This podcast is offered by the San Francisco Zen Center on the web at sfzc.org. Our public programs are made possible by donations from people like you. Welcome everyone to Green Dragon in the year of the dragon. Leap year too. We call this Green Dragon Temple. And there's just enough room. So often when I'm working with sound, I bring a bell. Today I brought this. It's kind of like a wooden bell, but it has strings.

[01:05]

So I'd actually like to invite you all to listen to the sound. So if you listen to this sound, you might notice that there are other sounds that are resonating with that sound. I don't know if the microphone picks it up. So I'd like to invite everyone to just hold up your hand, and then when I pluck the string, Listen to it as long as you hear it. And then when your hand, when you don't hear it anymore, then you put your hand down, okay?

[02:05]

Everyone put your hand up. now you've just done a meditation practice. A little concentration. Hearing the sound sustained for the whole sound. And there's a song that I'd like to teach. Some of you may know it. This song was taught to me by another Zen teacher as a there's old Buddha sitting under the Bodhi tree. But I'm turning it into, here's young Buddha sitting under the wake-up tree.

[03:16]

Here's young Buddha sitting under the wake-up tree. You know, Buddha actually wasn't so old waking up, at least compared to me. He was... He was in his 30s, right? So it's actually good to think of a young Buddha. And the wake-up tree, Buddha was sitting by a tree, and the tree and the Buddha wake up together. Buddha actually can't wake up without the tree, and the tree can't wake up without Buddha. They need each other. That's something to consider anyway. So, and then, oh, before we... I need some ideas. If you're sitting quietly and you're meditating, what might... Can you think of anything that might disturb your meditation? Something that might disturb it? What?

[04:20]

Why do you think? You had your hand up right there, so... Some sound might disturb your meditation. The sound of what? The sound of the babies. Okay, so we'll do one with that because the idea here is that nothing really disturbs young Buddha, but young Buddha is not disturbed by sound of babies. I'm going to write that down here. Okay. There was another hand up. Oh, yeah. What? Itchy. If you're itchy, right. Yeah. Itch. Itches. Yeah.

[05:27]

So itches. So we got sound of babies and we got itches. And how about you? What? Mosquito. Mosquito. Ah, yeah, a mosquito. Well, maybe that's enough. We've got three of them here. The last time I did this, though, someone said, homework. And I thought, well, it wasn't actually the homework, but it was worrying about homework, right? Worry about homework was disturbing, could disturb. Yeah, you had something else? happen, but an earthquake. Well, an earthquake is possible. Yeah. Okay, we better put an earthquake in here too. Yeah, earthquake. So actually, you know, the story is that when Buddha was sitting there waking up, the earth did quake.

[06:38]

Yeah. You're right on the money. So it goes like this. Here's young Buddha sitting under the wake-up tree. Here's young Buddha, mind as quiet as it can be. Oh, feedback. Sitting like a bump on a log. sitting like a small green frog, sitting with a smile on her face, sitting like empty space. Doesn't mind rain, doesn't mind thunder, what could bother young Buddha, I wonder? She isn't bothered by the sound of babies.

[07:41]

She isn't bothered by the sound of babies. She isn't bothered by the sound of babies. She just lets those sounds float on by. Like that, okay? Now, the other part of this song is that when there's bump on a log, everyone says log, right? And when it says small green frog, everyone echoes frog. And when it says sitting with a smile on her face, everyone says face. Okay? And then when it says sitting like empty space, no, you don't say anything. So this takes concentration. Yeah. When it says, sitting like empty space, then it's just silent, okay? Okay? So you can all join in as you become familiar with the song, okay?

[08:46]

Here's young Buddha sitting under the wake-up tree Here's young Buddha, mind as quiet as it can be Sitting like a bump on a log, log. Sitting like a small green frog, frog. Sitting with a smile on her face, face. Sitting like empty space. Doesn't mind rain, doesn't mind thunder. What could bother young Buddha, I wonder? Oh. She's not bothered by itches, not bothered by itches. Just lets those itches float on by. Here's young Buddha sitting under the wake-up tree.

