Thank you. GOOD EVENING.

[18:17]

IT BRINGS ME GREAT JOY TO BE ABLE TO INTRODUCE DON NEAL TONIGHT SPEAKING HERE AT THE SAN FRANCISCO ZEN CENTER. I'VE KNOWN DON FOR A VERY LONG TIME, WELL BEFORE EITHER OF US WERE PRACTICING, AND DON HAS BEEN AN ARTIST AND A CHAPLAIN, A STUDENT, GRADUATE STUDENT IN BUDDHIST STUDIES AND IS ABOUT TO BECOME THE GUIDING TEACHER AT INSIGHT SANTA CRUZ. SHE MOSTLY PRACTICES IN THE VIPASSANA INSIGHT TRADITIONS, ALTHOUGH SHE'S HAD HER SASHIN EXPERIENCE HERE AT SAN FRANCISCO ZEN CENTER AS WELL. SO THANK YOU ALL VERY MUCH FOR BEING HERE AND THANK YOU, DAWN. evening, everyone.

[19:32]

It's a delight to be here. Recently, I was at Tassajara at the Summer Intensive and received this beautiful book, Remembering the Dragon. Some of you might be familiar with it. Many of you might be familiar with it. And reading in that book, I ran across something that Sojin Mel Weitzman said about Suzuki Roshi. He mentioned that one of his main teachings was, don't be selfish. Don't be selfish. And that reminded me of one of the wats, the temples, I spent time at in Thailand. I practiced there, and... The main teaching of the teacher there, which was posted on these giant white and blue signs, was, don't be selfish.

[20:40]

Beautiful, beautiful monastery on a limestone karst, this little island in the Bay of Thailand. There was no natural water source on the island. So they lived in harmony with nature, this very simple human scale life. All of the temple buildings in that Thai style, these sloped roofs, you know, dramatic curls, had rain catchments built into them. And the rain would go into cisterns under the buildings. And then because it was a steep hill, each cistern cascaded to the cistern below it. until all of the water cascaded into the ocean, returning to the ocean. It was a very human scale monastic life there. They gardened for themselves. They provided all of their own water. They actually gave extra water and extra food to the villages on the island, surplus from their own garden.

[21:49]

And it was this life of work as practice, simplicity, Dharma expressing itself through action and contemplation. There's this sense of place in the world there. And there was a phrase that the teacher used. It was written also everywhere. We are meditators under the open sky. this idea of being in harmony with nature and the vastness of everything. The formal practice there really put this life in context. The first formal practice was marana sati, mindfulness of death. The second was open-eyed ocean gazing, where the eyes, you would sit on the top of a a little platform somewhere on the island and cast your eyes out towards the horizon.

[22:55]

And the instruction was to sit and be still until the sky and the ocean became one. To sit and be still until the merged sky and ocean were all that remained. It was a beautiful teaching. It's this one taste, taste of freedom of the ocean. Just as the Buddha says in the ancient discourses, the ocean has a single taste, that of salt. In the same way, this Dhamma and Vinaya has a single taste, that of release, freedom, nirvana. this practice was an oceanic attunement to everything.

[23:59]

An oceanic attunement to the most refined, subtle details and the smallest ripples of the ocean were taught as a teaching to notice the most refined and subtle details in the mind and heart and body. And then the larger waves of the ocean or to teach about posture, movement, comportment. And just as the waves are always part of the ocean yet individual, the teaching was so too are we. Very naturalistic ways. So the Vinaya, that I mentioned in that quote from the Buddha. The monastic rules often do deal with comportment, how we move through the world, physically and metaphorically.

[25:05]

The wake, the waves, the ripples we leave behind us. And particularly, the vinyas focuses in on sila, ethical behavior. And that's what I'm going to talk about a little bit tonight. Awareness, of impact, of the ripples. I'll just briefly touch on, I know there are more precepts in Zen, but we have five precepts, ancient lay precepts, many of you are familiar with them. And really though, all of them, whether they're the 200 something that Theravata monastics take or the grave precepts taken here, all of them boil down to one single overarching precept. Do no harm. Or, in that Achan's words, the Thai forest tradition's words, don't be selfish.

