in. to the Saturday talk at the San Francisco Zen Center.

[06:29]

Today's talk will be given by senior teacher, Christina Lenhair, part of our ongoing practice period, the theme being taking refuge and creating refuge. I will offer the opening verse and then Christina can begin. unsurpassed penetrating and perfect dharma is rarely met with even a hundred thousand million kalpas having it to see and listen to to remember and accept I about to taste the truth of the Tathagata's word Good morning, everybody.

[07:45]

Just saw that I was muted. Welcome very much. I'm taking a little moment to scroll through the pages to see who's here. Like I would look around in the Buddha Hall. But the good thing about this medium is that more people fit on him than would fit in the Buddha Hall. So there is an upside to it. I see people from all over the world. So welcome, everybody. It's lovely to see you all. Just on the onset, you will be part. of the Dharma talk that's going to arise because your energy affects what comes, wants to be spoken today.

[08:52]

So as our wonderful Eno, Ryan already said, the topic of our practice period, eight week practice period is taking and creating refuge. And we are, I think, in week six. We'll start week six next week. And we have been exploring first what provides true refuge in our own lives. Refuge that connects us to our fundamental meaning. Refuge maybe in a daily activity. Like maybe I shared with all of you in one talk. That for me, like ironing is a refuge. It centers me, calms me, lets my mind kind of drop everything and engages me fully. So I feel restored after I ironed a pile of whatever needed ironing.

[10:00]

Can be, as I said before, sitting down in a chair, looking out. can be your way to work. My father used to always take the route where he could see the mountains when he returned home. And that kind of provided him with a sense of refuge. So we have been exploring that refuge that connects us to our fundamental being. We have also engaged in mindfulness activities and spiritual practices. and sitting as a refuge. So that connects us to our fundamental being that opens our hearts, minds, and eyes, and brings ease to our bodies. So we also have been paying attention how those refugees actually affect us on all levels in the world.

[11:07]

our body, in our minds, in our emotional landscape, in our way of seeing and perceiving. And when we are connected to our fundamental being, we get connected to kindness, compassion, generosity, inclusiveness, capacity to respond appropriately and in helpful ways, because that's part of our fundamental being, those qualities. And we have, as I said before, also engaged in practices that cultivate our capacity of presence, being really fully present to the moment, to whatever it is we're doing or what is arising, being mindful and aware. So then, last week, on Thursday, February 24th, the whole world got made aware of the invasion of Ukraine.

[12:22]

Since then, a million people have fled their country, were on the way of fleeing their country. Children, women, old people, The men are not allowed to leave. They are turned back at the border. They have to hand their kids over to their wives. The temperature forecast for this coming week is Fahrenheit between 27 and 35 degrees Celsius between minus four and minus one degree. For the days, for the nights, The forecast for this coming week is Fahrenheit 14 to 26 degrees, which is Celsius minus 10 to minus three degrees. So I would like us to just take a moment and send out wishes from our hearts for these people.

[13:38]

for everyone included in this conflict. And to allow ourselves to be open to the enormity of this, not holding it in our body, but letting it flow through, letting it flow, come into and flow through our hearts. the enormity of what that means. Each one of us carries in the marrow of our bones and in the depths of our hearts a knowledge of the fundamental truth that we are inextricably interconnected, interconnected and interdependent with every human being on this planet, with every animal, every plant.

[15:05]

every drop of water, with the entire earth, the vast sky, the air, the whole universe. We are interconnected and interdependent in inextricable ways with all of this. And we all know in the marrow of our bones and in the depth of our hearts, beyond what we may allow into our everyday consciousness, that there is no possibility of true freedom, peace, well-being and prosperity unless they are shared with all. Dogen Senji, the founder of this school of Buddhism, says, your practice, and that means every action of body, speech and mind.

[16:23]

Your practice affects the whole earth and the entire sky. Although not noticed by others, but yourself, it is so. interconnection, interdependence of everything is one of the fundamental tenets of the Buddhist, of the Buddha's teaching. Also, the position that inherently in the foundation of each human being is Buddha nature. That is the potential to be fully human, fully embodied, fully alive and fully awake. With the onset of the invasion, this truth is now acutely tangible, I think, and felt by a majority of us in many ways in our bodies, hearts and minds.

