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. Good evening. On this wintry night, it's so nice to cozy up in this next to the fire. If I faint, you can. carry me out. One time, actually, this was really close and they had turned up the kerosene really, and I did think I was gonna keel over. So I'm here at Tassajara co-leading a Zen and Yoga workshop with Patricia Sullivan. as we have done for the last seven or so years. And the other day, I think it was yesterday and today as well, Patricia said something in class, and this often happens, and it reverberates in a very, in all directions, and illuminates some

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some part of the Zen practice, and I think this flows both ways for us. So I'll come back to that in a moment, but I did want to say that this coming weekend in San Francisco, we'll be celebrating the 50th anniversary of the San Francisco Zen Center. There's a number of, this is next Saturday, Sunday, and Monday coming up, will be celebrating the date that the incorporation took place where the group of students who gathered around Suzuki Roshi formed their own group separate from Sokoji, the Japanese temple where Suzuki Roshi had been teaching. And that was August 13, 50 years ago. It's hard to believe. So if you're in town, there's various lectures to go to and a walk from Japantown down Laguna Street in San Francisco to San Francisco Zen Center and various events.

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For the 50th, there's a issue of the Wind Bell, which is the journal that was started in 1961. the journal of the San Francisco Zen Center called Wind Bell, coming from a poem that expressed wisdom, the wind blowing from, to be like a wind bell hanging and responding to the wind that blows east and west, and just singing out your song, ding-dong, tingling, tingling, I think, in the Chinese language. So the name of the publication was Windbell, and there's a facsimile of the first issue of it, which is probably, it was a mimeographed, for those of you who know what mimeograph is. This is an old, old way of copying things, and it smelled really good, the ink. Do you remember? It was purple ink that, hmm, I can practically smell it.

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Anyway, the facsimile of the first issue, in 1961 said, it was a one-pager, and one of the things it said was, Suzuki Roshi came here from Japan on the afternoon of June 22, 1959. Since then, he has been on his cushion conducting Zen at Sokoji. That's how they described him. He's been on his cushion. On his cushion. conducting Zen at Soko-ji Temple. And I think that you could say is the heart of the San Francisco Zen Center, that Suzuki Hiroshi was on his cushion and said, when people asked about Zen, which is really exotic and exciting, a real live Zen master from Japan, and what he said was, come sit with me. I sit at 6.30 in the morning.

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or whatever time, come sit with me, and he was on his cushion. And that effort to be on our cushions and make cushions available for whoever wants to come and sit has been the effort for these last 50 years, and may it go on endlessly. So... Patricia, in a particular posture that we took where our arms were extended out from the sides, she asked us to imagine, actually with both hands, that the end of our fingers just kept going on and on and on into infinity. And to imagine that while we were

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our own limited self with five feet or so span of arms, but to imagine it goes on into infinity and just having that thought, just having that thought changes the whole posture, changes our attitude of mind and of course mind and body. And it to me resonated very strongly with one of the basic teachings of Zen or Buddhism, of the nature of the reality of our existence, how it is that we exist as five feet tall or so, give or take a few feet, beings with limited abilities and range of knowledge and vision, And at the same time, in this exact same body, we have the nature of infiniteness.

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And those two things cannot be separated. It's one being. And at the same time, it's hard to hold those two things in mind at the same time. So that practice of imagining, you know, that we go off into infinity or imagining right now that our lives are interconnected and one with all beings who have ever lived in the past and who will ever live. How could that not be so if being alive now means we are dependent on others and others will be dependent on us. And not only beings, human beings, but all beings. You know, microscopic beings and the air and water and stones and foods and this is how we're supported, how we live our life.

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This is the net of our existence and We can't remove ourselves from it. We are it. And at the same time, we feel ourselves to be separate, limited beings, which we are as well. So these two things are constantly being turned and studied and reflected upon. So in this class, I think in this yoga workshop, the last couple days we've been doing more things that we maybe thought we wouldn't be able to do. If someone had given you a sheet of paper with pictures of what you were going to be doing, you probably think better sign up for something else.

