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. Today is November 11th and November 11th is... the day after World War I that an armistice was called. An armistice is the stopping of fighting, the stopping of arms. Just like the solstice is the stopping of the sun, the armistice is a stopping of arms. Over the years, that's been changed in this country to Veterans Day, which is observed tomorrow as a holiday.

[01:09]

But today, I like to think of Armistice Day, this day of suspending the conflict, suspending fighting. And in Europe, on that day, All the church bells were run across Europe at 11 o'clock on the 11th. 11 times. And so today, this morning, we will have the big bell, which you've been listening to as you've been gathering for the talk. We'll be ringing the bell right at 11 o'clock. And the people who have been invited to ring the bell are... veterans from different places. Someone who was in the Israeli army and the United States and the UK and Romania.

[02:19]

And these four veterans are all practicing here with us, so we've invited them to ring this bell commemorating peace and the stopping of arms. So when we hear that at 11, I'm not sure if I'll be still talking or not, but just so we can all appreciate the ringing out of the bell. And we'll be doing this also in the city center. There was a peace bell made and given, made by an artist and given to Zen Center and it's made with bullets. It looks like a kind of sunburst. If you see it from far away, you go close and it's these bullets and that is in the courtyard in the city center and that will be rung also and at Tassajara and probably other places around the world. So this issue of

[03:26]

conflict and fighting and disputes and anger between people, not getting along, and in all realms of our life, inner conflicts and inner disputes between couples, families, communities, and then in larger scales of groups of people, states and countries and political parties and groups within countries. And as we know, as we know so painfully, this is how wars, this is war, this is how wars. Begin. This is how wars start and are prolonged.

[04:30]

Wars of all kinds. Suzuki Roshi, the founder of San Francisco Zen Center, in talking about conflict, described this very, very simple thing, which was a description of sitting on a tatami mat, Japanese flooring tatami mats, and there being a little wrinkle and pushing your wrinkle, smoothing your side of the tatami and pushing the wrinkle over to somebody else's. And then they want to smooth their side, and they push the wrinkle back over to you. And that's war right there. That's just like that. That mind taken into other situations, and it's that mind. So... I wanted to devote this talk this morning to how we live together in harmony.

[05:34]

And I wanted to bring up a story from the old teaching stories of the Buddha's life, Shakyamuni Buddha's life, and describe and relate a story that happened in the Buddha's time. with the sangha, with the, sangha is the harmonious assembly. It's those who live together in harmony. And I think harmony, you know, harmony is not that, harmony in music is not just one note, that it's different notes, but that they sound, there's peace and not dissonance and pleasantness arises and there's harmonies of different kinds but harmony is not that everybody thinks the same looks the same acts the same does everything the same harmony is how we work together in peace and we do have differences how do we harmonize our differences so

[06:54]

There's a saying that comes from the Buddha's time, but also it's repeated many times. And we say it at the beginning of our intensives, practice periods, or on-go, which is a training period. But the meaning of the word on-go, which is two-month or three-month training period, is peaceful dwelling. The character on is peaceful. In the Japanese calligraphy, it's a woman under a rooftop is on. So if you're able to peacefully be undisturbed under your roof, every person neath their vine and fig tree will live in peace and unafraid. That kind of feeling, I think, for me is... evoked in this, a woman under her roof.

[07:58]

So this is peace, and the name of practice period is peaceful dwelling, dwelling together in peace. But of course, things arise. People have misunderstandings. We don't get along immediately. So there's a, right at the beginning of practice period, There's a quote, and it goes back to the Buddha's time, which is students, the participants of the practice period, should be like milk and water. And if you think about milk and water, they just blend completely, you know, whereas other substances, they separate. It's very difficult to blend. oil and water, let's say, or other things, but milk and water just into this solution, I guess, of very simply, very easily.

