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. I thought maybe we should begin this morning with a minute or so of silence. in memory of the horror of mass killing, of individual killing, domestic violence, racial violence, and warfare, which are continuing unabated in this world. Here's a story from the Book of Serenity, a collection of koans offering perspectives on the art of Zen meditation as well as on the artful actions that derive from the simple practice of just sitting.

[02:23]

This is case five, The Price of Rice in Lu Ling. It begins with a brief introduction. Having passed the through the forest of thorns and cut down the sandalwood tree. Just wait till the year ends. As of old, early spring is still cold. Where is the Buddha's body of reality? Having passed through the forest of thorns and cut down the sandalwood tree, just wait till the year ends. As of old, early spring is still cold. Where is the Buddha's body of reality? In the case, a monk asked Jingguan, what is the great meaning of Buddhism? Jingguan said, what is the price of rice in Lu Ling? I think those of you who come here regularly know that we've been devoting ourselves this summer to the study of racism, and beginning with a very personal and assuredly painful reflection on what I now call in myself the dis-ease of whiteness.

[03:48]

During our summer program, we've heard from many of our neighbors from around the Bay Area about the impact that racism has had on their lives and continues to have on their lives, including the impact it has on this community. Many people of color have told us over the years that they don't feel welcome here. They don't see Green Gulch as a diverse community, and they don't recognize themselves in the teachers who are presenting from this very seat where I'm sitting now. And yet I truly believe that all of us at the Zen Center, in this community, want nothing more than for everyone who comes here to feel welcome and safe. So how do we do that? How do we make that happen? This is a big question, and it's one that we cannot turn away from answering.

[04:53]

One of the speakers who came here this summer was a man by the name of Victor Lewis. He's a social justice educator, an activist, and a trainer with a very generous and kind way of approaching those of us that he came to talk with about race. Victor shared with us a documentary that he had helped to produce called The Color of Fear about a race relations group that he was leading. At the end of his talk, I asked Victor, what should we do? What should I do? I can call people together, but do what? And he said, learn your history. So although I intend to learn our history, and I've already purchased a number of books and begun to read about the history of racism, of Jim Crow laws, of mass incarceration.

[05:59]

Still, one of my fears since the end of our summer program is that we're going to check the box on this discussion of racism as we move on to other topics, you know, the next big topic. And there are many we could choose from. There's sexism, homophobia, classism, ageism, ableism, anti-Semitism? And then what's going to prevent us from checking the box on each of those in turn? This is the challenge for people of conscience. And how to be an ally, how to remember all those in our lives, in our communities who have unequal access to power. to sources of wealth and to opportunities for education, decent housing and medical care, to say nothing of respect. What is the meaning of Buddhism?

[07:04]

What is the price of rice and living? What is the cost of health care, of housing, of fresh produce, or of transportation in and out of Marin County? A month or so ago I was talking with one of our senior teachers here as we passed on the walkway, and she told me she had been practicing with noticing the difference of how she felt between facing someone and standing beside them, you know, side by side. And how much she appreciated the thought that those of us living here together, and all of you who come here as well, might come to see each other as side by side, as having a common purpose and directionality based on a shared vision of how we see the world, of how we see the causes and conditions for human suffering. Another one of our summer guests, Deborah Santana, spoke with us about her wish for all of us to become allies, to become the faces of welcome and the open hand of kindness.

[08:20]

toward all those we meet along the way. Deborah, who's a well-regarded philanthropist in our community and a leader in the black community nationally, she lives here in Marin, and she said to me before her talk, Fu, I am so tired of the look. Do you know what she means by the look? look as one example of what's called microaggression, one of the many things that all of us are called on to study and to recognize as part of our shared history. And although it was a very long time ago, this problem of human suffering hasn't changed much at all, being the very problem the Buddha sought to understand for himself personally, but also for the human world as a whole. Once he saw the problem and realized the solution, he gathered together a community of like-hearted people, not so different than this one, and a common purpose to alleviate suffering.

[09:34]

And he called that community the Sangha. When the Buddha first sat with the community, he shared with them an enlightened vision of reality, a vision that was magnificent, and all-inclusive, as reality naturally is. He shared with them his vision of the very same reality that all of us are experiencing at this very moment, in which no one and no thing is outside of this. Not the person in front of you, not the person beside you, not the altar or the flowers, not me, or the floor, or the ceiling, or the walls. All-inclusive reality, as experienced by our all-inclusive awareness. And yet, by means of our all-too-human imagination, we make it seem otherwise.

[10:40]

We break the world into parts, and we sort those parts into three elements. basic categories. Those that we like, and those that we don't like, and those that we aren't sure of yet. This is also known as greed, hate, and delusion. And it's this sorting that's at the very heart of human suffering. We humans are so used to splitting the world into parts and to gathering the ones we like as our possessions and to protecting our possessions with locks and weapons that we have managed to create entire societies based on the logic of accumulation, of hoarding. So me and mine, in a ceaseless, if at times, undeclared warfare with you and yours.

