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. So yesterday, David introduced Dogen's essay, The Bodhisattva's Four Methods of Guidance, and introduced the first method called giving. And I really liked some of the sentences that David shared with us yesterday from Dogen's beautiful piece on giving. Things like, you give yourself to yourself and others to others. How wonderful. You know, give yourself to yourself and let others give themselves to themselves. And of course, the final beautiful paragraph, mind is beyond measure. Things given are beyond measure.

[01:00]

And yet in giving, mind transforms the gift, and the gift transforms the mind. Dogen's so beautiful in the way he puts these things. And the next three of the four methods of guidance are kind speech, which is what we'll do today, beneficial action, which David will do tomorrow, and identity action, which I will do on Friday. And kind speech is, the section is quite short, and all of it is beautiful. It's only really four short paragraphs. So I'll start by reading the whole text, and then we'll go through it paragraph by paragraph. Kind speech means that when you see sentient beings, you arouse the heart of compassion and offer words of loving care. It is contrary to cruel and violent speech.

[02:04]

In the secular world, there is a custom of asking after someone's health. In the Buddha way, there is the phrase, please treasure yourself. And the respectful address to seniors, may I ask how you are. It is kind speech to speak to sentient beings as you would to a baby. Praise those with virtue. Pity those without it. If kind speech is offered, little by little kind speech expands. Thus, even kind speech that is not ordinarily known or seen comes into being. Be willing to practice it for this entire present life. Do not give up. World after world, life after life, kind speech is the basis for reconciling rulers and subduing enemies. Those who hear kind speech from you have a delighted expression and a joyful mind. Those who hear of your kind speech will be deeply touched.

[03:10]

They will always remember it. Know that kind speech arises from kind heart and kind heart from the seed of compassionate heart. Ponder the fact that kind speech is not just praising the merit of others. It has the power to turn the destiny of the nation. Wonderful. Strong words by Gogan there. Well, I think the first sentence maybe says it all. Kind speech means that when you see sentient beings, you arouse the heart of compassion and offer words of loving care. That's a rather broad statement, you know. When you see sentient beings, sentient beings, all living beings that you see, trees, insects, other human beings, your cat, you arouse the heart of compassion and offer words of loving care.

[04:20]

This is not just speaking with kindness because it's morally good or... demonstrates we're a good person, or even that it's the most effective way to get through to people. This is loving speech that comes from compassion and for all sentient beings. I remember I had a neighbor who had these beautiful orchids, always in just such beautiful shape, and I asked her what her secret was, and she said she spoke lovingly to them. So maybe if it works for flowers, it can work for human beings too. And he's very clear in this, Dogen says, it is contrary to cruel or violent speech. You know, language is a way to create connections, but it can become a means to sever connections if used unskillfully or maliciously. Language can be used as a sword to take life, create enmity and cut off the sense of connection between people.

[05:26]

So we can all reflect on our own life and people that we've known and how cruel or violent speech can rupture a relationship. Just the wrong sentence or the wrong word at the wrong time can create a rupture that lasts for a long time. So beautiful opening words there. Kind speech means that when you see sentient beings, you arouse the heart of compassion. and offer words of loving care. And then he goes on and he says, in the secular world, there is a custom of asking after someone's health. In the Buddha way, there is the phrase, please treasure yourself. And the respectful address to seniors, may I ask how you are. Here, Dogen is suggesting even a daily greeting can become loving speech. I mean, we say good morning or how are you today?

[06:29]

Are you okay? This kind of greeting is often spoken insincerely, you know, without actually any compassionate heart. But think of the word he's saying here, please treasure yourself instead of hi. If you say to somebody, please treasure yourself, that certainly brings to for the issue of some kind of warm heartedness. Yeah. I just thought about treasure a little bit, you know, to prize highly as valuable, rare to cherish, treasuring yourself to care for yourself carefully. So if I were to say to you this morning, you know, please treasure yourself. How do you hear that? How does that strike you? Does that strike you? Oh, yeah, sure. I treasure myself all the time. Or maybe you don't. Maybe that seems like, well, I shouldn't really treasure myself. What would it mean to actually cherish yourself, to take care of yourself carefully?

