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. Thank you all for coming on this wet and wild and beautiful May evening. Wow. Unexpected. and thank you all for coming. I'm really happy to be here. My name is Linda Gallion, and I'm the president of San Francisco Zen Center. So it's wonderful for me to have the opportunity to teach and to be here with all of you. So last fall, I was introduced to an aspect of the Buddhist teachings that I had heard before, but it was an understanding, an interpretation that was new to me and it opened up a lot of things for me that were very encouraging in my practice and very relevant to some of the things that I'm involved with as president, which was why I mentioned that.

[01:20]

So I went to the Soto Zen Buddhist Association Conference the SCBA, with Greg and Abbott Ed and Abbott David and Tova Green. And it was a gathering of many, many different Soto Zen teachers from all over the country. And these meetings have been going on for about 20-some years, I think. But this one was really unique. We have a new president, Tenku Ra, and she brought this whole conference forward on issues around diversity, equity and inclusion. So this was a pretty significant turning for the SCBA, which has been mostly just focused very closely on traditional Zen practice and establishing that in America. And it's kind of a marker, a milestone because

[02:26]

Soto Zen is becoming very well established in this country in such a way that now we can take on somewhat a wider view, a more inclusive view. It's like there's a kind of a generational shift. And so this is an exciting time. And the conference was amazing. I haven't been to that many conferences in my life. I've been to some. This is the only one that I would describe as transformational. And I don't say that lightly. The keynote speaker was a woman named Ann Glagg. She was an academic. And this is something from her talk that I wanted to bring forward. And the whole thing was just remarkable. What she did in her talk was directly engaged with why diversity, equity, and inclusion can be understood, can be practiced as an expression of dharma, not something added on, but you can practice it in such a way that it is, and I think of it as a very local, timely, cultural expression of the dharma.

[03:45]

Certainly not the only one, but this is one that has been coming up in sanghas and communities across America in different ways, many communities, many sanghas. And it's something that San Francisco Zen Center has recently taken up and committed to as a priority as an organization. We've been working on things related to this for 20 years, but it's been more individual initiatives. And this is the first time that we have turned toward it in such a way that we've said this is This is important for us. How will we hold this? How will we be truly inclusive and welcoming? And I think probably most of us, when we first came to San Francisco Zen Center, unless we had previous experience with Zen, found that there were some interesting cultural things to engage with coming here, regardless of what your background is.

[04:52]

black robes, silence, people looking down, maybe not making so much eye contact, chanting in Japanese. So each of us have encountered that in our own ways, and I guess those of us who stayed found ways to engage with that. So there's many things that we're considering. So back to what Anne Glagg was talking about. She brought forth one particular piece, which was from Larry Yang's book, Awakening Together, the Spiritual Practice of Inclusivity and Community, that was just illuminating for me. Not just in terms of diversity, but in terms of our life and community and our life of practice in Tassajara. and really for all of our relationships and how we practice with them.

[05:54]

And in the world, definitely in our often challenging world. So the teaching comes from one of the most foundational texts in Buddhism, the Satipatthana Sutta from the Pali Canon, the Four Foundations of Mindfulness. If you had to trace one single place where Buddhist meditation practice comes from, you could probably point to this text. So the word sati, it's usually translated as mindfulness, but it really just means awareness, like to be aware of something. Like, I'm aware that it's raining. Before I put my attention there, I wasn't so aware that it was raining. But now I hear it and I'm aware it's raining. So it's just that kind of awareness, bringing awareness. So the four foundations are where we place our attention. four good places to establish attention. And they're the body and breath, whether we feel that something is pleasant, unpleasant, or neutral, what's going on in our mind, and a broader category called objects of mind, different ways of being in the mind.

[07:11]

So it goes through, I think, 13 or 14 different different ways of practicing with these different objects of awareness. And after each one, there's a sort of refrain. In the Buddhist time, it was all oral teachings. There was no written language. So there was a lot of repetition that helped with memorization, helped to set things in people's minds. So this refrain, just like a song, is repeated word for word 13 times. And I'll read you just the first bit of it. and this is for the first one on breathing. So the Buddha says, How, monks, does one in regard to the body abide contemplating the body? Having gone to the forest or to the root of a tree or to an empty hut, one sits down, having folded one's legs crosswise, set their body erect, and established mindfulness in front of one.