[26:07]

And I want to be clear, this doesn't mean self-sacrifice or being a doormat. Rather, the Buddha offers a simple question we can ask. And that is, will this lead to greater benefit for myself and others? Or will it lead to greater harm for myself and others and all concerned? That's the heuristic. That's the compass. That simple. This can be a rich contemplation. Or it can be a feeling into. And some people find, I certainly have, but the longer I practice, the more visceral, the more simple this feeling into becomes. It cuts through ambivalence or thought flurries, worry, justification, even strong desire or strong fear.

[27:11]

Asking, feeling into that question. I remember in the sort of early-ish days of COVID, before the lockdown even perhaps, I was called to jury duty. And I'm high risk. My doctor had no intention of having me go to jury duty. And so she wrote me a note. And then I gave the documentation. And they said, well, is this just for this time or is this in perpetuity? Oh my goodness, the thought flurries that that brought up. Like, oh, this note, I could be off the hook forever. All this activity inside. And as I was feeling into it, I started feeling, oh, this is contraction. This is stress. This is restlessness. I made the decision, no, this note is for this time.

[28:13]

And immediately something just lightened up. got spacious and there was a sense of peace. That was the internal compass, right? Operating. In terms of the contemplation, the Buddha offered a teaching to his seven-year-old son, Rahula. And in it, he asks his son, we can kind of picture this, off in the woods they are together or alone. What is the purpose of a mirror, Rahula? It's for reflection, sir. Just as a mirror is for reflection, these reflect on your actions of the mind, in other words, thinking or planning, speech or body before doing something and consider, will this be a good thing?

[29:18]

for myself and others, or will it lead to worry or harm? And if it's good, do it. If it's not, don't. And then during an action, ask the same question. Is this leading to benefit or to bad results? And then after the action, the same reflection. Is this leading to benefit or harm for myself or others, or all. And use that as your guide. This kind of reflective process can help the heart move away from inner divisions, worry, complexity, affliction. That's actually the word that's most often translated there, affliction for self and others. and instead allows the heart to move towards joy, lightness of being, wholeness, integrity, integration.

[30:27]

So notice, noticing the difference before, during, and after. And of course, none of us are perfect. Sometimes after, it's like, oops, that wasn't so good. The Buddha then, advised his son to take it to a trusted friend in the spiritual life, an advisor, a colleague, a teacher, and talk about it, not from the perspective of shame or blame, but with the intention not to do it again and to talk through it. How we show up to clean up matters. In some ways, it matters even more. than how we showed up in the first place. This process of rupture and repair, as they say nowadays. So, I mentioned the pancha sila they are in Pali, the five precepts.

[31:35]

Not killing, not stealing, not engaging in sexual misconduct, and abstaining from false and divisive speech. and the last one abstaining from intoxicants of mind that lead to heedlessness. So these can be considered in their most simple form, as I just read them, very straightforward, or in more refined and more expansive ways. Keeping the precepts at the most simple level really builds confidence, peace of mind, self-respect, inner strength. Another Thai forest tradition teacher and scholar, Tanisarabhiku, talks about how learning to live, even imperfectly by the five precepts, is a cure for low self-esteem because it drops away two of the conditions or causes for self-esteem, regret and denial.

[32:41]

That simple spaciousness can be there. Even the simple spaciousness of oops or oh. At a more refined level, this can become a mindfulness practice that increases subtlety, increases an attunement with those around us, with ourselves. No matter what works for your own practice. For me, a major benefit of the precepts is that they function as a container. They're like a structure within which I can relax, live. They're also a reference point. I slip up on one or I'm contemplating breaking one. It's a wake-up call, right? So I'm just going to go through them very briefly. Many of you have heard these before.

