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. Hello, everybody. Welcome to San Francisco Zen Center on this beautiful, sunny Saturday. Saturday during which a whole bunch of us are going to be mostly downstairs in a slightly darkened room. There's a one-day sitting going on today, but also there's a three-day sitting of which this is the middle. And then also, this weekend, this three-day sitting or one-day sitting, this represents the kind of very conclusion, the end of a six-week practice period, which has been focusing on... a Buddhist teaching called the Brahma Viharas, the Four Noble Abodes.

[01:02]

Today I want to talk about the first Brahma Vihara. I want to talk about metta, about loving kindness. But first, I have to say something else, which is that my name is Jordan, Jordan Thorne, and I am the tanto here at the San Francisco Zen Center. Tanto means head of practice, maybe. I think I want to say just a little bit more about what tanto means, because one of the things that tanto does is that tanto schedules the lectures. The Wednesday night talks, the Saturday talks, invites different people to do that. And I was looking at the schedule of speakers coming up, and I realized that actually this is the last talk I will give as the tanto. Because in about a little more than a month, not immediately, but pretty soon, and sooner than I'm going to speak again, I'm going to change positions, and I'm going to take the role of treasurer at the Zen Center, which has been wonderfully...

[02:22]

taken care of by Rosalie Curtis over there. And Rosalie, what are you going to do? It's a little bit like musical chairs, but not the sort where when the music stops, one chair is removed. It begins with two chairs and ends with two chairs, and our seats will change. You know, at the city center and at the Zen center, it only is possible with the work of a lot of people, both residents and non-residents. And some of the, a lot of the jobs that are necessary to make this temple run are things like a treasurer. There is probably a treasurer in lots of different places and companies, or directors or head cooks, but the Tanto is kind of unique to It's very much a spiritual, religious, practice-focused role.

[03:33]

And I've been in this, holding this seat for five-plus years, and I'm very grateful for it. It's been a revelation. It's been a great learning for me. And so there's a kind of sadness to stop, a little bit of sadness. And also kind of a little bit of relief. What do they say? A change is as good as a vacation? But it's also one part of the reason that I really have no hesitations or reservations about changing from this plum job is because actually lots of people deserve to have it and ought to have the chance. Rotation embedded is one of the values at the San Francisco Zen Center. And in some ways, if you come to the Zen Center and put yourself into the system, one of the things that happens is you move through different jobs. And in some way, by moving through different jobs, you learn how to run a Zen Center.

[04:37]

You learn how to be the guest manager. You learn how to be the work leader. Et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. And now it'll be Rosalie's turn to learn how to be tanto and my turn to relearn how to be treasurer. So anyway, back to the Brahma Vaharas and back to saying some things about metta. The practice of compassion and kindness is essential to an authentic life. I was going to say Buddhism, but it's just essential, not just for Buddhism. And the Brahma Viharas are four states of mind or four kind of meditation practices, four focuses.

[05:49]

that have been handed down through time in the Buddhist tradition as one of the ways, one of the actually strong ways that kindness, compassion, sympathetic joy, equanimity can be aroused and sustained. There, as I said, there's four brahma-viharas. The first one, metta, or maitri in Sanskrit, is called is loving-kindness. And I'm going to briefly say each of the four right now, and then I'm going to come back and say some more about metta. So loving-kindness is a benevolence, a sort of well-feeling good towards all beings, and an important aspect of it is that it's without discrimination towards friend or foe. and it is without selfish attachment.

[06:53]

And one, there's something called the Metta Sutta, which we chant here on some frequent basis at the Zen Center. This is a sutta from the Pali canon. Mostly we chant texts that come from the Mahayana great vehicle tradition. But the metta sutta comes to us from the Pali canon. And if that doesn't make sense, later on, ask what that means, if you have the chance. And in the metta sutta, there's a line, a very kind of famous and lovely line. It says, even as a mother, at the risk of her life, watches over and protects her only child. And to that, I would say, even as a father. or I might even add, even as a grandfather. Because something that's happened in this close sangha in the last day is that we have a new grandpa.

