This podcast is offered by San Francisco's Zen Center on the web at sfcc.org. Our public programs are made possible by donations from people like you. Well, good morning again, dear friends in the Dharma. I trust that if you can't hear me well enough, you'll let me know. And for those of you sitting the seven-day Rehatsu Sushin, It's been suggested by our tonto Nancy that Ed and I refrain from mentioning at the start of our talks what particular day it is in the kind of overall flow of Sashin. And every now and then the sentiment arises that to do so might set your minds to tracking the passage of time and that you'll get all caught up in how many days are left to Sashin rather than just allowing yourself to to rest in the timeless moment of the ever-present now.

[01:05]

So as an encouragement not to fall into the habit of tracking what day it is in Sushin, I'll briefly recount a Dharma talk that Suzuki Roshi once gave. It was in part as a demonstration for a young Japanese monk who had recently arrived in the US. And he confessed to Suzuki Roshi that he was anxious about having to give Dharma talks to Americans since he was not so fluent in English. And the story goes that Suzuki Roshi, the priest came to Zen Center and was participating, and Suzuki Roshi entered the Dharma Hall and got onto his seat. He rang the bell, and then he put his hands together. And then with a slow, careful words, he said, today is today.

[02:11]

And then a long pause. Today is not yesterday. And another long pause. Today is not tomorrow. And again, a long pause. Today is today. Then he smiled, bowed, got down from his seat, and left. A five-word Dharma talk. Maybe I should follow suit today. Too late. Sorry. Maybe I'll just say, today is not the first day of Sushin. And it's not the last. Regardless, I think the only person who's anxiously counting what day of Sushin it might be is the Shusau.

[03:13]

Is that right, Sozan? So whatever you all do, don't tell Sozan when it's day seven, two days from now. Okay? Great. Thank you. So this morning I plan to continue with our exploration of Dogen's Bodhisatta Shishobo, which can be, as we said before, translated in a number of ways, although I lean towards the translation, the Bodhisattva's Four Embracing Actions, and also the Bodhisattva's Four Methods of Guidance. And two days ago I introduced these embracing actions and discussed Dogen's presentation of the first, that of giving or offering, which is the foundation of all four practices. And in Ed's talk yesterday, he covered the second method, which is kind or loving speech.

[04:15]

It's a beneficial action that uses language. And today I'll explore the third, beneficial action, which is a form of offering using body and mind. And then tomorrow, Ed will wrap up with the fourth, identity action. which is a method we can use to make our offerings acceptable to others. Now, while we think that bodhisattva activity is primarily about benefiting others, at least that's what we're told, Dogen's view is that wholehearted bodhisattva activity is itself a direct path to one's awakening. And Shohako Gomorrah in his commentary on Shishobo echoes this by saying that these four actions are the ways the Bodhisattva helps living beings to enter the way of Buddha and abide in the truth.

[05:19]

In this sense, the translation used by Kaz Tanahashi in Moon in a Dewdrop, Methods of Guidance, is a good translation, he says. However, when Dogen Zenji expounds these four practices, he says, as Shobo Genzo, that is, as the transmission of the true Dharma or the transmission of reality itself, I think he does not merely mean that these are methods for guiding people to enter the Buddhist path. Dogen teaches that these four practices allow the Bodhisattvas themselves to be free from the three poisonous states of mind, greed, greed, anger or hatred, and ignorance. These practices benefit both the person practicing and living beings at the same time. So that's Okamura. As I did in my previous talk, since you don't have the luxury of having this fascicle in front of you as I talk, I'm going to read the section on beneficial action to you and offer along the way some commentary and reflections.

