This podcast is offered by the San Francisco Zen Center on the web at www.sfzc.org. Our public programs are made possible by donations from people like you. This song was written by your own tanto, Greg Fane, and our Dharma brother, Ben Gustin. I badger Greg to sing it on every possible occasion, but now I've got two people to badger because Helen knows it as well. So we're going to start out. Greg and Ben were studying the Lotus Sutra, and they came across a wonderful chapter, Chapter 20 of the Lotus Sutra. at about the time that there was also a skit night coming up here.

[01:01]

So they composed this song presenting the essence of the 20th chapter of the Little Sutra. So I believe you have a guitar over there. So what I'd hope for is that those of you who know the chorus will join in on the chorus, and by the time you've heard it once or twice, even those who are new to it, probably can join in as well. I'm going to teach you the chorus. I've been working on this a bit and I'll just line it out to you when we get to it. It's a little daunting to do this in the presence of the author. But I'll do my best. It's called Our Hero. There's a book called the Lotus Sutra that you really ought to know about.

[02:11]

A holy book that has the power to remove all fear and doubt. And this book tells the story of a man who means the world to me. Who could just as well have been a woman Except for male hegemony. So they call him Bodhisattva never disparage. The Bodhisattva never despise. And I'm making it my life's ambition to see the world through his poor eyes. Because he says, I will never disparage you or hunt you at arm's length. Where you only see your weaknesses, I only see your strengths. 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. That's a really hard part for someone from New York to sing.

[03:16]

Now the Bodhisattva never disparaging the countless palpas in the past. In the time of the counterfeit Dharma, And he was something of an outcast. Because the monks and nuns of his time, they were noted for their arrogance and vanity. And these were the folks who exercised great power and authority. But my boy, he never concerned himself if they treated him like a freak. He just bowed to everybody equally. And these are the words he'd speak. Yeah, actually, you don't need to have it lined out. You got it already. I would never despise you or give you that arm's length. Where you only see your weaknesses, I only see your strengths. 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 boot someday.

[04:19]

I love you. He never read or recited the scriptures much, but he only lacked the practice we spent. The monks and nuns of his time, they didn't meet it like you might expect. Instead, they cursed him, and they reviled him, and they wished that he would go. Because they all had self-esteem issues, like everybody else I know. So they beat him and pelted him with clubs and stone, tried to drive him away. He'd just run off to a safe distance and then turn around and say, I would never disparage you or hold you at arm's length. Where you always 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.

[05:24]

I love you. And so it went on for years and years. He was the target of scorn and abuse. But still our hero, he shed no year, no tears. Or did he ever wonder what's the use? Until he came to the end of his natural lifespan. And he lay down fixing to die. And he... Heard the Holy Lotus Sutra being preached up in the sky. And his life was extended for millions of years. He's lived to this day. And at the pages of the Lotus Sutra, you know 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 strengths. 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.

[06:31]

Yes, it's clear to me I can plainly see you'll be a Buddha someday. I love you. I love you. Yeah. like to dedicate that song to our recently departed and greatly loved Dharma brother David Cody David David was extremely kind and never disparaging of others.

[07:31]

But what I want to talk about tonight is how all of us should of course not disparage anyone else, but we should also be very careful since the Buddha has said, all beings, without exception, have the wisdom and compassion of the awakened ones. But because of their delusions and self-clinging, they don't realize it. And I think that's true of a great many of us. we set up very high standards for ourselves and we don't come up to our expectation in some way anyway and we dump on ourselves and we disparage ourselves and we don't recognize what we have to offer the world we don't recognize how absolutely critical it is

[08:55]

for people who are concerned with suffering, who have taken a vow to spend their life, to give their life to freeing beings from suffering, how tremendously valuable each such being is. So I want to really, really impress on you the importance of not disparaging others and not disparaging yourself even though it may be hard for you to accept the Buddha's teaching that all being each being is Buddha nature all being whole being is Buddha nature, is the nature of awakening, is the nature of seeking to help everyone wake up to the fact of their connection with each other and their connection with all beings in the world.

[10:17]

I want to call your attention to a recently published book called The Bodhisattva's Embrace. It's written by my Dharma brother here, Alan Sanaki. And it speaks of the Bodhisattva's four methods of guidance and how they play out in the world of today. and the four methods of guidance are first dana or generosity or giving and second kind speech third is beneficial action and fourth is identity action and Alan includes here a translation of this teaching from Dogen Sanjay Shobo Genzo that he did together with Shohaku Okamura.

[11:46]

And he really brings the four methods of guidance to light. I really, to life, I really would recommend that you check it out actually I don't know if there any copies left in the bookstore you could probably get it autographed by the author is that possible it's possible you know Wisdom and compassion are the two primary qualities of a Buddha. And they support each other. They work together. And compassion is...