[09:47]

Here's young Buddha, mind as quiet as it can be. Sitting like a bump on a log, log. Sitting like a small green frog. Sitting with a smile on her face. Mind like empty space. Doesn't mind rain. Doesn't mind thunder. What could bother old Buddha, young Buddha, I wonder. Doesn't mind mosquitoes. Doesn't mind mosquitoes. Just let those. What would it be? The distraction of mosquitoes, the thoughts about mosquitoes. Float on by. We'll do one more, okay? The last one is, oh yeah, earthquake. Here's young Buddha sitting under the wake-up tree.

[10:50]

Here's young Buddha, mind as quiet as it can be. Sitting like a bump on a log. Sitting like a small green frog. Sitting with a smile on her face. Mind like empty space. Doesn't mind rain, doesn't mind thunder. What could bother young Buddha, I wonder? Doesn't mind earthquakes. She doesn't mind earthquakes. She just lets those earthquakes float on fire. Itches by babies crying or even by earthquakes. If you don't survive, then you're not bothered because you don't survive.

[11:53]

Okay? I wanted to mention a couple of things. Now I feel a little bit like a guest here, since I've spent most of my time in San Francisco and the city. But I used to live here a long time ago. And then again, not so long ago. But this is... I moved here in 1972. This is 2012, so that's 40 years ago. Zen Center acquired this place 40 years ago. So I'm thinking of anniversaries partly because it's also the 50th anniversary of San Francisco Zen Center this year.

[12:57]

Suzuki... Shinryu Roshi came from Japan in 1959, and then three years later, San Francisco Zen Center became officially organized. A small group of people organized around him sitting. So we're having various events this year to commemorate the 50th anniversary of San Francisco Zen Center. And we're also trying to take care of San Francisco Zen Center, so it lasts at least for another 50 years. Oh, and this guitar, this guitar is my age. 60, 60, almost 66 years old. So one of the reasons I like this beat up old guitar is it's Same age. I want to mention a few things.

[14:05]

Dharma teachings today. Several teachings is kind of a grab bag, I'd say, out of the Lotus Sutra. You're looking for seats. You can sit down on the front of the board where other people are sitting today. Usually we don't allow that because it's our meal board when we're having meals in the Zen. But some people are sitting there. It's okay. Dogen, Zen Master Dogen was the founder of this lineage in Japan. And he liked the particular quotations that came from the Lotus Sutra. One in particular says that only a Buddha, together with a Buddha, can fathom, can completely fathom the reality of... What is it?

[15:17]

What is reality? We can't even say it's a reality that has a particular definition because it includes what can't be defined. But a Buddha together with a Buddha... So Buddha means awaken. And so someone waking up. Meeting someone waking up. This is what is reality. Waking up meeting. When the children were here I mentioned waking up with the tree. Waking up with the Bodhi trees. Actually so Buddha meeting the Bodhi tree. This is Well, we mean by fathoming suchness. Suchness is a word for the way things are beyond being things.

[16:18]

Or before they are things. Before things are formed in our conceptual mind, we are already living in a whole flow. So much that is already supporting us that we usually don't recognize. So to me this means that it's very important not to make enemies. It means that whatever you meet is yourself. And you have the opportunity to wake up to whatever you meet, or whoever you meet. So this is a very, very profound practice, and it's also something that it's easy to miss.

[17:22]

It's easy to not notice when you begin to make an enemy. when you begin to have some idea that someone else is different, when you feel cut off from someone else, when you feel, oh, I don't feel so comfortable, and that can be actually developed into a position of antagonism. And often we don't notice that So the first little stages of that are how we actually do that. So lately I've been working with a number of people who are having trouble with other people. So I thought I should say something about the importance of not making enemies.

[18:23]

But this is actually a vow that you can take. You can actually take a vow. that I will not make enemies. Even if someone makes me into their enemy, even if someone makes me into some adversary, I don't need to do the same. I actually have the capacity, but maybe I don't have the capacity. So we say our Buddha nature has the capacity, or our true nature has the capacity to not make enemies. Even if I feel I can't survive if I don't have enemies. Even if I have that idea. So the thought of Buddha, only a Buddha meeting another Buddha together can fathom the totality of existence, the totality of suchness.

