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. Good evening. fragile existence. I want to thank you to Tonto, Greg, for the invitation to speak this evening. I brought this kotsu on purpose because Greg and I, many years ago when I was living here, and Greg also, we had to make a Dharma staff for Blanche's who was also my teacher, disciple, John King, rode down the road in the blue truck at the time and saw an oak tree root that was dead off the side of the road and cut it down and made him a really great Dharma staff.

[01:18]

And this was a leftover piece. So I cherished it. Unfortunately, John died, and I actually inherited his staff back, so I have that also. So... And thinking about the talk this evening, I really thought, having been here before, living here, and in the summer... a difficult thing to give a talk in the summer because they're students who have been here for a long time. They're guests, some of whom this is their first time introduction to Buddhism or a place that practiced Buddhism. And then just what is it arising in my life that has enough juice in me to feel like there's something to share.

[02:22]

And so, in part, I was thinking about the time of the summer season at Tassajara. I know that this is the fourth month, and we're all very tired, is my guess, the students, really tired. And that, well, you know, there's one more month about, so maybe the end, you can see it, and yet there's still quite a stretch. And then, given the events in the U.S. lately, Charlottesville and otherwise, in fact, on a certain level, I was regretful that this was the weekend I was coming here because of the demonstration in San Francisco today, today, Saturday, today, and the counter movement. And yet, this is our practice, right?

[03:25]

The conditions of our lives, where we find ourselves, and then how do we meet? Now, my sense is that, yes, our practice is to let go of ideas and concepts and just do it on a certain level. How do we just wholeheartedly and Engage with things, right? And it's hard to do in the summer when things seem like a lot of things that come and go in a very perhaps seemingly unpracticed way. And also you're tired. And so at such time, I think it's really useful to go back to the teachings and get some very specific way of working with what you might be having difficulties with. And so I thought right now talking about right or wise effort might be a good topic because efforting probably seems a little bit hard.

[04:30]

Or is it just me? Also, on a certain level, the guests, you know, my sense is you come and you have a sense of what Tassajara might be like, especially in the beginning, and then it's not quite what you thought. And so maybe it's even some effort to relax. and enjoy what's going on. So, I wanted to talk about what's classically is the sixth of the Eightfold Path, classically translated as right effort from Sama, Sayama, right? Sama is usually translated as right. Not so much the right and wrong we think of, as more as right is incorrect. right as in skillful, right as in wholesome, right as in complete or perfected. And lately it's really popular to say right as in, or sama as in wise.

[05:32]

And I think that's useful. Vayama, did I say yavama before? Because I'm dyslexic. So vayama means effort, diligence, endeavor, or vitality. So it's part of the fourth literature, the Eightfold Path. And the Eightfold Path, where the eight of them are divided into three sections. They are classically thought of as the wisdom part, which is wise understanding, a wise view, wise thinking, a wise intention. And then the, often thought of the second of the, section is what's considered the ethical conduct, right speech, right action, and right livelihood. I like to think of it also as compassionate living. And then the third is what's often considered the samadhi or the concentration aspect or gripping.

[06:39]

And it's right effort is the first of those, then right mindfulness and right concentration. Now, Gil Fransdale, who I heard was recently here, often calls this section more as an emotional and mental development. And I appreciate that because we're so mental related in terms of how we think about how to work with our mind. But remember that mind and heart are not separate in Buddhism. And so how you work with your mind is also how you work with your heart. And in particular, the section of emotional and mental development is considered the bridge between two aspects of Buddhism, which is wisdom, right view and right intention, and the ethical conduct. So the compassionate, remember I called it compassionate. So how do we, Buddhism thought as both wisdom and compassion, and the emotional and mental development is how do we

[07:46]

bridge the two, our ideas, our aspirations, our intention, and how do we act with that. And in the third, the grouping, right effort or wise effort, today maybe I'll focus more on skillful effort as a way to put it, is often considered the key in the sense that if your effort is misguided, it distracts the mind and heart from its task, the freedom, and there then tends to be more confusion and discouragement, and then you might stop practice. So, here's from the Samyutta Nikaya, what the Buddha said. The Buddha said, there's a case where a monk generates desire endeavors, arouses persistence, uphold, and exerts his or her intent.

