to not distance yourself.

[39:34]

Because when you meet someone suffering at your workplace and you live in an apartment with your family somewhere else, you can meet them, but then you can go home and you can recover and then you can come back. Here, you can't go home. I mean, you can go to your room, but maybe you share your room with the person that's suffering. And then you meet them in the kitchen and you meet them in the hallway and you meet them in the bathroom and you meet them in the dining room and you meet them in the zendo. So how do we then not create a vacuum around them just because we don't know how to stand their suffering? So he says, do not avoid contact with suffering or close your eyes before suffering. Do not lose awareness of the existence of suffering in the life of the world. Find ways to be with those who are suffering by all means, including personal contact and visits, images, sand.

[40:40]

By such means, awaken yourself and others to the reality of suffering in the world. Fifth, do not accumulate wealth while millions are hungry. Do not take as the aim of your life fame, profit, wealth, or sensual pleasure. Live simply and share time, energy, and material resources with those who are in need. Six, do not maintain anger or hatred. As soon as anger and hatred arise, practice the meditation on compassion, in order to deeply understand the persons who have caused anger and hatred. So that's such a wonderful way of helping us to take care when anger or hatred gets triggered, when we are hurt or upset, to try to understand the other person.

[41:55]

which is an act of compassion. What made them be that way? What's going on in their life? And even we may not find out, because we may not know, just to ask that question shifts something. So, I think these are enough. today and it's in his book Being Peace and it's also wonderful he doesn't say create peace or making peace or it's being peace that's a continuous activity it's a verb we are beings and in English it's like the noun and the verb is the same but actually We are beings and we are beings.

[42:58]

We are continuously being beings. It's happening to us. It's the nature of life. And we be each other. We create each other. I want to end with a little poem by Wendell Berry, and it's called The Real Work. It may be that when we no longer know what to do, we have come to our real work. And that when we no longer know which way to go, we have come to our real journey. The mind that is not baffled is not employed. The impeded stream is the one that sinks.

[44:04]

It may be that when we no longer know what to do, we have come to our real work. And that when we no longer know which way to go, we have come to our real journey. The mind that is not baffled is not employed. The impeded stream is the one that sings. There is a concert coming up on Monday that in some ways got sparked by an idea, and the idea just sparked other people, musicians, dancers, artists, to create an event in celebration of the 50th anniversary of the San Francisco Zen Center.

[45:14]

And it's a celebration. And the event is called Resounding Compassion. And if you're interested, look it up. It's just an amazing, amazing thing. And everybody volunteered their art, their capacity. Innumerable beings make this happen. And there's dancing and singing and a piece of music created and a piece of poetry by... Jane Hirschfield and the music by Ishii Eshima. And it just got sparked by one idea that just brought it all together. And it's also, we're interbeing, it's at the same time a fundraiser for

[46:17]

This building here, which is a 100-year-old building, almost built by Julia Morgan. It's wonderful to live in, and it needs a lot of loving, tender care, because it's old. So it needs support, and we would like it to last for another 50 or more years, which it has the potential to do. And at the same time, there's a temple in Japan that got... almost completely destroyed by the tsunami, and that the funds will also go there to help them rebuild it. So that there is not, it's not just for us, it's also going there, and I think there are cards out there if you want and interested, you can read a little bit what's going to happen, and if you're interested, please come. It's just wonderful. Resounding compassion.

[47:18]

Yes. So, I wish you all a wonderful rest of the day, of the weekend. Thank you for coming. Thank you for listening to this podcast offered by the San Francisco Zen Center. Our Dharma talks are offered at no cost and this is made possible by the donations we receive. Your financial support helps us to continue to offer the Dharma. For more information, visit sfcc.org and click giving. May we fully enjoy the Dharma.

[48:01]

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