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, everyone. Very glad to see you. And welcome to any of you who may be here for the first time today. How many are here for the first time today? particular welcome to you. You may not know it, but we're having today what's called a one-day sitting. And this particular one-day sitting is opening a practice period, which will go for the next ten weeks. And the focus of the practice period is practicing from the body's point of view. Um... course, we all need a body in which to practice.

[01:01]

They come in all shapes and sizes. This one, if you notice, has given me good service, but it's got a few miles on it. But we practice with the body we have. We practice with the mind we have. We practice wherever we are to wake up this incredible gift of life that we have and to see how totally connected we are with all other beings that share this incredible thing called life and to truly appreciate this opportunity to be alive in this world in this moment. Yesterday there was a workshop here particularly focused on reading, and I'd like to share with you one of the teachers was my Dharma brother, Gil Fronstal, who teaches in the Vipassana tradition, though he also trained here, and also received Dharma transmission from my root teacher,

[02:29]

Mel Heitzman. And he was speaking on one of the earliest discourses of the Buddha, the discourse on the mindfulness of breathing. And I'd like to just share the Buddha's teaching from the original Pali tradition on the mindfulness of breathing. And how, monks, is mindfulness of breathing in and out of great fruit and of great benefit when cultivated and made much of. Here, monks, having gone to the wilderness, a foot of a tree or an empty building, a monk sits down with legs crossed and body erect, establishing mindfulness in the forefront. Always attentive, he breathes in with mindfulness and breathes out with mindfulness.

[03:32]

Breathing in long, he knows I'm breathing in long. Breathing out long, he knows I'm breathing out long. Breathing in short, he knows I'm breathing in short. Breathing out short, he knows I'm breathing out short. He trains himself. Breathing in, I experience the whole body. Breathing in, I experience the whole body. Breathing in, I calm the bodily formations. Breathing out, I calm the body. the bodily formation. He trains himself, I will breathe in experiencing joy. He trains himself, I will breathe out experiencing joy. He trains himself, I will breathe in practicing pleasure.

[04:43]

She trains herself, I will breathe out experiencing pleasure. She trains herself, I will breathe in experiencing the mental formation. He trains himself, I will breathe out experiencing the mental formation. And so forth. I will breathe in calming the mental formation. I will breathe in experiencing the mind. I will breathe in pleasing the mind. I will breathe in concentrating the mind. I will breathe in releasing the mind. I will breathe in observing impermanence. I will breathe in observing dispassion. I will breathe in observing cessation. I will breathe in observing enlightenment, relinquishment. Monks, this is how cultivating and making much of mindfulness of breathing in and breathing out is of great fruit and great benefit.

[05:45]

And not surprisingly, Suzuki Roshi also talked about breath. The thing about breath is that it's always happening in the present moment. When you are able to be with the breathing in and the breathing out, you are in the present moment. And of course, when you're in the present moment then you don't do things mindlessly. You know what you're doing when you're doing it. And this, of course, helps us to live a more compassionate life and a more beneficial life and one that doesn't get us into a lot of trouble. If you're not paying attention, you can do a lot of things that are a little bit foolish that end you up wishing you'd been paying more attention. So what we do in practice is really cultivate paying more attention to whatever we do.

[06:55]

And then we get to see, you know, if we have some hesitation, we can stop and look at it and say, oh, is this what I want to do? But if you're not paying attention, you may be already in the middle of a mess before you notice. And then you've got to clean it up. So this paying attention is really quite important. And it takes a lot of effort because we're easily distracted. I've been looking recently, it being the time of year that you change calendars, at some of the quotations from Suzuki Roshi in this calendar that's put out called Zen Mind calendar. Each month has a quotation from Suzuki Roshi, and I took down the old one and put out the new one, and there's some nice reminders in there.

[08:06]

So I decided I would share some of them with you. Wherever you are, you are one with the clouds and one with the sun and the stars that you see. You are still one with everything. That is more true than I can say and more true than you can hear. I was kind of taken by that way of talking about it. It cut my attention. You know, that we're one with everything. Well, you know, anybody who's here today probably has heard that. In fact, in my own life experience, I had never heard anything about being one with everything. And one day in the midst of a very intense situation, I had the experience of...