[06:30]

And I'll do it in pieces. It's probably kind of the shortest section altogether. According to Dogen, the third embracing action that a bodhisattva engages in for the benefit of all beings is rigyo. Rigyo. Beneficial action, or sometimes it's translated as helpful conduct. And unpacking the characters for the Japanese word rigyo, ri means helpful or beneficial. It can also mean profit and advantage. And then gyo is conduct or action, meaning to carry out in action. So in the first paragraph of this section, this is the translation by Shohako Gamora, Dogen says that rigyo, beneficial action, is simply creating skillful means to benefit living beings,

[07:32]

whether they are noble or humble. For example, we care for the near and distant future of others and use skillful means to benefit them. And then he goes on to give a couple examples of skillful means and the motivation behind them. We should take pity on a caged tortoise and care for a sick sparrow, Dorgan writes. When we see this tortoise or sparrow, We try to help them without expecting any reward. We are motivated solely by beneficial action itself. So again, that was Dogen. So what we're considering here is our concrete actions and communications that help others, that lead to well-being and help the world to thrive. Beneficial action is not some abstract idea.

[08:35]

It's us going forward into our world. And the question for us then is, what does this mean? And how do we do it? According to Dogen, beneficial action is a matter of skillful means. And skillful means, or in Sanskrit, upaya, the Japanese word is hoban, is a concept that originated very early in Mayana Buddhism, kind of in conjunction with the recommendation that we should all aspire to be bodhisattvas. So the idea of skillful means and bodhisattva practice arose about the same time. It's a term for employing creative and sometimes gradual or provisional methods to help sentient beings awaken. As Domino Burke puts it, a bodhisattva employs skillful means when they carefully observe the beings they are trying to help and then choose the most appropriate and effective message and actions for the situation.

[09:52]

The goal, she says, is to really get through to beings, to help relieve their suffering and guide them toward liberation. a bodhisattva recognizes that they will need to communicate and act differently depending on the beings they're interacting with. One of the bodhisattva archetypes that we studied this practice period was that of Avalokiteshvara, the bodhisattva of infinite compassion, who's often depicted as having as many as a thousand arms and a thousand hands. and with an eye in each palm. And the hands of Avalokiteshvara often hold various tools and implements. And these thousand hands and eyes represent Avalokiteshvara's practice of skillful means, compassionately assisting beings by whatever methods would be effective.

[11:00]

using whatever comes to hand as a tool. But we should note that beneficial action is much more involved than simply responding compassionately in the moment if you happen to encounter someone in trouble. Of course, responding compassionately can include spontaneous actions. But there's an aspect of discernment about what is truly needed given the circumstances and what might be the most appropriate means to offer it in that moment. Upaya is sometimes called expedient means and is said to require compassion, understanding, patience, adaptation, creativity, and a willingness to learn.

[12:05]

So to use skillful means, beneficial action, means to see and consider before we act. For example, we might pause and consider the causes and conditions that have given rise to the circumstances, the particular circumstances that we're encountering. We could ask, what What made the situation what it is now? What are its origins, its seeds? How can this tangle of causes and conditions be unraveled? And if we look closely, we may see things we don't want to see. So we have to take into account that the most beneficial action might include aspects that we don't want to include. For example, we might need to associate with people we'd rather avoid or do things that are difficult or dreary or not so interesting to us.

[13:19]

So employing expedient means entails a fierce courage. a sober honesty with ourselves and others, and the tenacity to not turn away from the circumstance, from the reality that's right in front of us. Beneficial action as the creation of skillful means is about shaping our actions so that they truly help the situation at hand. And the idea of skillful means comes from the Lotus Sutra. And it's kind of an important signpost on the Buddhist path.

[14:23]

The Lotus Sutra includes many stories of the Bodhisattva's creativity in various situations. For example, the parable of the burning house, for any of you who have read the Lotus Sutra may have heard this story before. The parable of the burning house, a father's children are playing in a burning house. They don't know it's on fire, right? And he needs to get them out. But they're too preoccupied with their playing to heed his warnings, right? So he's standing outside saying, come out, children, come out, come out. And they're just engaged in a play and ignoring him, don't know what's going on. So using expedient means, in this case, the father tells his kids that there are amazing new playthings awaiting the children outside the house. So if you just come outside, you'll get these amazing playthings, these new toys. And so the children come out, and after they come out, the kids...

[15:28]

find only one new thing. In the text it says a cart, and that the name for a cart is yana, which is symbolic for the path of Buddhism, as in maha, mahiyana, great vehicle. So while it's true that the father deceived his children for a brief time in order to get them to do something they were resisting, but in the end would be good for them, We might understand the father's deception as upaya, as skillful means, necessary to save his kids. A larger beneficial cause. So skillful means is about shaping our actions so that they truly help the situation at hand. And the point of the father's skillful means isn't to excuse his lying, which, you know, it's true.

