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, especially to all the young people who are here. Thank you for coming. You're all over the room. And over there, how many of the young people have never been here before? Oh, lots of kids. So this is your first time. Yeah. Well, we're going to be here together for about 10 minutes or so. And then you're going to go off and have your own kids program down on the farm, I think. Is that true? Down on the farm. Great. So how many of you kids know a bird that's called a crow?

[01:07]

Do you know what a crow is? And do you know the sound that a crow makes? Can you make that sound? Yeah, go ahead. Yes, that's right. And there's lots of crows here at... Green Gulch, and also their bigger cousin called a raven. That's even bigger. It's a beautiful bird with black, shiny feathers. You've seen a raven? Yes, they're all over. Crows and ravens can be found all over the world in cold places and warm places. And we have them here. And sometimes they're up in the trees talking to each other, talking to us. So there's a story that I wanted to tell you of when the Buddha, before the Buddha was a Buddha, the Buddha was a teacher, for those of you who don't know who the Buddha was, a teacher of being awake and alive in your life, how you live that way.

[02:14]

And he was born once as a crow, and he was a very wise crow. And crows are very wise. They're very intelligent. In fact, their brain, in relation to how big their body is, is the same as great apes who are very smart. So crows are one of the smartest birds. Anyway, when the Buddha was born as the king of the crows, He taught, he was a very wise crow, and he taught the king of the people. And I'm going to tell you this story. So once upon a time, in this land in India, there was this king of the crows, and there were many, many crows, thousand crows. You can come in if you want. You had a big, big flock of crows.

[03:16]

And one day, the king's minister... who was an important man in the king's court, got all dressed up. He took a shower and he put on fresh new clothes, very fancy clothes, and then he put a sweet-smelling a necklace of flowers, called a garland of flowers. And he was really feeling good, you know, and really fancy. And he was walking along, and there were these two crows, not the king of the crows, but two other crows, who looked down on this minister from the king's court and said, he really thinks he's something. He really thinks he's important. You know, one of the crows said, you know what I'm gonna do? I'm gonna drop something on his head. He's going to bird drop it. He's going to drop some bird poop on this minister's head. And the other crow said to him, don't do it, brother.

[04:19]

Don't do that. You're just asking for trouble. I know he kind of thinks he's really an important guy, but just leave it alone. Don't mess with this. And the other crow said, I can't help it. I just have to do this. And his friend said, I'm out of here. I don't want to see what's going to happen, and he flew away. So as the minister from the court got closer to where this crow was on this archway, the crow did drop right on his head. And the minister, it was a big mess, and he had all those fancy new clothes on, and he had to, it was right on his head, and he had to use his sleeves and wipe it off. He was so mad. He looked up at that crow. He shook his fist at him, and he said, you're going to pay for this. Don't you forget it. I'm going to get back at you for this. And the other crows heard, caw, caw, and just flew away.

[05:21]

So right at that moment, this minister not only was angry at being, you know, messed up by this crow, but he also developed a hatred and an anger for all crows. Not just this one crow who was kind of foolish, but all crows are going to pay for this. So later he told the king, and he kind of made this up, we need crows to make special medicine. So we have to catch the crows and we have to kill them and use them for medicine. Now the king trusted this person So he thought, well, this is something we need to do to help people. So there began to be a rounding up and gathering and killing of every crow. It was terrible. This is what happened from this kind of anger. So the king of the crows realized his flock was being hurt terribly.

[06:26]

And he thought, I've got to do something. So the king of the crows flew to the palace. And there was an open window. He flew right into the palace and landed on the polished floor. And he was a big crow, beautiful, shiny, black feathers and just gorgeous. And he stood there kind of confident and ready to help And the servants saw him and thought, oh, my goodness, the king's going to show up. And here's this crow, right? We better get rid of him. And they started chasing him with sticks and brooms and all over the room. And finally, the king of the crows found safety, took refuge, found safety under the king's throne. And the servants were trying to get at him with the sticks and the... The brooms, and they couldn't reach him. He was under there. Finally, the king came in, and he said, My throne is sacred. He took safety under my throne. Leave him alone.

[07:28]

So the servants backed off, and the king sat in his throne. And the king of the crows came out from underneath the throne with confidence that he needed to speak with the king. And he... hopped up on the side of the throne, and he looked at the king right in the eyes, and he said, Sire, there is a grave mistake going on. You have listened to someone, but you have not checked out for yourself whether what he says is true. And the king said, What are you talking about? We heard that there was medicine. We need medicine, so we're going to We have to kill the crows. And the king of the crows said, you didn't find out for yourself whether this was true. The minister told you this because he had revenge.

