This podcast is offered by the San Francisco Zen Center on the web at www.sfcc.org. Our public programs are made possible by donations from people like you. Good morning. Welcome to Saturday Dharma Talk and welcome to San Francisco Zen Center. I'm just curious, how many of you are here for the first time? Great. So I guess I don't know you, most likely. So welcome. My name is Li Ping. Last name is Zhu. I lived here for 10 years as a resident. I just moved out in March after I went through a three-month head student. It's called the Shusou Training. So this is the first...

[01:00]

official Saturday Dharma talk I'm giving. So I feel very honored. And in a way, so Tanto. So I want to thank the Tanto for inviting me to give this talk. When I was upstairs, I said, gee, I'm really nervous. And my chico said something very nicely. just thinking that you are going to meet all your friends who are really excited to see you back and ready to listen to your talk. So I think that's a good intention. And that is actually the topic of my talk today. It's about intention, about mind, and how that is reflected in our everyday life, including our Zazen, just all the mundane things in terms of the health, the healing.

[02:00]

So before I start, I actually want to say something about giving this talk on this specific day is actually very special for me. Here's the picture of my master, Master Zhang Hongbao, who is my Qigong master. who was killed in a car accident on the same day, four years ago. So, I'm dedicating this talk to him. And also, one of his very important teaching in Qigong is about intention. And in Chinese, we call it yinia, the yi. In Buddhism, in Chinese, we also have the three practice. It's the sheng, So shen is the body, ko is the mouth, basically speech. So your body, your speech, and the yi, also your mind, your intention, what kind of thought you're holding.

[03:06]

Hopefully I can put all this together. I realize it's impossible for me to write out my talk, so I'm just gonna kind of randomly going through the ideas I have, and hopefully this is a talk I'm just chatting with you and sharing this teaching with you. Hopefully later you will have questions and we can do more exchange after the talk. I want to go back a little bit to what I just mentioned the Buddhist practice, the three aspects, the shen, kou yi, the body, speech, and the yi. And because these three aspects, we actually have the three practice of jie, means precepts, ding is samadhi, and hui is wisdom. So, those three aspects of practice is no different than the Taoist practice.

[04:13]

Because of my own training background, I originally was trained more in Qigong, Tai Chi, and then I came to America and studied Zen. So I kind of want to do a little bit of comparison so you understand how these three aspects are practiced in these two main religious practices. So in the Taoist practice, is more about the three treasures, the jing, the qi, the shen. So if you have never heard those words before, it says jing is the essence. So the essence basically comes from either the prenatal essence comes from your parents, and then the postnatal essence, that the things that you take, you intake, and turn into that essence, nourishing your body. So that jinn is the equivalent of the Buddhist three aspects, the shen, the body practice.

[05:14]

And the qi. So when was the qi, the energy or the life force? And the qi, when you don't, was it have a breath, have the breath. So it comes through your breathing in, breathing out. So a little bit different from the speech, but whenever we are talking about qi, how you talk, you actually, there is exchange of energy. Also, there is a leak of leaking of energy. So we look at the qi aspect of the Taoist and the shen. The shen is the spirit. And the shen spirit is very similar to the yi. and the Hui, the wisdom. So we can see from both traditions, those three major practice, and they all have the Yi, the mind, and actually as the more advanced practice, because you're starting from transforming your jing, your physical substance, the jing, the essence,

[06:30]

you want to transform that jing into qi. And once you have that qi, then you want to transform that qi to the shen, to the spirit. So the shen is actually a more advanced stage cultivation. But from both traditions, we can see they are all being practiced. And how we use our mind and how we use our intention is a very important part in both traditions. So let's also look at the Qigong way. How do we look at the Qigong way, how this shen and intention is being taught and is being practiced. First I want you to do an experiment with me. I'm gonna have your hands come out and find the line at the bottom of your palm So you can see the equivalent line on both sides, and you're going to put your palms together.

[07:34]

Your fingers should be, normally, should it be the same length. And now with the woman, female wants you to leave your right hand in front of you, and male, leave your left hand in front of you. So I'm going to have you to focus your mind on this hand in front of you and thinking, Grow, grow, grow. Imagining your fingers starts to grow and grow so long as touching the ceilings. So relax your hand and sometimes you actually feel the energy kind of shooting up sensation. And just focus your mind there. So now let's see if you actually made something happen or not. So now measure your hands again. Did your finger get longer?

