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. There's a rather famous saying by a French novelist of about 100 years ago, Antoine de Saint-Esprit. And... He said, if you want to build a ship, don't herd people together. Get them collecting wood. It's maybe a little loud now. Getting them to collect wood and then assign them tasks and work. He said, instead, teach them how to yearn for and to love. the immensity of the sea.

[01:02]

Yunmin, a famous Zen teacher, said, see how vast and wide the world is. Why is it when the bell rings you put on your robe and go sit? What is it in the midst of this existence, what is it that draws you to practice. Part of the deep heritage of Zen is rather than march forward in an unexamined way, asserting something, as Dogen would say, take the backward step. Check in with yourself. Check in with the immensity of existence and discover what that has to teach.

[02:14]

Maybe we could even say, check in with the heart of it and let that be the guide. So this is the first day of our winter practice period. And this morning, quite a large group of us went around the altars, as we do when we start a practice period, offering flower petals, as we do now instead of incense, because it doesn't cause problems. And that activity, that ritual, that ceremonial way of engaging expresses something deeply informative about what we're attempting as we step back into the immensity of being.

[03:31]

That that immensity informs the practicalities of our life. That immensity informs the particularity of our life. And our life is made up, one way to think about our life, is that it's made up of different areas of activity or realms of activity. And collectively they create like a mandala of our being. And then we're inside that mandala as an individual. You know, we could say, well, what are the realms of activity of my life? Okay, there's the practicalities of providing for my physical needs.

[04:43]

There's the activities I've created around being the person I am. I have this kind of work or study. I have this set of relationships that I attend to and engage. I have this way of looking at the world which creates its own expectations and aspirations. But then almost in a modest way, well, how can each of those be a realm of practice? I'm going to link those two thoughts together. How can each of those be an area where I can discover and enliven this immensity of being?

[05:46]

in contrast to each of them being some way I assert some desire, some aversion, some confusion about being alive. In early Buddhism, one of the popular images was to get to the other shore. This generalization doesn't, I don't mean to trivialize early Buddhism. It has vast, wonderful teachings. But in this particular image, we're here in this shore of suffering, and we want to get to this other shore beyond suffering. And so we practice. The practice is sometimes likened, the image is likened to a raft that takes us from one shore to the other.

[06:59]

And then later Buddhism created a love for the ocean of water between both shores. created a yearning for the immensity of the sea. And not to be so utilitarian as, okay, let's make a boat and get from where we are to where we want to be. So as we start a practice period, as we start a period of time that we are going to relate in a more diligent and dedicated way to what practice asks of us.

[08:12]

Some people in the Buddha Hall have the misfortune of heard me say many times, what does practice ask of you? First thing, I think it's a wonderful question to ask yourself. What does practice ask of me? And I would offer you this image. Some way to discover the beginner's mind of being alive. Some way to discover... possibilities of your life, rather than narrow it down to some often not so thoroughly examined, purposeful agenda that you should pour your energy into.

[09:21]

And in the spirit of Zen, this carries even into just the heart of how we sit. It's not within Zen terms. Zazen is not a purposeful agenda to create a specific outcome. It's to let the clock chime touch the immensity of the notion of linear time from past to present to future that we take as an absolute. Someone sent me a poem quite recently and the poem presented this provocative question. It said, What if everything you think you know, everything you take as a given, what if it's not correct?

[10:39]

What if all the assertions you have about reality, yourself, what should happen, what should not happen, is not correct? Then what? in a way, pointing at beginner's mind, pointing at possibility. So there came a time, and there's great debate exactly when this became a strong influence in Buddhist practice. When this not knowing became a powerful reference.

[11:47]

And then interestingly, it was categorized as wisdom. Or to be a little bit more precise, wisdom beyond wisdom. wisdom beyond knowing. You know, the classic teaching in Buddhism is there's three kinds of wisdom. And one is knowing the particularity. You know, a few moments ago I was talking about the realms of activity within which you live. Within of those realms, knowing how to be skillful, knowing the particulars of it, the characteristics of it. And then there's the knowing that arises when we have insights.