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Because there's so much trust, I think, a kind of intimacy and trust that builds by just what? By practicing together, really. Just practicing sitting. We've been sitting and practicing yoga and listening and studying. And what gets formed there is a kind of practice body. And there's trust there. And that kind of trust means you can try something you may not think you could do, but you're going to give it a try. And I think the same goes for practice, our sitting practice, our Zen practice. There's trust that builds within the Sangha, within the other people practicing, and with the practice leaders and teachers that help us go beyond some idea we have of who we are and what we can, you know, what kind of effort we can make.

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We go further than that, stretch ourselves, work on our edge, and I think trust is pretty important. And it's probably the same with any profession or anything we do. Sport or art or, you know, when there's trust, we can let go and try something more. So right before I came down to Tassahara, I just finished a six-day retreat sesshin, actually, a study sesshin. And Aaron, where's Aaron? Aaron Erb was there with the sangha at Green Gulch. And we had the great good fortune of working with the teacher, Shohaku Okumura Roshi, who does these study retreats. It does about four a year, and you sit, and then have class, and then sit, and it's silent, silent meals, and study in depth one piece.

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And what we were studying was something, a essay by Dogen, the 13th century zen master, Japanese zen master, and the essay was called in Japanese, only a Buddha together with a Buddha. Only a Buddha together with a Buddha, that's the name of it. And what this essay is looking at is the nature of reality and our existence together and our awakened nature. Only a Buddha together with a Buddha, and the rest of the sentence comes from the Lotus Sutra, can fathom the reality of all existence. And a Buddha and a Buddha is this, I would say it's another way of saying this, limited, sentient being, body, being, and the infinite, boundless, formless body of truth of which we are made or are a part.

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So there in the title of this is that same, not exactly tension, but these two things that come up together that reflect each other. So one of the ways to study this, what I'm bringing up, is to study what's called the teaching of the three bodies of Buddha, which is a traditional way to think about, when we say Buddha, what do we think of, actually? And I think for some people, they don't know what you're talking about, or they have some idea that it's a god or something. Anyway, so the Buddha, the historical Buddha, Siddhartha, Gautama Buddha, was a human being who was born, lived his life,

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set out on his spiritual quest, turned his direction around and woke up to the reality of all existence and decided to teach. For a while there he wasn't going to teach and then taught for the rest of his life. And people came and he had been sitting on his cushion, you know, and people came and joined him. and listen to him. So that's this body of the Buddha. This is called the transformation body or the Nirmanakaya Buddha. Kaya is body and the Nirmanakaya Buddha is this kind of a Buddha that is born and sets out on their quest, spiritual quest, and teaches and lives for the benefit of beings and dies. This is Nirmanakaya Buddha. There's another body of the Buddha called the Dharmakaya Buddha, and the Dharma as truth, the truth body of the Buddha, or the reality body of the Buddha.

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And that body, the nirmanakaya, kind of comes out of that body, you could say. And that Dharma body is beginningless and endless. It neither comes nor goes. nor rises nor vanishes nor lives or dies. It's like space. That's one way it's likened to. It's like space. It has formless quality and it doesn't have these characteristics. However, this Dharmakaya, this reality body, this truth body of the Buddha, responds to beings. It takes form. in response to beings. So when beings are suffering, when they call out for help, when they are in need of, when they're lost and confused, this is like a call in some way for the Dharmakaya to take form.

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And any form, any form that will be helpful. The Dharmakaya doesn't live or die, and yet it responds to beings. And the form it takes is nirmanakaya Buddhas, transformation body Buddhas, that can be seen and heard, that speak language and walk the streets and villages and live in the forest or in the town and teach. And there's another body of Buddha. The third body of Buddha is called Sambhogakaya Buddha, and this Sambhogakaya is translated as bliss body sometimes, reward body, and it's a body of joy, and it's a body that comes out of our practice life together. The joy of practicing together, which there is, which is palpable,

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is born of this practice body of the Buddha. And it's also sometimes called the response body. So the Sambhogakaya Buddha is born, but it never dies. This practice, as long as the practice goes on, there is Sambhogakaya Buddha and never dies. But there's a point at which it's It comes into being through vow. And the vow, the main vow of all the awakened ones, Buddha means the awakened one, the vow, what causes Buddhas to appear in the world is the vow to help beings. So the Dharmakaya takes form in order to help beings, and this is the definition of Buddhas. They appear in the world, they manifest to help beings. That's what a Buddha is. And if you see Buddha, if you see a manifested Buddha, then you know already that they're there to help beings in all different ways, but basically to relieve suffering.

