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. So may all beings be happy and may they be joyous, live in safety, in high or middle or low realms of existence. May all beings be happy. I find it personally encouraging and sometimes even inspiring to read this, to recite this. This wish of happiness for all existence, a happiness which includes ourselves but is not just about ourselves, it includes others. absolutely includes others.

[01:00]

This is basic to the nature of our human mind and to our practice intention. This is how reality is when not obstructed. But first, good morning everybody. Welcome to the San Francisco Zen Center. Welcome to this Saturday morning Dharma Talk. And my name is Jordan Thorne. I'm the Tanto here at City Center. Maybe some of you know this and others don't. And maybe some of you don't know what Tanto means. And sometimes I don't, but I'll just say it. It's one of those Japanese words which we've brought into... American practice life because there's not a single English word that kind of approximates it maybe it's called I might be called head of practice but except that makes me feel blush

[02:16]

I don't speak Japanese, but I believe the tan of tanto relates to the meditation platforms in the meditation hall. Those are called tans. And so the tanto is the toe of the tans. And so the question is, what does the toe mean? I think it's something like the head of the tans. Anyway, so that's what I do here. And... And what do all of you do here? Well, you're here to listen to my talk, which happens because it's Saturday. And it also happens because there's a one-day sitting today. Today's talk kind of does a little bit of double duty. It's a one-day sitting. It's a Saturday. And it also is kind of... This is triple duty. It's the kickoff to a six-week practice period.

[03:22]

And this practice period theme is... compassion and the Brahmavihara teachings of Buddhism. Hence the loving-kindness sutra introduction chant that we did. So reason number one for this talk is it's Saturday. And reason number two, well, is to introduce the theme of the practice period. The Brahma Vaharas are four noble abodes of existence. And just very briefly I'm going to say there. Loving kindness, or metta. Compassion, otherwise known as karuna. Sympathetic joy, mudita. And equanimity, which is upekka. Those are the four Brahma Vaharas.

[04:25]

And all along, from even a month or longer ago when I knew that I was going to give the talk today, that was what I was going to talk about. But I have to also say there's something else that has reared its head or reared up right in front of me. Something that happened last week, which is that Osama bin Laden was killed. and um and for me this has been a kind of a challenge for various reasons this country i live in which i am grateful for has killed the enemy which is kind of an old story and something has been stewing. I finally felt like I couldn't just talk about the loving kindness because it's such a sweet thing, you know.

[05:37]

I needed also to talk about the national catharsis that came, I saw, in the news, in the papers, that resulted from an act of violence. A very tricky thing for me. I'm going to come, I have more to say. So this place here is a Buddhist temple. It's kind of a special environment. And a place like this is dedicated to not killing. You know, amongst the community that practices here, I think that not everyone is a vegetarian.

[06:43]

But there's complete agreement that this is a vegetarian home. This is the kind of place where we respect life. And my mind goes back to something that happened a few years ago. It was prior to the Memorial Day holiday. Actually, I talked about this at that holiday because I coincidentally was giving the Dharma dog that weekend. And what happened was that the front office, in their search to find an appropriate sign to post on the front door that would be closed that weekend, maybe using Microsoft Publisher or something like that, typed in Memorial Day, and there were a bunch of templates of cards or announcements. And the one that was put up on the front door showed flags waving because, as maybe you all know, Memorial Day is a kind of holiday that commemorates.

[07:48]

It's a memorial to soldiers, fallen U.S. soldiers. And I... in my innocence, you know, walked up to the front door and I saw a little poster of flags and an announcement. And I thought, oh. And I spoke to the office about it. I felt, well, in some way, I think that San Francisco Zen Center is a place outside of the national boundaries of the U.S. I don't know if, you know. The planning department agrees. But in my heart it is. And so I asked the office if they couldn't find something else. And I guess if you're looking in Microsoft Publisher, you've got a choice of either flags or gravestones. And so...

[08:51]

She showed me, the person in the office showed me a little announcement with gravestones, and I thought, yeah, that hits the spot. That's kind of like, you know, that's naming it. And also, that's what we're here for, this temple. So, you know, I said a second ago, like, I think that San Francisco Zen Center which is in San Francisco, in California, in the United States, is also outside of all of that. And there's a long tradition of churches or sacred spiritual spots being sanctuaries, being a refuge. I think... I don't know if this is true anywhere now, but I think there was a time when, for instance, in English law, which is... gave so much precedent to our U.S.

[09:54]

law and English law that if you were within the confines of your church, you couldn't be arrested. That's not true now. So putting this tombstone, gravestone, on the front door. It made sense to me, not because I actually think we ought to celebrate death or commemorate it in that particular way, but actually really because what Zen Center needs to be is a place that's of help to the living. And we need to be ready in our life for everything that happens. And one of the things that happens in our life that we're often not ready for is that we will die.

