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. Thank you for the invitation. Heart is such an important liturgy in Zen tradition and also religion. Tibetan tradition, and therefore let me chant the heart-strain Tibetan language, and you can all enjoy hearing the sound of a heart-strain Tibetan. OM MAR SAM JUM ME KHIRA PARU SHIN MAR KHI MANGA NAM KHI NUVO NYIT SOSO RAN YIKI PSHO YARVATUXIM GYARVYAM LAH SORVANDIP OM DHAKH [...] DHAK

[01:20]

. . . Thank you. Thank you.

[02:35]

My name, my [...] name, SEM LAH DEBAH ME CHANG CHANG BAH ME DEVSHIN CHANG LAH [...] Thank you.

[04:00]

It's nice to be here at a the Zen Center. I've been hearing so many wonderful things about this Sangha for years and never had the chance to be here except tonight. Also, Shinryu Suzuki Roshi, who was an exceptional Buddhist teacher, And he created this sangha as well as he is one of those dharma lions who brought the Buddhist wisdom to this continent.

[05:17]

Many years ago when I was trying to learn how to speak English, especially Buddhist... I come across the book, The Beginner's Mind and Zen Mind, and I started reading it, and eventually I was very much inspired by the profundity as well as also the subtlety of that book. And then later, somebody gave me a gift to discuss it, which was the audio book of the same book, read by Peter Coyote, right? And then this was maybe 15, 16, or maybe even longer than that, before we were using cities. Now they don't use anymore cities.

[06:21]

The cities are a little bit outdated technology. But I remember... riding in the car and I often played that cassette and somehow I felt very much moved by that book and therefore I feel there's some kind of affinity between me and The Wisdom of Shinryu Suzuki Roshi. I have so much reverence to who he is and also his teachings. And tonight, maybe it would be good to talk about emptiness, even though it's beyond words and concepts. And there is this verse...

[07:25]

that we often chant in the Buddhist tradition, it's a hymn to the Great Mother Pranjana Paramita. The Great Mother is an archetypal Buddha, female Buddha, a mother of old Buddhas, which represents the realization of the emptiness of Mahashinyata. In this to the Prajnaparamata, it says that you are beyond words, thoughts, all the concepts. You are indescribable, vast, like sky. I pay homage to you. Something like that. And therefore, emptiness is not something that we can even talk about. But Buddhist teachers, especially Nanganjana, talked about the true truth, which are very important model, the relative truth and the ultimate truth.

[08:41]

We are all kind of familiar with the relative truth. We are actually using the model of relative truth to survive and also to maneuver around in everyday life. For example, my friend Leah gave me a ride today to get here and then we decided to use a GPS to get here since we haven't been here. One GPS said that we should drive on Richmond Bridge and then take the Golden Gate Bridge. And then you'll get to the street, the address here, 300-page street, right? And another GPS said, no, you should take the Bay Bridge to get here. We are a little bit in conflict, not knowing which one we should trust.

[09:42]

And then we both used our intelligence and decided to follow the later GPS that said we should drive on. Bay Bridge. And turned out to be that there wasn't so much traffic on the Bay Bridge and we got here on time. And that whole intelligence, the common wisdom that we used to get here is pretty much the relative truth. Relative truth is needed. We cannot reject the relative truth. Everything we do in our life is based on the relative truth. But the problem in human world is that the ultimate truth is a little bit hidden or maybe regarded as esoteric to the extent that people do not pay attention to the

[10:49]

ultimate truth because we are kind of lost. We are back down in the relative truth. This is not to say relative truth is not important. We should throw that away and only pay attention to the ultimate truth. Whereas often the spiritual practitioners like either Buddhist or maybe even and adherence of other faiths, they do what they do, they go to monastery, they dedicate a tremendous amount of time and effort in their spiritual practice in order to wake up and realize the ultimate truth, even though we do have a different doctrinal interpretation of what the ultimate truth might be. A few years ago, I went to France and led a week-long meditation retreat, and we rented this lovely Zen Buddhist monastery that used to be a Catholic monastery.