[13:05]

Part of the mechanism of insight is that in some way, rather than describing existence and concluding from within the constructs of our being, it's like we step out of it and we have an insight about it. Oh! and one of his profound insights said to me, he's four, he said, when I go to sleep, my brain speaks to me. Okay. We construct the world through our thoughts and feelings and memories,

[14:13]

And then we have this intriguing capacity in our human consciousness of seeing it for what it is and letting that seeing teach us. And then the third kind of wisdom has two dimensions to it. One is you just don't get caught up in any way in the first two. And then the other one is that you see the amazing interplay between the two of them. That being the capacity to enter our world, our realms of existence, of the life we're living, informed and inspired by insight.

[15:18]

This is how I put together the world. This is what I call me. This is what I am living out most of the time. And it's just a set of constructs. And a set of habits, of thought, of feeling, of action that have built up around it in relationship to it. In many Buddhist teachings, especially in the Mahayana traditions, they're challenging us to have this kind of balance. fully committed to the life we're living, and realizing it's extraordinarily subjective. That all the time we hear a sound, something in us experiences it as pleasant or unpleasant, and asserts that subjective experience as definitive of the sound.

[16:41]

through the spirit of the Zen way, is we start like that. We jump into the middle. What's the heart of what we're doing? Young man says, and why do you put on your robe and go to the Zen when the bell rings? I have a good friend and mentor, Brother David Stendelrust, and I commented to him one, And I said, well, how? What is happening? And how is it happening? Seems to me much less complicated than why. And he said, the beauty of why is that it's impossible to answer. Why are we put on our robes? We don't really know.

[18:02]

Some deep wisdom expresses itself. And of course, in the meantime, we have our ideas, our opinions, our expectations, what we're trying to remedy about our own being, what we're trying to accomplish, there's a wisdom that goes beyond all of that. And so we go around the temple from altar to altar and at each altar the person who is in charge of that area steps forward and participates in

[19:09]

the acknowledging and awakening of that area, of that realm of activity. And how, within our own life, how do we do that? How do we acknowledge and awaken our own habits around eating? one of the places we go to is the kitchen. From the literal wisdom, what are your habits around eating? Are your choices of food And the amounts of food you eat, are they governed by some desire?

[20:16]

Some way to satisfy the hunger of your life? How could they not be? We want to live. So it becomes a great teaching for us to watch ourselves enter that realm. And we go to what we call the front office. where we take in the information of the world and give out the information of who we are, where we organize and communicate.

[21:26]

And how do we do that within ourselves? I seem to be somewhat addicted to keeping current... with all the current nuances of what's presented in the news media. I just spent just about a week more or less separated from all of that. And then I was listening to the radio today and I was struck by the persistent urgency of the commentator's voice. I have something dramatic and somewhat scary to say. That's why we call it news. It's dramatic, somewhat scary, provocative, and important.

[22:31]

about myself, I thought, oh, and I'm attracted to that. And how does that impact me? How does that formulate within me a way of relating to all that? Does it make me yearn for the immensity of the sea? Does it make me tell myself scary and dramatic definitions of reality? As I was putting on my robe upstairs and the denture was gone, there was someone, I think over there,

[23:45]

yelling out all these profanities. I'll F you up. Has he listened to too many news commentaries? And the spirit of Zen practice isn't to say, and here's the right way to think about it, and here's the right thing you should do. And here's the wrong thing that you shouldn't do, ever, ever do. It's more, can we wake up to how it is? The peculiarity of its particularity. And I respond like this. Isn't that intriguing? ask ourselves, okay, well here within the temple, within the heritage of the Zen mandala, here's the altars we go to.

[25:10]

Are those the altars of my life? Are those the kind of the nexus of energy and engagement within my life? Or would I substitute some other ones? And what would it be to think of each of those areas and think, hmm, how could I enliven and be more conscious and awake within that area? Not because there's something that you're doing that's terribly wrong. just because life is amazing. It's vast and wide. And we're all creating with a certain kind of genius. Ourselves, the world, our relationships, our purposefulness.

[26:19]

created and then we dedicate ourselves to living it and our practice is just saying quietly is that so inviting us to say that to ourselves is that so And then the practical wisdom of our practice is that, okay, that's, well, at least to my mind and my sensibilities, an intriguing notion. Not be so sure that I know who I am and what I'm doing and that I've got it all figured out and I've lined up in the right order.

[27:36]

but more that it's a constant exploration. It's a constant discovery. Even though sometimes we're discovering something that we discovered before. We reconnect with an insight. And that's a very interesting experience. It's like, ah! touched this before and I sort of forgot it. And right now it's coming alive again. It's like I've touched something about the heart of being. In the Sanskrit the word for heart is pradaya. And it has a similar root to the word dhirane.

