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, Bodhisattvas. So we have been... studying the body in and of itself from the Maha Saripatthana Sutta. Of course, it's just the first of the five skandhas and the sutta treats them all, but since this practice period and Sashin are studying the body as great vehicle practice, we're focusing on the part of the sutta that deals with the body. there is also the mind feeling, the mind, mental formations and consciousness.

[01:05]

And I want to remind you again, as it says in the introduction, the activity of satipatthana, that is the practice of mindfulness, cultivating mindfulness, the activity of satipatthana definitely has a motivating agenda. The desire for awakening which is classed not as a cause of suffering but as part of the path to its ending. The role of mindfulness is to keep the mind properly grounded in the present moment in a way that will keep it on the path. To make an analogy Awakening... Put it higher? Awakening is like a mountain on the horizon.

[02:26]

the destination to which you were driving a car. Mindfulness is what remembers to keep attention focused on the road to the mountain rather than letting it stay focused on the glimpses of the mountain or get distracted by other paths leading away from the road. So we have looked at mindfulness to begin with, because where there is a body which is alive, there is breath. And so it will always be there in the present moment. And so it's a very ready object of focus that keeps bringing us back

[03:28]

to breath. He brings us back to the body. And then we talk about the body in its various, in the four Four noble postures of standing, walking, sitting, and lying down. And the body is extending the arm and bringing it back, noticing how we can keep coming back to the body in its physical function. at the body in terms of all of the, you know, the hair on the body, the skin, the marrow, the bones, the blood, the pus, the phlegm, and et cetera, et cetera.

[04:46]

All of the aspects of the body. And then there is one further way of looking at the body. Furthermore, As if he were to see a corpse cast away in a charnel ground, one day, two days, three days dead, bloated, livid, and festering, he applies it to this very body. This body, too, such is its nature, such is its future, such is its unavoidable fate. Or again, as if he were to see a corpse cast away in a charnel ground, picked at by crows, vultures, hawks, dogs, hyenas, and various other creatures. A skeleton smeared with flesh and blood, connected with tendons, and so forth. Here, shin bone, there, and arm bone, and et cetera. In this way, he remains focused internally on the body in and of itself, or externally on the body in and of itself, or both internally and externally on the body in and of itself.

[05:56]

Or he remains focused on the phenomenon of origination with regard to the body. On the phenomenon of passing away with regard to the body. Or on the phenomenon of origination and passing away with regard to the body. Or his mindfulness that there is a body is maintained to the extent of knowledge and remembrance. And he remains independent, unsustained by, not clinging to anything in the world. This is how the body... This is how the monk remains focused on the body in and of itself. Now there is another sutta that talks about... this aspect called the five remembrances. As you recall, I mentioned it. And Arshusso, kindly, gave me something which is put out by Zen Hospice Project, which lists the five remembrances.

[07:11]

And he said, the Buddha, it says on the bottom, the Buddha recommended reciting these every day to develop equanimity towards change. sickness, aging, and dying. And then it gives the reference for where to find the five remembrances. There are these five facts that one should reflect on often, whether one is a woman or a man, lay or ordained. Which five? Wait a minute, I didn't read an important part here. The Buddha recommended reciting these every day to develop equanimity towards change, sickness, aging, and death. I don't know if I mentioned that when I first read it. But the point is to recognize how things are. To recognize that I am subject,

[08:22]

aging. I have not gone beyond aging. This is the first fact that one should reflect on often, whether one is a woman or a man, lay or ordained. I'm subject to illness. I've not gone beyond illness. I'm subject to death. I've not gone beyond death. I will grow different, separate from all that is near and dear to me. I can't prevent them from being separated from me. And then I am the owner of my actions of body, speech, and mind, heir to my actions, born of my actions, related through my actions, and have my actions as my arbitrator. Whatever I do for good or for evil, to that I will fall heir. These are the five facts that one should reflect on often, whether one is a man or a woman, lay or ordained.

[09:31]

So the reason for paying attention to the five remembrances is to encourage us to practice, to develop equanimity, to accept things as it is. as Suzuki Roshi used to say, to accept things as it is. This is the way the world is. We are all subject to aging, illness, death, decay, and separation from everything that we love. That's what we practice. How can we still have a mind of... loving kindness, empathetic joy, compassion. How can we still be grateful for this life, enjoy this life?

