I vow to taste the truth of the Tathagata's words. Good morning. Good morning. Is this working? Can you hear? Okay. So good morning everybody and welcome to Zen Center. Thank you for joining us this Saturday morning. My name is Jeffrey Schneider and I'll be talking for a little while. And since this is the first Monday, Sunday, Saturday? We've been doing a two day sitting and I'm a little not with it. Since this is the first Saturday of the month, this is the children's program. So we dedicate the first few minutes of the lecture here to talking to the kids. So good morning guys. How are you? I like your goggles. Thank you. So anyhow guys, I don't have a whole lot to say but I thought I would like to tell you a little story if I may.

[01:02]

And this is kind of a once upon a time story but it's actually true because it really happened to me. So you know it's true. And that goes for everything else I say today. So this happened a really, really, really, really long time ago. And I was coming home one day and I can't remember where I was coming home from. I think maybe school or maybe work but I was in a really, really bad mood. Has anybody ever been in a bad mood? Any of you guys ever been in a bad mood? Yeah. So sometimes you're angry or sometimes you're sad or whatever. And I can't remember what I was but I was angry or sad or something. And I thought I can't get rid of this bad mood. How am I going to get rid of this bad mood? How am I going to get rid of this bad mood? And I couldn't think of anything at all to do. So I thought well maybe I'll do something different. Maybe I'll walk down a different street to get home than I usually do. So instead of going down my street I went down the street next to it. And I was walking along in my bad mood.

[02:04]

You know I was going like this. And I happened to look up and there was this great big giant tree. And I think it was spring because there weren't too many leaves on the trees. It was all kind of bare. But anyhow hanging from the tree were gazillions of tennis shoes. There were tennis shoes tied together and draped over the branches. And tennis shoes tied to tennis shoes tied to tennis shoes tied to tennis shoes. So it looked like a fruit tree except it had tennis shoes on it. And it was huge. And it had a gazillion tennis shoes on it. And I looked at it and I just started laughing. And I was so happy to see the tennis shoe tree that my bad mood went away. So I kept visiting the tennis shoe tree every now and again to make sure it was still there. And what happened was there was some man out in front of it one day. And I said what's the deal with the tennis shoe tree? And he said oh this is where the kids come in the neighborhood for years and years. Whenever they wear out a pair of sneakers they tie them together and they put them up in the tennis shoe tree.

[03:06]

So I thought that was pretty cool. And the reason I wanted to tell the story of the tennis shoe tree because first of all it was fun. And secondly it kind of taught me something. Which is if I'm in a really bad mood I have to keep my eyes open. Because I might see something that I didn't know was there that will make me happy. And so that's what I try to do these days. If I get in a bad mood I try to look around for something new. Something that will surprise me. Because if we always go the same way we don't get surprised so often. And sometimes those surprises are just exactly what we need. So it wasn't a very long story but that was it. And it was really true because it happened to me. So I think it's time for you guys to go out with Maria. So I apologize for not doing the full bows.

[04:17]

I managed to crack one of my toes rather badly in the zendo this morning and I've got it all bandaged up. And the way I can tell that my practice is progressing is that I didn't curse. In the zendo. In the zendo. So the other day I was washing the dishes at my house. And I noticed that I was almost out of dishwashing liquid. And I thought oh I need to get some dishwashing liquid. I'll go down to the store later on. I thought well I'm also out of paper towels. I need to get some paper towels. And then I thought well I should probably get some toilet paper while I'm at it. Just these things that we sort of normally need for our houses and our daily lives. And then as I was thinking about that I thought isn't it amazing that when I'm out of something I can just go get it. And it struck me how amazing that is.

[05:20]

And that when I turned on the water there's always water there. And when I turned on the hot water there's hot water. Almost always. And that it's never a problem for me to have what I need. And of course this extends throughout my entire life. And what occurred to me is, and this is something I've been thinking about a great deal lately, is that I, and I think probably most of us, live in what I think of as a cocoon of privilege. And we don't realize how privileged we are. So many of us have never known what it's like to be without, that we take what we have for granted. And I think it's important to bring this up every now and again, not so that we'll feel guilty or bad about what we have, but to remind us of our good luck. And in Buddhism it's said that it takes a certain amount of good luck to be able to hear the Dharma. You have to be born in a human body.