[16:33]

It violates the bodhisattva precepts. Instead, here, the emphasis is on compassion. Will you do anything you can to help a suffering being? So it's not about some idea of what should happen. or some objective idea about what's right. The father, I would imagine in the parable, knew it wouldn't help to lecture his children as the house burned here around them, right? That wouldn't necessarily be helpful. They wouldn't take it in. How many kids take it in when you're getting lectured? I didn't like it. Instead, he appealed to what he knew would motivate them. giving more weight to the longer-term benefit of saving their lives over accruing any negative karma from maldeception.

[17:37]

And perhaps we can find similar instances in our own lives where skillful means entails us finding indirect but compassionate ways to engage others in wholesome endeavors. For example, maybe we really want our aging parents to follow COVID safety protocols, despite their kind of dismissing the whole seriousness of the virus, right? So skillful means in this case means maybe we find ways to make it easier for them to avoid going out in public by arranging to have their groceries delivered rather than scolding them. You know, you shouldn't go out, parents. You don't know the danger out there. Or another example, maybe we know posting critical comments on a friend's Facebook, on the Facebook page, won't really change their political views. I know I've done this with my brother.

[18:39]

He's very conservative, and I'm not. And when we've had exchanges on Facebook, none of us changes the mind of the other. We just get into a heated conversation and then don't talk for a while. So rather than falling into that trap and trying to change his mind on something that's not even practical like Facebook, we can instead maybe volunteer to make cold calls to engage undecided voters around pivotal initiatives that are important to us. So put our energy into a place and a realm that actually maybe beneficial action can actually occur, that minds could be changed in a way that's more conducive So when we need to work with other beings in order to bring about something beneficial, we generally need them, we need to meet them at least halfway, right?

[19:43]

We really try to need to meet them halfway. And yet this can be challenging if we hold on to having things done our way. cling to the need to be right. Does that happen for any of you? Sometimes we think that if we just repeat ourselves often enough, the other person will finally come around to our view. So perhaps we perseverate our point ad nauseum, giving all kinds of rational reasons and facts in our view for why our way is the right way. kind of trying to wear the other person down until they give in. They give in to our wants. So just like, okay, I give up. Or maybe we try to kind of judge them and degrade them in some way. Tell them how stupid they are for not obviously seeing things our way.

[20:45]

And I know I've done that with my brother. It hasn't helped. And he's done it with me. So we don't get anywhere. And we might even be someone who really enjoys arguing We relish the possibility of winning the battle and getting others to surrender to our brilliance. Are you familiar with any of these tendencies? Do any of you have this? Have you done any of this? Yep, I see a few hands going up. So good, I'm not the only one. How often have you tried to manipulate or pressure another person to agree with you? Overwhelm them with details of facts that you think... your point of view without really making an effort to generally hear their concerns and meet them halfway and then move forward together with respectful regard for a mutually beneficial outcome.

[21:48]

If we really want to practice skillful means, then we might pause to ask ourselves, what will actually inspire them? Or at least help them feel less defensive? What will actually help in the end? I imagine that perhaps you agree with me when I say that I think that political process and landscape in this country is would be vastly improved if our political parties and other national leaders really made an effort to hear and meet each other's fundamental concerns and truly manifest beneficial action on behalf of all peoples, not just a select few. I'm hoping that's something that the new administration can do as it enters in in the new year.

[23:01]

I think it would really change the dialogue that we have in this country and the way that we together move forward, particularly in this time of difficulty. So according to Dogen, a bodhisattva takes action as a means for simply creating skillful means, to benefit living beings." He says, whether they are noble or humble. That's the next line. Simply creating skillful means to benefit living beings, whether they are noble or humble. And the Nishijima cross-translation uses the phrase, all classes of sentient beings, rather than the words noble and humble. And I think there's a lot to consider here in the use of the phrase, all classes. Not just noble and humble beings, but all classes of sentient beings are deserving of beneficial action.

