Thank you for coming. And are there no children? Well, this is the first Saturday of the month, and it is children's program. However, we seem not to have any children today. Pardon? Yeah, okay. Well, you're going to have to regress because I have a little... I have a little something that I wanted to say to the children, and it sort of leads into the rest of my talk. So we're going to do that, if you don't mind. So anyhow, I wanted to tell the kids a little story about something that happened to me a long time ago. And we'll go from there. Okay, so once upon a time, and this really is a true story because it actually happened to me and I was there and can attest to it.

[01:01]

I was coming home one day and I can't remember where I was coming home from, but I do remember that I was in a really bad mood. I was either angry or sad or, you know, something unpleasant. And I couldn't think of anything else to do to change my mood. So I thought, well, if I can't do anything else, at least I can... walk down a different street on my way home. And this was in St. Louis, where I used to live. And one of the nice things about St. Louis is that it has a very large urban forest, in the sense that there are many trees in all of the neighborhoods. So I decided to walk down the street parallel to the one where I lived, and as I was walking down, I happened to look up, and there was a huge sycamore tree, probably three stories tall, in my memory at least, that was completely covered with tennis shoes. This is true, it was great. So there were tennis shoes tied to the branches and there were strings of them.

[02:03]

Like, you know, 10 tennis shoes, five tennis shoes, three tennis shoes, one tennis shoe. And they were like sort of, you know, smelly fruits hanging from the sycamore tree. And I looked up and I was so delighted that I started to laugh. And it completely changed my mood. Several weeks later, so I kept visiting the tennis shoe tree. Several weeks later, there was some guy raking his lawn or something in front of the tennis shoe tree, so I asked him about it. He said, oh, yeah, the neighborhood kids have been doing this for quite a long time. When their tennis shoes were out, they put them in the tree. And I was just delighted by it. So the point I wanted to make to the children is that you never know what's out there. You know, there might be something wonderful just around the corner that you haven't noticed before and you have to take a different way home to see what it is.

[03:04]

Something as wonderful as a tennis shoe tree. So please, you know, go out and look for your tennis shoe tree or pay attention because it might surprise you someday. So that was the story I was going to tell to the children and I was going to dismiss them and and let them get on to their own thing with Janine. And then I was going to turn to you and say, you know, we lie to our children a great deal. This, however, was not, this story was true, you know, about the tennis shoe tree, but we do lie to our children in the sense that we present the world, I think, in a way that is much more hopeful and sparkling and happy and hope-nice than it perhaps really is for most of us most of the time. And we lie to them in this sense because we are hoping to create the world as we would like it to be or as it should be in our children by telling them these stories about the world the way we want it to be.

[04:17]

And we're hoping that they will believe these stories and manifest them in their own lives. So is it lying or is it not lying? There's a story in the Lotus Sutra that I like very much. The Lotus Sutra is a very important Mahayana scripture and it's filled with wonderful stories. And the story that I was thinking about is the story of the burning house. So it goes like this. There was a man once a wealthy man who had many children, and they were playing in his house when the house caught fire. He was outside. And he said, kids, come on, get out. The house is on fire. The house is on fire. And the kids said, no, Dad, we're having too much fun. Go away. Leave us alone. And they wouldn't come out, and they wouldn't come out. And the father knew that they would be burned to death if they stayed in the house. So he said, well, if you come out, I'll give you something nice.

[05:21]

I'll give you little carts that are pulled by goats and little carts that are pulled by deer. And that sounded pretty cool. I guess it was, you know, the sort of, you know, equivalent of whatever it is children play with these days, electronic games or something. And so they were so excited about the possibility of getting these wonderful little horse of these little goat carts that they all came rushing out and were saved from the fire. Now, when... they got out, they didn't find the goat carts. What they found was each one of them had this splendiferous carriage drawn by white bulls with cushions and bells and jingles and jangles and a retinue of servants to throw flowers and things like that. So what they got was actually better than what they had bargained for. But the father used what they were familiar with to bring them out. He offered them something lesser.

[06:22]

than what he eventually gave them. So this is rather a nice story from the Lotus Sutra. And, you know, in Zen, we kind of do the same thing. We lure you in with promises. You know, you read the stories, right? And, you know, these guys are doing whatever, and one of them hits one of the other on the head, and he has, oh my God! Well, he probably didn't say, oh, my God, but you know what I mean. It's like this moment of great awakening and enlightenment, okay? And so, you know, it's kind of shiny, this enlightenment thing. And so there's lots of these stories about these monks or, you know, even lay people, you know, getting enlightened or having enlightenment moments or flashes or whatever. And, you know, that actually kind of lures a lot of people in. Or the aesthetics. lure a lot of people in, or the whatever, lure a lot of people in. So once we've got you lured in, what do you actually get?

