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. My name is Greg Fang. I'm the Tanto Head of Practice here at Zen Shinji, Zen Heart Monastery. I'm happy to be here tonight I'd like to start by acknowledging and thanking my teacher, Sojin Mel Weissman Roshi, and just say that my talk is just to encourage you in your practice. That's my only intention, to share my appreciation

[01:04]

of Buddhadharma with you and hopefully encourage you. And speaking of encouragement, I wanted to start with a little reading. It's not a poem. It's from the Chinese Brahmas Net Sutra. A big part of this sutra is a ceremony of receiving the precepts. In this case, 48 bodhisattva precepts. And the ceremony begins with a lot of preparation. And there's a ceremony of purification. And there's a little passage where the reciter mounts the raised dharma seat, it says here, and presents various passages, including this Encouragement.

[02:06]

It's called encouraging the practice of virtue. Venerable ones, this is the time during the summer retreat when we all have to gather here together. A certain amount of this retreat period has already passed, and only a certain amount still remains. Yet old age and death are close at hand. and the teaching of the Buddha is in the process of disappearing. All of us, therefore, monks and nuns, laymen and laywomen, should dedicate ourselves wholeheartedly to the realization of the Way. Why? Because all the Buddhas, having likewise applied themselves wholeheartedly, have thereby realized the true, supreme, unsurpassable awakening. What better thing could there be to accomplish than this?

[03:09]

While you are still in good health, you should listen well and make a great effort to realize this goal. But although you should be cultivating the way of virtue, why, instead of doing this, do you just calmly wait for old age to arrive? What is it that you intend to enjoy then? Today is already passing quickly by. In the same way as your very life on the way to destruction, we are like fish in a rapidly diminishing pool of water. What kind of happiness is awaiting us? Feeling encouraged? of the Buddhadharma is a serious matter. Life and death is a serious matter.

[04:14]

Tonight I wanted to talk about renunciation, the practice of renunciation and the middle way and how these two teachings inform each other and possibly, maybe, how they inform our life at Tassajara. And, Chico-san, I'm not wearing my watch. I need to wear my watch. Your watch? Mateo has a watch. So, middle way. There's kind of two understandings of middle way. The teaching of the middle way. that I want to talk about, at least two. The first is what you might call old school understanding.

[05:19]

So the very first Dharma talk, after the Buddha achieved enlightenment, he gave the sermon called the Dhamma Chaka Pavatna Sutta, first turning of the wheel of the law. And he taught the Four Noble Truths. But before he taught the Four Noble Truths, he taught about the Middle Way. That was the first thing he taught about. And this is because the Buddha, as a young man, as a prince, had been quite a spoiled brat. Everything was indulged. He could do anything, go anywhere. His slightest whim was indulged. And he partook of many sensual pleasures. And he did that for quite a while and found that to be kind of empty and pointless. And then he went to practice in the mountains as a wild yogi. And he did very extreme aesthetic practices. And he did a lot of that.

[06:22]

And he found that to be kind of pointless. So that was the teaching of his experience. Actually, healthy sort of sustainable practice somewhere between those two middle way so he taught about that there's a famous story you might be familiar with from the Binaya about a monk Sona was his name Sona was a very together guy he was a cool guy he was a good looking, he was popular, he was a musician, probably a bit of a rock star, you know, cool guy, pretty happy, basically happy guy, but thought he could be happier, thought he could, you know, he met the Buddha and he thought, hmm, there's something more.

