This podcast is offered by the San Francisco Zen Center on the web at www.sfcc.org. Our public programs are made possible by donations from people like you. Good morning everyone. Good to see you all. For anyone who might not know me, my name is Tenzin David Zimmerman, and I live here at City Center, and I serve as one of the abbots of San Francisco's Zen Center. And it's always a joy to be with you, so thank you for joining today. This morning, I'd like to start off by sharing a short parable. And since Buddhism began in ancient India, Rivers, waters, and ferry boats have featured prominently in its mythology and stories. And many of the parables and analogies offer metaphors for understanding our progress on our spiritual journey.

[01:05]

So here is such a story. One day, a young Buddhist on her journey home came to the banks of a wide river, staring hopelessly at the great obstacle before her, She pondered for hours on how to cross such a wide barrier. Just as she was about to give up her pursuit to continue her journey, she saw a great teacher on the other side of the river. The young Buddhist yells across the expanse to the teacher, Oh, wise one, can you tell me how to get to the other side of this river? The teacher ponders for a moment, looks up and down the river, and yells back, My child, you are on the other side. So this week at Beginner's Mind Temple and also online, on our online temple, many of us embarked on a journey across a, you could call it a 10-week wide river known as the Fall 2026 Ongo or practice period.

[02:16]

And I have the honor of serving as your ferry boat captain on this forage, along with the soon-to-be first mate, or Shuso, head student, Mae Elliott. And a number of us here today are actually participating in a day-long sitting, kind of to help us to settle a little bit more deeply into this intensive period of dharma, exploration, and discovery. So welcome whether you are here for the entire journey or just for an hour today. So the topic of study for Ongo is the six paramitas in which I'm framing as bodhisattva practices for an uncertain world. And I imagine some of you like me might have the experience as this is a pretty uncertain, chaotic, You know, challenging world to navigate these days.

[03:16]

For those unfamiliar, the paramitas, they're also known as perfections, and I'll say a little bit more about that later, are essential virtues, or what I like to think of as liberative attitudes in the Buddhist practice. And so they are considered the heart practices of a bodhisattva. And a bodhisattva is someone who is dedicated, to the path of awakening for the benefit of not just themselves, but for all beings. And so bodhisattvas train in these six methods of liberation. And in doing so, they support themselves, as well as all of us, in revealing our true nature, our Buddha nature. So the first paramita is dana paramita, which translates as generosity. And it teaches us to let go of attachments, to cultivate selflessness, and foster compassion in order to uplift others.

[04:22]

The second is sila paramita, often translated as discipline or ethical conduct. And sila promotes integrity, honesty, respect, and And these qualities help us to form a strong foundation for our own spiritual growth. The third paramita is kashanti, patience or tolerance. And kashanti cultivates inner strength, resilience, and an understanding of oneself and others amidst life's challenges. The next paramita. is Virya Paramita. Virya can be translated as energy, as effort, or diligence. And Virya builds discipline and perseverance through sustained practice. It's kind of like the engine that helps us keep going. So the fifth Paramita, Jyana, or meditation, brings mindfulness, clarity, and a sense of interconnectedness through contemplative practice.

[05:32]

And the sixth and final paramita, prajna, represents wisdom and insight. Wisdom and insight that liberates us. It liberates us from ignorance, allowing us to, again, realize our true nature, our Buddha nature, and the interconnectedness or the profound intimacy of all things. Now... Each of these paramitas can be treated as a separate object of study and throughout our 10 weeks we'll be each week taking one of them and setting it more deeply and taking it up as a practice. But the thing to know is in actuality they are interdependent qualities and they are meant to be practiced simultaneously because each one supports the other and strengthens the other qualities. And when practiced deeply, each of these paramitas, or these far-reaching attitudes, helps one transcend not only personal suffering, but it also supports people on their journey toward wisdom and peace.