[06:23]

You have to be in good health, relatively. You have to be born in a place where the Dharma exists, where there are people who are teaching it. And you have to have, and this is important for us I think as Americans, you have to have enough material possessions and wealth and leisure to spare time for the Dharma. So we're gifted with these incredible gifts or we wouldn't all be here today. And so I think it's very important for me to remember that these gifts are not to be squandered. We have such a short time that it's important not to squander our time, but rather to use it to hear and to practice the Dharma. So I just wanted to mention that before I get on to actually the lecture. It's just something I've been thinking about and needed to get out of my mouth. Can I see a show of hands for people who are maybe here for the first time?

[07:25]

And maybe this is like you've been here less than five times? Okay, so there's a fair amount of new people here. I just want to make sure that I explain things as I go on and don't take things for granted. So for the past two days, about twelve of us, thirteen of us have been doing a two-day retreat. And we've been sitting and trying to be silent and working together and eating together. And we've been studying together. And one of the things we've been studying, well actually the thing we've been studying, is this thing called the Bodhisattva's Four Methods of Guidance. And it's by Dogen Zenji. So I want to say a little bit about this. Dogen was the 13th century Japanese monk who founded this lineage of Zen. He went to China, received permission to teach, came back and taught in Japan. And he's a very, very prolific and brilliant writer.

[08:33]

And much of what we study comes from Dogen in one way or another. He's also notoriously difficult. When we read Dogen, I think we have to remember that he lived 800 years ago. He spoke a language that we don't speak. He spoke a language that isn't even in our language family. He lived in a completely different culture. And a lot of the things that he took for granted are quite different from the things we take for granted. So, you know, even with a relatively good translation, Dogen remains difficult. He was difficult for the people in his day. But I would like to suggest a few things for those of you who read Dogen, occasionally, that I find helpful. First of all, I think that it's useful to remember that Dogen likes to take an idea or a sentence or even a word and sort of hold it up to the light and twist it around in every possible, to see every possible facet of it.

[09:37]

And because of that, I think that there's not always a one-to-one correlation between word and meaning. Sometimes he's just looking at it, I think. And so for us, I think we can make ourselves crazy trying to figure out, well, what exactly did he mean by that? What exactly did he mean by that? And perhaps all he meant was that we should look at things in a somewhat different way. Trying to, by the use of language, to go beyond language, to sort of jar us out of language, out of concept, and into something like reality, maybe. So he can be perplexing and difficult and even irritating at times. But if we read him more along the lines of poetry, where there's not necessarily a one-to-one correspondence between word and meaning, we expand the idea of meaning, and I find it more useful that way.

[10:43]

So I'm going to do something a little bit different today. Usually when I give a lecture here, or any place, I put it together very carefully over a period of a week or two. And I want to make sure that I've got all of my references and all of the things I want to quote, and I have copious notes and I want to know what I'm going to say so that I won't look like a buffoon. And so today I decided to look like a buffoon. So I'm just going to read some of what Dogen has written and then see where we go with that. The short writing that we have been studying is called The Bodhisattva's Four Methods of Guidance. And for those of you who don't know, I'll give you sort of a thumbnail sketch of the word bodhisattva. It comes from two words. It means enlightening or awakening being. Bodhi is enlightening or awakening. Sattva is being. So a bodhisattva is one who is an awakening or an enlightening being.

[11:44]

So on one hand, she's one who is awakening in her own self. And on the other hand, she's somebody who works for the awakening of others. And so traditionally, the bodhisattva is somebody who has made a vow. And the vow is to remain in the world of suffering. For as long as it takes for everybody to be liberated. Not to seek our own final rest until all beings are liberated. And of course, in Buddhist mythology, this requires going through a gazillion and a gilzillion and a gazillion lifetimes, right? And the thing is, it doesn't really matter whether we believe in rebirth or not. That is completely beside the point. That's part of the mythology. Maybe you do, maybe you don't. Maybe there is, maybe there isn't. The important thing for the bodhisattva is that he or she is always ready to come back a gazillion times, if that's what's taken. So when we take the vow, we don't know where the vow will lead us.