[19:28]

is in the early part of the Lotus Sutra. In the middle of the Lotus Sutra, there's a story that the Shakyamuni, the historic Buddha, was teaching a whole assembly of bodhisattvas who had arrived from another galaxy. They didn't use the word galaxy, but they said from another realm, right? They come from another realm, and they are... So today we might say they come from another galaxy far, far away. From another galaxy far away, and they came and they were listening to Shakyamuni, the historic Buddha, telling the truth of existence. And they were so amazed. This is really wonderful. And then, out of their compassion, they said, would you like us to come back and help you? When you really get into trouble, when there are many people who don't understand the teaching, would you like us to come back and help you?

[20:37]

And the Buddha said, well, actually, I have all the help I need right here. And when he said that, all the help I need right here, right out of the earth emerged many, many wisdom beings. We say bodhisattvas. Bodhisattva means beings that are dedicated to the awakening of all other beings. So all these beings, all these bodhisattvas are emerging from right out of the earth. And the Buddha is saying, because all these beings have been cultivating awakening for countless eons, And the Lotus Sutra is very good at putting out big numbers. If you can imagine all the grains of sand on Stinson Beach, each one multiplied by a billion, and then multiply that by a few more billion, or a quintillion, and keep multiplying.

[21:52]

And then there are that many, there are that many bodhisattvas emerging from the earth. And so the visiting bodhisattvas from another galaxy, where have they been and where are they coming from? And the Buddha says, they are in the spaces in the earth. They're in the spaces of the earth. I have a very simple way of interpreting this as saying that you have all the resources you need. right under you. Do you have the resources that you need right at hand? Much of the time, with our human tendencies, we are involved in trying to figure out how to get what we need and not noticing that the resources are already.

[22:56]

right at hand, right underneath us, or even right within us. Sitting quietly is not so easy. I've been talking to people the last day and was reminded, it's actually not so easy. It's not so easy to realize that the resources that one needs are already here. So we call this having confidence in true nature. Having confidence in the nature of things that's supporting this existence right now. And it's important that we sometimes stop and realize and recall that what's needed is not someplace else, but it's very, very near at hand.

[24:01]

Now, there are habits. We have habits of mind and habits of body and habits of emotion. There's recently, I was reading David Brooks with his column about, there's a new book out, I guess, about the power of habits. And I haven't read the book, but I read David Brooks' column of The Power of Habits. Has anyone seen that? No? Yes? New York Times just a few days ago. So in the book, The Power of Habits, he says it points out that many of the so-called decisions we think we're making are actually expressions of habit. Well, Buddhist practitioners have known this for a long time. So many things that are news are actually, oh, they were actually stolen by ancient wise sages.

[25:19]

But now, now news. So, So the author, Charles Duhigg, I think it's Duhigg, D-U-H-I-G-G, Duhigg, tells a story of habits and evidently makes a big deal out of how people in America started brushing their teeth with toothpaste. Only 7% of Americans in the early 1900s, 7, less than 10%, own the toothpaste. And now it's like, well, you can't go anywhere without your toothpaste, right? But in just a few years, because of someone's advertising Pepsodent, I think it was, you wonder where the yellow went when you brush your teeth with Pepsodent, right? So the idea that things are not okay, you have yellow on your teeth and it's not okay, you better brush your teeth with Pepsodent.

[26:25]

And then the discovery was that because of the minty flavor of Pepsodent, that it made a little, it actually was a little irritant in the mouth, but it felt kind of tingly and fresh. And so once you started with that, people became trained to think that without that tingly feeling, they weren't presentable, right? So you have to have that tingly feeling in order to be presentable. And so within just a few years, it went from 7% to 65%. Proud owners of toothpaste. So this was just an example. Then this becomes kind of a broad cultural pattern. broad cultural pattern or habit. But David Brooks calls his article, he calls it, what does he call it?

