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 to people outside the room in the temple. My name is Katie Lian Shutt. to thank the abbot of city center david zimmerman and the tonto nancy is she gone already oh i thought oh i thought she was still here okay i know she's attending to her niece is that correct right and then the acting tonto for the ceremony this afternoon wendy and uh of course to my teachers

[01:02]

My Honshu Zenke Blanche Hartman, who's always with me. And, of course, my teacher, Shosun Vicky Austin, and Gil Fronstow. And, of course, all of you for being here. It's good to see some familiar faces and some new ones. And for you, the three ordinates. All right. So... Yesterday was Earth Day. Today's the celebration of Earth Day. Of course, I think about the amount of work we have to do to change ourselves and how we relate to the Earth. I was going to say her, but these days I think I'll say they're creatures. This thing feels really weird, Marcus. Do I have it on right? Okay. Can I put this up?

[02:03]

Closer. Oh, closer. Okay. Is that okay then? Thank you. And it's our practice, isn't it? To see the difficulties and then how to address them. Of course, the Four Noble Truths, we see Dukkha, we see the causes of And the origination and the conditions of dukkha. And then the alleviation or the ending of dukkha. And then for the older tradition, it's the Eightfold Path. So I guess even older than that, it was just practice. And then in the Zen tradition, of course, it's the Six Paramitas. And there's a lot to add. I could address today and I'm here mostly due to the ordination this afternoon and two out of the three were scheduled to have it in April of April 25th of 2020.

[03:18]

And then of course the shutdown. So they've waited two years. You probably don't remember what your ruckus look like. And then of course, Christina has been. had studied the precepts with me in 2017 and has been sewing since. So there's a lot to address today. I like to combine things if I can. So I'm going to address Earth Day-ish in three nature-oriented poems as I go into talking about the precepts. And the poems are from a Zen forest. Sayings from the Zen Master by Shoiku Shingei Matsu, a book I inherited from Blanche. All right. I'm going to talk about the precepts in three ways. The first is what I would call that the precepts are a container for where to place our attention.

[04:28]

to see habitual patterns of thoughts and our obsession with them, and then the beliefs and the behaviors and the life that we generate from there. And of course, we do that when we study and practice the precepts in our tradition in the 16 Bodhisattva precepts. The first five, of course, are... through all the sects of Buddhism, not to kill, or let's say this is how I like to do it so I can remember, no killing, no stealing, no killing, no stealing, no peeling, sexual misconduct, no spilling, lying or wrong speech and wise speech, and then no dealing, not intoxicants. And then... Probably you all know, but I'll just say it for those who might not. In ours, of course, it's also not talking about others' errors and faults, which I like to think of as gossiping, and then not elevating oneself and blaming others.

[05:42]

I like to think of that as competitiveness, and then not being avaricious of the teachings, and then not, well, Not anger, but I think it's, in my sense, is perhaps better framed as being aware of our anger and ill will. And then, of course, the last is not disparaging, the three treasures. So those are the ten. I forgot the first six. So the first three, of course, is the three refuges, Buddhadharma and Sangha, and then the three pure precepts, Honoring life, you could say, or living a life of non-harming. Classically, it's not doing evil. I like to say non-harming or trying not to harm. And then the last in the Zen tradition, of course, is to live for the benefit of all beings. So in the Access to Zen container practice, people like the three today study it for eight months, the beginning of the year.

[06:53]

And then, you know, we have a ceremony. And a while back, I did have it so that people can study it as just to study it, not to take it all the way to the ceremony as in our tradition, because I feel like everyone should study the precepts. And in my view, most of the Buddhist world, that's actually where practice begins and not so much on the cushion, which makes sense because when you're, behavior is in accordance with your value, then when you go to sit down, it's a lot easier to practice the craft of meditation and to be with things as they are. So recently a student who has studied the precepts with me came up about thornation here and they said, oh yeah, that was a life changing, you know, time. And that kind of stuck with me.

[07:56]

And of course, my first response was, pretty good. Yeah, you know, I went through it and thought, oh, it's life-changing. So that was the first, I admit. And then I really thought, well, how is it life-changing? So again, in our tradition, by that I mean access to Zen, I talk about the practice as In three ways. One is that it's a container. Two is that it's an awareness practice or mindfulness. And then third, that is the enactment and the arising of Buddha nature. So I'm going to talk about those three. I think the first way that practicing and studying with the precept is life-changing is because that's how most of us come to practice. I was going to swear. I'm practicing not swearing, but, you know, you find your life to be, like, difficult.

