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 morning. interested to know how many of you are here for the first time. Welcome. I'm feeling a little out of breath this morning, and I'm not sure what that's about, so we'll see what happens as I start speaking. Some of you may have noticed the rainbow flag that's flying from off the deck here.

[01:13]

Today is, I don't know if it's called Pride Day, but there's the Great Pride Parade in San Francisco. And for the last several years I've participated, and this year, I am giving the Dharma talk here, but I wanted to bring up how is it that Zen Center marches in the Pride Parade and makes a big effort to participate in this. What is pride? What is being an ally? What is our practice? So the word pride has both a negative and a positive connotation.

[02:15]

I think the negative I'm mostly, I was mostly familiar with. Pride as overweening pride where you have an inflated view of your capacity or your status or your looks or your intelligence. and taking pride in that to the point of hubris, maybe. And that kind of pride is one of the, in Christianity, I think one of the seven deadly sins. And in Buddhism, pride in one's spiritual attainments is one of the last afflictions to be, to evaporate. after lots of practice. And then there's this extra thing called pride in it.

[03:17]

So that's the negative parts of pride. So I remember thinking, pride, why are people marching for that? That's something you might want to quiet, study, reflect on, let go of. The positive meaning of pride is consciousness of one's own dignity. Consciousness of one's own dignity. And the negative pride comes from a word that means excessive self-esteem. And There's another root, the French root, which means valiant and brave, or to be of value, or to be of use.

[04:24]

So to have consciousness of one's value, one's dignity, especially in the face of so many years of both internalized what people say or what religions say about who you are or what the society says and then internalizing that so you believe it too. And to get in touch with one's own dignity, one's own Buddha nature, one's compassionate, loving, heart-mind, especially in the face of people saying differently. So that's a reason to march. That's a reason to gather.

[05:28]

I think Gay Pride LGBT community, it's a community-building event, aside from expressing dignity, and joy in being who one is, finding one's place, whatever that is. So it's a positive stance in relation to lots of negativity. Please, thank you. Here comes water in a covered cup. Thank you. So I was thinking about this pride parade and marching and creating community and being allies, standing with and supporting others in their struggles, which I think is our practice in all different parts

[06:42]

our life to stand with people to support people in every way we can and as many of you know this is the 50th anniversary of freedom summer and I don't know if you some of you saw the PBS freedom summer show on TV I don't have a TV but I heard about it on the radio and the There's a particular image, this is another, something that was, I would say, burned into my consciousness when I was little. This wasn't Freedom Summer, this was 1957, the integration of Central High School Little Rock, Arkansas. And I'm sure many of you have seen these pictures, but one in particular is... One of the Little Rock Nine, Elizabeth Eckford.

[07:47]

Elizabeth Eckford didn't have a telephone at her house, and the other eight students carpooled together and arrived at Central High School as a group. But Elizabeth Eckford didn't know about the carpool, and she arrived by herself. And there's the picture of her. She's wearing kind of a summer blouse and belt and a skirt. And she's carrying her notebook. And she's surrounded by the Arkansas National Guard, I think. And then in the assembly on the street are people with faces of such distortion distorted by hate, distorted by ignorance and prejudice. You know this picture, right? It's iconic. I think many people have seen it. And here's Elizabeth, 17 years old, by herself, with her notebook, walking to school, trying to go to school.

[08:59]

And one of the women in the crowd spat on her, and her face... Her eyes are cast down and she's very serious and just walking into this situation. I saw that when I was 10 years old in 1957. I remember that picture and remember thinking, how could she do it? How could she... to be in the center of the fire of hate and aggression and violence, violence. And in reading about her and the other students, they were chosen, particularly they were hand-picked,

[10:03]

for their strength of character and their maturity, and they were vetted that they would be ready to do this, and they had intensive counseling to be ready to withstand this. And, you know, how many of us would be willing to do that or have been in such a situation? I don't know. Maybe some of you have too. And throughout the year, that year that they were integrated into Little Rock Hive, they were harassed and pushed on the stairs. One of the young men and one of the women had acid thrown in her face. And this was a level of violence that is hard to imagine in a sleepy little town, you know. So this mind, this violent, aggressive, hateful, ignorant, this mind is contrasted for me with the mind of the bodhisattva.

