This podcast is offered by San Francisco Zen Center on the web at sfcc.org. Our public programs are made possible by donations from people like you. Good morning. Good morning. Hello, everyone. Welcome to San Francisco Zen Center on this lovely, rainy El Nino winter day. Also, welcome to those of you who might be listening from some faraway place through the miracle of livestream, or even at some unforeseen future moment through the miracle of whatever it's called, podcast, etc. Hello to all of you. I want to start my talk. First of all, my name is Jordan Thorne, and I'm a priest and staff member at the Zen Center, and I want to start this talk by sharing with everybody something.

[01:06]

I don't know if it was mentioned to the room about Okasan. You know, we think very naturally that Shinryo Suzuki is the founder of San Francisco Zen Center, because he is. But he, there was a co-founder, someone who absolutely essential to the creation of Zen Center and to the support of of Suzuki Roshi's life, which was his wife, Mitsu Suzuki, affectionately called Okusan. And she died this morning, I think around 4.30 a.m. San Francisco time. And I received a forwarded email from Taigen Dan Layton that was sent to the Soto Zen Buddhist Association members. And it says, pretty simply, friends, Mitsu Suzuki passed away this morning at 4.30 U.S.

[02:07]

Pacific Standard Time from old age. She was 102 years old. Mitsu Suzuki Sensei, or Okasan, as we called her affectionately, was the widow of Shinriya Suzuki Roshi. San Francisco Zen Center City Center, excuse me, she was unimaginably important and inspiring for everyone at San Francisco Zen Center and remained a resident in this building at San Francisco Zen Center for more than 20 years after Suzuki Roshi passed away, before she returned home to Japan. She was a tea teacher in the Omotesenke School and a very fine published haiku poet. As Josho wrote me, this would be Pat Phelan, a long-time resident of the Zen Center who is now the head of the chapel Zen Center. Josho wrote him, Daigen, and said, she showed us how to treat a temple and to embody practice.

[03:12]

Suzuki Sensei was a strong, kindly, steady presence who demonstrated everyday Zen life for us. She was a true matriarch of American Zen. And she really was an extraordinary, accessible presence. When I first moved into the building, she lived on the second floor in the same space that she lived with Suzuki Roshi in. And she attended all the meals and she was just such a a presence that I felt that she, and she didn't say this to me, so this is what I thought, this is what I felt. I felt that she had made a decision to stay in San Francisco at the Zen Center because she loved her husband and because she wanted to take care of this place.

[04:22]

She's missed. Where did she go, I wonder? It's a question for us, perhaps. So, starting over. My name is Jordan, and I live here at the Zen Center. And I'm happy to be here right now, having this opportunity to give this talk. It's a special gift when you practice long enough at Zen Center that you have to actually expose yourself by saying something. Sometimes it's a fraught gift. I hope I do well. Wish me luck. Today, in particular, what I want to talk about is guided by the fact that this afternoon there is a lay ordination ceremony.

[05:47]

In Japanese, called Jukai ceremony, might be called in English Bodhisattva initiation ceremony. And in our particular Zen tradition, Soto Zen, Japanese-influenced Zen tradition, there are 16 bodhisattva precepts that are spoken aloud in this ceremony. In other forms of Buddhism, in other schools of Buddhism, there are other lists of precepts. 16 or 10 or even 250 precepts. and numbers in between as well. These 16 or 250 or however many precepts really boil down to one precept, which is how to live a useful life, a helpful life.

[07:04]

for others, for ourself. On the way to it, there might be various things. Don't lie, don't steal, don't cheat, et cetera. But what do they have in common? Well, how to live a useful life. And I think we're all here today because we share this kind of hope, share this aspiration, a common bond. that deep down each one of us has a desire to live a useful life. I think we want to find the best place, the best way for us to move forward in this world. And there's a particular kind of hell that individuals sometimes go through when they think they're wasting their time or they're adrift or misbehaving. It's very important, coming back to this intention to live a useful life.

[08:26]

Buddhism is a big field. There are many practices in it. There's many schools. There's the Theravadan tradition and the Vajrayana tradition and the Mahayana tradition. Within each one of those there's different schools. But what they all have in common, I say, is they want to make a foundation. They want to help individuals make a foundation of an ethical life that demonstrates... and manifest to others how to be useful in this world. And in this process of making a commitment to live a useful life, there's a special power to saying this out loud in front of other people. I think probably, I mean, I don't know,

[09:27]

everyone here, but I'm just going to take it as a given that everyone here doesn't want to lie, cheat, etc. Do these things that might be ethically unsound. But in the teaching of Buddhism, when you make a vow and express it out loud, as the ordinance this afternoon will do, when they say, I vow... not to, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. The karmic consequence of that intention is, well, it's amplified. It's amplified, which is helpful to us. Saying it in front of other people, because then other people will know, well, this is what you want to do, and they can help us, because we need everybody's help. Let me repeat it because I don't think it can be said too much.