[08:16]

Mindfully, one breathes in. Mindfully, one breathes out. So that's an example of this. So this is how to do it, what to do. And then the refrain says, the noble ones, the monks, the disciples of Buddha, abide contemplating the breath or whatever the object is. Internally, they abide contemplating externally They abide contemplating both internally and externally. It was the externally part that was new for me. I knew about internally. That was the way I'd mostly practiced. Most of the translations I read only had internally. What does externally mean? What could that possibly mean when you're talking about mindfulness of the breath or mindfulness of different parts of the body? So... One of the interpretations of this, the scholar went through all these different possibilities, but what he said was that it's about other people.

[09:26]

So this was really unique for me. How do we practice being mindful of other people in these ways? And this brought a whole relational element of practice in, which was very new for me. So we can be aware not only of our own states of mind, but we can practice as a practice in the same way being aware of another's state of mind. How different, rather than focusing on what we're thinking about, what they're saying, or our judgments of them, or our ideas, to actually be mindful. Oh, I wonder what their state of mind is. And it suggests Observing them clearly. What do you notice about their face, their body, their posture, how they're holding themselves, their actions? What do they do? So to see this, to be mindful of it.

[10:31]

And one of the ways that we practice mindfulness is to set aside other things during that time. If we're practicing with the breath, we keep coming back to the breath. What would it be like to be with another person and keep setting aside all the other things that intrude? And just keep coming back to being with that person. Just settling your awareness on a certain aspect of their experience. I was thinking... also of something Suzuki Roshi said, that when you're all doing the same thing, like when you're all sitting in the zendo and you're all wearing your robes, when you all appear to be doing the same thing, then I can see who you are. So it's this way of looking deeper, looking more deeply at people.

[11:35]

Who are you? You know, how are you as a person? How are you relating to things? So this can really lead to a deeper appreciation of other people. So the first step of internal awareness, internal contemplation, really forms a basis for being able to be stable with other people, with being able to observe them. Some of us are more wired to attend to others first, to try to find out what they need, Accommodate them, take care of them, whatever that is. This is not that. This is to be stable in oneself and to be able to let go of that and be stable with another person. And then to be stable both together. This is kind of advanced practice when you think about it in this way. To be able to...

[12:37]

hold awareness of self and awareness of others, especially when things get challenging. Let's see. So, Larry Yang says, for a balanced development of awareness, the shift from the internal to the external, from self to others, is very important. Awareness, when practiced exclusively with our internal awareness, can develop into a self-absorbed and self-referential focus. This is a kind of creation of self that is characteristic of our Western culture. Because where our attention goes, you know, whatever we pay more attention to, we see more of that. It grows in our awareness. Once we start noticing someone's wonderful qualities, we start noticing more of their wonderful qualities. If we start noticing their faults, you can just start enumerating their faults.

[13:42]

So if we're spending all of our time focused inwardly, that's what becomes kind of larger and larger in our awareness. I can vouch for that. I have done that. Particularly earlier in my practice, because I was used to not paying attention to what was going on inside, having to deal with Like, this was a whole other realm to process, to deal with, to know how to relate with. And of course I wanted to talk about it because it was very, very interesting. And I think it's really important to share with people. But at some point I realized, you know, I'm talking about myself a lot. So I had to practice doing that less and really watching myself. And it is interesting, and I am still very interested in the amazing movements of what happens in my mind. It's remarkable.

[14:44]

It really is. You're laughing, but it's just mysterious how this happens. So to be able to balance that, to be able to be fully there and immersed in this, and to be able to let go. So he says, balancing internal and external practice, in balancing it, in balancing our awareness, brings into the full range of awareness the multiplicity of experiences that the Buddha was inviting us to embrace. In other words, the Buddha was inviting us to embrace all of our lives, all of life. not to cut it out and have it be narrow, but to, you know, someone used the phrase digital detox today, you know, to have a period of time away from devices to kind of quiet the mind and be able to see what's going on.

