Good morning. Can you hear me in the back? Okay. The great way is not difficult for those who have no preferences. That's the first line of the Xin Xin Ming. So it says, the great way is not difficult for those who have no preferences. When love and hate are both absent, the mind is clear and undisguised. Let the slightest distinction arise, however, in heaven and earth.

[01:02]

are set infinitely apart. So there are many ways to misunderstand these opening lines, and I want to explore some of them this morning. It's a good time here at the cusp of summer, summer solstice coming up in a week to take stock. Maybe renew intention for the summer. Are you going to be living the great way this summer? Are you gonna be living Sometimes it says, there are various translations, but the great way is not difficult for those not attached to preferences or those not involved in picking and choosing.

[02:15]

Now, just as I said that, I was reminded this morning, I woke up, first thing I noticed is I have a sore throat and a headache. I thought, well, this is just great. I'm gonna be talking about no preferences. And I had to admit that I had a preference not to have a sore throat. And not to have a headache, and not to have a sore throat and a headache, and then I had a preference not to have that thought. So immediately, I had something to work with today. So this refers to a great way, great way. What is a great way? Suzuki Roshi talked about undivided original way.

[03:20]

Very important, most important is to not lose sight of the undivided, original way. So he's talking about the enlightened practice of the Buddhas throughout history. Or is he? Where is origin? It's important to know that origin is not sometime in the distant past. Origin is right now. Undivided original way is this moment. And there may be a tendency to idealize undivided original way or great way or some idea of not having preferences.

[04:22]

So very kindly, Suzuki Roshi gave this simple teaching that I... I have to remember, I have to recall again and again saying that Buddhism, the essence of Buddhism, is to accept what is as it is and help it to be its best. So how does to accept what is as it is and then the next part, to help it to be its best work with? no preferences. Preferences, I think, are a very big deal. And I think it's part of our American cultural tendency to identify with our preferences. This great way practice of great way would cut through

[05:31]

or dissolve just like soap dissolves grease, right? Cuts through the preferential mind. Preferential mind is supported by all the many ways in which we think we know who we are, defined by our preferences. You know, what's your favorite color? What's your favorite food? And we have supermarkets. They're super because they offer so many choices, right? And you can pick out your preference unless your preference is not to be in a supermarket. So I think it's important to look at the context in which we're in which we are making or not making some preferences.

[06:40]

So there's a story of Suzuki Roshi. Early at the time, he was at Sakoji Temple in Japantown, San Francisco. And he... I think was kind of just getting established there. This was pretty early, I think, 1959, 1960. And Soen Nakagawa was a Rinzai Zen teacher stopping by to visit. They had in common that they both wanted to bring Zen teaching, bring Dharma teaching to Americans, to Westerners. And so I think there were three people there. Suzuki Roshi and then Dr. Kato, who was assisting at the temple, and so on Nakagawa. And so he came, and as traditionally, he came in and they offered incense at the altar, and then together they chanted the Heart Sutra.

[07:51]

And after chanting the Heart Sutra, so on Nakagawa, Roshi went up and looked at some of the things on the altar, And he picked up a sutra book that was there and looked at it a moment. And then he tore it in two and threw it on the floor saying, this is not Zen. So Suzuki Yoshi quietly bent over and started picking up the pieces. And he said, well, this was... a sutra book that was donated on the occasion of a memorial service for a woman who belonged to a different sect, but that's not represented here. So we did a memorial service here, and we accept everything here. We chant everything. We eat everything. There was this pause, and then Siddhika Rashi said, let's go have a cup of tea.

[08:56]

So to me, this is emblematic of this practice of not having preferences, of accepting what is as it is. Now, many people would prefer to have their guests behave. And actually, I've known people who, for years, have carried a kind of, you know, a painful attitude towards someone who treated them rudely, right? It's difficult for each of us to receive kind of an insult like that, to receive the insult and work with it with some complete acceptance, some gracefulness. not being caught up in some other idea, some idea, oh, well, this shouldn't be happening.