[10:32]

I'm just going to say all the different threads of Buddhism, all the different approaches to even, say, for instance, ordination, they share the fundamental, very fundamental intention, importance of making an effort to live a life in an upright ethical fashion. a life in accordance with a vow not to harm others. And, you know, it's kind of simple. There are, in the bookstore, some pretty complicated philosophical books about aspects of Buddhist teaching and things like this. And they're useful because we need to find various ways to have a voice to our practice. But this very simple thing, do no harm to others. is a practice which we all will benefit from making that effort.

[11:36]

The precepts, you know, in this ceremony this afternoon, when the students of the way, and also many people in this room, and maybe others in the room, when they say I make a commitment to live in a particular way, it might seem like a restriction. It might seem like you're taking up a restriction or some sort of adding rules. But if you think of it that way, actually it might not work out. I think you have to understand that because also things happen. We make mistakes. The precepts are like a meditation guide. The precepts are how Buddha lives his life. And this is a Buddhist temple, so we kind of want to live Buddha's life. Maybe. Some people. Hopefully.

[12:50]

There was a Tibetan teacher who was a friend of Suzuki Roshi's. His name was Chagyam Trungpa. And he said about taking the precepts, he said, we boldly commit ourselves to the Buddhist path. This is not only simple, but it's extremely economical. not only simple, but it's extremely economical. Because there is a kind of aspect to embracing, for instance, saying out loud in front of a room, I vow to, I'm not going to repeat the 16 bodhisattva precepts right now, but there is an aspect in that ceremony that we stop looking for better ways. We kind of think, okay, this is good enough.

[13:57]

It's a very tricky place, this is good enough, because actually it's only good enough if we make it good enough. But there is a useful place, as Trump said, an economical opportunity when we realize that doing this path is sufficient. and will embrace and support us and allow us to grow. Taking refuge in the precepts is more than a kind of surrender. It's a process in which I think you become almost physically injected with a commitment that enters into your DNA. Something in the lineage, which is almost at the level of chemistry, enters into our heart as our commitment to openness takes place.

[15:08]

Let me say something about this bodhisattva word. It's something you hear at the Zen Center, and at the very end of this lecture, we're going to repeat the bodhisattva vow as a group. well it's two words it's bodhi and sattva it's enlightenment and being a bodhisattva is an enlightenment being and in particular is a person who has made a vow to benefit others and to in some almost like this is perhaps almost grandiose to say this but to forestall their own awakening until that moment when all beings kind of wake up as well. Realizing that you can't go anywhere by yourself. Kind of giving you an advanced preview.

[16:26]

of the end of the talk. Beings are numberless. I vow to save them. Delusions are inexhaustible. I vow to end them. Dharma gates are boundless. I vow to enter them. Buddha's way is unsurpassable. I vow to become it. It is a tremendous help to our practice, personally, when we understand that our own self-interest, our own fulfillment, is answered as a byproduct of working for the well-being of others. There was a 15th century Tibetan master named

[17:27]

I'm going to mispronounce it, Shankapa. And he said in one of his lectures, Shankapa said, if that's how you say his name, the more a practitioner engages in activities and thought that are focused towards the fulfillment and benefit of others, the fulfillment and realization of his or her own awakening will come as a byproduct. without having made any separate effort. Time passes. This bodhisattva vow which is kind of identified in my mind with Mahayana Buddhism.

[18:31]

It's a particular aspect of the tradition of Buddhism called the Great Vehicle, the Mahayana. This is not something that Buddhism has as its special charge. I believe it's something that many traditions, many religious traditions, and maybe many good-hearted people who don't even care about religion can resonate and share in their heart. I'm going to provide an example of the Bodhisattva way that was written by a French woman who was born in 1909 and died in 1943. Her name is Simone Weil, spelled W-E-I-L, and in this book of hers, if I open it, it just opens to this little paragraph because I've opened it enough times that the spine has cracked to this point.

[19:55]

She was a unique, special person who lived the bodhisattva's vow in her life. She was a French Jew who embraced Christianity and Catholicism. But her words and writings I don't think are contained by any tradition. She said, some of her writings are kind of a little bit thick. In an essay that is in this book called Forms of the Implicit Love of God, she wrote, the beauty of the world is the mouth of a labyrinth. And when I read that sentence years and years ago, when I was at a Tassarar practice period, and another version of this book was in the library at Tassarar, when I read that, the beauty of the world is the mouth of a labyrinth, I kind of sat up straight a little bit.

[21:18]

I said, wow, huh, I wonder what follows. And here's what follows. The unwary individual who on entering this labyrinth, this beauty of the world, who on entering takes a few steps, is soon unable to find the opening. Worn out, with nothing to eat or drink, in the dark, separated from dear ones, or dear ones, separated from everything we love and are accustomed to, we walk on without knowing anything or hoping anything. incapable even of discovering whether we're really going forward or merely turning around on the same spot. But this affliction is as nothing compared with the danger threatening us. For if we do not lose courage, if we go on walking, it is absolutely certain that we will arrive at the center of the labyrinth.