[12:06]

And we had a nice conversation with the residents there, and finally the abbot invited me to... have a little chat with me. And he said he found there's a lot of common ground between the Zen Buddhist teachings and the Dzogchen in the Niyama tradition, which is a tradition that I belong to. Dzogchen is the non-conceptual teaching of Tibetan Buddhism. And he said that he's quite a in many ways disencouraged by the modern world, he said not too many people wanted the absolute truth. That was his grievance. And then maybe two or three years ago, a Christian monastery, I forgot the name of the monastery, which was situated one hour away from the city of Louisville in Kentucky, where

[13:17]

Thomas Merton lived and he died there. Two monks told me that they studied with Thomas Merton. We had a long conversation about his work and then also these monks expressed their disappointment in terms of what they see the trend of modern culture, and they said the same trend. They're kind of disappointed by seeing that not enough people really want the absolute truth. So what is really the absolute truth, after all? So in the modern world, or in general, in the ordinary society, most people really don't pay attention to the ultimate truth, or they may... have some kind of aspiration or reverence to the ultimate truth, but they don't have the time, they don't have enough interest or enthusiasm to dedicate a huge portion of their life and to go to a monastery or to join Sangha and to basically dedicate a tremendous sense of love and hard effort to wake up and to realize that

[14:42]

the ultimate truth, which is the great emptiness. And this is such a loving example of the aspiration to wake up. And this is also quite contrasting, because there's a city of San Francisco, very, in many ways, modern, and you don't really see lots of people are meditating hours, hours to wake up and to realize emptiness. I was observing all the buildings and all the business on the way here. And then as this island, middle of the city, here is the Zen center with a handful of you who somehow end up having this... impulse, this divine impulse to welcome, to realize the absolute truth, the greater emptiness.

[15:45]

And therefore, it's quite precious to have that aspiration to welcome and to realize the ultimate truth. But what is really ultimate truth? How can we realize that? And there are different theories, according to Buddhist masters, and they say, for some people, it takes a long time to wake up, to realize emptiness. But then, for others, it won't take too long. When you're ready, you can wake up. There's this saying in the Dzogchen, which goes, when you sit down on the meditation cushion, you could be totally deluded, confused. But by the time when you get up from meditation cushion, you may are already awakened. You may have already realized the great emptiness. What they are saying is that it is possible that you can actually wake up right now in this very moment.

[16:57]

You can wake up and to experience the absolute truth at any time. given moment. And there's a story about this Tibetan monk named Berojana went to India to study with another great Dzogchen master who resembles a Zen master. And then Berojana bowed to him and asked him to ask the Shri Sangha to show him the nature of mind according to the historical text of All Shri Sangha did was pick up an apple and hand it out to Mberochana. The moment the Tibetan monk Mberochana picked it up and he was awakened and saw the nature of mind or the emptiness. And then in Tibetan Buddhism, they use all kinds of methods to bring about this radical awakening.

[18:01]

the realization of emptiness, they use abhishekha, empowerment, they use also inquiry, and they use sometimes very similar methods that you use in the Zen Buddhist tradition. I tell one example. Often some Dzogchen masters use a very simple method, and they exclaim this one syllable, And sometimes they say, when the students really, that all you need to do, as a teacher, to exclaim the path syllable loud as much you can, and then student would be awakened and would experience the great emptiness. And then in the Zen tradition, there are all these amazing things. Actually, I love those koans, even though I didn't have the opportunity to practice Zen in this lifetime and to work on these koans.

[19:10]

But I met with this wonderful monk in Korea who also practices the San. I think Koreans call Zen or San. And he said that his master gave him a koan when he was young, and he walked... on that coin for many, many years. And then he said, can I tell you what I realized from working on that coin for many years? I said, please go ahead. And he didn't speak English. He brought an interpreter and he wore this very elegant ceremonial robe. He took our mission quite seriously. And then he started sharing his experience from working on that coin for all those years. I was so moved. I said, if I know anything, I would tell you that you got it. This must be what they call enlightenment.

[20:12]

Almost I told him, I'm very jealous of you because I'm not there yet and you're there. And I was really moved. And he wasn't trying to pretend that he had this profound awakening. You can tell he was coming from his heart. And, you know, sometimes people try to impress other people, pretend that they have some kind of profound realization. It wasn't like that. He expressed everything from his heart. And there's a lot of honesty in his sharing with me. But then, if you want to go to the heart of matter, how can we wake up and realize the ultimate truth, the emptiness? Maybe there's no particular answer, or maybe there are particular answers. I think the most important ingredient for the awakening is the dedication, like this burning aspiration to wake up.

[21:15]

These ancient masters often said that the secret ingredient for the awakening is that burning aspiration, that you are willing to do anything, you are willing to surrender, you are willing to let go of everything in order to wake up. I think many of you are here because you have that burning longing to wake up. And I saw a picture of my friend a nun, a Buddhist nun who passed away. And her name was Anitimit, who passed away two years ago. Some of you started with her. Her picture is one of the rooms here. She's a lovely Buddhist nun, but she passed away by now, maybe two years ago.