[07:28]

He saw that, he saw that when he met the Buddha and so he wanted to renounce He asked the Buddha, I'm ready. He said, I want to shave my hair, shave my beard, and join your assembly. Buddha said, OK. And so Sona came and started practicing with Buddha's assembly. And he's doing all right at first. Then things got kind of hard. You know, he kind of wasn't meshing with the practice so well. Kind of having a hard time. And got to the point where he might have said to himself, dang, I feel like a fish in a rapidly diminishing pool of water. I don't think I can do this anymore. I'm not up for this. So he went to the Buddha and he said, dude,

[08:31]

No, I mean, he said, Lord, Lord, I can't do this. I'm not up for this anymore. So, you know, I'm down the road. Somebody drives by and picks me up. That's cool. Otherwise, I'm walking. I think I can walk to Carmel Valley Village, catch a bus from there. Right? Yeah. Okay? And the Buddha said, well, okay. I said, well, that's all right. But Sona, he said, Sona, is it true that before you became a monk, you were a musician? And Sona said, yeah, that's true. And the Buddha said, well, you played the lute, right? And Sona said, yeah, I played the lute. And the Buddha said, well, what happens if the shing on the lute isn't tight enough? And Sona says, well, when you pluck it, it won't make a sound. Buddha goes, okay.

[09:33]

What happens if you tighten the string too much? And Sona says, it'll break. Buddha said, the practice of the way is the same. Maintain your health. Be joyful. Do not force yourself to do things you cannot do. And Sona saw the wisdom of that and Stuck around. By the way, that's the best zazen instruction I can think of. Your zazen practice should be like that too. Just the right amount of tension. Just the right amount of relaxation. That's what will encourage presence and awareness in your zazen practice. Like that string that's tuned just right. So that's the first understanding of the middle way.

[10:35]

The second understanding that I want to talk about is the middle way as understood like the middle way between the two truths. This comes from Madhyamaka philosophy that was first expounded by the Indian Buddhist teacher Nagarjuna. He taught about the two truths, the relative truth, yes, no, up, down, this, that, and the absolute truth, everything, total interdependence of all creation, the conventional and the ultimate, the dualistic and the all-encompassing non-dualistic. Madhyamaka means middle way, and Nagarjuna's sort of premise was practice happens in the middle way between those two truths.

[11:38]

You emphasize one and ignore the other at your peril. So you can't just say, oh, it's all one, man. Like nothing matters because it's all one. No, that won't work. Right? And you can't just say, well, I'm doing the right thing and I know I'm right and you're wrong. That doesn't work either. Practice doesn't happen there either. So it's between. What Nagarajana had to say about that from his fundamental verses on the Middle Way, he said, without a foundation in the conventional truth, the significance of the ultimate cannot be taught. Without understanding the significance of the ultimate, liberation is not achieved. So renunciation, according to my dictionary, is the formal rejection of something, typically a belief, claim, or course of action.

[12:44]

Okay, perhaps. I think the word renunciation, the whole idea, is kind of repellent for a lot of people. It's kind of like, you know, what's he talking about, renunciation? I think, especially for some Westerners, it might sound like a kind of penance, self-punishment, deprivation, atonement for sins. Maybe. The Buddhist view, the Buddhist understanding of renunciation is more like, has been called, trading candy for gold. giving up the small pleasure for the greater truth. In the Dhammapada, the Buddha says, if by forsaking a limited ease she would see an abundance of ease, the enlightened person would forsake the limited ease for the sake of the abundant.

[13:55]

Well, I like to think of myself as an enlightened person. All right. Makes sense to me. But what about this abundant ease? Are there any guarantees about this abundant ease? I don't know. I don't know. Maybe I have to check it out. Maybe I'm going to go to Tassajara for a little while and try that on. See what I think of that. So what exactly is it we're renouncing? In some schools of Buddhism, It's a very obvious thing. Like Sona, you know, shaved his head, shaved his beard, put on the saffron robe. I'm renouncing. I'm giving up the world. Joining the order of Buddhist monks. But it's not always so clear. Especially here in Zen Center, it's like there's this sort of old... kind of boring controversy, are we really monks or not?

[15:00]

Are we really renunciates or not? It's not only about the outward forms. At any rate, for those of you coming to Tassajara, especially for the first time, I think you're discovering you're renouncing a lot. Like, you know, your familiar routine. Like your old circle of friends. Like choosing when you get up in the morning. That kind of thing. I've had people tell me that this is the most disciplined thing they've ever done. sometimes with tears of gratitude in their eyes. So you can try it on.