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And if you see a being or hear a teaching that is relieving of suffering, you know that an awakened one has has manifested. When you see one, you see the other. It's one thing. And this is in the Lotus Sutra as well. This is called the one great causal condition. The one great single cause and condition for Buddhists to appear in the world is wanting to live for the benefit of beings. It's kind of a simple teaching. Now Dogen, this Zen master in Japan, added a fourth body of the Buddha. He's a very creative guy with language. Anyway, he added a fourth body, and that he called in Japanese, Gyo-butsu. Gyo translates as practice.

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So it's the practice body, the practice Buddha body. And In this teaching about the practice Buddha body, in each moment of practice there is the awakened one and also this vow to save beings, this vow to help beings to awaken. When we practice in each moment, that's the practice Buddha. And if the Buddha is manifesting, that also means that there there to serve beings. So in each moment of practice, there is practice Buddha, and this vow is right there. At Green Gulch, the night before I left, we had the great good fortune of being able to see a dance performance of South Indian dance, Bharatanatyam, that some of you know, Dario Girolami, his wife,

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is a Bharatanatyam dancer, and they did a performance of the birth of the Buddha. And Bharatanatyam has these fabulous mudra and facial expressions to tell story. And so she was dancing it with music, and then there was narration, and then she'd dance the story. And at one point, for those of you who know the story of the Buddha being born, when the Buddha, right after he was born, he stood upright and took seven steps. And she did this in mudra and dance where she did like a step and then this fabulous kind of unfolding of a lotus because at each step a lotus bloomed. So she did this It was just marvelous. And in the same way for this Gyo-butsu, this practice Buddha, in each moment of practice there's a lotus, like a lotus blooming, just like in each step this lotus came forward under the Buddha's feet.

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The same is true for practice Buddha. Each moment a lotus will bloom. Each moment is for the benefit of all beings. So only this yuibutsu, yobutsu, only a Buddha together with a Buddha can fathom the reality of existence. And those two Buddhas, one is the sentient being limit with limits and can only see what they can see, their own circle of water. However, when that Buddha is practicing, is yobutsu, That Buddha, together with awakened Buddhas, fathomed the nature of all existence. So it's not some Buddhas over there somewhere in some ancient time. I think this teaching, even though it was written in the 1200s, it's alive for us as we take up our practice, turn towards practice, and make an effort for each thing

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that we do, each word that we speak, to be go-butsu, to be a practice Buddha. And of course we get sidetracked and distracted and pulled off into various things that actually aren't in alignment, perhaps, with how we really want to live, and we come back. and we go off again and we come back. This is also the nature of the vow and the nature of the practice, to return and return and return. This morning we had a departing student ceremony. This is a ceremony for someone who has formally entered the monastery and done the... the long sitting that shows one's sincerity for entering the monastery and then has been here for a certain length of time.

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And the ritual, the ceremony, is very meaningful for the person departing and for all the sangha members who are saying goodbye. And in it, the head of the meditation hall, after everyone bows to the person and incense is offered and bowing, then the head of the meditation hall says something, the person's name, and then something like, having aroused, way-seeking mind, and you could say that arousal is also the arousal, the coming up of a vow to live for the benefit of beings, and having aroused, way-seeking mind, having... contributed to the well-being of the temple, having practiced faithfully at the temple, at the monastery. This particular person now returns, in this case, depending on where the person's going, they might be going to another monastery or something.