[22:17]

She was a very good friend of mine. gave many talks at a meditation retreat that I led. I often invite her to give a talk, but I always know what she's going to say. She gives always the same lecture. You can invite her 10 times or 100 times, and she always gives the same lecture. But it was never boring. Every time when she teaches, it's always refreshing, even though she... say the same thing, she tell the same joke. That was never boring. There was something freshness every time when she give the same sermon. But she always also have the same quotation. One of her favorite quotations is this line from Dharmavada, which all of you know. With thoughts, we create a world. And she will quote it and give a long explanation on that quotation, which is a verse from Buddha.

[23:25]

And to me, and that line contains the perfect means how to wake up and to realize emptiness. What this line is saying is that often... Maybe, if not 100%, I think the 99 points of the reality that we are living and that we are believing turned out to be actually just an illusion. When I say illusion, I mean a mental construct that has nothing to do with the nature of reality. Somebody told me that these two Tibetan teachers in 1990 Seventies got together in America, and somebody invited them, and then they really enjoyed their meeting, and they went to the backyard of this family's house and had tea, and then one teacher pointed his finger towards a tree and said, that then called a tree.

[24:36]

In that moment, they both started laughing. hysterically. And nobody knew why they were laughing. But they couldn't stop laughing. And all they said was, just point to their finger, the one teacher pointed his finger to a tree, said, that thing called a tree. So what this is saying is that even, of course, in a bigger context, but even in ordinary context, everything that we think, everything that we perceive, might be actually based on some of our projections, our mistaken perceptions of reality, maybe have nothing to do with the nature of reality. So from that point, if I say this is a cushion, actually I'm wrong. In the relative truth, I'm not wrong, I'm right, this is a cushion. Who can argue this is not a cushion? This is actually totally a cushion. But then the ultimate thing, this is not actually a cushion.

[25:41]

And then I could say this is a wristwatch. But then, in the ultimate sense, actually, if I really believe this is a wristwatch, I'm wrong, I'm deluded. But we don't think that way. You know, if you tell somebody what I said, it sounds like a little bit strange in an ordinary sense. And so, according to the Relative Truth, everything we say is pretty much right. everything we believe and perceive are pretty much logical in themselves. So you can say, this is the city of San Francisco, this is a Zando, this is a cushion, this is a cup of tea. We are quite actually right and very logical, only in accordance with the relative truth. But in the ultimate sense, everything we perceive, everything we label standard, we are actually quite... It's a kind of delusion.

[26:45]

From that point of view, the absolute truth is this experience of seeing the reality, natural reality, that has nothing to do with the lens of our concepts, our ideas, but how can you experience that? And that is a very important question. How can you experience the natural reality? And sometimes the way we can experience nature reality is actually through just sitting in silence. And sometimes through prayer or through inquiry, but sometimes through just silence. Therefore silence sitting so important in the Buddhist practice. And then both Dzogchen and Zan, they encourage to Sit in silence and then you don't have to do anything. If you sit with open heart and then the nature of reality or the emptiness will reveal it to you.

[27:53]

I hope that I will quote this correctly. This is a Zen saying. Please correct me if I misquote it. It goes something like this, right? Sitting quietly, doing nothing. Spring comes and the grass grows naturally. And there's also a similar saying in the Dzogchen tradition, which goes, let me recite this in Tibetan. If one sits in a perfect pasture, then the supreme realization will come to you. The idea of the sin is that if you just sit and observe silence and wait, and then often the realization of emptiness, the absolute truth will come to you. And therefore, maybe the awakening is not so difficult in one hand.

[29:02]

On the other hand, it's very difficult. The awakening is extremely difficult. And then From another point of view, it's not difficult. So usually we have this tendency in Buddhism to assert that enlightenment, awakening is very difficult, which totally makes sense. And almost there's some kind of tradition, traditional belief, almost like dogma to... said that enlightenment is very difficult. It's extremely impossible. You have to work out. You have to be extremely lucky to experience enlightenment. And on the other hand, there's also this theory that enlightenment can be spontaneous. These both perspectives are actually right in some sense. In one sense, awakening is...

[30:04]

quite difficult. It's not something that can happen at any given moment, even though many people these days claim that they have awakening. But on the other hand, I think awakening can be quite spontaneous. It can happen at any given moment. So, of course, personally, I never claim that I have experience of enlightenment or awakening. But on the other hand, I'd like to believe that many of you who meditate here have already experience of awakening emptiness. Many times maybe you can't even count. That is maybe true, but on the other hand also I would say awakening is not very simple. It's not like something anybody can experience it. And therefore personally I would not claim that I have had experience of awakening. I think when we sit in silence, naturally we become the witness, and then our thoughts and mental activities become quite silent, and even there are some movements of thoughts, emotions, we are the witness.