[07:59]

Paul Haller's daughter, Audrey, on Thursday evening or Thursday midday, that's so polite. It was so nice of her. Gave birth to a healthy baby boy. who's ensconced across the street right now and receiving the adoration of friends and family. So congratulations, Paul. And Audrey. But you had the tough job. Anyway, so that's a little bit about metta, but I want to move on to the second of the Brahma Verhars is karuna, which means compassion. And compassion in this particular... Compassion can mean lots of things, you know. When I first... When I tried to understand what... When I was thinking about compassion, I thought, oh, it means calm is like with and passion.

[09:03]

It was with passion. But actually, I think the root of passion in this regard is patience. You know, to regard with patience the suffering of others. And the third Brahmavarara is something called mudita, which is sympathetic or empathetic joy. And mudita is the feeling joy, the joyful feeling that arises when one observes and knows that others do well, that others prosper. And... Anyway, so that's the third Brahmavihara. And the fourth one is upekka, which means equanimity. And equanimity is a mind in balance, a mind that's free of discrimination.

[10:09]

And this... This balanced mind that is upeka-ish, equanimous, is not an indifferent mind. It's an active, alert mindfulness. We'll get back to metta. But I want to say that how important equanimity is or mindfulness is in bringing, giving rise and sustaining and having it be solidly rooted or founded, these things like loving kindness or compassion or sympathetic joy. Equanimity is actually an active factor in each of the first three.

[11:19]

and it is present throughout, necessary to have giving rise to loving kindness, to have it be directed properly. And equanimity, the cultivation of equanimity is pretty much just what we're doing today and did yesterday and will do tomorrow in this meditation retreat which we've got going on here. You know, when we sit in Zazen, in Zen meditation, well, maybe we do lots of different things. I don't know what you do. But there's an encouragement to let go of everything. Equanimity means that you actually don't want to be Buddha because that's actually kind of wanting to be something besides where you are. In Zazen, we let go of ideas like wanting to become Buddha or really thinking that we're bad, and we just rest and observe the present mind that arises, which is very difficult to do without getting engaged in it.

[12:33]

And equanimity and Zazen, well, they're not so different. Some years ago, I first... I've been practicing at the Zen Center for a pretty long time, since the 70s. And I learned about Zazen, about this non-dual Dharma gate of being absorbed in the present moment and practiced it with varying degrees of enthusiasm for some years. And I recall pretty clearly about 15 or... maybe so years ago, when I was at a session with Norman Fisher, when he introduced meditation on loving kindness to me and to the room. And I remember how I was kind of skeptical.

[13:35]

I thought it was emotionally manipulative, like, may all beings be happy. Saying that aloud, somehow, It rubbed me the wrong way, I just must confess. Even, you know, things change. I just actually love the metta sutta, for instance. But I remember when I first heard the metta sutta, I wanted to organize a resistance, a guerrilla resistance. Like, you know, of course, may all beings be happy. But do we need to say the obvious? I had issues with it. And then also, when Norman, as part of talking about this, he led us all in a guided meditation that was kind of discursive and asked us not to rest and observe in the middle, like being sitting in the middle of things and letting thoughts go by and not attaching them, but actually asked me and the people in the room to engage in a thought process, a meditation on the words he was saying.

[14:40]

And it seems to me kind of at odds with what I had learned as the way we practiced at Zen Center. I had some struggle with it. Not a struggle. Maybe I was just lazy. And I didn't want to learn something new. I think that at some point I realized that the practice of concentration was present in both both in zazen and in these meditations, that one of the reasons that I found the guided meditations not speaking strongly to me was that I wasn't paying so much attention to them. I was actually listening to Norman talk and having a kind of an opinion, rather than just listening to him talk and working it. And anyway, I also thought that it's kind of...

[15:45]

interesting that I'm feeling kind of angry about loving-kindness. Maybe I should look at that. You know, there's a lot of confusion and upset in the world and Sometimes it's a surprise when you look at yourself and see self-mirroring it or expressing it. On Monday evenings, there's been a class on the Brahma Vaharas. I mentioned this experience I had to the class. One afternoon, one Monday afternoon, in my preparation for the class, I took a book by Sharon Salzberg called loving kindness with me. And I went over to Hay Street to a cafe, and I got a coffee, and I got a little snack, and I set myself up at a perfect table, which I felt kind of like I could see out the window, but it was by myself.

