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 from people like you. I want to start with a piece of a poem. It says, Do you remember that time... and light are kinds of love. And love is no less practical than a coffee grinder or a safe spare tire. Do you remember that time and light are kinds of love? And I want to also bring in one of my favorite quotes. Is there sound issues, Tanya? that better yeah and a quote it's a quote by Wendell Berry fifth generation Kentucky farmer who said be joyful though you've considered all the facts and I think I think these two these two quotes together about time and light being like

[01:35]

and this considering all the facts, which is quite something in today's world and to still be joyful. And I need to also add one of my favorite quotes by Kaz, which is, if you learn to enjoy waiting, you don't have to wait to enjoy. which I find myself using quite a bit in traffic, lines in the grocery store. It's a good mantra if you learn to enjoy waiting. You don't have to wait to enjoy. Also thinking of, it's so powerful, this... the ability that Zen has to take the ordinary and make it extraordinary.

[02:41]

Not too long ago, I did a talk at Green Gulch, and a neighbor of mine brought their seven-year-old daughter. And at Green Gulch, it's even a bit more, you know, it's a cavernous cow barn, and the... the rituals even a little bit more than, even more than here, because you kind of walk in the back and walk all the way to the front, and there the chant is, you know, it just feels quite sacred and booming, and my neighbor's seven-year-old daughter turned to her mother as I began to speak and said, Mom, is our neighbor God? And I'm like, It's been a lot to live up to in our neighborhood since then. You know, but I don't know how she answered, but I hope that she said something like, yes.

[03:54]

And we're all gods. We are all gods. like gods. And I think that so much of what Zen practice at its heart is about seeing that everything is actually love, to consider all the facts and be joyful, to be appreciative. which is getting harder and harder to do in our world. But I think it's an important part of practice and to feel our own potential, this own kind of God-like ability to create our worlds. It's special in many ways for me to be here.

[04:57]

It feels like returning home. I first came here in the summer of 1976 and I was 24 and I got asked to be the dishwasher and then I got asked to be on the kitchen crew and then the following summer I got asked to be the baker and then things were a little different then in terms of what people did I was tapped on the shoulder and was informed that I was going to Green Gulch. And I said, I didn't want to go to Green Gulch. And I was told it wasn't a question. And then, to make matters even worse, I got asked to figure out how to farm with horses. And clearly...

[05:57]

someone had misread my resume. It's true that I was from the Garden State from New Jersey. And it's also true that I was pretty good at gymnastics in high school, especially the horse. That must have been why they put me in charge of figuring out how to farm with horses. But then a few years went by and I got tapped on the shoulder again and was asked to come back to Tassajara and be the assistant to the head cook in the kitchen for a year. And then I got tapped on the shoulder and was asked to be the head cook for a year. And that really, I felt like all of those experiences I felt like profoundly changed my life. And... One story I want to tell is during that time, it was towards the end of when I was living at Green Gulch, as you can imagine, all of this was not easy on my parents.

[07:09]

This was all part of a one-year leave of absence from college that turned into tenures. And I still have the letter that I sent to my parents explaining... why this was the real education that I needed. And now that I have children, I can see how this would have been a hard letter for them to read. But while I was living at Green Gulch, I got a call one day saying that my father was quite ill. And I flew back to New Jersey. And actually, it's interesting how I had... tremendous amount of support from people back at Zen Center at Green Gulch who were helping me to find my way through the very complex medical system. And I went back and found that my father was dying of cancer and that he was highly drugged and tied down to his bed because he was so disoriented.

[08:19]

from the drugs, and no one was telling him what was happening. And the support system that I had back at the Zen Center said that I was in charge, that I actually could tell the doctors what to do, and that they suggested untying my father, stopping the drugs, and having a real conversation with him about what was happening. which I was able to do with the support of some friends. And this turned out to be an incredible transformative time in that my father, when he kind of became a little bit more lucid, was clear about his disappointment and anger in the decisions that I had made. And he looked at me and said, but whatever it is you're doing, keep doing it. And at the same time, he asked me to hand him the phone because he wanted to call everyone in his life that was close and express his love.