[15:49]

And I think in the version of 2,500 years ago, it was let go of a lot of possessions, live a really simple life, and start your practice by just focusing on the breath. And those are still really, really good instructions. Those help clarify things. And from that base, we can start to grow. Larry Yang says, our practice is necessarily relational within the refuge of sangha and community. There may be people you know well in your meditation environment and others that you do not know at all. You may like them or not. Despite this, an underlying vision and intention connects us all through our differences. This is the key. We all have a reason to be in the room together. That fundamental reason is the deeply human aspiration towards seeking freedom, happiness, and less suffering in a world that already suffers so greatly.

[16:51]

But I think that's why we're all here. Somehow we're all in this room together tonight. And I think we all share these fundamental values and vows. So one of the awarenesses that came up for me with this teaching about external awareness and balancing it was about our Zen practice. We spend a fair amount of time sitting in the Zen Do. in silence and focused inwardly. But much of our life is relational, outward. We're very involved in daily life. There are many forms and ceremonies which give a form to our actions together and which we need to be very aware of. To come into the zendo and bow and offer incense is an opportunity, a practice, to be fully present and fully aware of what I'm doing, of the space in the room, of being here with all of you.

[18:03]

So these are practices which support us in being here all together. And the way that we... work together in community and being in a small community, all of us together, gives us lots of opportunities for relational practice. Kitchen practice, dining room practice, for example. Many people moving at good speed, getting things done, making offerings to the community, to the guests. And if you're not aware, you and everyone else notices pretty quickly. So there's immediate feedback one way or another. And sometimes we bump up against each other. And these are really opportunities to practice because then we see where there's difference and how we meet what arises.

[19:07]

You know, Leslie, often says, has said so many times, at least in my hearing, you know, even if we didn't need the summer guest season to help support ourselves, we would still do it anyway, because we need it for our practice. In the winter, the monastic practice periods, we go into silence and a real focus on inwardness and settledness. And then in the summer, We share our practice. We come out. We're much more relational. We stretch. We meet. We include. We welcome. So these are beautiful rhythms throughout the year. Larry Yang says, when differences arise, our conditioned response is to fragment. What would it be like, even in the complexity,

[20:12]

even in the injury, even in the harm, to break together rather than to break apart? How do we stay in relationship with each other even when our unconscious reactive mind wants things to be different from the way they are? Embedded in this aspiration are the teachings of our Buddhist path. We know that there is a higher place we could all go. We may not have the skills yet, or the awareness, or even the kindness, but that will come if we have the intention of not leaving the room. This is where peace begins. So for those of you who are here for the summer, or however long you're here for, you're not leaving the room. You're here. We're all here together. So that's a wonderful support. Sooner or later, we're going to have to try to work it out.

[21:19]

And that's kind of the magic of Tassajara, is watching how often things work out. Sometimes it's just by staying in proximity, not going away, just working and practicing shoulder to shoulder, day by day. Something shifts, something softens, and we see the person differently, or we see our own part differently. It changes. But we can do this any time in all of our lives. We can create the conditions for this. You know, not giving up, not turning away, goes a really long way toward building trust. And if trust has been broken, toward reestablishing trust. My own practice has been to try to stay engaged with people that I'm having real difficulties with. It's not easy. I used to be very, very conflict avoidant.

[22:21]

So that was really hard to hang in there with people. But the alternative was so much worse. Feeling the rift between myself and another person, the discomfort I felt every time I saw them, not knowing how to respond. It's a little hell realm. So even feeling like I didn't have the skills, I didn't know what to say or do, but just hanging in there somehow has really helped. There was an instance with a friend many, many years ago, maybe 25 years ago. She was going through a really hard time in her life. And we were spending the evening together, and she was being pretty unkind to me in subtle, like not overt, but really toxic ways.

