This podcast is offered by San Francisco's Zen Center on the web at sfcc.org. Our public programs are made possible by donations from people like you. Good morning, everybody. So welcome to day two of our three-day peaceful abiding and touching the mind sashim. And I'm just wondering, we're smack in the middle, we're equidistant from the beginning and the so-called end, if you want to use those references. And are you feeling equanimous? Are you feeling in the middle of it all? You're centered, abiding peacefully in the center of your being, your experience? Or is something else happening? And whatever that something else is, Can you look at how it is that you're meeting your experience?

[01:01]

With what mind, with what heart? Is it a heart of kindness? Is it an even-mindedness? Is a heart of radical inclusion? So radical that all the experience, even the deep pain and grief, is welcomed? Is there some way that you can say yes to it? And even if the response is, no way, can you include that? Can your heart-mind be big enough to include the no as well? Because the no doesn't define who you are. It's just a temporary limit. So what are we doing here? What are we doing in meditation? I came across a quote by a Tibetan teacher a few days ago. Yonge Mingyur Rinpoche is his name.

[02:04]

And he says this. Meditation is about learning to recognize our basic goodness in the immediacy of the present moment and then nurturing this recognition until it seeps into the very core of our being. Again. Meditation is is about learning to recognize our basic goodness in the immediacy of the present moment and then nurturing this recognition until it seeps into the very core of our being. Until that recognition suffuses the very core of your being. Until you know nothing else but that recognition, that awareness of your basic goodness, our basic goodness. What we call sometimes Buddhism, Buddha nature. The luminous, boundless, luminous knowing of who we truly are as a shared being.

[03:12]

So this morning I want to talk about how we might go about suffusing our practice with the radiant qualities of the Brahma Viharas. But before I do so, I want to say a little bit about focused attention, particularly when we're meditating. So we're here to gather the mind and with our hearts and mind gathered, see if we can abide in a certain state of equanimity or We might say shamatha in terms of calm abiding, the first practice, just to be here as stably and constantly in the present moment as possible. How do we do that? One of the things that I, metaphors that I often use when I offer zazen instruction is that of an aperture. And it could either be an aperture of a camera or a spotlight in some way. And this idea that the aperture itself, the framing device, is mindfulness.

[04:29]

And the light or the luminosity that's coming from the spotlight, that the spotlight gives us, is itself awareness. So mindfulness is a directed attention, it's a focus, it's a gathered attention in some way, directing towards a particular object or perception of mind. Awareness is the knowing of that object. It's like the light itself that knows or reveals what the object is. And so our natural state is actually, you could say, to a certain degree, without the aperture. Our natural state of awareness is always open, vast, wide. And yet, at the same time, awareness can condense and widen and do all kinds of takes all kinds of shapes right and focus and sometimes that focus shape becomes an object before us oftentimes most of the time it's taking various shapes right and so um when we sit down to meditate we can start perhaps if our mind is particularly unrolling and when we first come to

[05:52]

maybe Zen Center to learn how to meditate. We have monkey mind. It's all over the place. And we need a way to settle the mind down, right? To give it some kind of focus. And so we could say we narrow the aperture. I mean, bring the aperture as close as possible to focus on one thing with single pointed attention. And that one thing might be, for example, the breath. The breath is often used as a touchstone. So we close the focus, narrow it, stabilize the light of awareness just to be where we want it to be, awareness itself. It might be the sensation of awareness that the nostrils are in the chest, right? And we try to keep it there and stabilize awareness. And whenever, however, the attention wanders and goes off somewhere else, which it's very prone to do, goes off to the past or to the future or focusing on something else other than where you're directing it, the moment you notice that is the moment of waking up.

[06:55]

Ah, the mind isn't where I had intended it to be. Okay, now I have a choice. What am I going to do? Redirect the mind's attention back to where you wish it to be. Close the aperture again to focus it, to narrow it down. Simply redirecting the spotlight. and keeping it there, and keeping it there. Again, it wanders off, we bring it back. So this constancy of effort. Mind wanders, we train it to return. Keep the spotlight in one place. After a time, we might notice that that light can stay stabilized on one object. For example, you're able to focus on the breath for long periods of time. 10, 15 minutes, a whole period of zazam. And then you might want to, in time, experiment with widening the aperture of awareness. To include awareness of breath throughout the whole body.