[27:29]

The Machiavellian Temptation. So it's interesting that, so he's looking at the power of habits and the idea that people can go on a self-improvement project of correcting habits. Making new habits. This is the conclusion of the column I thought was quite interesting. So he says, to be an effective person, you are supposed to coolly appraise your own unconscious habits and the habits of others under your care. You are supposed to devise oblique strategies to alter the triggers and routines. And then every relationship becomes slightly manipulative. including the relationship with yourself, right? So then David Brooks says, this is sort of disturbing.

[28:32]

And then he wants to emphasize something. He says, I'd emphasize that the important, he gets into neural networks, okay, where we're forming habits at home. But the networks in the brain says, the important neural networks are not formed by mere routine or reversed by clever triggers. They are burned in by emotion and fortified by strong yearnings for admiration and righteousness. If you think you can change your life in a prudential way, the way an advertiser can get you to buy an air freshener, you're probably wrong. And then he concludes with this sentence. As the folks at Alcoholics Anonymous understand, if you want to change your life, don't just look for a clever trigger. Commit to some larger global belief.

[29:35]

So, of course I thought. Oh, wonderful. A larger... global belief. And what could be a larger global belief than the Buddha talking to bodhisattvas from other galaxies and then pointing out the resources that are right under foot and right in our own bodies? We actually have the thought of belief that goes beyond belief or a practice that goes beyond belief. So that in our practice of simply sitting, a very ordinary thing to do is to sit. But to stay with it is to go beyond belief. It's to notice that the beliefs that one has, the ideas that one has, are not exactly it.

[30:41]

The ideas that one has are maybe useful, maybe not, maybe up-to-date, maybe out-of-date. Things keep changing. And underneath is something that we can't quite name, what we call true nature. Sitting zazen cultivates the capacity, cultivates the capacity to wake up. That means to wake up to whatever is happening within oneself. That means that one is not rejecting any part of oneself. One is including everything in oneself. One is actually becoming attuned to the whole environment. If you're attuned to the whole environment, you may be feeling a sense of gratitude and appreciation.

[31:50]

Simply to be able to hear the sounds. Simply being able to see each other. To receive light. Simply being able... to trust that the earth is nourishing. That the very thing that we trip over is supporting us to stand back up. So we say, you trip over, fall down by the earth and stand up by the earth. So this goes beyond having some kind of way of manipulating oneself. It's actually realizing that oneself is already exactly the way it is.

[32:58]

That the truth of all existence is exactly the way it is right now. That everything that has ever happened in what we call the past, is supporting this moment right now. And then right here is the place to begin. Always place to begin. So it's very helpful to have the practice of remembering this is the place to begin. If this is the place to begin, it means I don't, I'm not carrying over my idea about who's my enemy. I'm not harboring that. We have a precept that we say that a person who's committed to the way of awakening does not harbor ill will.

[34:07]

does not harbor ill will, does not even hold on to even a little bit of ill will or a little bit of resentment. I have to work with this all the time myself. And I work with it as not holding on to a fixed belief in any thought that I might have. that any thought that I might have is just a thought. It's not quite true. I have to accept that the next moment, something different may appear. But it's so tempting to hold on to my familiar thoughts. It's like an addiction. So when I go to the recovery group meetings, we have a big Monday night meeting at the city center, people in recovery from various addictions, and everyone goes around and announces, my name is so-and-so, and I'm an alcoholic, and my name is so-and-so, and I'm a heroin addict, and my name is so-and-so, and I'm...

[35:34]

addicted to sex, and so and so on. So I have to say, my name is Steve, and I'm addicted to believing my own thoughts. And it's very serious. It's a serious affliction. And it requires constant attention. Little things happen in the day where I may feel so-and-so didn't treat me right. It can be as simple as I didn't return my phone call. I left a message or whatever. And I'm wondering, well, what's happening? Does this mean disrespect?

[36:34]

Am I not being respected? And then I think, well, okay, here's someone who is, whatever, they're deficient. They have a problem. The next time I see that person, do I think, oh, there's a person who mistreated me the next time I see them? Or do I let that go and say, okay, I'm not going to actually hold on to any Belief. The thought came up, but just like the Buddha, the Buddha sitting under the wake-up tree, letting the thought go by. So, I have the guitar here, so I'm thinking, okay, I will do one more.