[07:25]

You know, this is the other thing, okay? So one of my favorite stories is also from the Zen literature, and it's about two monks who are walking down a road going on pilgrimage. And, Victoria, will you help me with this one? Okay, so one of the monks... There are these two monks walking down the road, and one of the monks bangs his staff and says, just here is the summit of the mystic peak. Right? And his friend, the other monk, looks around, nods, and says, yes, what a pity. So that's what you get once we've lured you in. So, you know, these stories, you know, are great, and I love them.

[08:30]

They tell us a lot. They can reveal a lot to us. But, you know, the important thing to remember is they're only the punchline, okay? These little stories, they don't tell you about the 25 years that these two guys spent practicing with each other. before they came to the summit of the mystic peak. They don't tell you about the rest of their lives where they spent practicing, and maybe some other moments of enlightenment or awakening came to them, and maybe not. So anyhow, the Buddha lures us in with promises. And maybe it's not like a big enlightenment experience that you are looking for or have been lured in by. Maybe it's just something as simple as the end of suffering. Yeah. Yeah. So the Buddha says in many places in the scriptures, what I teach is suffering and the end of suffering. Okay? So that sounds pretty good.

[09:31]

I mean, you know, I'd go for that, the end of suffering. And as we practice and as we pay attention to And as we devote ourselves to the study of cause and effect in our lives, our suffering is indeed decreased. And we can learn how suffering works in our lives, how we contribute to our suffering, and how we contribute to the lessening or the eradication of suffering in our lives. And I truly believe that our suffering can be ended, as the Buddha said. I also believe that it is ended only in those who are willing and able to practice total acceptance, which is also total renunciation. As our abbot Steve Stuckey said the other night, he was talking about the four foundations of mindfulness, and when we move slightly away from the way things are,

[10:39]

as opposed to staying directly with the way things are, and we move through our aversion or through our desire, you know, then we create suffering. So how many of us are willing to practice total acceptance of the way things are and total renunciation of wanting them to be different? There are many takers. So, you know, So maybe we have to settle for something else, as opposed to the total eradication of suffering, at least for right now. You know, in the Mahayana, of which the Mahayana school, the so-called great vehicle, of which Zen is a sort of sub-school, if you will, in a way we almost make a virtue of our suffering. Because the ideal in the Mahayana schools... is not the ideal of the one who escapes or ends suffering completely for herself, but rather the one who elects to remain in the world of suffering to be of service to other suffering beings, to remain involved in the suffering of other beings.

[11:57]

And this inevitably, you know, we don't, you know, it's kind of one or the other, you know, We don't actually get to remain in the world of suffering to be of service without suffering ourselves. You know, the Bodhisattva really, really hurts. Okay? He or she really is totally involved in the world of suffering and really, really feels it. So this weekend sometime, I believe today, is the Day of the Dead. And, you know, the dead are really dead. You know, it's not a show. It's really true. They don't come back. Our suffering is real. I'd like to read a little bit from Dogen Zenji, who is the sort of founder of our school, in Japan at least. And in his essay, Genjo Koan, he says, firewood becomes ash,

[13:02]

and does not become firewood again. Yet do not suppose that ash is future and firewood is past. You should understand that firewood abides in the phenomenal expression of firewood, which fully includes past and future, and is independent of past and future. Ash abides in the phenomenal expression of ash, which fully includes future and past. Just as firewood does not become firewood again after it is ash, you do not return to birth after death. This being so, it is an established way in Buddha Dharma to deny that birth turns into death. Accordingly, birth is understood as no birth. It is an unshakable teaching in Buddha's discourse that death does not turn into birth. Accordingly, death is understood as no death. Birth is an expression complete this moment. Death is an expression complete this moment. They are like winter and spring. You do not call winter the beginning of spring, nor summer the end of spring, except we do sometimes.