[07:58]

So your field of awareness becomes wider. And the breath throughout the whole body, what does that feel like? What is awareness of that like? And if you're able to keep that wider aperture stabilized, mindfulness of awareness throughout the body is somewhat stable, and then it doesn't wander off or too much, That's great, right? Stabilizing, training the mind to stay where you want it to be. And again, if the mind begins to get shaky and your focus on awareness of the field of the body becomes unstable, then you just narrow the aperture again, narrow the spotlight to focus once more on maybe just the breath until the mind stabilizes. And then once again, you can widen the aperture a little bit more. And in time, you can experiment even further if you have somewhat of a stabilization of the mind. Wider aperture, until you have awareness of the space of the room. And maybe, you know, including the space of your whole realm of experience.

[09:03]

All of your experience, the direct experience, everything that's arising in your field of experience, the space of experience in this moment, whatever it might be. So sometimes we call this sky-like awareness. The mind is like the sky, wide, open, vast, boundless, luminous. And any object, any phenomenon that passes through it, we just simply observe it, whether it be a cloud, a rainbow, a rainstorm, a plane, a bird, tornado. It's all just energy, phenomenon, passing through the sky. You notice, usually the sky doesn't grab onto the objects that passes through it. It doesn't get disturbed by them. It just holds this spaciousness for them to be what they are and let the energy pass through. Now, our minds usually don't work like that. We want to grab onto something, right? The minute we see a cloud fault or a motion storm, you know, or a joyful rainbow, whatever,

[10:12]

We want to grab onto it. We want to hold onto it. We want to fix it into place. And that fixing, that contraction around the object of perception, creates suffering. Because it limits our reality in terms of what we truly are, which is the spacious, open, sky-like awareness. So anytime we see that contraction happening, we note it. Ah, mind's contracting again. Okay, that's what's happening. We don't need to add anything onto it. We don't need to judge ourselves and say, oh, I'm such a bad meditator. I'm never going to get this. All that is just additional clouds that you're just pumping into the sky. It's extra. Just drop it. Drop that thought. Come back to a touchstone to help your mind stabilize again. Maybe the breath. Stabilize there and then widen the aperture once again until you can have this wider field of inclusivity. So as we do this, again and again, finding our capacity to stabilize in whatever width of awareness, or field of awareness, or however wide the aperture of awareness is, we're gaining this experience of equanimity, stabilization, abiding wide open, non-discriminately towards whatever

[11:41]

rises in awareness, bides for a period of time, and like all things, all conditioned things, passes away. And so, this balance between mindfulness, shamatha, come abiding, you know, just staying in one place, and awareness, this wide open insight, or seeing into the way things really are, is what we're coursing in in Shikantaza. this just sitting, this just being, just this experience. Open, vast, inclusive of everything that's happening. That's the full expression of our Zazen. That is Zen. So, once again, the Brahmaviharas, the sublime dwellings of kindness, compassion, joy, equanimity.

[13:07]

The qualities of the mind and heart that the Buddha, it's said, himself cultivated and abided in. They were fundamental to his teachings and practice. Even the Buddha continued practicing the Brahmaviharas after his awakening. foundational. In a discourse, the Discourse on Divine Abiding, which is found in the Angadara Nakaya, the Buddha addressed a Brahman, a holy Hindu man, in the following. Here in Brahman, I am dependent on a certain village, or you could say a certain abode or place. I am dependent on a certain place or abode. Setting mindfulness in front of me, I abide suffusing one quarter of the world with a heart possessed of laminkindness. So the Brahma Bihara is a most frequently mentioned in the discourse of the Buddha that's titled the suffusion of the divine abidings.

[14:11]

And the word suffuse, excuse me, I looked it up to be sure I understood correctly what it was saying. And it means to spread over and through in the manner of fluid or light. to spread over or through in the manner of fluid or light, right? Like honey pouring over something, you know, or sunlight pouring over something. So the discourse begins, Now let us make the four balanced qualities shine forth. I will abide pervading one quarter with a mind imbued with loving kindness. Likewise, the second, likewise the third, likewise the fourth, so above and below, around and everywhere, and to all as to myself. I will abide pervading the all-encompassing with a mind imbued with loving-kindness, abundant, exalted, immeasurable, without hostility and without ill-will."

