Good morning. So we have gathered together to follow the teaching of the Buddha who when he discovered suffering, made a great vow to try to end it. And I have a story in my mind about me and about you.

[01:04]

And I suspect all of you have stories in your mind. As a matter of fact, the great teacher, great Vipassana teacher, Deepa Ma, says our mind is nothing but stories. But my story is not so different from the Buddha's in that when he was exposed to old age, sickness, and death, was deeply moved and vowed to try to do something to end it. And as he was practicing, he remembered a time when he was a child. when he had been placed in the shade of a rose apple tree at a great festival of the first plowing of the spring, preparing the ground for planting.

[02:17]

And there was a lot of colorful ceremony, and his father was to cut the first furrow. And as he was watching, he noticed that the plow turned up the nests of all of the insects and worms and exposed them. And the birds came down from the trees and ate them. And he began to see that there is suffering in the world and there's no way to completely end it. Even if we're strict vegetarians, we cannot support our life except by eating something that's been alive. Inorganic matter doesn't support the life of living beings.

[03:28]

I have a friend who, to this day, has difficulty sitting Sesshin because it was in Sesshin that he first realized, oh my goodness, living creatures eat living creatures. So, in his mind, he made a vow, even as a child, to try to understand suffering and an end to suffering. And my story about all of you is that you too at some point in your life became aware of suffering. And a deep feeling arose in you to understand it. And at least if you couldn't end it, to not add to it.

[04:32]

I think that's what we're all doing here, is to try to find out how to live our life in a compassionate way, how to live so as not to cause harm to any beings. So the first and foremost thing we have to do in order to be able to honor that vow which arises in us is to be awake enough to know what we're doing when we're doing it. We have to train our minds to be awake, to be aware in each moment of what we are doing. if we want to avoid harming beings.

[05:39]

So we begin by sitting down and watching our breath, watching our posture, watching what is happening right now, in this moment, and in this moment, and in this moment. Being aware of all of our actions of body, speech, and mind as they're happening. If we are aware as they're happening because of our deep compassion that comes from... comes with the territory. We can't be born and leave compassion behind. The Buddha mind is always with us. It's our fundamental inheritance.

[06:52]

But we need to work at being awake, being aware. all the time. As I was sitting this morning, you know, I'm making every effort to sit upright, and then I notice I've slumped. And so I return. I lift up on my sternum, get the clump out of my back and put some energy into uprightness. And then I notice that my jaw is hanging slack. And so I bring some energy into my jaw, close my mouth.

[07:59]

And then I notice my eyes have closed and on and on. we just keep paying attention to what's happening now. And we notice when our attention wanders and we come back to here and now. And we come back to here and now. And we come back to here and now. And we're going to do that for seven days. All day long. Come back to here and now. Training this mind is like training a wild pony, you know. Our mind has a mind of its own. And so we have to attend to it continuously. And of course, our attention wanders. And we return, and we return, and we return.

[09:05]

And as we do this, over the days, weeks, months, and years of our life of practice, we become more awake and aware. As we're living our life, how we're living it. And so we can bring our intention and our attention to this deep feeling of compassion in us. which urges us to live a life of no harm. And we have to study it and see, you know, what kinds of actions of body, speech, and mind create suffering in the world. What kinds of actions

[10:08]

are harmful so that we can refrain from them. What are the impulses? Where does the motivation come for actions that are harmful? The Buddha teaches that the motivation for actions that are harmful come from the three poisons of greed, hate, and delusion. And of course, these three poisons are always lurking around. And so we have to learn to see when they're arising so that they don't lead us into actions which will cause us or anyone else pain. We study actions of body, speech, and mind, and we study

[11:09]

What causes pain? We study what are the subtle ways in which greed may sort of insert itself into our life when we're not watching? What are the subtle ways in which anger or hatred can arise if we're not watching? What are the first signs so that we can turn toward it and relinquish it before it's made a big mess? So we're studying ourself all week. We're studying how this body and mind works. What actions create peace and harmony and what actions create strife and pain? What actions of body, speech, and mind? What thoughts drive these actions? What idea of self have I created?

[12:14]

that I defend at the expense of others. We're just taking this week to study ourselves and our minds and understand how we create pain and suffering and how we can refrain from creating pain and suffering. One of the nicest quotations that's come up for me lately that inspires me comes from Brother David Steinler asks, the website that he's associated with, a network for grateful living, or gratefulness.org, or as he calls it, gratefulness. This is attributed to His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama.

[13:17]

Every day, think as you wake up, today I am fortunate to have woken up. I am alive. I have a precious human life. I'm not going to waste it. I'm going to use all my energies to develop myself to expand my heart out to others for the benefit of all beings. I'm glad to see how he states this in this particular version because I have read earlier that the Dalai Lama says, the first thing I do each morning as I wake up is to check my motivation. And here's a sort of a formulaic way of checking my motivation the first thing when I wake up.

[14:29]

To renew our bodhisattva vow at each opportunity. And this bodhisattva vow comes quite naturally because Our mind is the mind of Buddha. Buddha just means awake. We have the capacity to wake up. We have the capacity to see the effects of our actions and to choose actions whose effects we want to live with and to not choose actions whose effects are harmful. and will cause pain. Because we're just like the Buddha was when he first saw the insects being eaten by the birds from the very beneficial action of the land being plowed to grow food, to feed people.

[15:34]

And how sometimes suffering cannot be avoided. And so we have this pain when we see suffering that can't be avoided. Because we have the capacity of compassion, which means suffering with. And how fortunate we are that we're all born with this quality of compassion. And how painful it is to see how some people's lives are blighted by some harmful actions that have happened that have damaged their capacity for compassion. You know, in studying abuse, it's noted that most people who are abusers have been abused as children.