[11:25]

The bodhisattva is a being, a sattva, or being that's awakened. And out of this awakening, awakening to the connection with all beings, comes a vow to live and be lived for the benefit of all beings. And I think this vow, I would say, naturally arises out of being exposed to the teaching over and over, but also connecting with one's own the reality of who we are. It might feel like it comes out of the blue in some mysterious way, but it arises from the reality of actually who we are. And this mind of a bodhisattva, in contrast to those faces, those hateful, aggressive faces

[12:35]

is soft mind, pliable mind, flexible mind, ready to listen, to learn, to hear, to respond, ready to let go of one's ideas, ready to let go of body and mind, if need be. And this mind of kindness and compassion is the mind that Even those people in the crowd with those faces of hate, those faces of hate are conditioned. That's taught. That kind of hate is taught. Even such deep-seated ignorance is not our original nature.

[13:40]

This is condition. This is karmic consciousness. And it is moving and not set in cement. But there are tendencies that make it very difficult to change, as we all know how difficult it is to change, change our minds, change our way of thinking. but it's possible. So in Japanese, there's a word, nyu, [...] shin, which is this soft, pliable mind. And the more we practice, the more we're in touch with that mind, and the smoother and more mature and flexible our minds become. And this is our Zazen practice in action, the smooth, mature way of being with each thing that arises, not pushing things away, not holding on to things, not rigidly sticking to things, but flexible and

[15:05]

light. And along with that flexible and light mind comes kindness and compassion. This is the practice mind. This is the mind. This is Zazen mind. There's a chapter in the Lotus Sutra about a particular bodhisattva whose practice was the opposite of those people who surrounded Elizabeth Edford and many, many other people for years and still do surround beings with hatred. And this bodhisattva's name was Never Disparage. That was his name. And his practice was to respect beings.

[16:11]

And the respect that he showed them, he also said, I bow to you, future awakened ones, future Buddhas. Because the understanding in the Lotus Sutra and in the teachings of the great vehicle, are that all beings, without exception, have or are awakened, are awakened mind. And so this bodhisattva, this practitioner, would bow to each person and say, I bow to you, future Buddha. I bow to you, future Buddha. I completely respect you, future Buddha. And the people at the time that he was practicing were really annoyed with this guy, like, could you please leave me alone? You don't even know me.

[17:13]

What are you bowing to me? Go, get away from me. I don't like this. And he kept bowing. I bow to you, future Buddha. And then they began throwing things at him. These particular practitioners really were annoyed. It's like some new person who walks into Green Gulch and starts bowing to everybody. You kind of wonder what was going on. They began throwing pot shards at him. And so he would run away outside of range and then say, I bow to you, future Buddha, from a safe spot. He never stopped. He just kept on with his practice of complete respect, complete bowing, and acknowledging all beings as having awakened mind. And when he was right about to die, he had this vision in the firmament of the Lotus Sutra being taught, and the Lotus Sutra which teaches this, and he then lived for

[18:28]

This is the Lotus Sutra story, which is sort of a fantastic story sometimes. And then he lived on for eons doing this one practice of bowing and showing respect. That was his whole practice. And basically saying to people, I love you. I love you. Whether they wanted to hear it or not, you know, that was his practice. And eventually all those people who threw pots at him and stuff kind of came around to understand what a deep, practice this was, never disparaging. So this mind that loves all beings, no matter what they do, even if they throw things at you. And I think I read an interview about the Central High School Nine, and one of these young people was told by her mother about the crowd and the little girl, the young girl asked, why are they acting this way?

[19:40]

And her mother said, they were not brought up right. They were not taught. And so you have to have compassion for them. You have to feel sorry for them, I think is what her mother said, that they're thinking in this way. That was, to me, that was like, such a wide, wide, deep attitude. They're acting that way because of their karmic life, meaning they were taught. And they took it on. Not everybody does take it on, this way of thinking. So kind of forgive them or feel sorry for them. Forgive them. because they can't help it. So the bodhisattva never disparaged. Nothing stopped him.

[20:41]

He just kept bowing and paying respect. One might ask oneself, as soon as somebody insults me, that's it. They're off my list of friends. Or how do we understand when someone treats us cursorily or insults us or is not respectful? How do we work with that? How do we practice with it? How do we metabolize it in our own bodies? Because it's painful. It's painful. It's not that doesn't matter. We experience it. We have a response of pain. How do we work with that and stay with it? Recently somebody told me that they confessed that they, this is a practitioner, that they, I think they used the word hate, which kind of gave me a little shiver, that they hated somebody.