[31:27]

And in such a state of our mind, sometimes there is no more delusion, and there is no more unawareness, and then almost the awakening, or the realization of an emptiness arises by itself. And then we see through the falsehood of our concept, ideas, and then we see kind of spontaneously the nature of reality, everything is one, we can see there's no more personal self, we can see we're one with everything. Those experiences happen quite easily when you sit in silence for a long time, And those experiences are authentic in themselves. But I think problem is once we get up from meditation cushion, then there's a challenge to integrate that experience with everyday life. One time I was teaching in South Korea at a Zen monastery called Hansen Sa in the mountains.

[32:34]

Every evening, people would write down their questions and present to me. And then one person wrote down as a question, he or she said, I have been experiencing awakening, enlightenment for a long time. I feel I'm one with everything these days. But this is now problematic because I'm afraid of that I'm... disengaging with the world because I'm feeling one with everything. Maybe I'm not so practical anymore. What shall I do? And I told through interpreter, maybe you can go to American NBC, get a visa, and then go to United States and drive maybe like 10 miles per hour on the highway. And then before you know, people will be honking you. And then you don't feel you're one with everything. You feel you're very separate from everybody.

[33:35]

So that was my recommendation. I think this happens when you meditate, when you sit in silence. It's quite natural to experience emptiness, no self. But then the problem is once we get out of meditation cushion or go away from the... the temple or from the sadhana, the life challenge always. And we can easily lose our understanding, our insight. And this happens quite often to many of us. So, What I really want to say is that there's not so much a new message that I can share with all of you. You all struck me as very well-seasoned meditators.

[34:37]

I think my heartfelt advice is just to practice. That's all really we can do, practice, keep practicing. And sometimes the spiritual path in Buddhism is very interesting. I think there are a few... stages of the path we go through. In the beginning, we get very excited, really excited about the spirituality practice. I grew up in Eastern Tibet, and for some reason, I become very spiritual at an early age. I grew up in a small village that has seven or eight families, and all my friends, especially the young boys, were kind of mischievous, but I had this very strong religious impulse. And I always wanted to go to a Buddhist monastery and dedicate my life to the study of scriptures and to the Buddhist practice, which eventually I went to monastery.

[35:39]

I was very serious and solemn, a practitioner, a meditator, extremely zealous. And I was very zealous, very diligent with Buddhist practice for years and years. And then when I looked at my consciousness and I didn't get anywhere. I'm ordinary and nothing happened to my consciousness. And then I became very lazy for a while. For many years I practiced but I lost that initial enthusiasm and that whole... I kind of kept practice in the Buddhist path all the time, but there was a huge period in my life where I became a little bit lazy and didn't have that initial aspiration, and partly because I felt that nothing really happened to me. I looked at my consciousness.

[36:41]

I wasn't transformed. After all these years' practice, I said, this is not working. And then I become very lazy. And then another aspiration struck me. And that moment I realized that I actually have to go back and practice wholeheartedly. And that phase is still lasting in that phase. Really feeling that all I should do is just keep practicing and keep practicing the Buddhist path. And then as long as we continue to practice, I think we begin to see all these old habits begin to wear out. And we begin to see that we don't react so much anymore. Not reacting is actually a sign of spiritual maturity. Maybe we don't have to talk so much about enlightenment, but not to react.

[37:42]

And we usually react quite easily in ordinary life. When we go from the meditation, we are always reacting, all the time. And we react to everything with hope, with fear, with misery, with elation. But fundamentally, we react to all these conditions because we are kind of believing the duality or the world of illusion to be true, and therefore we get very much cut over in our emotions. We tend to take them seriously and reify, whereas if we experience more and more the emptiness, the ultimate truth, and to integrate that experience with everyday life, then I think we... would react less, no matter whatever happens. And you may begin to see more and more as time goes by, through the power of your practice, all your old habits are wearing out, and then you're actually reacting less.

[38:56]

Even you may find that some very difficult situation might arise in your life, like tragedy, but let's say three years ago, ten years ago, you lose your dignity, you'll be angry, but now maybe you're able to maintain your dignity, your compassion, you're able to open your heart, and you're able to let go and forgive. And these are the signs in that you are basically progressing along the path, and therefore I... will join my hands and encourage everybody to practice again and again. And sometimes the spiritual path can be a little bit discouraging when we don't see any result. Sometimes there won't be any result when you practice. But it's important now to give the path and continue to practice. And this is really amazing that you have such a lovely center.

[40:01]

and the community and teacher, the three Jibas are here who are supporting your journey to continue. It's extremely rare opportunity in modern days how lucky you are. And that's all I have to say. Thank you for the invitation. 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, please visit sfzc.org and click Giving. May we fully enjoy the Dharma.

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