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 by people like you. And welcome to Green Dragon Zen Temple on a cloudy day. We have been... for the past couple of days recognizing the Buddha's Pari Nirvana. Pari Nirvana, Pari is the final, the final Nirvana. And if you look at the altar up there, the Manjushri figure is holding an artistic representation of the Buddha, Shakyamuni, lying down for his last time in about 463 before the common era.

[01:16]

So there'd be 2,500. Two thousand four hundred. It's two thousand eight, right? Seventy. That'd be seventy one. Two thousand four hundred seventy one years ago. So we recognize this long tradition and continue to draw inspiration and support and guidance. from this long tradition. I wanted to share a few of the remarks that Chakyamuni Buddha made in the last, say, few months of his life, according to the old record.

[02:19]

And I'll be adapting a little bit, extracting just a little from the Mahaparinirvana Sutta. For those of you who are interested in looking it up further, it's in the collection of the long discourses of the Buddha called the Diga Nikaya. And it was clear that he knew that he was dying and that he wanted to communicate what might help sustain the teaching and sustain the Sangha, sustain the community of people that have been working with him. So among the various things that he said, he emphasized over and over again the importance of the three basic teachings of morality, of meditation, and of wisdom. But in that Digga Nakaya, there are various other curious bits of information.

[03:25]

For example, the eight causes of earthquakes, which should be vital information for us here in California. But the eight causes of earthquakes, I won't go into them, but you'll have to go look that up if you're interested. Only the first cause is what we would today call, refer to as natural causes. And the eighth cause actually was his decision to end, that this would be the end of his life. He, in the interest of the sustainability of the Sangha, he commented to the assembly. First he had Ananda, his assistant, his cousin, his assistant go and gather everyone. And then he... He said, I will teach seven things that are conducive to the welfare of the sangha.

[04:30]

If you follow these seven practices, you may be expected to prosper and not decline. So I'll go through them briefly and then comment a little bit on some of them. The first one is hold regular and frequent assemblies. So this is what we're doing today. We're holding a regular weekly assembly here. And the second is meet in harmony and carry on your business, your affairs in harmony. The emphasis upon this harmonious kind of gathering. And then proceed according to what has been authorized by the rules of training. So they have worked out rules of training, how you actually conduct yourself.

[05:33]

We are just beginning an eight-week period of practice here, eight-week on-go. On-go would mean peaceful, abiding, a time of some dedication. and following rules of training. And Jiryu, Mark R.B. sitting up here, is sitting up here because he's been invited to be the head monk, the head student, for this practice period. So we're all looking to him for a model. He hasn't been formally installed yet though, so we'll see. We'll see how that goes. So following the rules of training.

[06:38]

So during the practice period, there are specific rules, including the schedule, which is relentless. It just goes on and on and you, Whether you feel like it or not, you do what's next on the schedule. And it includes hours of zazen, of meditation practice every day, and various other studies. So I want to just thank the people who are doing the practice period. for being willing to take this time and organizing your lives so that you can participate and clarify the practice. So the fourth one he mentions is honor, respect, revere and salute the elders, those who are leaders of the order.

[07:44]

So this is a recognition of the need for leadership and the need for kind of apprenticeship, say respect and honor those people who have more experience in the training. And then number five, do not fall prey to desires that arise and lead to rebirth. Or we might say, if you're not so clear about the meaning of rebirth, you could say, do not fall prey to the desires that misdirect and separate you from your true life. That you don't create more trouble for yourself and your friends. Number six. As long as you are devoted to forest dwelling, to dwelling in the forest, you may be expected to prosper and not decline.

[08:56]

So this is, I thought, this is quite wonderful. You people here today may not be aware of how you are. dwelling in the forest. So I think it's important to realize that this consciousness of dwelling in the forest and being content and recognizing your connection with the forest is vital to sustaining and continuing your own health Maybe when Shakyamuni Buddha was talking about this, he had probably, I don't know, maybe he'd traveled a hundred miles in any direction from where he was born in his entire life. A lot of going back and forth in a particular area. May not have been aware of the Western hemisphere.

[10:04]

I don't know. But he understood. that everything was connected. He understood that the forest itself was nourishing and that maybe, so I'm thinking today maybe a current update would be biosphere. That it's very important that you be devoted to living in this biosphere. So we are dependent on our trees. And no matter how ignorant you may be of that, it doesn't change the fact. Just as in ancient India, people may have been ignorant of their relationship to the forest and yet it didn't change the fact that they needed, they needed that relationship.