[21:55]

And hate, in this context, men actually wished for not nice things to happen to that person, wished harm on them, wished that they would suffer as much as I suffered for something that happened. And I did feel a kind of shiver, like if this person was actively wishing for harm for someone or that they suffer, what was that doing to their body-mind, you know? How did that affect their consciousness? How did that affect... This is karmic activity. This is the karma of thinking. And that creates a shape of the mind that changes the shape. You could call it a shape of consciousness. And I was worried, you know. So this is a question for each of us. When we are insulted, when we are overlooked,

[23:01]

when we are disregarded, all those things that we feel has happened, whatever the experience is, when there's disappointment, how do we practice with that? How do we find our feet, our body, allow ourselves to feel what we feel and metabolize it and understand it? This is part of this soft mind this flexible, mature, and smooth mind of practice. But we can't skip over that that hurt. We have to take care of that. We have to have compassion for ourselves when that hurts, when something hurts. So these are

[24:01]

This is precept life. Our precepts are, you could say, how this mind, this kind, flexible, soft, mature, smooth mind, how it functions. What does it look like when it's fully functioning? And you could say it looks like the precepts are being observed, the precepts of not killing, not taking what is not given, not misusing sexuality, not lying, not intoxicating ourselves with substances of all kinds, including ideas and our own puffed-up pride in our accomplishments. That could be an intoxicant. Not slandering others or speaking of others' faults. Not being possessive of material goods or the Dharma or anything, and not harboring ill will, and not disparaging the teacher, the Buddha, the awakened one, who's sometimes called the doctor, not disparaging the Dharma or the teachings of the Buddha or the medicine

[25:28]

the doctor kind of diagnoses what's going on, which is ignorance and basically ignorance and all the actions that flow from ignorance. That's the disease, you might say. And then the dharma, or the teaching, is the medicine to study the self, study our actions, study the details of our life. how we think, what we say, how we act. And then the not disparaging, the sangha. The sangha is the community of practitioners, and in the analogy of the doctor and the medicine, the sangha are the nurses. And nurses, back in the day, you know, There wasn't like going to school to be a nurse.

[26:31]

All your family and friends, everybody nursed each other and took care of the sick at home. There wasn't nurses' college. Everybody nursed one another, helped each other. So that's good friends, nurses that help us as we, you know, study what the malady is here. come back into alignment with health. So these precepts, those are the ten, you could say, grave precepts or major precepts, are how this kind, compassionate mind functions. Functions like that. And the word precept means to take... And I think we can say about precepts that precepts hearken back to or point to the way things are, the reality of our existence together.

[27:44]

Precepts already function. That's the way things function, actually. The other precepts are the taking refuge in Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha, taking refuge in awakened mind, taking refuge in the fact that we're not separate from awakened mind. There's no separation. And the harmony between beings, the fundamental harmony, and Those are the first three precepts or the refuges. And then the three pure precepts are about embracing and sustaining all the actions of body, speech, and mind that gather wholesome activities that help our liberation, help us to study the self even more

[28:54]

Embracing and sustaining right conduct are all the different forms of our life and rituals and ceremonies of living together, which we have. Embracing and sustaining wholesomeness and embracing and sustaining all beings. These are all the precepts, and they're a description of actually the reality of our existence together. together is extra, the reality of existence. So, the precepts refer back to that which is. And it's up to us to realize this for ourselves. And we realize that that which is is formless and ungraspable

[30:01]

and non-abiding. However, each of us in our own unique life has a chance to express this. We have to express this, because this is the reality of how we exist together, how we exist. So we express it in all our actions, the details of our life, rather than, well, it's all We're all one man, so we don't have to do anything. Instead, it's because we exist in this way together, we have to be impeccable with our thinking and speaking and actions. I wanted to tell a Zen story that expresses this, or... I don't know if it expresses this.