[12:48]

We take the vow to be here as long as it takes. And if that does take a gazillion different lifetimes, so be it. Or maybe we just die. Which actually sounds considerably more restful, but we don't know. Okay, so the bodhisattva's four methods of guidance. And what's kind of interesting about the title for me is that I think it can be read in two ways. That the bodhisattva is, these are the methods of guidance that the bodhisattva takes on for him or herself. And these are also the methods of guidance that the bodhisattva uses to guide others to awakening. And there are four of them. The first one is giving. The second one is kind speech. The third one is beneficial action. And the fourth one is identity action. And I'll read a little from each of these and talk about them. So, giving. Giving is to give away unneeded belongings to someone you don't know.

[13:53]

To offer flowers blooming on a distant mountain to the Tathagata. Or again, to offer treasures you had in your former life to sentient beings. So the first one of those, to give away things that you don't need to people you don't know. Maybe you give a buck to, you know, the guy on the street. Or maybe, you know, you're moved to support a charity. Or maybe you're moved to bring food to the homeless, which some people here do. So that's pretty straightforward, right? But then he says, to offer flowers blooming on a distant mountain to the Tathagata. Tathagata, by the way, is another name for Buddha. It's another title for Buddha. It means the guy who shows up. That's the way I like to translate it. So, to offer flowers on a distant mountain to the Buddha is rather odd. First of all, we're not on the distant mountain. Secondly, we can't gather the flowers. And thirdly, you know, the Tathagata is not here in front of us to be offered.

[14:55]

Like I would offer a posy to my friend. So, I sort of struggle on what that means. And the best that I can do with it is that the flowers on the distant mountain are things that are in the realm of the senses. Things that are in the field of the eye consciousness. Just as sounds are in the field of the ear consciousness. Feelings are in the realm of the tactile consciousness. So what we do is we take all that we have, all that we experience, all that we see, all that we know, and we turn that over into an offering into enlightenment. We turn that over to an offering for the awakening of ourselves and for others. We offer the flowers on a distant mountain to the Tathagata, to the Buddha. It doesn't matter that they're there. In offering them, we offer ourselves. When we see something, you know, flowers on a distant mountain

[15:56]

or the face of our friend or, you know, a squishy Zafu, you know, that sight changes us. You know, the reflected light from Ken hits my eyes and it does little chemical and electrical things to my eyes and then that does little chemical and electrical things to my brain. And that does, you know, so I am changed by the sight of you as you are changed by the sight of me. I am changed by the sound of you as you are changed by the sound of me, an actual physical change. You make change in my body. So the flowers on a distant mountain, we turn everything over, ideally, into enlightenment. We give it over again and again. And Dogen in another place says, although we love them, flowers fall, and although we don't love them, weeds grow. So the flowers, of course, are also a symbol of that which is beautiful and transient. Over and over again they're falling.

[16:57]

Over and over again we accept they're falling. Over and over again we love them and we let go of them. And then he says, it's also to offer treasures you had in your former life to sentient beings. So the treasures we had in our former lives, you know, are not just, you know, the gold crown you had when you were Cleopatra last time or, you know, something like that, but rather the experience. So all that we are, really, is the result of the karma that came before us. And we inherit not only our own karma, you know, for example, if I said something unpleasant to somebody yesterday, you know, that creates karma. That's karma. They come back at me the next day. We create an environment of mistrust and distaste and unfriendliness. But we also inherit generational karma.

[18:00]

We inherit all the karma of our parents. We inherit all the karma of our grandparents and their parents and their parents and their parents. We inherit the entire karma of our culture and our language. We inherit the entire karma of all that has been up until this moment. These are the treasures of our past lives. And this, too, we turn over. We offer our karma. We offer the results of our karma. We offer who we have become because of our karma, good and bad. We turn it over into enlightenment. We make that offering. And sometimes, you know, we feel, if you're anything like me, that the offering isn't good enough, you know, that what I have to offer is not enough, is not good enough, is it should be better somehow. But that's not true. You know, when we offer ourselves completely, it's enough. Let's see.

