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. I'd like to talk a little bit about offering tonight and Hopefully leave lots of time for questions, discussion, answers, whatever comes up. Offering is a term we use a lot here, different religious communities probably. And in the outside world, it's maybe not used as much, but it's used in different ways. So I wanted to be clear. Let's talk about things as offerings. What is an offering?

[01:00]

In the dictionary, the first definition is a sacrifice. It's a little different than the way I think of it. Maybe it's more like a gift or a beneficial giving. You know, And Dogen is our great founder in Japan, and he wrote quite a bit, and recorded quite a bit. And there are these different chapters that go together in this collection called the Shogo Genzo, the Treasury of the True Dharma Eye. And one of them is titled, Making Offerings to a Buddha. That's how Kaz Tanahashi translated it. In this fascicle, this chapter, he gives lots of examples of Shakyamuni Buddha going around in previous lives giving offerings to different Buddhas and talks a lot about the four types of offerings that often come from lay people but are made to

[02:26]

Dharma practitioners, including food, clothing, bedding, and medicine. It was common with people to actually, wealthy people, merchants, kings, to give them whole monasteries where their monks could come and stay and feed them. It was a great honor to be able to feed the assembly or a group of people. And even though Shakyamuni made many, many, many offerings, goes through a whole list of all different times he did it, and yet they never said, you know, this guy, he's going to become a Buddhist like that. And he cites it as because he was giving with gaining mind

[03:31]

Or a mind that was grasping after attachment, wanting something more from what he was giving. Dogen said though, making offerings to Buddhas does not mean providing Buddhas with what they need. It is dedicating moments of your life to Buddhas without wasting any moment. What use can Buddhas make even if gold and silver are offered? What benefit can Buddhas receive if incense and flowers are offered? However, Buddhas receive the offerings with great compassion to help increase the merit of sentient beings. We also talk about monks giving, what monks have to give.

[04:35]

Often as material things. The Dharma. Lots of stories of disciples of the Buddha going around and sharing their understanding, giving Dharma talks, teaching people as an offering. And the third is fearlessness. So the Dharma, I don't know if anybody here knows Blanche Hartman in the city or her husband Lou who died a couple years ago. His rakeshi that he had, that he got from, I think it was Baker Roshi, had this quote from the end of our full moon ceremony. It says, to expound the Dharma with this body is foremost. To expound the Dharma with this body is foremost.

[05:39]

that's an example of kind of sharing the Dharma through our actions to our whole being and fearlessness to me is not that there is never any fear but that it doesn't hold sway you can look into the fear and you can be with it and there is bravery and courage that comes from that to others and in that sense it's a gift that we can be fearless we can be with our fear and our deepest fears and our greatest struggles These are some examples of different kind of offerings that we might make.

[06:45]

When we're in practice period here, and if you've done Orioki at City Center or at Greenbelt or anywhere, we do a meal offering every breakfast and lunch. And at the end of the meal offering chant we say, May we with all beings realize the emptiness of the three wheels. giver, receiver, and gift. So the emptiness of the three wheels, empty of inherent, independent nature. But that is to say, without a gift, there can be no giver and no receiver. Without a giver, a gift cannot be given or received.

[07:56]

And without a receiver, a gift cannot be given or received. You need all three for it to happen, right? I have a storybook about Siddhartha's life. It's a children's book. There's a great little bit in there that I wanted to share that's an example of maybe something that's being offered but not received. It's a story about the Buddha. One day Buddha was walking through a village. A very angry and rude young man came up and began insulting him. You have no right teaching others, he shouted. You're as stupid as everyone else. You're nothing but a fake. Buddha was not upset by these insults.

[09:00]

Instead, he asked the young man, tell me, if you buy a gift for someone and that person does not take it, to whom does the gift belong? The man was surprised to be asked such a strange question. And answered, it would belong to me because I bought the gift. The Buddha smiled and said, that is correct. And it is exactly the same with your anger. If you become angry with me and I do not get insulted, then the anger falls back on you. You are then the only one who becomes unhappy, not me. All you've done is hurt yourself. If you want to stop hurting yourself, you must get rid of your anger and become loving instead. When you hate others, you yourself become unhappy. When you love others, everyone is happy.

[10:02]

So this is a story for me about a young man making an offering. Buddha says, no thank you. but instead responds with an offering of his own, his no thank you actually becomes an offering that the young man accepts. It turns out, I left that part of the story off, but he's like, he wants Buddha to become his teacher after that exchange. You might imagine, I don't know, as I would. this school of Zen, we practice something called Shikantaza, which is sometimes translated as just sitting. And it's abiding in present moment awareness.

[11:06]

Just hearing, seeing, Feeling. Smelling. Tasting. Beware of the thoughts. If there are any. But not thinking about them. Sometimes I think about Shikantaza as a practice of accepting everything as an offering. The chirping of the crickets. The fluttering of the moths. The soft light.

