Good morning, everyone. And especially good morning to all the young people who are here. It's wonderful to see you. Did you all have a nice Halloween? Yeah? Did you have fun? What did you go as? What did you dress up as? What did you dress up as? Was anybody a fireman? Was anybody a ghost? A pumpkin? Yeah? What else did you... Was anyone a witch? What? Panda? You were a panda? Who else was an animal of some kind? You were an animal. What animal were you? A black cat. That's a good costume. And did you get scared walking around in the night?

[01:03]

Was it scary? A little bit? No? It's okay? You got a little scared? It is? You thought it was fun and funny to be out? But I used to get a little bit scared when I was trick-or-treating. And one of the problems when I was trick-or-treating is I lived in such a cold place that my mother made me wear a jacket on top of my costume. Well, one of the things that happens at this time of year when it starts to get colder and darker and all the fields, all the food in the fields has been harvested and gathered in, it's a time to celebrate the harvest and also to give to other people who maybe

[02:07]

don't have so many things. So it gets to be the season for giving things, giving offerings and giving gifts. And Halloween, lots of people gave you things, right? And did you also, did any of you collect money for UNICEF for children? Yeah? So you did too? So you collected money and then you're going to give that money to help other children. Well, I wanted to tell you a story about a little girl who made a big gift, a big offering to help her family and her friends. And she was a little scared to make this offering, but she did it anyway. This is the story of, it's called The Legend of Blue Bonnet. Do you know the story? Some of you might know it. Well, it was this time of year and getting very cold. And one of the problems was all summer long there had been no rain.

[03:12]

This was in a Native American tribe. And so they didn't have any food the whole summer. They couldn't find food. And the animals couldn't find food. And there was no rain and many people got sick. Many older people got sick and many little people got sick and died. And there was one little girl whose mother and father had died, her grandmother had died, and she was all by herself living in another family's tent. And they named her She Who Is Alone because she was so alone. And she had one very favorite toy, which had been made for her by her grandma. It was a doll. It was a little doll that had feathers, bright blue feathers tied to her hair. Well, things were getting more and more sad in that tribe, and the medicine people decided

[04:15]

to ask the Great Spirit, what can we do? What can the people do to change our situation? So the medicine men and women prayed and danced and asked for guidance. And they were given some instruction. And what they said was that someone in the tribe has to give a gift and make an offering. They have to give the most important thing. The medicine people gathered everybody together in the tribe, all the old people and all the young people, and said, something has to be given. We have to make some kind of offering. So everybody came away from that meeting and thought, gee, I wonder what it is. I wonder what the most important thing is. And one man who had just gotten a new bow and arrow thought, well, it couldn't be my bow and arrow. It must be something else. My bow and arrow, that's not that important. And another lady who had a new blanket thought, the Great Spirit couldn't mean my blanket,

[05:21]

this blanket. No, no. Couldn't be that. I'm not going to offer that. It must be somebody else. Gee, I wonder what it is. And everybody looked at their very important things that they owned and thought, no, no, must be something else. Couldn't be that. Except for she who is alone, for that little girl. She knew right away. She thought, I know what the Great Spirit wants. It's my doll. My doll is the only thing I have left for my grandma and my parents, and it's the most important thing. That's what they must want. So that night, she went to sleep in the tent with this other family, but she didn't fall asleep. She waited until everybody was asleep in the tribe. And she crept out of the tent and went to the fire and found some embers in the fire and brought them up on the mountain. She went up on the mountain and she made her own little fire, making very sure that there

[06:26]

was nothing around that would catch fire. She put lots of rocks. She cleared a space and put rocks all around. And then she made a fire and she prayed and she asked the Great Spirit to help her tribe and to please do whatever could be done to help. And then she took her special doll and she threw it on the fire. And it burned all up, and the fire burned all up, and then she waited until everything was cool. Then she took those ashes and she spread them out, threw them into the air all over the hillside. And she was so tired, she fell asleep. And she woke up to a big rain cloud coming over the hill and coming closer and closer. And big rains came, big showers, and covered the land as far as she could see.

[07:29]

And the rest of the tribe woke up that morning and they couldn't believe it, that the rains had come and new grasses were starting to sprout already. And the horses were finding things to eat and everybody was so happy and they were dancing and dancing. And they thought, who made this offering? And then they saw she who was alone coming down from the hill. And they all knew that it must be her. And she saved her whole tribe, all the people. And after the rains had passed, the hillsides were covered with lupine. And another name for lupine is blue bonnet. Do you know the lupine flower? We have that here and all over California, there's lupine all over many places. And they thanked her and thanked her and renamed her. Instead of calling her she who is alone, they called her she who loves her people.