[19:00]

Okay, and further down, he says, Even when you give a particle of dust, you should rejoice in your own act because you correctly transmit the merit of all Buddhas and for the first time practice the act of a bodhisattva. The mind of a sentient being is difficult to change. You should keep on changing the minds of sentient beings from the first moment that they have one particle to the moment that they attain the way. This should be started by giving. This is the reason giving is the first of the six perfections. So I find this really interesting because what he does is he places giving, generosity at the very beginning of the spiritual path. You know, he says, For the first time practice an act of the bodhisattva. So our first act, actually, of taking the vow of the bodhisattva is this immense giving. We give our life over and over and over again. We make the pledge to do that. No matter how many times we fail

[20:02]

or do less than we would like to do, we come back and do it again. So this is the beginning. This is the beginning. Giving is the beginning of the path. You should keep on changing the minds of sentient beings from the first moment that they have one particle to the moment that they attain the way. This is how the bodhisattva guides others, through generosity, through the generosity of physical things, through the generosity of friendship, through the generosity of sharing the Dharma, through the generosity of a smile. This encourages people on their own path and it encourages people to give themselves. Giving repeats itself, as does withholding. They should be started by giving. For this reason, giving is the first of the six perfections. The six perfections are something that we talk about sometimes in Buddhism just as a way to sort of talk about practice. We have lots of little trellises. We like to wind the flowers of Dharma around. And the six perfections are giving, ethical conduct,

[21:08]

patience, energy, meditation, and wisdom. That's just something. So the next one is kind speech. And he says, says he, Praise those with virtue, pity those without it. If kind speech is offered, little by little virtue will grow. Thus even kind speech, which is not ordinarily known or seen, comes into being. You should be willing to practice it for this entire present life. Do not give up world after world, life after life. You should know that kind speech arises from a kind mind and kind mind from the seed of compassionate mind. You should ponder the fact that kind speech is not just praising the merit of others. It has the power to turn the destiny of the nation. So I like where it says, Praise those with virtue, pity those without it. If kind speech is offered, little by little virtue will go.

[22:10]

One of the, you know how sometimes, and this goes back to, this is a form of kind speech actually. I don't know, I'm sure everybody has this experience of somebody will say something to us, and it may be just a very short thing, and we remember it for years and [...] years. And it could be a wonderful thing or it could be a hurtful thing. And so we, for some reason, some things stick. Well one of the things that has stuck with me is something in a lecture here that I heard many, many years ago, shortly after I came to Zen Center, and what the lecturer said was, it is by observing the virtue of others that our own virtue grows. It is by observing the virtue of others that our own virtue grows. And I've always loved that. I repeat it often. Anybody who hears me speak knows that, because I think it's so beautiful and so true. It requires an amount of virtue on our part to be able to see the virtue of others.

[23:12]

And if we practice looking for the virtue of others, our virtue grows because it's sort of like, I was going to say it's like mirrors facing each other, but actually it's more like a positive feedback system. Virtue grows upon virtue. And when we notice it, when we train ourselves to notice it, our own virtue grows. And he says, you should be willing to practice it for this entire present life. Do not give up world after world, life after life. So kind speech, all of this stuff that we're talking about, it's not something that some people are just born with. Maybe there are a few. I have met in my life a few people who seem sort of naturally virtuous and wonderful, and there are such people. But most of us, the great majority of us, don't start out like that. What virtue we have, what practice we have, that's why they call it practice. So if we're going to practice right speech, it takes practice, it takes pausing,

[24:15]

it takes saying to myself, is this helpful, is this true, is this timely, is this kind? And much of what I say is none of those things. That's why I have to practice and why I'm encouraged by the idea of practice, that as we go on we can practice more. And then he says, you should know that kind speech arises from kind mind, and kind mind from the seed of compassionate mind. You should ponder the fact that kind speech is not just praising the merit of others, it has the power to turn the destiny of nations. So this kind mind arises from the seed of compassionate mind. So I always thought for the longest time that wisdom came first and then compassion came. I figured you do this really hard practice and you sit a lot of zazen and you get enlightened

[25:18]

and then you can have compassion for the poor slobs that irritate you. It doesn't work that way. Once I was fortunate to hear the Dalai Lama speak and he said that wisdom arises from compassion. And the more I think about that, of course, the more true it is because wisdom is being able to be in contact with, to be intimate with, and we can't be intimate, we can't have intimate knowledge as long as there's no compassion, as long as there's no fellow feeling. He calls it self-identity later on. And so then, of course, we have to ask, or I have to ask, where does compassion come from? Where does compassionate mind come from? And that seems pretty obvious to me. Compassionate mind comes from suffering. We become, we all suffer. Buddha said that, and he was right. And as we become more knowledgeable about our own suffering, and this means not trying to escape from it,