[16:49]

So if we see someone who's abusing someone else, we want to try to stop it if we can, but we don't want to give rise to anger and hatred toward the person whose action is harmful. We don't know that person's history. We don't know the cause of their actions. We just want to stop the actions, but we don't want to add anger and hatred. to the situation by making judgments about something we don't know anything about. Someone asked the Dalai Lama once, aren't you angry with the Chinese for what they're doing to your country? He said, goodness, isn't it bad enough without adding anger? Can we take that point of view? Can we feel the pain and the sorrow without adding anger and hatred, which are sure to cause harm in some way.

[18:00]

We know that anger and hatred is one of the three poisons. We don't want to feed it, even if there seems to be provocation. It's just not helpful to feed anger and hatred. We certainly will feel pain and sorrow, but we don't have to add anger and hatred. So can we learn to keep our attention on our own actions of body, speech, and mind. If we do, we won't break the precepts. If we're awake and aware when we're acting, the precepts are not out there somewhere, written in a book or on a piece of paper.

[19:08]

The precepts are in us. We will feel some hesitation. And when we do, pay attention. Notice. Oh, if I say that, if I do that, that will cause suffering. Oh, no, I won't say it. I'll find another way to intervene. But we have to have our mind right where we are where these things slip out and they're done and then we live with the result. So please, as we practice this week, keep this thought in mind. Every day, think as you wake up. Today, I am fortunate to have woken up.

[20:10]

I'm alive. I have a precious human life. I'm not going to waste it. I'm going to use all my energies to develop myself, to expand my heart out to others. for the benefit of all beings. You know, Dogen Zenji says that seeing into impermanence, seeing impermanence is bodhicitta. Seeing impermanence is the mind that strives for awakening for the benefit of all beings. And impermanence, of course, is all around us, all the time. Just like the Buddha seeing the worms and the insects exposed and immediately the birds coming down to eat them.

[21:14]

Or someone else I know, when he was young... first understood that there were poor people who were hungry because someone came to the door asking for the pears that were falling from the tree in front of his house and a man came with a wheelbarrow and said there are these pears falling on the ground may I take them and so he went to ask his grandmother and she says no those are our pears of course they were not eating the pears they were They were their pairs, but this marked this person for the rest of his life because he saw that there was hunger, there was suffering. And he also saw that there was greed. And he wanted to do something about it. And my guess is that each one of us as children has seen

[22:26]

some aspect of suffering in the world and has made a vow in ourselves to fix it so it won't happen again, so people won't have to hurt like that. If we could fix the world, we would. It's our inmost request. It's our most urgent request. impulse is to end suffering, is to end wars, is to end greed and hatred. And we may not be able to fix the world, but we can really cultivate in ourselves the widest possible heart to include

[23:26]

all that we can to include everyone and everything that we can. But, you know, we bump into edges. When we bump into edges, well, I can love everybody, but those people, those people are... When we bump into edges like that, that gives us something to work on. How can I cultivate? I mean, even if it's someone who's... who's abusing someone else, can I cultivate compassion in some way so as not to add to the pain and suffering? Is there some way that I can reduce the suffering in the world? Including my own, of course. I mean, I... I came to practice because I discovered that I was going to die, which had never occurred to me before.

[24:31]

Not that I personally was going to... Yeah, sure, later, sometime when I'm old. So it may be our own pain that drives us to practice, or it may be seeing pain in the world in the form of wars or... oppression of one kind or another. Can we respond to that kind of suffering in the world with a wide open heart? Can we stand to have a wide open heart? When we feel our heart closing, can we turn toward it and find a way to open it? we need to become intimate with ourselves so that we notice all of the thoughts and impulses that occur in us.

[25:38]

And so we sit sazan together in this seshin, becoming intimate with ourself. Suzuki Roshi says, The only way to study pure mind is through practice. Our inmost nature wants some medium, some way to express and realize itself. We answer this inmost request through our rules. An ancestor after ancestor shows us his or her true mind. In this way, we will have an accurate, deep understanding of practice. We must have more experience of our practice. At least we must have some enlightenment experience. You must put confidence in the big mind which is always with you.

[26:43]

You should be able to appreciate things as an expression of big mind. And you should appreciate the fact that we all have this big mind. This big mind that includes everything. This big heart that includes everyone is not just in some special people we call Buddhas. We all share Buddha minds. So Dogen Zenji says, do not expect that all who practice will attain enlightenment about the mind which is always with us. He meant, if you think that big mind is somewhere outside yourself, outside your practice, then that is a mistake.

[27:48]

Big mind is always with us. That is why I repeat the same thing over and over when I think you do not understand. Zen is not just for the person who can fold his legs or who has great spiritual ability. Everyone has Buddha nature. We each must find some way to realize our true nature. The purpose of practice is to have direct experience of the Buddha mind which everyone has. This is the... teaching which Suzuki Roshi emphasized over and over and over again, and which all the Buddhas and ancestors have emphasized over and over again. We are sitting because we have Buddha mind.

[28:51]

And it's the Buddha mind that we have which is motivating us to sit. So please, turn your mind inward toward your heart and feel what it is that encourages you to make your utmost effort. allow yourself to feel this great Buddha heart that is urging you to extend your utmost effort to be present in each moment with each breath with each thought

[30:02]

with each heartbeat, to be present, to be awake for the benefit of all beings. Every day, think as you wake up, Today I am fortunate to have waken up. I am alive. I have a precious human life. I'm not going to waste it. I am going to use all my energies to develop myself, to expand my heart out to others for the benefit of all beings. May we all live in such a way that our heart expands to include. everyone.

[31:04]

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