[08:36]

Yes? Isn't that amazing? Okay, now have the same hand. Now thinking back to its normal length. That's your gravity naturally. So now you don't need to think long for this part because that's your normal state. So now measure, see if it comes back. The shorter, it's more amazing if you find. Yes? Good. Maybe some of you say, gee, nothing happened. Go home and practice that. That's actually part of our Qigong practice, how we practice with the intention. So this practice is a phenomenon that we might never have thought about, even though what I'm going to talk about today is something that everyone is familiar with, everyone maybe even talk about, and how we can put this concept into our Zen practice, into our meditation practice, and also into our daily practice.

[09:42]

That's something I want to discuss about. So... These fingers getting longer, shorter, changing. When, what were you doing? You didn't use any pulling. I wasn't pulling your fingers. And all you did was concentrate your mind and thinking the fingers grow. And this thinking, in Chinese we call it yinian. And this thinking actually has force. And in Chinese we call it yinian li. the force of your thinking, the force of your mind, of your idea. So when we think about this, every single idea, every single thought you have actually has power. And we already know this English phrase, willpower. We have will power, that power is not a mechanical power, it's not a physical power.

[10:45]

It comes from your will, comes from your mind, comes from your thought, your idea, your intention, your determination. So that is the very important concept that my Qigong Master John taught in the very first class to all the Qigong students. How your thinking is a force. Without understanding the thinking is a force, you won't understand how this energy healing is done, and also including all our practice in Zen. You think this is just a religious ritual, or actually this ritual comes from understanding of how our mind is playing such an important role in our daily life, and basically in our happiness. How you think determines how happy you are. If you're thinking negatively, you're not going to feel happy.

[11:49]

You're not going to feel happy. And in Qigong, in energy healing, we actually, it's all through the mind to do the Qigong exercise when we're thinking of some of my Qigong students here. So when we think of all the good energy coming in, It really is using your mind. You're not really grabbing something tangible. Sometimes your energy feeling feels it becomes tangible, but it's all done through your mind. It's not through the physical tangible world. It's through the energy, the invisible world. And this mind is that it controls that invisible world. There is... Actually, Master Zhang gave an explanation why this phenomenon of the finger is getting longer by thinking of it. And he used the equation in physics. So in physics, there is an equation, work, W equals F, S. So F is a force, S is the distance.

[12:57]

So how you are, when you're doing an activity that you're doing some work, and there is a distance change. It's like I'm pushing this box, I'm applying a force, the box is moving in distance. So the same thing, when your finger's getting longer, there is a change of the distance, and you're doing activity. So the F, the force, where does that F come from? There is a force there, and that force is the mind force. That's the mind, it comes from the thought. And understanding this concept, it explains a whole lot of things, how we actually exist in this physical world. When we, in Qigong practice, we're thinking there is a tumor, you're thinking it's a mess, you're thinking melting, dissolving, melting, dissolving. So it's all through your mind. And you do healing on somebody, you know, you're putting their sick chi out,

[14:02]

through the mind. So if something is lodging in your arm, hurting you, and you use your mind to pushing that thing, dissolving that thing. So if you can move in your fingers, you can move in that sick chi. So that's how it's used in Qigong practice and in healing. And in our practice, we'll look at it in our practice. In our practice, we have in our meditation. In Zen meditation, you might start to wonder, gee, when I'm sitting in Zazen, I don't think of anything. So how can this yi, this intention, is reflected in my practice? And we actually, in Qigong, we call this not thinking, not having a yinian, is a yinian, is an intention. The intention is not to have an intention. So that's the intention of your Zazen.

[15:04]

And Zazen is the Zen practice. It's actually a very advanced school because you become formless. But before you get to that formless for beginners, we actually take a more gradual approach. You cannot just put somebody there and say, okay, sit there, don't think of anything. Most likely, you're going to think of everything. Right? Like we were in Se Xing, you all had the experience, how you really say, okay, I'm taught to do my zazen, just sit there and not think of anything. But a lot of times you cannot follow the instruction. So that's why their teachers sometimes teach you the more specific methods to help your zazen and to help your mind to become... peaceful, become calm, more calm to that positive, natural state.