[06:40]

So this morning, I want to take a little bit more time to further unpack the concept of paramita. The foundational Buddhist practices of the six paramitas serve as refs, if you will, in the guiding and faring individuals on the path to awakening or liberation. For those of you who are in the first talk of the practice period this past Wednesday, you may recall that I spoke about the word, the Sanskrit word paramita, and that it has two etymologies. And the first arises from the word paramah, meaning the highest, the most distant, having gone the farthest, or the most excellent. And this is why the word paramita can also have been translated as perfection or excellence. And the six paramitas are referred to at times as transcendent perfections because when they're fully expressed, they transcend dualities such as self and other.

[07:49]

And the second etymology divides paramita into para and mita. With para meaning beyond or the further bank, the further shore, the boundary. And mita meaning that which has arrived. And you could also take the suffix eta without the M. Often that also means that which goes. So paramita can interpret... tangibly mean that which has gone beyond and that which goes beyond or that which transcends or that which is transcendent. So paramita literally means having reached the other shore or going beyond or going beyond. So from a Buddhist perspective, the paramita serve as a vessel to cross from one shore and and that is the shore of samsara, meaning the shore of suffering, of anger, depression, conflict.

[08:52]

You could think of it as the shore. To the other shore, that of nirvana, meaning the shore of peace, of non-fear, and of liberation. So there are these two characteristics of Paramita. They carry one across to the other shore, And they are excellence or perfecting practices that Manayana Buddhists consider foremost in perfecting not just one's character, but also helping to formulate one's intention or purpose in life. And we can generally understand the word perfection, the term, as something that has gone to the other side. to the end of what's possible. So now it's perfect. It's complete in some way. And the dictionary, perfect means excellent or complete beyond practical or theoretical improvements. It also means thorough and pure and without flaws and shortcomings.

[09:57]

You know, in a certain way, perfect is impossible. Have you ever reached perfect? Do you ever get it just perfect in your mind? Flawless? So we could say then that it's literally impossible and that from the beginning the six perfections likewise the Bodhisattva vows are impossible to attain. They're impossible to accomplish. We can never truly reach the other shore just as we as individuals can never truly save all beings. And yet we still take up the spirits of the paramitas, of the perfections, and just do our best to reach beyond our current understanding and the expression of them. And as we do, we might, in time, recognize that each of the paramitas, as they are practiced, is the other shore already.

[11:02]

The other shore is right there. Inside each paramita is perfection. How do you completely abide within each of these paramitas, perfectly manifesting them? Now, the thing is, we don't know this at the outset of staying the paramitas, right? We can only discover this by setting out on the bodhisattva path and intentionally training or cultivating our character through wholehearted engagement with the paramitas. And to be a benefit, the paramitas must be a lived experience, but not a theoretical concept. We have to embody them. We have to really take them up and engage them in an active way. So... Again, returning to the meaning of paramitas, crossing over, I think it's important to note the kind of action or verb aspect of the word crossing.

[12:06]

It's an action or activity that we need to intentionally do. Hence, we can practice perfection or crossing over every day and every moment. Everything we do can be such an activity geared towards crossing over. And in this way, the perfections are the moment-by-moment conscious action of engaging in bodhisattva activity. In every activity, bodhisattvas make the effort to enable themselves and others to cross over, out of suffering, to liberation, using these six transcendent trainings as vessels or skillful means. However, we need to recognize the difference between taking action with the intention of liberating oneself and others from the realm of experience and taking action just to make ourselves a little more comfortable with the current conditions without making a real effort to create beneficial, lasting change.

[13:11]

So as the Dhammapada reminds us, few are the people who reach the other shore. Many are the people who run about on this shore. So in other words, some of us may be less interested in crossing over than arranging the worldly conditions around us to suit our preferences or kind of dressing up the situation with kind of wrong-headed ideas that only serve to obscure the truth. And the Buddha says that this kind of effort is futile. We think, well, you know, my life is kind of unpleasant and comfortable. If I get a new partner, you know, or if I get a new house or a new job or something, then it will be perfect. Anyone ever have that idea? Everyone's hand should be up, I know, right? If I just make some changes, it will be perfect, right? And again, the Buddha says that kind of effort is futile. It's kind of like rearranging the deck chairs in the Titanic, right? You're still on a sinking ship.