[33:46]

Probably a number of times. Not killing. This includes the tiniest creatures. And I'm not talking about bacteria here. We don't have much control over that. But insects. Recently I was assisting a retreat with a dear friend and mentor. A woman. And it was in the height of the summertime. And the ants. Ants love Buddhists. If you noticed. I love Buddhists. So the ants had figured out that that kitchen was the source of something good. And they were epic. They were just coming in, knowing that we weren't going to do anything to hurt them. And after a while, you know, we kept it meticulously clean in there. And they were still coming. And we finally figured out they were coming in to drink water in that little tiny lip between the drain and the rest of the sink. There's this like 16th of an inch divot. And they would come drink.

[34:48]

I'm like, oh, well, they're not asking for much. So we decided to water the ants. We put a little water dish outside like you would water a cat, you know, with water out. And sure enough, they left the kitchen and they were in little ring around the bowl drinking. It almost looked like an aerial shot of a water hole in Africa with creatures drinking around it. And they didn't come in again the whole retreat. refinement, not killing, but there was also, we came to some kind of harmony with these little tiny creatures. And as you can probably pick up from the way I told that story, holding this precept can bring a sense of joy and relationship with the natural world, right? Like regarding other sentience as valid. It's restraint, respect, all the way on a continuum to a celebration of life, curiosity about life.

[36:00]

Respect, right sizes, relationship with reality, with sentience, whether it's insects or animals. Or that massive systems of forest trees and roots and fungi that scientists are now discovering also communicate. Not killing unnecessarily can lessen fear and bring about more congeniality towards these other forms of life. Can even open up to awe. So not stealing, quite straightforward, not taking what is not given is the original formulation of the Buddhist teaching. It encourages honesty, integrity, respect, restraint. It can also be not stealing attention, not stealing space in an interaction.

[37:09]

It can be An opening of a space to be interested in what others have to say or what my own impulses have to teach me if I don't act on them. If I'm going to see them, still ripples in my own mind, but not to act. At a deeper level, it can open up to more generosity, to a paradigm beyond scarcity. And that can transform relationships. Third precept, not engaging in sexual misconduct. The simplicity of this guideline belies its power. It, of course, means refraining from sexual activity that's non-consensual or involves breaking another precept, like lying to conceal, for example. And it also

[38:18]

includes use of sexual energy, anything that has the impact of intentionally or even unintentionally manipulating another person. Certain kinds of flirtation can fall into this category, right? There's abstention from false, malicious, or harsh speech and from divisive speech. And it said that originally a lot of this teaching, I mean, the importance of honesty, I hope is obvious, that the way of not speaking divisive speech was especially important in the Buddha's time to not divide the sangha against itself or to divide the sangha against the community supporting it. And so that was deeply held. as a value. And I have a little quote, I'll just read part of it here.

[39:25]

This comes from the Middle-length Discourses. When many voices shout at once, none considers themselves a fool. Though the sangha is being split, none thinks themselves to be at fault. They have forgotten thoughtful speech and talk by words alone. None knows what leads them so to act. And then the Buddha talks about a very ancient, even more ancient poem, about how those carrying on, talking about abuse, hatred, hatred doesn't cease. The second part is, he abused me, struck me, defeated me, robbed me. For those not carrying on like this, hatred ends. For in this world, hatred never ends by hatred, but by love alone does it end.

[40:26]

This is the ancient and natural law. So a healing of relationships is the more expansive view of this precept, right? Speaking in a way that brings people together, harmonizes. of honest and kind, meaningful speech could be an entire spiritual tradition in and of itself, right? This is especially true if we include internal speech in our own minds and hearts. What's the tone of your inner speech and thoughts? Check it out, right? It's helpful to notice. Notice. All of this needs to be undertaken with wisdom.

[41:28]

There's an example often used, harboring a slave in the Underground Railroad, for example. If telling the truth is going to end up with someone being enslaved or killed, don't do it. The overarching precept is still do no harm. So there are sort of, there's a hierarchy there, right, in the precepts. do no harm, reflect on the impact. Wise speech is larger, broader than naive honesty. And then there's the last one, which is somewhat a safeguard for all of the others, which is not using intoxicants in ways that cloud the mind and lead to heedless, harmful behavior. And there are many stories about this that are kind of silly and long, so I won't go into them, that talk about how even a very upstanding monk can break this precept and then ends up breaking all of the others in a single night.