[16:08]

So, for example, we use in Zazen counting your breath. The way of counting your breath is just one method. And just to help you, you know, just counting one, two, three, four, so your mind does not have all discursive thoughts, is to help you to become more concentrated, more focused. And there are ways of visualize. Visualization is not used much in the Zen school, but in Tibetan school, in Qigong school, we use lots of visualization. And also the visualization is to help you to bring the image. That image can have either empowering effect, or some people just visualize a beautiful tree, or a beautiful flower, or a person you love, or your guru, your master. And so you are connecting with that image, and your mind state is in that beautiful place, or concentrated place.

[17:18]

And so also to take your mind away from all the discursive thoughts. Zen practice, we also use intention. We use intention. Even when you are doing a one period, you say, I'm not going to think of anything. And that's your intention. And sometimes you are saying, okay, I'm just going to pay attention to my breath. That's the yinye for your meditation. So you're just watching your in and out, even though you're not counting. That's just another approach. Or you are... pay attention to your dantian, to your mudra. And so the mudra becomes your focus. That's your intention. So the intention is definitely the yinye is used in every aspect of our practice. There is, I want to kind of share another thing where we talk about how this is a practice in our daily life.

[18:22]

There is a, Japanese doctor, Dr. Emoto, I brought his book, and this book, The Shape of Love, and he has another very famous book, The Hidden Messages in Water. Have you heard about him or read his book? No? And he was actually in San Francisco in May, in the Living Expo event, he was giving a lecture. What he did, It was just kind of like, almost like scientifically proving the idea of how our thought has an effect on matter. So our mind has an effect on matter. And what he did is having the thoughts, different thoughts, different words, and put it to the water. And then he took pictures of the water, the crystals. And they get different crystals. And the molecules changes.

[19:24]

If you're having a positive thought, it's a beautiful crystal. And different thought have different crystal. And if you have an ugly thought, then you get a really ugly picture, crystal, how that changes. And one thing they did was have a bottle of water, and then they pour that bottle of water into two cups, two glasses. And on one glass they put a label, it says peace. And another glass they put a label, it says war. And then they take a picture, and the crystal of the water was very different. Of course, the peace one, the crystal was beautiful, and the war one, the crystal was not good looking. And so does the water actually know how to read the characters? How to know to read words?

[20:25]

No. It's actually how our human mind, when we write those words, when we see those words, when you see the word peace. So let's practice that. When you think of peace, how do you feel in your heart? How do you feel in your mind? And when you think of war, the association is and all the fear and the cruelty, and all those images will come with it, the discomfort, the unpleasant feelings. And peace is right away, when you think of peace, right away that word already has an effect on you. So the water doesn't have that thought, it's we humans, we our thoughts affecting the matter. We project all our thoughts to the different things.

[21:26]

So if we think of this, our human body averages 70% of water. So what our thinking towards ourselves, to our water, it actually have a tremendous effect. And that's one of the healing part that we use. When something is already out of balance, when we try to use healing in our Qigong practice or in our Zazen meditation practice, we'll see how that affects. When you're sitting there in your meditation in peace, it already has a healing effect. That's why some people wrote this article about how meditation, the research on meditation, brainwaves and see how that peace state, how that affect a person's health and longevity. And the same thing. When we are thinking the positive thoughts to ourselves in healing, so if you say, oh, I have a liver problem, and every day you dwell on liver problem, I have this and that, so you get very depressed.

[22:38]

And that doesn't actually help your condition at all. So in Qigong, we actually use the intention. The intention, we use the mantra, it's called xiao yan, zhi tong, quan yun. Clear the inflammation, stop the pain, recover to normal. So the student will focus on that, on the disease area, instead of thinking I have a liver tumor or liver cancer. So that's part of, your mind is changing, you're putting a force on this matter, and if you put a positive thought, that's a positive change. If you put a negative thought, and it will affect your water or your system, the quality of your water will change. So understanding of this, we look at how this actually are practiced. without we even think of, oh, this is a practice of intention, but it is.