[14:14]

And no matter how much you redecorate, it won't save you in the end. So you need to actually abandon ship and find a new vessel. And of course, the Buddha offered just such a vessel with his teachings of the Dharma and the Paramitas. The point is, we can't take this idea or this endeavor of crossing over lightly. Because for many, it has been a literal matter of life and death. For example, back in the old days, many monks stepped on a boat or a ship, leaving them behind their homes and traveling to China to learn Buddhism, only to have their boat sink during passage. It said that if you were serious about learning about and practicing the Dharma, you had to take great risks, even to risk your life. Apparently, monks dying in passage was such a frequent event that there was a Japanese term for it, something that translates as suicide on water for Buddha Wei.

[15:27]

And of course, we talk about the death of the ego, the death of the sense of the belief in a separate self. Are you willing to die in that way, to sacrifice You know, that concept, grasping onto a separate self in order to find true freedom. So all this is to say that our journey to the other shore, it's not going to be easy. I'm sorry, if you came to practice then thinking it's going to be easy, you are in the wrong ship, right? It is meant to be challenging, right? because we're aiming our rafts against the relentless stream of our karmic conditioning. You could say against the currents of greed, hate, and delusion. And yet, while we make this effort against the stream, we're buoyed by the bodhisattva vow to save all beings, helping them cross from the shore of samsara to that of peace, happiness, and wholeness.

[16:38]

So imagine that despite all the scary stories that you've heard about what happens to those who set out seeking the Dharma, or any fear that you might have about just going down to the Zendo and sitting with your own mind, right? You've decided to courageously embark on a journey of practice and self-discovery, and are now crossing an unfamiliar ocean. In the Genjo Koan, Dogen Zenji, one of the founders of Zen, offers us Dharma voyagers a bit of counsel. He says the following, When you first seek Dharma, you imagine you are far away from its environs. But Dharma is already correctly transmitted. You are immediately your original self. When you ride in a boat and watch the shore, you might assume that the shore is moving. But when you keep your eyes closely on the boat, you can see that the boat moves. Similarly, if you examine myriad things with a confused body and mind, you might suppose that your mind and nature are permanent.

[17:48]

When you practice intimately and return to where you are, it will be clear that nothing all has unchanging self. So Dogen uses this analogy to address our usual belief in a fixed, unchanging self, emphasizing the difference between looking inward and outwardly. He says, when you ride in a boat and watch the shore, you might assume that the shore is moving. But when you keep your eyes closely on the boat, you can see that the boat moves. So turning our attention to the boat, right? For the sake of this analogy, let's say the boat or the vessel is a combination of our part of mind and all the things that contribute to a sense of a separate fixed self. We see that our boat, our self, rolls with the waves and is not a fixed entity at all if we look very closely. The shore is moving also.

[18:52]

It's not just that the boat is moving, but actually the shore in its own nature is moving, for nothing at all has unchanging self, according to Dogen. But it's not moving in the way that we think it is, since we can only see it from the advantage of the boat, meaning we can only see from our limited, self-contained perspective. Our perspective is always limited. Our goal then is not to get rid of ourselves, but is not to rid ourselves of the boat or get rid of our body or even our self per se, but to pay close attention to the way that the boat and the sea and the shore are all constantly changing and interacting because they're inextricably interdependent. And We do this in hopes that eventually we will no longer be controlled by either the boat, the sense of self, or the capricious waves of life.