[12:51]

a totally natural human response to suffering. When we see suffering, we are moved to try to alleviate it. I have not ever seen anyone, known anyone, for whom that was not the case. But it certainly is more pronounced in some people than others. And I would again like to express my appreciation for David's compassion and my deep regret that I couldn't reach his suffering to help him alleviate it. This is really the main thing I want to say tonight.

[14:03]

But I will share with you some of Dogen Senji's discussion of the four methods of guidance. and I'm going to take it directly from Alan's book. Maybe he ought to give the rest of the lecture, I don't know. Shishobo, or the four embracing dharmas, are giving, or dhana, loving speech, beneficial action, and what Dogen calls identity action. Each dharma or practice is a method of connecting, a way to manifest the truth that we are not separate from each other.

[15:13]

Because we are truly not separate from others, these four dharmas allow bodhisattvas and sentient beings to become free from the poisons of greed, hatred and delusion. In embrace, there is no distinction between self and other, between a bodhisattva and an ordinary being. And I think this is very interesting, and it was news to me in this until I read your book. These were already ancient practices in Dogen's time. They were found as the five sangaha the foundations for social unity in early Pali texts like the Sangaha Sutra. Dana, generosity. Piavaka, kindly speech.

[16:15]

Athakarya, helpful action. And Samana Tata. or impartiality in the Mahayana tradition they appear in the Lotus Sutra the Mahaprajna Paramita Sutra the Vimalakirti Sutra and many other well-known teachings so these go back to the beginning of Buddhism and this first one, dana or giving, is the first also of the perfections or essential practices taught by Shantideva in his Guide to the Bodhisattva's Way of Life. Dana or generosity comes up again and again in Buddhist teaching as an essential quality.

[17:25]

And this generosity, you know, I remember when I was first studying it and I read, but a monk is a mendicant, so a monk doesn't give material things. A monk gives the Dharma and fearlessness. And I thought, I'm a monk and I don't know anything about fearlessness, so I better study what it is. That was... Golly, that was about 20 years ago. That was shortly after I became abbess. I was leading a practice period down here. I thought, oh my God, wow. How can I understand fearlessness? And I don't understand fearlessness as never being afraid. It's more, I think, not being incapacitated by fear. It's being able to face what's necessary and continue to make your best effort in the face of fear.

[18:39]

The second one, kind speech, was also a very clear experience that we all had with David. He, as I say, was never disparaging. And he was, in my experience, always kind. In the book, The Bodhisattva's Embrace, Alan has taken these qualities and shown how they become necessary and engaged when we're working in the world.

[20:05]

on social issues where there is a great deal of suffering. I remember during the war in Vietnam, when I was doing quite a lot of demonstrating against the war, and I heard myself say something like, I'm fighting for peace. And it stopped me in my tracks. And I said, oh, wait a minute. Isn't there a contradiction there? And I began to study my actions. And I said, I've got to find a peaceful way to work for peace. Fighting for peace is not going to work, for one thing, because it's just going to make less peace. and hating the people who got us into the war through what turned out to be statements that were not true, events that were not true.

[21:33]

and being really concerned with the greed, hate and delusion of other people, but I was really feeding hatred in myself. So I had to look at what I was doing and change my life. And in the course of that, that's when I first met Suzuki Roshi and Zazen and Zen practice. And I thought, here is a peaceful way to work for peace. And about that time, Thich Nhat Hanh also came here, a Vietnamese teacher who was very engaged in social action to alleviate suffering, but in a mindful and peaceful way. And so I have been trying to cultivate that possibility in myself for the last 40 years and I recommend to you that you begin studying yourself if you're not already studying yourself and see how

[23:01]

these negative emotions arise in you what triggers them how do you feed them or how do you starve them you know how can you and stay with how can you work for justice for peace for love in the world in a loving way. Another one of the scriptures that we use a lot here that is foundational in Buddhism is the Loving Kindness Sutra or the Bodhisattva, or the meditation on loving kindness that we do here on a regular basis, cultivating in ourselves the possibility of loving kindness toward all beings.

[24:15]

As it says, suffusing love over the entire world, above, below, and all around without limit, so let one cultivate an infinite goodwill toward the whole world. that's a big order and it's not something we do like that but it is something worth spending your life on to live your life in a way that suffuses love over the entire world above below and all around without limit what a great way to live your life isn't it worth working toward that as an aspiration, even if you're from New York. I don't know why you say that about New Yorkers. You should respect New Yorkers more.

[25:17]

I do. That was a New York comment. I've known several loving folks from New York. Louis from New York and you were from New York okay Alan I would like you I had I made all these markers that I was going to read out of your book and I think that's foolish I would like you to comment further on the bodhisattvas' four methods of guidance for the rest of this time, if you would be so kind, or up until we sing my other favorite song. Well, I'll be brief because I think that you have set the context. There's a line in Dogen translation that

[26:25]

I think speaks to the affirmation about not disparaging others, not disparaging self, that what Dogen says is giving, Dana says you give yourself to yourself and you give others to others. It's very important. This is a mutually interpenetrating action. And it's very important that there be a balance to this. To give yourself to yourself is to validate yourself, to support yourself, even in those circumstances where you were talking about afflictive emotions, So how do you allow those afflictive emotions to arise without disparaging yourself?