[09:04]

And the Dogen, our Japanese founder of this school, says community is like milk mixed with water. When you use milk, use milk that is mixed with water. Do not use anything else. This is an interesting quote, which I've been pondering. Milk and water, you know. Milk, I think, can be thought of as a kind of rich, nourishing substance. But you don't just... have that you mix it with all the just regular everyday experiences and and life's what life offers the 10,000 different things you don't just go for the milk you always have milk and water together the form and emptiness or the 10,000 things and the oneness of all those things

[10:18]

You don't privilege the milk over the water. It's milk and water together. And in this story I'm going to tell you also the Buddha brings up milk and water too. So I'll get to that. So this story is called The Buddha, The Quarrel at So Kosambi was a village in India, and the Buddha was alive. The Buddha was right there in the Sangha. You would think, oh my goodness, the enlightened one is right there. How could the monks be quarreling about stuff with their teacher? It doesn't matter, you know. Things come up between people. It doesn't matter whether the Buddha's there or not. Although he tried to help. So the... And the dispute was sort of like this tatami mat thing.

[11:21]

There was a practitioner, a teacher, who in using the... There are certain guidelines for using the lavatory. And there were jugs of water, and when you finish washing up, pouring, you're supposed to pour out all the water. And he left... a little water in the jug. So it would be akin to using the bathroom and not flushing or something, or not cleaning up in a community situation. So one of the, and this was a person who'd been practicing a long time, and so he seemed to have forgotten to do this particular form of meditation. monastic life. So then another teacher, who was a stickler for forms, called him on it and said, you should apologize to the Sangha for not following this guideline.

[12:36]

And the other person said, I did not do this intentionally, and he refused to apologize. And then immediately there were the friends of the one who left the water in the jug and the friends of the other guy. And they said, and the preceptor person said, well, then you're suspended from the sangha. This was huge. So completely, you know, foreign against. It wasn't his fault. He shouldn't. This guy's overstepping his bounds. He can't suspend him. and quarreling broke out, and factionalism, and taking sides, and so one of the monks came to report to the Buddha that this was happening, and that there was concern, and the Buddha said a kind of warning, which was, there will be a schism in the sangha, there will be a division here, if this continues, there will be a schism in the sangha, which is,

[13:41]

very serious to have a community that breaks apart. And as we know from our own experience, when there's a problem in a family, and that sister doesn't talk to that brother, or whole sets of the family never, the Montagues and the Capulets, this can go on for generations, and it's painful. Or between friends, You know, we know about this. We know about this kind of pain. So the Buddha said to the factions, he asked them not to be so stubborn and one-sided about this and worked this out. Give the person the benefit of the doubt. Yes, one side, give the person the benefit of the doubt. And the other, you know, just... Apologize, you were forgetful, apologize.

[14:43]

They wouldn't have anything of it. They dug in both sides. And it doesn't say what the reasons were. So you can imagine there may have been many other encounters between these two people, as can happen in community and family, where this might have been the last straw or something. We don't know. what the background is, but they were recalcitrant and didn't want to talk about it, didn't want to sit down together, and each one was refusing to move. So then this disagreement, which started out small, because there was this animosity between the two groups it got bigger and bigger. So they'd be gathering alms in the village. This was part of the practice to go to the laity with your begging bowl.

[15:49]

And it was reported that amidst the houses, so they're out there gathering alms, amidst the houses, they behaved unsuitably towards one another. I'm reading from the sutra. in gesture, in speech, and they came to blows. So they actually hit one another. This is serious, you know, to actually get physical or push one another. I don't know what happened. And people now began to look askance at this. How can these people who are dedicated to... understand the self and relieve suffering and teach about relieving of suffering and so forth. How can this be happening, this kind of quarreling? And people began to criticize them for acting in this way.

[16:52]

And the people in the villages and the towns began to complain that the monks are actually, you know, they're brawling It's not very edifying. It doesn't inspire confidence in the practice and in the Sangha, which Sangha is meant to bring harmony. So the Buddha heard about this and he admonished them to put an end to this matter. This is enough. But the dispute continued. And someone reported to the Buddha, Venerable Sir, the monks here at Kosambi have taken to quarreling and brawling and are deep in disputes, stabbing each other with verbal daggers.

[17:57]

And then they said, it would be good, Venerable Serf the Blessed One, but go to those monks out of compassion, try to do something. When I heard that phrase, verbal daggers, it not surprisingly reminded me of the past 18 months or so where we've been bathed in speech that... you know, sometimes was not so edifying, verbal daggers. This is very different from... And I'm not saying this wasn't necessary or wasn't necessary or not necessary, I don't know. But I think it's... It is discouraging, can be discouraging. And I think the relief of the end of... these kinds of encounters and reportage and ads and so forth, although I didn't see any ads because I don't see TV.