[11:45]

America is mine. North Korea is not mine. Neither is China or Russia or Africa. They're not mine. But what about Mars and the moon, and the water, and the soil, and the air, and the sun? As yet to be determined. Does that sound familiar? Does that sound crazy? Could there possibly be any better way for us to live? Dear Lord, I hope so. I once asked my teacher, tugging on these robes, is this fast enough to save the world? He smiled gently. As I'm growing ever nearer to the end of life in this human form, with all the marvelous accessories of hearing and sight, tasting and touch, I feel less concerned to know the outcome for humankind than I did when I was young, when I asked my teacher that question.

[13:07]

I feel closer to the kindly smile. And yet for those of you who will spend a bit longer here on our still lovely planet, I do hope you'll take inspiration from the words and actions of the gentle Buddhas. I do hope you will consider the very real possibility of an alternative worldview that coexists within the very same human imagination that is creating this one. Here's a story attributed to the Cherokee Nation. Once upon a time, grandfather told his grandson, there are two kinds of wolves inside of me. One wolf is good and altruistic, generous and kind. The other wolf is mean and greedy, violent and angry. The two wolves are in a constant fight within me.

[14:09]

The grandson with wide eyes asked, But which one will win, grandfather? The grandfather replied, The one which I feed. So those of us who have taken a liking to the Buddha's teaching endeavor to live in a way that honors the lessons he gave to his students, the primary lesson having to do with how we think. how we use our human imagination to either create a world split into parts and sorted out by our desires, or a unified world, a world devoted to kindness, generosity, respect, and a wise restraint. It really does come down to a choice, the choice of which wolf we're going to feed. The most basic instruction given to us by the Buddha has to do with a shift, an internal shift within the human heart from selfishness to generosity, from getting to giving, from a life driven by the three poisons of greed, hate, and delusion to the three pure intentions of avoiding evil, doing good, and living for the benefit of others.

[15:35]

The basic outline for such a transformation was initially taught as the Four Noble Truths. And in fact, according to the early teachings, the Buddha is reported to have said, I have always made known only two things, namely suffering and the cessation of suffering. So what I began talking about this morning were examples of the kinds of suffering that we humans are causing by how we think about ourselves and about the world. Racism, sexism, tribalism, and so on are all mental constructions. In other words, they're fabrications of our collective human imagination, collected and passed along generation after generation as a poisonous As I often quote from the Dhammapada, a primary teaching of the Buddha that was compiled in the third century BCE, what we are today comes from our thoughts of yesterday.

[16:49]

Our present thoughts build our life of tomorrow. Our life is a creation of our mind. So knowing how suffering is carried along also lets us know how it can end. And that is through the transformation of human consciousness. Although, unfortunately, only one human consciousness at a time. Each and every one of us here in this room right now is the very location, the choice point, the turning point, of both delusional thinking and awakening. Once the young prince who became the Buddha, Shakyamuni, had determined to awaken, he pressed into himself pretty hard, into his own mind and into the patterns of his thinking and of his behavior. And after a while, a few years plus a few days, he came back from that effort

[17:57]

with a clear view of how he created suffering and how his suffering could be brought to an end. The three main categories of suffering that the Buddha carefully analyzed within his own consciousness are, first of all, the suffering of suffering, beginning with birth and ending in aging, sickness, and death. In other words, this human life cycle. marked as it is by sorrow, grief, pain, unhappiness, and unease. The second category of suffering, the suffering of change, also known as the law of impermanence. For example, on the one hand, being forced to stay with things that we no longer like, such as our jobs or our relationships. Or on the other hand, being separated from things that we do like, such as our jobs and our relationships.

[19:01]

The third category is called the suffering of conditioning, which the Buddha saw as a basic fact of his previously unenlightened existence. That is, his inherent failure as a human being to reflect on the transient nature of reality. that nothing and no one lasts forever, that there is nothing to hold on to, and yet we ceaselessly endeavor to do so. Put most simply, this third kind of suffering in varying degrees of intensity is wanting things to be different than they are. More heat, less work, more light, less pain, more money, less stress, more time, less traffic. and a longer life. In Zen we call this fundamental restlessness of our minds, gain and loss, picking and choosing. I want it, I don't want it, or I'm not sure yet if I want it or not, all day long.

[20:12]

As these restless minds of ours go around and around in repeating patterns, those patterns become installed as habits, habits of mind, Buddha called these habits of mind samsara, meaning endless circling. Endless circling. It was this third kind of suffering, conditioned suffering, that the Buddhist teaching is intended to address. So although the starting point of Buddhist teaching is the reality of suffering, that doesn't mean, as some have come to believe, that the Buddha was a pessimist. or that he didn't include the joy and happiness that's in our lives. That he was somehow trying to persuade perfectly contented people that life is unpleasant at the core. But rather, he was simply stating a basic fact of our existence, that sooner or later, no matter what we do or how high we soar, we will be confronted by suffering, by the simple but inevitable truth,

[21:22]

that all good things must come to an end. I remember saying to one of the teachers when I was newly arrived at Tassajara and sitting out by the pool in my bathing suit on a lovely spring day, I don't get this big deal about suffering. And the teacher said to me, just wait. Needless to say, it didn't take that long to learn that he was right. Although the Buddha began his teaching about reality with the problem that we all share, the problem of suffering, he also taught the cessation of suffering and the path leading to the cessation of suffering as equally true of reality. That the two wolves are both eager and waiting to be fed. Actions based in hateful thoughts, in fear, in lust and ignorance, are the nourishment for violence and selfishness.