[16:06]

You can find out for yourself. Is this really a repellent idea or not? The American Theravadan monk, Thanissaro Bhikkhu, said an added part of our resistance to renunciation is peculiar to Western culture. Modern pop psychology teaches that the only alternative to a healthy indulgence of our sensual passions is an unhealthy, fearful repression. Yet both of these alternatives are based on fear. Repression on a fear of what the passion might do when expressed or even allowed into consciousness. Indulgence on a fear of deprivation and of the under-the-bed monster the passion might become if resisted and driven underground. Both alternatives place serious limitations on the mind.

[17:09]

The Buddha, aware of the drawbacks of both, had the imagination to find a third alternative, a fearless, skillful approach that avoids the dangers of either side. the middle way. Basically, what the Buddha taught is that holding on is the root of suffering. It's understandable that we hold on. We hold on to what we know.

[18:11]

We hold on to what we're familiar with. We hold on to even our fears. Renunciation is letting go. That can be kind of scary. The mind of renunciation is the willingness to let go of our attachments and deluded views. What cultivates this willingness, what can sort of nurture the willingness to let go that comes before the actual letting go is the patience to be with our attachments and deluded views.

[19:15]

The patience to see things as they are. To not turn away. This is hard. This is scary. And it's subtle because it's not a matter of successful or unsuccessful. It's just being patient. Just being willing to sit upright in the midst of all of it. That's what comes before the letting go. Tassajara is famous for its hot springs.

[20:19]

And also, you know, hot springs. Right? I know. why there's a box of Kleenex everywhere you look in Tazahara. Hot springs are flowing all the time. A lot of healing goes on here. A lot of people discovering the ability to be patient with themselves. To be patient with their new friends. To be patient with this difficult person. To see this difficult person as your teacher, in fact.

[21:29]

Rev. Anderson talks about this. in his book, Being Upright. And he got it from his teacher. Suzuki Roshi said in a talk he gave in 71, to be patient, you know. Well, I should say, Suzuki Roshi is responding to a student's question in this talk. And the question was something like, You know, what it says on the Han there, what it says in this exhortation, this encouragement I read in the beginning of my talk, is that life is fleeting and you need to practice hard right now. But we're also enjoined to be patient. So, isn't there a contradiction there? Shouldn't I be hurrying up and practicing, but I should be patient too?

[22:36]

So Suzuki Roshi's response is, he says, to be patient, you know, it doesn't matter whether you're doing things quick or slow, okay? And that is also renunciation, you know. Renunciation means to refrain from dualistic world. Even though you are doing something in dualistic world, you know, we should be free from, on the other hand, we should be free from the idea, dualistic idea. Or you may say, If you do one thing only, you know, if you make best effort on something you do, that is renunciation. That is non-duality. That is, you know, to be patient sometimes. So, this is renunciation in the middle way, in the second sense of the middle way, practicing the two truths. to do just one thing completely with practice grounded in the conventional reality.

[23:46]

Touch the absolute by just doing one thing completely. In this sense, we're all home leavers. You can renounce in a formal way. You can shave your head. You can do the whole thing where you paste the incense cones on your head and burn the incense cones down until they leave the scar. You know, you can do that. think that's kind of a beautiful practice. But you don't have to do all that to be a renunciate.