[09:35]

And my father was not that kind of a person at all. So I found that incredibly... I didn't realize that... anything had changed in my life, but it was powerful, that interaction with my father. And I think the question that comes up is, why are we here? Why are we here practicing at Tassajara? Why are we here in this lifetime? And I want to I want to express my gratitude to the students who are here taking care of Tassajara. And I know I lived here for six, I was here for six summers. And I know it's a lot of work. It's a lot of work being here. And I want to thank the guests because the students wouldn't have anything to do.

[10:40]

They'd just be sitting, sitting all the time. And I think that there's something beautiful about the relationship of students and guests. And I want to bring in, after spending 10 years at the Zen Center, And especially my 10th year, I was director. And I had this strange insight that though I was a Zen student, that I was also helping to run an organization and that I was in a leadership role and decided that this was what I wanted to do with my life. And I thought, I remember wondering, why isn't everyone... combining and integrating practice, Zen practice, awareness practice, the practice of love, the practice of care, the practice of insight.

[11:52]

Why isn't everyone doing this in the world of work and leadership? Naturally, I went right from here to back and got my MBA degree and and have been over these many years working to integrate these Zen practice with leadership and work. And I want to talk a little bit about these seven practices that I've been working a lot with and that I recently wrote a book about. The book is called Seven Practices of a Mindful Leader. And the subtitle is Lessons from Google and a Zen Monastery Kitchen. And I found myself, after leaving here, going to business school, and working with Kaz and several other artists in a publishing company that I started, I found myself doing mindfulness

[13:06]

meditation, emotional intelligence work at Google. And I noticed that over and over again I kept drawing on my experience here at Tassajara, especially my experience working in the kitchen. And there's something magical about the the sense of care, the sense of love, the sense of integrating effort and effortlessness in work. And there was so much a sense of joy and a sense that the idea, there was a vision of producing great, healthy tasty food. But the priority was more about producing people with character and about working together with each other.

[14:16]

And often I find lots of people are in some way we're all in transition. We're all in transition. Change is hard. I've been joking that I want to form a support group called Buddhists Against Change. Because change is hard. But when it comes to people's work lives, in some way, I find that there's really only one career. And it's the career of cultivating awareness. developing oneself and going beyond oneself, and helping others, that I think this is the most essential career for being a human being, no matter what.

[15:19]

Of course, it's important, the type of work we do and how that manifests, but I think no matter what we do, it's so essential, this practice of building our own awareness, embodying care, embodying love, and helping others. And it was a challenge in terms of this question about, well, how do you bring this work out into the corporate world, into places like Google and other companies? And these seven practices kind of emerged in that setting of... what kind of values, what kind of attitudes are necessary to bridge the gaps around, you know, there's so much greed, hate and delusion in our world and it seeps into capitalism and it seeps into the corporate world.

[16:21]

How can we find a different way of being, a different way of working? And And actually, there's kind of a little story about how these practices, these particular practices emerged, are that I was helping to train a group of about a dozen Google engineers who wanted to become meditation teachers and mindfulness teachers. And I brought Norman Fisher in one day, who's a leading Zen teacher who's spoken here often, has been the abbot here. And... And there was a meeting at Google in which I noticed on the agenda for this meeting as it started, it said that Norman was going to give a talk about how to be a mindfulness teacher. And I realized no one had told Norman that exactly. And I showed Norman the agenda. And he very nonchalantly got out a piece of paper and a pen and wrote down and gave a talk.

[17:27]

these seven practices and I started writing about them and little by little they started to emerge into a book and I started to feel funny about it and I called Norman one day and said Norman I I really need I wonder if I can get your permission to write a book about these practices and of course Norman said what practices he had no idea what I was talking about I read him the practices which are love the work, do the work, don't be an expert, connect to your pain, connect to the pain of others, depend on others, and keep making it simpler. And Norman said, those are pretty good. And yes, you should... you should write a book and please send me a copy.