[15:19]

And the Buddha goes on then through each of the four immeasurable boats, all the other qualities. He says, the whole world I suffuse with a heart grown great, with loving kindness, free of enmity and untroubled, likewise with a heart possessed with compassion, possessed with sympathy and gladness, possessed with equanimity. If I wake, walk up and down, my walking is sublime, My standing, my sitting is sublime. This is what I mean when I say it is a sublime abiding place. So sublime meaning elevated state, a higher, a more noble condition, one that arises above confusion and ignorance. So even the Buddha, completely enlightened being, still constantly directed his attention to abiding in these sublime conditions.

[16:22]

elevated, noble states of awareness. So, the point is, someone cultivating these qualities of the Brahma-viharas becomes sensitive to suffering. The suffering they create for themselves and the suffering they create for others. So they're better able to recognize when they're in a state of delusion and also when they're being a jerk. It's a skillful tool to have. So these are the Brahmavihara's qualities that develop the heart. We've been talking about that. How to have a wider, more inclusive, bigger heart. Making the heart wider, deeper, and more able, therefore, to to connect with others.

[17:24]

This is what this is about, connecting. So by cultivating, abiding in the Brahma Viharas, we lean towards, if you will, that which would bring happiness to others and to oneself. It's direction, it's our orientation. We lean into a wholesome, beneficial direction. And as our heart becomes sensitive and open, we realize that suffering is painful and we don't want to abide in it. This really hurts. And I don't want to make suffering my abiding place, the abode where I live. I don't want to live in suffering, right? And then we also recognize in time we don't want others, you know, to also abide in suffering. Our heart becomes so big to include others to say, as I don't want to be suffering, neither do I want others to suffer.

[18:30]

And it's this realization that is both the seed of bodhicitta, the awakening mind, and the heart of the bodhisattva vow. So with this intention, this orientation, this leaning of our every word, action, and thought, becomes directed towards happiness through the liberation from all conditions that cause us suffering. Part of the practice period is filmed online. And we have small groups that meet every week in an online Zoom meeting, a virtual Zoom. practice center, if you will. And I know there's a couple people here that have participated in those online Zoom groups, and they're quite wonderful because people from all over the world, from South Africa, from Malaysia, from Australia, from Europe, are joining in this practice.

[19:42]

So whatever we're doing here, we're actually, even if you're not aware of it, you're including the wider world. People are engaging, practicing the Brahmavaras with us at the exact same time. And in the small group that I've been facilitating last week, one of the group members shared about a particular practice of the immeasurable abodes that he had engaged in for a long time. And he went on to describe how each morning he would go to a particular cafe for his breakfast. Right? And this, he said, started about 30 years ago. And once he had his food and he sat down, and before he had took a bite of his breakfast sandwich, he would pause and look up and around, and the first person he noticed, whoever it was and without any reservation, he would then extend mudita, or appreciative joy, to that person.

[20:42]

And the modif of the quality, whether it was joy for his own meal, appreciation, I have something wonderful to eat to nourish me, or joy for the other person or whatever they were eating or experiencing. Just extending them out and wishing them this continued well-being and open-hearted joy. And he did this practice, he said, for decades. And was delighted how it just continued to grow and develop for him over the years. And he said that he realized, as a result of his practicing mudita in this way, that it's up to us to actually choose to abide in the Brahma-viharas and any of the specific abodes. So we can choose to enter into, sometimes we can call the Brahma-viharas a house, and each of the Brahma Viharas is a particular room in the house. So we choose to enter into whatever particular room at any particular time that we want and practice in that particular abode.

[21:54]

And he said he came to really understand that the Brahma Viharas are practices. We need to actively engage and cultivate and practice them. They're activities. We do the Brahma Viharas. in this way, to cultivate them. So they're not passive states in which we just kind of wait around, waiting for them to come upon us. That might happen. Occasionally, you might just notice, oh, there's mudita rising me. How did that happen? I didn't do anything for that. Oh, lucky me, right? Well, that's all very good and all, but that doesn't actually mean that that capacity is going to strengthen and grow. It just becomes something that occasionally visits you. rather than a place that you live in on a regular basis. So we can practice kindness, compassion, joy, and equanimity for no other reason than that they are capacities already here and available to us.

