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. Good morning, everyone. I like that. Thank you, Jiria. Follow along with Fu. Welcome. So one day, Master Dongshan was washing his bowls when he saw two birds fighting over a frog. A monk who also saw this asked the master, why does it come to that? Dongshan replied, it's for your benefit, Acharya. I think what Dongshan is telling his student is that these terrible aspects of living in the world... the ones that we all know really well, both in our personal lives, in our lives as a society, as a culture, are helping to open our hearts, helping us to become more compassionate, both with ourselves and with others.

[01:08]

At least that's the hope. So learning and strengthening compassion is what all of the bodhisattvas come here to this Saha world to do. Saha is a word that means patience. It takes a lot of patience to live in this world. So this word compassion also comes from the Latin word to suffer with, compassion. And Kuan Yin, the bodhisattva of compassion, is born in response to the cries of this suffering world. I think when we all sit quietly here in the mornings at Green Gulch or you at home, we give ourselves some time to gather our hearts and our minds at the very center of compassion. of the Saha world, both the awesomeness and the awfulness. When we're quiet and still enough, we can hear the cries, both inside ourselves and from others. And then together, we can make our best effort to find an appropriate response. So I have a little story about my own personal response to the suffering of the world.

[02:12]

I was born in 1948, right after the Second World War. I went to grammar school during the Korean War and was there for the assassinations of a president and his brother and of religious leaders who had really so hoped to save this world. I went on to college at the start of the Vietnam War. And since then, through the wars that never seemed to end. So it's not an accident that by the age of 29, I had made my way into a monastery, a refuge, as we Buddhists. say as if the sadness of this world couldn't find me there and as you may guess it didn't really work out very well although i and i think many of my zen comrades really gave it a try you know it's just that we could not think feel wish or meditate our way out of suffering so at some point maybe it's more accurate to say at many points

[03:15]

We each have to choose a path that we're going to take through this life, either a path that will lead toward greater suffering or away from greater suffering, both for ourselves and for others. So there's a crossroad there where these two pathways still look very much the same. You know, each of us is at the center of deciding which way to go. And the one we choose is usually based on what we imagine is going to be best for us. Since there are no directional markers at the crossroads, there's no sign or flashing light to tell us which is the right way to go, it's very helpful to find guides along the way. Sometimes it's just a mere word or a phrase that can help us in our search for the way to go. So I want to share an exchange. And just such a thing as that happened between our Chinese Zen ancestor Dongshan and his teacher, Yunyan.

[04:18]

After studying with Yunyan for many years, Dongshan was about to leave his teacher and set out on his own. So Dongshan asked, if after many years someone should ask me if I am able to portray the master's likeness, how should I respond? After remaining quiet for a while, Yunyan said, Just this person. Dongshan was lost in thought. And then Yunnan said, honorable monk, having assumed the burden of the great matter of birth and death, you must be very cautious. And yet, as he set out on his pilgrimage, Dongshan remained doubtful about what Yunnan had said. Then later, as he was crossing a river, he saw his own reflected image in the water. And he experienced a great awakening to the meaning of what his master had said to him. Just this person. And he composed the following verse. Earnestly avoid seeking without, lest it recede far from you.

[05:26]

Today I am walking alone, yet everywhere I meet him. That one who is now, no other than myself. But I am not now him. I am not now her. It must be understood in this way in order to merge with suchness. So these simple stories from the Zen tradition are signposts of a kind at the crossroad. They're invisible and transient. And there are no flashing lights and no concrete markers. And I think that's because unlike the usual signposts, they're not pointing to anywhere else or anyone else or some future time. You know, they're pointing right at us. This way. Right this way. How else would we understand Dong Chan awakening to just this person? You know, at that very moment, a moment he had been preparing himself for for a very long time, he saw his own face reflected in the water and he understood his teacher's meaning.