[10:56]

This fact is a great mystery, a challenge. Blanche, before Lou passed away, your dear husband, did he write a death poem? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Ralph. I appreciate... There is in the Zen tradition, I think, also, or actually in Buddhist tradition, maybe in other spiritual traditions, precedent for writing a poem before you pass away.

[12:26]

If you have the good fortune to be aware that this is impending. Which is actually a good fortune to know that. And we all actually should know it. We all do know it, but we don't really think about it. anyway actually just about not everything but much of what I've said in the last 5 or 10 minutes or 15 minutes has been a kind of a dodge has been a kind of softening Because I have a confession to make. This is my confession. On Sunday night, when I heard that Osama bin Laden had been taken and killed, my first reaction was, yes.

[13:36]

I was actually kind of thrilled. thought justice. And then it just got so much more complicated in my mind. So there is a teaching in Buddhism about loving kindness, about compassion, empathetic joy, equanimity, These are known as the Brahma Vaharas, and I'm supposed to be studying them. I am studying them. I'm thinking about them. I had the feeling, I have the feeling sometimes, that they've transformed me, that they've helped me. And meanwhile, on Sunday night, I felt something that I don't think I didn't expect.

[14:48]

This is kind of my colon. I feel like I have to say it. I have to say it. Each of us, I think, pretty sure of this, each of us live our lives with ourselves in the center of it. And so this is my story. And I know each of you have your own stories. My story is on Sunday night, I was on my computer writing an email about something. And then a little chat window in the program opened up and a friend of mine said, are you watching the news? I thought, what? You know, it's 9.20, or whatever time it was. No, I'm not watching it. I said, why? And my friend said, Osama bin Laden has been killed.

[15:58]

Or maybe, I think, maybe Osama bin Laden has been killed at that point. And I have a kind of quick link to the New York Times website and I clicked on it and my computer froze it didn't get through you know I'd nothing it made no progress so I did it again and it didn't go through and I thought something is happening that lots of people are checking about and I turned the TV on and And the TV was wild. TV news was wild with stories and commentators and live-action shots of plazas in Washington and New York City and Ground Zero.

[17:06]

And then I listened to President Barack Obama, Barack Hussein Obama, say what had happened. I listened to it. And then I saw something, because the cameras went outside of the White House, and what I saw was a large crowd gathered, and they were waving flags. And I thought, I remembered Memorial Day here. You know, I remembered what I felt. When I grew up, we burned the flag. That was kind of like where my friends were at. I remember when I was a teenager, I went to Hialeah Racetrack because Jimi Hendrix was playing a concert there. And Jimi Hendrix had on a pair of U.S.

[18:18]

flag pants. And I'd never for a moment mistook that for patriotism. And there was a crowd. And you know, I heard them saying, USA, USA, waving their flags. And I remembered what I felt when I heard that this zealot, this martyr, this father and husband had been killed. I remembered, it was just moments ago, I remembered the way in which I was waving a flag. You know, it's kind of, well, we are all of us entangled with this mess in different ways. And a strange entanglement that I have

[19:20]

which I doubt anybody could... No one's going to guess. Maybe you would. But was it nearly 10 years ago, on the very first Saturday after the 9-11 bombings, I was scheduled to give the Dharma talk in this room. I gave the Dharma talk. It wasn't because I raised my hand and said, I want to talk about this tragedy that just happened. I was, you know... I was on the slate. And then I had to... And back then, as well, I had already figured out what I wanted to talk about, and it was a beautiful talk, and I don't remember what it was going to be for. But then I had to throw it away, because, you know, how could I not talk about 9-11? And then nine years later, ten years later, once again, you know, I'm just on the calendar. And then... This guy, Osama bin Laden, makes me jettison another talk.

[20:20]

But he didn't make me do that. The whole world of co-dependent co-origination stuff made this happen. When... various things, various memories come up, came up for me on that Sunday night, last Sunday night. My daughter, Lizzie, went to a Waldorf school. And in the Waldorf school, you have the same school teacher from, like, first to eighth grade. Kind of an amazing thing. But she didn't start in the first grade, she started in the fourth grade. Her teacher in the fourth... fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth grade was Liz Bevan, a wonderful teacher. And Liz Bevan's husband was on one of the planes that crashed.

[21:25]

And I heard, because my daughter was at that school on that day, I heard about how Miss Bevan's got word how the school stopped. This was in Sacramento, California. And Liz Bevins and Alan Bevins' son was the star pitcher of the high school baseball team that my son played on. And he I left school for a few weeks and then came back. And I wondered what they felt on Sunday night. And I heard another thing watching the news.