[10:37]

We want to keep in mind how things really are and how we can live with a peaceful mind, with a joyful mind. in the midst of impermanence. So I'd like to recall some of the, you know, what is our motivation for all of this? Well, here we are, we're living in this world, and we notice that there is suffering, and we... develop, as the Buddha did, a wish to know how to help people in their suffering. Because compassion is a natural, normal, human response to suffering. And so we want to know how to... You know, we don't want to go around just...

[11:50]

looking dismal and dull and feeling dismal and dull when the beautiful world is all around us and all these beautiful people are all around us. And it's, you know, I practice with a bunch of people who are interested in the Dharma and concerned with how they live their life and I'm falling in love all the time. It's hard not to love people who are loving themselves. It's hard not to love people who are in pain and need help and support. Or who help me when I'm in pain and I need help and support. So the Buddha wasn't pointing out all of these things in order to make us feel dismal about them. He was saying, look, this is what's happening. So how can we live a joyful life

[12:51]

in the midst of the fact that it doesn't last forever. Well, for the first place, since it doesn't last forever, we may as well enjoy it while we have it, right? So I want to go back to a couple of inspirational things that I brought up earlier on. For instance, Katagiri Roshi's expressing much of what many of us feel, I think. Being told that it is impossible, one believes in despair. Is that so? Being told that it is possible, one believes in excitement. That's right. But whichever is chosen, it doesn't fit one's heart neatly. Being asked, what is unfitting? I don't know what it is, but my heart knows somehow.

[13:56]

I feel an irresistible desire to know, to know. What a mystery human is. You know, there is a very, I should have brought it, encouraged me to say, but there's one of the great stories of our ancestors and which the punchline is, not knowing is nearest. And Suzuki Roshi said sometime, only don't know. But we want to know. So he said, I feel an irresistible desire to know what a mystery human is. As to this mystery, clarifying knowing how to live, knowing how to walk with people, demonstrating and teaching this is the Buddha. From my human eyes, I feel it's really impossible to become a Buddha.

[15:05]

But this I, regarding what the Buddha does, vows to practice, to aspire, to be resolute, and tells myself, yes, I will. Just practice right here, now, and achieve continuity endlessly, forever. This is living in vow. Herein is one's peaceful life found. few of these quotes from the calendar from Suzuki Roshi continuous practice is necessary so do not rest how to continue is to have a generous mind a big mind and a soft mind to be flexible not sticking to anything

[16:15]

Practicing in this way, there is no need to be afraid of anything or to ignore anything. And then he says, without any idea of time, your practice goes on and on. Moment after moment, you become you, yourself. You know, he said once, when you are you, Zen is Zen. And then a study I think you'll recognize from the Genjo Koan somewhere. To study Buddhism is to study yourself. To study yourself is to forget yourself in each moment. Then everything will come and help you. Everything will assure your enlightenment.

[17:17]

Our mind, as Buddha told us, is one with everything. Within our mind, everything exists. If we understand things in this way, then we will understand our activity. When you are able to sit without any image or sound with an open mind, that is true practice. When you can do that, you're free from everything. And then again, the Dalai Lama saying that every day when I wake up, I check my motivation. You know, it's the thought of enlightenment, bodhicitta, is always stated in the Tibetan tradition as the altruistic thought of enlightenment, just to be clear what this thought of enlightenment is, the altruistic thought of enlightenment.

[18:38]

He says, every day I think as I wake up. Today I am fortunate to have woken up. I am alive. I have a precious human life I'm not going to waste it. I'm going to use my energies to develop myself to expand my heart out to others to achieve enlightenment for the benefit of all beings. I'm going to have kind thoughts toward others. I'm not going to get angry or think badly about others. I'm going to benefit others as much as I can. I'm rereading these things because I want to pump up your motivation. You know, I want you to remember, why is it that I'm making this big effort?

[19:43]

And I think we share with everyone who practices this wish to benefit beings, which I think the one that I... One quotation that I... Maybe it's because I knew May Lee so well and knew how strong her practice was and how devoted she was to working for peace and justice. But the last one of these... I want to share with you is, again, her metta prayer. May I be well, loving, and peaceful. May I be at ease in my body, feeling the ground beneath my seat and feet, letting my back be long and straight, enjoying breath as it rises and falls and rises.

[20:47]

May I know and be intimate with body-mind. Whatever its feeling or mood, calm or agitated, tired or energetic, irritated or friendly. Breathing in and out and in and out, aware moment by moment of the risings and passings. May I be attentive and gentle towards my own discomfort and suffering. May I be attentive and grateful for my own joy and well-being. May I move towards others freely and with openness. May I receive others with sympathy and understanding. May I move toward the suffering of others with peaceful and attentive confidence. May I recall the bodhisattva of compassion, her thousand hands, her instant readiness for action, each hand with an eye in it, the instinctive knowing of what to do.