[19:56]

Okay, so let's say we're doing our best to follow Dogen's advice. We're practicing watching the boat, watching the self, and trying not to get too attached to it because we want to be good Buddhists and not getting too attached to our boat self, right? And regardless of the reasons and conditions under which we begin our journey, we may find that within a very short time, any number of obstacles begin to appear along the way. Obstacles that obstruct or distract or discourage us from staying our course. So, for example, during a one-day sitting, or any individual period of meditation you might do, for that matter, obstacles might appear... in myriad ways, kind of like endless waves lapping up against our boat or within us. And some of them may have enough force to unsettle us in some way. So, for example, we have thought waves. These thought waves swamp our boats at times.

[21:01]

Anyone have that experience? We need a sump pump just to suck all the thought wave water out of our heads. And then we have these topsy-turvy emotions that toss us about. And then there's the searing noonday heat of sexual fantasies. There's also the dark storm of judgment and resentment and irritation. And then there's the attack by the sharks of body pain and anger and maybe even just plain old sleepiness and boredom, right? So the point is... isn't to stop these waves, because it's actually impossible to stop them at a certain level. And trying to do so often just creates more waves. You try to push water away, what happens? It comes back. And so the effort is to instead do our best to meet the waves.

[22:05]

Whatever they are, meet them wholeheartedly to, you could say, ride them out. And to allow ourselves to actually feel them. Whatever shape they come, feel those waves without resistance. Because resistance, again, only further energizes them. When we can ride out the waves of experience, when you can become Zen surfers, we eventually recognize that... These waves are by nature actually empty and impermanent. So we are not the waves. They keep coming and going, and yet there is still something always present observing the waves of experience that isn't ultimately impacted by them. Sometimes when we encounter certain obstacles, we might kind of feel stuck or uncertain how to proceed, especially if... All the options that we come up with either seem too arduous, that's too challenging, I don't want to do that, I want to tackle that, or they are not to our liking.

[23:14]

Another situation that sometimes arises is feeling like we're suddenly become kind of stagnant, stagnant in the water, stuck in the water, or even that our boat might be drifting in some way. Perhaps because we've lost our rudder, we've lost our purpose, our direction. We might suddenly have this question, why am I doing this again? Or am I doing it right? I'm not making any progress. I guess I'm not doing it right. What's wrong here? What's going on? Right? So whether we've encountered an obstacle of some sort or find ourselves, of course, it can be helpful to talk with a practice leader, for example, a Dharma teacher that can help you kind of look at what might be going on for you and help you to find ways to work with it or to address it. Now, sometimes when we see a practice leader, they will go so far as to tell us that...

[24:17]

To be truly free of the waves and their impact on our boat, we need to jump out of the boat, get out of the boat of safety and security, and dive deep into the waters of the ocean itself. In many cases, going against all rational instinct. As Korean Zen Master Song Song said, If you want to cross the ocean of suffering, you must take the ship with no bottom. What is the ship with no bottom? And Suzuki Roshi said something similar. Life is like stepping onto a boat, which is about to sail out to sea and sink. In other words, we've got to be willing to enter the water and become absolutely and thoroughly wet and immersed, in the experience of being alive. And once we boldly jump overboard into the ocean around us and begin swimming, we may discover something very unique.

[25:37]

Kayin Samai, which translates as Ocean Seal Samadhi, Dogen Zenji says that when you swim on the surface of the ocean, your foot touches the bottom. Now, that's a rather fantastical claim, right? How is that possible, to swim on the surface of the ocean while one's feet walk along the bottom? Speaking to this, Dainan Kataguri Roshi wrote the following, In common sense, this is impossible, but it's really true. The surface of the ocean is the human world in the stream of time, the huge world we create through our memory, imagination, ambition, hope, and plans. That surface of everyday life is rooted in the absolute reality at the bottom of humanity. Your foot already touches the bottom of the ocean. You are already walking there, but you don't believe this.

