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 from people like you. We had a wonderful Halloween morning with the owls calling to each other in the treetops. And after I left the Zendo, I think I could still hear some owls. I got back to where I live, and there was a little trick-or-treater at my gate wearing a black-and-white costume with a big kind of fluffy tail. And I thought it might trick me if I didn't...

[01:00]

Gotta get away. Actually, years ago, my husband, Steve, was coming home late from work. This is an aside. And saw a skunk and thought, well, I'll just go quickly and it'll run away. And it didn't run away. Oh, my gosh. That was really, what a powerful, powerful chemical event that was. Good thing the kitchen has number 10 cans of tomatoes. He showered in that. Anyway, let's see. This is a Dharma talk, isn't it? So Halloween comes at this particular time of year, and there's some other ceremonies right at this time of year, All Souls Day, All Saints Day, All Souls Day.

[02:17]

And in early earth-based religions, Wicca and Gaelic, there was a particular... ceremony, Samhain, or festival, meaning summer's end. And also on All Souls Day, children would go a-souling. They would go off and go door-to-door and sing and pray for the dearly departed and would receive cakes. So this is hundreds and hundreds of years ago. And also Shakespeare... mentions in Two Gentlemen of Verona, he mentions the character Speed is told not to go pooling or whining like a beggar on Hallowmas, meaning going from door to door on All Hallows' Eve.

[03:20]

So it has an old tradition. And I was reading about North American people tradition getting really going with children getting candy after World War II. I guess before World War II it was starting but then there were sugar rations and then after the war giving candy became very popular. So there's a ceremony that we're doing called Sajiki, and we perform it here at this time of year, at a time of transition. And for the last week or so in the practice period at Greenwich, we've been reflecting and kind of studying this ceremony and practicing the chants, the recitation of sutra and mantra that go along with the ceremony.

[04:30]

But the basic meaning of the ceremony is giving, compassionate offering and giving. The word se of sejiki means offering, giving alms, and the jiki is food. And it's almost a symbolic way of what is it that we can offer. We can offer material things, we can offer food, we can offer the dharma, and we can offer fearlessness. These are three traditional offerings. And I think the ceremony brings up all three of these kinds of offerings. There's a food offering that's made, and... and dharma is offered in the chanting, and then the fearlessness, the giving of fearlessness, allaying fears of beings who may be restless, and this is in our own hearts, or also just our feeling of unresolved energy between people

[05:49]

This ceremony addresses that and speaks to it and actually really turns our attention towards this part of ourself that we may not want to have intimacy with. So the origin of this ceremony, there's a couple origins, but one comes from... the story of the Buddha's very close disciple, Ananda, who was sitting zazen, actually, and was visited by, speaking of Halloween, was visited by a kind of creature of some kind, a kind of being that was very, very scary. And this being, he didn't recognize what kind of being it was. And it was called Burning Face. This is different than Burning Man. Burning Face.

[06:53]

And later on, that was translated by different translators as Burning Mouth. And this being kind of threatened... He basically told him the truth, which was in three days, Ananda, sweet Ananda. Ananda was... very, very kind and was very close to the Buddha and related all the Buddha's teachings, all the sutras start with, thus have I heard, that's Ananda, who heard the teachings and then was able to recite them back. So this being said to Ananda, in three days your positive energy of your life is going to come to an end and you're going to come live with us, us creatures like me, And this burning face being was very agitated and very unsatisfied and restless and aggressive kind of, not so aggressive towards Ananda, but unsettled, destabilized, restive.

[08:04]

And Ananda was very, very frightened. This is kind of a good Halloween story. He was very frightened about this. He went to the Buddha. and told him what had happened. And the Buddha said, well, this is your karmic life. This is, you know, fruition of your life. And you need to accept this. And then the Buddha said, oh, wait a minute. He remembered something. He remembered that he had been given a ceremony in a past life from the Bodhisattva of infinite compassion. Guan Yin or Kanon. These are different names for infinite compassion or Avalokiteshvara. And Avalokiteshvara had said, do this particular ceremony and this will change this energy. And the ceremony was making offerings to this kind of energy, this unsettled, unsettled,

[09:12]

unpeaceful, not peaceful, not tranquil, agitated, entangled, confused energy, make offerings of food. And so Ananda performed this ceremony and things changed. So for me, this is a legend of origin, and I'll tell you another one briefly as well. But the basic thing for me is this is infinite compassion making offerings and giving in response to unsettled, restless, agitated energy. The teaching of this is how do you... How does one relate to, be intimate with, not run away from or meet that kind of energy with more of your own kind of energy, the same kind of unpeaceful, agitated energy?