[09:12]

all boundaries dropping away and of being identical with the person in front of me, and then all boundaries dropped away so that I felt identical with everything. I just felt this kind of expanding to include the universe, and I had never heard of such a thing, and I thought, what's that? I mean, that's the way it is, but who knows about it? What was that? And that's actually... What ended me up in this seat now is trying to find someone who could tell me what happened in that moment when all boundaries disappeared and I felt identical at one with everything. And in searching around, I was very fortunate. I met Suzuki Roshi. And I went for Zazen instruction on Friday afternoon, the 3rd of July, 1969.

[10:22]

And I started sitting every day then. There was just something about it that I need to do this. And he knows what I need to know. Um... This being one with everything is the way we actually exist in the world, but we most often don't notice it. The next quotation I'd like to share with you is, continuous practice is necessary, so do not rest. How to continue is to have a generous mind, big mind and soft mind, to be flexible, not sticking to anything. Practicing in this way, there is no need to be afraid of anything or ignore anything.

[11:28]

So this notion of continuous practice we see throughout the teaching of Buddhism. We don't just sort of pick it up on Saturdays and then leave it alone for the rest of the week. We actually work on this bringing our mind to what we are doing in each moment throughout today, tomorrow, the next day, and the rest of it, however long it lasts. Yesterday we did a memorial service for commemorating the first anniversary of my husband's death. He was a monk here. And I think one of the things that... Well, there is...

[12:30]

Dogen Zenji, the founder of this particular school of Zen, says in his commentary on the precepts, he says, to expound the Dharma with this body is foremost. Its virtue returns to the ocean of reality. It is unfathomable. We just accept it with respect and gratitude. But this thing, to expound the Dharma with this body as foremost, was something that Lu was very close to. And as he got older, he could no longer go down the stairs to the Zendo. But he decided, because our practice... is not just for us. Our practice is to join in with the whole community, with the whole Sangha.

[13:38]

And each one of us is supported by the practice of all of our Sangha mates. Particularly those of you in the one day sitting will notice how big a support it is to have the people around you making an effort. It helps to support your effort. And this will become more and more obvious as the day goes on. We definitely depend on each other for support and we give each other our support. And so it was very important to Lu as he was getting older when he couldn't get down to the zendo to figure out what to do. And so he began sitting zazen for hours every day here in the Buddha Hall on the bench in the back. joining the community in that way because he couldn't join them in the Zendo anymore. And, you know, it was clear that it was a deliberate effort to share his practice with everyone because one day Ren Bunce, who's a photographer, snapped a picture of him through those glass doors and

[14:56]

as he was sitting zazen. And she printed out a copy and gave it to us, and he looked at it and he said, oh, my posture is so bad, I thought my posture was better than that. You know, he had that sort of, he had some osteoporosis, so he didn't realize it, but he had sort of a, they call it a widow's hump in the back. Yeah, I don't know, anyhow. He was making his best effort to to sit with a proper posture, but his body wasn't built that way anymore. It was curved and he hadn't realized it and he was quite disappointed. So this continuous practice is very supportive of each other. Another quotation on the calendar was, without any idea of time, your practice goes on and on.

[16:03]

Moment after moment, you become you, yourself. Susie Kirish also said, when you are you, Zen is Zen. Now this you is actually the whole universe. Right? So when you become you... means when you realize this all-inclusiveness of each one of us. Another quotation was, without any idea of time, your practice goes on and on. Moment after moment, you become you yourself. And then he says, now this is a quotation, I'm sure, from Genjo Khan, but long before Genjo Khan was available to us in English. To study Buddhism is to study yourself.

[17:04]

To study yourself is to forget yourself in each moment. Then everything will come and help you. Everything will assure your enlightenment. And then he said, 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. And then he says, 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 are free from everything. Our mind gets very busy as we sit. Our mind gets very busy all the time, but we notice it as we sit.

[18:08]

And one of the things that happens as we sit is that the mind can become more calm. We don't have to pick up every idea. It comes along and grasp it or chase after it or let it push us around. We just notice that an idea has arisen and let it go. There's a quotation from Dogen Senji that someone gave me wanting to know the original source. And I... I haven't found it yet, but the quotation is, above all, don't wish to become a future Buddha. Your only concern should be, as thought follows thought, to avoid clinging to any of them. This is a very clear and succinct...

[19:17]

meditation instruction that I find very helpful. Above all, don't wish to become a future Buddha. Your only concern should be, as thought follows thought, to avoid clinging to any of them. So we want to be aware of them, but not get caught by them. It's a little like my bumper sticker that I like so much that says don't believe everything you think. I find that very helpful. Suzuki Roshi said when you empty your mind when you give up everything and just practice zazen with an open mind then whatever you see you meet yourself. Having an open mind, not a fixed mind, but one that can receive whatever you experience directly will be a great support in living this life.