[08:31]

And she became a great leader of that tribe. So that's the story of the legend of blue bonnet and this young girl who gave something that was very important to her to help other people, to help her tribe. So, you can think about what you might have given, if it were you, what you might have given to put on the fire. Well, thank you very much for coming this morning. I think you're going to go now with Leslie and Mikael to have, I don't know, you're going to have some fun, I think. Yes? Okay. Thank you very much for coming. There's some cushions up here in the front if anybody would like to move up.

[10:06]

So, the first Sunday of the month we have just a brief time in the Zendo for the kids and a little bit of the lecture devoted to them. And then they go off and I think they're going to make beeswax candles this morning and decorate them and then have a treat. And they might even have some for sale at the farmer's market we have after. And the money, I think, I think this is going to happen, is going to go to the Canal Alliance in San Rafael for families. Do you know that story about the legend of Lubanit? Some of you know it? The word offering comes from the word of ofrein, which means to sacrifice, also to bring or

[11:37]

to carry. It comes from the root that means to carry or to bear, to bear children but also to bear burden. Also another name for children is bairn, b-a-i-r-b-a-i-r-n, bairn. And wheelbarrow, to carry and born. And the Latin of that is fere, to carry, and words offer, suffer, transfer, fertile, and many, many more words, defer, prefer, all come from this same etymological root. And in Greek, metaphor and euphoria, that same for.

[12:42]

So to offer is to present for acceptance or rejection. It's just to offer. And it may be accepted or rejected. Also to present as an act of worship or devotion, an offering, make an offering, a presentation made to, as devotion. And it also, it's the same, the word oblation, which I've always wondered what oblation means. Because the act of offering something as worship is a charitable offering, is oblation. So this is that time of year where offerings are made. And sometimes it's pretty rote, you know, you've got your list, you've got to get your

[13:52]

mail in time, and it may not feel like much of a sacrifice, really, or an offering. But a true offering, true offering is from the heart. And I've been reading about the heart, and in my reading I came across the fact, and maybe I've known this but in a little different way, that the heart actually radiates an electrical frequency, right? I guess that can be measured, right? And the brain radiates electrical frequency, but the heart radiates 40 to 60 times stronger

[15:03]

than the brain's electrical frequency. And there's also the receiving and radiating capacity of the heart and of the brain. And this incoming and outgoing frequency, also, there are all sorts of biochemical reactions that go on and changes in response to sensory input. So there seems to be some sense that the heart, the intelligence of the heart can respond

[16:08]

more accurately to what's going on when it's not in total chaos or upset or stress. And this kind of balance comes about when there are certain emotions, we could say, or often the word emotions has a negative connotation sometimes, like someone might be too emotional, but the emotions of appreciation, compassion, loving-kindness, when these kinds of emotions are activated, the electrical frequency is more in balance.

[17:15]

And there's, from what I saw, all sorts of charts to show this kind of regular pulsing of the frequency when there's positive emotions as opposed to afflictive emotions. And along with this comes intelligence, a certain kind of intelligence, and healthy, like the immune system works better and not so many secretions that bring about the aging process, for example. So, this is also a kind of intuition, a different way, a different kind of intelligence.

[18:24]

And Suzuki Roshi mentions in Seshin it's a way to open our intuition, and in this reading, in times of calm and stillness and quiet, there's more of an ability to open our intuition and meet the situation accurately. There are also these interesting graphs where two people were sitting close to each other, about 18 inches apart, and the effect of one person on the other, I imagine they're all hooked up to these things, and then they would touch, and the leap of the electrical frequency would touch.

[19:29]

So, when one is in the presence of someone whose heart is open, appreciative, a listening heart, even the most upset person can actually feel the effects of that. In a helped way, even subtle, many times subtle, but having a calm heart in front of you. So, this afternoon we're having a ceremony that the actual name of the ceremony has the words offering in it, offering of food or an offering of nourishment.

[20:44]

And this ceremony is rather esoteric, actually. I think this kind of a ceremony of offering, and it actually includes remembering those who have died and making offerings to them in whatever form they may be, even if the form is our own remembrance, our own memory of them. That's a kind of form we don't know. So, the ceremony is, we're calling it now Seijiki, or offering, or charitable offering is the Se of food.

