Is it working in the back? Thank you. I should say something about this. Most of you see me come up here holding a different kind of stick. Kotsu, which is a traditional Zen teachers implement. But I was just given this for this weekend. We've been having a little retreat calling into the tangle, having to do with recognizing the interplay of the wild and domesticated worlds. And my friend, Trout Black, some of you know Trout, sent this to me. So I am carrying it today as a a gesture of appreciation to the indigenous people.

[01:05]

As it turns out, this is Earth Week, beginning of Earth Week. And it's also a full moon day. And it's Passover, powerful time. I feel a little bit like Shakyamuni with a flower here, with these cooper hawk feathers gracing the top of this. So this is a spirit arrow. But it can be planted in the, it has a point that can be planted in the earth that's a prayer, actually, that links earth and sky. And it has a wooden stem, which is all of the plant life.

[02:14]

And it has a yarn winding, which is... I'm not sure what Trout would say. I think of it, though, as the human interface. As human beings, we are involved in this interplay of the earth and sky and all of the plant life. And of course, the four elements, earth, air, fire, water, are all contained in this. Last night, we celebrated an interfaith Seder. which is, and for some of us it was first, and for me it was the second time, I was celebrating a Seder, and this is a tradition going back 3,000 years in the Jewish community, recognizing the time of the exodus of the tribes of Israel from Egypt,

[03:33]

out into a more spacious life. So I learned a couple of new words. One new word is, I think it's Mitzrayim, which is the Hebrew word for Egypt. And the meaning of it, though, is that it is a narrow place. a place of being bound a place of being constricted a place of that some you might even call it conspiracy of causes and conditions that makes life difficult and then can actually cause people to lose spirit to lose a sense of their own value.

[04:37]

So understanding of the Passover time is the time that the mind opened up. That there was a possibility of moving from being in this narrow, constricted space. into a more open space. So I began to realize that for the Jewish people, this Egypt is a state of mind. Not just a geographical description, but a state of mind. And it took someone very interesting, someone like Moses, who by various events in that story had been raised as a prince. He hadn't been raised with the slave state of mind, he'd been raised as a prince.

[05:50]

And when he realized that he was actually Jewish and not Egyptian, by blood, and he had this affinity for these people who were in slavery and recognized with that connection. Somehow, anyway, he realized that he had to do something, take some action. So anyway, some of this story is told in the Seder. And there are various special foods that we ate. that somebody lovingly prepared and various statements that are made and the story is told during the course of the meal. And then it ends with a sense of joy and celebration. We found that the songs that we wanted to sing were from the

[07:04]

gospel, spiritual tradition in America that people who had been held here as slaves related to that whole story in a profound way and expressed it in song. So we sang, Go down, Moses, way down in Egypt land. Tell old Pharaoh, let my people go. And then we ended with, Gonna lay down my sword and shield down by the riverside. And then since we were also doing an ecological, what did we sing? Gonna lay down my carbon footprint down down by the riverside.

[08:07]

And in honor of the notion that Egypt is a state of mind, we sang, I'm gonna lay down my narrow mind down by the riverside. So, We recognize then this whole notion of moving from a narrow, constricted state of mind to an open, boundless state of mind. And we recognize that here in this community each day when we do our various services, And we recognize it particularly on the day of the full moon.

[09:07]

This morning we did a full moon vow renewal ceremony. So the bodhisattva, the being who wants to bring all beings to enlightenment, the being, the impulse, the intuitive sense that we have, each of us, that we really want to be completely true to our most profound nature. And we wish everyone else that as well. That bodhisattva intention is recognized, and we renew it with the full moon. So we had this ceremony this morning, and I encourage each of you, actually, to do some rededication of yourself. your own most profound intention, particularly related to the phases of the moon, because that helps you to recognize your connection with the tides, your connection with the interplay of the earth, which we're recognizing this week.

[10:25]

The moon, of course, orbits around the Earth, always showing its shining face somewhere on the Earth. This spirit arrow reminds me of a story which is in the Book of Serenity, the Shoya Roku. The World Honored One was walking with the congregation, with the Sangha, the assembly, and the World Honored One pointed with a finger to the earth and said, this spot is a good place to build a sanctuary. And Indra

[11:31]

the chief among the gods was there and Indra took a blade of grass and stuck it in the earth right there in that spot and said, now the sanctuary is built. And the world-honored one smiled. So it's beautiful to see that that sanctuary is right there. That this spot where the blade of grass emerges from the earth is a sacred place. Our little group went out yesterday and spent some time in the garden and found all of us being busy people we found that the garden is peaceful when you don't possess it, when you don't feel that you have to actually own it and work it.