[24:03]

A bodhisattva does not discriminate or show preference, but embraces all beings equally with their beneficial action. And while the phrase all classes... is, I think in this case, most likely a reference to the six realms of existence in Buddhism. The human realm, the animal realm, god realm, demigod realm, ghost and demon realm, the hungry ghost and demons. We could also consider it in terms of our modern definitions of class, including those of socioeconomic status and caste. And this... of course, can be expanded to refer to many kinds of intersectionalities, including those of gender, sexual orientation, race, physical and mental ability. If we want to truly see and create the beneficial actions for all beings to be free of suffering, to be liberated...

[25:12]

we need to do our best to apply skillful means equally. For example, when trying to address the numerous inequities created by entrenched gender and racial biases, and the way that these biases over time have shaped and perpetuated our social and governing structures, it can be skillful means, to create new programs or regulations that intentionally offset various systemic inequities. So some examples of such beneficial, you could say, rebalancing programs include those entailing affirmative action or reparations to address the historical inequities experienced by African Americans as a result of institutionalized slavery and the Jim Crow laws.

[26:15]

Equality can only truly be equality once the baseline from which each person starts is taken into consideration. I remember this cartoon I've seen that talks about, you know, equality and the difference between equality and equity. And equality has these three people standing behind a fence, right? I think they're all kids in some way. And the idea of equality, you know, trying to look over the fence, see the other side. And the idea of equality has boosting them up with the same box, the same size box. But each of the kids is a different height. And therefore, the kids that are shorter can't see over the fence. But in the term of equity, equity in that case, the boxes themselves are different heights to accommodate the different heights of the kids so that the kids in the end all have an equal view over the fence.

[27:24]

That's skillful means. That's how do we create a world of beneficial action. to address the circumstances as they are. Dogen says that even small beings, small living beings, are deserving of our bodhisattva beneficial action, not just humans. He writes, you should take pity on a caged tortoise and care for a sick sparrow. When we see this tortoise or sparrow, we try to help them. without expecting any reward. We are motivated solely by beneficial action itself. So here, these two examples he gives refer to Chinese stories. In the first story, a government official named Kong Yu encountered a man on the road who was carrying a captured tortoise.

[28:26]

And seeing that the poor tortoise was suffering in his cage, Kong Yu gave the man money for the animal. And then he went to the river to release it. And as he released it back into the river, it's said that the turtle turned its head back at Kong Yu in a gesture of gratitude as it headed to its home. And then later on, Kong Yu became the governor, it's said, as a result of the tortoise's aid and protection. And then in the second story, nine-year-old young Hau found a sick sparrow, a sick sparrow that was on the ground. It was being attacked by ants. So he took the bird home and nursed it back to health. And then he released it. And as a result, later in life, the sparrow offered the boy and his family protection and prosperity for four generations.

[29:31]

Though both Kong Yu and Yang Hao acted simply from the beneficial action in their hearts, they didn't have any other objective. It's just their hearts were moved to engage in beneficial action because they saw suffering beings. Both of them were rewarded much later in life. We might consider that beneficial actions they performed were developed hearts that enabled them to attain the rewards they received. What is it to wholeheartedly act because this is what the situation asks of us? There may be rewards, and we may never notice them. However, the spirit we develop in doing so, taking on these beneficial actions, makes us the kind of person who is naturally able to ascend, if you will, to positions that are kind of responsible, and to be able to provide for our family's needs, according to these two stories.

[30:59]

What is it to... to act in a way that doesn't discriminate or waste time deciding who's deserving or not of our beneficial action? What is it to act when we don't expect material reward or verbal accolades about how generous we are? Can just knowing that we have contributed to the well-being of the world, be reward enough. This is not just the Bodhisattva's purpose, but it's our purpose, to contribute to the welfare of the world in both large and small ways, often invisible and silent ways as well. To be a person of no rank,

[32:03]

who is doing invisible acts of kindness and generosity, just because it makes the world a better place. So beneficial action is simply creating skillful means to benefit living beings, whether they are noble or humble. And Dogen adds that as bodhisattvas, we care... for the near and distant future of others and use skillful means to benefit them. So when we help living beings, it's not just a matter of what the impact or benefit for them will be in the here and now. We can also think of the future as well. We can consider what what might be both the near-term and the long-term benefits of our efforts.