[21:46]

We recently found out that in Japan, the name we had been calling the ceremony for the last 30 years has now, the meaning of that has changed. I think it's become an idiomatic expression that has a kind of negative connotation, so they don't use it anymore to name the ceremony, so we've had to change our nomenclature this last week. So the origins of this particular ceremony are in scripture coming from India, translated into China and then into Japan, and it has to do with two stories of disciples of the Buddha who were greatly distressed about certain things. But before I tell those stories, I just wanted to say that this ceremony is a way to

[22:50]

nourish, connect with, honor, and appreciate with calm the negative aspects of our life, others' lives, not just negative in a... kind of loosely saying negative, but I mean great distress, great suffering, great restless, unsatisfied, in the dark parts of ourselves and those we know and those who have died. So this is a ceremony especially created to meet that part of human life, that part of life, I shouldn't even add human, those aspects of life that we so very much want to disregard,

[24:00]

turn away from, avert from, get thee behind me, you know, I don't want to look, don't make me look. I remember once cutting my foot and falling down on the ground, covering my eyes and saying, don't make me look, don't make me look, don't make me look, not wanting to see something terrible, you know. And I think that attitude of, I don't want to look, don't make me look, we have about our own karmic life, our own actions and the consequences of our actions, our own relationships, the lives, the suffering lives of those we love and those we don't love, and those we're neutral about. We don't want to look, you know, don't make me look. So, this ceremony has a salubrious quality to it, a healthy quality, including dark and light.

[25:02]

As we go into the dark of the year, including the shadow and the dark consciously, it will include itself, but often in an unconscious way. So to consciously turn towards these aspects of our life is part of what this ceremony is about. The two stories have to do with the disciples of the Buddha, one disciple, Moggallana, and also the disciple Ananda. These were very close disciples to the Buddha. And Moggallana came to the Buddha because he was having very, very strong dreams, very upsetting dreams and kind of nightmares about his mother who had recently passed away. And these dreams showed her in a very suffering realm,

[26:04]

a very terrible state in which she wasn't able to get nourishment, she wasn't able to feed herself. The word food, by the way, comes from an English, Anglo-Saxon word, foda, to feed or protect. And other words associated with it are fodder, which is feeding of animals, forage, going after the food, you know, foray, which is heading out to forage, I guess, to look for food, pablum in Greek, and to give food to feed and to foster. So food, you know, being fed, being thoroughly fed, adequately fed and nourished

[27:07]

in all the different ways that we need to be nourished with all the different kinds of food, both regular eating food that we take by mouth, but also spiritual food, being met in all ways intelligently. I mean, our intellect, food for the intellect, food for the mind, food for the heart, spiritual food. These are all kinds of ways that we are nourished and where we foster ourselves. So his mother, in this dream, was not being fed, couldn't feed. The food she tried to eat turned into fire and terrible things, so she couldn't eat it. And her son, who was in mourning at the time, was very upset about this and came to the Buddha to ask what could be done.

[28:09]

And he suggested that you can't savor on your own, you know, and to ask the other monks in the practice period, at the end of the practice period, at the time when they have a ceremony where they avow their actions of body, speech, and mind. They recite precepts and acknowledge and admit where they need to work more, where they have not been in alignment with their own vows. At that ceremony, it can be dedicated to your mother. So this regular ceremony that occurs in the New and the Full Moon, he asked that this ceremony be for his mother. And this is where this connection between karma

[29:12]

or our volitional acts of body, speech, and mind, and the consequences thereof, is kind of part of that, and this ceremony comes together, this feeding or making offerings. So the offering is a kind of cleansing, or it's spiritual food, you might say, of cleansing or meeting the karmic life, our own and those of others, and sending our heart's wish of loving kindness and compassion and wishes for beings to be well and protected and fostered and nourished. This all comes together in this ceremony.