[22:57]

They are the basic goodness that the Tibetan teacher I read at the beginning was mentioning. They are part of our basic goodness and the nature of that basic goodness. So he said that he realized that connecting from the mind and heart state, just for the person that he was seeing in that moment, before he took a bite, just by doing that, he was focused as a way of experiencing Murdita, also as a means to appreciate our common life. So in other words, as he was including another person, he was also realizing his own commonality, his own common humanity with that person, and appreciating that. So by cultivating verdita, just being glad that someone was alive.

[23:58]

Together we were alive. And this then made compassion for him, karuna, the wish to relieve the suffering of another, easier because he felt connected and cared for the other person. So in this way, the loving abode of Mudita became a doorway to one of the other loving abodes. Joy led into compassion automatically. And in fact, it's said that each of the abodes, each of the Brahma Viharas, serves as a doorway to all the others. Again, you're in a house. You're in the house of love. You're into one room. The other room is right next door. You just have to open the door and cross into it. So we can choose how to relate at all times. We can cultivate available options for being human that don't limit us.

[25:03]

They don't limit our hearts and limit our minds. But we need to actively choose. to abide and dwell in any of these particular sublime abodes, to actually take our seat there, find our dharma position, make our dharma position, make our zafu, that particular abode. So you're sitting on a lotus flower, a lotus blossom of compassion or kindness or appreciative joy or equanimity. Make that your seat. Abide there. So it's said that the very cultivation of the Brahmadviharas affect the shape of the mind.

[26:05]

You can say they determine the shape, or the aperture, of the mental spaces and emotional places that we personally dwell in. And these individual spaces then collectively make for the shape of the communities and the world that we live in. So to quote the Buddha, what we frequently think about and dwell upon becomes the shape of our mind. The shape of our mind shapes our world experience. So often... The mind is described as narrow, self-focused, self-limited, right? Just me. I am the only thing that my aperture is focused on, right? And when we take up the practice of the four immeasurables, we are intentionally widening our scope of concern. Again, widening the spotlight of what we're including in our life to be more inclusive and expansive. And we extend the mind through the practice of a Brahma Viharas in all directions.

[27:11]

All ten directions. So the Brahma Viharas, kindness, compassion, joy, equanimity, are also known with a Pali word as apamana, which translates as boundless or unlimited states. Because in their perfection and their true nature, They should be not narrowed or limited in any way to the range of beings in which they are extended towards. They should be non-exclusive and impartial, not bound by our selective preferences or our prejudices. Everyone and everything is included in the ever widening radiance. So those we love greatly and have great affection for, as well as those we despise and fear, need to be included in their radiance. And so a heart-mind that has attained the boundlessness of the Brahm-Viharas will not harbor any national, racial, religious, or class hatred.

[28:24]

There's no limit to the sense of our wide, open-heartedness. We have a heart as wide as the world and as wide as all that the world contains. And as we practice this together, we become acquainted with our natural resting place of a free and wide open heart. So the Brahma Viharas can be considered not only as abiding places, but radiating qualities. And in the interesting, because the word metta is derived from a Pali word, mitta, which can mean either friend, That's why we get metta-friendliness. Or mitta can also mean sun, as in a burning star. So we depend for our well-being on both the sun's warmth for survival as well as on the loving friendship of others.