[17:33]

We may be feeling a heaviness in our bodies, an aching heart, grief, disturbed sleep, anxiety, or fear. There was like, I don't know, maybe 30 years ago, I came across a book that was called The Secret Life of Plants. And there were experiments described where they put electrodes on leaves of plants that measured the energy in the leaf. And in the room next door, they were throwing live shrimp in boiling waters. And the plants went into shock. There was a reaction each time that was measured. So the plants could feel that life was killed in the next group.

[18:37]

And our bodies feel all of this too. In the first part of this practice period, our focus was on discovering what offers true refuge in the circumstances of our everyday lives for each one of us. and to cultivate our ability to access those things that offered refuge. And in the description of the practice period that we had online was, to have a location and a practice of refuge is providing restorative rest, orientation, and support for navigating the overt and pressing issues that are challenging us today to wake up, to align our relationships and interactions regarding race, society, economy, nature, its resources and climate change,

[19:58]

in liberating and just ways. That was and is the aim of this practice period, this focus. We did put ourselves first, self-care first, not in order to stop there, but to ultimately enable us to respond in appropriate ways to the needs around us. Similarly, as we are instructed in a plane to put the oxygen mask first on ourselves, on our own faces, so that we then can be helping others. We already, all of you, I'm sure, know this. I think everybody knows this.

[21:01]

We know from experience that the energy field of the people around us affect us. Also, the energy fields of animals around us and plants around us. In which proximity calms us down? brings us joy, connects us to our own heart, inspires us, and who or what unsettles us, riles us up, stokes the flames of frustration or anger. That's how we instinctively and our bodies respond to the energy that's around everything. So while seemingly focusing just on ourself in the first part of this practice period, focusing on finding refuge that connects us to the foundation of our humanness, to settledness, open heartedness, kindness and peacefulness.

[22:24]

lives there, it radiates out and affects the people around us and beyond. So already in the first three weeks, that has been happening and continues to happen wherever we are all the time. It's something that happens all the time. So now in the second half of the practice period, we have been shifting the focus to actively include the world around us into the practice of taking and creating refuge by engaging the six practices of the Bodhisattans. And so when I say we, I mean Paul Haller, who is my great support, enjoy teaching this class together, teach it together. And all of you that are participating, we all have engaged in this.

[23:32]

Bodhisattvas are beings that are living their lives for the benefit of all beings. That is the vow of a bodhisattva, that is the practice of a bodhisattva, that is the manifestation of what in Buddhism is called a bodhisattva. In other religions, they may be called saints, protectors, or there are other names for them. Six practices are described as expression of bodhisattvas or capacities of bodhisattvas and practices of bodhisattvas, actions of bodhisattvas. Those six are called paramitas, maramis or perfections.

[24:37]

There are manifestations of Buddha's way, of Buddha's mind and body. Manifestations of a fully awake, fully alive and fully embodied human being. The perfections are both simultaneously intrapersonal and extra interpersonal, intrapersonal and interpersonal practices. They go in both directions. They go inward and outward. That means we have to apply them towards ourselves in the same way as we have to apply them towards others and everything around us in our lives. When engaged, they are profoundly transformative.

[25:43]

When engaged, They are manifestations actions responding to the reality of complete interconnection of everything in this universe. So far, we have been concentrating on the first three. The first one is the perfection of giving. generous heart, generous mind, generous body. It is an antidote to fear of scarcity, to lack of trust, in generosity of ourselves or others, and an opening of

[26:50]

interdependence of all beings, opening us up to the interconnection of everything. The second one is called ethics for virtuous life or morality. And it cultivates the positive qualities of being awake and supports and expresses itself by refraining from harming others' poor self. The third is the perfection of patience, or Thich Nhat Hanh calls it radiant presence, is the willingness to turn toward Rather, generally, we tend to turn away from it or try everything to make it go away.