[07:32]

That's what I'd like you to do for the next three days of this sashin, at least. Treasure yourself, cherish yourself, take care of yourself in the best possible way. Oh. I'm having a little deconstruction here. There we go. Thank you. I was thinking about this taking great care of oneself, and I watched this marvelous film of Alex Honnold when he did a free solo of El Capitan. which was regarded as one of the greatest athletic achievements of all time. And it was memorialized in a biographical documentary called Free Solo, which won an Academy Award.

[08:34]

I don't know. How many of you, did many of you see that film? Yeah, some of you saw it. Incredible film. And what was remarkable to me when I looked at that film, I thought... You know, he was working with a film crew, which were very experienced climbers who were hanging all over the mountain. And he was supposed to do a climb one day. And they'd been working on this for months, you know, setting up all the different photo shots and everything. And the morning that he got up to do it, he just didn't feel right about it. I mean, he just didn't think he could do it. So they canceled it. Just completely canceled the whole thing. And they maybe never were going to be able to do it. But then the next year he came back. And they did it. And he took care of himself because he thought maybe this day if I do that, I'll fall off the cliff. And he had some enough sense of himself. And, you know, I thought that was very admirable. Some way to take care of ourselves in all kinds of different places. And a comment on the other thing that is said there.

[09:39]

Respectful address to seniors. May I ask how you are? This is a very common question. thing that happens in Zen institutions. On certain occasions, such as New Year's Day, the beginning of a practice period, or the end of a practice period, monks exchange formal greetings with their teachers, seniors, and fellow monks. And Dogen refers to these traditions as an example of loving speech. And that has even carried up on a little bit at Zen Center. There's a tradition where students of a teacher will, at the beginning of each year, send a little letter saying to this teacher, they're wishing them good health in the new year. It's a very sort of nice formal way to do, to express some loving speech, which is, so there's other comment on that thing, you know, may I ask how you are to teachers. I'm just doing a sidebar here. It's really interesting that of the four things that Dogen brings

[10:43]

brings forth as guidelines for being a bodhisattva. The second one is loving speech, kind speech, such a tremendous emphasis on how we speak and the importance of how we speak. So the next sentence, which is, you know, speaks the world, it is kind speech to speak to sentient beings as you would to a baby. I mean, this is a common metaphor that's used in our tradition, the loving-kindness meditation that we chant during noon service, just to bring it into your mind. Let no one deceive another nor despise any being in any state. Let none by anger or hatred wish harm to another, even as a mother at the risk of her life watches over and protects her only child. So with a boundless mind should one cherish all living things, suffusing love over the entire world, above, below, and all around without limit.

[11:47]

So let one cultivate an infinite goodwill towards the whole world, even as a mother watches over and protects her only child. So this makes complete sense. We wouldn't speak unkindly to a baby because it's crying. If a baby is crying, we would say, you know, What's going on? Are you hungry? Do you need to have your diapers changed? Do you need to be held? You wouldn't be speaking violently. You would speak kindly to them. So this metaphor is, and the use in this place, according to Reverend Okamura, came from the 12th chapter of the Lotus Sutra, where the famous story of an 18-year-old, the daughter of The 18-year-old daughter of the Dragon King had an instantaneous awakening. And she said, you know, a compassionate mind for all the living beings as have a compassionate mind for all the living beings as if they were her children.

[12:51]

So this sense of treating everybody like you would treat a baby. which kind of makes sense, we get that, but it doesn't work out for adults because we think, well, adults, they're not like babies. They are responsible for their bad behavior. And I don't need to speak kindly to someone who speaks badly or deserves, behaves badly, you know. And still, Dogen is saying, yes, speak with kind speech as you would to someone who's not essentially responsible for what they're doing. I'm going to discuss that a little bit more when I get into a broader way about how one does speak to someone who is not necessarily behaving exactly as we'd like them to behave. And then the next sentence of Dogen, praise those with virtue, pity those without it. And that praise those with virtue reminded me of a wonderful story that Ed Brown wrote.