[23:42]

There are traditions of prayers. Before you eat, you pray, and your thoughts, your mind is projected to the food, the beverage, the water that you're gonna take when you're eating, and the chants. So now let's look at how this is done in our own tradition, in our Zen school. Before we start the lecture, there's some chants I want to actually share with you. Some of you are already maybe doing this. I'm very familiar with the Zen practice. Some of you are new, so I'm going to repeat some of these. So before the lecture, we'll chant, Unsurpassed to Penetrate and Perfect Dharma. And you're saying the last sentence, you're saying, I vow to taste the truth of the Tatakta's words. So that puts your mind in a state, I'm here listening to this lecture, I'm vowing to taste the truth in the Tatakta's words, and not listening to what Li Ping has to say.

[24:52]

So that your intention is different, and After lecture, we also do the vow. You know, beings are numberless. I vow to save them. Delusions are inexhaustible. I vow to end them. Dharma gates are boundless. I vow to enter them. Buddha's way is unsurpassable. I vow to become it. It doesn't matter whether you are able to do it or not. You keep putting that positive thought in your mind. Your vow is your intention. My dharma sister Joan Amara shared this chant with me. Those are the chants she actually practice every day. And this is the daily practice. When she wakes up, she will have this chant. This morning as I awake, I vow with all beings to see each thing as it is and not to forsake the world.

[25:56]

And all those verses people find maybe from Japan or different people create some verses. It doesn't matter exactly the words. It's what the intention is behind them. So you can come up with your own mantra, your own chant, and see what your intention is. Your intention is that... intentions reflected in your chant, in your mantra, in your prayers. And another one she does is, you know, so wake up, she does this, go to bed, and this is the verse she uses, this evening as a sleep, I vow with all beings to still all things and put an end to confusion. So imagine you are taking on this practice Every night before you go to sleep, you start to recite your vows, recite your intention.

[26:59]

And that might clear out a lot of stress from the day, a lot of upsetness from the day. So another one is offering incense. Just want to get familiar with these different verses. Illuminating the clouds of the Dharma realm, perceiving millions of codas of Buddhas, perfuming the scene of the tranquil world, may the fragrance of the Dharma reach everyone, everywhere. In Tassajara at the bathhouse, and this chant, with all beings I wash body and mind, free from dust, pure and shining within and without. And the third floor of the women's bathroom, when I was living in the building, I always noticed there's verses on the mirror to remind each one when you start to brush your teeth, wash your hands. That was a very good practice. I'm suggesting that if you want to

[28:03]

kind of practice your intention of your daily activities. You can put different verses at different places. Before you brush your teeth, you look at what's your intention, and chant it, or just read it. There is one from Thich Nhat Hanh that is posted on the third floor, and it's the hand washing. Water flows over these hands. May I use them skillfully to preserve our precious planet? So all this practice are already there, and I believe a lot of you here who are sitting here actually do practice this, and I bow to you for your dedication, for your intention for cultivating the mind. I guess there are a lot of things to talk about. Maybe a little bit more about how this practice

[29:05]

our daily life, and one part of the daily life in Zen practice is the kitchen, right? So the seshing, it's all about preparing the food, feed the monks who are sitting there, and in our own kitchen. So now I'm not living in the temple, I always enjoy cooking, and sometimes I call myself, I was just like, rushing through trying to get some food and rushing to work so it kind of helps me to really to actually examine myself with my intention when I cook and what kind of mental state when I'm cooking. If I'm cooking, stir fry, and I'm thinking something upsetting, or I'm thinking something and I need to accomplish a do, so I'm not really present with my food. So part of the intention of our Zen practice in the kitchen is like, when you cut the carrots, you are just cutting the carrots.

[30:14]

And even though you maybe not think of something fancy, but that intention is to really be with what is in front of you, the being present. And that intention is already huge. Can you just have an intention? I'm going to just be with what is in front, instead of jumping to the past, or jumping to the future. And sometimes you might have this experience, you taste some food, you're just like, wow, this food tastes so good. You ask the cook, what did you put in there? What kind of ingredients? We always want to think what kind of spices, right? The spices bring out flavor. And the cook sometimes says, no, it's just soy sauce. And you think, hmm. You don't believe it. How can soy sauce? I put a soy sauce that doesn't taste the same. And I cook the tofu into broccoli.