[18:27]

And I think though, I think Zen text and philosophy often, they might not use the love word a lot, but I think it's just completely embedded in Zen philosophy and Zen practice. So this is something that Well, even going back, starting with early teachings of the Buddha, there's the four noble truths. The first noble truth is the truth of suffering, the truth that we all suffer. The second noble truth of that there is a cause to suffering. And the third, that real freedom is possible and these these get translated into vows that are said here regularly and I think we'll say them at the end of this talk right that beings beings are numberless I vow to save them delusions are inexhaustible I vow to end them and I think these are these are kind of impossible

[19:53]

promises, impossible vows, impossible aspirations. But they're expressions, I think, of love. Beings are numberless. I vow to save them. Delusions are inexhaustible. I vow to end them. So this practice of love, love the work. And I think it can be hard. I think it can be hard when we're feeling tired, sometimes exhausted, when it's hot, there's flies. I think it can be really challenging to love the work. But I think it's essential to keep coming back to the practice of loving the work. One of the models that I really like, models of transformation, is the model of the hero's journey from Joseph Campbell, and who discovered that there's a certain pattern of transformation that seems to be common across cultures and across time.

[21:17]

And he describes the first pattern the first step of the journey. And what I love about the language of it is it's basically saying that we're all heroes and we're all on a journey. Again, a little bit like we're all like gods. And the first step on the hero's journey is the call, is this kind of call to a sense of finding one's true home, kind of returning home. And again, to me, this is a lot like this practice of love the work. And what's interesting about the model of the hero's journey is that the second step is to refuse the call, is to notice one's resistance, is to notice what's difficult. And the other steps all feel like

[22:20]

a way of engaging with love. They're around finding our allies and support system. And they are around the practice of meeting and transforming difficulty, meeting and transforming what's difficult. So love the work. Do the work is that we actually need to have some kind of a practice. It's not enough just to answer some call not enough to aspire to love ourselves, to help others, to develop our awareness. We actually need to have some kind of a practice. And I think of this sense of practice being the practice of meditation and then the practice of taking the lessons of meditation into our work, into our lives. And I love some of the teachings of Dogen, who is the founder of Soto Zen in Japan in the 13th century.

[23:32]

Someone who we hear in the San Francisco Zen Center often... We go back to the time of the Buddha for a lot of the teaching, and then we go back to the time of... Chinese Zen masters in the 5th and 6th century. And we pull a lot from Dogen in the 13th century Japan. And Dogen said, he teaches, says, learn the backward step that turns your light inward to illuminate yourself. Body and mind of themselves will drop away and your original face will be manifest. So it's interesting, just the themes that keep running through from early Buddhist teaching of beings are numberless, I vow to save them. Delusions are inexhaustible, I vow to end them.

[24:37]

The work of Joseph Campbell and the hero's journey. And then 800 years ago, Dogen saying learn the backward step, which feels a lot like, to me, the third of these seven practices, the don't be an expert. So in some way, taking the backward step is letting go of being right, letting go of thinking that we know, and instead doing some deep and profound listening. outside, going beyond ourselves, going beyond our limitations. And the fourth and fifth practices connect to your pain and connect to the pain of others. Again, this is a lot like the Buddha's practice in the Four Noble Truths of connecting with suffering, turning toward what's

[25:45]

again and again, and transforming it. In the workshop that I've been co-leading here this week, one of the practices that we did was around identifying whether your tendency is to be a first noble truth person or a third noble truth person. First noble truth is, do you tend to identify more with suffering and difficulty? Or are you a third noble truth person and are transforming suffering into happiness and satisfaction and well-being? So connecting with our pain and connecting to the pain of others as kind of core practices of not only of leadership, mindfulness, but of being a full human being.

[26:47]

The sixth practice, depend on others. I think there's a way in which we are so profoundly dependent on others that it often escapes us. So I think it's worth kind of seeing just how dependent we are on others. Not only for the obvious things like clean air and electricity, but even for our own identities. This practice, seeing it as a practice. And the last practice might be one of the more difficult practices today. Keep making it simpler. Keep making it simpler. There's a story about this from the time of the Buddha in which a farmer approaches the Buddha, the historical Buddha, and says, can you help me with my problems?