[06:29]

just this person. He understood that his own mind, our own minds, are nothing more than, as the Buddha himself suddenly knew, the great mirror wisdom of the present moment. The great mirror wisdom of the present moment, in which this way or that way are merely concepts arising like clouds in a vast blue sky. So this understanding of of ourselves as the world or as the truth and as nothing much worth fussing about, and just find the way we are, is called the ultimate truth. It's the truth that's not depending on words or reasoning or signposts of any kind, where all beings are safe and free. It's the all-inclusive reality in which each of us is being met and held right now. Just this is it. And yet, as the Buddha said, radiant is the mind, O monks, but sometimes it appears defiled as though by defilements that come from outside of itself.

[07:41]

Therefore, the ordinary person doesn't know the mind as it truly is. So, these afflictions that seem to come from outside of ourselves that cause suffering are like clouds that arise in our radiant minds. And we have to be very careful not to speak about compassion and truth as if it was simply a matter of watching the clouds float away. You know, we need to speak in a more conventional way or what's called the relative truth. The truth that depends on words and reasoning, depends on how we think and how we care for each other. And it's by means of the relative truth that we can speak about the kind of suffering that is being brought up here among us. You know, it's in the news each and every day, great fires and great wars, and like the coronavirus, doesn't seem at any risk of going away. So this idea that we must turn toward suffering, toward the unbearable pain that suffering is causing, not just in ourselves, but also in this world that many are forced to endure much more than any living being should have to bear.

[08:57]

So the Buddha said that this is the true pathway to liberation. Turning towards suffering is the true pathway to liberation. However, before we can do that, before we can truly turn towards suffering, we actually have to believe what our friends, our neighbors are telling us. We have to believe that there is in this world a right way and a wrong way as we ourselves head out on a path toward no way at all. the path of just this person. So I want to share with you a timely example of such suffering that James Baldwin shared with those who could listen in an article from The New Yorker back in 1963, my first year of high school, entitled A Letter from a Region in My Mind. I read this a number of years back during a sashim here at Green Gulch, and yet the sting of reading it is as sharp today as it was then.

[10:01]

This experience James Baldwin is describing took place inside of him while as a young man he was singing and clapping along with the members of his church. He was a deeply spiritual man and had considered becoming a minister himself. The anguish that filled me cannot be described. It moved in me like one of those floods that devastate counties and tearing everything down. tearing children from their parents and lovers from each other, and making everything an unrecognizable waste. All I really remember is the pain, the unspeakable pain. It was as though I were calling up to heaven and heaven would not hear me. And if heaven could not hear me, and if love could not descend from heaven to wash me, to make me clean, then utter disaster was my portion. Listening to the cries of the world is not easy.

[11:09]

And yet, as I said, that all the bodhisattvas come here to the saha world to do just that, you know, to listen. Confronting afflictions, whether they appear to be coming from inside ourselves or inside others, can only be done when we're ready to meet those afflictions with kindness and patience, with generosity and wisdom and compassion. Otherwise, we will most likely turn away because, as we often say, it is just unbearable. So once we are ready, we then can both truly listen and truly speak. As one of the people who's been helping us to listen to the cries within our own spiritual community recently said, you have to talk. And when someone is talking, you have to listen. We really need to know what is right and what is wrong in this Saha world, what is fair or unfair, generous or selfish, wholesome or unwholesome, before we settle for a non-dualistic interpretation of the world and of ourselves in it.

[12:20]

We need to begin our study of ourselves as determined critics, as detectives and spies, and as emphatic listeners to sentiments other than our own. We need to ask others about those things that we don't see or understand, whether in ourselves or in the world around us. So it was in this spirit of deep inquiry and for the purpose of cultivating his compassion that Master Dongshan replied to his student. It's for your benefit, Acharya. So during the month of August here at Zen Center, we have been offering classes and talks on the teachings from what's called the mind-only school of Buddhism, which along with the middle-way school underlie the Zen tradition. Most of you may be familiar with the middle-way school with its emphasis on the teaching of emptiness, such as the text that we recite almost daily here at Zen Center called the Great Wisdom Beyond Wisdom Heart Sutra, a teaching that points directly to the ultimate truth.