[22:24]

And there, God is waiting to eat us. Later, we'll go out, but we will be changed. We will have become different after being digested by God. Afterwards, we will stay near the entrance so that we can gently push all those who come near into the opening. I'm going to say this again, but a little bit in pieces. The beauty of the world is the mouth of a labyrinth. The unwary individual who on entering takes a few steps is soon lost. And this might be like some of our lives, some of your lives. We're born with

[23:30]

what I might say is the pure mind of Buddha, but we soon find the world around us to be an extraordinary attraction. Simple choices we make in our youth, choices we make in our adulthood, reveal themselves as not so simple. And then we find ourselves many years later reverberating and... Living out the consequences of what seemed so simple some time ago. Acting out the reverberations of our life decisions. This is one of the reasons why living a life in accord with the precepts is such a useful thing. Because the reverberations of being upright are pretty easy to deal with compared to some other reverberations.

[24:34]

Worn out with nothing to eat or drink, in the dark, separated from dear ones, we walk on. And not really knowing whether we're going forward or backwards. Now, I hope that's not the place folks are at right now, but it's the place that some of us sometimes have been at. This story, those words, when I read those words, it reminded me of the opening lines of Dante's great poem, The Divine Comedy. He said, he wrote, In the middle of the road of my life, I awoke in a dark wood where the true way was wholly lost. Dante entered the labyrinth, found the center, and found himself lost. In the middle of the road of my life, I awoke in a dark wood where the true way was wholly lost. This can be a place where

[25:54]

we look around ourselves and wonder if the contradictions of our life can ever be resolved, sorted through, if we can find our way to sunshine and kindness. In the midst of this experience, in the midst of what Dante called awaking in a dark wood and being lost, the important thing is to keep on, not to stop in that stuck place. Because if we do not lose courage, it's absolutely certain we will finally arrive at the center of the labyrinth. And the center of the labyrinth is this moment right now where we are. Each one of us are at the center of the labyrinth of our life right now.

[26:59]

That's the good news. And as Simone Weil says, when we find ourselves there, God is waiting to eat us. Well, you know, we don't say God so much. Sometimes we say God damn. But we don't say God so much. But we do say the word Buddha. And for instance, Master Ma said, this very mind is Buddha. Well that, to face that fact, is to be devoured by Buddha. This very mind is Buddha. Can we believe it? Is it true, Ed?

[28:10]

Thumbs up. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Or as Suzuki Rishi would say, not always so. Not always so. I would say... May it be so. May it be so. You know, this God at the center of the labyrinth, this air quote God, is nothing more than our still heart. So, later on, after finding out that we're actually not lost at the center of the labyrinth, but we're found in that location, we'll know how to go out. And as Simone Weil sensei says, we will be changed.

[29:17]

We will become different. And afterwards, we'll stay near the entrance so that we can gently push all those who come near into the opening. That's the bodhisattva vow. To come through hell. To come through, well, to find ourselves where we are and to then guide others to where they already are. There's lots of metaphors that could be used for Buddhism. And for other things as well. So I'm going to kind of say that Buddhism can be like a really great big tree.

[30:20]

And Buddha's original realization, this awakening he had under the bow tree, is the root. And the teaching of the different traditions, the teaching of the elders, the Palikan and the Thirvana schools, the Vajrayana schools, the Mahi, these are branches of the tree. But they all come back to that same root of awakening and being present with ourselves in a way that is vast, that opens up endlessly. And as bodhisattvas, we, all of us, stand near the entrance to the labyrinth. We are all of us in our lives serving proof that the beauty of the world is the mouth of the labyrinth.

[31:31]

And the unweary individual who, on entering, takes a few steps is soon unable to find the opening. worn out with nothing to eat or drink, in the dark, separated from our dear ones, separated from everything we love and are accustomed to, we walk on without knowing anything, hoping or hoping anything, incapable of discovering whether we're really going forward or merely turning around on the same spot. But this is nothing compared with the danger threatening us, which is that if we do not lose courage, If we go on walking, it's absolutely certain that we will arrive at the center of the labyrinth and there God or Buddha or Master Ma or the mystical experience of a moment is waiting to eat us. And later, after being eaten, digested, consumed, we will go out again.

[32:38]

changed. We will become different and also we'll be still ourselves. We'll become different after being eaten and then afterwards we will stay kindly and compassionately near the entrance to the labyrinth and guide those who come by into the opening. May all beings everywhere, plagued with sufferings of body and mind, obtain an ocean of happiness and joy and be graced with the bodhisattva's way of life. May all beings everywhere, through many world systems of past, present, and future realities, manifest the way of life where we wait at the entrance to the labyrinth and gently, that's the key word,

[33:51]

gently guide those who come near into the beautiful opening so that they too can be devoured and transformed. And then this next generation of students will themselves learn how to gently open the gate for people to become lost and found. For more information, please visit sfcc.org and click Giving. May we all fully enjoy the Dharma.

[34:45]

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