[26:20]

not trying to put in all the things that we can put in to run away from our suffering. It can be television, it can be food, it can be sex, it can be drugs, it can be drink, it can be shopping, it can be, you know, oh my God, I'm having a feeling and it hurts. You know, give me a pill. When we become acquainted with our suffering, we see that it's like the suffering of others. And to understand our own suffering and to see the suffering of others is to give rise to compassionate mind. You know, that passion, you know, compassion means with passion. And, you know, there's, you know, when we think of passion these days, we think of, you know, mainly sexual passion or a passion for sports or something like that. But another meaning of it is suffering. For example, those of you who may have had a Christian background will have heard of the passion of Christ on the cross. So this is also suffering, this passion,

[27:22]

compassion with suffering. Okay, beneficial action is the next one. Let's see. Beneficial action is to skillfully benefit all classes of sentient beings. That is, to care about their distant and near future, to help them by using skillful means. And then further down, foolish people think that if they help others first, their own benefit will be lost, but this is not so. Beneficial action is an action or an act of oneness, benefiting self and others. And this is one I like. To greet petitioners, a lord of the old times, three times stopped in the middle of his bath and arranged his hair and three times left his dinner table. He did this solely with the intention of benefiting others. He did not mind instructing even the subjects of other lords. Thus you should benefit friend and enemy equally. You should benefit self and others alike. If you have this mind, even beneficial action

[28:25]

for the sake of grasses, trees, wind and water is spontaneous and unremitting. This being so, make a wholehearted effort to help the ignorant. So he says a lot of good things in here in this very short paragraph, but when he says to skillfully benefit all classes of sentient beings, to care about their distant and near future, in Buddhism there's something that we talk about a lot called a skillful means. Upaya is the Sanskrit word. And what this means is to reach out to people on the level where you find them, to give people what they need where you find them, what they're asking for. It's often said that the Buddha is a skillful physician who gives the right medicine for the right illness. And so if somebody's really hungry, it's not going to help to spout Dharma at them. It's really not. And if somebody is just beginning to practice,

[29:27]

probably what they need is pretty specific information about sitting practice and just the basics. And you can get into the more esoteric things later. So this is their distant and near future. So in the near future, or in the present, we give people what we hope that can help them right now. And then we also think of what will help them when they're a little bit further down the path. I don't know if any of you are teachers or if any of you have the experience of teaching anything, either professionally or something. If you're going to teach somebody something, you start with the basics. I think that's what he's saying here. If you're going to start, I don't know, teaching somebody how to cook, it might be nice to show them how to chop a carrot or something. Foolish people think that if they help others first, their own benefit will be lost, but this is not so. Beneficial action is an act of oneness,

[30:30]

benefiting self and others together. Well, the way I like to think about this, benefiting self and others together, is sometimes I like to turn it around and look at it negatively first, because I think that's very useful for me. For example, if I steal from you, if I steal your wallet, for example, I take from you your material possessions, I take from you perhaps what you need, but I also make myself a thief. If I lie to you repeatedly, I lie to you, you don't know what to trust, but I also make myself someone who cannot be trusted, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. This is what we call environmental karma sometimes. But on the other hand, if I act consistently in a useful, loving, kind, ethical fashion,

[31:30]

I help to create that kind of environment as well. So this is the mutuality of action. And the thing about the petitioners and the lord of old three times stopping in the middle of his bath, when we were talking about this earlier, one of the people in the retreat said, well, what about telemarketers? I don't know. I guess we should try to be polite. But I love this. I think that the fact that the lord of old is not only that he's a lord and these petitioners said something to me. These guys were probably peasants or what have you, or he was the one in power. And beneficial action is that when we have power of whatever kind, maybe we're the boss in the office or heading a work crew at Zen Center or whatever, we step into that role completely,

[32:34]

and stepping into that role is to take care of the people who depend on us. We accept responsibility in whatever role we take or agree to take in life, and that is beneficial action too. Identity action is a little trickier. It says identity action means non-difference. It is non-difference from self, non-difference from others. And then this is where to remember that Dogen is sometimes more poetic than exact. That the ocean does not exclude water is identity action. Water does not exclude the ocean either. This being so, water comes together to form the ocean. Earth piles up to form mountains. My understanding is that because the ocean does not exclude the ocean, it is the ocean and it is large.