[13:58]

told about when he was Tenzo at Tashara. And he was having a lot of trouble with the kitchen crew. And as anybody that's worked in a Zen Tenor kitchen knows that sometimes difficulties arrive in the kitchen. And so he went to Suzuki Roshi for some guidance. And I'm going to quote this directly from Ed Brown's book because he writes so well. He said, Suzuki Roshi seemed to listen quite carefully as though he understood my difficulty and was entirely sympathetic. Pren, yes, you just can't get good help anymore, can you? When I finally ran out of complaints, he looked at me briefly and then he responded, if you want to see virtue, you have to have a calm mind. I don't think that was what Head Brown was hoping to hear from Suzuki Roshi. If you want to see virtue in all of the people working with you, you have to have a calm mind.

[15:02]

When we intentionally look for virtuous and praiseworthy traits in others, little by little we will find these traits, and our ability to appreciate people's actions will grow. On the other hand, if we try to find fault in others, we can find many things to criticize in any person. To practice loving speech, we need to find a way to recognize the good points of others. Depending upon whether we try to see the virtues of others or the shortcomings of others, our way of speech and even our entire personality can become supportive or non-supportive to others. And while I was getting in this, you know, frame of mind of... stories from Suzuki Roshi. Here's another one of my favorite Suzuki Roshi kindness stories. And this is Suzuki Roshi in morning Chosan at Tassara, especially during practice periods, but also I think in the summer when Suzuki Roshi was doing that, was every morning after breakfast, the senior staff at Tassara would get together with Suzuki Roshi in his

[16:20]

room, and they would have some tea and a treat made by the Sikurushi Zanja, and then Sikurushi would usually make a comment or two about whatever he was thinking or seeing around Tassar, and then he would sort of open it up for the senior staff to say something. And this was... And this was even carried on when I was director at Tassar. We used to meet every morning or if Richard Baker showed up, we'd meet with him and we would have a similar tea. It was very wonderful. And certainly with Suzuki Roshi, to have an opportunity to sit so intimately with him and every morning was a wonderful thing. And everybody valued those meetings quite highly. And David Chadwick was head of the dining room that summer. And I don't know... How many of you know David Chadwick? Well, I'm going to do a quick survey. How many of you know David Chadwick or of David Chadwick? Yeah, yeah, David Chadwick, yeah. He wrote Crooked Cucumber, a magnificent book, a biography of Suzuki Roshi, and one of the early really characteristic students at Zen Center.

[17:29]

So, but David was one of those... He was called an extrovert, which is a very rare thing in Zen Center. You can hardly ever find them. But if you find one, they're wonderful. And David was a classic extrovert from Texas. And so he, as head of the dining room, obviously was relating to the guests quite a bit. And often a guest would, and then they would get together after dinner and drink some wine together until late in the evening. And so apparently this morning, David... missed Zazen in the morning and missed everything because he was hung over from the previous evening's drinking and had been up late. But he showed up for Chozan looking terrible and smelling of alcohol. And this wasn't the first time this has happened with David. So as soon as Suzuki Roshi had made his remarks and there was an opening for one of the officers to speak up, one of them spoke up loudly saying... Suzuki Roshi, what do you think of a student who flagrantly violates the rules of the monastery?

[18:32]

As David said, it was obvious who he was talking about. Suzuki Roshi took a sip of tea and said, hmm. He frequently made a sound like that to give some space. Then he said, everyone is doing their best. This practice is not so easy. I'm reading this particular excerpt from Crooked Cucumber where David shared it. This practice is not suizi. And then the officer came back. Yes, but Roshi flagrant, breaking rules all the time so that anyone can see. And Suki Roshi said, better that we see it than they hide it. And the officer did not quit. He went, yes, but shouldn't he follow the rules? Suzuki Roshi, of course, but you can break the rules sometimes and still follow the spirit of the rules. The others were listening attentively. This is David talking. I kept my eyes down. The poor fellow wasn't getting what he wanted, but he tried again. Yes, but Roshi, can't you keep the rules and the spirit too?