[23:29]

And I knew that she was suffering, and it felt both personal and not personal, and I felt really helpless, and I didn't know how to respond. It just felt so bad to me. And I remember just sitting there quietly and listening to my heart as much as I could. And I finally just said, you know, I don't know what's going on here. I don't understand. But it just feels really wrong to me. And we were both quiet for a long time. And things shifted. And she stopped doing that. And we didn't really talk about it. But that was such a profound moment for me, to say what was true for me in that moment and include the other person, even in the midst of not knowing, even in the midst of confusion, of feeling like, I don't know how to deal with this.

[24:34]

So this capacity to keep showing up to not be limited by our fears, our judgments, our ideas, our need to be right, whatever we individually have that can get in the way. We can work with this. We can keep working with practicing getting out of our own way, and out of others' ways too. It's a capacity that we can cultivate. We can cultivate internal presence and awareness first, and that gives us the foundation that's necessary to be able to engage with the much more complex and dynamic experience of relating with other people, particularly when we're doing things that we don't like, feel uncomfortable with, or hurt us. We can relate from a place of practice.

[25:44]

We can come from our vows. And that really starts with how we are in our own practice internally. Can we cultivate positive, beneficial qualities toward ourselves, toward our own experience? In this culture in particular, cultivating loving-kindness or just love, acceptance, patience, compassion. We're so often unkind, impatient with ourselves, which makes it harder to be truly kind and patient and compassionate with others. And most of us in this room, I'm going to guess, are better at doing it with other people than we are with ourselves. It's kind of a tendency within spiritual communities.

[26:49]

But the deeper we go in practice, the more we have to clean out those places for our sake and for others' sake as well. So the first step to doing this is to just see what's there, to accept what's happening. I love that every morning, the beginning of service, we chant all my ancient twisted karma from beginningless greed, hate, and delusion born through body, speech, and mind I now fully avow, yes, I am this one human being. With all my history and all my gifts and all my faults and all my limitations, here I am. No more, no less. And when I can accept all of myself, then I don't have to pretend that the difficult parts aren't there and maybe that they're hurting you.

[28:05]

And maybe that they're hurting myself. You know, when we stay kind of close to the ground, falling or being humbled is kind of not so far of a drop. You know, it's like babies aren't afraid to fall because they're really close to the ground. You know, they're not worried about it. They just sit. It's like, oh, I'm sorry, my bad. Larry Yang again. When we work with people who hold different views and or life experiences, it often takes longer than we think it should and carries more contradictions than we would like. We need to remember that what matters is not what we think or what we like. It is how we are with each other.

[29:07]

That carries a lot. just how we are with each other. It's not easy. It's not clear-cut. It's not well-defined. It's not easy to articulate. It can be uncomfortable. Sometimes it's full of tension or doubt. But coming back to where I first heard these teachings, which was at the SCBA conference in the context of diversity, equity, and inclusion, it seems to me that this work, both internal and external, is foundational to both diversity and inclusion. When we learn to welcome difference, different ways of thinking, communicating, acting, when we become more aware of others, we're better able to listen and learn, be a little less self-centered.

[30:16]

It really helps with the difficult work to see, to really see the culture that we all live in that is mostly invisible to us, whether it's American culture, predominantly white culture, or just Zen-centered culture, to be able to see who we are and how we are. Years ago, when Blanche Hartman was first practicing, our former abbess of Zen Center. She was practicing at Berkeley Zen Center and she had not yet come to San Francisco Zen Center. One day she said to my teacher, Sojin Mel Weitzman, people are always talking about Tassajara. Tassajara, this Tassajara, that. What's so special about Tassajara? And Sojin said, well, Tassajara is a place where everybody can see who you are. And you can too, because we're all mirrored back to each other. If we're willing to look in the mirror, we can get a lot of help with seeing who and how we are.

[31:22]

And I think mostly, if we could accept it, what we see mirrored back to us is a tremendous amount of love and support. Can we see that? Can we accept that? And sometimes there's some difficulties too. So this is how I'm thinking currently about what it means to be a bodhisattva. What it means to benefit beings. It's about just how we are with each other. Thank you. For more information, visit sfcc.org and click Giving.

[32:32]

@Transcribed_UNK
@Text_v005
@Score_98.29