[12:42]

And so we were able to relax and commune with the bees working in the apple blossoms. And in that peacefulness, our minds... of the busyness settled out of our minds. And the experience of our minds was that of more gentleness and more openness. So then naturally, very naturally, later in the day, we found ourselves singing some songs, and we were reflecting that finally on the the ways in which Buddha mind is expressed. One way that Buddha mind is expressed is with what we call the Brahma Viharas.

[13:48]

The Brahma Viharas. Vihara is a temple, a sacred structure. But the Brahma Viharas are structure-less structures, structures that go beyond our usual sense of structure. Brahma meaning pure. So the pure. And in Buddhism, we think of pure in a little different way than most people think of pure. The usual way of thinking of pure is that you take out all the impurities, and then what's left is pure. But in our vast bodhisattva vow to awaken with all beings, we see that pure is what includes everything. So the pure sanctuaries, the pure temples, the Brahma Viharas are those

[14:57]

Places that are places in our minds. Every place is actually something that is in your mind. So I hate to burden you with Sanskrit words, but it's helpful, I think. Many of you know them. Beginning with metta. Metta. Kindliness or loving kindness, we say. And metta is... We also chant the metta sutra, the sutra of loving kindness here as a part of our practice, which helps us recall the capacity that we have to cultivate kindness. And then karuna. Compassion. Compassion, being willing to feel what someone else feels.

[16:05]

Even being willing to feel what you feel. Earlier this week, we had a training here in internal family systems, which is looking at the inner world that each of us has within us as a system with different interactive systems. configurations or simply termed parts. Sometimes one part of us is not aligned with another part of us. Sometimes one part of us doesn't want to include another part of us. So being willing to say if one part of you is not so willing to be at home and at peace with the part of you that's experiencing loss or grief, then compassion within yourself is to be willing to be present with that part of you that's feeling grief.

[17:11]

Metta, koruna, mudita, the third of the four Brahma-viharas, or boundless abodes. Mudita means delight in the happiness of others, really, sympathetic joy. It means that you can see the true being of others. You can see how they are a Buddha. And so, when you see that, you feel. a joy. It's wonderful. It's easier if they feel it themselves. If they're feeling some joy themselves, it's easier to see. But to completely understand the practice and the boundless abode of mudita is to see.

[18:28]

in everyone and in everything their own fullness their own joy in being which leads to the fourth the fourth is upekha upekha is usually translated as equanimity And equanimity is to see that each being in themselves has virtue, has their own absolute value. Absolute value, not comparative value. That their value, that each being, each person in this room has their own value. unique to them.

[19:29]

Each plant, each animal, each insect, each moment has its being, unique to itself. And so, equanimity is to value, as if from inside, to value each in the way it most completely, say, values itself. Now, these are wonderful, wonderful places to find yourself living in these Brahma-viharas, in these boundless places, these places that are not constrained by that state of mind that is in bondage. These places that are not constrained by our usual attachment to things with a mind of greed or a mind of ill will or a mind of delusion and pretense.

[20:47]

But it's not so easy. It's good to begin early. Teaching your children kindness. I think of my granddaughter. My granddaughter is Zora. Zora Rose. I like saying the names, actually. Zora Rose. Now she's four years old, but when she was two, She lives in New York, but she was visiting. And we, at that time, had a cat, Puker. Zora, upon arriving and seeing Puker, said, Gato, Gato. She's in a bilingual household. Gato, Gato. At two years old, she wanted to go and grab the cat. So...

[21:56]

Pooker, however, you know, being true to herself, she's kind of testy. She only liked to be petted when someone was giving her full attention in the most appropriate way. So we had to show Zora, you know, that impulse, you know, that affinity for the cat, right? Wanting to be close and connected with the cat could be expressed more gently by petting the cat. So metta, the practice of loving kindness, actually can be learned, can be cultivated. And by adopting actions that are kind, you cultivate the state of mind of kindness.