[10:03]

So in investigating how I myself am involved in preferences, it's helpful to me to review whether I'm in good relationship with the things around me. and a good relationship with the people around me. This morning I was driving here from Sonoma County, and I took up an old practice that I hadn't used for a while, but I used to teach in a workshop on driving with awareness. The practice of being in good relationship with myself to begin with. Meaning that I take good care of myself while I'm sitting in the car. So paying attention to my posture. I take good care of myself, first relationship.

[11:14]

Next relationship, I take good care of the car. Paying attention to its needs, reflecting, you know, Is there anything that this vehicle needs? And in this there's a sense of appreciation, of some gratitude. And then, oh good. This is good for the throat. Warm licorice tea. I wish you could all have some. There'll be some other tea with the muffins out there after this talk. Oh yes, driving. Good relation with the car, and then good relation with the road.

[12:17]

A sense of being on the path and taking care of the path, even though it's an asphalt highway. If you're on a trail, like hiking in the woods or walking around Tassajara or something, you might take care of the trail by moving rocks aside and breaking back some twigs that are overgrown the trail. So some of that feeling, a feeling of taking care as someone drives along. And then the next part was taking good care of All drivers on the road. And as I was doing this, this red Saturn came rushing up beside me while another car was approaching on the merging entry to the freeway.

[13:19]

And I thought, oh, how do I... I'm taking good care of all drivers on the road, even the ones who aren't taking such good care of me or each other or themselves. So I had to kind of hit the brakes and let this guy fit in in front of me so the other car could come in. It was just one of those split-second events that happen a thousand times a day. But since I was reflecting on... my own relationship with all drivers on the road, I noticed my tendency to be a little irritated. And I noticed the tendency for that to go into my body as a kind of tension. And I noticed that there was, underneath that, there was a kind of fear. Oh, this is really dangerous. So what does it mean to not have, to be attached to or in

[14:22]

in preferences in a situation like that. Taking up the teaching of Shinri Suzuki to accept what is as it is, I think is a clue to this practice. And another wonderful phrase of his was to welcome difficulty. I know in the transcribing his talks, sometimes it wasn't so clear whether he said, welcome difficulty. He said, welcome, work on difficulty. And someone transcribed it, work on difficulty. And then we're going back again and reviewing it. Actually, no, he actually said, welcome difficulty.

[15:24]

So in the great way, it's not difficult for those who have no preferences. What do you do when you do have difficulty? You are discovering then that you're someone who does have preferences. Whatever that difficulty is, is a discovery. Ah, okay, this tells me something about who this is, what's going on here. So the practice of being in good relation is to attend to the difficulty. Whatever it may be. So this morning for me, difficulty, sore throat. Oh, okay. It took me a few seconds to appreciate. Oh, I'm so grateful for this sore throat. This is something that tells me that I'm a limited being. That things are changing. That this body is not the body of yesterday. This is the body today. How to take care.

[16:26]

So the next part, then, how to help this body be its best. So for me, then, that meant immediately going and taking some wellness formula, which is supports the immune system. So it gives some strength to this body. We'll see how it goes through the day. And I'm sipping this tea. So welcoming difficulty means to work with what arises. It means to work with what arises against, but with not losing sight of the great way, not losing sight of the background in which there are no things. In the great way, to say that in the great way there are

[17:30]

no difficulties, is really to say that there are no things. There are no separations. There are no individuals who are feeling alienated from each other. So to take up this practice then of being in relationship with the phenomenal world, all the things, means that you attend to what arises and help it be what it is, help it be its best. So when you have an encounter, like Suzuki Roshi with Soa and Natakawa, how to help that situation. first notice the tension that comes up.