[30:15]

So it's with a kind mind and a kind heart that this ceremony is performed or enacted. The story about Ananda is a little bit different, but there was a being who came to him and told him that he was going to die in three days, and that when he died he was going to be in a very unfortunate situation. He was going to be what's called a hungry ghost. And you can think of this any way you want, but the qualities of what a hungry ghost is, or a preta, I think we're all familiar with it. A hungry ghost is someone who cannot be satisfied,

[31:21]

no matter how many lovely meals, no matter how many concerts or travel or possessions or fame or success. There's a kind of insatiable quality or it's not enough, it doesn't satisfy. And this can be at the most extreme, this can be being completely taken over by addictions of all different kinds. And it can also mean in one's own practice or spiritual practice, feeling that even though you're surrounded by the teachings or you hear the teachings, you're exposed to the teachings, because of our doubts or skepticism or cynicism or karmic disposition,

[32:24]

we can't accept it, we've got some problem with it, we won't take it up. We're always constantly on the outside looking in at everyone else at the table. So one may feel this way, you may feel this way about what I'm talking about right now, like this is weird and I didn't come here to hear about hungry ghosts and so forth. I understand, believe me. So our own personal unable to rest, unable to take up what we know intellectually we want to take up, but somehow we get caught up in our old patterns and either negative ways of thinking or put ourselves in situations that are not conducive to waking up,

[33:28]

where we're influenced by our circumstances or friends. So this is this kind of realm, and Ananda was told he was about to head to that realm and he went to the Buddha and asked for helpness, and the Buddha had him also make these offerings, and included with the community. So this particular practice, the Buddha said to him that in a previous life,

[34:28]

these are the stories that the Bodhisattva of Infinite Compassion, Kanzayon, taught him a particular very esoteric ceremony, which is this feeding of the hungry ghosts, and he had Ananda perform this ceremony. And in this ceremony, when I say esoteric, there's mantra, which the word mantra, shingon, means true words, so there are these words that are spoken, there's offerings of food given, there's offering of chanting and good wishes, as well as sound, light. So the ceremony kind of fused in China with their own Chinese cultural inclusion of ancestors

[35:32]

and caring for ancestors, and so it's very similar to Day of the Dead ceremonies, which I think were yesterday or the day before, first and second, where in China, there's a whole month where people go to the cemeteries and bring food and make offerings and in a very conscious way, bring up the memory of those who have died. And it's a celebratory feeling, there's puppet shows and Chinese opera, and it's a joyous event, it's not so somber and scary, although there is always this side, you know. And in Mexico, as many of you know, there's very elaborate altars that are made to those who have passed away, foods are made in shapes of skeletons and skulls and so forth, and it's really bringing this aspect of our life

[36:33]

right into consciousness with a lot of energy. And foods are put out, and trails of food to bring people, to bring departed ones to your altar that you've made for them, cakes and things are put out. So, the ceremony of connecting with those beings and those parts of ourself that need some attention, that need to hear an encouraging word, that need to be invited, that are frightened, actually.

[37:33]

Parts of ourself that are afraid, are afraid to relax and relax the heart. I was picturing this pulsating, this frequency that's being emitted from the heart. And I think in the Lotus Sutra and other sutras, often there'll be a description of energy coming from the heart, or in certain visualizations, a filament of gold coming from your heart, going through every being in the world. These are ways that have been offered to develop this, to feel this, to live from there. So,

[38:35]

this ceremony sometimes is called the Ceremony for the Unmourned Dead, and it's a chance to call to mind all those who have died in accidents, war, famine, natural disasters, suicides, car accidents, all these situations, and each one of us is touched by those. Each one of us has stories that we carry in our own body, just opening the newspaper every day, just turning on the radio. So this is a chance to bring up in this conscious way and send with our heart-body our loving-kindness. Emptiness

[39:46]

So, in Buddhism we often talk about emptiness, the teachings of emptiness or the great transcendent wisdom that has gone beyond. And one may be wondering, well, how do you put those two things together? Emptiness, nothing with inherent existence, and all this talk of the dearly departed, how do those things go together? Karma, karmic life, and emptiness. And I think this is something that has been grappled with over the years. But something came up in a meeting, a priest meeting this last week about the teachings of emptiness or the teachings about the root, ignorance,

[40:50]

which is that we have a belief in the inherent existence of self and phenomena, and the teaching that there is no inherent existence, existing in some way separately, on their own, without somehow not being conditioned by other beings and things and weather and everything else. There is no such thing or being. So then what are we talking about when we talk about... What are we talking about? So, one thing that we were studying at this meeting, priest meeting, actually, was the importance of being grounded,

[41:54]

thoroughly grounded in precepts and compassion practices before we can actually thoroughly understand or even, in many cases, even take up emptiness as something to study. There can be a destabilization if we are offered emptiness teachings, the teaching of non-inherent existence, before we have established our kind of mountain legs, before we've established our practice rooted deeply in the precepts and compassion. So without those, without precepts and compassion, one may make the mistake of going into nihilism or nothing exists, what's the use, doesn't matter anyway, there's nothing out there anyway, so who cares if I steal or do anything.