[28:47]

And it's about remembering. It's about rediscovering. And as it takes its place in dhirane, There's something about repetition that has a power. And so the heritage of our practice is to let this discovery be repeated. So each time we sit to discover and reenact not knowing but discovering what it is to be alive.

[29:53]

Not knowing but discovering what is it to be a body? What is it to breathe in and to breathe out? What is it to have thoughts? What is it to have memories? What is it to put all that together and and casually and nonchalantly say, me. And then get busy acting out that me until we catch ourselves on and go, wait a minute. Yes, that is one of my worries and agendas or whatever. But right now, the request is to be nobody going nowhere. And how can that touch the heart of our practice and go into each of these realms of activity?

[31:02]

And part of the practicality of our practice is a certain kind of repetition. Like a dharane, a repetition that reconnects, that re-evokes the heart of our practice. It's very helpful if there's a repetition to our sitting practice. It's very helpful if in each of these realms of activity that you call your life, there's some point of entry, there's some way of evoking a Dharma gate, a way of being conscious within it. Before we have a talk,

[32:10]

Someone was describing to me quite recently, they said... And then I came to Zen Center to a talk. And it took forever, the person doing vows and then chanting and then taking forever to arrange their robes. And I thought, what is going on here? Why doesn't he just get on with it and start talking? And then she said, and then I thought, well... But what if that's all a way to help us all be present? You know? What if that's all about an alignment with the heart of the practice before we go anywhere else, before we say anything or do anything or put out these sorts of fugish ideas? Repetition. You know? And then, of course, the danger of repetition is you can go on automatic pilot.

[33:18]

If something in you knows that if my fingers know how to tie my shoelaces, my mind can go and do something else. And the power of... the repetition, the power of the dharani is lost. It becomes actually an inverse. It becomes a way to space out rather than connecting. How do we keep that yearning for what within us already knows?

[34:24]

How do we keep that alive? How do we keep it somehow a request that's close by and influencing us? And so in the realm of practice we say, well, let's create something that we call a practice period. Let's make it up. And let's put in a variety of activities and say, okay, that's something called a practice period. And I'll do it as me and I'll do it as part of us. And I'll do it as part of us doing it for all beings. Because this whole existence is interconnected.

[35:28]

And I'll do it because something in me is drawn to doing it. Something in me has some ideas and feelings about it. the value of it. And I'll do it because something in me knows it doesn't know how vast and intriguing existence is. And something in me is curious to discover. What if, as the poet says, what if everything I know is not correct? I would offer you the notion, which is maybe a little bit less ferocious, but I would say to you, compelling.

[36:45]

What if everything I know is just a subjective knowing? That's how it occurs to me. And the sutra we're going to study, the Heart Sutra, and the practice of repetition. Touching that heart and then discovering how it infuses and shapes and informs and enlivens these realms of existence that I call my life, our life. What Durrani am I enacting

[37:54]

when I look at Google News every day on the internet. And today, President Trump said this. What if instead he picked some anonymous person in the middle of New York, and told us every day what he said. Or she said. Or they said. It doesn't matter. And yet, here we are. It's us in this Buddha Hall. Here we are in this point in time, in this 15 billion-year-old existence that we're part of, here we are declaring on Wednesday, the 23rd of January, in the Christian calendar year of 2000,

[39:23]

and 19 at 8.28 in the evening. We're starting a practice period. How amazing. How curious. And I would say to you, can you relate to that almost like an act of love that despite all your odd idiosyncrasies being the person you are,

[40:29]

Can you relate to that wisdom within you? That in moments of settledness and clarity comes forth with the wise and compassionate response to being alive. can that be part of your Durrani? Can that be part of the referencing that you return to? Just that way when you're doing Zazen and you notice you're all caught up in something and something returns to a deep dedication to practice.

[41:32]

May whatever emergency that ambulance is going to be of aid to, may those who are suffering be taken care of. Why would we want it any other way? And as we explore the realms of existence of our own being and how they connect to others, why wouldn't we want that to also be taken care of with compassion and wisdom? Why would we want it any other way? And as the effects of that ripple light into the world, Why wouldn't we want it to be of a similar disposition?

[42:46]

And I would suggest to you something in us yearns for that dharani. Something in us sighs when that's what comes forth within us with relief. May it be so. 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.

[44:04]

@Transcribed_UNK
@Text_v005
@Score_97.08