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. Good morning. So I'm not the scheduled speaker today, and... I'm sorry that Zenju wasn't able to be here this morning, but she's having some physical difficulties, and so she asked to be excused. And we all send her our very best for a complete recovery. So she needs to rest. And as a result, a few hours ago, I was told that I would be giving the talk. So what would you like to talk about? Actually, what I did, I went into my files and I thought, hopefully, I could find something that might be relevant to our current life in the world, how it is for all of us.

[01:10]

And I actually did find something I thought was pretty relevant, the talk that I offered right after the presidential inauguration. So it seems to have some valid issues to... So I want to share those thoughts with you again. How many of you are new to Green Gulch, haven't been here before? Welcome, welcome everyone. Excuse me. I'm Fu. I'm the abbess, currently the abbess here, for those of you who don't know me. So this teaching story I'm going to begin with is from the Book of Serenity, and it's called Ditsang, Planting the Fields. And this is a very popular teaching story here on the farm, as you can well imagine, given our devotion to growing plants and also to growing human beings.

[02:16]

So the case begins with Ditsang asking Zuesang, where do you come from? Ditsang is the teacher. Where do you come from?" Suresan replies, from the South. Ditsan says, how is Buddhism in the South these days? Suresan replies, there is extensive discussion. Ditsan says, well, how can that compare to me here, planting the fields and making rice to eat? Suresan says, well, what can you do about the world? And Di Sang says, what do you call the world? I recently heard something that Winston Churchill reportedly said during the Second World War. When you're going through hell, keep going. So that's what I want to talk about today. How do we keep going when there's been a big shift in how we imagine the world and ourselves to be?

[03:25]

You know, a sea change. So personally, the first time I noticed that there was anything unusual about what I call the world literally occurred while I was shopping at Whole Foods. I walked in. It was a few days after the inauguration. And having fondness for the origin of words, I looked up the word inauguration. And it says it's from a Latin word, agar, referring to the rituals of the ancient Roman priests who read signs in nature to determine if an official was worthy to assume public office. So Whole Foods is a familiar place. There wasn't anything particularly unusual that day, the familiar cues of yogurt and veggies and crackers and cheese and that kind of thing. Nothing new or surprising except that suddenly I felt that I had been popped into an alternative universe.

[04:30]

And it was made up of alternative facts and alternative points of view, a new paradigm of reality, seemingly not concerned at all about what I value, what I think, or what I feel. And what was interesting about that experience was how invisible it all was to my senses. And so it remains. I didn't see or smell anything unusual, just a lot of well-dressed, mostly white people, just like here today. And yet my internal navigational system seemed to have shut off temporarily, and I could not recognize where I was or what I was doing there. And in particular, who all of these people are milling around me, and what are they thinking? Who are we? Not only that, it seemed all to be somewhat groundless, completely disconnected from the actual earth, from the soil and the seeds, from the water and the hard labor that brought all of this food into that grocery store.

[05:46]

And although it didn't look like hell, some part of me was certain that that's where I was. regardless of which side of the sideless universe I imagined myself to be on, red, white, black, or blue, walls within walls within walls. So lacking anything better to do at that moment, and as I said, being very fond of the origins of words, I went home and I looked up, sea change, sea change, hoping, I think I was hoping for some kind of a clue. a clue about how to think and what to say in the dark shadow of a dark lord. The very same lord that terrorized the Buddha under the Bodhi tree as he struggled in his own quest for sanity. In the sutras, the dark lord is called Mara, the evil one, also known as the great deceiver, the master of illusion, the teller of lies.

[06:48]

This term, sea change, originally appears in Shakespeare's The Tempest in a song sung by Ariel, a supernatural spirit. She's singing to Ferdinand, the Prince of Naples, following his father's apparent death by drowning. Ariel has seen Ferdinand's father five fathoms down, which is about 30 feet under the ocean. And so she sings... Full fathom five thy father lies. Of his bones are coral made. Those are pearls that were his eyes. Nothing of him that doth fade, but doth suffer a sea change into something rich and strange. Sea nymphs hourly ring his knell. Ding dong. Hark, now I hear them. Ding dong. So the term sea change in storytelling is often used to mean a metamorphosis, such as when a literary character transforms over time into a better person after undergoing various trials and tragedies, like the changes in Scrooge's personality that appear in the final scenes of A Christmas Carol, or like the transformation of the young human prince Siddhartha into a Buddha, an awakened one.