[31:01]

It reminds me of this teaching. And this is a story about a Zen master, Chinese Zen master in the 800s, I think 803 to 888. His name was Shishuang. And he was practicing at Mount Gui with Guishan. Guishan means is the Zen master named after the mountain that he was practicing on, Guishan. And Shi Shuang was practicing and given a job in the kitchen, which is traditional monastic work, working in the kitchen. And one day he was working in the kitchen, washing rice, sorting rice, getting the rice ready, preparing rice for the meal. And the abbot, Guishan, came into the kitchen. And he said to Shishuang, don't lose or scatter about the gifts from our donors.

[32:10]

The rice and the food is donated to the monastery from donors. And the abbot said, don't lose that, don't throw it around, scatter it around. And Shishuang said, I'm not scattering around the donors' gifts. And Guishan looked down on the ground and picked up one grain of rice. And he said, you said you're not scattering, throwing things around? What's this? And Shishuang was silent. And then Guishan said, do not forget, 100,000 rice plants can come from this one grain. And Shishuang said, said, 100,000 rice plants might come from this one grain, but where does that one grain come from? And this is a Zen joke. And Guishan got it.

[33:14]

He got the joke. He laughed and headed out of the kitchen. Later that night, I think he was giving a Dharma talk, and he said, There's an insect in the rice in the kitchen. You should all go talk to him. So this story, I've always loved this story, but just recently in studying the precepts, and studying the precepts over and over and over and over, this story hit me. in a different way. So on the one hand, this is my commentary on the story. If I was there, I don't know what I'd say, but what I'm saying to you now is the teaching of being impeccable with our activity, the details of our life.

[34:16]

You drop one grain of rice. One grain of rice. Do you understand what one grain is? One grain is the entire universe is there. And the zillions of rice plants come from this. How can you waste that? Where is your mind? Aren't you expressing the truth of our life together? How could you? Not only that, but donors gave this to us. And you're careless. What kind of a practitioner are you? Wake up! Here it is, this one grain. So that's, yes, and that's very, I'm very, I'm struck by that. That gives me, that encourages me to practice hard, to not waste anything, to turn off the water when I brush my teeth, to whatever I can, because that's not being a good girl. That's an expression of

[35:17]

the reality of existence. One grain of rice. And that's one side. And that's practicing the precepts thoroughly, conscientiously, with full body and mind. But that's not the end of the story. Then you've got shh. strong saying okay i get it yes that you're right one grain i you're right and yes a gazillion plants could come from that but where did this one guy come from which when i say it's a zen joke it's um At the very same time as this point about impeccability and the details of our life and grounded in the conventional life that we share, that we are together, there's also the formless, the ungraspable, the mysterious, the formless.

[36:32]

Where did this come from? Can you say? Nobody can say. Not even the 10,000 sages can say where that one grain came from. It's beyond our understanding where that one grain arose from. And at the very same time, that one grain, we take care of it, we cook it, we plant it, we put our effort into thoroughly taking care. And at the exact same time, it's beyond our understanding what it really is. And to be able to sit in the middle of that with smooth, flexible, kind, soft, new shin, mind, heart, I can't even say what that is.

[37:45]

When we practice Sazen and directly experience our life beyond our conception of what this life is, we grow and flourish in this way. And then the actions that flow from that are not by trying to help anybody, not by thinking, oh, I'm going to help you by doing this. That actually gets in the way. That actually doesn't help anybody if we have in mind, I'm going to help you now. Let's see what I can do to help you. That's extra. Just responding completely. with the fullness of our life.

[38:58]

Someone might say, that was so helpful, but it's already over, it doesn't matter anyway, because we're not attached to, ooh, I really helped in that time, didn't I? And I have pride in that. It's just living our life fully. Where is my watch here? Did I take it out of my sleeve? I hear the Eno telling me things. So the actions that flow from this mind are actions that inspire and help beings, you know, year after year, thousands of years, the stories are told and retold. But the person who did the action, they weren't trying to help anybody.

[40:02]

They were responding completely. Now, right now, what's arising in me is the kind of wish to tell one more story. But I know that at the end of a lecture, when that comes up, when that sort of, oh, I want to tell one more story, It's a good time to stop because it's extra. And I'll tell it another time. Maybe I'll tell it in Q&A. I'm very familiar with that. Thank you very much. Please help us to continue to realize and actualize the practice of giving by offering your financial support.

[41:08]

For more information, visit sfzc.org and click Giving. May we fully enjoy the Dharma.

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