[09:01]

And so you go, ah, what am I going to do about it, right? Sometimes that's an event that happens that makes you go, oh, no, I got to do something about my life or how I live my life or the impact of your behavior or the way that your interactions are with others, right? Or just for some of us, that could also, of course, be intoxicants of different kinds. And so be that work or other general more thought of forms of intoxicants. And so then we go, oh, I need to change my life. So I think we approach it as a way of life changing in that way. And so the practice of the container. gives us that. The precepts give us the container to really pause if we can't stop.

[10:04]

And to me, this is why classically, of course, they're framed as not. Because when you have a not, then you go, oh, let's just pause right here and really say, hmm, how do I not kill? How do I not steal? How do I not take what is not given, right? It's another way that we frame that sometimes. And classically, of course, a lot of our practice is about calming our kleshas and our hindrances, the difficulties that are as part of being human. And so it works well for practice with the precepts to have this container of really Seeing clearly where do we meet the edges of ways that are harming. Recently, I've been really thinking given the war or one of the wars, but the biggest war in the news in the United States, of course, in the Ukraine.

[11:15]

There are many wars happening right now. And that, you know. The basic five precepts are, I think, true of all cultures, right? And so when one of those is broken, we really go, hopefully it stops us in our track and go, oh, how can we not do this? And that I, you know, I think of them as kind of agreements between people on how to live in harmony. So as a container, then our practice is restraint and protection from rash, meaning thoughtless, mindless, acts which goes against our intentions and values. So it's a strong and clear container. And perhaps for some that's an easy way, for others it's an extremely hard way.

[12:22]

So admitting to dukkha, the difficulties in our lives, and then when we go to do this kind of practice, we're basically saying, how am I going to be with this? And then the precepts give us a way to have a course of action to alleviate or end dukkha. So here's the first poem. Clouds. No-minded, go out of mountain caves. Birds, tired of flying, want to return home. You know, when you're first ordained, you're called unsui, right? You're cloud and water, and you follow things. That's the idea.

[13:25]

course, that's hard to do. And yet, if you're not caught in our habitual thoughtless loop of thinking or being, then we can observe those, right? I think the cave on one level is that sense of we feel trapped. in our lives. And yet, our practice is in the cave, right? In the sense that we stay and we observe the conditions, the surroundings of our lives. And then, you know, we get tired of all our difficulties and our reactive ways of being, or otherwise known as karma, or one way to put it, as karma. And I think the wanting to return home is that sense of really being able to come back within.

[14:30]

Right here and right now, who am I? What am I doing? And is it in accordance with my values that are essential to me? So life changing then is a commitment to living our lives. to our values. Suzuki Roshi in a talk in 1971 called Real Precepts Are Beyond Word, probably words maybe, says. Today I would like to lecture about precepts. When I say precepts, the first thing you will think of is something like Ten Commandments or Ten Grave Prohibitory Precepts. But Zen Precepts is not like that. The Zen precept is to study Zen precept means to understand Zazen. So it is another interpretation of Zazen is precepts. Using words, word precepts, we explain what Zen, we explain what is Zen actually.

[15:41]

The purpose of receiving precepts, observing precepts, is not just to remember Zen, what we should do or what we shouldn't do. And how we observe precept is to practice Zen or to extend our practice to our everyday life. So the idea of precept is completely different from the usual understanding of precepts. So we begin in a way by meeting the rules to keep us to live in harmony with each other. And I think that then leads us to the second way of framing it. Life-changing because we become conscious, more conscious and aware or mindful, if you like to use that word, towards being responsible for our actions and their impact. So the second you could call it a cultivation practice.

[16:46]

And much more than we focus, I like to call the first way is very focused, right? We focus really on what are the precepts? How am I living by them? And then in a second, we focus to see the purpose. Am I living in the way? And to me, that's what mindfulness practice or awareness practice, one way of framing it is. So in the first way, you could say that it begins with the self. And then in this way, it moves to sangha or community because it's much more about observing the impact of how I think, my beliefs, and my actions and the way I live within communities. So we're putting intentions, values into conscious actions. We focus the mind in a way, mental activity, when we are engaging and applying the precepts.

[17:53]

That's the practice of mindfulness, you could say. And then we see the purpose. We see the consequences. And again, the impact, the repercussions. Are we making or perpetuating harm and harming in the world, or are we not? So the practice is careful. Just a minute. Attention on how we enact our intentions. So here's the poem for that. A wind comes. The trees bow. Each time they show its course. A wind comes, the trees bow, each time they show its course. To me, this is the beginning of understanding that we are interconnected, that we're not alone, that what we do ripples out.