[08:30]

He had anger and hatred in his heart. And he was trying to hurt, not trying to help. You didn't look thoroughly enough, king. And the king said, understood that he hadn't. He had just taken his word for it, hearsay, that this is what we needed to do, and hadn't really found out for himself. So the king said, I'm sorry. Thank you for telling me, and we will not do this anymore to the crows. In fact, he said, how come... why do the crows always run away so fast? And the king of the crows said, we're always hungry, we're always looking for food, and people try to hurt us. So the king said, from now on, I will give you grain and put rice out for you and take good care of you.

[09:31]

So the king of the crows thanked the king of the people, and he said, from now on, Please have your actions be taking care of all people and all animals and not harming anyone. And be patient and kind. So the king of the crows taught this king. And the king said, you are so wise, king of the crows. Please rule with me. along with me, alongside. And he brought a little throne for him, smaller throne, and fed him out of golden dishes and asked him to help him rule the country. But the king of the crows said, thank you for inviting me, but I have my own flock to take care of. You rule the people and I'll rule the crows. So after that, the king... fed all the animals, helped all the animals, especially the crows.

[10:33]

And this minister who had made up this lie, his job, he got taken out of his high position into a different position in the court, and his job was to feed the crows and to put out all the food from them and to clean up after the elephants. That was his new job. So that's the story of when the Buddha was king of the crows. And one thing that is good to remember is sometimes when we get hurt by somebody or they embarrass us or make fun of us or hurt us in some way, we find that we're not only angry at them or feel bad about that one person, but we begin to think anybody who's like them, we don't like. Anybody who's like them, we're mad at. Sometimes it's, I hate girls. Sometimes it's, I hate boys. I hate people who I don't know what they are, or I don't like this religion, or what this person looks like.

[11:41]

That's something that we have to be very, very careful of. This is what happened to this minister with this one crow who was a silly, kind of foolish, practical joker. He began to hate all the crows. Very sad things and mean things can happen when we're thinking in that way. So that's one thing to remember from this story. And another thing is, even if it's scary to do it sometimes, like when the king of the crows had to speak to the king and the servants were chasing him, he knew he had to do something, he had to help in some way. And so he came out from under the throne. and spoke, spoke up, even though he didn't know what would happen to him. He had to do it. That took courage for that crow, the king of the crows. So that's the story about the crows. Now, before you leave to go down, and maybe you'll see some crows when you go down to the garden, I was wondering if you all might want to try making a crow sound, just for the fun of it, okay?

[12:52]

Let's all try it, one, two, three. Great, great, thank you. Well, if you see some crows when you're down there, try talking to them like that. They're very smart, and they might talk back to you, okay? Thank you very much. Thanks for coming. His previous lives before he was born as Gautama, Gautama, and became Shakyamuni Buddha, the Jataka tales are quite interesting, and often... At the end of the tale it will say, and that king was so-and-so. In this story, the king was Ananda, who became, in the lifetime of the Buddha, his cousin and his close attendant. And in the story, the king really listens to him, really receives this teaching from the king of the crows. Synchronistically, when I decided to do this Jataka story, I have an online subscription to the New York Times.

[14:03]

Some of you might have seen this story about crows in the New York Times yesterday as I was preparing for this. Crows are able to recognize another dead crow. There's this experiment where they brought a taxidermied crow to a place where crows were eating, and they got extremely upset and were dive-bombing the person who was holding this and cawing. And then they continued this experiment with different masks, and they would dive-bomb the person who, or bring a dead pigeon. They didn't care about that, but the dead crow. So they have some cognition of some sort, can recognize their dead comrades, and all sorts of other things about their affection, nature, and intelligence. So, yeah.

[15:09]

So I just wanted to say I wanted to extend condolences to the victims and the families and the friends of this shooting in the community college in Oregon, Umpqua Community College. And this story of the crows and the way the human mind can be affected, and we know this from our lifetimes, whole groups of beings and revenge and how this plays out from many, many causes and conditions. But just our heartfelt condolences for everyone who's affected, which is all of us, really.

