My name is Kodo. I'm the head of the Meditation Hall and City Center. Are you able to hear me okay? Great. It is just a joy to introduce our speaker for tonight, Lucy Xiao, who is a priest in residence here in San Francisco. And just a delight to have in our Sangha. So I'm really happy to... introduce lucy we'll start with the opening verse which um you can find in the chat box if you'd like it and then we'll move into the drama talk an unsurpassed petrating and perfect dharma is rarely met with even in a hundred thousand million kalpa Having it you see and listen to, to remember and accept, I vow to taste the truth of the Tathagata's words.

[01:09]

Good evening, everybody. Can you hear me? Can I go to the gallery view? Because I want to see everybody. Ah, that's good. Wow, I see Joe. Hi, Joe. Are you from Thailand? Are you dialing in from Thailand? Okay, we can't talk now. But thank you all so much. I'm seeing many familiar faces, and I'm seeing... faces I don't see very often. And I'm very, very glad that we're all here tonight together to study the Dharma, to investigate practice together.

[02:17]

So I'd like to invite you all to get comfortable and relax in a comfortable position and get your tea if you have your tea. So my deep gratitude to my teachers and family and to all of you tonight and to anybody who is going to hear, listen to this talk or watch this talk later on. It feels so important to have sangha, to have community now.

[03:20]

So I'm very grateful. We've had multiple pandemics recently or in the past few months. Only the past few months we've had many things happen in the world and in this country. And there have been immense pain and suffering. what are the compassionate response when we meet suffering what are the right actions when we meet sickness and death violence and killing what are

[04:29]

actions and responses. What kind of actions and responses can be helpful? These are questions many of us ask these days. And I'd like to put one more question out there. That is, where Where do compassionate responses come from? How do we find compassionate responses? On the second floor of Zen Center, San Francisco Zen Center, there is a statue of Avalokiteshvara.

[05:36]

Many of you have seen it. Avalokiteshvara is the embodiment of compassion in Buddhism. And in China, people call Avalokiteshvara Guan Yin or Guan Shi Yin. the one who observes the sound of the world. And so in English, they often translate it into hearing the cry of the world. The characters literally mean observing the sound of the world. So it's not just hearing, it's observing, paying attention. paying attention to the sounds of the world, the cries of the world.

[06:39]

And this statue has many arms extending from its body. And, well, in China, throughout history, Avalokiteshvarao, Guanyin, was depicted sometimes as a male figure, sometimes as a female figure. And after Tang Dynasty, mostly Guan Yin is seen as a female, has a female body. But really, it transcends. man or woman or even human or non-human, because Pavlov Kiteshvara has many faces and many tricks.

[07:50]

And so this statue has many arms and In each hand, she holds an instrument, and they're all different. They're all different instruments. Each one is used to help in a particular situation. And so I used to hang out in that corner a lot, And I always was very curious about those little instruments in her hands. And now I can see that statue and I wonder, what are those instruments?

[08:54]

How did they end up in her hands? I'm going to use male and female pronouns interchangeably tonight for Guan Yin. So in the Suragama Sutra, where Guan Yin Pusa, Avalokiteshma Bodhisattva, share her practice, with the assembly. How she realized what kind of practice led her to realize the true nature. And she told the assembly of her practice of hearing or listening. Listening

[09:59]

inward, listening to the nature of the self. And that practice led her to awakening. And she also shared the fruits of this awakening. So she said she obtained two fruits from this practice. One is to connect with all the Buddhas, to connect to the awakened mind and the loving kindness of all the Buddhas. And the other fruit is that the practice, the realization, allow her to connect with all sentient beings, to connect to the suffering of all sentient beings.

[11:21]

So... In this moment, what are our practices? What is your practice? How do we connect to the awakened mind and the loving kindness of all Buddhas? And how do we connect to the suffering of all sentient beings. So I think these are questions that we can investigate. And we have to find our own ways, each of us,

[12:30]

has to investigate in our unique situation to find our way, to find out how to connect. I don't have answers. I don't have answers, all the answers for myself, and certainly I don't have answers for you. But I like to offer some encouragement by sharing a poem by my Grand Master Mai Hua San. The late Grand Master Mai Hua San was the teacher of my Calligraphy teacher.

[13:31]

Some of you have met him. So the poem is called The Bamboo Poem. Before I talk about the poem, I'd like to say a few words about my teachers, or my teacher in this case, and bamboo, and the bamboo plant. So you get a little background information. So with my other, just like my other Chinese teachers, Master Chan, my own teacher, He's a very warm and generous-hearted man.

[14:36]

And so when I study with my teachers from China, oftentimes it's not just studying. There's a lot of other things going on, including... storytelling, including food, tea, things like that. And so whenever I go to see Master Chan, he would immediately try to make tea and maybe eat something. And then we study, and then after a while, he will say, drink some tea, and then he'll magically pull out something for me to eat.