[26:40]

We don't believe that our life is walking on the bottom of the ocean because we are always living on the surface, hanging on to the past, present, and future. We think the bottom of the ocean is something other than daily life, but we cannot ignore the fact that our life in the stream of time is constantly changing. It is constantly changing because it is manifested from moment to moment at the pivot of nothingness. So if you want your life to really work, then whatever you do, dance, art, painting, photography, whatever vacation you have, or sitting zazen, your life must be swimming on the surface. And simultaneously, it must be rooted, walking on the bottom of the ocean. That is living wholeheartedly. There's a lot to unpack there in what Kadigiri has to say, but I'd like to propose that the main takeaway is this.

[27:47]

Our Dharma journey is not just one of crossing over, but also crossing downward, or you could say inward. We need to see the way in which we simultaneously touch both the relative realm, meaning the conditioned surface nature and appearance of things, again, like the waves on the surface of the ocean, and ultimate reality. In other words, the unconditioned, non-dual realm, which we could say is the bottom of the ocean. This is how we live. This is how we're meant to live. transversing both the vertical and horizontal dimensions of the ocean of life and of our vast being. Sometimes we sit on the surface and sometimes we crawl along the floor, but we can't stay on either level. Otherwise, we'll be either constantly whipped about by the surface storms of samsara or forever lost in the dark depths of emptiness.

[28:55]

And wherever we find ourselves, we should keep in mind that it's all water. Everything you see is water. So, here we are. Bodhisattvas on the journey across the ocean of life. Let's say we have come to the point in our journey where we can bravely decide to let go of clinging to the side of our boats, ourself. and are now swimming in the Dharma Ocean. And for some of us, this might be kind of scary and unnerving. And for others, it's quite enjoyable, or it's even invigorating, and we wonder why we didn't do this sooner. Now, unless we plan to frolic aimlessly in the water forever, it's good to remind ourselves of our original purpose and intention for sitting out on the journey and crossing the ocean in the first place. we might want to remind ourselves of our desire to be free of suffering as well as our bodhisattva vow to free all beings, as if we've taken such a vow.

[30:03]

As I mentioned earlier, the ultimate destination or the other shore from a Buddhist perspective is nirvana. And nirvana is generally described as a transcendent state in which there is neither suffering or desire nor a sense of self. And the subject, is released from the effects of karma and the samsaric cycle of birth and death and rebirth. I don't want to go too far down the what is nirvana road other than to say Mahayana and Soto Zen make clear that nirvana is not some other place we try to reach through practice or zazen. Over and over we are reminded that samsara, this world of suffering, of birth and death, and nirvana are one and the same. They are not two separate places or divided realms. For example, the second century Indian Buddhist philosopher Nagarjuna was one of the first to make this claim.

[31:10]

In his text, The Fundamental Verses on the Middle Way, he wrote that there is not the slightest difference between samsara and nirvana. there is not the slightest difference between nirvana and samsara. Now, for many Buddhists, this statement might almost be kind of shocking, right? Because there's a really high emphasis, oh, nirvana, nirvana, nirvana is the place to be, right? Because it kind of, you know, it kind of overturns the whole spiritual enterprise, right? How can this realm of suffering... be identical with that of liberation, of nirvana? How can samsara and nirvana possibly be perceived as the same or not true? Maizumi Roshi underlines his point when he asks, what other shore? If everything is right here and now, what other shore exists?

[32:14]

Some people think that the other shore is nirvana. the way we think things should be or the way we wish our life to be. But nirvana is already here. Having gone to the other shore, we confirm that this life right now is the treasury of the true dharma eye and subtle mind of nirvana. This life is that most precious treasure, the unsuppassable way, the way of true realization. In other words, We're already on the shore of liberation. You just don't recognize it. Do you recognize it? Do you recognize that you're already free? You are. In our lifetime, it is only just a shift in perspective. Nothing happens. The perspective just shifts. That's all. That's all it is. You don't change. Nothing moves around. You just get a different perspective.