[19:38]

Of course, said Suzuki brightly. That is the best way. Such a beautiful... the story of Suzuki Roshi's kindness to David Chadwick, and in some ways, sort of kindness at the end to the officer. And of course, David Chadwick has become one of the greatest promoters of Suzuki Roshi's teachings through not only writing Crooked Cucumber, but through cube.com, his online site, where he has maintained Suzuki Roshi's, all the students' interactions with him. Because he loved Suzuki Roshi so much, because he had been loved and taken care of by Suzuki Roshi, because Suzuki Roshi was using kind speech to take care of him. So continue on. Praise those with virtue, pity those without it. If kind speech is offered, little by little, kind speech expands.

[20:42]

Thus, even kind speech that is not ordinarily known or seen comes into being. Be willing to practice it for this entire present life. Do not give up world after world, life after life. Dogen is so expansive in the way he presents things. Be willing to practice it for this entire present life. Do not give up world after world, life after life. I was thinking maybe it might be possible to practice kind speech for about... a day, possibly, or an afternoon. But he's imploring us to do it. And I like that. If kind speech is offered little by little, kind speech expands. The more you do it, the more you can. Even kind speech you never imagined comes into being. I was reflecting on my own life, and I'm sure you can reflect on your own life, when someone confronted you with some harshness, maybe accused you of something that you felt you hadn't done at all.

[21:48]

But in any event, you were kind of taken back. And then all of a sudden, for some reason, you spoke kind words to them. Kind words came out of your mouth. And it changed everything. So sometimes you can't even imagine, if you begin the practice of kind speech, that kindness comes out of you just unexpectedly. And by practicing kind speech, it expands. It expands more. It really does. One can get better at it. This is one of those things one can practice. So to say it again, if kind speech is offered, little by little, kind speech expands. It expands even in yourself and it expands out into the world. Other people start speaking kindly. And all of a sudden it shows up in places one doesn't expect it. So be willing to practice it for your entire life. World after world, life after life, the many worlds we live in, the many worlds we live in now, we practice kind speech in.

[22:51]

Now we're at the Sashin where, of course, it's not so easy to practice kind speech because we're, I think, mostly quiet all day long. I'm looking at you. You're very quiet right now sitting listening to me. But that doesn't matter. You've got the voices going on in your head. So you can practice your kind speech in your inner dialogue. I would suggest that would be worth paying some attention to. World after world, sasheen after sasheen, at work, at home, whatever world you show up in, those are the worlds that you practice kind speech in. So we're getting, it's a very short, little section on kind speech, but every bit of it is so wonderful. His next sentence is, kind speech is the basis for reconciling rulers. I think what he means by that is for making peace and subduing enemies.

[23:52]

I'm going to just talk about that a little bit. Kind speech is the basis for reconciling rulers, making peace and subduing enemies. So, you know, this is really the question of You know, how do we talk? I'm going to expand a little bit about speech in the larger context of Buddhism. You know, as we know of the 10 precepts that we take in our Soto Zen lineage, three of them are regarding speech, which really emphasizes the importance of them. They are not lying. That's the fourth one. The sixth one is not speaking of faults of others. And the seventh one is not praising oneself at the expense of others. So three of our major 10 precepts are about right speech. And right speech is one of the eightfold path, one of the steps along the eightfold path. And in the beginning of morning service today, we did, as we always do, we do our repentance. All my ancient twisted karma from beginningless greed, hate, and delusion, born through body, speech,

[25:03]

and mind i now fully about right there body speech and mind every morning we have to own up to the karma of our speech so speech has been central to buddhist training and we know from our own mindfulness practice how much is revealed about ourselves by noticing what we say and how people respond to what we say So this is like a practice. And it's interesting that things come out of our mouth, if we're paying attention to it, that reveals things about ourselves that maybe aren't necessarily revealed just through meditation. I mean, we see a lot of things when we're meditating, but when we're actually out there talking, you say, wow, I said that? Especially sometimes these days, because we have to be so aware of our speech in different environments that... People say that that was offensive to me and we have to wake up to that, those things.