[27:36]

This is, quite honestly, it's another talk, but this is something that I have to work with in myself. And I, talking to a lot of people I know, a lot of us have to work with this. Judgments are not useful and yet they come up. And the mysterious thing is we believe them. I think that one other way of looking at Zen practice is don't believe everything you think. I have a bumper sticker on my car. I've got the bumper sticker on my car too. But I must say, somebody gave it to me. I think they thought I needed it. But it's not to invalidate that feeling as well.

[28:42]

It's to recognize this is a human feeling that comes up. Whether we're joyful, in grief, whatever... the full range of human feelings are, that range exists within Buddha nature, within ourselves. So we give ourselves to ourselves, and when we do that, I think this is the thing, I never met Suzuki Roshi, but I have a wonderful teacher, and wonderful, my teacher is Sojin Mel Weizman. I've... had the opportunity to be around Hoitsu Suzuki and around so many people here and at our Zen centers. And I think when I first came here, what was really inspiring to me was that there were people who moved through life in a respectful way, in a confident way,

[29:52]

without any arrogance, but with their feet on the ground. And they had given, they were in the process. They hadn't done anything conclusive. They may not be so-called enlightened, or they may be, but they were in the process of giving themselves to themselves. And what I found very personally powerful, and it's why I stayed around was because to be around people like that, some of them quite ordinary, some of them meeting in any job you might find around the temple, and you also meet them in any other aspect of your life. Their steadiness, their freedom in whatever degree it manifests helped me feel free they were that was giving others to others by being themselves they allowed me to be they helped me to be myself and I think that that's at the core so there's this giving section of the bodhisattvas for embracing dharmas and at the end is this

[31:21]

mysterious notion called identity action, which is, that's emphasizing to me the equality dimension. That what each person that you met, they can meet you with open eyes. They could just meet you one-to-one without being, having their own wisdom and their own experience, but with this formless communication that you and I are of the same nature, which is of the nature of Buddha. And that, to me, is the meaning of identity action. And that identity action can lift you out of, if you allow it, it can lift you out of whatever, many of the holes that we're in.

[32:37]

Of course, you have to do this. I have to do this. Blanche can't, if Blanche or Mel could do this for me, I would be so happy. It's like, ah. And in our heart of hearts, we're often looking for somebody, oh yeah, take me out of this. But really, a teacher, a friend, a lover, a partner, when they just meet you in identity, in sameness, in equality, then... you're meeting at the same level. So there's this notion of embrace. In that embrace, in an embrace, you merge. Two beings for that moment become one.

[33:41]

But there are many different ways of embracing. There's a wonderful verse that Michael Newhall something he said that Kolben Chino Roshi said, which is, being a bodhisattva means just walking side by side at the same pace as someone. That's also embrace. That's also equality. And to me, this is at the heart of our practice at Tassajara, at our centers, And you find that it's not something that is just, you'll only find in the Zen world or in the Buddhist world. You find bodhisattvas everywhere. It's just, can I open my eyes and see them? And can I cultivate myself and be them and not be mired in my own beliefs or my own disparagement?

[34:46]

or comparing is difficult. Yeah, I wanted to also just remind, you talked about giving yourself to yourself, and Suzuki Roshi's teaching that when you are you, Zen is Zen. And this equality thing, he was talking in bowing, it's just Buddha bowing to Buddha. And I think, although our time is just about up, I want to recount, since you didn't know Suzuki Roshi, this will give you a feeling for him. I didn't go see him in Dokusan for a very long time because I was just awestruck by him. I'm so grateful to him. And when I went to see him, the formality is that you... fluff your cushion when you're leaving you fluff your cushion and you put it down on the mat and you step back here and bow and Suzuki Roshi was over here and I didn't want to step back from him I wanted to so without any thought I just went around and started bowing so that like right here right by his knee and when I put my head down he was sitting there and when I lifted my head he had jumped up and was head to head with me he had just responded just

[36:14]

Come on. Just like that. Just instantly. That came up for me as an example of identity action. Well, as I said, I have one other favorite song. I'd like to ask you to sing it with us. I think you probably know this song. Let's just start in. Do you want to give me some kind of note? This little... This little light of mine, I'm gonna let it shine. This little light of mine, I'm gonna let it shine. This little light of mine, I'm gonna let it shine. Let it shine, let it shine, let it shine. Everywhere I go, I'm going to let it shine everywhere I go.

[37:19]

I'm going to let it shine everywhere I go. I'm going to let it shine, let it shine, let it shine, let it shine. Thank you, Bodhisattvas. 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, visit sfcc.org and click Giving.

[37:59]

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