[10:33]

How do you... How do we meet this kind of energy in ourselves, in our own hearts, between each other, between our family and friends and colleagues and all beings? How do we meet this kind of energy? And we meet it with infinite compassion. We meet it with making offerings, offerings of... compassionate offerings of whatever kind, whatever's needed. And in this case, it was these offerings of food and the Dharma and a calm, settled body-mind that's not afraid. This is the way to meet this kind of energy. Now, I want to connect up this compassionate energy with wisdom, because compassionate energy without wisdom can fall into sentimentality or clinging, perhaps, or possessiveness.

[12:03]

Maybe this is These are the pitfalls of compassion, hands that want to help and want to offer and want to give, but not having enough wisdom to understand the full situation. So we talk about Avalokiteshvara, or the Bodhisattva of Infinite Compassion, having eyes on her or his hands. It's not just hands helping and offering and doing and allaying fear, giving and allaying fears, this mudra. But there has to be an eye on the hand. There has to be wisdom. There has to be clarity. There has to be seeing. And what does Avalopiteshvara need to see? And this brings us around to this question, what does Avalokiteshra need to see, brings us to wisdom, the eye of wisdom.

[13:20]

And what does the eye of wisdom see? And in one of the most frequently chanted daily, maybe more than once a day, in Zen practice places and temples and monasteries. One practices chanting the Heart Sutra, the Heart of Perfect Wisdom Sutra, the Great Heart of Perfect Wisdom Sutra. And the main protagonist, you might say, in that sutra is Nanayana none other than the Bodhisattva of infinite compassion, again, Avalokiteshvara. And in this sutra, Avalokiteshvara practices wisdom. And she practices, or he practices, the wisdom which has gone beyond, not just understanding and knowledge wisdom, but understanding.

[14:27]

intense understanding, an intense and deep understanding. She or he deeply practices the wisdom, the perfection of wisdom. And what is this deep practicing of the perfection of wisdom? What is this wisdom that compassion is unified with, that compassion practices? So this wisdom, in one of the great Perfection of Wisdom Sutras, a disciple asked the Buddha, what is prajna? What is this wisdom? What is prajna? And the Buddha answers, deep. And then the disciple says, what is deep? And the Buddha says, prajna. So prajna and deep. is one and the same.

[15:28]

Prashna says deeply practicing. And the deep practicing is a... The culmination of this deep practicing would be a direct realization of the... that all what we think of as separate beings and ourself as separate self do not have a separate, substantial, intrinsic existence. So to have a direct, unmediated realization that all what makes up the psychophysical self, the aggregates or the skandhas in Sanskrit, which includes not only our own body-mind, but everything that we see or hear or that is experienced through the senses or through our mind, all that is without a separate intrinsic existence.

[16:57]

And it's full of interdependence or dependently coerisenness. It comes up and vanishes, arises and vanishes, independence on vastly many causes and conditions. So you can't separate out. This is Avalokiteshvara's deeply practicing Prajnaparamita, having this clearly seeing that everything is interconnected in this way and nothing has a separate self. Now, this Prajnaparamita or perfection of this wisdom is this seeing that unified with, completely unified with, compassion for all beings.

[18:05]

And not only compassion, but a deep vow to live for the benefit of all beings. This wisdom and this deep vow called bodhicitta, or the thought of enlightenment, which means the thought of I, will devote my life. I vow to live for the benefit of all beings and to practice for the benefit of all beings, not for myself alone. So these two are unified, this strong, compassionate mind of bodhicitta. Citta is a mind, a mind of awakening. completely unified with, in union with, seeing that this deep wisdom, that all phenomena, all beings and all experiences are completely interconnected and cannot be separated as separate selves, separate beings, separate events, as if there was a separate...

[19:22]

that could happen in and of itself and be pointed to. I've been... It's another story about my husband and I... My husband, Steve, and I have been... He's been reading out loud, War and Peace, for the last long time. I think we started last spring. And in this last chapter, we just... Tolstoy goes into a long... a long description of causes and conditions about war in a very, very sad, profoundly, heart-wrenchingly sad way, talking about, you know, because this duke was offended, you know, millions of young soldiers slaughtered each other and tortured each other. And this is in 1812. And, you know, because Napoleon wouldn't retreat beyond the Vistula, this river, you know, thousands and thousands.

[20:31]

But he describes these interlocking causes and conditions and that it could not be otherwise. You know, the karmic, when this comes to be, this is. When that comes to be, that comes to be. net of causes and conditions, and how do we, how are we going to practice compassion, practice non-harming, practice wisdom with broken hearts, feeling, what can we do? Well, the Heart Sutra says, first, we make, or together we make this vow and we practice. And, you know, someone asked in class, well, what is this practicing deeply?