[11:12]

And depended on it. And the fourth statement he makes about sustainability of the Sangha is preserve your personal practice of mindfulness. So this is going back to each individual. Each individual's personal practice of mindfulness. And again and again throughout this section of the Diga Nikaya is about 50 pages. And in those 50 pages, he goes back again and again and reminds people of the importance of their practice of mindfulness. So then if you follow this way, good companions will come to you. Good companions will come and will feel at ease. And then the Sangha may be expected. The community may be expected to prosper and not decline. And then, just before he died, before he entered Parinirvana, he said to the assembled, I declare to you, all conditioned things are of a nature to decay.

[12:36]

Strive on untiringly. A little earlier on in talking to Ananda, he says, be a refuge unto yourself. Be a refuge unto yourself. So this has been coming home to me in various ways. I've had a few friends pass away recently. Elaine and I had a cat, Puker. Some of you have met Puker, who died earlier this week, this past week. She was approaching 19 years of age and was quite a character. Many stories about her.

[13:38]

Just one story. She... She was a working, a hardworking cat. She had her own ideas of what her work was. And it seemed to be that she would bring, make a contribution to the household by bringing something in. And usually it was socks. And one day she came in and she had a little string tied around her neck with a little note on it. And we opened it up and the little note said, we really love your cat, but she keeps stealing our socks. And then they gave their phone number and turned out to be a neighbor a couple of houses down the street. And one time she did even a bigger, she took on a bigger job.

[14:41]

I came in and we had a little cat a cat door, actually in the window. And I came into the bedroom and I came in and Puker was pulling through this little door, this big, she was pulling a Raggedy Ann doll. It was about this big, this doll. So I did this Raggedy Ann doll. So she was a hardworking cat. So in contrast to this image of sustainability that the Buddha was presenting, things decay, things decline, everything. This fundamental teaching of transiency, of impermanence, very important teaching of the Buddha. All conditioned things are of a nature to decay.

[15:43]

So how are you with that? How are you with that reality? Is it a surprise or is it particularly painful? It's painful. When our cat died, there's these pangs of loss. I know we're connected with it. a mammalian limbic resonance, right? That's really in the body. I'm gonna tell you about a dream I had a couple of weeks ago because it's a teaching dream. And this was in at our I spend most of my time here at Green Gulch these days, but Lane and I have a place in Rohnert Park.

[16:54]

Some of you know Rohnert Park. Very ordinary houses, very ordinary street. In my dream, this big elephant was walking down our street. Sitting on the elephant was this woman with dark skin, dark hair, dressed in red and gold robes. And the elephant had six tusks. So I knew by the six tusks of this elephant that this was Samantapadra Bodhisattva. Samantabhadra Bodhisattva is the great wisdom being of pure, the pure vow, inconceivable, endless vow and great activity, great beneficial activity.

[18:09]

So this big elephant in Samantabhadra is coming right down our street and they turn in. at our driveway. It is my dream, right? I don't know what would have happened if they walked by. But it turns out they turned in and then the elephant kneeled, the elephant kneeled down right in front of our carport. And Samantabhadra hopped off right over the head and very lightly stepped down. And she handed me these four pieces of bamboo. And I immediately recognized that this was Shishiyodoshi. Shishiyodoshi.

[19:12]

So how many people here would immediately recognize a Shishiyodoshi when you see one? Oh, come on, there's gotta be somebody. Okay. No Japanese landscape gardeners here. Shishio Doshi. There's this little device that... Well, let me just, before I get into that, just... So Samantabhadra hands me these, and I take these four pieces of bamboo And I thank her and she hops back up on the elephant and the elephant gets up and walks away. And then I wake up. And I have in my mind, I have this memory of these four pieces of bamboo. And so what do I do? I take them to our patio and I set them up.

[20:16]

So the four pieces are two, vertical pieces and one cross piece. And then the fourth piece is, if you turn it this way, would be pivoting on that center piece. This fourth piece is bamboo that's hollowed out. You know, bamboo has nodes. And so this end of the bamboo is hollow. And this end of the bamboo is hollow, but there's a couple of joints in between that are separated. And this piece of bamboo here is open. It's been cut at an angle, like a spout. And what happens with the Shishiyo Doshi is that when water trickles in here, it begins to fill up this end. And when it gets to a certain

[21:19]

weight, right? It tips. So when I set it up, I remembered that Samantabhadra had also told me, had given me two words. Tipping point. Tipping point. So I thought, this is wonderful. The Shishio Doshi And so the Shishio Doshi is a Japanese word that roughly means deer scarer. And the idea in a garden is that, probably it was invented in China, I don't know, but was that it's set up like this and maybe near the edge of a little waterfall or sometimes there's another water supply that's a little trickle of water comes into this end. And then... You don't really realize what's happening until all of a sudden it goes.