[15:40]

And so it's a very Chinese thing to do. Of course, I also don't go empty-handed, right? It's a kind of exchange of warm hearts. And here, if you offer something and you don't want to eat it, you just say, no, thank you. But with my Chinese friends and teachers, say he offers something, I say, oh, I just ate. I don't want to eat anything now. And then he will immediately say, oh, but this is very special. It's from my hometown, and I bet you never had this before, and there's only one piece left. So, of course, I'll eat it.

[16:44]

And, of course, it's like not only I'm eating this rice cake or or steam burn, or whatever it is, it's almost like something that carries his love and care, and then I swallow it into my body and let it sink all the way down to my belly. And this is how we say... I'm happy to see you to each other. And so oftentimes during this time when we are drinking tea and eating rice cake or whatever, he would tell me stories. All my Chinese teachers do that. So he would tell stories of his teacher and stories of...

[17:54]

how he practiced when he was young. And that's the time I enjoy. I wouldn't say more than studying, but definitely I enjoy that time as much as studying because I'm learning from this teacher from his whole life. And so during one of these times, he told me about this poem. And his teacher, the great master, grand master, my Huan San, lived in the last century and passed away in early 80s.

[19:00]

And he was a very revered and very accomplished calligraphy artist in southern China. And during his time, actually, still happens today, I believe. During holidays, like Chinese New Year or Harvest Moon Festival, friends will gather, like artist friends or poet friends or many friends of his would gather during holidays, and they would make art and make poetry together and share with each other right there. And so he wrote this poem, this bamboo poem, in one of those occasions.

[20:03]

And my teacher said to me, well, this is a great poem to learn, to memorize, because when you get together with your friends, And if you can't make your own poem, you can't just recite this one. So I thought he is very right. And so I'm offering this poem from my teacher's teacher because I don't have my own poem. And since then, over the years, this poem has become my favorite poem. And I tried to translate it many times. And I've come up with different versions. And just earlier this week, my friends Patrick and Lee helped me to polish it.

[21:10]

And so thanks to my friends. So here's the poem, the bamboo poem. Your heart is empty and your joints are strong. Carefully appreciated and bent, you turn into ten thousand things. You aspire to reach the sky. How can anyone say it's in vain? Your yearning for the Chi River is there forever and ever. For those of you who speak Chinese, this is

[22:19]

Let me say a few things about bamboo first. So many of you know bamboo tree, or it's actually a plant, grow in many parts of the world. And in China, especially eastern and southern and western China, it's everywhere, basically. And... They can grow very tall, and they are quite big, and they can grow, like, taller than 100 meters, not meter feet. And they're hollow inside, separated by these joints or nodes. And they grow in groups. in, like, groves, because they have the root grows horizontally.

[23:31]

So the bamboo root grows horizontally, and the shoots come up, and then new bamboo trees come up. And so usually you see lots and lots of them together. And they like to... be near rivers and lakes because they need a lot of water and they also need to drain very well. And in Chinese culture, in classical painting and literature, bamboo is a symbol of integrity, uprightness. and humbleness. And it also symbolizes flexibility and resilience.

[24:38]

Bamboo trees live through winter. They don't die down in winter. And in fact, in Chinese painting and art, oftentimes you see bamboo tree painted with pine trees and plum blossoms. And they are called the three friends of winter. The three friends of winter. Because they are resilient and they don't wither. in cold weather. And bamboo tree is also a symbol of safety and health. And so in many healing places you see paintings of bamboo.

[25:44]

And So the poem has eight lines, and each two lines are kind of related to each other. And so it's like a four pair. So the first two lines, I'll explain the pairs. The first two lines says, your heart is empty and your joints are strong. And so it says the... The inside of bamboo is hollow, and the joints are very strong. And bamboo has the highest, what do you call it, strength to weight ratio. And it's very strong, and it's also very flexible. And so the first two lines talks about that character of bamboo.

[26:55]

And the next two lines, carefully appreciated or carefully investigated and banned, you turn into 10,000 things. So bamboo, because it's very flexible, you can use it to... to make many, many different things. In China, you use bamboo. We use bamboo to make baskets. In ancient times, it was writing material. And you use it to make musical instruments and furniture. Nowadays, fabric, clothing material, and... building material, floors, and so we are familiar with that. So bamboo can be turned into many different things after careful looking at it, using it, studying carefully, and

[28:14]

cut them into the pieces that are useful, and then make into different things. And the Chinese phrase, 曲成万物, bend and turn into 10,000 things. So this character, 曲, bending, or... Yeah, bending or being pliable or being flexible, that's what the character means. And it's kind of one of the most important characters that people in China appreciate or try to develop. And Xu Cheng Wan Wu And then you turn into 10,000 things originally came from Yijing, the Book of Changes.

[29:23]

So because you are able to be flexible and pliable in different situations, then you can make different things happen. You aspire to reach the sky. How can anyone say it's in vain? So bamboo trees are very tall and straight, and it grows upward as if it wants to reach the sky. And, of course, sky is um never is is limitless and you keep growing and growing taller and even though you can't reach the sky you keep growing toward it and how can anyone say your effort is in vain

[30:39]

Your yearning for the Chi River is there forever and ever. Chi River was a river that was a, I think it's still there, offshoot. It branches out from the Yellow River, which is considered the kind of the mother river. of Chinese civilization. And the Qi River also appeared frequently in ancient poetry. And in the earliest collection of poems, the classic poetry of Shi Jing, there was a poem that talked about a woman, her life from when she was young to when she got older, her love story.