[08:55]

For the sake of non-arising of evil, classic wording, you could maybe say harming, right? The non-arising of harming, unskillful qualities that have not yet arisen. The Buddha said there's a case where a monk generates, desire, endeavors, arouses, persistence, upholds and exerts her intent for the sake of abandoning, of harming, unskillful qualities that have arisen, for the sake of the arising of skillful qualities that have not yet arisen, and for the maintenance, non-confusion, increase, plentitude, development, and culmination of the skillful qualities that have arisen. So to break that down, basically there are two aspects, right? How do you work with unskillful or unwholesome aspects of mental and heart?

[09:59]

So one, you want to guard or prevent the rising of the unskillful. And then when you have seen the rising of unskillful, then you want to abandon it or you want to let it go. or you want to overcome it. Here's from Jack Kornfield in the Householder series. He says, the effort to deal with unskillful things has two parts. First, the effort to abandon that which is unskillful, and that means abandoning our grasping, our fear, our hatred, and our anger. It doesn't mean judging oneself or resisting it. It means learning skillful means not to be so caught up in things, not to be so attached. Then the effort to guard their absence once you've figured out how to let go of them some.

[11:00]

So in terms of how to work with skillful or wholesome, you want to develop, arouse, and cultivate. Wholesome not yet arisen. We do that by going to, say, zazen instruction, for those who are new, reading, studying, listening to dharma talks, and sitting. And then we want to maintain or perfect skillful or wholesome already arisen, and we do that by sitting regularly, attending sits, one-day sashims. We want to develop it, basically. So how does this play off the cushion? So this is from science. Science has even backed us up. So this is from a study. It appeared in the New York Times. It's a study called When the Mind Wanders, Happiness Also Strays. And this is from two Harvard professors, Matthew Killingsworth and Daniel Gilbert.

[12:05]

So they took an iPhone app and they called it Track Your Happiness. And they gave it throughout the world randomly to 250,000 people. And at random interval, they would ask them how they were feeling, what they were doing, and what they were thinking. So the hypothesis of the experiment was wherever your mind went, say the South Sea, your job, your lunch, Your unpaid bills, this is out in the world. That daydreaming is not likely to make you as happy as focusing intensely on the rest of, in this case, reading the column. When asked to rate their feelings on a scale of zero to 100, with 100 being very good, people having sex gave an average rating of 90.

[13:06]

That was a good 15 points higher And the next best activity, which was exercising, which was followed closely by conversation, listening to music, taking a walk, eating, praying, meditating, cooking, shopping, taking care of one's children, and reading. Near the bottom of the list was personal grooming, commuting, and working. Luckily, the personal grooming, we don't have to worry so much about Kasahara. Now, that's a great freedom right there. Now, according to them, the unhappiness produced by your mind wandering was largely a result of the episodes involving unpleasant topics. Such stray thoughts made people more miserable than commuting or working than in any other activity. So remember how to work with effort, we want to

[14:09]

abandon unskillful or unwholesome thoughts that have already arisen. So when you have an unpleasant topic coming, it's good to abandon it. You realize that it's not useful to you. Now, in terms of guarding or preventing unskillful from arising, here's from the research, the study. You might suppose that if people's mind wander while they were having fun, then those stray thoughts are liable to be about something pleasant. And that was indeed the case with those happy campers having sex. But for the other 99.5% of the people, there was no correlation between the joy of the activity and the pleasantness of their thoughts. Even if you're doing something that's really enjoyable, says Mr. Killingsworth, one of the researchers. What doesn't seem to protect, excuse me, that doesn't seem to protect against negative thoughts.