[19:06]

Anyway, I think it can be disturbing. It can be disturbing, very disturbing. So the Buddha came to try again with the monks of Kosambi. And he taught a teaching about six harmonies, six ways that the Sangha in particular, but I think I bring it up today because it's not just for the smallest understanding of Sangha, which is ordained monks and nuns. I think this is for all of us. How do we live together in harmony? What's almost the secret of harmony and togetherness and harmony Peace, peaceful dwelling. So the six harmonies, they're translated in different ways and in different orders, but I'll give you an order that makes sense to me to talk about them.

[20:15]

So the Buddha addressed the monks saying, monks, there are these six memorable qualities, that create love and respect and conduce, which is an interesting word, are conducive for, conduce to helpfulness, to non-dispute, to concord, and to unity. What are these six? So the first of the six harmonies or memorable qualities, and Thich Nhat Hanh translates these as the six togethernesses, which is a wonderful word, how we live together in harmony and peace. So the first is bodily acts of loving kindness, physical unity or physical bodily harmony.

[21:24]

And I think if you're living together with a community of people in practice period, this means being aware of your bodily actions, others' bodily actions, respecting space. Sometimes you don't have very much personal space, but being aware of boundaries and space, the need for solitude and quiet space and also taking good care of each other, each other's bodies. If there is a sick person, someone who's having difficulty, you notice it, you bring it to someone's attention. In a family, of course, caring for one another, but we know of many instances where of elder, where there wasn't care for elders, where there was negligence in this way. And in the Buddha's time, he came into a monastic community and there was this terrible smell and turned out one of the monks was sick and nobody was taking care of him.

[22:41]

And the Buddha admonished them, if there's someone sick, you go and you take care with compassion. This is part of how we live together in harmony with bodily acts of loving kindness, both in public and private, and thinking about the well-being, the physical well-being of one another. So this can be friends, family, community, in the widest way. The second harmony or togetherness or memorable quality is verbal unity, verbal harmony, verbal acts of loving kindness. And this is about communication between one another. And as we know, words are powerful, words can be very hurtful, can create schism, can create...

[23:50]

Fear can create great harm. And right speech is one of the eightfold, one of the eightfold path to relief of suffering is part of the Four Noble Truths, the eightfold path, right speech. And included in that, you know, there's gentle speech, speech that comes from generosity, speech that awakens. There's, Dogen Zenji says, for kind speech, we should speak to one another as if we were babies. And that doesn't mean condescending. That means with that kind of care and sweetness that you talk to a child or a baby is how, you know, the feeling of speaking to one another, not baby talk or something, but... Also part of verbal unity and harmony is asking for help, acknowledging and apologizing when we've said something or done something that's been hurtful that we realize and aware of things like, am I telling the truth?

[25:17]

Am I speaking the truth? Am I omitting speaking the truth? when I could speak the truth? Am I slanting things? One of the main precepts, one of the very serious precepts, this precept is speaking about one's accomplishments when you haven't actually had accomplishment. Like talking about your attainments when it isn't true. In the old sanghas, and probably today as well, that was... grounds for being expelled from the sangha. You know, kind of boasting or bragging about one's spiritual attainments. So it's serious, our verbal, and of course this is very powerful karmic voluntary actions of speech have great effect for positive and negative. So verbal acts of loving kindness, harmony verbally, communication is the second of these

[26:20]

harmonies, that all of these harmonies create love and respect and conduce to helpfulness, non-dispute, concord, and unity. This is the words of the sutra. The third of these togethernesses, unities, harmonies is mental. Mental loving kindness in mental harmony and unity. And this is talked about in a number of ways, but one way is a kind of mental posture or attitude that is willing, willing to be trained, willing to have things pointed out, willing to take feedback. You know, sometimes people say, oh, I'm open to feedback.