[12:17]

Maybe the pain in my foot. I need to take care of it. The ache in my heart. Asking for a little love and attention. So can we see clearly what is coming to us? See it as an offering. And maybe we say, no, thank you. Maybe there are negative habit patterns in our minds that we know are not going to be particularly helpful. And we see it and we can say, no, thank you. Or maybe there's a pain in our heart. And even though we don't want the pain or the heartache,

[13:31]

Maybe we can still say, we can still accept it. We can still say thank you because that's actually more appropriate than pushing away. It's actually more skillful to be with that pain, with that difficulty, than to turn aside. Even though it's hard. So can we take up this practice of receiving our life, everything that's coming to us, as an offering? And then the last thing I would say is, can we make our lives and all our actions an offering? Somewhere I remember reading a Buddhist book, our actions are our only possessions.

[14:34]

And when I say actions, I mean actions of body, speech, and mind. Karma. Candles come from a place of intention, clarity. I would even go so far as to say that the greatest offering we can make is the giving of our true selves. And the true part is maybe a koan. What is our true self?

[15:39]

Maybe it's not the habitual karmic patterns, habitual physical responses, emotional responses, verbal responses. Maybe it's not the fear or the greed or the longing or the anger. Maybe it's deeper than that. What's there? What's underneath? And can we offer that? It's just a smile. I'm really grateful to have all of you down here and to be here with you.

[16:48]

Work period is an amazing example of offering in the works, the real deal. Everybody's offering their sweat, their body, their breath. We're offering food, love, shelter, camaraderie, friendship, kindness. We all do this together. And we make something more than any of us could do on our own. So with that, I want to say thank you. And if you have any questions or things you want to bring up around this, I'd be happy to. I have a question. Yeah, Ron. So is Zazen an outbreak? I'm glad you asked. I think it's okay to share this.

[17:51]

I can't remember if Leslie said this in a talk or if she told me personally. But she was saying how sometime after Greg became Tonto, she noticed that he was getting up during Zazen and adjusting people's postures and She started thinking, well, should I do that? I don't really do that. Maybe I should be, like, making possible suggestions. And she went to her teacher, Reb, and asked him, and he said, make your zazen your offering. If you sit up there with us, and if you've ever done sashim, you can feel how Again, it's this synergy, there's more. It all supports each other. I'm talking about in the zendo, but of course it's true out of the zendo just as well.

[18:57]

So the more we can bring our zazen practice, our present moment awareness into every activity, when we're changing the oil, checking the tire pressure, driving over the road, meeting a friend or somebody that we're having a difficult time with, and actually be in that situation more clearly, more without the extra judgments, habitual kind of stories, that come up about ourselves, about the others. I think it's definitely an offering. Yeah. There's another word for offering, dhana. You know, dhana is often translated, it's a Sanskrit word, or is it Pali, I'm not sure, as generosity.

[20:05]

So that's a good question. dana paramita, the perfection of giving. So in a sense, I think they're very closely related. Yeah, not necessarily identical, but I think dana practice, the practice of giving and sharing is an example of offering. Kind of a side note, it reminded me, I thought about sharing a story about Norman in his book. Norman Fisher wrote a book called Taking Our Places. It was about his work with some teenage boys, a coming-of-age program that eventually became the coming-of-age program that is still happening at Green Gulch. And there was a place in there when he was talking about the precepts, and he was questioning whether or not he was being paid enough for his work. And he stopped and he thought, well...

[21:07]

How much does it really work? You know? And the more he thought about it, he thought, wait a second. I can never get this time of my life back. When it's gone, it's gone. And in that sense, it's invaluable. Nobody could pay him enough. So he decided to make all of his work a gift. And whatever he got in return was a gift. accept it that way, sort of as dana. Yeah. Thank you. As everything we offer as one of the actions and the remembrances of the Buddha, could they also be considered dana? Say again? The offerings we offer, which you spoke of through the remembrances of the Buddha, every action is our own true belonging. Is every action, Donna?

[22:10]

I kind of want to let you look at that question. See. See if it feels like all your actions are a gift of generosity. In a sense, wouldn't it be great Sometimes we get stuck in our little selves. We get defensive, angry, afraid. And when we act in those places, I'm not sure it's so generous. So, maybe not every action is, but maybe every action could be. Thank you, Sherry. You're welcome, James. Yeah. I was just wondering if you could speak a little bit about how to compassionately refuse an offering if you have to do that.

[23:25]

That's a great question. How to compassionately refuse an offering if you have to do that. I think first, you know, you have to be aware of how it feels to you when that offering comes. Right? And there's something in the way that it's coming, the way that you're taking it, the way that you're feeling it, that brings forth the response of, no thank you. Right? So, can you first be close to your own discomfort your own resistance that's saying no. And depending, I mean, it's, and there are lots of things I can imagine.