[16:14]

Today is a commemoration for Bodhidharma. Bodhidharma is a legendary, you could say, or part legendary, part real teacher who is thought of as the first Chinese ancestor of Zen. He was an Indian teacher who came, brought the teaching to China, although there probably was teachings before that that were brought. But this is the named teacher who then had disciples. And our lineage flows from Shakyamuni Buddha through the Indian ancestors to Bodhidharma, who then came to China. And this is the day that... There'll be an evening service tomorrow morning, a morning service where we commemorate this teacher, Bodhidharma.

[17:27]

And whether Bodhidharma was real, what is real, you know, whether Bodhidharma was, as the legends say, to me is not the most important thing. This particular, the teaching stories that surround this teacher, the koans or Zen, stories that bear fruit in understanding of reality are many around Bodhidharma. In fact, Bodhidharma, it's said, came from the West. And if you're in China, to the West of China is India. So there's koans that start with, why did Bodhidharma come from the West? And this kind of phrase is a... kind of stand in for the question, what is the essential teaching of Zen, or what is the meaning of Zen, or really what is the meaning of your life, you might say.

[18:29]

So this is, Bodhidharma is very much emblematic in many ways of the quest to awaken and to realize our true nature. So I wanted to speak a little bit about Bodhidharma. and about some of the stories connected with him and also relate that to some very, very basic practices that we have, not only in the monastery, but any Zen practitioner, wherever you live, wherever you work, wherever you walk, can practice. So as I said, Bodhidharma was Indian. He came from, so the story says, his father was a Raja, and his teacher was Prajnatara.

[19:29]

Prajnatara means wisdom. Prajnatara came to the house where Bodhidharma lived to teach there. The king invited him, and he asked the three sons, Bodhidharma, who was called It wasn't called Bodhidharma at the time. He asked all the children, his two brothers and himself, about the meaning of a jewel that their father, the Raja, had given him. And Bodhidharma's just kind of soliloquy, his teaching about what the jewel is, had to do with that jewel is a beautiful jewel, but the real jewel is the jewel of wisdom and compassion. And your teaching, Prajnatara, is the true jewel, not necessarily this jewel, but the clarity of your teaching, the brightness, the beauty. And Prajnatara knew that this young person had great potential, but the time wasn't right.

[20:34]

So he waited and continued coming to the house. And later, after the father died, They had their connection, and he ordained him and named him Bodhidharma. Bodhi is awakening the Dharma, the truth. And Bodhidharma practiced with Prajnatara for many, many years. Prajnatara then told him to go to China, but don't stay in the south, go into the north. Anyway, there's a kind of prophecy about Bodhidharma. So after being with his teacher for a long time, like decades and decades, he finally went to China. And this is one of the most famous stories about Bodhidharma that you've maybe heard, and I wanted to tell a kind of prequel to that story and then the story itself, which is used as a koan

[21:38]

in a ceremonial way. And, you know, still thousands of years later, we're still bringing this up. Bodhidharma lived in the late fifth century, common era, died in about 525. And, you know, we're still talking about this. Bodhidharma is also on the altar. For those of you who can see, if you're facing the altar to the left, facing the altar is a image of Bodhidharma. So Bodhidharma sailed, and it took three years to sail from India to China. Probably was a harrowing trip. And when he got to China, he met up with the emperor, Emperor Wu of Liang. Now, there's a story that I'll tell you in a moment, but before that story, Just to say something about Emperor Wu, Wu Di was his name, Emperor Wu of Liang.

[22:40]

He had come to power with a lot of double dealings into intrigue and power moves and murder and so forth the way, which is not surprising. This is how often people do come to power. And he had a great remorse after this and became a Buddhist. And in... reparations and trying to atone for this, he took very good care of the clergy, the monks and nuns, established temples, schools, supported Buddhism in a great way. And he said to Bodhidharma, he told them, you know, I've done all this, I've established temples and monasteries and supported the teachers, and what merit is there? Merit meaning positive energy that's accrued to me, so that will support me. Often it's thought of in lives to come or in this life.

[23:42]

What merit is there? And Bodhidharma said, no merit. No merit, probably, he said. Which took Emperor Wu of Liang back a bit. And then there's this story that follows, which is case one of the Blue Cliff Record and also in Book of Serenity, case six, I think. So then Emperor Wu said to Bodhidharma, what is the highest meaning of the holy truths? And Bodhidharma said, empty, no holiness. This is right after he said, no merit, you know. Now he's saying empty. What is the highest meaning of the Holy Truth? The highest meaning of the Holy Truth is empty, no holy.