[37:38]

And this comes from the latter part of the Lotus Sutra. And this is a song that has become kind of an anthem, actually, at Zen Center. So I call it the Bodhisattva Never Disparaging. There's a whole section. Well, it's a brief section in the Lotus Sutra saying there's this Bodhisattva who, no matter what happens, doesn't disparage other people. other beings. This teaching in the Lotus Sutra inspired Greg Fane to write the song. Greg Fane is now one of the practice leaders at Tassahara. And then Greg Fane and Ben Gustin, another Tassahara student, put it to music. So many of you know it, so you can join in the chorus, and those of you who don't know it can learn it and join in the chorus.

[38:48]

So there's a part of me that's sitting over there judging me, saying, you shouldn't be playing guitar in a Dharma talk. So I'm sorry. I have to accept that part of me over there. Wherever that part is, sitting up there above the door, looking a little bit down. So please forgive me for this. There's a book called the Lotus Sutra you really ought to know about. A holy book that has the power to remove all fear and doubt. This book tells the story of a man who means the world to me, who could just as well have been a woman if not for male hegemony. They call him the Bodhisattva never disparage or the Bodhisattva never despise.

[40:03]

And I'm making it my life's ambition to see the world through his pure eyes. And he says, I would never disparage you or keep you at arm's length. Where you only see your weaknesses, I only see your strength. I would never despise you or put you down in any way. Because it's clear to me I can plainly see you'll be a Buddha someday. I love you. So that's the chorus. And when it comes around again, you can start joining in, okay? Now, Bodhisattva, never disparaging, lived countless Kalpas in the past. In the time of the counterfeit Dharma, he was something of an outcast. Because the monks and nuns of his time were noted for their arrogance and vanity.

[41:06]

And these were the folks who exercised great power and authority. But my boy never concerned himself if they treated him like a freak. He just bowed to everybody equally and these are the words he would speak. I would never disparage you or keep you, come on now, keep you at arm's length. Where you only see your weaknesses, I only see your strength. I would never despise you or put you down in any way. Because it's clear to me I can plainly see you'll be a Buddha someday. I love you. He never read or recited the scriptures much. He only liked to practice respect. But the monks and nuns of his day didn't mean it like you might expect.

[42:11]

Instead they cursed him and they reviled him and they wished that he would go. Because they all had self-esteem issues, like most everyone else I know. They beat him and pelted him with clubs and stones, and they tried to drive him away. But he'd just go off to a safe distance, and these are the words he would say. I would never disparage you or keep you at arm's length, where you only see your weaknesses. I only see your strength I would never despise you Or put you down in any way Because it's clear to me I can plainly see You'll be a Buddha someday I love you And so it went on for years and years He was the target of scorn and abuse

[43:12]

Yet still our hero shed no tears, nor did he ever wonder what's the use, until he'd reached the end of his natural lifespan and he'd lay down fixing to die. And then he heard the Holy Lotus Sutra being proclaimed up in the sky, and his life was extended for millions of years, and he's living to this day. And in the pages of the Lotus Sutra, you still can hear him say, I would never disparage you or keep you at arm's length. Where you only see your weaknesses, I only see your strength. I would never despise you or put you down in any way. Because it's clear to me, I can plainly see you'll be a Buddha someday. I love you.

[44:13]

You'll be a Buddha already. Someday is right now. I love you. Remember the importance of not making enemies within yourself even, to completely accept what is in front of you as yourself and as Buddha, as something or someone to wake up with. And in that way, you get to know yourself more completely. you for listening.

[45:13]

Thank you for listening to this podcast offered by the San Francisco Zen Center. Our programs are made possible by the donations we receive. Please help us to continue to realize and actualize the practice of giving by offering your financial support. For more information, visit sfzc.org and click giving. May we fully enjoy the Dharma.

[45:44]

@Transcribed_UNK
@Text_v005
@Score_95.95