[15:12]

The rate of mind wandering is lower for more enjoyable activities, but when people wander, they were just as likely to wander towards negative thoughts. So just wandering itself. Furthermore, the research also wondered about cause and effect. Could the mind wandering be a consequence rather than a cause of unhappiness? So the Harvard psychologists compared each person's moods and thoughts as the day went on. They found that if someone's mind wandered at, say, 10 a.m. in the morning, then at 10.15, that person was likely to be less happy than at 10. So perhaps because of those stray thoughts, But if people were in a bad mood at 10, they weren't more likely to be worrying or daydreaming at 10, 15. We see evidence, then they said, for mind-wandering causing unhappiness, but no evidence for the unhappiness causing mind-wandering.

[16:24]

So it's a good thing that 10 o'clock is break time here, isn't it? or students, yeah, so more pleasant thoughts then. The results may disappoint daydreamers, but in keeping with the religious and philosophical admonition from be here now, this is from outside, from the yogi Ram Dass, right? What psychologists call flow, immersing your mind fully in activity. I'll say that again. Immersing your mind fully in activity has long been advocated by non-psychologists. So what does the article say about developing wholesome and maintaining already wholesome or skillful? People having straight thoughts on neutral topics rank only a little below the overall average and happiness. And the ones daydreaming about pleasant topics were actually a bit above the average. although not quite as happy as the people whose minds were not wondering.

[17:30]

Happiness in the moment is not the only reason to do something, says Jonathan Schooler. He's a psychiatrist at the University of California, Santa Barbara. His research has shown that mind-wandering can lead people, though, to creative solutions or problems, which could make them happier in the long term. Now remember what Buddhism teaches about wise effort and mental development. Here's from Dr. Gilbert, one of the researchers. If you ask people to imagine winning the lottery, by the way, 700 and something million dollars one person wanted. So if you imagine winning the lottery, they typically talk about the things they would do. I go to Italy. I buy a boat. I lay on the beach. but they rarely mention the things they would think. But our data suggests that the location of the body is less important than the location of the mind, and that the former has surprisingly little influence on the latter.

[18:42]

The heart goes where the head takes it, and neither cares much about whereabouts of the feet for any of these people. And then lastly, they says, on average, throughout all the quarter million responses, minds were wondering 47% of the time. That figure surprised the researcher, and Dr. Gilbert says, I find it kind of weird now to look down this crowded street and realize that half the people weren't really there. In the South Sea, it sounds like. The Harvard research concluded... that after several months of the iPhone study, the most frequent mind wanderers remain less happy than the rest. And the moral, at least for the short term, seems to be, you stray, you pay. Now, why is keeping up with effort so hard, do you think? So as the article says, we're rarely present, or less than present.

[19:49]

Less than, a little more than 50% only. And if we are, especially at work or working during the summer, we rarely are focused on what we're doing. So focus is the key. And there are two ways of focusing. One is what's called differentiated focusing. Categorizing and sequencing. A versus B versus C, where A leads to B leads to C. what I call the to-do list, right? You have a thing and you check it off, you make categories. In our culture, it's very much product-to-go oriented, and we tend to have to do more of the narrow way of things. We need to have that list, we need to check things off. And it's okay, and it's a useful tool. However, instead of being with each to-do, we tend to multitask. Even we make the list so that we can make sure things get done.

[20:53]

It's really in the service of getting as much done as possible and multitasking, which means we have the list, but then we tend to be thinking ahead to the next thing, constantly trying to get to the goal, finishing, and not the actual goal, the finite goal itself. So we're doing this Embracing Change workshop, and when people talk about the issue, A lot of the agitation is about, what should I be doing? This is why a lot of the workshop is very much about really being with the issue of change. And in the really examining and being with it fully, then we're clear about what it is, and therefore we're more wholesome or skillful in how we effort, where we effort, and then how we effort. So one point of concentration is a great way of staying present, of being with the thing itself.