[24:44]

And then the emperor said to him, who is this before me? Who's facing me? Who is this person? And Bodhidharma said, don't know, or I don't know. And the emperor said, didn't know what to say. And after this, Bodhidharma left the kingdom, crossed the Yangtze River, and supposedly the story says, on a reed. He crossed the Yangtze River riding a reed. But in another commentary it says it's a boat made of reeds. But sometimes in the artist's rendering of Bodhidharma, crossing the Yangtze River, he's traveling on like a... kind of a husk of some kind of plant, just like a reed, like standing on it, going. So he crossed the Yangtze River and went to the kingdom of Wei and found a cave up there, this is in the north, and sat facing the wall for nine years.

[25:51]

And back with Emperor Wu, after Bodhidharma left, Emperor Wu was... he just didn't know what to make of this. So he asked his, another teacher, Master Jur, what, you know, who was this? What happened there? And Master Jur said, Your Majesty Sire, don't you know that this was Bodhidharma, this was really the Mahasattva, Bodhisattva Mahasattva Avalokiteshvara, or the Bodhisattva of Infinite Compassion. That's who that was. It's kind of like, who was that masked man? That's who it was. It was really the Bodhisattva of Infinite Compassion speaking to you. Oh, and then the emperor felt remorse, great remorse, and wanted to send, let's go bring him back, let's send somebody to bring him back.

[26:59]

And Master Jir said, Your Majesty, even if you sent the whole country to bring him back, he will not come back. He's not going to come back. And the emperor wrote a poem after just saying what remorse he had. He wasn't awake enough to see. Or he had so much already in his mind, cluttering it, maybe, about who he was and all his good works. everything he had done and that he wasn't open to experience an encounter and to actually hear his question being answered. What is no merit? And what is the highest meaning of the Holy Truth? That's a pretty strong question to ask. And there was an answer, a true answer. But it's like, what are you talking about? So his mind was filled, and he regretted later.

[28:05]

So Bodhidharma, up there in the kingdom of Wei in the north, sat facing a wall for nine years. And this is an image that we can, that can inspire us. can be awe-inspiring, can be scary. And we see Bodhidharma often in these, there's lots of paintings and sumi ink drawings of Bodhidharma with a kind of cloak on, sometimes with a big red beard, an earring in his ear, and with an often very serious, very kind of solemn face. He's not your The bodhisattva of infinite compassion often looks very serene, very joyful, very lovely. This is a bodhisattva of compassion behind me. You can read compassion, but when you see bodhidharma, it's like, what is that?

[29:16]

What kind of compassion is that? How is that for us? What do we need? That's compassion, not meanness, not anger, not that demeanor is facing his life with no kidding around, with no fooling around, is Bodhidharma. And facing the wall for nine years is facing ourselves, our true self. you know, was attributed with discovering the tea plant because he kept falling asleep while he was sitting. So it's said that he, this is a graphic image, but he pulled off his eyelids and threw them down so he could stay awake. And a tea plant grew. So, you know, this drinking tea to aid or, you know, support long sitting and so forth is connected with Bodhidharma.

[30:24]

And he went to this temple called Shaolin Temple, which apocryphally is connected up with kung fu and martial arts, but it was a thousand years later that that developed. So although they looked to Bodhidharma as well, there's one more apocryphal thing with Bodhidharma. So back to the story. this particular story about Bodhidharma. What is the highest meaning of the holy truth? And Bodhidharma asks the emperor, and Bodhidharma says, empty, no holy. Now, when I hear that, and over the many years of hearing that, empty, no holy, you know, because it's a real story, whether it's legendary or not, it's real, and we can connect with it in a real way, what does that mean that it's not holy?

[31:40]

The holy truths are not holy. I thought they were called the Four Noble Truths. Aren't those holy? Aren't all the truths holy? What's holy? And today, My comment on this is when we say, when he says, it's empty, this emptiness is there's nothing that you can grasp as holy, which means, if you want to flip that around, every single thing is holy. Everything we do, every person, every plant, every animal, is holy meaning whole. Holy comes from something that's whole, right? I'm not sure about the Japanese, the Chinese character, but in English anyway, when it's holy, it is of a whole. So can you pull out highest meaning, you know, or lowest meaning?

[32:44]

Highest meaning, what's the lowest meaning then? Or what's not worthy of my attention, is there anything? So it's empty of high and low and good and bad and worthy of my attention and not worthy. It's empty of all those distinctions, and it's all holy. Nothing holy, to me, is nothing that can be pulled out somehow from the whole that you're going to call holy. Every single thing is holy. Every single thing is worthy of care, of compassion, of awareness, loving kindness, non-harming. What could be left out? What would we leave out?