[22:20]

And then there's a rock under this end, and then it comes back and it goes clunk on the rock. So every once in a while, you hear this in the garden. You hear this. And all the other time, this is just sitting there. I don't know if it scares deer or not, you know. Maybe if they're right there and they suddenly see this thing go into motion. But the term tipping point is significant now. My understanding of tipping point is that this is when things change very rapidly. And so actually when I set this up and visualize this, And actually, I have built a couple of them in gardens. I should probably give credit to Michael Stusser.

[23:26]

Michael Stusser at Osmosis up in Freestone. He was the one who was so excited about doing a Shishio Doshi. He'd spent some time studying Japanese gardening. But the thing about the tipping point is that there are two things. One, if you don't understand the potentiality of these causes and conditions, you wouldn't expect something to be building up to a rapid change, right? But once you see that, then you realize, okay, this is gonna fill, and at some point it's gonna, and when it does that, it's very fast, very fast. Now, if you're right here in the middle, that's not that big a change, right? If you're riding on this teeter-totter, right? It's not that big a change. But if you're over here or over there, you can be catapulted out, right?

[24:40]

So how is it for you when things change rapidly? And how is it for us when we now are looking at various tipping points in our world? The word has come into vogue, those two words have come into vogue recently with, let's say, global warming, with the notion that there's a point where things may begin to change very fast. That for years and years and years, so we've had say 100 years now of burning up fossil fuel more and more and putting more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere and we may or may not be aware that we're creating

[25:42]

contributing to, we're not sure how much, but we're contributing, it's pretty clear that we're contributing to a tipping point in which things may change quickly. So the Ganges River in India where Shakyamuni Buddha lived for all these thousands of years has been fed by glaciers up in the high mountains which sustain, you know, during the summer melt they've sustained the flow water of the Ganges. And recently, I just looked at some study which indicated that the glaciers that are at the headwaters of the Ganges may be reaching a tipping point where they will suddenly melt back faster than they can recover and disappear. And if those glaciers disappear, then that will be a radical change for the whole Ganges watershed.

[26:43]

all the people who are used to this river that's been flowing for thousands of years, right? So that's like this slow accumulation of water in this end of the Shishio Doshi and suddenly changing. So we human beings tend to think in terms of our own immediate needs. but our great teacher, Shakyamuni, suggested, actually, that we think in terms of what is sustained over time. How do we take care of our devotion to the forest over time? The word nirvana

[27:45]

literally means something like cessation, stop. Cessation of what? In Buddhist teaching it means cessation of desire, cessation of whatever separates you from the totality of things. Whatever separates you from what is really going on, whatever separates you from your own body, because you're thinking rather than noticing what's actually happening in your own body experience. I wanted to read a little bit from Suzuki, Roshi, our founder of San Francisco Zen Centers, visit to Yosemite.

[28:49]

Many of you have studied this section, which is called Nirvana, the waterfall. Just read a little segment here. So he said, I went to Yosemite National Park I saw some huge waterfalls. The highest one there is 1,340 feet high. And from it, the water comes down like a curtain thrown from the top of the mountain. It does not seem to come down swiftly as you might expect. It seems to come down very slowly because of that distance. And it does not come down as one stream, but is separated into many tiny streams. From a distance, it looks like a curtain. And I thought it must be very difficult, a very difficult experience for each drop of water to come down from the top of such a high mountain.

[29:57]

It takes time, you know, a long time for the water to finally reach the bottom of the waterfall. And it seems to me, that our human life may be like this. We have many difficult experiences in our life. But at the same time, I thought, the water was not originally separated, but was one whole river. Only when it is separated does it have some difficulty in falling. It is as if the water does not have any feeling when it is one whole river. Only when separated into many drops can it begin to have or express some feeling. So he's talking then with this image of the waterfall about our life as separate individuals.

[30:59]

And we, as we study our tendencies, we tend to recognize ourselves as separate individuals and also have some knowledge or some intuition that we're not separate individuals, that we're also completely, say, one whole organism, completely interconnected. The word biosphere, actually, includes us. Biosphere is some idea. As soon as we say biosphere, we think of it as something separate from us. But actually, biosphere is us. And each one of us is some particular drop, some particular phenomena, some discrete part of that biosphere and can't actually be separated from it.

