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 and welcome everyone. My name is Lucy and I first would like to thank Christina and Tim, where are you, Tim, for inviting me to give a talk this morning. And I want to give my deep thanks to Paul, my teacher, for your teaching and support over the years, and for entrusting me with the Dharma. Thank you. And today is an auspicious day. Happy Valentine.

[01:03]

And Happy Lunar New Year. It's coming in a couple days, but we are already getting ready for it. It's Year of the Horse. And so this year is going to be full of momentum and energy and vitality. So I wish you a very happy Year of the Horse. And more things to celebrate today. I don't know how many of you have been following the news of Walk for Peace monks. Raise your hand if you... Oh, many of you. Thank you. Wonderful. So I believe today is their homecoming day. They finished their long peace march from Texas to Washington, D.C.

[02:13]

And today they returned home and did their homecoming walk. And so I wanted to celebrate that with you and with them also. I don't have much to say about Valentine's Day, but I can say a few things about Lunar New Year. Is the sound system okay? Can everybody hear it? And then everybody online is okay also? And welcome to those of you who are online as well. So as you know, Lunar New Year is celebrated in China and many Asian countries.

[03:16]

And it goes by the lunar calendar. But exactly, it's not just lunar calendar, because in China, They go by a lunar solar calendar. Do you know what it is? So the months are according to the moon, the moon, and the seasons are according to the sun. So the season of spring, summer, autumn, and winter are marked. by the position of the sun. And so in China, spring has already started. Because in the 24 solar terms, the seasonal solar terms, the day that marks the beginning of spring was February 4th this year.

[04:25]

And the Lunar New Year is actually called the spring festival in China. And so it's a celebration of the beginning of spring. I know in North America, spring is marked with, I think, the spring equinox, right? So by then, in China, it has already been going on for a while. the spring season, because it's not marked by the time that everything is already blooming. It's marked by the time that the earth is waking up, the daylight is getting longer, and the seeds are sprouting. And so we are in spring already, even though

[05:28]

it may still feel cold. The Earth energy is already waking up. And you may, as our human body is deeply connected to the natural world, you may already have a sense that something is waking up in you. Maybe you are not wearing your wool hats and wool scarf as much now. Maybe you want to stretch and get outdoor. get in the sun and enjoy the early blooming of the trees, the flowering plums, the magnolias. So around this time, in northern China, it's still very cold, but China being a

[06:30]

having long history of agriculture, a long, historically agricultural country. And so the farmers are already beginning to prepare the field and to prepare the seeds. And in southern China, where I grew up in, it's warmer and the farmers already planting their spring crops. So it's a season of renewal, a season of hope. And around this time, Of course, I miss my hometown a lot because there is a lot of fun things going on.

[07:35]

There are a lot of rituals and traditions to celebrate the Lunar New Year, to invite blessings of peace, blessings of prosperity. Some of those rituals you may be aware of, like the lucky, red lucky envelopes, where people would put a little money inside, or a lot, and give them to young people, to children, to wish them good fortune in the new year. It's really fun. In fact, in my hometown, anybody who is not married are entitled to receive the lucky money envelope. And my most favorite ritual in my hometown is strolling the flower street, Hanfa Gai in Cantonese, or Guanghuajie in Mandarin.

[08:54]

because my hometown Guangzhou or Canton is in a subtropical climate and it's at the Pearl River Delta so everything grows very well there all year round and around this time there are still lots of flowers blooming And so for hundreds of years, there's a tradition in Guangzhou where the city will block off, I think, more than 10 districts, neighborhoods, kind of like farmer's market here, except that it's much bigger. Like it may go on for like eight to 10 blocks, like both directions. And pedestrian only. And so there would be stalls of flowers and New Year decorations and other kind of fun things like food.

[10:11]

So everybody in Guangzhou will go to these flower markets or flower streets, and it's their ritual, like before the new year, you have to do that. If you haven't done that, you haven't begun your new year, so you better go the week before and get lots of flowers for your home. And we decorate our home with plum flowers, peach flowers, orchids, narcissus, kumquat, you know, kumquat trees. And because the kumquat or tangerine trees, the tangerine is G, is pronounced the same as good luck in China. So we would decorate our homes with tangerine trees, kumquat trees.

[11:17]

kind of like we decorate homes with Christmas trees here during the holidays. But I think the Chinese people are very much into good luck. They do everything that can bring them good luck. Another thing that people do is called waving the spring, hui chun, waving the spring, which really what it is is to write calligraphy on red paper, auspicious phrases or couplets. So people would write calligraphy. Usually you will see like artists and just anybody who

[12:18]

who want to do that, they would get out pieces of red paper and write, you know, with brush and ink, write phrases on the paper. And then they would put them up at their door or inside their home. And one of the phrases often see you will see is called 珠宝平安, bamboo bringing news of peace, or the bamboo announcing the news of peace or message of peace. I believe there's an emoji in the computer. Have you ever seen it? There's like little bamboo with a little red strip of something. I think that's the emoji for it. Bamboo bringing message of peace.

