This podcast is offered by San Francisco's Zen Center on the web at sfcc.org. Our public programs are made possible by donations from people like you. Welcome. It's a pleasure to be here with all of you, those of you here in the Buddha Hall and those of you out there in Zoom land. I feel very honored to be speaking to you tonight. I really appreciate this opportunity. I thank the Tonto for asking me. And I thank my teachers, Ed Satterson and Victoria Austin, for their support and their guidance through the years of my practice. So I want to talk about tonight the four methods of bodhisattva guidance. which Dogen wrote, Dogen being our Soto Zen founder, he wrote these four methods in approximately 1243 and they're known as the Shisho Bo and are part of the Shoban Genzo or the treasury of the true Dharma I. The four methods, by the way, these are the four methods for Bodhisattva guidance, as I said.

[01:25]

You, all of you here, And out there, we are all bodhisattvas. So these are methods of guidance for each and every one of us. These are tools to help us grow, help others, support others, support ourselves, and embellish and flourish in our practice. So Dogen actually originally wrote these for lay people, and then later... wrote a slightly different version for the monastic monks. The four methods are giving, generosity, one of the parameters actually, kind speech, beneficial action, and identity action. Now all four of these interrelate and really

[02:27]

I don't think we can practice one without the others. So it actually makes for 16 methods of guidance, if you will. And they support one another. They embellish one another. They teach one another. So they're interrelated. But tonight I'd like to focus on the third one, or beneficial action. But before I begin, I'd like to read you this poem that I think is a very beautiful description, a poetic description of the four methods of beneficial action. This poem was actually written by our central abbot, David Zimmerman. It was written, I guess, about three years ago during the practice period when I served as his chuseau, or head student. And I carry this poem with me each and every day as it's

[03:28]

on the back of my rakasu. So it's very, very special, and it goes like this. Planting, cultivating, tending good seeds, harvesting the karma, gardens, flowers, and fruits, offering nourishment, awakening beings, bringing forth the fragrance of the long river. So that's what we're doing when we practice these four methods. We're planting, cultivating, we're tending good seeds. We're harvesting the flowers and the fruits from the karmic garden. We're offering nourishment to others and to ourselves. And we're awakening beings. And we're bringing forth the fragrance of the long river. In other words, we're bringing forth bodhicitta.

[04:31]

planting, cultivating, tending good seeds, harvesting the karma gardens, flowers and fruits, offering nourishment, awakening beings, bringing forth the fragrance of the long river. So Dogen in this fascicle wrote about beneficial action. Beneficial action means to use... Skillful means to benefit all beings. Skillful means. Interesting. What are skillful means? He says we use skillful means to benefit all beings without discriminating among them. So there's four parts to this. We're using skillful means and we're not discriminating between all beings and we're considering they're near and and distant future. We're not just thinking about, oh, I can do this now to help out or fix that, but what might be the ramifications in the distant future, in time down the road.

[05:46]

So we have to do that. And we do this selflessly. We don't do it. We're going to get good points or good karma or good merit or a pat on the back or somebody's going to bless us or thank us. We do it selflessly. So let's look at skillful means. So with skillful means, you must carefully observe the person you are trying to help. And you don't want to be codependent or enabling to this person. You're not there to fix somebody else. You're to help heal them if indeed that's what they need. And there's a big difference between fixing and healing. And once you've determined this, then you choose the most appropriate and the most effective actions

[06:50]

for helping this person, for healing this person for the situation. And we don't... I know personally I can get too caught up in, oh, I see that person over there needs this or that, and I'm going to get right over there and I'm going to help them out, you know? I tend to charge right in. No, it takes some patience sometimes. And we stop... And we consider what we're doing. And sometimes, as an example, there may be somebody that is limping along or something, and you think, oh, I'm going to go carry them to their thing. That might be the last thing that they need. They, in fact, might really need to be working with limping along and learning to walk again or deal with something. So our goal is to get through to them and help relieve their suffering.

[07:57]

And we need to communicate sometimes differently depending on who you're interacting with. Everyone is not helped, does not receive beneficial action in the same exact way. So the skillful means calls for... assessing the situation, not just charging ahead and deciding does this person really need some help or not. Skillful means requires compassion, understanding, patience, adaptation, creativity, and moreover and most of all a willingness on our part to learn, a willingness to learn and grow and become selfless with this other person.

[09:02]

This approach can and often does, I know with me personally, runs counter to my established ways of interacting. I can get too carried away, go too fast, as I said, charge ahead, Be certain I know what you need and I'm going to give you that whether you want it or not. So we have to be careful because it does go sometimes contrary to our established ways of interacting. So it requires intention. And most of all, it requires practice. It's an interesting concept, an interesting idea, that to provide beneficial action, we need to practice it. Well, indeed we do. We need to know when to offer it, how to offer it, who to offer it to, how to offer it, all of those different things.