[33:04]

Because what we do now will affect the future, regardless of whether we ever even know what the full outcome of our efforts are. So it's useful to see both present and future ramifications of our actions, to really think about them. And in doing so, we... we invoke the Bodhisattva archetypal principles of both Jizo, the protector of the here and now, and Maitreya, the future Buddha, the fruition of practice. The possibility of a better world, a free world, where there is no suffering. I'm reminded of the seventh generation principle. I don't know if you're aware of that. The seventh generation principle is based on an ancient Iroquois philosophy that says the decisions we make today should result in a sustainable world seven generations into the future.

[34:17]

Will what I'm doing now still create good later on? And not just... in a week or a year from now, but seven generations from now. And if we think about it, sometimes the actions that are beneficial in this moment are actually harmful in the long run. For example, maybe cutting down trees to build new homes, to solving the housing crisis now, to help get homeless people off the street, has immediate benefit in this moment. But if the forests aren't sustainably harvested, then in time we run the risk of depleting our forests and having negative effects in the Earth's overall climate. We just keep having more children, more people, more people, and then we keep building more houses and more houses and keep cutting down more trees and more trees. What's the long-term effect?

[35:23]

Or maybe we feel good about giving a dollar to a wheelchair-bound person who's begging outside the local coffee shop. And while in the moment it might be beneficial, they get something to feed themselves and warn themselves, if we think about the possibility of creating a better society in which that person can have access to Adequate medical care, housing, and employment. That fail to support people struggling now to get their basic needs met. And allow them their dignity at the same time. In the second paragraph on beneficial action, Dogen writes, Foolish people think that if they help others first, their own benefit will be lost.

[36:34]

But this is not so. Beneficial action is an act of oneness, benefiting self and others together. To greet petitioners, a lord of old three times stopped in the middle of his bath and arranged his hair. and three times left his dinner table. He did this solely with the intention of benefiting others. He did not mind instructing even subjects of other lords. Thus, you should benefit friend and enemy equally. You should benefit self and others alike. If you have this mind, even beneficial action for the sake of grasses, trees, wind and water is spontaneous and unremitting. This being so, make a wholehearted effort to help the ignorant. So the first two sentences of this paragraph are key in that they point to the fundamental difference between how one might typically think about consequences of helping others and how

[37:51]

the understanding of a bodhisattva that compels their actions. So Dogen says, foolish people, you know, me, maybe you, think that if they help others first, their own benefit will be lost. But this is not so. Beneficial action is an act of oneness, benefiting self and others together. Okamura translates this as, an ignorant person may think that if we benefit others too much, our own benefit will be excluded. This is not the case. Beneficial action is the whole of dharma. It benefits both self and others widely. Now, some of us might typically have some reservations about helping others because we're afraid that somehow we'll lose out or we'll end up with the shorter stick, if you will, by doing so.

[39:02]

And if we have an ongoing narrative of lack, that there's only so much to go around and as someone who's kind of independent and separate, we've got to look out for ourselves first. then we might succumb to this limited view when deciding whether or not to engage in beneficial actions. But Dogen here is reminding us of our interdependency, that there's no real distinction between who benefits from any action. Domeo Birkin, in her commentary on this fascicle, notes that beneficial action is not only an act through which we can manifest oneness. It's also an act through which we can realize oneness. In other words, beneficial action isn't just a good thing that generous and kind bodhisattvas do once they're awakened to interdependence or to no-self.