[24:38]

It's like, you know, the story of the angry young man came over to the Buddha. Sometimes that's pretty easy. Sometimes maybe it's, um, something that can be harder to say no to. Maybe it's somebody's love or affection. But you have to say there's something that doesn't quite feel right. If you have ever felt that on the other end of that, you know, where you've tried to share something and give something and it's been refused or not accepted, then there's room for compassion for the other person. That said, compassion really means to suffer together with, to be with yourself and with the other in their suffering. So when you refuse something, it may or may not evoke suffering in the other person.

[25:44]

It could be clear that, oh, okay. He doesn't want this. All right, fine, I'll go pedal my words elsewhere. Or it could be not so easy. Like, really? Are you sure? How come? Right? And if you can relate to that, then I think there's room for compassion. To feel how it would feel to them and to be in that, to share that feeling. But still, be clear. about your own truth, right? And still be able to express that because lying or holding back is not a service, is not an offering that I think you want to make, right? So your own honesty in that moment, if that's what's coming up, is your offering. And maybe that will be received. Yeah.

[26:45]

Yes. I have a... actual kind of corollary to that question, where I'm working with somebody who, it turns out, is really kind of fundamentally self-interested, and so my generosity... No, not here! Actually, why I am here is to experience work that is taken as a rather than taken advantage of. And so how to gracefully refuse to be generous in a situation when that is being misused, for the energy is not being carried forward as an offering to higher good. I think... I want to respond a little bit, and then I want to see, and then I want you to respond back.

[27:53]

That's okay. What comes up, it reminds me of, you know, some years ago, maybe people can relate to this. If you ever had a roommate, been in a roommate situation, and maybe you're doing the dishes, right? Or maybe it's the laundry in a partnership or something. And... But... You know, if there's any kind of... I'm not saying this is your case exactly, but that's what I want to check in about. If there's any kind of resentment along the way or afterwards that it wasn't appreciated or reciprocated... It kind of begs the question, why were you doing it in the first place? And I noticed this for myself.

[28:55]

I did my family's laundry for some years at the beginning, and I would get really kind of pissy and grumpy, especially when I was folding it. And at some point, I started to see more clearly that actually... If I want to do it, then I'm going to do it because I want to do it. And it's a little more maybe freely given. So, I think there's this question about being taken advantage of or how it's being used and to some degree that comes back to ourselves. Like, why am I doing this in the first place? And is there a clear expectation? You know... Is it clear to them why we're doing it? And are they on board with that agreement? Right? Or is this something that we have on our own side that we think maybe it makes perfect sense because it's the way we grew up doing it?

[29:58]

Or it just seems like common courtesy? Or of course? But you know, it can be really good to check in and make sure that the other person thinks that too. And this is... Can we do this together? Or where are we? Yeah. I would say that as I've changed kind of the way I work from trying to get something to actually taking a bit more of the karma yoga path of just sharing what I can, um... it's become more difficult to deal with the quid pro quo trade and money for effort when that effort is actually feeding somebody's ego. And I think that's a case where I don't really have resentment for the work I've already done.

[31:06]

I don't feel the resentment while I'm doing it. I just feel a mismatch in how that energy is channeled. That, you know, it's like I'm giving it to the universe and trying to build something, you know, a better world, I guess. So maybe I am trying to get something out of it. But in this case, it's being caught into... He's trying to build a business to survive and, you know, there's greed component there that I don't feel connected with anymore. You know what I mean? I think I'm getting it, yeah. It's hard to describe this. Maybe I just don't want to function that way anymore. Yeah, there could very well be a time when you decide that doesn't feel healthy to you or the right path. And I guess sometimes just saying no is a challenging thing.

[32:09]

Not depending on how we are, who we are. So it was a corollary to the... It's like, okay, saying no to something being offered in this case, saying no to requests for repeated contributions. Yeah. Yeah. Yes. I've noticed during my... three something years, a practice that something related to what you're talking about has become very important to me and very important to my practice. And that is whether it's going to the Zendo and sitting Zazen, and whether it's going and sitting and sewing, mending ropes, or Zathomusia, cleaning up the library. busing in the restaurant or whatever it is, but to try to hold myself to a, or try to bring myself to a state of mind where my work is inspired and it's devotional.

[33:33]

It makes a huge difference. It makes me very, very happy. Same with Zazen. So just checking regularly seems to be a really valuable practice now, to just consistently check and see, am I coming to this with an inspired attitude, with a devotional feeling, and checking in the middle of the work or as I'm doing it, checking every once in a while, do I still have that feeling? Am I still enjoying this and bringing myself back to it? It seems to be really serving me now. Really what? It's really serving me and keeping me happy and inspired and working in a devotional way is very fulfilling.

[34:39]

I just wanted to say that because that's what's coming up as I listen. I really like this talk. Thank you. Sounds like a great offering. 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 sfzc.org and click Giving.

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