[29:25]

So for those of you who took the class, one of the books that I recommended is as additional reading if you had the time and inclination was a book by Bhikkhu Anulayo titled Compassion and Emptiness in Early Buddhist Meditation. So I think it's a wonderful book and he does talk about the Brahma Vihara's in there and then also the relationship to the concept of emptiness in early Buddhism. And he as part of his discussion he talks about different stages of the sun as a simile for the Brahma Viharas. But before he does that, he actually offers four main steps of meditation practice, practicing on the divine abode. So I thought I'd briefly share those with you. So he says the first step is to arouse the particular divine abode, perhaps with the help of a reflection or an image of some sort. Okay, so for example, if you're planning to cultivate metta,

[30:33]

or friendliness, you might bring to mind the image of someone who exemplifies kindness and warmth and generous friendliness to you. A good friend, someone you love. Imagine them. First, bring them to mind. And then secondly, allow that divine abode, whatever it is that you're trying to cultivate, to well up in your heart. To actually have the felt sense of it. So this is what's most important, to come in contact. May they be safe, may they be well, may they be free of suffering. To have the felt sense in the body of the particular abode you're trying to cultivate. So if you imagine someone who embodies friendliness for you, what's the feeling in your body? How do you know friendliness? How do you know goodwill? How do you know kindness?

[31:35]

How do you know what's present? What do you notice, the felt sense of it in your body? Find that quality, the contact of that. What are the characteristics, what are the sensations of it? Embodiment. It's very important to embody the feeling of the Brahma-viharas. And then next, allow the divine abode to radiate into various directions. So this then is what the Buddha described when he's describing suffusing or pouring outward or over the quality of a loving, warm heart, letting it flow and extend in all directions. So you can radiate that felt quality, that felt energy in your body, allow it to extend out. Imagine it expanding out from your body in ever widening circles of being. That quality is just continuing to grow and grow and includes others, either particular individuals.

[32:37]

If you're going through Buddhaghosa's four-part model of practicing the Brahma-viharas, which can start with yourself and include a beloved or a loved one, and then include a neutral person, someone you don't really know well, but you still want to extend and include them. And then finally, perhaps to the world and or to someone you have difficulty with. So that radiating energy just continues outward and include everyone, right? Including ourselves. We have to include ourselves in this. We can't just allow the energy to extend outward. It's got to extend inward, right? And finally, the final step he recommends is to rest. in the condition or quality of boundless radiation, the boundless radiation of the divine abode itself. Just allow yourself to be quiet and still and bask in that particular abode.

[33:40]

For example, in kindness, in loving kindness, as if it was a warm bath. Or warm sunlight that you're just laying there, allowing it to warm your whole being. Rest there. Make that your seat. Allow it to come to you in that way. Hold you. So this radiating outwards. And Anulayo again goes on to describe the Brahma-Viharas as different stages of the sun. Metta, for instance, kindness, Goodwill, benevolence. He says, is the sun at midday, which shines its rays all over without any kind of distinction. We're almost there now, midday. It gives warmth and light to all who are receptive to it and indiscriminately.

[34:45]

It's just there. It's just radiating. It's just doing its thing. And Annalaya also notes that the sunlight... is the product of a process of implosion. The sun collapses into its center, and from that collapse, all kinds of photons are sent outward. That's where we get sunlight. And it's the same thing with metta, a coming together in the heart that gets radiated out. And what came to mind for me as I was thinking about this, it's kind of the image of the sense of a separate self collapses. What? It collapses in on itself. It implodes on itself. And that implosion releases in an explosion all the energy that had been contained within that particular world. So the self is a contraction. It's a confinement. It's holding. It's resisting. And when that resistance let go and implodes upon itself, all the energy that went into holding our self together is released.

[35:53]

And this is what you feel sometimes after Sushin. You have, I have all this energy, right? Because over time, that constricted self that we've been kind of navigating softens and releases. And we have all this energy. We're like, I don't know what to do with all this energy, right? Direct it towards love. Direct it outwards. Allow it to be sunlight radiating outwards. Share it with others, right? So these two types of movements are occurring concurrently in our practice, gravitating towards the center, imploding inwards, dissolving the self, collapsing the self, you know, until there's no longer, and then also radiating outwards in all directions, until there's no longer any inward or outward. All distinctions of inward and outward disappear. Right? So the next is karuna. compassion, desire to remove the suffering in others.

[36:56]

This is said to be the sun at sunset, when darkness is very close by, just as when compassion opens the heart to all the suffering in the world. So even though darkness, pain, suffering is close by, the sun shines in all the more beautifully, coloring the whole sky with kind of a poignant, Tender awareness of the vulnerability and permanence of life. Isn't there a tenderness to sunsets? This awareness that this too is passing. Something's coming to an end. A transition is happening, right? So that's karuna, compassion. And then mudita, inclusive joy, is like the sunrise after the dark. Imagine the early morning. the birds are singing, the dew drops are on the branches of the trees, the sun shines and these drops sparkle like diamonds in the light.