[18:34]

Oh, this is not so easy. Now the more that I'm involved, let's say in the example of the driver in the road, the more I'm involved in muttering to myself about the other driver, the more that clouds this mind. So the second line of the Xin Xin Ming, by the way, Xin Xin Ming, for those of you who are not familiar, there's two xins. One xin means a mind or heart, heart-mind. The other xin means trust or faith, a trust in mind, a trust in heart, a faith in big mind. Big mind, which is not just the mind that separates. So one notices, you know, in this case, noticing the mind that identifies sore throat, noticing the mind that can begin to criticize, oh, this shouldn't be happening, and actually to appreciate that as also, that's also an expression of big mind.

[19:55]

So being in relation with this body is like that. Then being in relation with other bodies, other people, is quite similar, right? It's so similar because we're not actually separate. And it's also being in relation to Earth itself. In relation to the elements, Earth, which sometimes can be regarded as a nourishing substrata. Or Earth can be regarded as something bare, but having a lot of potentiality. That the Earth, a gardener, a farmer, would look at the Earth as having tremendous potential for nourishment. and be interested in.

[21:03]

I think here, working with the garden and the farm at Green Goats, we're interested in taking care of the earth itself. Of course, we do plant particular crops at particular times, according to the season. But none of that would be possible without taking care of the earth itself. So taking care of one's big mind, big heart, trusting big mind and big heart is like taking care of earth itself. Of course, then, you also take care of the individual phenomena that arise, but not losing sight of the basic fundamental nourishment. So, yeah, I think if we, as a as individuals pay attention to this, that's so important, so helpful.

[22:09]

And then if we as a sangha, if we as a community pay attention to this, then the benefit extends more broadly. So this is a challenge, I'd say, I'm offering a challenge or an invitation to each of you to consider that your life can be the life of the great way. That your life is the life already. It's already the life of the great way. And to notice then that since your life is the life of the great way, that naturally you want to take up the practices of the great way. So you naturally want to take up the practice of welcoming difficulty. Even though there's a part of you that says, no way. Why would I welcome difficulty?

[23:13]

That's exactly what I don't want, right? I don't want difficulty. So it's turning from the life of that smaller mind, the small mind, to what we call life of vow. Life of vow is... Remembering that you are not just a small individual separate person. That your life is big life. And your vow then includes this big mind. Includes knowing that you're not separate from everything. Knowing that the earth, the fire, the sunlight, the air, the water, is all inside you. It's knowing that you really cannot be satisfied by small preferences.

[24:13]

And so you can see through the kind of the propaganda that offers small preferences as solutions to your deep feeling, your deep request. when Suzuki Roshi was beginning to have various students come and sit with him at Sakoji Temple, and there was a young priest from Japan who came and began to assist him, and this was Kadigiri, Dainin Kadigiri. And when he came, he was, He was kind of excited about the work that Suzuki Roshi was doing. And he wanted to do it too, so he joined Suzuki Roshi, started meeting with students. But then I, this is a story I've heard, that he, after a day of serving as a priest and meeting with various students, would go back and cry because

[25:35]

He didn't like the students. He didn't like the students. So many of them were rude. So many of them came in to this temple with a kind of a casual attitude. Or they didn't. They didn't bathe. They were dirty. Some of them just came into the temple without just even the basic practices of what Katagiri felt were just taking care of yourself so you're presentable. So that was very difficult. So he would go back and And face his own difficulty.

[26:37]

Face his difficulty in the light of his vow. Because he knew that he had taken the vow. The vow to awaken with all beings. Not just the ones who are presentable. To actually be willing to work with whoever shows up. Which was what Suzuki Roshi was doing. Accepting everything here. So over time, his vow worked so that students, when I got to know him, I never noticed that he didn't like me. So maybe he didn't like me. Maybe he liked me, maybe he didn't like me, but maybe he... he could see that a place in him that was deeper than preference was willing to work with a place in me that was deeper than preference.

[27:49]

So he helped me to sit upright, correcting my posture and confessing his own limitations, confessing the challenge that he had in welcoming difficulty. So I'm gonna recommend a practice. It's kind of an arbitrary practice. I recommended it to some people recently and it's a practice of of saying thank you. Usually we say thank you when we receive something we like. And we usually think of, we usually don't notice that we're receiving something all the time.