[13:25]

Why bamboo? In Chinese culture, bamboo is revered or praised for its quality of being upright, at the same time being flexible. Therefore, it's very resilient. Because of the hollow between the notes of bamboo, they are able to bend in wind and in storm. And they bounce back when the wind is gone. And they can grow very tall, very big. And their use is very versatile, as you know already. You know, you can use it to make tools, floors now. You can eat bamboo shoots around this time.

[14:29]

They are delicious. They grow, like, overnight. Like, you know, the night before, you still see the ground. And next day, you'll see a big bamboo shoot coming up. And then you just cook it. And it's delicious. Of course, mostly in countryside now. And bamboo, well, I just found out it's not a tree, it's a plant. From reading a book about plants. They like to grow together. Their root system is connected. So they have very supportive community. And why is bamboo bringing peace, bringing the message of peace? Because in ancient China, bamboo was one of the medium that people wrote on, writing material.

[15:35]

Before paper was invented in Han Dynasty, like two century BC through 2nd century AD. Around that time, paper was invented. But before then, people, well, in the very, very beginning, people would carve, you know, on rocks and wood and copper metal. But then over time, people started to write on wood and bamboo strips. So around the time of Confucius, which you're talking about several hundred years BC, like around Buddha's time, during the spring and autumn period and warring states, the books

[16:40]

were written on bamboo strips. And you would write like on the strip of bamboo top down, and then you move to the next one. So the tradition of Chinese classical writing is top down and right to left. And then they would string the strips together. And so a book can be very heavy. So in those days, when people travel, you know, they went to places to visit someone or to work, to find a job. Well, I think people do that since ancient days all over the world. The way they... they send home letters is by sending home a letter made of bamboo.

[17:46]

And so when the loved ones receive the letter, they know they are safe, they know they are in good condition, they are well. So the phrase Bamboo bringing message of peace and safety comes from that. And it has been used over the centuries. And I think people just love that phrase. Even though, you know, they switch to paper, they still think bamboo brings the peace. So what is peace?

[18:53]

Do you have a word, another word for peace? I invite you to just shout it out. Serenity and harmony. Justice. Hold on. Contentment. I heard something else. Equanimity. Stability. Safety. Safety. Love. Freedom. How many hands do I have? Comfort. Tranquility. Peace. Peace. Ease. Stillness.

[20:09]

Stillness. Yes. All of the above. Thank you. Thank you very much. Well, I like to share the Chinese characters for the word peace. Well, in the phrase of, and then I can bring in all your contributions to unpack this word. So the Chinese word peace Oftentimes we have a couple of different ways to say it. And in the phrase, bamboo announcing the message of peace, it's peace and safety. And then when we say,

[21:11]

It depends on the context where you say it. So when we say world peace or peace in the society, peace in the community, we say He Ping. He Ping, two characters, harmony and balance. He means harmony. Ping means balance. equanimity also. So peace is not merely the absence of conflict and hostility. Of course that's a sign of it, but in If you look at it deeper, where does it come from?

[22:20]

So it comes from harmony, comes from balance, comes from serenity or stillness, and comes from a inner stability. When we have inner stability, we can move, we can remain grounded, we remain centered when conditions change, whether the conditions are favorable or unfavorable. you can remain balanced. But you're not separated from the conditions, from the environment around.

[23:30]

We're not separate from our conditions. But we can harmonize. We can harmonize with the conditions that show up in our life. You know, as the monks who are in the Peace Walk, as they walk through towns and cities and countryside. If you have watched their videos, you'll see they are met with so many different kinds of conditions. Different weather, you know.

[24:40]

blue skies, rain, snow storms. And they just keep walking. And they find ways to allow that to be part of their walk. just keep moving. So harmonizing with the conditions around us is not separation. It's not getting lost either. It's finding ways to engage while keeping inner stability.

[25:46]

There, I think of a story, an ancient Chinese story. Some of you might have heard of it. It's called Sai Wong Shi Ma, the man who lost his horse. I think I mentioned it in some of my other talks. You've heard of it? I'll relate it to you, for those of you who haven't heard of it. Well, because it's the year of the whores, I have to tell a whore story. So this story came from a collection of writing called Huainanzi. It was a collection of writing of Daoist and other kind of stories and philosophical thoughts about, in the second century BC, that collection came.

[27:18]

And so the story became very well known and popular, and it became part of, like, it became an idiom in Chinese language, Sai Wong Shi Ma. the old man lost his horse. Sai Wong means an old man who lived near the border, northern border. And he raised horses as his, I guess, way of living. One day, he he lost one of his horses. This horse wandered off into other land. He couldn't find it. And so the villagers said to him, they tried to comfort him, well, oh, that's so unfortunate.