[16:55]

And while I was setting myself up, I noticed there was a person with a laptop a few tables away, and I wasn't paying too much attention because I was getting ready to open the book. When I noticed that he was... Could it possibly be that he was plugging external speakers into his laptop? No. I've been to this cafe. This is quiet. If any music you hear, it's going to be Mozart. And then, just kind of around the time, I didn't even get a chance to open the book up, when Prince... He was playing a Prince CD, and he had these externals, but he had it ramped up. It was actually, it was really loud. Something about a red Corvette. And, you know, I looked at him.

[17:58]

He didn't look, he didn't work. He didn't get... And so at some point, I thought, there was a little kind of alcove. I went around the corner. I rearranged myself. And, you know, now it was 1999. But it was just as loud. And it was really impossible for me to have this calm mind that I was trying to cultivate. And I saw a person go by. He worked at the cafe because he had a little smock on and things. And I said, you know, I said, I come here sometimes, and I've never heard a person with their own laptop making the music for the place. And I kind of like was going to ask for this. And this person said, I said, maybe you could speak to him. And he says, I'm a cook here. I don't deal with the customers. And then I thought, well, you jerk. You're always supposed to deal with the customers. Customers are always right.

[19:03]

You're supposed to be nice to me, and also I can't read loving kindness with this musical. But I didn't say that. I felt it. I felt it. And then I kind of thought, well, Jordan. So I went home. And continue to prepare for the class. Anyway, loving... Selfishness, the experience of actually losing our center and being upset at people is painful. It actually... It's not just painful, but it hurts us. We might hope that our anger hurts someone else. Sometimes the reason we get angry, we want to teach them a lesson. But really, actually, even more, sometimes the person we're angry at doesn't even realize it.

[20:04]

Where things are kind of unfolding is in our life and in our heart and in our emotions and blood pressure and everything else. There is a classical, traditional way that metta is taught. And I'm sure there are lots of variations on this. But anyway, traditionally, metta, loving kindness meditations are taught by beginning with yourself. You look at yourself and own where you are. And later on, we bring our positive feelings of kindness and compassion outward. we in small kind of concentric circles we later on we bring it outward towards maybe somebody who we feel respect for and then perhaps someone who we've had a neutral feeling for and then we can move this process of expanding the circle of our compassionate heart to the more difficult task of considering

[21:26]

Loving kindness, extending loving kindness towards people who we have a problem with, people who we actually are at odds with, maybe even we might think our enemies. And later this morning, I'm going to lead us through a process, a kind of guided meditation like this. And in this, at the time today, because time is passing. There might be only time to briefly investigate what comes up in regard to one person. But I think when you really do this kind of practice, it's not a question of feeling good about one person. But you need to work through, over time, a whole series of relationships and connections you have. For instance, if there's someone who you're at odds with, kind of sending them, feeling kind of positive about them and coming to terms with how you offer the best wishes to that person isn't enough.

[22:36]

We need to do this with actually everyone in our life. Everyone in our life that we've met and will meet and even those that we won't meet. If we were just able to be successful at extending a heart of loving kindness towards our family and friends, well, that would be not enough. In the Buddhist time universe that we live in, This is the age of Shakyamuni Buddha. The Buddha of this time and place is someone who was born in India 2,500 years ago of the Shakyamuni tribe, and he was a sage of the Shakyas.

[23:43]

He was a Muni, so he's Shakyamuni. And when he had his great awakening, when Shakyamuni woke up, he became the Buddha. So that's the time we live in today. There is a actually a teaching in Buddhism about who the next Buddha will be. And that teaching is that the next Buddha will be Maitreya. Maitri is the Sanskrit for metta. So the next Buddha will not come from a particular tribe or place, but will arise in this perspective of understanding out of... the loving-kindness that all people feel for each other and that this particular individual will personify and radiate. So the Buddha of the next era, Maitreya, is the Buddha of universal friendliness and compassion and kindness.