[32:08]

even for a couple of minutes. If there were no trees in the world, for two minutes, none of us would be here. As you know, most of you know, we are breathing what the trees release. And we emphasize breathing in our practice. This big view of our practice, actually, our view of practice, our zazen, is to completely include the totality of things, the recognition that we are not separate, as well as understanding that we each have our individual place and responsibility. So it's not one side or the other, it's both. So to say duality, just to recognize the way our mind works, our mind works in dualities.

[33:27]

Subject, object, me, you, me, everything else. We tend to kind of think like that, right? There's me and then there's everything else. As if they're equal, right? Or maybe, actually, no, that's not equal. I'm more important. And in this way, actually, we think that we have some understanding of the universe and ourselves as being distinct and separate entities. And we can go through many, many moments of life, many hours, many days, perhaps lifetimes of forgetting, of forgetfulness, forgetting that we're this tiny, tiny, tiny, we are these tiny, tiny beings. So how do we practice with the recognition of that?

[34:35]

How do we actually find ourselves in accord with the totality? This practice of ours is always bringing our attention back to this present moment. In the last few weeks of Shakyamuni Buddha's life, over and over again, he reminds people the practice of mindfulness. The practice of actually bringing your awareness to the body and the breath. When you are completely and fully aware of body and breath, then you notice your tendencies to separate as desires that are not so helpful to pursue.

[35:36]

It's good to know that you have desires, and it's also good to know when you don't need to pursue your desires. If you pursue your desires, then you get farther and farther away from this present moment. And you may, say, live more and more in a kind of deluded state. Or you think that you know what's going on. You think you know what's going on. You may even use words like, biosphere and tipping point. You may use words like, I understand the duality of mind and body. But to live with the realization of mind and body is quite different than thinking about mind and body.

[36:39]

So in Suzuki Roshi's image of the Yosemite waterfall, all these drops, right? Most of us are living like, okay, we only know this little drop and how difficult our life is. And we have so many worries and things that we need to take care of and so much work to do. And we miss the reality that we are actually part of one whole river. So the best way is actually to stop and treat each moment of your life as tipping point. That each moment of your life is supported by the totality of things and is also uncertain. You actually don't know when the floor will fall out from under you.

[37:43]

But you know that it's always possible. At any moment, there's that possibility. And so you enjoy this moment. And you enjoy the moment when everything changes. A joy, even if it's difficult, by enjoy I mean more you just that you appreciate it. You knew it was coming. So Shakyamuni Buddha knew that his life would end. And because he was able to stay present, okay, moment by moment we say, it wasn't something that he approached with fear. It's something that he approached with full awareness.

[38:49]

So these things that, if you refine your awareness, you begin to notice that things, everything is consequential. And maybe a little thing, maybe one little drop, the last drop that hits the Shishio Doshi, right? No different from any other drop except it's the last drop that triggers the tipping point. Every one of those is consequential, right? So we have to be careful. What do we give attention to? Sometimes we just give attention to what's dramatic and obvious. Miss that, oh, just sitting, each breath is consequential. Each little sensation is significant and needs awareness sufficient to recognize what it is. So this is our practice of, say, being a refuge.

[40:04]

I wanted to close with a poem, a slightly different version of the last words of Shakyamuni. Say, make of yourself a light. And this is the poet Mary Oliver's of how this light within you relates to the totality of the, say, the luminosity of the solar system. Make of yourself a light, said the Buddha before he died. I think of this every morning as the east begins to tear off its many clouds of darkness, to send up the first signal, a white light, streaked with pink and violet, even green. An old man, he lay down between two solid trees, and he might have said anything, knowing it was his final hour.

[41:14]

The light burns upward. It thickens and settles over the fields. Around him, the villagers gathered and stretched forward to listen. Even before the sun itself hangs, disattached in the blue air, I am touched everywhere by its ocean of yellow waves. No doubt he thought of everything that had happened in his difficult life. And then I feel the sun itself, as it blazes over the hills like a million flowers on fire. Clearly, I'm not needed. Yet I feel myself turning into something of inexplicable value. Slowly beneath the branches, he raised his head. He looked into the faces of that frightened crowd. So can you bring the light of your own awareness into each moment?

[42:22]

Pretty difficult. But that's really the only thing worth doing, right? Bring the light of your awareness into each moment. Thank you for listening. Thank you for listening to this podcast offered by the San Francisco Zen Center. Our programs are made possible by the donations we receive. Please help us to continue to realize and actualize the practice of giving by offering your financial support. For more information, visit sfcc.org and click Giving. May we fully enjoy the Dharma.

[43:04]

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