[14:08]

So, you know, our suffering is real, the suffering of others is real. A friend of mine the other day quoted a passage from Emerson, Ralph Waldo Emerson, to me, which I have not been able to locate, so I cannot swear that he said this, but I like it enough that I'm going to say it that I'm going to give it to you anyway. Apparently, Emerson said, remember when you meet anyone, they are going through a great war. You know, and I like that a lot. Remember when you meet anyone, they are going through a great war. So, you know, we treat ideally each other and all the other people that we meet as people who are indeed going through a great war, who are traumatized, who are suffering, who are in the midst of suffering. And we try to treat... others, and ourselves as gently as possible with whatever we can do to promote healing. So, you know, with all this suffering, the question comes up, why not live a life of complete hedonism or blow your brains out?

[15:15]

Well, you know, Albert Camus said suicide is the only serious philosophical question. And he was a bit of a phrase maker, but there is some truth there, right? How do we live? How shall we live under these circumstances where suffering is universal and real? So when we enter into practice, when we enter into this practice drawn in by whoever knows what shiny toys, we find ourselves left with... only two things, the density of emptiness and the bodhisattva vow. When I use the expression, the density of emptiness, I'm talking about things as it is, so to speak. Suzuki Roshi said, the world is its own magic. We cannot put any magic on it. And Dogen Zenji, quoting an old monk, said, nothing is hidden.

[16:21]

So, you know, just this, right? No pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. We are not descending from some platonic ideal. No ground of being. Just this, the density of this emptiness, which we can never exhaust and we can never fathom with our rational mind. But examining this... examining this world, the way it works, the way, the nature of cause and effect in our lives and the lives of others, brings us to the unavoidable insight of our interconnectedness. And as we study ourselves and our own suffering, we have to start with our own suffering, you see, because that's what we're most intimate with. And for some of us, it takes a while to actually get to our suffering. because there's frequently a lot of denial about it.

[17:22]

So we have to be willing and brave and able to face our suffering squarely, our own suffering. And when we do, and we examine it carefully, we see the same suffering in others. And we come to the unavoidable conclusion that we are one thing, one world, one being. and that trying to make a separate peace is delusion and impossible. So, you know, we find out that we can't do this alone, you know, as it were. And so then we come to the bodhisattva vow. So the bodhisattva vow to save all beings, to live in a way that benefits all beings, is a result not only of insight, the insight into the nature of how the world works, but it is also the result of will on our part.

[18:30]

You know, a vow is something to which we consciously consent. A vow is a decision. And the word decide literally means to cut off. So downstairs in the Zendo, the figure on the altar... is not Shakyamuni Buddha, the historical Buddha. The figure is Manjushri, the sort of personification of wisdom. And Manjushri holds a sword, the sword of wisdom. You know, to cut off the old point of view and to open ourselves up to, you know, what is sometimes feel like the cold wind of wisdom. So, you know, it is born... this bodhisattva vow of suffering, and paradoxically, it is our only real and reality-based possibility for ease and joy and meaning in our life. So, it's an interesting situation.

[19:37]

We are brought to the bodhisattva vow as the only possible way to live. So in some sense, we can be seen as being brought to it kicking and screaming because nothing else works, no matter how much we would like it to. And yet, on the other hand, when we get here, we find that it's the only possible way to live and the only possible thing that can bring us any peace at all. So in a couple of minutes, we're going to, as we say our final chance, we're going to take the bodhisattva vows, those of you who wish to, you know, the four bodhisattva vows. And, you know, this is just my opinion, but, you know, in Buddhism we talk a lot about, you know, the vows and the precepts or things like that. So, you know, in some schools, you know, monks and nuns take a gazillion precepts, you know, like a couple hundred. And, you know, lay people may take five.

[20:40]

In the Zen school here, you know, we all take the same 16. And yet, for me, they all boil down to the single Bodhisattva precept. You know, the desire to live and be lived for the benefit of all beings. And everything else just sort of works out from there. So, all of our experience, all of these bright things that we're going after to, eventually lead to just this. What a pity. And yet, when we examine just this closely enough, you know, we see that just this is much more unfathomable than anything we could have dreamed up. And that just this, we have the inevitability of the bodhisattva life, the bodhisattva vow. And that this... Just this Bodhisattva vow, you know, is all that we, not only all that we get, but all that we could ever really possibly want when we examine it closely.

[21:53]

So that's really all I have to say today. And I want to thank you all for coming. And if I have said anything that is useful to you, please accept it as my gift. And if I have said anything that disturbs or confuses you, just forget about it. Come back next week and you'll hear somebody else talk. And maybe they'll say something that you need to hear. Thank you. May our intention...

[22:30]

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