[22:01]

So what I like to call coming back concentration or practice meditation. And then, in fact, you know, this is why practice period is easier because you just follow the schedule and you just do the next thing and it's all laid out for you. You don't get as much choice. You have more choice in the summer, and therefore you suffer more than the rain. I would say. I have, anyways. Now the second way to focus is what's called global awareness. Now we think of this as like the bigger picture, the wide lens, seeing the bigger picture. Another way to put that is simultaneous inclusion. And here's from Darlene Cohen, one of our great teachers who has also passed. She says, this is from the one who's not busy. She says, simultaneous inclusion or non-dual perception, right? There's no A, no B, is the experience we have when we just do our lives.

[23:07]

Whatever is under our nose without considering whether it's timely, boring, pleasant, or unpleasant. We just dip our hands into the river of pleasure constantly flowing activity, and take them out again when it's time to sleep. When we can view our work and leisure or our activity this way, we have stopped chopping up our experience into opposing categories, like, dislike, pleasant, unpleasant. We have shed illusion and enlightenment and cut off the holy and the ordinary. We stop distinguishing noble and mean. It's not that there's no giving jobs on assessment of ability, right? It's not that we can't make any of these distinctions with credibility, but we should remember when we make these distinctions that we are free to not make them as well.

[24:15]

Feeling oneself free to either distinguish between activities or not distinguish between activities is the circumstance for it. It behooves you to be aware that you can experience your activities two ways. You can experience the undifferentiated, non-dual, or simultaneous included flow of events on the one hand, and on the other hand, you can divide activity into categories. so that you have the sense of doing one thing after another. Each approach produces a vastly different experience of working, but they have the same source in our mind. We have the choice of how we view the time we spend in activity. We can establish our own reality for ourselves according to which perception, dual or non-dual. and therefore make the most sense of any activity.

[25:17]

So, how is important, right? The quality of effort. So it's neither wrong or right, good or bad. I say the issue is do we know how to do which when we need to. When you need to Get the food from the kitchen to the dining room. It's good to know which order to take things. Or when you're doing cabin crew, you have the list of which cabin you're supposed to do. So that's useful. And can you shift to when you don't need to be task-oriented? So the shifting, the ability, the flexibility to be able to shift is the key. This is our life. We are asked to do. How we choose to do, it is what we can bring our attention and intention to. Nothing's wrong or needs to be fixed.

[26:23]

You already know both of these ways. The way your mind thinks isn't a problem. What you can do is to have more choices and how to practice and focus. the way you want to or need to in the moment when you need it, and to shift when you need it. Here's from Kategori Roshi. This is from Each Moment is the Universe. We can see the functioning of the universe in all of our activities, walking, standing, sitting, and sleeping. Not just in Zazen. When you act wholeheartedly, your activity becomes very clear, calm, flexible, and magnanimous. It is boundless, and simultaneously, it is you.

[27:26]

So studying the boundless of activity is studying the self. This is called intimacy, and really being with where you are and what you're doing. How can you know the meaning of intimacy, he continues? You cannot see it objectively because intimacy is not the result of activity. Intimacy blooms right in the midst of activity itself. If you try to understand intimacy intellectually as a concept, you never know real intimacy. So remember that wise effort is the bridge between wisdom and really the wisdom of your life. You know, you know your life when you really pause and can be with it. So it's the bridge between how we have a sense of our intention and the values of our life and then how do we act and speak and live from there.

[28:39]

Our action, our speech and action in the world. Wise effort is that bridge. So come back or let go into what happiness is. What's happening right now? Connect fully with it. Because the fundamental ground of your being is not just happiness. It actually is joy. Thank you. Is there time for questions? Does anyone have any questions? Yes. Can you tell me your name? Jennifer? Yes. So I didn't hear the first part.

[29:41]

Well, it said that it helped, but only to a certain extent. It wasn't a huge difference. So in essence, when the mind wandered, the... the majority of the result is negative. So staying focused is the key. When you're really involved in activity, be it running or meditating, when you're fully engaged, then there's that sense of flow, I think, that most of us can understand. To me, flow, we kind of think of flow as like... Things are happening how I want them. But really flow is when you're fully involved and there is no sense of me doing it or it's being done. It's just happening.