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In this case, they were going home, back to Slovenia. So the head of the meditation hall, Graham, said, returns to the marketplace with gift-bestowing hands. Nada Odhar returns to the marketplace. Actually, he said her Buddhist name, which I can't remember now. Resolve, something. Complete resolve, miraculous blossoming. Complete resolve, miraculous blossoming. It's just like that, miraculous blossoming. So, complete resolve, miraculous blossoming returns to the marketplace with gift-bestowing hands. She goes with the gratitude of us all. And then there's a percussion instrument. Clunk! It seals the whole thing. It is done. She is departing. And then she walks out the door. The actual ceremony. The door is open and a few words are said, but she's out.

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But that line, returning to the marketplace with gift-bestowing hands, is... The culmination of the practice is not to... have all your problems taken care of and to be above it all, and nobody can get you anymore, nothing can hurt you, and you're safe forever. That is not the definition of the culmination of our practiced life or the practice of Buddha's way, Buddha Dharma. The culmination is to endlessly practice, there's no end to practice, and to return to your fellow beings, which is marketplaces, shorthand, for return to being in the world with others, but maybe in a new way. Maybe the last time you lived outside the monastery or you were not having gift-bestowing hands, you were having graspy hands and clinging hands and taking what is not given hands, maybe, or

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left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing hands. I remember I had an image once that I was knitting, kind of knitting away, and then I was unraveling it on one side and kept knitting and it was like, what's going on over there? So one body, one life with gift-bestowing hands. This is a kind of, this is culmination to Go up the mountain and down the mountain. Go up to the mountain and practice and come down to the village. It's not just up to the mountain and practice and goodbye, see you later, hope I never see you again. It's not that practice. It's being on the mountain, being in the forest, being on your cushion for the benefit of all beings, for the sake of beings, of which we are not separate.

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So for the sake of all beings includes us. It's not Pollyanna. It's the reality of all existence. It's only a Buddha and a Buddha together with a Buddha can fathom the reality of all existence. So we say the vow of living for the benefit of all beings. All beings includes us. but not over and above others, but our helping others helps ourself. I think that can be proved time and time again. When we encourage others, we encourage ourselves. When we comfort others, we are comforted. When we're with others, we're with our true self. So bliss bestowing, you know, whatever that means, whatever form that takes, it's serving others. Is it almost time?

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It is, isn't it? Five minutes, yeah. So... I think the last thing I want to leave you with is a kind of image that's been, it's an image from a Suzuki Roshi lecture that I read years and years ago, and it always hits me, and I'm not even sure why it hits me so strongly, but when we take refuge, we say, I take refuge in Buddha. In Japanese, it's namu kiei butsu, and the namu, which is when you're sowing for preparing for a lay ordination or a priest ordination, and you sew your robe, with each stitch you say, I take refuge in Buddha, it's translated as, but the namu part means to plunge, to plunge into refuge, into taking refuge.

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You're throwing yourself, plunging, plunging into this moment fully, without reservation, I take refuge in Buddha. There's this lecture where Suzuki Roshi says, this is the image, that what we try and do is carry water in a basket. So we scoop up the water in a basket and then we try to carry it. And what happens is all the water comes flowing out, right? We can't carry it. The basket is full of holes. But we maybe keep trying to do that. And what he says is... In order to carry water in a basket, you have to plunge the basket into the water. Then it's filled with water. And then there's no holes. It's just water. It's filled with water. And that image for me is, you know, this.

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Right now, we have our limited, full of holes, you know, body-mind, and we're trying to fill the water, you know, fill our baskets, but we're doing it in a way that's separating or dualistic. So to plunge ourselves into each activity, each moment, plunge our basket completely in the water, and it's filled. And then he says... He says to this group he's speaking with, you are a basket full of holes. Then lots of laughter. And then he says, holes are you. Just kind of like Toys R Us or something. Holes are you. And then he says, we say no hole wisdom. To have wisdom with no holes is like dipping your basket and filling it. Or...

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plunging into each moment, each activity fully, without trying to get anything, without separating. Me is trying to do this, just do it. Can we just do it? Because we're sitting in the middle, always sitting, walking, standing, lying down, in the middle of a boundless infinity. But we don't know it. but we can have confidence in that. And that's the way we sit zazen, and that's the way we practice our vow. We plunge into it. 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, visit sfcc.org and click Giving.

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