[24:51]

You don't have to do all that to be a home leaver. We're all home leavers in the sense of leaving the home of our familiar views and beliefs and opening up to the possibilities of that can arise when we're willing to let go, when we can cultivate the willingness to let go. And I think that what nourishes that is interest and joy. So, I hope all of you interested in this undertaking that you're finding some traction and I sincerely hope that you're finding some joy the Vietnamese Buddhist teacher Thich Nhat Han writing about his early life said when I wanted to become a novice monk I

[26:12]

My family thought that a monk's life would be too difficult for me. But I knew it was the only way I could be happy, and I persisted. Once I became a novice, I felt as happy and free as a bird in the sky. Everyone at Tu Hieu Pagoda practiced with interest, joy, and diligence. There was no forced effort. just the love and support of our teacher and fellow practitioners. Aww. That's so sweet. I don't believe him. I'm sorry. I have to say, I don't believe him. I think sometimes to you pagoda, some monks might have been saying to themselves, dang, I feel like a fish in a rapidly diminishing pool of water.

[27:19]

And, you know, this summer, some of you might be saying that to yourselves too. It could be. I'm just saying. That might happen. On the other hand, I know exactly what Thich Nhat Hanh is talking about. I know exactly what he's talking about because that's exactly how I feel about Tassahara. I can't help it. Interest, joy, and diligence. I might also call that beginner's mind. We put a lot of emphasis in the Soda Zen tradition on cultivating and cherishing beginner's mind.

[28:29]

Great Master Dogen said, the practice of beginner's mind is itself the entire original realization. Wow. There's a radical statement. I'm also, at this time, actually three days will be the tenth anniversary of the passing away of great Zen teacher May Lee Scott. And in the spirit of Suzuki Roshi saying just doing one thing with patience, letting go of dualistic idea, May Lee

[29:44]

who worked tirelessly for social justice, who engaged in many protests and the blockade at the Concord Naval Weapons Station, death penalty protests in San Quentin. She was famous for saying Just devotedly do without attaching to outcome. Devotedly do. And this is renunciation too. The Indian teacher, Shantideva, said, why be unhappy about something if it can be remedied?

[30:47]

And what is the use of being unhappy about something if it cannot be remedied? Wait a minute. Why be unhappy about something if it can be remedied? And what is the use of being unhappy about something if it cannot be remedied? I think Mealy felt that way too. And this does not mean giving in. It doesn't mean you don't do something. It doesn't mean you don't act. This does mean accepting with patience and letting go. So maybe what it is we're renouncing is unhappiness. What it is we're opening up to is kind of joy that surpasses happiness and unhappiness.

[32:01]

I'm a fish. in a rapidly diminishing pool of water. Far out. Okay. Why not? I'm wondering if anybody has a question or so? Chris? I know this isn't what she meant, but

[33:20]

I just have to ask what you would have to say to the voice that goes, well, why be unhappy about not having a cigarette if you can remedy it with a cigarette? Yeah, I don't want to give you a pat answer to that one. Because that's actually the hardest thing I ever did in my life. thing about the alkaloid is it talks to a part of your brain that is just like sort of won't listen to reason. And it's so darn convincing. Yeah. Yeah. And it's like it actually

[34:26]

really does go right to the heart of practice. Because the voice is saying, I won't be okay unless I do this. I won't be okay. And it takes a lot to make that jump into not knowing, finding out if I can be okay. Because that voice that's saying I won't be okay is really loud. So that's the kind of patience I was talking about. The patience to sit up right, not only with the voice that's saying I won't be okay, but actually the chemical triggers, the synapses that are just like

[35:28]

Nicotine now. I know that one. Yeah, so that one takes a lot. Right now. You can cultivate it right now. You have that capacity now. It's kind of fierce practice. I'm not saying it's not. Good luck. I'm on your side. You got my full support. Yes. Why, funny you should mention that. I had the same thing in mind.

[36:30]

I thought we might do that on the 10th, actually. Well, thanks for the use of your watch. Time to stop, I think. Thank you for your attention. Please, I hope, I wish for all of you, that you have diligence, interest, and joy in your practice. Good night. Thank you for listening to this podcast offered by the San Francisco Zen Center. Our Dharma Talks are offered free of charge, and this is made possible by the donations we receive. Your financial support helps us to continue to offer the Dharma. For more information, visit sfcc.org and click Giving.

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