[21:58]

May I continually cultivate the ground of peace for myself and others and persist, mindful and dedicated to this work, independent of results. May I know that my peace and the world's peace are not separate, that our peace in the world is a result of our work for justice. May all beings be well, happy, and peaceful. So it's to cultivate this kind of mind, this mind of compassion and generosity and loving kindness. that we make our effort. It's for this reason that we cultivate mindfulness of body, mindfulness of feelings, mindfulness of perceptions, mental fabrications and consciousness.

[23:14]

We don't do it just for the heck of it. We do it because there is suffering and because we want to help be a response, a compassionate response to that suffering, our own suffering as well as other suffering. So somehow the sitting and breathing cultivates love and compassion and empathetic joy and equanimity. You know, Buddhism would not have been around for 2,500 years if the practice didn't

[24:21]

have some effect. People would have given it up and tried something else, but they didn't. It produces people with minds like Katagiri Roshi and Suzuki Roshi and the Dalai Lama and Maile Scott. I want to bring it down close to home by bringing in someone just like you and me who practiced over at the Berklee Sendo with me. You know, it might seem a little bit audacious to say, well, I want to be, I want to be like the Dalai Lama. But I can be like Maile Scott. I can be like you when your compassion is activated and I can be like you when your love and kindness is activated.

[25:25]

You don't have to set up standards so high that you say, oh well, I can't do that, that's not me. Find the people in your life that you know who are kind and compassionate. And I do think it is helpful. You know, the great teacher Dongshan, who was the founder of our school of Soto Zen in China, when he was about to leave his teacher and go out in the world, said, if in the future... someone should ask me to paint your portrait, or the meaning of that is sort of to say what your teaching was.

[26:43]

What shall I say? And his teacher said, justice is it. And the record said, Dongshan Sai. I always connect with that nonchalant side. Oh, no, this is it. But this is it in all its beauty and in all of its difficulty. And how will we live this life, this precious life that's been given to us? with the greatest generosity that we can muster, with the greatest gratitude we can muster, with the greatest joy we can muster. Let's take as an example some of these people that we've been talking about, who are all living with the same problems we're living with now, and as long as life continues, I presume, it will be pretty much like this.

[27:59]

It will have its ups and downs, and it will have its beginnings and endings. This impermanence bit is one of the hardest, isn't it? Of course, you know, if something is really painful, impermanence is not so bad, you know. I guess the thing that's encouraging to me about this practice is I have met so many inspiring people who've chosen this practice as the way to work their way through these difficulties of life and who've found a way to really enjoy the joys of life as well. So as my mother used to say, the proof is in the pudding.

[29:04]

I like this practice because I've seen it work on people I know and love. I've seen people over the 40 years that I've been practicing. I've seen the transformation that happens. as people practice. And it makes me want to keep practicing and keep encouraging practice. So thank you all very much for the sincerity of your practice. And may all beings be happy. May they be joyous and live in safety. All living beings, whether weak or strong and high or middle or low realms of existence, small or great, near or far, born or to be born, May all beings be happy. And this is the next part I love.

[30:09]

Just as a mother at the risk of her life watches over and protects her only child, so should one cherish all living beings. So should one cherish all living beings, suffusing love over the entire world. above, below, and all around without limit, so let one cultivate an infinite goodwill toward the whole world. This is such an aspiration that it sort of lights a fire in me every time I stand it. So let's work together to cultivate the qualities that will bring peace to us and to the world.

[31:10]

Oh, I forgot to tell you about the rest of Dongshan's waking up. After he said goodbye to his teacher, and his teacher had said, just this is it, he went off looking for where he was going to be next, and he crossed a stream on a bridge, and he looked down at the water, and he saw his own reflection, and he had a very strong samadhi. And he wrote a poem, which I have... Many translations of it because it's interesting to try to make up your own translation from it. But Suzuki Roshi's free translation was, do not try to see the world as an object. The you which is given as something to see as an object is not you yourself.

[32:20]

I am going my own way now and I meet myself wherever I go. If you understand that you as an object is not you yourself, then you have your own true way. Another translation says, everywhere I look, I see myself. I am not it, but it actually is me. And you will find an echo of that in the poem Song of the Jewel Mira Samadhi, which we chant often. Thank you. 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.

[33:24]

For more information, visit sfcc.org. and click giving. May we fully enjoy the Dorma.

[33:32]

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