[27:55]

So presence means you turn toward it and feel that suffering allows it to be there when it's there. Make space for what is there. And invites. forgiveness and acceptance. So these are the three practices of perfection we have engaged for the last seven days or so. And now being faced with the facts of the invasion in Ukraine and by the stream of opinions, commentaries, and of pictures of destruction and suffering that just come in through all channels of communication.

[28:58]

How do we skillfully respond? For today, I would like to posit that they are a call to step up and step more fully into our own work. continue to take care of ourselves so that we can support and serve the needs of others. We are called both to look inward and outward. So with the practice of giving of generosity, I can look inward. Am I giving generous and spacious attention to all aspects of my inner life?

[30:03]

Or am I at war with parts of myself? So if we look at this whole universe as one being, then we could say, Invasion of Ukraine is a war towards an aspect of oneself, of this whole war of one aspect of this whole being with another aspect of this whole being. Is that happening inside me? Are there aspects in myself that I am at war with? my outwardly generous, giving time, attention, presence, care, care to others, care to the people in my life, to animals in my life, to the plants in my life, to the water in my life, to the air,

[31:22]

Am I generous in sharing my resources? What and who am I supporting? And how am I supporting that, what I am supporting? So, for example, in Marine, there is now this Huge conversation going on since a long time. They're trying to find space for affordable housing. And every place they want to build it, there's a huge resistance. Not here. Not here. Put it somewhere else. Not understanding that there is only one life and one body that we all share. Am I outwardly or inwardly?

[32:24]

Like, as an example, soldiers possibly bound by a family system, for example, to continue a feud, continue with a feud, exclude and scapegoat one or more family members. by outwardly or inwardly bound and encouraged by a religious belief system, by an allegiance to a leader, by company rules, to disenfranchise, to exploit, to disparage, to exclude or to harm or even take the lives of others. We hear stories that, you know, for a lot of the Russian people, the Ukrainians are family, their cousins.

[33:31]

They didn't necessarily know that they were sent to fight them and destroy their livelihoods and their homes and their infrastructure and their lives. Am I outwardly and or inwardly bound, possibly bound by a family system to continue with a feud to exclude and scapegoat one or more family members? Am I bound and encouraged by a religious belief system, by an allegiance to a leader, or by company rules to disenfranchise, to exploit, to disparage, to exclude or to harm or even take the lives of others. Am I willing to examine this, to look at this, to acknowledge what I find in these explorations, to be present with

[34:50]

and open to feeling my own suffering as well as the suffering that it might inflict on others. Am I willing and capable to make amends? Forgive and accept. So this is all three, all those... are just examples of the three parameters of giving, morality, ethics or virtue, and patience. At the end of today's Dharma talk and every Dharma talk and in ordination ceremonies, we say, yes, we will. In the ordination ceremonies, we say, yes, we will many times.

[35:51]

At the end of each Dharma talk, we say the four Bodhisattva values. And in the ordination ceremony, we affirm that we will. And those are to save all beings, to end all delusions, to enter all... the Dharma gates, which are gates to liberation and to manifest the Buddha way. So we will chant this. Maybe you participate in the chanting or you hear it, but that's what we say after each Dharma clap. How do we do that? Amongst innumerable ways, we do it by making a continuous effort of conducting our daily life activities, informed and shaped by the fundamental understanding that there is no possibility of true freedom, peace and well-being and prosperity unless they are available to all.

[37:11]

So can we actually take that in so deeply and understand that so deeply that it starts to inform all of our daily actions? Is this helping all beings? Is this excluding some? Is this an active exclusion? Is this supporting peace? Is this supporting division? All of this, are we willing to engage in that continuous effort and intention to honor the reality that there is one life. There are not millions of lives. There is one life that millions of people billions of beings share.

[38:15]

So there is individual life, but it's absolutely part of the one life in this universe that we all share on this planet. And maybe in other universes we are probably interconnected to. We do this making this continuous effort of conducting our daily life activities. Understanding that every single one of our actions of body, speech and mind affect the whole Earth and the entire sky in the 10 direction. like the story of the butterfly that flaps its wings and then somewhere else on the planet, it starts a process that somewhere else on the planet kind of expresses itself in a big storm.