[13:30]

the just-this-person insight that helped our founder Dongshan to awaken. The mind-only school, on the other hand, while honoring the emptiness teachings as well, begins by addressing our afflictions as if real, the relative truth, that arise like bubbles or clouds in our radiant minds, begins by offering methods and teachings about those afflictions and how to be free of them. The wisdom of this school maintains that freedom from afflictions begins with a greater understanding of how the mind works in making those afflictions in the first place. And then how to turn off the bubble machine, so to speak. The mind-only teachings recommend as a start that we undertake, as they say in the 12 steps, a fearless and moral inventory of ourselves. A fearless and moral inventory of ourselves. through mindful attention to the actions of our bodies, of our speech, and of our minds.

[14:31]

By means of this thorough and honest inventory, this approach to liberation aims to first diagnose our illness and then to treat it. And as part of the diagnosis, we are informed that there are two primary barriers to the cessation of our suffering. The first is the barrier of afflictive emotions themselves. You know, those relative and painful truths that we tell about ourselves, that we tell to each other, and that we talk about as our lives. The place where we start our search for freedom. He beat me. She cheated me. They lied to me. As it says in the Dhammapada, a very old verse by the Buddha. And then it says, those who think such thoughts will not be free from hate. So this is the first barrier, the barrier of afflictive emotion. The second barrier is the barrier of delusions. Beyond the barrier of delusions is the ultimate truth, where there is no separate self or separate other to be found, just this person, just this person.

[15:44]

So awareness of the arising of the afflictions is the first and foremost step in the process of letting them go. In the 30 verses, which is a seminal teaching of the mind-only school written back in the 5th century by great master Basu Bandhu, we are taught to meet these afflictive mental states as they arise in a non-judgmental, intimate, and compassionate manner. And that's the part that requires of us a great deal of generosity and patience. And then we're given this checklist of the afflictions in case there's some that we'd forgotten. through that persistent and ill-fated effort to turn away. You know, something that I mentioned I tried to do many long years ago. The list of the afflictions is from verses 12 to 13 of the 30 verses. The afflictions, the source of our suffering, are greed, hate, and delusion, pride, wrong view, and doubt,

[16:51]

The secondary afflictions are anger, hatred, hypocrisy, malice, envy, selfishness, deceitfulness, guile, harmfulness, lack of conscience and humility, sluggishness, restlessness, lack of faith, laziness, carelessness, forgetfulness, distraction, and unawareness. It's quite a list. confirming for me that there is no easy way to address the afflictions as they arise from out of our unconscious conditioning. It is real work that's needed and real determination each and every day in each and every action. And for that reason, being somewhat overwhelmed, we often prefer to ignore them or to lie about them, deny them, or passionately justify them to anyone we think might be willing to listen. But unfortunately or fortunately for us, as the young student in a Jataka tale said to his teacher after being asked to steal some money for him at a place in the road where no one was watching, this was a test this teacher was making for his young students.

[18:08]

The young student said, I can't do that, Master. It isn't possible. Because there is no place wherein no one is watching. Even when I am quite alone, myself is watching. I would rather take a bowl and beg than allow myself to see me stealing. So the first step in confronting our afflictions is to remember that we ourselves are always watching, you know, with an unblinking gaze. And what we do next, through our conscious and intentional offering, is our vows, you know, precepts. and our determination to practice, to do good, to avoid evil, and to benefit all beings. And then we forget. We always forget. And when we see that we've forgotten, then we say we're sorry, and we try to do better as we set out again. These many afflictions listed in the 30 verses are familiar to us all.

[19:13]

They are the members of our family of feelings and behaviors as human beings. You may notice a number of them arising in your mind as fleeting thoughts or at times as elongated stories as you go about your day. Maybe it's when you're driving on the freeway and you've been suddenly cut off or you're being tailgated. Or how about when you're the one doing the tailgating? Which of the afflictions can you identify then? Some of the afflictions are ingrained habits like wanting and not wanting. Others arise only on certain occasions, like when your friends got a prize and you didn't. The initial approach the mind-only tradition uses for freeing us from suffering is to draw our attention away from our habitual tendencies to try and exert control on the world around us, like trying to get them to drive faster, or better yet, trying to get them to give us all of their wealth.