[21:34]

It's not enough to just intellectually kind of understand interconnectedness. Okay, that's fine. I get that. And it's not enough. The teaching is that you moment by moment by moment by moment are studying the codependent arising of each moment. And when we fall into me and them, we get lost very, very quickly and get confused and can't find our way. We have a conventional life. I'm not saying we throw away our conventional life of I'm giving the talk today and you're coming to the talk and that's not a problem. How is it, though, that each of us is interconnected and not separate self. This is this ineffable form and emptiness united, non-dually, and you look at it from one way and you see interconnectedness, you look at it from another way and there's all this separateness and back and forth.

[22:49]

So Avalokitesvara, the bodhisattva of infinite compassion, beheld this way of practicing and was freed from suffering and distress. And this deep practice of wisdom united with bodhicitta. Now in the ceremony today, this ceremony I feel the longer I study it, And the more I turn it and reflect on it and actually have a chance to talk about it, I see that in this ceremony of Sajiki that we're doing this afternoon, that you're all invited to. Five o'clock, 4.45 begins the big bell. Within this ceremony, we start out paying homage to the Buddha and the Dharma and the Sangha in the Ten Directions. So the awakened... the awakened one, or the Buddha, or all awakened ones, or the awakenedness of ourselves.

[23:58]

We pay homage to that and to the truth that's been transmitted and is there for us to study and reflect on and teach and learn from. And then the community of practitioners, the Sangha. So we pay homage to them. Then we pay homage to Shakyamuni Buddha. And then, right after that, we pay homage to the great, merciful, compassionate reliever of suffering, Avalokiteshvara. So this bodhisattva gets a special homage. The other bodhisattvas aren't brought up in the beginning of this chant. And then we pay homage to Ananda, the expounder of the teachings. So right at the beginning. And then there's offerings made. In our minds, we offer... This microphone makes this tiki-tik noise, and it's... Every time I think I breathe, it... The connection might need to be... Anyway.

[25:08]

Being a sensate type, this begins to... be most of the lectures, this crackle, but anyway. So then, right in the beginning of this chant, it says, giving rise to the awakened mind. Giving rise to a mind of awakening, we offer. First, we give a right. Giving rise to the awakened mind is the awakened mind, this bodhicitta mind. We raise it up And also later we raise up the mind of bodhicitta, this jewel, this wish-fulfilling jewel of the mind that is living for the benefit of others. And then we offer, we make offerings in our minds to beings, our loved ones and beings who are unsettled and...

[26:16]

need our attention, need our care, need our protection, we call these beings up and offer them dharma, food. There's actually food offerings and dharma. And then later in the ceremony, there's these mantras that we say three times, actually. And the first one is to arouse bodhi mind. And it's in like a Sanskrit or probably a Japanese way of pronouncing Sanskrit mantra. Give rise, establish the Bodhi mind. Give rise to this Bodhi mind, this precious Bodhi mind. And three times there's a call and response. Give rise to this. And then... The second part is give rise to the bodhisattva precepts. So after you have a mind where you vow to live for the benefit of others, then how are you going to do that?

[27:22]

Well, there are ways that have been described called precepts. What someone might do or not do if they have made this vow. So this is right in the ceremony. Almost a... I feel maybe almost a culminating part where there's this call and response of giving rise to this bodhi mind and the precepts. So this mind of bodhicitta and arousing a mind like this, you know, you might feel, well, that's very far-fetched or that's that's far away from me, but there's each one of us can touch this mind and do, I think, often when we feel for another, when we cry for another, when we mourn the loss, when we are disturbed by news or

[28:43]

What is it that is responding in this way? What is resonating in this way? This is like our baby bodhicitta that's there, that feels the cries of the world. This is another name for Avalokiteshvara, the one who regards the cries of the world, hears the cries of the world. So the one who hears the cries of the world deeply practices and clearly sees the non-separateness and lives with those two united. So please don't think this is for some celestial bodhisattva that's far away from your own heart. I think if you And this is the time of year, really, to turn the light in, to feel your feelings, to be in touch with, especially today in this ceremony, our own suffering and dis-ease and longing and disappointments and resentments.

[30:06]

And to be in touch with that so closely that we go and stay with it and feel it so thoroughly, we can feel the compassion right there for ourselves and others. So the cries of the world and our compassion, the cries of ourself and our own compassion come together, come together for the sake of everyone. In this story, the other story of the origins of this ceremony have to do with a disciple of the Buddha named Moggalyana, who was foremost in psychic powers, and he had an experience, a kind of dream or waking vision of seeing his parents and his mother in particular in a very suffering realm.