[22:40]

I've kind of worn it through now. I don't go home and turn on CNN anymore, at least the last few days. But on Monday I did, and Tuesday I kind of couldn't resist. I was just, I was like trying to understand this thing that had happened and how it had affected me. And I heard on the TV one of those gray-suited eminences, you know, that pontificate on a panel and... And he was making a point about how the Republicans and Democrats were spinning this thing that had happened in ways to... Republicans saying, well, it's all due to the policies of George Bush, etc., you know, and Democrats were... And he said, this is not a time for partisan politics. This is a time for patriotism. And I thought, is there anything more partisan than patriotism?

[23:41]

LAUGHTER It's the kind of meta-patriotism, partisanship. And that was so apparent to me, but it clearly wasn't apparent to this gentleman. And, you know, to some extent, history is written by those who prevail. So... Well, a form of history is written that way. In 1776, or 75 or 77, back then, when the American revolutionaries seceded from Britain, George Washington and the entire commanding structure of the

[24:43]

Revolutionary Army was branded terrorists and put on a death list by the English Army. They had their death lists then with Ben Franklin and Thomas Jefferson and George Washington. We have our death lists with, you know, Anwar al-Laki or Osama bin Laden or I don't know all the names. And for someone For some other persons, those are the heroes. And we're the British Army. That's not the truth. But also, those death lists aren't the truth either. And so we're in the midst of a one-day sitting.

[25:54]

I believe in my heart that sitting zazen is the practice of returning to kindness, that sitting zazen is the way for us to nurture loving-kindness and equanimity and all those good things that we need to nurture. When we sit in Zazen, well, we do lots of different things. Everybody does what they do. But when some people sit in Zazen, they make an effort to let go. And this letting go needs to be really thorough going. We don't just let go of the bad stuff and kind of keep the groovy things. We need to actually find out what it's like to let go.

[27:08]

One interesting, I think, subtlety to investigate when you're sitting as a person is if you have a pleasant sensation arise, which sometimes happens. like this endorphin thing. You go for a long jog, you feel kind of, you're sitting as us, and sometimes some things come up. If you, at the moment, you notice that those positive state is happening, let go of it. I mean this sincerely. Don't, you know, it is itself a distraction and a kind of like taking you away from the way things are. This is what I think is maybe meant when we say about Zen practice that it's called taking the backward step.

[28:15]

This is how in our Zen family school we learn about ourself. This is how we learn about our no self. This is how we enter into a house of kindness. Well, there's a bunch of things I personally appreciate about Buddhism. Clearly, look, here I am sitting. And one of them is, this is my sense, is that Buddhism is not a teaching or religion that's based on locality. Not like we don't have a metta or a Jerusalem. We respect the birthplace of Buddha, the awakening place of Buddha. But when we bow to our cushion before sitting down, we circle the spot where we're standing.

[29:22]

We bow to and we bow away and then we continue and close the circle. Then we sit down Our effort of training is to be where we are, to discover what an extraordinary spot that is. There's a collection of koans called The Book of Serenity. Case number 47, a monk asked great master Joshu, he said, what is the living meaning of Buddhism? And Joshu replied, the cypress tree in the yard. Another anecdote.

[30:35]

from the Blue Cliff Record this time. Case 23. Once, two friends, Pao Fu and Chang Ching, were wandering in the mountains. And Pao Fu pointed with his hand and said, right here is the summit of the mystic peak. Right here is the summit of the mystic peak. And his friend, Chen Qing replied, indeed it is. What a pity. You know, they're very great, venerable ancestors that we respect, and also they were having fun. What a pity. The commentary to this mystic peak story, anecdote, koan, case, actually not the commentary, but the kind of opening verse, says, jewels are tested with fire.

[31:46]

Gold is tested with a stone. A sword is tested with a hair. In the school of the patch-robed monks, in one word, one phrase, one act, one state, one exit, one entry, one encounter, one response, You must see whether someone is deep or shallow. You must see whether someone is facing forwards or backwards. We're not just in one spot. Sometimes we face forwards and sometimes backwards and sometimes we're lost. Something happens and we're lost. We jump in the stream and we just have swept away. I hope that when I get lost that I can find myself.

[32:54]

And I hope the same for all of you, for all of us. May all beings be happy. May they know an increase in joy, a growth in wisdom. May loving kindness and compassion and sympathetic joy, which also means sympathetic pain and equanimity be a part of our lives, because I think if they are, This will help us to find ourselves over and over. So thank you very much for being here on a Saturday so that I can give this Saturday Dharma talk.

[34:03]

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

[34:29]

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