[26:04]

So we learn a lot about ourselves by paying attention carefully to what we say and what other people say about us. So there's many, many lists of different ways to train in right speech that came from the Buddha. I picked a couple of them. So here's one, which is, Here's five criteria for deciding when to speak. They are, you speak when what you're speaking about is true. You're going to speak kindly. It's useful for the person. It's a timely time to do it. And it's conductive to concord. So for the Buddha, all five of these criteria must be met before speaking. So... Liberation and compassion depends on being honest. So being true, saying something, of course, this is very complicated.

[27:05]

We don't know what the truth is. But let's assume that we have a sense for what is true about the situation that we want to present. But just because something is true doesn't mean that speaking it is kind. In fact, it can be sometimes so unkind that speaking the truth is likened to a stick with which to club people. So we have to be careful about that and only talk when we are going to be able to do it kindly. And, of course, that's what we've been emphasizing earlier in this talk, that kind speech is central to anything that you would express. But then he also says, you know, in order for it, it needs to be beneficial. And this is what, of course, beneficial action is, is part of what David's going to talk about tomorrow. What kind of speech is beneficial? It has to be useful to the person. I know I sometimes, you know, as a teacher, I observe people, my students especially, quite carefully because I like to see if I can understand them.

[28:08]

Sometimes I think I understand something about them that it's very important. It would be good if I could inform them about this. But I know that they're not ready to hear it. You know, one has to know when somebody is ready to hear something because if they're not ready to hear it, they'll just block you. They'll just won't hear it. And it won't be useful to them. So you have to know whether what you're going to say is going to be useful to them if they're going to be able to hear it. And the next point they're making here is, and it has to be the right time. There has to be, timing is like essential. in these kinds of things. I remember there's many stories of the way Suzuki Roshi would wait for just the right time to touch somebody with an insight he had about them. And then the final criteria for this mindful speech is to consider whether what we are going to do and say is conduct

[29:14]

for social concord? Does what we say create more division and separation between others and ourselves, or does it support mutual understanding, healthier relationships, and social harmony? And this is part of what I'm going to talk about on Friday in terms of identity action. The action that we take has to be good for both people, for the entire setting, and that's really important. So, These five criteria, if I were to summarize them, are useful to think about when one's speaking. Is it true what I'm saying? Is it kind? Is it useful? Is it timely? And is it conductive to concord? That's a kind of what I would call a classic five points for mindful speech.

[30:24]

And I was also remembering Suzuki Roshi, who in his marvelous chapter, and not always so on the precepts, at the end of that chapter, talked about how a teacher points out the student's mistakes. And he says, how the teacher points out the student's mistakes is very important. If the teacher thinks that what his student did is a mistake, he is not a true teacher. It may be a mistake, but on the other hand, it is an expression of the student's true nature. When we understand this, we have respect for our student's true nature, and we will be careful how we point out mistakes. That's sort of reminiscent to me of the earlier statement by Dogen, you know, do kind speech like you were talking to a baby. You have to understand that the student's behavior comes from their karma, the life they've led.

[31:27]

And when we understand those things, we have a better way of approaching mentioning something too. So his five points, he says, the five points from the scriptures on how to say something to a student about, quote unquote, a mistake is, is one, not to point out the student's mistake in front of other people. I think that's lovely. Instead of embarrassing someone in front of other people, you would maybe do it in dokes on, or you would take them aside and mention it to them in private in some way. And he says, you should be truthful. What you say should be the truth. And he says, and you should be gentle and calm when you express this thing. And reminiscent of the earlier five things, and it should be solely for the sake of helping him or her. He says, do not do it just to get something off your chest.