[27:21]

You know, tell me. And then as soon as you offer, it's like it doesn't work. You know, it's like they're actually close to that. They don't want to hear it or it's your fault. So the mind, this harmonious mind, is willing to hear, asking to hear about how they're practicing. And in tea ceremony, at the beginning of tea ceremony yesterday, The practice period here, many people participated in a tea ceremony gathering. And one of the things that happens before the tea ceremony class, if you're practicing, is you ask the teacher, please teach, you know, please teach me. And it's understood, this is part of the mental unity, mental harmony, that you will make mistakes in the forms, how you lift something in the tea ceremony or pass the bowl.

[28:23]

But you've already said, I want to be trained. Train me. You're open to that. And it may be embarrassing, whatever it is, but you're part of the harmony of living together as you've said that, and you're asking for that. And if everybody has that similar mind, if there's a unity in that, then there's a peaceful flow of feedback and even though it can, you know, we have to sometimes lick our wounds a little bit and take some time to integrate, you know, somebody bringing something up, but we've said, we've made an agreement, we want to hear about this because it will conduce towards liberation. and not just sticking to our own sense of things in our own way, stubbornly entrenched like the monks of Kosambi.

[29:26]

So this kind of practicing of listening to others, being willing to listen and receive this kind of feedback, and also to give with the spirit. This is a big point. It's a big point in families at work. all over, and I remember a story here where the Tenzo, who happened to be, I think I can name who it was, it was Fu, who was Tenzo, I think it was here, and she was showing somebody something or telling them, giving feedback in the kitchen. Tenzo was head cook, and Fu is Nancy Schrader who lives here. And this person said, you know, I really don't like to work with women in authority positions. I don't really like to take, you know, advice from women. And she said, you think I'm a woman?

[30:28]

I'm the Tanzo. I am the head cook here. You know, it's like to be caught in these various, you know, very precious ways that we have of working with the world or you know, our territory. But this, we're in the kitchen here. We're getting out the food for the monks to eat. You know, this is what it's all about. Drop it. Anyway, I love that line. You think I'm a woman? I'm the head cook. So sometimes we have to be very skillful in working with this because there's defenses, there's This is why it conduces to harmony, because if it's shared, then everybody's ready for it, and it flows. But if you haven't agreed to that, it makes it much more difficult. Another part of this mental loving-kindness or mental unity is appreciating and supporting one another.

[31:33]

This also creates unity and harmony mentally. So we share our joys and our appreciation and appreciate the sincerity of people who are practicing, trying to live in accordance with their intentions and the teachings and how they understand them, and expressing appreciation, which sometimes is maybe less forthcoming than the criticism, and catching all the ways people, we think, are doing things wrong. and skipping the sincerity with which they're trying. So this is a very important point, rejoicing in people's good qualities and appreciating and supporting. The fourth of these harmonies is harmony in precepts or unity in upholding the same precepts and guidelines.

[32:38]

This is not necessarily, I think in the widest sense, the one precept maybe is that we are all on this earth together and interconnected, depending on each other and interdependent. That's like the one precept. And flowing from that is to wake up to this true self or true nature is maybe the one precept. So to have harmony in that precept, harmony in wanting to wake up to the truth of our life together is conducive to liberation and helpfulness and harmony. So what this is pointing to is our own separate, maybe personal precepts that we have or that turn into preferences I want things to be a certain way.

[33:40]

I don't want things to be this way. And in the commentary on this by a Tibetan teacher, she was saying there are often things in terms of this shared precept or unity of precepts. She was talking with a Catholic nun who brought up three things in the Catholic monastery or nunnery that keep coming up over and over again where people have their own sense of things and this difficulty in shared precepts And the three things were the liturgy, you know, how many prayers we're saying, they're doing them too loud, they're on the wrong key, you know, big problems. It's so funny because this is very similar to here. The daily schedule, that was the other thing. There was this constant problem. And the third was the food. And I thought, yep, that's exactly right. We hear about, you know, I don't like what we're chanting. I don't understand it. I don't want to say that stuff.