[33:45]

So it's empty of separateness of highest and lowest or merit, meritorious. You know, when he said no merit, well, we can unpack that a little bit more. There are wholesome activities that create wholesome circumstances where more wholesome activities can happen and there's unwholesome. But if we're doing something in order to accrue merit or purity or I'm moving towards loftiness and raising myself up above others because I'm more spiritual, then we will not be able to really practice the way. So I think bodhidharma just kind of cut through the emperor's maybe attachment to his good works, doing good works because this is what I want to do, this is what I want to offer, and that's enough.

[35:07]

Do I need merit? Is that going to make it any better? Or is it going to taint it with my attachment and pride and look at me and aren't I doing well? There's a line in Zen by Beginner's Mind where Suzuki said, you know, Zen is difficult. It's a difficult practice, but not because of cross-legged sitting, you know, and that's not the problem. Although for years, often we think that is the problem. If I could just sit without my knees hurting, then, you know, I would be okay. But the problem is not that. That's just grist for the mill. That's just developing patience and softness and buoyancy and loving kindness for ourself and others working in that way. The difficulty, Suzuki Roshi says, is keeping our minds pure.

[36:12]

And I remember reading that back in the day when I got the book. I still have my old copy, it costs 495. What does that mean, pure? I don't even like the word pure. keeping our minds pure. I don't care if my mind's pure. What do you mean? What I'm having trouble with is sitting still, you know, in my legs and my back and my mind. Purity is really beside the point, is what I thought. But now, it's like, okay, so people find their posture, they establish their sitting practice, and then it gets... suffused with, aren't I great? I'm so spiritual. Have you know how long I've been practicing and how many sashims I sat? Et cetera. And who I know, and I've sat with this person and I've taught under this person.

[37:16]

Anyway, it just gets tainted with, I think that's this way our human minds sometimes work that it gets sullied with all these other tendencies towards attachment and like the emperor, you know, and merit and praising self. So how to cut through that is Bodhidharma, you know. Bodhidharma's kind of just serious about this. He's not going to fool around and kind of and catered to the emperor. I mean, the emperor, life and death, you know, the emperor had power, life and death in China at that time. And he just told it like it was, you know, and gave him the real, as close as he could come in words to the real deal, you know. And then asked, who are you? I don't know. rather than, well, I've been practicing with Prashnatara for about 60 years and da-da-da and da-da-da.

[38:23]

It's like, this moment, right now, don't know mind. This couple of days ago, I was at a conference in L.A. with Soto, an association of Soto Zen teachers that are in the States and also Japanese. teachers who were in the States, and they had a visiting, I'm looking for my watch, a visiting teacher who visited Greenwich actually right before he came to L.A., speaking about the monastic life and the importance of monastic life. And one of the things he brought up I just found extremely helpful, and I'll say something about it. It has to do with what we call in Japanese soji, which is temple cleaning. And soji is 15 minutes or so every day after zazen in the morning at the temple where people are given assignments for tidying up and neatening up and doing cleaning.

[39:38]

Quick cleaning, not deep cleaning. There's not time enough to do great deep cleaning, but you know, dusting and wet mopping and sweeping the walkways and cleaning the bathrooms, emptying the trash, doing the dishes that are gathered from last night. That's green gulchus. Soji, Tassar has raking and other, you know, each temple. And Soji is just part of our morning schedule. And so he told a story about Soji. There was an abbot of a temple. This is a modern-day story, I believe, who was, I don't think they had the word abbot exactly, but he was head of this large, rather large, monastery. And he was getting close to retirement. He'd been there a long time. And a monk came, and there was an exchange between them, which happens, where he asked, and where are you from? And the monk said, I come from such and such prefecture.

[40:39]

And then the abbot said... on your way to this monastery, did you meet someone who impressed you? And the monk said, I didn't meet anybody who impressed me, but I was impressed. And the abbot said, what do you mean? What was impressive if you didn't meet anybody? And the monk said, well, as I was coming to the monastery and through the gate, I noticed that all the paths were swept and clean. And then when I walked, and I was impressed. And then I walked further and into the buildings and there were, I saw that the altars and the buildings were very well taken care of and the candles were trimmed and there was a fragrance. And I was impressed. And... And I could say he got to the place where all the shoes, where you step off your shoes, out there in the hallways, and all the shoes were just carefully placed.