[39:24]

We do it by being generous and sharing our resources. We do it by appreciating that we are alive and by not taking for granted all we have. And we do it by remembering our intentions over and over and over. So one of the practices we have been engaged during these weeks is to formulate intentions and to speak them out loud in the morning and in the evening. It's a way of helping us remember. Some people have put them on their phone. So each time their wallpaper comes up on the phone, there they are.

[40:35]

So it reminds them. So we participants have all found their own way of doing that and what works in their circumstances and have been engaging that now for several weeks. We have two more weeks to go. And then a meditation retreat of seven days, Sesshi, called Sesshi, gathering the mind where we sit, meditation. So what I would like to do today is to end this talk with a loving kindness meditation.

[41:36]

Sending out our energy, loving, kind energy into the universe. Whoever is hosting the Zoom link will put it up in the chat box. And I will say it and you can join with your go with your attention into your heart space and join from there. You can put your hand on your heart if that helps you. You can see it. in an upright, supported position, whatever helps you to be present. And you don't have to read it. You can just listen, but it's also there if you want to read it. First, for a moment, feel into your heart space and think of somebody you love dearly.

[42:47]

Feel with your whole body how that energy of loving deeply feels in your body. And then, may I be filled with loving kindness. Feel the loving kindness. in you right now. Connecting to something that you love dearly, dearly. May I be filled with loving kindness. We allow this energy to feel our whole bodies down to our toes and fingertips.

[43:58]

May my heart be awake and free from greed, hate and delusion. I think when we listen with our bodies, we can feel how the relief that is or could be to have a heart that is awake and free from greed, hate and delusion. May the people in Ukraine, may the people who are fleeing their countries, may the Russian soldiers, may all beings be filled with loving kindness.

[45:19]

May the people in Ukraine, may all the people who are fleeing their countries, may the Russian soldiers, may all soldiers, may the homeless people in this world, may all beings be filled with loving kindness. May all beings feel safe and at ease. May all beings feel protected from inner or outer form.

[46:38]

all beings experience nurturing connection and belonging. May the hearts, minds and bodies of all beings awaken Be free from greed, hate and delusion. I want to end this talk today with reminding you all that your intentions have energy, have a frequency of energy or energy, have a frequency.

[48:12]

So you can send out throughout the day your intentional wishes to whoever You want to send them. They travel unhindered through space to this universe. So they will arrive where they're intended to go to. So that's the agency we have in the middle of overwhelming situations, situations that might feel overwhelming and that might be overwhelming. So to remember that, That are the actions of mind. If you say it out loud, then it's also an action of speech and body. So these are ways you can affect the entire Earth and the whole sky. It's infusing that kind of energy into the universe. And that will be the same when we're frustrated or angry or hateful.

[49:18]

So we can choose. what we send out. May I be filled with love and kindness. May my heart be awake and free from greed, hate and delusion. May the people in Ukraine, may the people who are fleeing their countries, May the Russian soldiers, may the homeless people in this world, may all beings be filled with loving kindness. May all beings feel safe and at ease. May all beings feel protected from inner and outer harm. May all beings Experience nurturing connection and belonging.

[50:23]

May the hearts, minds and bodies of all beings awaken and be free from greed, greed and delusion. Thank you very much for your company today. Thank you, Christina. I will now offer the Bodhisattva vows. You may follow along. May our intention equally extend to every being and place with the true merit of Buddha's way. Kings are numberless.

[51:25]

I vow to save them. Delusions are inexhaustible. I vow to end them. Dharma gates are boundless. I vow to enter them. way is unsurpassable. I vow to become it. Thank you all for being here. We have time for questions, comments, interactions with the teacher. You may raise your Zoom hand. Can I see Ariana?

[52:48]

Yes, thank you, thank you, thank you very much, Christina. Yeah, it was very important, I think, to give this space. And you mentioned Thich Nhat Hanh. It also is an inspiration for me because he suffered from the situation in his country and it was possible for him to be with this kindness, this loving kindness. And I think about what kind of activity can be appropriate.