[08:12]

So in hopes that the sea change taking place in our world today is toward a positive metamorphosis, I'm going to share with you some of the recommendations by the Buddhas and ancestors and other renowned teachers of the world's great religions, which have been sent forward to those of us living here on Earth today. As we all know from our exposure to both ancient and modern history, Cruelty, ignorance and avarice are not new to our planet. Again and again, humans of all stripes have taken from their neighbors, have killed or exiled those who resist them, and have built colossal monuments to themselves. Again and again, we humans have told each other lies and used tricks or violence to win the seemingly endless contest for control of the planet, its people, and its limited resources. Nothing new. Having been a young person during the years of the Vietnam War and the Civil Rights Movement, I and my like-hearted friends at that time were faced with two choices, rage or rage management.

[09:31]

But we were very lucky in those days, as we are now, so lucky and blessed to have the teachings of the great ones, noble ones, honorable women and men who can tell us what is right and what is wrong and who themselves have walked through hell and gone beyond it. So here are some of the words from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in a very beautiful sermon he gave in 1967 called The Three Dimensions of a Complete Life. It's kind of a long sermon, well worth reading. So I've taken a little section of it to read to you now. What he's talking about is the story of the Good Samaritan. For those of you not familiar with the story, basically it recounts the reply that Jesus gave to a religious scholar who was asking about how he might come to inherit eternal life. Jesus asked the man, what is written in the law? The man replies, love the Lord with all your heart and with all your mind, and love your neighbor as yourself.

[10:42]

The scholar then asks, well, who is my neighbor? So Jesus tells the story of a man who has been beaten and robbed and left for dead at the side of the road. Two travelers, kingsmen of this man, come along and pass by. And then a Samaritan, who is not of this tribe, comes to where the man was, and when he sees him, he takes pity on him. He bandages his wounds, lifts him onto his own donkey, and cares for him. Jesus then asks the scholar, which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers? The expert in the law replied, the one who had mercy on him. And Jesus then says, go and do likewise. So here's what Dr. King adds after recounting this story. And don't forget in doing something for others that you have what you have because of others.

[11:46]

Yes, sir. Don't forget that we are tied together in life and in the world. And you may think you got all you got by yourself. But you know, before you got out here to church this morning, you were dependent on more than half of the world. That's right. You got up in the morning and went to the bathroom, and you reached for a bar of soap, and that was handed to you by a Frenchman. You reached over for a sponge, and that's given to you by a Turk. You reached for a towel, and that comes to your hand from the hands of a Pacific Islander. And then you go on to the kitchen to get your breakfast. You reach on over to get a little coffee, and that's poured in your cup by a South American. That's right. Or maybe you decide that you want a little tea this morning instead, only to discover that that's poured in your cup by a Chinese. That's right. Or maybe you want a little cocoa that's poured in your cup by a West African. Yes. Then you want a little bread, and you reach over to get it, and that's given to you by the hands of an English-speaking farmer, not to mention the baker.

[12:48]

That's right. And before you get through eating breakfast in the morning, you are dependent on more than half the world. That's right. That's the way God structured it. That's the way God structured the world. So let us be concerned about others because we are dependent on others. Oh, yes. So this is the very same teaching of interdependence the Buddha gave at the moment of his own enlightenment. with newly opened eyes that had grown kind and merciful. The entire world in the ten directions is the true human body, he said. That's right. This body, that body, each body sitting right here now in this room, alive together with all beings on this wonderfully fog-shrouded day. That's right. Once our human eyes can see what's hard to see, then there are no others who are not our neighbors, our family, our sustenance, and our responsibility.

[13:54]

Dr. King had eyes like that. So too did Mahatma Gandhi, Nelson Mandela, the Dalai Lama, Suzuki Roshi, and many, many others whose names are not well known, but whose lives have been a blessing to those around them. Maybe you had a parent like that. or a friend, or a teacher, or maybe you're like that. I had the amazing good fortune on Friday to go see a film that was playing at the Raphael called Won't You Be My Neighbor? There weren't very many people in the theater. I wish all of you had been there because it was an amazing experience. I don't know, how many of you used to watch Mr. Rogers when you were children? Yeah, yeah. So you know who I'm talking about. Anyway, it's a beautiful tribute to the Reverend Fred Rogers, also known as Mr. Rogers. The film is called Won't You Be My Neighbor? And I hope you'll try to find a way to see it. It was only there for a day, I think.

[14:57]

Anyway, it revives perhaps our faith that there are good men and good women in this world who are not in hiding or simply unable to find their voices. There's one particular scene in which Mr. Rogers invites the neighborhood mailman, a person of African descent who's a regular member of the show, to join him in soaking his feet in a small plastic wading pool full of cold water because it's a very hot day. This scene was filmed at the very time that hotel managers and other irate citizens were pouring chemical solvents into public swimming pools whenever African-Americans would appear to swim. Mr. Rogers also invited disabled children onto his show. He talked about divorce, about Bobby Kennedy's assassination. And in one particularly poignant scene, as he's feeding the fish that are also regulars on the set, he says, oh, look, one of the fish is lying still at the bottom of the tank. The fish has died.