[31:16]

It doesn't taste the same. So it does have to do with your mental state, the energetic things you put in. That's the best ingredients. The Chinese phrase says, when we want to tonify it, we have this phrase. It's . means if you want to tonify with medicine, that's not as good as with food. When you want to tonify yourself with food, that's not as good as the mind, the spirit. So that's actually, your spirit is the most tonifying ingredient. When you're cooking, you're happy, you really want to feed your friends, You put all your love in your food, and you're cooking with smiles, and that food is already very nourishing, very nurturing, without that physical ingredient that you can see.

[32:23]

And the same experience, actually, a lot of us here have had sashim. I always remember in sashim, everything tastes better. But the sashim, actually, is the most plain food. You know, just some carrots, shredded carrots, and not much oil, and not much, you know, no, no much of spice, and miso soup, tofu and miso, and green salad. Very, very simple food, but when you are eating them in the zento, it really tastes good. And sometimes we try to figure out why, because I'm hungry, and I'm sitting there. And when you really think of the whole process, how our kitchen, in our Zen tradition, how our kitchen is producing the food line, it's quite an amazing scene. Before the kitchen people meet, if you're not familiar with the kitchen, before we meet, you bow to each other.

[33:28]

You're already kind of in a silent state. hopefully that your mind is in silent state as well. And so the food is prepared in that kind of environment. And when the food is cooked, is served, we bow to the food, and the food is taken down to the zendo, we chant, we're offering the food. So with people who are all meditating there, it's really a beautiful way to eat. I used to have this fantasy, and now I'm going to just have an old yogi at home every day. Of course, I'm not doing it. I was just kind of so inspired by the way we eat here. You're just so mindful. Every single bit, you taste with your mind, with your heart, and then you start to taste the flavor of the love of everybody's dedication to their practice. You taste those flavors.

[34:30]

those simple ingredients. It's a beautiful way of practice. And that mind state, the joyful, happy mind state, that actually is the best ingredient. That present, that compassionate, loving state, that is the best thing that we can give, we can offer. So I think I talked enough. And there are always more things we can share. Before I end this talk, and I have a little practice, I want you to join me. And this practice will be a practice of your intention, but it's through visualization. And I have a song, usually a lot of speakers will read a poem, but I find myself never really take that much interest in poems or looking for poems, but my interest is always in singing and lyrics and songs.

[35:38]

So that's what I want to share. And this song is dedicated to my master. And I'm inviting you, if this is the same master that you have, I'm inviting you to do the same thing, too. Also, you can dedicate this song, the words, your image of your visualization to somebody that is very special to you. And the title of this song is My Sun, The Sunlight, The Sun. It's the Chinese version of the solar meal. so I will give you the words original the song is a more love song right and so you can dedicate this love to something very special to you and gonna have you actually adjust your posture sitting in a meditative state and Visualize, you can simply actually just visualize sunlight.

[36:42]

The sunlight arising and how bathes you in the sunlight with the sun. So I'm gonna give you the lyrics so you know what to visualize. That sun can be a smiling face. Anything that will be very personal to you, I want you to see if you can have a special experience of this. And the lyrics goes like this. Oh, what a splendid radiant sun. You can start to visualize that. The sky is so bright after the storm. The clean air makes my spirit so fresh. Oh, what a splendid radiant sun. There is another sun which is even more beautiful. They might be the image of your son. Oh, my son, that is you. Oh, son, oh, my son, that is you.

[37:44]

That is you. And I dedicate this son to my teacher who has always been the son in my life and who has brightened my life and brought hope and faith. Thank you. Oh, God. Oh, God. Oh, God.

[39:05]

Oh, that's the sun. Be this beautiful. Oh, my sun. That's you. Oh, my sun. I hope you saw your son in your mind's eye and feel the inspiration in your life with your great intentions. So thank you so much for coming. For more information, visit sfcc.org and click Giving.

[40:22]

May we fully enjoy the Dharma.

[40:25]

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