[33:17]

A clear perspective. We keep thinking our liberation, our freedom from suffering, lies elsewhere rather than right here in this place and in this moment. Realizing this truth, we go beyond the duality such as samsara or nirvana. And then we can become perfectly at rest in the precious ocean of being. The Zuggiroshi offers his own take of what is meant by the other shore. In a lecture that he gave at Tassajara in 1965, he spoke about the mantra at the end of the Heart Sutra. And the Heart Sutra, for those who don't, it's a very essential Mahayana chant that Zen temples chant every day. And the Heart Sutra ends with the following words. Gathe, Gathe, Paragathe, Parasam. Is that word Parasam? Parasam Gathe Bodhisavaha. which basically means gone, gone to the other shore, go to a rich enlightenment and accomplish enlightenment.

[34:25]

And then Suzuki Roshi commented that to the other shore does not mean figuratively speaking to the other shore, but to go to the other shore means to return to our true nature or to find out or realize our true nature. But this realization is not awareness or some experience we get by thinking or by feeling or by the five or six sense organs, meaning through our body or you could also say by clinging to the boat. It's only by direct experience. You could say diving directly into the ocean itself. We will know what it is. That's the only way we will know what it is, through direct experience. That direct experience genuine experience comes before any thinking or feeling activity arises. In other words, when you just sit, you have this feeling. So then, according to Suzuki Roshi, we make this journey across the great ocean of being to return to our true nature, our Buddha nature, to return to our very life source.

[35:39]

And we do this both by swimming and sinking into the ocean of direct experience and allow ourselves to walk along its bottom, to abide in that deep place where there is no thought or concept or discrimination or any duality. What is that? What is the experience before thought or judgment or... description or anything arises. That's where we want to be. So it's kind of like we become just like these glowing alien-looking fish walking along the bottom of the ocean, on the ocean floor. And we need to have faith that our way, our walking in this way, a crossing the floor of the ocean of life, fully submerged in its mystery, is one with the Buddha way.

[36:43]

There is no other shore. There is no other land. There's no other ocean. Just this is it. Right here in the midst of the deaths of our lives and the myriad waves is nirvana. Can we have faith that this is true? as we let go of the shore and the boat, our sense of self, and anything else that unnecessarily weighs us down and impedes our journey to liberation. So, for those of us who are participating in today's day-long sitting, as we turn to the zendo to sit more zazen, remember that we don't need to make a great effort at rowing our boat or swimming a great distance. We just need to stop struggling. Stop trying to remain on the surface of things or flailing about like a drowning person or hanging to the bottom of the ocean floor.

[37:48]

Instead, we can simply let ourselves be immersed in the ocean of being. We can let ourselves gently float in silence and stillness. and amidst the gentle undulating waves of dancing light and the great non-discriminating darkness. So I'd like to close with a poem. This is by Juan Ramón Jiménez, who is a Spanish writer. He received the Nobel Prize for Literature, and he eventually immigrated to Puerto Rico. And this poem is titled Oceans. I have the feeling that my boat has struck down there in the depths against a great thing. And nothing happens. Nothing. Silence, waves.

[38:52]

Nothing happens? Or has everything happened and we are standing now quietly in the new life? I have the feeling that my boat has struck down there in the depths against a great thing. And nothing happens. Nothing. Silence. Waves. Nothing happens? Or has everything happened and we are standing now quietly in the new life? This very moment is your new life. Are you touching it? Are you reaching all the way to the bottom of your breath, your heart, your being, and discovering its depths? In the ways of the breath, in the ways of your heartbeat, in the ways of the mind, can you hear the ever-present silence and stillness, the place where nothing happens, but everything is known and everything is one.

[40:01]

So please enjoy your journey, whether you are continuing with today's sitting or with the fall practice period, or simply heading out into the world to do whatever it is you plan to do with your one wild and precious life. Thank you. 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, please visit sfzc.org and click Giving. May we fully enjoy the Dharma.

[40:48]

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