[34:40]

I'm not in alignment. This isn't mine. Who's teaching this? Where did it come from? What does it mean? I won't say it. And this is from the beginning, you know. And then the daily schedule, you know, can't we get up a little earlier? Why do we have to have two periods of... And food, we need more protein, there's too much sugar, why don't we ever get butter? When I was the head cook at Tassajara, I used my stipend to buy butter for making shortbread. The budget wasn't enough for my butter interest. So having harmony in this upholding, not that we all have to be in lockstep, But this general, yes, we want to uncover, discover together the truth of our life and how will we do that and the agreements around, you know, we're going to try it this way and not holding to our own personal preferences, which are often based on karmic

[35:55]

our karmic life, what's familiar to us, what's comfortable, what we know from before. So these are areas that are maybe uncomfortable physically even. So agreeing to follow and to study together, this is harmony and precepts. The fifth one is harmony and views and this is also not everybody has to have the same view but it comes from also one of the eightfold from the eightfold path right view and right view is actually the first of the eightfold right view is first and what comes under right view which leads towards the alleviation of suffering is things like accepting the truth of cause and effect, for example, that there are consequences to our actions of body, speech, and mind.

[37:05]

This is a kind of, without that shared unity or harmony in, yes, there are consequences, it may be very hard to live together in peace if someone says, who cares? It doesn't matter. I can do that. Who cares? I don't care what you say. Yes, there are consequences is important. Also, a shared understanding of the causes of suffering. And also the sense of the truth of impermanence, for example. These are very, very basic teachings. Or even the view, right view, that there is the truth of suffering. This is the first of the noble truths, that there's suffering and ill that we experience.

[38:06]

So if that isn't a shared, you know, if someone is in some kind of denial thing, it's very hard to be unified. So this brings, you know, togetherness. to have a shared understanding of these kinds of very basic views. I'm not talking about political views or all sorts of other views, but very basic views. And also being able to reflect on our views, what views we're holding, and that they're open for discussion and clarifying. not that we say, I've got the right view, that they're always open to looking at and learning more. And the last of the six is harmoniousness, harmony in welfare.

[39:10]

And this is about, in terms of sangha, kind of the shared work of the community, the shared and the shared... receiving of the benefits of the community too. So I think in the old Sangha life, the requisites of shelter and food and robes and medicine, that those were equally distributed. And this was one of the things about the Sangha. It didn't matter if you came from humble beginnings or aristocratic life. When you came into the Sangha, Everyone shared everything equally. So there'll be 11 hits that we can just allow, as I'm speaking, them to bathe us. So this is a kind of sharing the joys of our life together and sharing...

[40:19]

and in a family, sharing equally, sharing the workload. And this promotes harmony, as you can well imagine. So the Buddha taught these six harmonies to the monks of Kosambi. And the monks of Kosambi basically were not open to hearing about it. They kind of said to the Buddha, which is interesting, let's see if I can find the actual point. They kind of said, you know, we don't want to hear any more of this, kind of. could you please leave us alone? Which I think is very interesting, you know, to be in that state of mind where here's the Buddha, the lion of the Shakyat tribe, you know, the teaching, you know, how to relieve suffering.

[41:38]

And they're saying, could you kind of like get off your high horse here and just leave us alone? We'll work it out. is what they said. And so the Buddha decided to leave them to their quarrel. He had done, you know, the best that he could do, you know, and he was not one to, you know, they were not open to the teaching and so he left them and went off into solitude and actually met up with an elephant, and they kind of practiced together in the forest. This is what they said to him. After he taught these, they said, the Blessed One said to them, enough monks, let there be no quarreling, brawling, wrangling, or dispute. When this was said, a certain monk said to the Blessed One,

[42:39]

Wait, venerable sir, let the blessed one, the Lord of the Dharma, live at ease, devoted to a pleasant abiding here and now. We are the ones who will be responsible for this quarreling, brawling, wrangling, and dispute. So you go off and you do what you want to do. We're going to fight this out. So he left them and went off, and there's some beautiful verses about... When many voices shout at once, none considers himself a fool. Though the sangha is being split, none thinks himself to be at fault. These are some verses about, right there in front of you, we are splitting the sangha. You are splitting the sangha, or the country, or the family, and everybody says, who cares? It's a very closed, and they think the other people are being fools. And he abused me, he struck me, he defeated me, he robbed me. In those who harbor thoughts like these, hatred will never be allayed.