[41:52]

And I was impressed. And when I heard the bell, when that bell was sounding, I could hear the care. And the han, the wooden percussion instrument, was sounded. I heard the care, and I was impressed. And then I met some monks, and they were very kind to me, very friendly, and made sure I had what I needed. I didn't meet any major teachers in the temple, but I was very impressed. And this teacher of the monastery felt great joy upon hearing what this monk said about his experience coming to his temple. So our doing soji, and I'm thinking in a broader way, there's the 15-minute cleaning, but soji in this caring for our spaces, caring for one another, for our guests and our fellow practitioners and our family, this practice is not just cleaning the temple or cleaning

[43:07]

the external place so it looks nice and inviting. The act of cleaning, the practice of cleaning, which I'm calling soji, and the care with which we do these things that look like they're external things. Hitting a bell, well, that bell is, that's a bell out there. Or that's, you know, emptying waste paper baskets, these things. But the understanding in a Zen way is that that kind of care is both internal and external. It's caring and cleaning the self and developing the character and the deep practice as well as the external. The external and the internal, within and without, is really just one practice. And he said there was a term that was coined called, in Japanese, soji wa soji, which I think are different characters.

[44:17]

One is cleaning the temple is cleaning inside or cleaning the self. This developing in the thoroughness that it really takes that it really takes to be awake and aware and present for our life and our world and everyone and everything. There's this very popular book, I think it's New York Times, by, I think it's Marie Kondo, The Japanese Art of Tidying. Some of you have probably read it. Really, I'm really enjoying it. It's just fantastic. Anyway, it reminds me what she suggests for making order, actually not. It's making order in your external room or apartment or house, but it's really an internal thing that she's teaching.

[45:26]

And it's very similar to Suzuki Roshi talking about when you begin practice, take everything out. She says this, like, for your clothes. Take every single article of clothing you own, wherever they are, in boxes, or put them in a pile, one pile, and then pick up each thing and look at it and say to yourself, does this spark joy? And if it doesn't, give it away, or maybe it needs to be thrown in the rag bag. But, you know, don't just keep holding on to it. out of attachment, out of habit, out of sentimental, you know, some kind of sentimental attachment kind of. So Suzuki Roshi reminds me of him saying, take everything out of your mind, you know, like all the furniture, all your old, everything you are attached to and believe in. about yourself and others and just let's have a big spring cleaning.

[46:29]

Take a look at them. Does this spark joy, this thought I have about crows, you know, or other certain people? Does this flow from compassion and wisdom or not? And if not, let's examine this and is it time to let it go? And I think our zazen and our practice allows us to see that these are habits and old, worn-out, stale ways of acting and thinking that are not flowing from aliveness. So do a big spring cleaning of the mind and a big spring cleaning of, I've been doing these things, it's really fun, and I'm noticing these tidying things she's suggesting in this book. And how we take care of our space is not to impress people.

[47:33]

That monk who was impressed was not impressed like, that's cool, as much as touched, touched deeply. And something was understood about how to practice and how to live in compassion and wisdom. And that quality I, you know, I value and do not want it to be cut off. Do not want it to be forgotten and untended. It needs tending. It needs people to practice this way. Or it will... Like anything else, it will atrophy and be forgotten and be a kind of vestige of something. Oh yeah, back in the golden age, they had this spirit, but now we just go through the motions.

[48:39]

That's very sad because this spirit will save your life, will save the life of this planet, I think. It's the same thing. internal and external. So tonight we will offer, make offerings to Bodhidharma, probably sweet tea and sweet water and chant and a food offering probably. This is to in a small way, in our own ritual way to enact our gratitude by making these offerings. I just want to end with one soji story.

[50:01]

This was a monk visiting from Italy. He was practicing in city center, very, very new, and he was given the job of sweeping the street. And I guess it goes back to my crow story. And there was dog poop on the sidewalk, and not only easily cleaned up, but it had been spread around, you know, and his job was to sweep the sidewalks. which you see in the city, you know, in front of Page Street. And his, he, I don't know, he got some kind of spongy thing and he just took care of spot after spot after spot, all in front of the temple. And during that practice, which he, I don't know what he had expected, coming to Zen Center and practicing at the big temple, but it probably wasn't that. And he had to let go of all those ideas of what practice was and just take care of this sidewalk this morning for all beings.

[51:11]

Thank you very much. Thank you for listening to this podcast offered by the San Francisco Zen Center. 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 sfzc.org and click Giving. May we fully enjoy the Dharma.

[51:43]

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