[30:47]

I would say on a certain level it's efforting. Just pure being. Anyone else? Yes. Nick. What's the point? Why do you ask? There's not much point in being happy for that reason, I would say, in a certain way. Here's the thing. It isn't so much... If we think about what is the point to happiness, I would say we're already setting ourselves up because happiness, like anything else, comes and goes.

[31:54]

So in a way, I wonder if your question is, what's the point of happiness if I can't keep it? Because you're afraid of being sad, right? So then that's the grasping. Remember, that's the cause of suffering. It's not happiness or unhappiness on a certain level. That's the problem. Because probably already in this talk, you've been happy and unhappy. Haven't you? But if you just stay with, oh, I'm really unhappy because it's hot, it's so hot, and I have to be here, then you sustain your happiness. Unhappiness, sorry. Right? But if you're like, oh, I'm really happy. That's the best thing she ever said. Oh, it really resonated. And then I say something, and you're like, what the? You know? Then now you're unhappy. So it comes and goes. This is, remember, impermanence. Right? Dukkha, which is dis-ease, dissatisfaction, discontent. Usually translates as suffering. I prefer these other three. This is part of our life.

[32:56]

And then the me in that, or what you think is the me, the solid me around that. Why should I be happy when I'm going to lose happiness? As opposed to I'm happy, or there is happiness, and then there's sadness, or there's... What else is there besides happiness? And is there ease in that? Is there ease in unhappiness? On a certain level, don't you come here to practice that? Where's the ease and unhappiness? They're not separate. They haven't been for me at times. Would that be your experience, June? Anyone else? Yes. Kai Xin. of that situation and that they're exhausted from meeting the moments.

[34:02]

So there's got to be some triggering of you pulling away from the moment sometimes in order to sustain a day or sustain what is due emotionally and emotionally. So how do you predict that? To sustain what in the day? To sustain the day. To sustain yourself in the day. Oh, wow. So if you want to say, I can leave that moment. I can go with it. And if it's high energy, I'm rolling. And then where's the energy for the rest of my day? So then I think this is where wise or skillful effort comes in. I would say, what is the cause for why... I'm like, why so much? The cause of why that event is the one that you're efforting so much to be with. Or, you kind of hinted at it, my guess is you're tired on a certain level because when we're in the flow of things, actually, that doesn't have a sense of effort.

[35:18]

Isn't that why we want to be in the flow? There's no sense of effort. Right? And so I wonder, I wonder if after the flow, you're tired because now really it's the grasping for how I wish I had the flow back or how come that flow didn't sustain. I don't know. So here's the thing. So this is why we practice, right? On a certain level, it isn't, if you get caught up in how things come and go in your life, You know, I'm going to ride it and then I'm going to fall. Or for many of us, plummet. Then, life is like that. This is why we practice to find stability in the midst of things. Which doesn't mean we can't rise, mind you. And we have the flexibility to also relax. Here's the thing about effort. See, we think effort is all about doing.

[36:21]

But a lot of effort is about knowing when you don't have to do. I have to be perfectly honest that I really wanted to give a talk called Swimming Zazen. Because when I was in the pool a lot, and I realized so much of doing a stroke. I was on a swim team, so... and I taught swimming. When you go swimming, I say this is the American Corral, right? In terms of the stroke, you lift your elbow. You bring it forward. This is how I learned it. You put the tips in, and then you push the palm in this part, and then at this point, actually you pull, and then you push, but this part is when you put the effort on the push, Your arm will naturally come out.

[37:22]

And here, everyone thinks this is the effort part, but this is in swimming because where you need to put the most effort is in the water to go that way. This is the resting part. So if you focus your attention wisely in the effort, you're pulling, you're pushing, and then you're resting as this comes up. But if you swim, always just... You know, first I push, then I got to put my arm up there, right? Then you're tired and you don't rest. And it's the same thing. It's hard when you learn to breathe to the side because this should be at the rest part. But when we're afraid of the water, see, this is where emotions come in too. Then we think this is so much effort, but you have to learn to have the ease here because naturally when you put your head here like this and open your mouth, this is the point where your head... will be out of the water, or there's actually a little dip in the water. So this is why, on a certain level, by swimming, I just focus on this pull, push, ah.