[43:44]

For in this world, hatred is never allayed by further acts of hate. It is allayed by non-hatred. That is the fixed and ageless law. These are very famous verses where you can't, get rid of hatred with more hatred, you know. So then after the Buddha was in the forest for a while, he came upon another group of monks, three. It takes three to make a sangha. And they were practicing together in harmony in the forest and in a park. And the park person said as the Buddha came up, please don't go any further. There are monks here. practicing, we don't want to disturb them. So they didn't recognize that it was the Buddha. And the monks heard him say that, and they said, oh, it's our teacher, our teacher's come. Please let him come in. So the Buddha came to these three monks, and he says to them, he asks how their health is, and I hope you're comfortable, I hope you're not having any trouble receiving alms food.

[44:55]

And they said, we are keeping well, we are comfortable, we're having no trouble. getting food. Then the Buddha said, this is the name of the monk was Aniruddha. I hope, Aniruddha, that you are living in concord with mutual appreciation without disputing, blending like milk and water, viewing each other with kindly eyes. I think this might be the origin of the place where this milk and water image came from. That's been repeated for thousands of years. And Aniruddha said, surely, venerable sir, we are living in concord with mutual appreciation without disputing, blending like milk and water, viewing each other with kindly eyes. And then the Buddha asked, well, how are you living? And basically, he kind of says this is how, he kind of uses the six harmonies that this is really how they're living.

[46:00]

We're maintaining bodily acts of kindness towards each other openly and privately. We maintain verbal acts of loving kindness, mental acts of loving kindness openly and privately. And he does that by, he says things like, why should I not set aside what I wish to do and do what these venerable ones wish to do? It's willing to just... If it works for them, fine. You know, that kind of a mind. Then I set aside what I wish to do. And then he goes on and says, and this is really interesting. I think that's why I want to read it to you. How do we deliberately cultivate an attitude of appreciation? kindness and consideration for one another. And he describes how they abide this way. He says, whoever goes out in the village to gather alms, the other ones who go out later prepare the seats, set out the water, do some washing up, put out the refuse bucket, and whoever returns first and eats first, it's all set up, like they set the table and get ready, then they help in the cleanup.

[47:24]

And whoever puts it away does the sweeping up, and this is how they work out this shared life together where everyone's contributing. And it was just so simple, you know, that they've worked it out, this community life. And I just was reflecting on all the different ways that... you can work out a shared life together that supports everyone supporting one another. So just skipping forward about these quarreling monks of Kosambi, they continued on this quarrel until finally the laity were so discouraged by this. they just decided, we don't understand, we can't support, with alms food, these people who are coming to blows, verbal daggers, and we don't support them anymore, actually.

[48:32]

And they stopped giving the requisites. And this, it was like the Buddha's teaching didn't get to them, their own preceptor and their own sangha life didn't. But it was the laity, the surround, surrounding people who they depend on in this interdependent life, said, we can't support this. So they packed up and went to where the Buddha head was, and there was a resolution. They finally got to the bottom where they thought, we can't go on like this, and were open to hearing. And the resolution was pretty simple. It was the person who left the water in the little water jar, which, you know, basically apologized for his forgetfulness, for negligence, and kind of admitted, yeah, I did.

[49:34]

And the preceptor, who was the stickler, you know, let go of this, you must be suspended from the sangha. And... That was basically, they came to that. And often, at the end, after big turmoil, it can be as simple as that, that yes, accepting, yes, I contributed to this, and I'm sorry. And the other person, yeah, I went too far myself. And after the peace was restored, they restored unanimity again in the Sangha, because it had split them. And the disputants had set aside pride, self-righteousness, which had really been at the root of the whole thing.

[50:38]

You know, was it really about this little water left in the jar, or some other... needing something out of this conflict that wasn't being met. So this is the story of the quarrel at Kosambi and there's more in here that you might be interested in. So the bell of peace has and may each of us be a bell of peace in our lives with each other internally and when we need help you know to ask for help I think that

[51:45]

We all wish for this. We all long for this. We all need this for our own well-being, the well-being of everyone we know and love and the entire earth. Thank you very much. Thank you for listening to this podcast offered by the San Francisco Zen Center. Our programs are made possible Please help us to continue to realize and actualize the practice of giving by offering your financial support. For more information, visit sfzc.org and click Giving. May we fully enjoy the Dharma.

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