[19:07]

Wind, of course, is often thought of as... our kleshas or our hindrances, our habitual ways of thinking, emotions, and behavior that are disruptive of harmony and subtleness. And the effect of that is through the sangha, the trees, right? The forest, individual, through the trees. And then each time that happens, it actually, if we're paying attention, It shows us what happens. And so we have to observe the karmic action of our thinking, motivations, behaviors. And when we keep on observing that, then it leads us to the third way of studying and practicing with the precepts that can be life-changing is

[20:10]

by realizing that in doing so, we're awakening to how Buddha nature, or innate awakening, is manifesting. So in this way, purpose and focus are not separate. We awaken to non-separation. And... Also, that non-separation is within ourselves. The body and mind are not separate. You know, what I think will result in beliefs that lead me to behaviors and actions. And of course, the more power you have, the bigger the impact of your actions and who you can pull along to do what you think is the correct course of action. So we can see that practice expands this further and further, and practicing with the precepts, and today is what I'm addressing, expands this, and it grows from individual self-changing, life-changing for me, myself, and I, which isn't bad, into sangha and community, and then into a practice that includes all beings.

[21:36]

So in the third way, one way that I like to talk about it is the integration of the precepts. Our values and our actions are actualized, and they're not separate. In given time, I'm not going to talk about it so in-depthly, but basically we understand dependent origination. Atitya Samupada. So we understand interdependence. Kateri Roshi says, the Buddhist precepts are not commandments. They are not moralistic rules that deluded people are expected to obey. Actually, the Buddhist precepts are not rules at all. They should not be seen from a deluded point of view. Rather than see them as moral dictates to be followed, we should regard them as indicators of the practice of enlightenment.

[22:45]

They should be taken as the Buddha's mind. If you do this, you can behave as a Buddha. At the beginning of practice, you might believe the precepts are moral rules, but you must learn to take them as expressions of Buddha's activity. In doing so, you will study your everyday life, and before you are conscious of it, these teachings will penetrate your life, what I call integration. In this way, you can live the life of a Buddha. Here comes the third poem. A bud opens its five petals. It naturally grows into fruit. A bud opens. It's five petals. It naturally grows into fruit.

[23:49]

It's life-changing because we have integrated the precepts. They don't just guide us, but we actually can't live outside of the precepts. Of course, that's easy to say. I just did it. And probably some of you are going, yeah, yeah, right. All right. I'm doing that. We're doing that. Let's go for it. And then, of course, doing it is the hard part. And it's not like we get there, you know, when we've done it one time or two time or a thousand time or 10,000 times or 84,000 times. So we need to be guided by the container and to be reminded and mindfulness to be aware of the consequences and the impact of our actions.

[24:56]

So we're not done with the precepts, you know, when we realize innate awakening. And that's why I say to my students, they won't know, and I might hear it again this afternoon. Chujukai is now is when your practice really begins. It's life-changing because it's so easy after all. For any of us who have really, whether we're breaking the precepts or not, or how we're living by the precepts. Many of us want life changing when we're down or there's difficulties. But when it's pleasant or good, we might not want life changing. It means it will go away and it will end. Or when life does change out of our control, like the pandemic or war,

[26:07]

especially for those of us who have lived in one, or like the life of the earth has changed. And then we see how we've been part of that destructive change. So when I talk about practicing the precepts in these three ways, you may think that I've been talking about a progression. And I... It's an expansion from individual to community and to all beings. And so maybe you think it's better, this progression. But don't be fooled. Because the three are not separate. I've chosen these poems in this order, but I could actually have put them in different orders because they're all included.

[27:12]

The chukai of these three today is actually, I think, a historical moment in this temple. I believe that by this temple, I mean San Francisco. city center temple, and perhaps all three of the home temples of San Francisco Zen Center, because I think it's the first all BIPOC and certainly Asian American Jukai in the history of San Francisco Zen Center. Of course, by that, I'm not denying that other A few other BIPOC brown roads have had BIPOC students. In fact, I was at Riamond, Gutierrez, Baudouquin, first Jukai, and there were three people of color. All of them were my friends. And of course, Zenju has done so.