[54:00]

Yes, I'm thinking about when I'm leaving for Europe again. So as you know, Berlin is not so far away and supporting people who came to the refugee camps. Thank you so much. Thank you. Yes, I think that is a question many of us have. How can we support? And one thing that I know is helping is the world kitchen. It's going where refugees are and feeding them. So that's one way we can materially give something in support, alleviate some of the suffering. But there are many other ways, and we have to all find in our lives what that could be, how, where it could be, and how to help.

[55:07]

Thank you. I see Terry next. Hi, Christina. Thank you so much for your words. I am experiencing chronic pain for just about two months and kind of the first time in my life and not found much relief. And I was wondering which Paramita, I confess that I have not been very invested in the practice period. I've been in and out and in and out and not really bringing my practice to the situation I'm in. I haven't done that.

[56:16]

And I'm just realizing that today. And which Paramita do you think is... Would you suggest that I focus on? Well, I think the first and the third are really wonderful parameters to apply. One is the permit of giving. Yes. Really acknowledge that the pain is there and give space to it and respond kindly to it rather than wanting to get rid of it as quickly as we could. So that's a wonderful one. And then a really helpful one. And then the one of generosity, of acceptance, of it's here. So can I surrender to the fact, not collapse into the fact, but allow it to be here?

[57:20]

That's an act of generosity because it's here anyway. But if we... allow it, it has a different effect on us than if we fight it or if we deny it. So Thich Nhat Hanh has a beautiful chapter in the heart of the Buddha's teaching that's called Stopping, Calming, Healing, Resting, Healing, something like that. Chapters where he says when we suffer, a strong feeling or a pain, can we put our arms around it and hold it like a small baby, not an older small baby? And Ariane has mentioned Thich Nhat Hanh and his way of responding to the suffering that was inflicted on his people in Vietnam, on himself by exile. and on the experiences he had.

[58:22]

And one of his poems are so strong about that. And it's called Call Me By My True Names, which is a poem about that we are everything and everything is us, that there's no separation. So that's a poem I would encourage you to read if you have access to it. I have that book. Yeah. So it's really... So then you can also relate to your pain as being everything. The one has feeling it, the pain that is there, the part of your body. And just meet it with kindness and spaciousness and open heartedness to the degree you can. And I'm sorry to hear that you're in chronic pain. That's a challenge. Yes, it is. Okay. Thank you very much. It's very helpful.

[59:23]

Thank you. I see Amy in the city center dining room. Hi, Christina. Amy. As I was walking down the staircase today, I felt this question you bring up of who am I supporting? Either I am supporting with my practice and interconnected, larger, interdependent being I'm serving that or with the next step, I'm dispersed and nobody's home and I'm only serving a narrow egocentric littler self.

[60:29]

And I watched the alternating between being aligned and being open to something greater and being dispersed and nowhere. And what I felt, maybe it's related, maybe not, is that it was my body that called me back. And it was my body that had a sort of nervousness when I was dispersed that I could notice. Maybe this is simplistic, but it felt to me like either you serve one thing or you serve yourself. didn't really hear a question what comes up in me is so thank you very much because I think that's wonderful that you feel the difference and that your body is alerting you when you're dispersed and and that you can be curious about this question is it an either or or how does this unfold

[61:51]

So thank you very much. Oh, Don, would you like to ask a question? Are you waving? Yes. Oh, okay. Because I don't know what to do on the computer. Oh, okay. Well, I saw you wave, so good luck. That was lucky. For months I've been trying to get into this situation.

[62:59]

I feel very overwhelmed by the situation. My mind goes back to sitting at the age of 13 and hearing on the radio the Japanese have invaded Pearl Harbor. So I'm old. And then I was in Germany right after the war. And I just picked up a book. about how the Germans went through for 10 years from after, you know, from 45 on, you know. And the amount of suffering that immediately followed the war has not ever been talked about very much, but it was a terrible time, terrible time. And so I felt overwhelmed and retreated from wanting to know about the news. So thank you for helping me see a way to bridge or to accept what's going on and offer what I can to the world, to the suffering.