[10:04]

And we must not discriminate. We must offer it. at our best to all classes of sentient beings. This is the second aspect that Dogen spoke about in beneficial action. So there are those we love and esteem, and that's pretty easy to offer them beneficial action, because you really care about them, and you want them to be happy, and you want them to be well. and sometimes you want them to be happy and well because that makes you happy and well and that brings forth a question about doing it selflessly but we'll get to that so people we love or esteem but those we don't people we think are worth trying to help and those that are beyond saving and how often do we make those judgments oh that person that's sad but they're not worth it

[11:09]

They're too far gone or whatever we determine. They're not important. Or that person over there, it's too late. I can't offer them any help, any healing. They're over the hill. They're too much into that. They've done that for too long. That particularly comes up in the area of 12-step work. Sometimes one can think, oh, that person's been an addict or an alcoholic too long and there's no hope for them. I can attest that's not true. I can attest to that personally. So people with money, status, intelligence, education, and those without we should help those too. People who are like us, we tend to think like us in race, culture, birthplace, sexual orientation.

[12:18]

But those who aren't like us, who are foreign to us, there are people who are happy to accept our help. But there are also people who will greet our efforts with defensiveness, disrespect, and even aggression. All with our offer of beneficial action. So we're not there to judge that. We're not there to force it upon them. We're not there to be codependent and enabling in those situations. So with beneficial action, remember also, it says all sentient beings, And as Victoria Austin is fond of saying, it says all beings, not all beings minus one. You are a sentient being. You are one of the all beings also. So don't forget to offer beneficial action unto yourself.

[13:25]

Don't forget to use those skillful means when you are helping when you are healing yourself. So benefit in the distant and near future. This is the third part of Jogan's tools for beneficial action. So our immediate compassion and response is important. We get okay, but we can't ignore the consequences of our actions. Sometimes we think, okay, I'm going to do this, I'm going to do that, I'm going to help out. But the long term may not be of benefit. So we need to look at both the distant and the near future in these manners. I'll give you an example of this a little bit later. What we do in the moment may be of help, but in the long run it may not be helpful.

[14:29]

So what's the most beneficial thing to do in complicated circumstances? So this is a question we need to ask ourselves. This is a question that we need to look at and consider. And in doing this, we come to the fourth part of beneficial action, as Dogen talks about, and the act of oneness. And Dogen said in this fascicle, Foolish people think... that if they help others first, their own benefit will be lost. But this is not so. Beneficial action is an act of oneness benefiting self and others. Now I know what kind of comes up for me is, oh... I'm going to take care of that problem over there or I'm going to help that person over there, but I don't really have time or I might decide I don't think they're worthy of it or it's not worth it or it's more important that I take care of something else.

[15:46]

This brings up my stinginess. This brings up... my avaricious nature. This brings up, does that sound familiar? Don't be avaricious, the eighth precept. So I gain nothing from that. In fact, I lose from that. And Dogen wrote about the eighth precept, and as we hear it, in the full moon ceremony, from the beginning, there was no stinginess at all. So in the beginning, back to our Buddha nature, our bodhicitta, our original mind, there was no stinginess at all. This is something that, I'll speak for myself, I've acquired. perhaps some of it came from ancestral, some of it might have come from generational karma, but a lot of it's come from my own doings and my own thinking and my own ideas that I don't have time, I don't want to, I shouldn't have to, that's not worth it for me, that's below me, I'm not, you know, etc., etc.

[17:06]

So when thinking of oneness of all, Be careful of becoming avaricious or be careful of becoming stingy and concerned for self over others. With all beings, there's no clear boundary. Where my benefit ends, yours begins. Giver, gift, and receiver are all one. Beneficial action is not only an act where we can manifest oneness, it's an act through which we can actually realize oneness. So by engaging in beneficial action, we get a sense of oneness with one another, with ourselves even, the oneness within ourself. What a gift it is to have this method of guidance.

[18:08]

We are here to benefit friend and foe alike. To do this, we have to set aside our preferences, our pride, and our self-concerns. We must let go of judging. And I know I get caught up in judging a lot. And to no avail. It's interesting in the Xing Xing Ming, or trust in mind, there's a line that goes, the burdensome practice... of judging brings annoyance and weariness. What benefit can be derived from distinctions and separations? And I think annoyance and weariness is the least of what judgment brings about. And we can get bitter, we can go off into our shell, and we deny our oneness with one another. We deny our oneness with ourself. We, in fact, all are one.

[19:16]

When we have a sense of separation between ourselves and others, the one who is helping and the one being helped, we invite trouble. We can become proud of our virtue, reputation, or we can even create a martyr complex. And that's a miserable place to be. we can become stingy and avaricious. So remember that it does say all beings, and this includes oneself. We must learn how to also ask for help. And it's very important that we learn how to accept beneficial action from others. This is sometimes very difficult. I don't need help. I don't want it. Leave me alone. Go away. No, forget that. That doesn't matter. To accept beneficial action from another is a beneficial act in and of itself. Sometimes it's interesting if we make an amends to somebody else for some action that we did or something, we're not really concerned with their response.