[20:13]

Instead, we're invited to turn the light of our awareness toward the working of our own minds, consciousness only, which is the name of this school. At such a time when we are consciously aware, we can simply, as Ben Conley suggests in his good book on the 30 verses, stop the car, take our hands off the wheel, and look under the hood. And then as bodhisattvas, we begin preparing ourselves, training ourselves for this very meeting with the engine of our suffering. A meeting that takes place in our very own hearts. When a disciple asked the Buddha, how many bases for training are there for those seeking enlightenment? The Buddha replied, there are six. Generosity. Morality. Patience. energy, meditation, and wisdom.

[21:16]

So training in these six paramitas is the recommended approach as long as we're still believing that we exist separately from one another, which most likely we do, which is what we call normal for a human being. So the paramitas are basically something wholesome that have been set up for us to try and grab. You know, we try to grab a hold of generosity and ethics so we can be seen as good people, both by ourselves and by others. And we strive to be patient and energetic and focused and wise. Until finally, complete exhaustion sets in, allowing us to renounce trying to get something out of our practice, something for ourselves. And so we surrender ourselves. In other words, we give ourselves up. to further learning and further insight with a wide open mind and a wide open heart. The final realization that results from the practice of the six paramitas is called the perfection of wisdom, number six, Prajnaparamita, the Heart Sutra.

[22:23]

The perfection of wisdom is an insight into the emptiness of our imagined reality, those clouds in the empty sky that are just passing through and depending on conditions. may or may not bring the rain. Although the sky doesn't care what flies through, as Suzuki Roshi said, we do care for the clouds. In what the mind-only teaching calls the true reality, clouds are merely clouds and the self is just one among them. And yet it also teaches that just like these selves we have made here on Earth and those clouds up in the sky, we need to treat the whole of it with respect. like we have never done before. We need to take the relative truth seriously, like we have never done before. Yes, it's all an illusion, a dream, a lightning flash, and a cloud. However, until we are awakened from the dream, we have to live here on earth with respect for the truth.

[23:25]

This word dharma means the truth. The truth that what we do matters, and that what we do together matters most of all. So that's where we're headed, and this is how we get there. The big signpost pointing the way to enlightenment, not for individuals, but for us all. Buddha said, I and the whole world are enlightened at the same time. So first is generosity towards our unhealthy cravings, our negativity and our fear, the afflictions themselves. The second paramita is morality. which includes renouncing craving negativity and fear. As Pema Chodron said, renunciation means to renounce that which doesn't work. Patience is with the continuous arising of the clouds of an imaginary self and the imaginary other, those twin barriers to awakening. Enthusiasm is what gets us out of bed in the morning, washes our faces, makes our beds, and takes us to our cushions.

[24:33]

and all that follows from there. Concentrated awareness brings our attention to the actions of our minds and our feet and our hands and our feelings. Within deep concentrated states, every heartbeat and every breath, every spacious moment allows for intimate contact with the magic of life itself. Wisdom and all of its manifestations is the pathway to enlightenment. a pathway characterized by one teaching master as a 10,000-mile-long iron road. By maintaining mindfulness of our afflictions, we have an opportunity, although a brief one at times, to choose whether to act on them or not. If we remain unaware of our afflictions, we become mere repeaters of our karma, which in turn become karmic destinations, meaning we reap what we have sown. so i think those destinations are going to show up on the screen here in a second wanted to just give you a picture to look at while i mention them the man behind the curtain are they there

[26:01]

Yeah, let's see here. Okay, patience, that's one of the paramitas. Number three. Here we go. Thank you so much. Okay, wonderful. So what you're looking at is called the Wheel of Birth and Death. And in the center, so around the outside of the wheel, there are 12... They're called the 12 links of dependent core rising. It's how we get in trouble and it's how we keep doing it over and over again. That's why it's a wheel. Samsara, the realm of suffering, means to keep turning around and around again and again. This is the habits, our habits of mind. So in the middle, there are, in this drawing, there are only five destinations that you can see. But in many of the classical drawings, there are six. So at the top, there's a really big fat one right there under that.