[31:11]

And similar to this, Bodhisattva Jizo, the origins of Jizo was a daughter who saw her mother in a suffering realm and couldn't bear it and asked the Buddha, what can I do? And same with this story, Moggalyana said, what can I do? How can I help? Nothing she eats, everything she eats turns to fire, hence this burning mouth. And the Buddha said, you can't do it by yourself. You don't have enough power. But we... The entire sangha, and not just our group that's practicing together here, but the entire sangha in the Ten Directions, which in the ceremony we say homage to the sangha in the Ten Directions. The community of practitioners, it takes all of them to address this kind of suffering of the hell realms, these states of woe. And so at the time of the new or the full moon, they performed a ceremony and made offerings.

[32:12]

These are two different origins to this ceremony. And in this story, what I appreciate so much is you can't do it alone. We need each other. We need relationship. We need to be in intimacy with not only our own heart, but with each other. And this can take a long time to become intimate with ourselves and with others, but we need everyone. You can't do it by yourself. So, Avalokiteshvara, this bodhisattva of infinite compassion, will, the teachings around this compassion is that it will take any form you need. you might think, oh, it has to come in a certain way in order to help me, help me learn, help me learn these lessons and open my heart.

[33:24]

And I think that can be too narrow a view to be open to all our experiences. This is difficult. This is very difficult. I came across a very interesting thing that I wanted to include in this talk, which is in the Anguttara Nikaya, in a Pali canon text, there's a section called How to Judge the Character of a Person, How to Judge a Person's Character. Wouldn't that be a good thing to know? How would you judge a person's character? Because we get fooled, right? Initially we think, oh, you know, and then something happens and we're very disappointed, very hurt, very shocked about something that happened.

[34:28]

So this is what the Buddha says about how to judge a person's character. Monks, there are four traits that may be known by means of four traits to judge a person's character. So there's four traits that you judge with four traits. It is through living together that a person's virtue may be known. And then only after a long period, not a short period, by one who is attentive, not inattentive, by one who is discerning, not by one who is not discerning. So the first one to know whether or not someone is virtuous, you know through living with them for a long time, being attentive, being discerning, and so long time attentive and discerning.

[35:36]

That's how you find out if someone's virtuous. It is through dealing with a person that... This person's purity may be known or virtuous qualities may be known for a long time with attention, with discernment. And it's through discussion that a person's discernment may be known. Not a short time, but a long time. Discussing for a long time with attention, not inattention, with discernment, not in discernment. So this is how you judge a person's character. This is a long time of attention and discernment in discussion, living closely with them and through having daily contact and dealings that you find these things out. Not through, not fast, not through.

[36:39]

So... Avalokiteshvara comes in any way that you need her or him to come. She takes any form. And even if you think, I don't want this, what can you learn from this? You might originally think that someone doesn't have virtuous qualities, but the more... the longer you stay with a discerning mind, with long-time discernment and with attention, you understand more and more who this person is. So the person, whatever the person's original, whatever your original impression is, if you stay with it, you can turn this, you can turn this and find out.

[37:41]

And... Avalokiteshvara, coming in any form, means you may not like it. You may not feel open to it. What can you learn from this situation? Whatever you, if you need to wake up to your infinite compassion, by someone coming to your door yelling, Avalokiteshvara will come in that form, if that's the form you need, if you need another form. And this is shown iconographically with sometimes Avalokiteshvara has 11 heads, some have very beautiful, smiling, compassionate faces, and the one face on the back is fierce and looks very mean.

[38:44]

But you may need that. You may need that to really get to the bottom of your life. And in one of these commentaries, it said that Ananda, when this demon came, this burning-mouthed demon, one commentary says that probably was Guan Yin who came to help Ananda. Because the Buddha said to Ananda, it's your greediness and your selfishness and your stinginess, you know, that's at play here. And Ananda made a turn. So I found that very interesting, kind of like trick-or-treat, you know. Here comes this burning face, but it's really Avalokiteshvara trying to help. coming in this form. We never know. So the 25th chapter of the Lotus Sutra is this sutra about Avalokiteshvara coming in any form you need.

[40:07]

So what form will be helpful for you? Don't make snap judgments. Don't turn away from even something that might be scary. I feel that this particular time is returned towards the season of giving. The Thanksgiving holidays and the other holidays that come up at the end of the year, they're the chance for giving.

[41:17]

And let us ask ourselves, what is the kind of giving that is necessary for me this year. What do I need to give to myself? What do I need to give to others in material, in Dharma words, or in fearlessness? What offerings can I make? This is the first of the perfections that culminates in wisdom. We start with giving. you very much.

[42:31]

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