[23:02]

You cultivate the state of mind of metta. So although you may want to grab at someone, and this happens for adults. Oh, I really like that person. I want them. I want them. I want them, and I want them to like me, and I want them to do this. So you know the feeling, right? So how then to bring metta into that impulse that comes with a desire to, say, control and possess But underneath, what is really satisfying is to cultivate a friendly relationship, which means some gentleness, some listening to what is appropriate for Puker the cat, or what is appropriate for someone you want to have as a friend, or someone who you already have as a member of your family.

[24:24]

So it's a profound recognition in Buddhism that we do have some choice, that we can cultivate states of mind. And to cultivate states of mind is foremost in value. We can cultivate the earth. We can create many things, but if we forget to cultivate our state of mind, then there's a way in which things tend to go wrong. They tend to get narrow. And we tend to be trapped by ourselves. We tend to be trapped by our own acquisitions. One time I was walking, this was in the late 70s, I was walking across from the shop in the parking lot here at Green Gulch.

[25:52]

And one of my teachers at the time, who I think of with this, because of his training in indigenous culture of the Yurochs, one of my teachers was Harry Roberts. Harry Roberts was sitting in his pickup truck watching me. And I had just come around the corner, and I wasn't really thinking about him. But then I saw him, and he gestured for me to come over. Harry was not able to move around that much at that time himself. He had hip surgery, and he was on crutches. He was still able to drive his truck, though. And I came up to Harry and he said, why are you walking like you're angry at Mother Earth? And I said, Harry, I don't know what you're talking about.

[27:04]

Something like that. I didn't think I was angry. He said, the way you're placing your feet, the way you're placing your feet, you're not respecting the earth. So I began to pay more attention to how I placed my feet on the earth. Harry's way he called walking in beauty. Walking in beauty. Again, this is something that can be cultivated, that you understand that with each step you have relationship. With each step on the earth, the earth is receiving you. Receiving you and producing you

[28:05]

You wouldn't exist without the Earth. And the Earth would be unknown without your footstep on it. So each step is an expression of relationship. So this is Earth Week, so I invite you all to pay close attention to how you place your feet. Not taking the Earth for granted. Do you have some sense of what it may mean to walk in beauty? Beauty comes from good relationship. Good relationship requires some care. Things do not flourish in your disregard. The practice of walking in beauty, the practice of paying attention, is the practice of karuna, the practice of compassion.

[29:30]

And out of that arises the feeling of joy, of mudita, of sympathetic joy. So you may want to experience joy, but wanting to experience joy does not necessarily lead to joy. But practicing awareness and practicing this compassionate participation is the way to experience a rising of delight. So in this way, then, you can see that wherever the world-honored one, who can be you, the world-honored one, can point to the earth and say, this is a good place.

[30:38]

I learned another word this week. Lokavore. Does everyone know Lokavore? Someone in our group, it seemed to be something everyone else knew but me, right? And I was told that it's the word of the year. It's going to be put in the dictionary next year or something like that. It means to have a diet of things that are grown locally, right? So there's a sense in which that is a way of being contented with what is. We are so used to, in America anyway, so used to being able to buy whatever we want from anywhere on the planet whenever we feel like it.

[31:53]

Now, with Earth Week, we can remind ourselves that this is injurious. It's injurious to the earth to think that we can take anything from anywhere at any time without taking into account all the effort that goes into that, all the cost that goes into that, all the energy and all the residue, toxic residue, that goes into that. So I'm thinking that when we first started the garden here at Green Gulch, we had some idea of being locavores. We didn't have the word, but we thought, wouldn't it be great if we could grow our own vegetables and live on what we produce here? And we tried that

[32:59]

a little bit, but after a while, I got complaints. When I was the head of the farm, I got complaints from the kitchen. Latenzo was saying, I want to offer strawberries to the community. When are we going to have strawberries? And I'd say, well, we already had our strawberries for the year. For this year, the strawberries are over. But they have them in the store, right? Yes. You can get strawberries from Chile. You can get strawberries from New Zealand. You can get strawberries. So it's pretty difficult for us to truly be content when we're so used to, when our habits are, that we can satisfy desires willy-nilly. So this is a kind of discipline of cultivating contentment and reducing your carbon footprint, not being such a burden.

[34:20]

Every one of us is some burden. We have some impact. Every breath that you take every breath that you exhale it needs to be in balance so with our bodhisattva vow our vow to wake up with all beings it's good to pay attention to all those relationships big job pretty difficult but day by day and full moon by full moon please Rededicate yourselves. Okay, thank you for listening.

[35:14]

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