[33:36]

Because mountains do not exclude mountains, they are mountains and they are high. Because a wide lord does not weary of people, his subjects assemble. Subjects means nation, wise lord means ruler of the nation. A ruler is not supposed to weary of people. Not to weary of people does not mean to give no reward or punishment. Although a ruler gives reward and punishment, he does not weary of people. In ancient times when people were uncomplicated, there was neither legal reward nor punishment in the country. The concept of reward and punishment was different. Even at present, there should be some people who seek the way without expecting a reward. This is beyond the understanding of ignorant people. Because a wide lord understands this, he does not weary of people. So this thing about the water does not exclude the water. Water comes together to form the ocean. Therefore it is the ocean and it is large.

[34:41]

Because mountains do not exclude mountains, they are mountains and they are high. There are a lot of different ways we could interpret this. One of the ways I like to interpret this is identity action. He says we must identify with others, but we also identify with ourself, which is a sort of a... not particularly... It's kind of a difficult way of saying it, but I think what he's meaning here, one of the things perhaps is that when mountains are mountains and the ocean is ocean, it's like when I am I fully. When I have accepted myself fully for who I am, all of my past karma, good and bad, all of who I am at this moment, all of what I have to give, all of without wanting to be different. We strive to be better, we strive to practice with more purity or whatever, but still the beginning, the beginning of spiritual practice

[35:45]

is when we arrive at the present with what we have, accepting it without denial. So the mountain accepts the mountain and because of that the mountain is high. The ocean accepts the ocean and because of that the ocean is wide and deep. And then I like this about the wise lord, does not weary of people, his subjects assemble. Subjects mean nation. A ruler is not supposed to weary of people. And I think that we... Obviously we all need some time to ourselves and we're not expecting... I don't think this means that you should be constantly around people 24-7 and like that, but I think what not weary, not to weary of people means is that when we see others as we see ourselves, you know, that engagement is something that gives us energy, you know, something that gives us energy.

[36:47]

It's so easy to look at somebody else and see something or somebody different. And, you know, we all do it, of course. But I think that if we look or listen to another person with the intention of hearing, of looking for what is the same and hearing what is the same, at least on the feeling level, we will always feel identity. Everybody wants to be happy and everybody wants to avoid suffering, you know, flat out. We are all the same. And when we realize that, we have a beginning of building relationship. And relationship is self-identity because we don't build relationship with the other. We build relationship with... It's not like we're sort of, you know, ping-pong balls sort of wandering around an empty space and sometimes bouncing off each other. I think a more useful look, a more useful metaphor

[37:51]

is to think of ourselves as points along a continuum, you know, where we're intimately connected as points along a continuum. As I said, even now, I'm making changes in your mind and your body with my voice. We're intimately connected. And then I also like this. Even at present, there should be some people who seek the way without expecting a reward. This is beyond the understanding of ignorant people. Because a wise lord understands this, he is not weary of people. I think that this that the wise lord understands is that this is beyond the understanding of ignorant people. What that means is, I believe, that, you know, the wise lord, whoever that is, whether it can be you, it can be me, understands that people are where they are. They exist where they exist. They are who they are. And as much as we would like them to be different at some times, that doesn't always happen.

[38:53]

And some people are ignorant. They're ignorant of how the world works. They're ignorant of kindness. They're ignorant of how to get along with other people. And a wise lord understands this and is not weary of people. As long as we accept the bodhisattva vow, our realm of action is people. It would be nice to think that we could sit in our cushions and have wonderful orgasmic spiritual experiences one after the other, but actually this is where we work. Dogen in another place says, I'm going to misquote perhaps, Here is the place, here the way unfolds. So that's what I have to say about what Dogen had to say about the bodhisattva's four methods of guidance,

[39:54]

and I think I've said enough, so thank you. May our intention...

[40:06]

@Text_v004
@Score_JJ