[31:56]

And when she fell in love with someone who was from the other side of Chi River, and then eventually she married this person and she crossed the Chi River. to marry him. And later on, things got bad, turned bad. And so she was abandoned. And then she came back to Chi River. And all these times, Chi River was there to witness her life and to hold her. And so this poem from that collection, that's from Xu Jing, from the classic of poetry, which was dated around...

[33:11]

in Zhou Chao, Zhou Dynasty, around 1000 BC. And so Grand Master Mai Hua Shan borrowed that image in his poem to describe something that we always go back to. that we always long for from beginning to end. And that's the river that can hold our personal stories that's big enough to hold whatever happens, happiness and grief.

[34:20]

And so your yearning for the Chi River is there forever and ever. And so what makes bamboo tree so useful, so versatile? Because its heart is empty, and its joints are strong. It can bend. So empty, being empty here doesn't mean nothing. Being empty here means being okay with not knowing, being humble, being open.

[35:41]

It opens to all the possibilities. And so with that openness and the strength of its joints and the structure, it knows when after careful appreciation and study, it finds the solution or finds the way to fit into the situation, to answer what's needed, to make itself flexible enough for what is called for, to be bent and turned into 10,000 things.

[36:58]

So Avalokiteshvara, the bodhisattva of compassion, having realized the true nature of the self and realized that emptiness and phenomena are both expressions of life. That realization turns into selfless actions when he comes in touch, when he comes in contact with the world.

[38:14]

It's actualized through his skillful means. And in the sutras and in Chinese culture, Guan Yin is said to have 32 or 33 manifestations. It can become a woman and can become a man, an old person, a child, a person, a human person, a non-human person. And this comes from her heart that open and empty of fixed notions.

[39:28]

And so she's able to jump into situations, different situations, and be helpful. So your heart is empty and your joints are strong. Carefully appreciated and bent, you turn into ten thousand things. You aspire to reach the sky. How can anyone say it's in vain? Your yearning for the Chi River is there forever and ever. I'd like to... If there is any merit for our gathering tonight, I'd like to dedicate it to our practice and effort to find compassionate responses to the suffering of the world.

[40:51]

May we find friends of winter. May we be friends of winter. May we be friends of our season. Thank you very much. And I believe Kodo will lead us a closing chant. So thank you so much, Lucy. May our intention equally extend to every being and place with the true merit of Buddha's way. Things are numberless. I vow to save them. The urges are inexhaustible.

[41:58]

I vow to end them. Our gates are boundless. I vow to enter them. Buddha's way is unsurpassable. I vow to become it. Thank you very much. Kodo, do we... Thank you, Sojen Roshi. Kodo, do we have time for one question, maybe? That seems about right, if you're willing, Lucy. Shall we? Yeah. Is there one question? Hi, Joe. I saw your hand on the screen. Yeah. One question. So good to see you. Ni hao. Ni hao. And I'm so grateful for you to bring in Chinese culture into your talk. One question that has been burning for me for so many years is that I know that Chinese philosophy, especially Taoism, had a very big impact on the development of Zen in China.

[43:12]

And in 25 years, I've never heard a single Zen teacher in America talk about this. Could you say a little about this? Well, There's a lot in common in, well, the form of practice. I'm not very familiar of Taoist practice, but the essence. For example, the word qi or bend, bending, is used a lot in Taoist teachings, in Tao Te Ching. Lao Zi said, to bend so you can be whole, so you can preserve or can become whole. And again, this bending doesn't mean giving up or even yielding.

[44:17]

Sometimes it's translated into yielding the character Qi. But it really means being flexible, being pliable, and being free of preconceived notions of the self, self-clinging. And so, yeah, in that sense, there is something in common. influence of Taoist practice. There was also a lot of influence of Confucian practice when Buddhism came to China because those two were already flourishing in China. So they had to somehow integrate. So, yeah, we can talk about it more if...

[45:21]

if you're interested. How is time, Kodo? We're right at 8.30. Well, we can end now unless there is a burning question about practice at this very moment in your life. Okay. No burning question? So maybe our practice is to go to bed now. Thank you so much, Lucy. Thank you, Kodo. And thank you, everyone. Thanks again for joining us. And if you wish, you should be able to unmute now if you'd like to say goodnight and goodbye. You're unmuted. Thanks, Lucy. Thank you, Lucy. Thank you. Thank you, everybody. Thank you, Lucy. Nice to see you, Sergeant Roshi. Didn't recognize you. He looks like Bodhidharma tonight.

[46:25]

Okay. Good night, everybody. It's so great to see you. Thank you for your support. Good night. Okay, good night everybody.

[47:14]

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