[42:42]

This is a sort of a trope in some of the early Buddhist texts. But just to say that this can be a protector for all the others in the sense that Maintaining clarity of mind protects us and everyone around us. And it includes substances, of course, but also perhaps social media, news, doom scrolling, right? A beautiful effect of stepping back from that can be to be more settled, more receptive, more clear. It also includes intoxication of views, needing to be right. Most intoxicating thing of all for many people. And quote here, this is from the Ataka Vaga, the Book of Eights.

[43:50]

I don't need to find it. Some called themselves skilled based on how they call their opponent's fools. In claiming themselves skilled, they disrespect others who make the same claim. Perfect, according to unwarranted views, they think. Drunk with conceit, thinking they're complete. They, by their own selves, consecrate their minds and their views. In other words, drunk on their own rightness. Okay. We see a lot of that these days out in the world, don't we? So a beautiful effect of not becoming intoxicated with views or anything else is the capacity for a deeper clarity, a broader base of wisdom and harmony within myself and especially with other people, particularly people who might think differently.

[45:06]

So to recap, there's one overarching precept in the ancient teachings. Do no harm. Ahimsa. And to hold to that, or at least use that as a compass point, however imperfectly, perfectly imperfectly, through life, allows for and can also be an expression of greater mindfulness, spiritual maturity, and transmit that taste of freedom through the non-harming. I find when I'm careful about this area of my life, conscious about it, it's much easier to To remember that the wave of my individuality is in union with the ocean.

[46:18]

And each of us have that possibility to have our ripples be ripples of benefit. For ourselves, others, and the world. Thank you for your kind attention. The floor is open for questions, comments, ahas, anything. Hi. Thanks a lot for your teaching. I'm wondering if I can be pro-choice and still respect the first precept, which is no harm. So different Buddhist ethicists have different opinions about this. Most, I'll say from my perspective, as a Dharma teacher, you can.

[47:22]

And it is based on the teaching as technically not to harm breathing beings. The baby has not yet taken, you know, the development happens in the womb. yet the breath happens out of the womb. Now that said, I want to be gentle and careful about this. There are many different opinions within the Buddhist tradition, and there are some Theravada teachers who would strongly disagree with what I just said. So it gets at another subtlety that I didn't mention in the talk, which is that perhaps the most important thing about the precepts is the careful attention to them and to use them as a way to come to a conscious ethical decision. And it may be different than the person next to you, but that that process has happened and that it is in the spirit of doing no harm.

[48:25]

I hope that's helpful. Thanks a lot. Thank you. Hi, thanks for the talk. So in a similar vein to what William mentioned, for the fifth precept on taking intoxicants, obviously in this part of the world, psychedelics have become very popular. And there's a lot of different, I guess, intentions coming into the consumption of that. So some people are in a clinical setting. Some people do it for self-exploration. So I'm curious to get your general opinion on how you interpret the use of those with that precept. Especially since obviously the purpose of them is to change, you know, what's going on in some substantial way. Yeah, it's a very good question. I'm going to stick with how I prefer to.

[49:30]

So two things. One is for myself, I'm very clear that this is a path of clarity. So that's not something I choose to indulge in. The profound states available in meditation are more than enough for me. In terms of use of them, I think for medicinal purposes, in the clinical setting for healing purposes, it falls into that category in my own mind. And then the recreational use. I think then it's... up in the air I mean for some people I think it can be a spiritual process it has potential drawbacks and pitfalls that people should be very mindful of there's a lot of experimentation out there and there has been for many years so I don't feel myself to be in

[50:33]

to tell people what to do or not to do, but more to be very conscious about what they're doing and why they're doing it. Thank you. THERE'S NO OTHER QUESTIONS AND ANY FINAL WORDS BEFORE WE END THE EVENING? NO QUESTION. WELCOME AND THANK YOU FOR YOUR TALKS THIS EVENING.