[32:28]

Wonderful. Don't just, you know, it should be for the sake of helping her. And, of course, his fifth comment is, do you do it with compassion? which is what we're talking about here, the kind speech that comes from compassion. So if you're offering some correction to some friend, do it in an appropriate place, be truthful, be gentle and calm, do it to be helpful to them, and do it with compassion. So just a couple of general comments about the way we can... watch our speech and make sure that we're attending to speech that is actually helpful in the world. So here's the next sentence from Dogen. Those who hear kind speech from you have a delighted expression and a joyful mind.

[33:31]

I do think that is true. And those who hear your kind speech will be deeply touched. They will always remember it. And I ask all of you to just think of times when someone has spoken kindly to you and, you know, from a deep place of compassion at an appropriate time and how you still remember it to this day. And now we are to the last paragraph. Know that kind speech arises from kind heart, and kind heart from the seed of compassionate heart. Ponder the fact that kind speech is not just praising the merits of others, it has the power to turn the destiny of the nation. It has the power to turn the destiny of the nation. As I read that sentence, I thought about...

[34:34]

just all of the unkind speech going on in our current political climate and how unhelpful it is and how it would be so useful if we could learn how to speak with people that had different political opinions than we had. I think this is a practice that we're engaged in right now in America. And I'm hoping that we're turning towards a kinder time and that where we can start talking kindly with each other, even about different positions, about how things should be going. It's going to take a lot of maturity on all of our parts. Anyway, to go on with this little point, which I'm interested in, the power to turn the destiny of the nation, Shohaka Okamura, when I was reading his commentaries on this short section, said that in an essay that Dogen did called Points to Watch in Practicing the Way, Dogen admonishes us to practice the way when we can speak the truth to power.

[35:45]

We should practice the way when we speak the truth to power. And he does this quote from this section, honest advice given by a loyal minister often has the power to change the emperor's will. There are none who fail to change the minds when the Buddhas and ancestors offer a single word. So he's, you know, a loyal minister has the power to change the emperor's will. And of course, in China, the phrase translated as power to change the emperor's will and power to transform the world is the same in Chinese expression. Let me repeat that again. The phrase translated as power to change the emperor's will and power to transform the world is the same Chinese expression. In China, a change in the emperor's will could change the entire world since the emperor had absolute power. So how do we address people in power?

[36:50]

Can we be a loyal minister and bring our best kind speech and deep practice to the situation. And maybe we can change the world. Maybe we can change what is happening because we have a trend, as he says here, There are none who fail to change their minds when the Buddhas and ancestors offer a single word in Europe, a Buddha and an ancestor. So when you offer a single word of truth, kindly, you can change the emperor's will. Of course, you know, the other way to think about this is our minds, our minds are like the emperor's will, we think we have absolute power to make decisions.

[37:52]

at least in those decisions that regard our own lives. But in reality, we cling to our own opinions and judgments. However, if we listen to the words of the Dharma with an open mind, our minds become changed and therefore our world becomes changed. Although it can be difficult, it is part of our bodhisattva work to try to offer kind words as Dharma, words that can have the power to transform people's lives. So each of us lives in a world. Each of us has a nation that we're building in our mind and in our life. And we have the power to, with kind words to ourself, to change that world that we're building. And we have the power, with kind words, to change the nation another person's building in their life. So it is not only... an inner reality that we can change for ourselves and an inner reality we can change for other people with kind words, but we might even also change the entire world we're living in, the destiny of this nation.

[39:00]

So what do I have? This is the end of my talk and it's three minutes before the end of our time. And I just want to say thank you for your attention and ponder in your mind the power of kind speech. And the difficulty of kind speech and the ways in which we wander around the world with things coming out of our mouth that are just Where do they come from? And what effect do they have? We can do better with our speech. And it is the bodhisattva way to do better with our speech, to have true loving speech and smart speech, intelligent speech, wise speech.

[40:09]

So, thank you all very much for your attention today. I hope you enjoy. the afternoon sitting, and we will see you again. 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, please visit sfzc.org and click May we fully enjoy the Dharma.

[40:50]

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