[20:36]

But it's interesting to note how some people can accept an amend and some people cannot. Learn how to accept an amend is one aspect of this. So learn how to ask for help and learn how to receive beneficial action from others. So recently and interestingly in my life, a situation occurred that I'd like to describe where I attempted to offer beneficial action in what I thought. So I met a friend that I've known for a long time, not extremely well, but we've shared with one another and talked about a variety of things over the years. And I hadn't seen this person for a while. And so we spent some time together and we were talking.

[21:40]

And it turns out this person has a very serious medical condition. And I felt immediately sorry for them. And so then we parted ways. And a few days later, I thought, I know. I should put their name on the well-being list. For those of you that may not know, every Tuesday morning here in this room at service time, there's a well-being ceremony and the names of people who may be ill or need some assistance in some way or another are read. So I thought, perfect, I'll put this person's name on the well-being list. This was not skillful means. this thought because I just thought, oh, that's great. I mean, they need it, but I'm going to do it and that'll make me a good person.

[22:43]

But fortunately, I stopped and I thought, well, maybe I should ask them first if they want to be on this well-being list. but I couldn't let it go there. I didn't know how to get a hold of this person. So I thought, well, I don't know how to reach them. I don't know their phone number or their email or what have you. Oh, I'll just go do it anyway. And then there's something arose in me. This is why we need to practice skillful means. Something arose in me. I know I can ask this person third party for their contact information so I sent an email to this third party and I said could you send me the contact information for our mutual friend or could you just forward my because I would like to put them on the well-being list or could you forward them my email and they could respond so I didn't hear anything and I

[24:02]

couple well-being ceremonies went by. In other words, a couple weeks went by and I didn't hear anything. Well, I better get them on this well-being list. Time's running out. I mean, I didn't think they were going to die in two weeks, but I've got to hurry up and do this. And then I got an email back from the third party with this person's contact information. So I So I'm trying to develop skillful means here. And I'm trying to help all people without discrimination. So meaning this friend with the medical situation and meaning the third party who I needed to get the information from and including myself. So I sent an email to my friend and I said... We have a well-being ceremony.

[25:03]

This is someone that's familiar with Buddhist practice, familiar with Zen practice, but probably didn't know about the well-being ceremony. So I said, would you like to have your name included on the Tuesday morning well-being ceremony? And I wanted the answer to come back, yes. But guess what? We've got to take care of the near and the distant future. Because the person wrote back and said, no, thank you very much for offering, but I prefer not to have my name on the list. And this person had a very good reason for it, not that they were, you know, they appreciated the thought and the idea, but they wanted to protect their anonymity from... from the more public. So I could appreciate that, but I didn't think of that.

[26:05]

This person has a professional life and it wouldn't be good if that information that they were very ill was somehow their clients heard about this. So I never thought about that. I never thought about the near and the distant future. So see how complex it can become. to offer beneficial action, see how much we have to have patience, how much we have to have compassion, and how much we have to stop and listen, and how we have to engage with others, and how we have to do this selflessly. In other words, I mean, I was really caught up in the act back at the beginning and pretty much all the way through that... oh, this will make me a hero of some sort, you know, in my own mind. And certainly I don't need that. But nonetheless, that kind of came through to me. So what ended up happening was I got the initial idea.

[27:15]

I had the strong urge and lack of patience. I just wanted to do it. I was able to step back. I was able to ask somebody else to help me get in touch. I did get in touch, and I got the answer that it was not appropriate to put the person's name on it. And so all that self that I'd built up kind of melted away, but not entirely, because I still feel kind of good. And it's not terribly bad to feel good about a beneficial nature, because I did, I had a... wonderful suggestion from a teacher that I could do a little private well-being ceremony. Lo and behold, what a concept, you know? It doesn't need to be public, but now I've made it all public, so you can applaud, but don't, please. But I think this points out, you know, how it's not just a simple act of beneficial action.

[28:16]

It can be You know, it can be sometimes, you know, around here you have ample opportunity and one of my favorites that I've talked about in Dharma talks before is how upset I used to get when the small kitchen didn't have any spoons in the drawer and why could people take the last spoon and not replace them and how, you know, I've got beyond that and I can now put spoons in the drawer. But you know what? Lo and behold, after I started doing that, there's spoons in the drawer all the time now. I don't have to put them there. So be it. So this is a wonderful gift, as I mentioned. It allows us to learn and grow and practice skillful means, compassion and patience and all the paramitas and kind speech and all of those things. And Dogen concludes the portion of the four methods of guidance on beneficial action by saying, You should benefit self and others alike.

[29:19]

If you have this mind, even beneficial action for the sake of grasses, trees, wind, and water is spontaneous and unremitting. Isn't that wonderful? Spontaneous and unremitting. This being so, make a wholehearted effort to help all. So, Dogen, once more, the quote, You should benefit self and others alike. If you have this mind, even beneficial action for the sake of grasses, trees, wind, and water is spontaneous and unremitting. This being so, make a wholehearted effort to help all. Thank you very much. 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.

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Your financial support helps us to continue to offer the Dharma. For more information, please visit sfcc.org and click Giving. May we all fully enjoy the Dharma.

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