[28:04]

I have a lot of problems. My crops are not doing well because the weather isn't cooperating. My children don't always respect me, and I seem to be in conflict a lot with my wife. And the Buddha looks at the farmer and says, no, I can't help you with your problems. In fact, everyone has 83 problems. And as soon as we solve one, another problem comes up and takes its place. But the Buddha says I might be able to help you with the 84th problem. And the farmer looks at the Buddha and says what's the 84th problem? And the Buddha says the 84th problem is not wanting to have any problems. And I think this is I think for all of us to look at what our own relationship is with problems and our tendency to push them

[29:11]

push them away. And this practice of keep making it simpler, one way to look at it is to keep coming back again and again to asking ourselves, what's most important? What really matters right now? How am I dealing with my problems? And can I appreciate Whatever comes up, whatever challenges there are, can I learn to meet them and transform them in some way? Can I use these problems as a way to cultivate my awareness and to help others? I want to... have some time for people to be able to ask questions.

[30:17]

See if I can remember. There's a poem, a Mary Oliver poem called Mindful. And it goes something like this. Every day I see or hear something that more or less kills me with delight. that leaves me like a needle in the haystack of light. This is what I was born for, to look, to listen, to lose myself inside this soft world, to instruct myself over and over in joy and acclamation. Nor am I talking about the exceptional or the extravagant, but the drab, the everyday, the everyday presentations. O good scholar, I say to myself, how can I not grow wise with teachings such as these?

[31:25]

The untrimmable light of the world, the oceans shine, and prayers made of grasses. I particularly like the, this is what I was born for. to look, to listen, to lose myself inside this soft world, this soft world of the Tassajara Valley. Any questions, comments, reflections that anyone has? I know really I should have talked about the when you're hot, die of heat, koan, you know, but... of our everyday life with tolerating the heat in the kitchen, tolerating insects and not

[32:52]

not saying, well, why don't we put a fan in the kitchen as well? Why don't we fix all the holes in the screen if you put the mess and the mosquitoes out? Yeah, that'd be good to do. But what struck me about your question was, yeah, tolerate has a real edge to it. But I'm not, are you asking why aren't we fixing these things to make life a little easier? Yeah, sort of, yeah. What's the, is there a line? I mean, like every year, there's a number of refinements that we all go ahead and thought about, oh, we've got electricity now and other things. But in a way, at the first point, we should just stop because... We're at a training temple to endure difficulty.

[33:58]

Well, you know, I'm recognizing the risks of what I was about to say. You know, of course, there's the when I was here, right? But there is that. You know, there was no electricity in the kitchen, and everything was done by hand. What? Yes, the baker used... I think it's interesting how of course we want to be comfortable. We all want to be comfortable. And I think so much of our practice is... I think any place that we can find ways that we can do things to make life easier... sometimes we should do it. And it's hard to know exactly where the line is. But I think, yeah, it's one of my favorite paradoxes is accept what is and work for change.

[35:08]

And there's something about... And what I like about that paradox is there's something about... doing both really well, right? So like, you know, today if there's, you know, flies because there's holes in the screens, there's a kind of accepting what is. But if we can fix those holes in the screens, let's make those changes. Let's make things, you know, we don't, you know, we're not intentionally suffering. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, two of my favorite paradoxes, right, fight for change and accept what is and be confident and question everything. Be confident, question everything. Last quick question and then we have to stop if there is another question.

[36:17]

Yes. Yeah, good point. You know, I usually explain that, of course, I want my surgeon and my car mechanic to be experts. However, in the realm of relationship, So it's good to be an expert in certain crafts. But even in your craft, if something were to go wrong and you were to look at a situation that was extraordinary, you don't want to be caught by your idea of being the expert.

[37:21]

You want to be able to open up to seeing things differently. But the practice is more in the realm of relationship, self-awareness, being a... none of us are experts in being human. So I think it's in that realm that we're constantly learning and growing. But thank you for that question. And thank you all very much. Thank you for listening to this podcast offered by the San Francisco Zen Center. Our Dharma Talks are offered free of charge 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 sfzc.org and click Giving.

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