[16:00]

And then he carefully scoops the fish up and lays it on a paper towel and holds it in front of the camera. And then he goes in the garden on the set and he digs a hole and he places the fish gently into the hole and covers it over. Doesn't say very much. But just watching his gestures, his behavior, he conveys the utmost respect, tranquility and kindness to all who see him. As you know, as you know. There's a verse from the Lotus Sutra. that we chant here on New Year's as we process down to the garden with candles inside of handmade lotus boats. Usually there are over 100 voices joining in. Eyes of compassion, observing sentient beings, assemble an ocean of blessings beyond measure. Eyes of compassion, observing sentient beings, assemble an ocean of blessings beyond measure.

[17:04]

So what do we call the world? And how do we keep going when there's been a big shift in how we imagine the world and ourselves to be? And the only answer that I can give and the only one that I know is to keep on studying the teachings of the awakened ones with a commitment to awaken ourselves and those around us. The only appropriate response to this suffering world, we call this commitment the bodhisattva vow. The theme for the practice period in 2017 was called The Host Within the Host, which is the last line of a lovely poem written in the 9th century by Chinese Zen master Dongshan Yangjie. He and his successor are considered to be the founders of our particular school of Buddhism, called Soto Zen, so we pay a lot of attention to what Dongshan had to say. This morning I'm going to talk a little bit about Dongshan's teaching of awakening that I used as an introduction to this theme for the practice period students.

[18:11]

And also because his teaching is relevant to the particular kind of suffering arising in our world today. The poem which Dongshan is most famous for is called the Song of the Jewel Mirror Samadhi. Song of the Jewel Mirror Samadhi. It's one that we chat weekly here at Zen Center. And within this poem are embedded Dongshan's elaboration of the relationship between what he calls the host and the guest. And he offers this in a formulation, a famous formulation, in Zen anyway, called The Five Ranks. The Five Ranks. So these five ranks are perspectives, each of them, on enlightenment. Other names for host and guest are the ultimate truth and the relative truth, the real and the apparent, the upright and the slanted, or the teacher and the student.

[19:16]

Suzuki Roshi also called these two the big mind and the small mind. So just what is it that the teacher is here to teach the students according to this master of Zen? Well, the teacher is here to teach three things. Ethics, concentration, and wisdom. Shila, Samadhi, and Prajna. These are also known as the three learnings. These three things make up the entirety of the Buddha's own pathway awakening, beginning with ethics, the development of good character, which includes deportment or manners. As a young boy, the Buddha was taught good manners. He was a prince. And sometimes, unfortunately, in our culture, good manners are disparaged, you know, as being overly fussy or actually hiding some kind of cultural elite system of

[20:24]

grades and castes and so on. And as with all human behavior, manners can become a means of cultural oppression for enforcement of a caste system, privileging the very few and establishing a cultural elite. We know that. We know the danger. And yet, without setting aside the dangers that are inherent in the rules of deportment, of etiquette, it's essential for humans to find some agreements on how to live and work together. the rules of law. If those laws are unjust or unfair and not founded on principles of wisdom and compassion, then we only have relentless conflict as it's being highlighted in our nation this very day. And it's not dissimilar to what was happening in the Buddha's day as city-states were being transformed into empires by the privileged few. Manners for the Buddha were the primary means by which he taught his community of young monks to survive without owning property or carrying weapons of self-defense.

[21:34]

He taught them to walk slowly and quietly, to enter into the donors' houses with warm smiles and deep bows, to show their gratitude for food and shelter, and like the Good Samaritan, to devote themselves to the welfare of all those in need. Love your neighbor as yourself. Or as the Dalai Lama said, my religion is kindness. So the golden rule is not about accumulating great wealth. It's about the development of good character. Character, dignity, or one's attitude, as Viktor Frankl called it in man's search for meaning, is the one thing that cannot be taken from you. In the retelling of his survival under the Nazi regime, having been deprived of his family, his home, and even his own clothing, Frankl deeply understood what was at the core of a life truly worth living.