[27:10]

That's Lord Yama, the Lord of Death, who's holding the wheel. That's what we're really afraid of, but we're afraid to look too, so we keep him behind. So at the very top of these destinations, the very top one is heaven. The one we think is best, we imagine is best. And to the left of heaven are... The Asherahs or the jealous gods who are trying to get into heaven, which is why they have them together here. So one side, the jealous gods are shooting arrows up at heaven and chopping down their fruit trees and doing all these kind of cruel things that we do when we're jealous and we want what others have. So that's the gods on top and the jealous gods to their left. And on the right of the gods is the human realm, which looks a lot like Green Gulch. You know, there's a farm, there are people sitting zazen, there's a lecture going on. So it's kind of like the world of human suffering where things are not that bad and they're not that good.

[28:11]

And that's the realm where we can practice. And below, the destinations below are considered the lower destinations and not desirable for us. Think of these as mental states, as... how the mind works so you know we can imagine heaven we can imagine jealousy we can imagine like today kind of things are fine but then there are these other negative states that we also can imagine and have known the one directly below is hell and when we go to hell there's really not much we can do the only virtue in hell is that others will come and try to help us to rescue us on either side of hell on one side are the animals They haven't much conscience, at least the way they're described here. Without conscience, they just do their thing. And the hungry ghosts on the other side, which represent insatiable hunger, never can get enough, that feeling of never getting enough.

[29:12]

So these are the habitations that result from what the choices we make in our lives. Choosing to do good, avoid evil, benefit all beings brings us to the higher realms. Choosing the other way, the other path, takes us to the lower realms. This word karma means action. This is based on the fruits of our intentional actions that we take. So none of these states are permanent. However, the ones down below are so unpleasant. that they themselves are motivation to behave in a different or more wholesome way. You know, we really do want to get out of hell. And we do want to spend more time in heaven. So we're motivated. You know, this is their self-interest. Practicing with the afflictions is the beginning step in altering the course of our lives. You know, according to the Buddha, we have to taste the bitter fruit of our negative karmic actions in order to become free of the habit to do them again.

[30:16]

I mean, it has to taste bad. You know, that just... It was not a good feeling. That lie or that thing I took or those beans I harmed doesn't feel good to us. So there's our motivation right there. Tasting the fruit. From the Pali Canon, the Buddha says that actions that are willed, performed, and accumulated will not become extinct as long as their results have not been experienced. That is, have not been fully tasted. So this English word remorse comes from a Latin word to bite again, to chew again, remorse, chew it again, to chew it over as we say, and then to tell ourselves and our mentors and our friends, I'm not going to be doing that again. I am very sorry to have done it in the first place. I will do better. This is our confession and repentance. So these afflictions are truly calling out for compassion from ourselves foremost, but also

[31:17]

I once said to my therapist that there were some people at Green Gulch I just couldn't get along with. This was a while ago. And he said to me, they are calling out for extra grace, truly helping you to grow your compassion. Calling out for extra grace. Just as Dongshan said to his student about those birds fighting over the frog, they're for your benefit, Ucharya. So this is the end, my friends, although not really. It's really just the beginning of the next step on the path that each of us is about to take. And which way we go and who will we ask for guidance, we don't know. But it might help to remember what the Buddha said in support of our effort in practicing way. He said, the path itself is enlightenment. Enlightenment is the path. And then that's a talk I'd like to give on another day.

[32:20]

So thank you all for your kind attention. 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 Dorma.

[32:48]

@Transcribed_UNK
@Text_v005
@Score_96.65