[38:29]

Pull, push, ah. Of course, there's other part where you're like, that person's in my lane, you know? And then you have to guard against unskillful speech. So... Or when you lost count of how many laps and you're like, ah, then you're just like, oh, like it matters, right? You just got to go back to the other end. Then that's why the big picture, right? Simultaneous inclusion. So the flexibility is the key. We keep thinking the things themselves is our life. It's how we meet our life. is the key. Yes. I know you, but I don't remember your name. Kokaku. Kokaku. If we're tired, you know, week after week, now I've been emotionally sore, and so on.

[39:37]

Isn't that an indication of a mistake, actually? I mean, it seems like if I am... like, you know, dragging through the day frequently, that that is like a body indication that there's something that's out of bounds. Perhaps. So I guess my question would be, if you're tired, is there wiseness and skillfulness in when you can rest? What do you do on your days off or your time off? Well, that's, you know, what accumulates for so... The phenomenon, if you start out so accurately, it's describing the experience of working through the summer. It's the fourth month.

[40:37]

It's not like the first month or the second month or the third month, but there's an accumulation. I'm saying generally that there's this phenomenon of accumulation. that indicates that if not through the lack of balance, how we restore ourselves days off or during our breaks during the day. Well, I think I would agree with you that they can be. I would not say that that's the only reason. So the other part that I'm trying to point to is in our activity, be it doing rest, play, or work, where is it that you are tight? they're grasping at. I, myself, having been head of the garden here and getting very, very, you know, carpal tunnel, then back problem, I realized I was an over-effort type. Everything had to be perfect, right? And mostly I had to be perfect and convince everyone else, right?

[41:43]

My form was so good, right? And so where is it that, in retrospect, of course, I was like, I can see how that, you know, you could see it coming. This is great for hindsight, right? You know, oh, I could have seen that coming. That's why you also have, you know, elders here or senior people to turn and say, hmm. Actually, you know, I had a talk with the rab when I was here because I had over-effort. And in the practice period with the rab, I got to a point. So first, I was in full lotus. I was always in here early, Nadia and I, and Joan. And so then I got so bad that I had to sit in a chair for a while. Then I had to lay down for a while, and then there came a point where I couldn't sit at all. And in the sashim, luckily we had a room, and one of the pines was a workout room.

[42:44]

And I was in there moving because my body was so in pain when it was still, which you think is restful. But I was so tight, I had overworked myself so much that actually the motion was what was needed, right? And it was so hard in a sushin to be, and I was walking up the road, and I was trying to do my own periods of things, and I'd be walking down the road, and everyone would be out on kinhen. And it was hard, and I really, I went to Reb, and I said, you know, I'm told that I'm supposed to rest more, but I'm afraid that I might be lazy. What if I overdo it and I become lazy? How will I know, Reb, when I become lazy? And he said, oh, this is why you have Sangha. Hopefully, you've been here long enough, had enough friends, have enough friends, senior people, that they will, if you get lazy, they would go, hey, Lynn, I think maybe you've now overdone non-effort and come on back.

[43:58]

So this is the other thing. We think effort's all about me. I would tell you, having left Tassajara, the schedule is such a support. I have some new students here. I always tell them, And Sashin, just follow the schedule. It is there to support you. So there are many factors here that can support you. Of course, that's the whole thing, though, is how you meet it and what happens and then how you meet that and what happens and then you meet that and what happens. And where is it that you can have non-effort in the midst of effort? Non-effort is not the opposite of effort. We have to be really careful. Non-effort, I would say, is just efforting. Does that answer your question? Maybe not to your liking. I think it's a very good question.

[45:03]

I feel like I have personally kind of figured it out for myself. Great. I saw you running up those 81 steps or whatever. Yes, 25 to the Yeah, as I was coming down, he was booking up. And the tantos saying, enough efforting on this talk. Thank you very much. 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.

[45:47]

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