[22:35]

He had developed his character. And although he was often afraid and quite certain that he would be killed, he discovered that he did not lose his dignity. or succumb to the bullying of those who had taken command of his society. Developing our character, becoming respectful in our personal relationship to the world, meaning to one another, is the first of the five ranks that I mentioned, which are presented in Dongshan's poem, the guest or the student enters deeply into a relationship of mutual respect with the host as personified by the teacher. At this stage of practice, the first of the five ranks, the meeting appears to take place in utter darkness. Who is the teacher? The other, the universe, that we've each come here to meet. In the very formation of our personal life, as it is differentiating from the rest of the universe, right there within our mother's womb, we are faced with a profound darkness.

[23:41]

Do you remember? There's nothing there to be seen at all, and yet we have a strong sense of intimacy with the ancient wellspring from which we were born. And so the question remains before us throughout our life, who is the other? Who are my neighbors? So here's Dongshan's verse that accompanies the first of the five ranks. This is the guest within the host, the baby within the womb. At the beginning of the third watch, before moonrise, very dark. Don't be surprised if there's a meeting without any recognition. One still vaguely harbors the elegance of former days, the union with the big mind, with the great matter, with the great mother. This stage of awakening reminds me of the children's story about the little animal that's lost in the forest and goes around asking all of the forest creatures, are you my mother?

[24:43]

Are you my mother? Maybe so. In the second stage of practice, the second of the five ranks, we have emerged from the darkness into the light of self-awareness, what we call the world, the world of color, sound, odor, taste, touch, and thought. This is the verse that accompanies the second of the five ranks, the host within the guest, the darkness within each of us, the primal knowledge. Having overslept, an old woman encounters the ancient mirror. This is clearly meeting face-to-face. Only then is it genuine. Don't lose your head by validating shadows. Fake news, a red herring. Through thinking, we discriminate preferences among the multitude of appearances. Through thinking, We discriminate preferences among the multitude of appearances.

[25:48]

And we learn how to negotiate a complex world that appears to come toward us, either in friendship or in enmity. Along with that discrimination comes the arising of greed on the one hand and of hatred on the other. I like that and I don't like that. And everything else I'm not sure of yet. The danger at this stage is how we think about the world, what we call the world, as we lose our heads by validating shadows. The next three stages of the five ranks are descriptive of the spiritual journey through which we come to integrate the darkness of the universe with this single human life that we have an oh so brief opportunity to explore. By integrating our understanding of the world, the universe, and our own place in it, we too may come to find this dignity that cannot be taken from us by any means.

[26:52]

The biggest choices within this human life are encompassed in the teachings by the Buddha, who is said to have awakened to his own dual identity, his dual citizenship, as both the universe itself and as a single person. Or as Dongshan said on the occasion of his awakening, gazing into his reflection in the water, just this person, the host within the host. Just this person. The three trainings that I mentioned earlier, ethics, concentration, and wisdom, are the tools or the practices for realizing a fully awakened life. tools which are used continuously in our exploration of these five facets of awakening. The first training, ethics or deportment, requires the support of the other two, of concentration and of wisdom.

[27:56]

Concentration allows us to study and recognize the elaborate workings of the human mind. It allows us to slow down in order to more deeply consider our motives, our actions, and our thoughts. We even call such a person considerate, well-considered, a well-considered response. But it's the third training itself, wisdom, that is seeking wisdom, a search that is undertaken within our very own body and mind. How? Don't move. Don't talk too much. Don't kill. Don't steal. Don't lie. Don't sexualize. Don't hate anything or anyone. Rage management. It's not easy. Zen Master Dogen called this practice just sitting.

[28:57]

Just sitting allows us to explore the workings of our own mind until we discover its hidden truth, that we are not alone, we are not separate, and we are not here in this world. for any other reason than to live in harmony with everyone else. Those who know this do not fight against each other. There is no other. It's your own true face being reflected in the mirror of reality in each and every moment, including right now. As students of the Buddhist teaching, this is our commitment, our value, and our vow. to follow a pathway of truth, of nonviolence, and of respect for all beings. And yet I, for one, am greatly challenged in that commitment on this very day. The sea change which has taken place in our society through the rhetoric of hatred and exclusivity is utterly frightening. And yet, like Viktor Frankl, I have great faith in the power of human dignity.

[30:03]

and a great although thinning hope that those in power will awaken from their selfish interests. And until they do, our mandate as people of conscience is continuous vigilance and a well-reasoned response, ethics, concentration, and wisdom. I'm going to end with a poem by Juan Ramon Jimenez. I feel that my boat has bumped. there at the bottom, into something big. And nothing happens. Nothing. Quiet. Waves. Nothing happens. Or has everything happened? And we already are at rest in something new. Thank you all very much. Thank you for listening to this podcast offered by the San Francisco Zen Center.

[31:05]

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 sfcc.org and click Giving. May we fully enjoy the Dharma.

[31:26]

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