[64:21]

Appreciate that because I was just feeling very overwhelmed by all the wars. The one that followed. Five years after that world war, you know, and on and on. And thank you for your lovely face and your warmth and my memories of you as well. It's been 27 years since we first met. Yes, wow. That's a long time. Yeah. Yes, thank you very much, John. Yeah, and I think... Being on a healthy diet with a simulation of news is a very healthy thing to do. To not, you know, to not be on the news all the time because images we see, we cannot unsee. And we have to see what, what overwhelms us to the degree that we can't function or can be helping anymore.

[65:25]

So, so. I think you're pointing to a very important place here. Thank you. Thank you. I see David. Okay, I think I'm unmuted. Dharma Talk brings up a long time question of mine, and I'm wondering if you would reflect on this a bit. So much when we come to this question of loving kindness or extending ourselves, coming to know our interrelationship with things, it seems like a lot of it is this... let's say top down about images and ideas and knowing things like a higher brain thing.

[66:34]

And I'm wondering if you could reflect on how we might come to know this say in a loving kindness meditation in a more bottom up sensory oriented kind of approach. Well, I'm, I mentioned that we all know it in our bodies deep down and that we, I think most of us can feel a physical response to what's happening in the world because it's such a strong event that invasion is so, so strong energetically, so charged that we feel it, but we feel... Our bodies feel much subtler things. They feel actually the distress and the cold, the homeless people in front of our doors are experiencing. They feel the suffering of plants and animals.

[67:36]

But that's just, we have not trained ourselves. Our culture does not train us to cultivate that awareness and to include that awareness. Our brains are just conditions and block it out. They don't just don't let up, but you can go into your body and you. So one of the practices we gave the practice period participants was choose one of those three parameters. And when it's present, when that quality of. Being with these present patients or. ethics or generosity, pay attention how that affects your body. And when it's not present, pay attention how that affects your body. And it's like what Amy said, she could feel that when she was dispersed, there was an other energy in her body that she called nervousness.

[68:42]

And when she was connected and felt connected, that wasn't there. So that's how you can engage your body. And that's also when I said, you know instinctively, you can now pay attention why you like the proximity of certain people. You may just have done it instinctively, never paying particular attention, but your body can tell you what happens to it when you're around those people. And when you're around people that you rather would like to avoid. And then to look, why would I avoid them? Is it because they make, they create me, they bring up my anger that is in me? Or is it their suffering I don't want to see? That's a very different way. And that would be on some level...

[69:47]

not the encouraged practice. The encouraged practice is to become non-avoidant, but also discerning. Does that answer your question to some degree? Okay, thank you. Thank you for the question. I just wanted to thank you for your Dharma talk today, Christina.

[70:50]

Thank you very much. I think you can all start saying goodbye, I think. Brian, is that correct? That's correct. You should be able to unmute and say thank you and goodbye. Thanks, Christina. Thank you. Thank you, Christina. Bye. Thank you. Bye-bye. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Christina. Take care, everyone. Bye. See you again soon. Bye. Bye. Thank you so much, Christina. Oh, Brent.

[71:52]

Hi, guys. Oh, Vicky's back. Hi, Vicky. I just got back. Oh, nice. Welcome. Stacey. Hi, Stacey. Wow, Stacey, hi. Stacey. Yeah. Nice to see you. Stacey, you look great. Dagmar, you too. I like your hair. Oh, sorry. You're not supposed to say stuff like that during that. Everybody looks great. So good to see you all. Oh, Arlene, great photo. Yeah. Thank you. Bye. Thanks for your lecture. That was so helpful. Welcome, Vicky. Wow. Yeah. Just the way you pulled in everything about what's happening and acknowledged the grief but didn't lean into it.

[72:59]

Thank you. Thank you. I think, you know, being in this practice period just gave a frame for that lens to look through that helped bringing it into this shape that it has. Thanks. Bye-bye. See you.

[73:21]

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