[42:57]

That kind of thinking is a grave mistake. It's a misunderstanding of the teaching and it swings way off into disregarding cause and effect, which is part of right view, both mundane and super mundane cause and effect. So we start, if you are grounded in precepts and shila or morality or ethical practices, be they bodhisattva ethical practices or other ethical practices, there's your own ethical practices, thoroughly, thoroughly grounded in taking care of your life in the details,

[43:59]

in the details of body, speech and mind, knowing there are consequences to our actions, having a deep, as Dogen says, a deep belief in cause and effect, a grounding in cause and effect, watching it, studying it, watching when something leaps out of our mouth, the consequences. How do we speak from the heart? And compassion, where it matters that we are affected, that others suffer, that we suffer. By looking at our own suffering, we know others suffer, whether they have a beautiful circumstance or difficult circumstances, we know that circumstances do not dictate

[45:04]

whether we suffer or not. You can suffer in a palace, you can suffer in a hovel, it's not about that. Although we do need the basic things to be able to appreciate that. So having compassion, suffering with, responding to beings, these practices are necessary to be thoroughly part of our daily life and where our heart turns. For emptiness, for the teachings of emptiness to make any sense in how Buddhadharma is presented, Buddhadharma does not say, it doesn't matter, you can do whatever you want, because there's nothing inherently there. That's gross misunderstanding.

[46:06]

In fact, Dogon says, emptiness misunderstood, this is Nagarjuna, is like grabbing a snake and not being trained to handle snakes. What's going to happen? Grab a snake and you get hurt, right? Unless you know how to pick up a snake, and there are ways, right? There are snake handlers. So this is, our misunderstandings of emptiness or the lack of inherent existence gets applied to compassion practices. So these are not opposed to one another. The way things exist, in that very way, we offer loving kindness and compassion. It's not like,

[47:09]

well, they don't exist, so why should we offer compassion? Our offering also doesn't exist in a separate, inherent way. It's completely interdependent and dependently co-arisen offering to the dependently co-arisen departed ones. So we get stuck in, well, they don't exist, but my offering does. We have to have a thorough understanding. But before we have a thorough understanding, the teachings are very clear about non-harming compassion, generosity, patience, vigor, mindfulness. So we don't disregard karma

[48:16]

somehow with the teaching of emptiness. Instead, we realize the emptiness of karma, that our karmic actions are also dharmic actions, meaning completely dependently co-arisen and empty of a separate existence, too. So we realize this through our practice, with our practice, beyond our practice. So we have great effect on each other. We have great effect with our heart. This calm heart in the world has... We never know how we affect others. And the Tibetan teacher Sogyal Rinpoche

[49:25]

in Living and Dying, I have this quote from him, if I can find it here. Can't find it. Basically, the kind of mystery of our own existence and the mystery of those who have left, in that mystery we can offer something to them. So you're all invited to the ceremony tonight at five o'clock, and also if you're going to be coming and you'd like to have a name read, because we read names of people who have died, you're welcome to make an offering and have a name read. So this...

[50:38]

It's a little bit scary sometimes, you know, turning towards this side of things. And our ability to relax in the middle of that, in the middle of all our scary situations, is key. I wanted to close with this dedication from Pema Chodron's book, The Places That Scare You. This is her dedication after writing this book, The Places That Scare You, A Guide to Fearlessness in Difficult Times. So this is her dedication.

[51:38]

Throughout my life, and we can all imagine us dedicating an action, body, speech, and mind, in this way. Throughout my life, until this very moment, whatever virtue I have accomplished, including any benefit that may come from this book, or any action, I dedicate to the welfare of all beings. May the roots of suffering diminish. May warfare, violence, neglect, indifference, and addictions also decrease. May the wisdom and compassion of all beings increase now and in the future. May we clearly see all the barriers we erect between ourselves and others to be as insubstantial as our dreams. May we appreciate the great perfection of all phenomena. May we continue to open our hearts and minds

[52:41]

in order to work ceaselessly for the benefit of all beings. May we go to the places that scare us. May we lead the life of a warrior. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. They are in danger to quit.

[53:14]

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