[20:41]

So this practicing with this body we want to notice how our body and mind work together. We want to notice how we can bring our actions more in line with our intention. We want to notice what are the influences that drive our actions. so that we can actually form an intention of how we want to live and follow that intention and not be dragged off into some activity of body, speech, or mind that we have found to be unwholesome.

[22:19]

And we do this, you know, we work to attend to how we're living our life because we've noticed that there is suffering both in this life that I'm leading but in the lives all around me. And because we are naturally compassionate, we want to find out how to live our life so as to reduce the suffering, so as to encourage wholesome lives in all of our companions in order that they may reduce their suffering. This Bodhisattva practice that is the sort of ideal of of Buddhism in the Mahayana tradition is based on waking up so that we can actually be the most helpful to others.

[23:43]

Waking up so that our life can be of the most benefit to suffering beings. That is the altruistic vow of a bodhisattva. And I ran across a quote about altruism. Well, there's, of course, the Dalai Lama's quotation, which I greatly appreciate. Every day think as you wake up. Today I am fortunate to have woken up. I'm 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 towards others

[24:50]

I'm not going to get angry or think badly about others. I'm going to benefit others as much as I can. Every morning, begin the day with this kind of intention, with this kind of altruistic motivation. This is the suggestion of the Dalai Lama. which I find extremely encouraging. Suzuki Roshi also reminded us what makes your practice go deeper and deeper is the day-by-day effort of sitting.

[25:55]

Every day to sit zazen. When you empty your mind, when you give up everything and just practice zazen with an open mind, then whatever you see, you meet yourself. This is you meet yourself in in all beings. When you practice Azen, in its true sense, you are really Buddha. So, we cultivate our altruistic intention And we practice every day and we work to drop our habitual self-clinging thoughts that are driven mostly by fear or desire.

[27:08]

And we try to live our life in a way that's helpful to beings. And I have a quotation here from Dr. Albert Schweitzer. I don't know how familiar you are with him, but he was one of my early heroes. He said, The idealism that is visible is minor compared to what people carry in their hearts, unreleased or scarcely released. That really resonates with me. I think that beings are by nature compassionate. And they may get... We may get caught up in some self-clinging notion that dulls our compassion, but when it comes right down to it, when the rubber meets the road, it makes all of us have the impulse to be as helpful as we can to anyone we see in difficulty.

[28:38]

And we want to feed that impulse. We want to grow that impulse. We want to actually express that real human concern for other beings in everything that we do and say. We want to cultivate kindness. We want to cultivate compassion. We want to live in a world where people are kind and compassionate. And we have to begin right here at home with this body in mind that we have responsibility for. I get a couple of sort of daily reminders of interesting things. Many of the things that I share with you come from gratefulness.org, which sends out a daily encouraging bit.

[29:47]

And I, you know, I see one that I like, then I print it out, and then I share it with you. This website is one developed by Brother David Steindl Rast, who's a wonderful Benedictine monk who practiced with Suzuki Roshi in the early years of Tassajara. But there's another one. I don't know how I got on this list called Hanhalla. But this has a quotation from Dr. Seuss. You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself any direction you choose. You're on your own. And you know what you know. And you are the one will decide where to go. This just came in. And I thought, that's great, you know. It's really up to us how we live this life.

[30:56]

But it's really important that we not just waste it by... going through it sort of unconscious of what we're doing or how we're affecting ourselves or the world around us. Each one of us is much more powerful than we think. We do affect the world around us. And we can either have a wholesome effect or we can make a mess. And it really is our choice, as he says. You're the one who decides what to do. You have brains in your head, you have feet in your shoes, you can steer yourself any direction you choose. So what we try to do here is to study how the brains in our head affect the feet in our shoes. And Do a little sort of adjusting where it meets it so that actually you walk in the direction you want to go, so that actually you live the life you want to live.

[32:10]

And it helps to join with others who have the same intention to support each other. And so as we continue to... I haven't been paying any attention. As we continue to sit, this one day sitting, please support those around you and notice that those around you are supporting you. And together, let's cultivate an intention to benefit beings, whatever we do. And then we will get to live in a world more to our liking. because we'll make our world more to our liking. So please, cultivate those qualities that you appreciate, diminish the energy you put into those qualities that you don't appreciate, and live the life of the Buddha that you are.

[33:24]

Thank you. May we fully enjoy the Dharma.

[33:52]

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