[51:39]

I PROBABLY HAVE MISSED THIS BUT I WAS REALLY ENCHANTED WITH YOUR repetition of the do no harm. But I'm a little confused about which precept that derives from. Is that the do no evil? Or is that the do not kill? So it's not technically one of the five precepts, but the way I framed it, and I said it kind of quickly, so if you blinked, you missed it. It's IN MY OWN UNDERSTANDING, THAT IS THE OVERARCHING PRINCIPLE, SO I CALL IT KIND OF THE ONE OVERARCHING PRECEPT. SO, YOU KNOW, THERE CAN BE HUNDREDS FOR SOME MONASTICS AND DIFFERENT NUMBERS AND DIFFERENT TRADITIONS, THERE'S FIVE IN THE LAY TRADITION OF THERRAVADA, THEY ALL POINT BACK TO THAT ONE, DO NO HARM. THE INTENTION. WELL, IT'S A WONDERFUL INTENTION, ANYWAY.

[52:44]

Thank you. I don't think I invented it, but I definitely employed it tonight. Any other thoughts or comments before we close? Thank you also for the talk. I think maybe about that do no harm principle. I guess I was curious what your thoughts are on that versus the idea of doing good. And I guess all of the precepts are in negation of another concept. And if you could just talk about why that is versus the positive aspect of each of those.

[53:45]

Absolutely. I can talk about it from my understanding, and there are other understandings out there, I'm sure. So, especially in early Buddhism, though, in my reading of later Mahayana, it does persist. There's kind of a via negativa, right? It's often, as you said, the teachings are presented in negation. And one value of that, that it took me some years to appreciate, is that The upside, the positive flip side is much vaster that way. So you could say preserve life instead of don't kill. But then what about celebrating life or opening to the kinship of life or awe of all life? So that's kind of the direction. Or do no harm. We could say be of benefit. that's a beautiful thing to say.

[54:47]

And that's a beautiful thing to dedicate your life to, but there may be other flavors of that that are left out. So for me, I like to think of it as a way of opening my imagination and opening the aspiration to everything that's good on the flip side of the negation. Thank you for the question. It's a beautiful question. will be our last question. Okay. I'll make it easy. Thanks, Don. Thanks. Good to see you. And so, you know, in Buddhist tradition and Zen, you know, we talk about and Vipassana too, I mean, trying to get away from the discursive mind, trying to get away from concepts and constructions.

[55:48]

And yet, aren't the precepts constructions? When we say do not do this, do not do that, we're using concepts and trying to follow those. So how do you reconcile that with just trying to deal with reality as it is and eliminate concepts? I'm happy to give my riff of an answer, but first, how do you reconcile it? I'm still working on that one. I'm new to practice, as you know, but that's just something that I've been wondering about. I mean, I'm not saying I disagree with it, and obviously the Buddha has taught this, and all of these teachings are coming from the Buddha, but that is something I've been wondering about, because, I mean, those are all concepts that we are trying to follow, yet at the same time when we're sitting zazen, we're trying to get in contact with ultimate reality and trying to get away from the conceptualizing mind.

[56:59]

So I don't have an answer, but I just thought I'd throw that out there. Thanks for the question. I don't know if I would call it an easy one. There's a number of directions to go with this, but in brief to say, um, At first, the teachings are concepts, they're words. We are people of language. We use words. Mental fabrications, mental constructions are some of the other terms used. They point to, in each case, deeper levels of experience, more direct levels of experience. And so... All of the concepts, the Four Noble Truths, the Eightfold Path, the beautiful chants we do here before and after Dharma talks and sits and services, all of those words are drawing lassos around and pointings to something deeper and much more direct.

[58:09]

They're skillful means to get us there, and then indirect experience, they can drop away. We humans, we need something besides just sitting and not doing to help guide us to sitting and not doing, right? Thank you. You're welcome. And lastly, simply to say that precepts in particular, they start as words, phrases, guidelines. Eventually, they become a natural expression of the maturity of the practice. They're no longer words then. They're a way of being. Thank you. So thank you all for your time, your attention, your practice.

[58:58]

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