[28:24]

I'm so sorry for your loss. I hope you are okay with that. And he was like, well, how do you know this is not a blessing? How do you know this is not a bad thing? I mean, how do you know this is not a good thing? And then days later, his horse, his lost horse, came back with a beautiful wild horse. And everybody in the village came to congratulate him. Oh, great. Now you've got a beautiful horse. How wonderful. And he was like, oh, it's OK. How do you know it's not a bad thing or it's still a good thing? And then days later, his son,

[29:28]

trying to ride on this new wild horse and then fell and broke his leg. And everybody came to counsel him. Oh, that's so terrible. Your son broke his leg. We're so sorry. And he was very calm. He was like, well, how do you know it's not a blessing? And then the war broke, and all the young men got drafted and sent to the battlefield. Many of them died. And his son got to stay home because he had a broken leg. And his broken leg spared his life. How do you know it's not a blessing?

[30:29]

So that was my whole story. How do you know it's not a blessing when something happened in your life that's not quite you wanted, not quite you have expected, or maybe It's very difficult, very challenging for you. How do you harmonize with that condition and see the blessing in it and keep flowing? with the conditions. Because everything changed, as they say.

[31:36]

If you allow your heart to relax and witness what's happening, yet not get stuck in it. So harmony happens when you're not stuck. You're not stuck in one place. You know that yin-yang symbol, where it's a circle of yin and yang, two fish, yin, the dark one and the bright one, and they kind of blend it into each other. And it's a suggestion of the movement and transformation between the two.

[32:48]

And each of them contain a small round circle, their eye, the fish eye, of the opposite energy. And this is a symbol of harmony, yin-yang harmony. So when we allow things to keep moving and blending, yet retaining its own quality, and somehow in the shifting and transforming in that process, you can find a place of ease. But if you are rigid, you know, imagine the two fish are square with rigid line between them that they don't play with each other.

[34:07]

How do we keep moving? How do we keep harmonizing? We cannot get fixated in one place. We cannot get stuck in one place. If we keep holding onto our old resentment, for example. We won't be able to move freely. We won't be able to keep moving forward. So peace and harmony, ask us to let go, to let go of things that are not helpful, to let go of our fear and our resentment.

[35:44]

to make space, to make room for movement. If your closet is full of old stuff, you can't go inside and you can't even turn. As you clear the stagnation as you free up space, you'll be able to give rise, give room to other qualities of life that are wholesome, that are helpful, beneficial. And you will be able to act from the place of compassion, from the place of stability.

[37:01]

So as the monks walk through towns and cities, they encounter many different kinds of people. There are people who bring them flowers, bring them food. People who tell them painful stories, who cry. And they're able to walk through all of the situation with compassion, even when they encounter protesters, even when they encounter more terrible things, like the auto accident.

[38:21]

that led to injury of a monk who eventually lost his leg. Even that happens, they were able to keep moving. So their peace message was written on the earth using their footsteps. This is how they bring the message of peace, step by step, with active compassion. removed from life, not removed from pain.

[39:26]

With each step they embrace tears of sorrow and joy, and they embrace children and the sick. And today, I believe they are home already in their home temple in Fort Worth, Texas. So no matter how far we go, we return home. peace is our true home.

[40:36]

No matter what happens in your actual home, there is a home you can return to, and that is peace. That is where you find comfort and clarity. When we sit zazen, we keep returning to our breath, to our body. When our mind wanders, we keep returning to our awareness. Awareness is our home.

[41:41]

So I got a new phone recently, and I installed a bunch of widgets. And one of them is Google Map, of course. And this is something new to me because I didn't see it in my old phone. So the other day, I was home, and I pulled out my phone, and I looked at the map, and the widget says, home. You are here already. Did you see that on your phone? It's the first time I saw it. Hong, you are here already. I hope they will put that message on each and every, like wherever you go. Like I'm at Zen Center now, it will say, Zen Center, Hong, you are here already.

[42:58]

Or you are going to the park or going shopping. always, I hope it will remind us to know that we're here already. We are always home. Peace begins with our own heart. When we find peace in our heart, we can radiate that out. It will radiate out like spring blossoms. We have till 1115, correct?

[44:23]

Whenever it is that you fill up your tongue, you'll be done. In that case, I'm not done. So what's the message of peace? What's the news of peace? I'd like to close this talk with a peace and loving-kindness meditation with you all. So if we can all find a comfortable position, you can adjust your posture Relax it upright while allowing the muscles in your face, your neck and shoulder, the rest of your body, allow them to relax.

[45:49]

Return to your breath. Come back to your body. Come home. breath allow the prayer for peace register

[48:11]

be free from harm. May I be free from physical and mental suffering. May I be free from fear and resentment. May my heart be steady and at ease and have the capacity to forgive and to love. May I be well, happy, and peaceful. May my family be free from harm

[49:25]

May they be free from suffering. May they be free from resentment and fear. May they live in safety and trust. May they be well, happy, and peaceful. May our community be free from fear and division. May we learn to listen deeply and care for one another.

[50:32]

May we be well, happy, and peaceful. may all beings be free from harm may all beings be free from suffering may all beings live in dignity and safety may all beings be well happy and at peace.

[51:44]

Thank you very much. Thank you for listening to this podcast offered by the San Francisco Zen Center. Our Dharma talks are offered at no cost and this is made possible by the donations we receive. Your financial support helps us to continue to offer the Dharma. For more information, visit sfcc.org and click giving. May we fully enjoy the Dharma.

[52:11]

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