[28:25]

So when we're a part of history, that's an expression of a larger, container. And hopefully it's an impact that resonates. Suzuki Roshi says in the same talk, whether your practice is good or bad, it doesn't matter. If you accept your practice as your own, then that practice includes everything. At that time, you have precepts which include everything as the absolute being includes everything. We say, you know, something which includes everything is absolute, but it is actually is more than that. It's beyond our understanding. You may think if you add, you know, all of you and all the beings which exist in the universe,

[29:27]

then that is the absolute. But it is understood by your mind. I think it just went. Yes? It is now red. Battery. Or bat, if I want to bring in a nature element. But now I hear it again. Yeah? So we can try and continue. Since, as usual, I'm behind. So am I. All right. We're back. Thank you for your patience. I'll continue. Suzuki Roshi says, something which you understand is not already absolute, you know, because your mind limits the real understanding of the absolute.

[30:31]

When you understand, it is not so. When you don't understand, and when you sit, he laughs, when you become just a stone or stuff, you know, then you include everything. That is, you know, our Zazen practice. So when we commit to life-changing, as living with all beings, as living interbeing. And the word dharma, as in dharmakaya, you could say, comes from dharati, which means nature, like a big N, nature, which is the earth, you could say, which is Buddha nature. And yet it is expressed through this self and these selves. And so maybe that's where the difficulty lays or lies when we practice the precepts.

[31:36]

So today you receive a rakasu. And yet, and you know, it makes a difference because this shows commitment. For those who don't know, the blue rakasu is for lay practitioners. And then the black. It's for priests and then brown for dharma transmitted. And so on a certain level, it is a matter of the level of your commitment to live by the precepts completely. That's why we take vows. And so it has some significance without a doubt. Oh, and by the way, You can have gold robes, you know. I don't know if you guys have them here, but in Japan, I was at the very biggest ceremony, which is the Founder's Day.

[32:40]

And Roshi, Sakeharada Roshi, wore a gold robe and the whole hat thing, of course, right? So, so formal. So the colors... can certainly bring out the sense of rank and significance. But in my view, it's actually about when they're so integrated that it's not about having one or not, wearing one or not. Perhaps more importantly is when you're not wearing one, when you're private and alone, when no one's around, when life is happening not on show, or when life's happening when you're not expecting it as it is, then how will you be and how will you act?

[33:46]

And so this is why we keep on practicing, focusing on how to live by our intentional values, mindful and aware of the impact when we are practicing them or when we're not, and when we're living by them or not. And then we're aware that the precepts are just guidance and that the connection with all beings is what matters most. But I'll confess to you that what you put on, It is true, I have worn these robes during the pandemic, but you know, I put them on, I sit down in my studio apartment to give a Dharma talk, so I don't go very far. This morning I arrived, thank you, Shika, Roger, room one, I was in, and I walked down to sit with the ornate, and I had a feeling wearing these robes.

[34:56]

As I'm walking through the temple. And then sitting in the zendo. I mean, the students were already sitting there. And luckily there was a seat next to them. A chair seat. Since this is the way I'm doing it these days. And so, you know, I sat down. Felt so good. And then I thought, I should have turned my chair around. I'm the teacher. I can face it. Should I get up? Should I change the seat? Should I take my position? And then I thought, no. No, my intention is to support the students. So I stayed where I was. And I'm, you know, so lovely being in the Zendo. So lovely. Zazaning. And I thought... I have not seen these people in person for two or more years.

[36:02]

So I thought, should I get up and move their posture just so that I could touch them? And even now, and I started cheering, you know, and even now I'm cheering. Everything we do is just practice until the moment you realize this is life-changing. And that every moment, if you're open to it,

[37:06]

If you're aware of it, if you're committed to it, if you're willing to be open to it, if you're willing to be aware of it, if you're willing to enact it, then it is life happening and therefore life changing. I stay still.

[38:16]

I didn't touch them. And yet, I feel really connected. And then I thought, which is not in here. And now I just remember. And I had to ask myself as I was sitting there in this window, am I willing to say that it's all about love? It's all about love. And that actually, the difficulty wearing these brown robes, and I think the difficulty of wearing blue robes, black robes, no robes. Again, the colors, I hope, I hope, or at least they are for me, and certainly I hope that for my students, is that it's the that's the degree and the quality of your commitment to express love.

[39:26]

To let yourself know love and to enact love in every moment. Life changing. Are you willing to be committed to having the precepts change you? To take these vows is to open yourself to it. Because there is no other way. Thank you for your 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 Dharma.

[40:25]

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