[28:55]

Every moment. The arising of this moment is something that we receive. So this practice of thank you then is to is to open up your heart and say thank you to whatever's arising in this moment. Now it helps you to, if you take up this practice, to begin right away. Begin right now. And then to think of how you go through your day And to think that each moment of the day where there's some significant kind of transition, you're entering something new or it's pretty obvious. That will help you notice that actually every moment is something new. But when it's obvious, like you go from one room to another, you can say thank you to the room.

[30:02]

Thank you for being here. This is a wonderful, this is a space I can step into. But then there may be an obstruction in the room. There may be another person in the way. Oh, well, get out of the way. Oh, no. Thank you. And then you begin to notice how many times I make a decision, oh, that this is an obstruction. So then what is an obstruction then becomes viewed as something to appreciate. So you may trip over something. Oh, thank you to the threshold. Helping me see that I have these wonderful feet. Clumsy, whatever. In the morning, waking up. First thing.

[31:03]

First thought. Thank you. Getting up. What is the feeling of this... the mind that is arising as you get up in the morning. What's the feeling of this mind? Whatever it is, to say thank you. When you, you know, the first person you meet, if you live in a house with someone else, you may, here at Green Gulch, you immediately see someone. Thank you. For what, you know? Thank you for, we have the phrase, making my day. Thank you for making, my day is already made. Why is it already made? Because this universe, this universe would be incomplete without you. It's my universe. I'm the boss.

[32:05]

I'm in charge of this universe. Everything in it is my universe. Thank you for being a part of it. And I said to someone, well, you know, if you live alone and you go out the door, the first person that you meet in the street, you know, thank you. And later someone came up to me and said, I'm really worried about if someone, I go up and I just say to a perfect stranger, say thank you, like, what are they going to do? And I said, well, you can do it internally. You can internally say thank you. Because you're right, it might be confusing to someone if this stranger just comes up and says thank you. On the other hand, it might be a wonderful moment. But to have that attitude, that feeling, is the feeling of when we bow to each other.

[33:08]

So this is a tradition that we've inherited in which at first to me seemed kind of cumbersome or awkward or artificial. Now, after many years of bowing, it feels actually like a kind of a place of refuge to be present with someone else bowing. This is regarding the other person. as completely interconnected. This is regarding the true nature of the big mind of the Buddha in front of you as equal with the true mind, the true nature of oneself, as not separate. So it may seem a little strange if you're not used to it to see people around here bowing to each other, but this

[34:11]

I think it's not such a bad thing. If there's something that's contagious, this could be something that could be actually beneficial. So even though we have no preferences, and even though we're filled with preferences, and we're noticing that the Great Way is free of preferences, There's also the other side of it, which is helping things be their best. So there's always these two sides. One is supported by the other, and very important in this not to get too stuck on one side or the other. We have a lot of difficulties. Some people are saying, okay, these are very difficult times.

[35:14]

These are difficult times. I personally know several people who were just laid off from their jobs just recently. Difficult times. The economy is part of it, global warming, which we're contributing to, of course, as human beings by releasing the ancient sunlight and and fossil fuels, right? All that carbon dioxide that was captured 100 million years ago, long before we even appeared as a species, now we're releasing it back pretty fast. Changing the environment faster than we maybe can adapt to it. So that's scary. So we have difficult times.

[36:21]

So taking this practice to these difficulties, welcoming them in the sense that this is something we need to know. This is telling us about ourselves. This is information that we need to have in order to be healthy, in order to move in the direction of healthy, just as for me to notice my sore throat and then to... is something I do as an individual. So please consider this teaching, that the great way is not difficult for those who are not entangled in preferences. Notice this teaching as a way of clarifying your own attachments, your own aversions to things.

[37:31]

As a gateway to, with gratitude, bringing gratitude, as a gateway to your own big heart, mind. Having confidence in something that's beyond your preferences. And please continue to say thank you. Thank you for listening.

[38:00]

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