[38:00]

So just so is the willingness to rejoice in the good fortune of others, an attitude that is totally removed from any kind of jealousy or envy, just radiating, bright, fresh, alive, a rising quality of joy. So Analaya says that these three sun images, the midday sun, Karuna, the sunset of, sorry, the midday sun of Metta, kindness, the sunset of compassion, Karuna, and the sunrise of Mudita or joy, they all have a counterpart for their more outgoing qualities. And that counterpart is upekka. equanimity, which is more of a standing back. It's not a looking away. It's not wanting to do away with anything. But it's an open just being there.

[39:04]

A holding of the situation with awareness, right? Without moving in any direction. It's just allowing all things to be and do what they are. And so this particular sun simile, If we're going to use that, equanimity finds its counterpart in the full moon. That which reflects the sunlight but isn't otherwise affected by the sun. The full moon is often an image for enlightening, awakening. So... One of the ways that Anulayar says that he teaches the Brahma-viharas is by taking the instructions in the early suttas literally, right? And the early teachings didn't actually say to focus on particular individuals. This happens much later in the 5th century with Buddhaghosa and the Vasudha Maga, right? And the early teachings is just saying, focus on the quality, the radiant quality itself, as your object of meditation.

[40:12]

So you can meditate two ways using the Brahmaviharas. Either directing that energy outwards to other people to include a wider field of being, to expand your heart, or to actually rest in the experience of the abode itself. So recognizing our deep desire to experience these loving qualities, and then move from doing metta and a meditation practice to just being metta. Simply resting in the quality. And then allowing it to just shine in all directions without any effort at all. When you're just present, when you're just presencing, you naturally shine. That quality just is vast without you having to do anything. The work we usually need to do is not limiting that natural luminosity of our being. So we can either say the verses themselves, directing them towards others.

[41:25]

May I be happy and well. May you, dear one, be happy and well. May you, stranger, person I don't know, neutral person, may you be happy and well. And may you, difficult one, may you too be happy and well. But at some point, we drop the words. We drop the phrases. And we just rest in the nameless feeling of the Brahmavihara that they have given risen to. Rest in the feeling, for example, of that quality in the breath. Or just rest in the breath itself. Just feel the love in the breath. And then feel the love in the breath at a level where it is concentrated. And concentration is developed by thinking about things. It's not developed by the language. It's developed through an immediate somatic practice, giving attention to our felt being, our felt sense.

[42:31]

to this state of concentration, as we focus on the divine abodes, they're said to purify our heart and mind, purify our heart and mind of our habitual tendencies to limit ourselves, to grasp onto a sense of a separate self, our habitual ways of doing these things, of creating separation, right? And Just allowing the radiance, the quality of these abodes to sweep the house of our being, of any limitation, any constriction, any dust of self-grasping. And to just let our hearts be pure in the light of our true beings. pure in the light of awareness.

[43:49]

So I'm going to conclude with a short poem by Rilke. I live my life in widening circles that reach out across the world. I may not ever complete the last one, but I give myself to it. I live my life in widening circles that reach out across the world. I may not ever complete the last one, but I give myself to it." So as we practice, continue ever widening our aperture of awareness, allowing the light of mindfulness and awareness to dissolve both the inner and outer edges of our sense of self. In time, maybe the only thing that will remain will be light itself, awareness itself, right?

[45:00]

Remember, each of you is the stuff of the sun. Each of you is the sun. Carl Sagan said that, didn't he? You are all the stuff. We are all the stuff of the stars, right? That's where we came from, of these molecules. So don't keep the light of the stars to yourself. Don't keep the light of the sun to yourself. So as you sit here, radiate inward and radiate outward. And just bask in that radiant presencing of this immediacy of the present moment. Thank you for your attention. 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.

[46:03]

Your financial support helps us to continue to offer the Dharma. For more information, please visit sfcc.org and click giving. May we all fully enjoy the Dharma.

[46:16]

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