[22:27]

Actions based in generosity, ethics, patience and wisdom are the nourishment for a life of awakening. These earliest teachings of the Buddha concerned with suffering and its cause were called by him the first and second noble truth. in which he outlined the basic theory of the mind. In other words, of how our minds, how our thinking, creates the world, a world split into parts. The third noble truth, the cessation of suffering, is the Buddha's hope for the kind of world awakened minds can create, a world in which those very parts make us whole. The next step, the fourth noble truth outlined by the Buddha as the Eightfold Path is the how-to. How to break the cycle of habitual suffering in order to bring joyful ease into our world and into our life.

[23:32]

The only prerequisite for entering onto the path of the cessation of suffering is a capacity for empathy or compassion for oneself. and for others. What is the great meaning of Buddhism? asked the monk. What is the price of rice in Lu Ling? responded the teacher. Once a human being has chosen the path of awakening, whether they realize it or not, they have entered into a religious tradition based on the idea of training. The Buddhist disciples were called Shaiksa, in training or ashaiksa, not in need of further training. Training for a disciple of the Buddha is in the same category as training to play the violin or the piano. There's music theory and then there's practice, daily practice.

[24:36]

We train here daily in sitting and chanting and bowing and working and socializing. and studying and cleaning our rooms, taking care of our bodies. It's for this reason, the living tradition of those committed to the study and practice of the teaching, that the Sangha became the tangible thread of the Buddhist tradition. And that tangible thread is how a Sangha came to be living here together at Green Gulch Farm on this very day. World round, the training carried by the Buddha Sangha begins and continues with a vow, a commitment to the Noble Eightfold Path. The first two folds of the Eightfold Path encompass the wisdom teachings of the Buddha, right view and right intention. Right view is no less than the Buddha's enlightened vision.

[25:41]

through which he saw himself and this entire world as an endless co-creation, dependent co-arising. Or as Carl Sagan cleverly put it, if you want to bake an apple pie, first you have to make a universe. The second fold, right intention, means giving our word, our vow. to live for the benefit of all beings, and then to become that vow. The next three of the eightfold are right speech, meaning to refrain from lying, from divisive speech, from hurtful speech, or from idle chatter. Right conduct, refraining from harming living beings, from taking what's not given to you, or from sexual misconduct. right livelihood, supporting your life through activities that are not based in wrong speech or harmful actions.

[26:47]

These three practices are basically for the purpose of reconditioning our habits of body and mind, of training ourselves away from selfishness and toward generosity and kindness. In other words, of feeding the gentle wolf. so that he can become skillful and strong enough to take care of his hurt and angry brother. Right effort, also known as wholehearted effort, applies to all the activities of daily living when they're directed toward wholesome actions and in keeping with our vows. Right mindfulness is mindfulness of your body, your feelings, your mind, and of the Buddhist teaching. And lastly, right meditation, the practice of being upright in the midst of everlasting transformations.

[27:52]

It's important for us to note that when taking up these training practices, they're intended to be viewed as eight aspects of our behavior, all of which operate synchronistically. an independence on one another. How we act depends on how we think, depends on how we understand. Round and round and round again. The word right in front of each of these practices refers to the direction that we take with each and every action. That very moment in our daily life where choices are to be made, and often rather quickly. either toward appropriate action or inappropriate action. Appropriate action refers to those in keeping with the true nature of reality. When we're making those choices, those good choices, according to the Buddha, our suffering will end, at least for the time being.

[28:59]

And yet because the true nature of reality, for example, as not outside of ourselves, is not immediately obvious to those of us who are wishing to travel on the Eightfold Path, we must first negotiate the tangle of our habitual behaviors, views, and emotions, our ancient twisted karma, in order for us to enter onto the path. So therefore, Much of Buddhist practice is not so much about walking the Noble Eightfold Path, but about finding it. And yet, as perhaps you all may have guessed by now, the true nature of reality and the Noble Eightfold Path are none other, not separate from the price of rice and ruling, are not separate from the way each of us will spend our day. So to end today, I'm going to offer another koan from the Book of Serenity.

[30:07]

This one is case 48, Vimalakirti's non-duality, non-separation, the true nature of reality. Vimalakirti asked Manjushri, what is a bodhisattva's method of entering non-duality? Manjushri, the bodhisattva of wisdom, who sits there in the center of our zendo, replied, According to my mind, in all things, no speech, no explanation, no direction, and no representation, leaving behind all questions and answers. This is the method of entering non-duality. Then Manjushri asked the layman, Himalaya Kirti, known as the wise sage of Aishali, We have each spoken. Now you should say, good man, What is a bodhisattva's method of entry into non-duality?

[31:08]

Vimalakirti was silent. Thank you very much. Thank you for listening to this podcast offered by the San Francisco Zen Center. Our programs are made possible by the donations we receive. Please help us to continue to realize May we fully enjoy the Dharma.

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