[24:46]

And I hope that this is so. It's nice to believe that the evolutionary trend of the world is towards such a place. I'm going to, at this time, actually do that thing that irritated me so much when Norman did it. which is actually lead us through a guided meditation on loving kindness. And I ask everybody maybe to, you know, if you could adjust your posture or if you're in a chair, just sit up a little bit so that you can listen to these words with a kind of attentive, with a fresh body and mind and spirit. and I should do the same thing.

[25:53]

So begin by recognizing your body and your breath by feeling your heart. Is it calm? Is it excited? Fully be in this present moment, however that moment is. And also feel, if you can, how the present moment is peaceful. Letting go of words. Just feel as you breathe. Just feel the breath as if the breath itself was love and friendliness.

[27:09]

And breathe in this friendly, loving energy into yourself. And as you exhale, consciously exhale. Put the space around you, loving kindness, warmth, friendliness, and kindness. And as your breath comes in and out, as your blood circulates in your body, feel this loving kindness. circulating through you, filling you. Now, think of someone who's dear to you, someone you care for.

[28:34]

Someone who loves you in an uncomplicated way, if there's such a thing. Maybe a friend or family member or teacher. Imagine this person... that this person, he or she, be happy. Imagine you send out a feeling towards this person that he or she be content and safe. And may his or her heart be open. And as you breathe in and out, please send your breath and heart and mind and your thoughts to this dear friend, wishing them, wishing that they are well, content, safe, free of anxiety.

[29:41]

Continue to feel the friendliness and love in your breathing and feel it flowing out from you towards this person. And also feel it coming back towards you from that person. Feel this as a direct experience without words. A direct experience without words. Now think of someone who you feel more neutral towards. Perhaps some person you pass on the street but don't know.

[31:20]

And extend to this person who you feel neutral towards the heartfelt desire that they be happy, that they be safe and content, that their heart be open. and then even let go of those words about open hearts and safety and contentment. And as you breathe in and as you breathe out, just feel love and feel friendliness flowing out of you and towards this neutral person and coming back to you as well.

[32:35]

Feel love and friendliness circulating between you and the world. And now even you might drop away the idea that you're in a room that has a floor and the ceiling and simply let this loving kindness radiate in all directions from you towards everywhere. As they say, towards the ten directions. Extend your heart of compassion

[33:36]

and love as far as your consciousness can reach. And may all beings in this limitless realm, high and low human or not human alike, may all beings be happy. free of anxiety, safe and content. Now, take this expansive heart and direct it towards somebody who you have a problem with, or someone who you might find difficult, maybe someone who is mean to you or hurt you, or someone who you just simply, for reasons you don't even understand,

[35:04]

don't care for and bring that person to mind and extend to this other person the feeling the intention the wish that he or she be happy that he or she should be content and safe May her heart be open. then letting go of even that, return to simply sitting with yourself and your body and your breath and open your awareness to the present moment and to this quiet room.

[36:33]

So, anyway, that's one way. you might try to give rise. This process I just described is one way you might try to give rise to loving-kindness. But also, it's not the only way. It's a support. It's a supportive way, a supportive practice. But also, Because this is Zen center, I want to say, and also because I feel it, truly is so that the practice of Zazen, of our non-dual meditation, is the practice of returning to kindness. A kindness that's always present in each moment of time if we just allow ourselves to feel it.

[37:40]

In a very important to Zen-centered text on meditation called Fukan Zazangi, the Japanese founder of our particular Zen school says that we should let go of everything, of every wish to become a Buddha, and that we should take the backward step. He says, take the backward step and practice non-thinking. In doing this we illuminate the self. This is another way to enter into the house of love, to take the backward step to illuminate the self. So I hope with the spirit of those different things I've just said, I hope that I can continue to practice and work on how I am with other folks.

[39:10]

And I hope that we all together can do that today and tomorrow and for the rest of time. Thank you. Thank you 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, please visit sfzc.org and click giving. May we fully enjoy the Dharma.

[39:52]

@Transcribed_UNK
@Text_v005
@Score_95.02