[40:12]

It's also a practice we... deluded ordinary beings can do in order to awaken to interdependence and non-self. Right? You see how that works? So recognizing the mutuality of beneficial action includes realizing our intimacy and our profound connectedness. As Dogen says, beneficial action is an act of oneness, benefiting self and others together. Or as Okamura translates this line, beneficial action is the whole of dharma. It benefits both self and others widely. And this is because ultimately,

[41:17]

There is no separately existing self or other. Even if we're not conscious of our oneness or our interdependency in advance of engaging in a beneficial action, it might become evident after the fact. It becomes a teaching in that way. Dogen continues, to greet practitioners, a lord of old three times stopped in the middle of his bath and arranged his hair. I do that often. And three times left his dinner table. He did this solely with the intention of benefiting others. So, in other words, we don't just engage in beneficial action when it's convenient. And Dogen's example here of a man tying up his hair three times during his bath and getting up from his meal three times refers to a Chinese story in which a minister whose son is about to become the governor of a foreign province admonishes the son not to put his own convenience before that of his subjects.

[42:42]

Even if guests... interrupt his bath or meal, the father advises, and not just once, but three times. He says his son should not disparage the visitors, but graciously prepare himself and go meet them. Put up his hair, dry off, put on his clothing, go downstairs, open the door. And he says this is how a true leader serves those They lead. And yet, how many of us would be willing to do this and not feel somewhat annoyed by the supposed inconvenience? When I first read these lines, I thought about how sometimes city center residents will express some unhappiness or resentment about being asked to answer the front door on Sundays.

[43:45]

when the temple is typically closed to the public and we have the day off, right? And this, I'm speaking in terms of the days before COVID when our doors were actually open and we invited people to come to the temple. And sometimes we get people, get visitors from out of town who are just in San Francisco just for the day, they say. And they hope to stop by to maybe learn how to meditate, ask some questions about Zen practice, perhaps get a tour of this beautiful historic temple. And the attitude with which we meet people at the front door, we need to realize, can have a significant impact in many cases. Giving visitors a taste of our depth of practice or lack thereof. And so, you know, maybe the doorbell rings and we think, it's not my problem. Yeah, let someone else get it.

[44:46]

I'm reading the newspaper. Or we stomp to the front door, yank it open, and guffly ask, what do you want? Making sure that the person is aware of how much they've inconvenienced us. And yes, I've been there. Yes, it's a pain to have our personal day off, right? And be kind of... enjoying a quiet bagel breakfast in the beautiful courtyard of city center, and suddenly it's interrupted, and we're kind of in our day-off clothing, and it's interrupted by a doorbell, and no one else is around. But if we're able to rouse ourselves to answer the door and be a benefit to whoever's there, then afterwards we might have both a sense of satisfaction, a sense of peace from the kindness that we've offered the visitor. And who knows, that visitor might be a future friend of ours, or even a future partner, or even a future abbot of Zen Center.

[45:56]

And there might even be a kind of this sense of selflessness that arises due to our kind action. that helps us to let go of our clinging to our ego self in some way. And how we meet the person at the door may either inspire them to take up practice or turn them off to the degree that they never sit meditation because it obviously couldn't help the rude monk who entered the front door to be less of a selfish jerk. Right? or if we're able to maintain our awake presence and groundedness of mind and our deeper intention to act with kindness and compassion, then the visitor may leave inspired and wanting to take up Buddha's way because of the kind Zen monk at Beginner's Mind Temple who graciously opened the door despite the inconvenience.

[47:07]

I'm sure you can kind of play this out in other areas of your life in ways that how do you extend beyond your comfort zone and your own preferences to meet others in a wholehearted way. But then Dogen goes even further. Not only should we adopt beneficial action as a bodhisattva practice without discrimination between noble and human, Sorry, noble or humble people, right? Human or animal. But then he tells us, quote, we should benefit friend and enemy equally. We should benefit self and others alike. What? Now, maybe that's going too far, you might think, right? You mean to say, I have to also set aside my... personal agenda, my preference and judgments, my pride and self-concern, and in order to wholeheartedly help others, I consider my enemy?

[48:18]

Does this include the person who might want to harm me in some way, either directly or indirectly? When I read this, I... I recall the teachings of Jesus from my Mennonite Sunday school classes in which he told his followers, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you. That's a tough order. Or Dr. Martin Luther King echoes this sentiment when he counsels that in seeking to love one's enemy, quote, one must discover the element of good in one's enemy. And every time you begin to hate that person, realize that there is some good there and look at those good points which will overbalance the bad point. There is something within each of us, he says, that causes us to cry out with Goethe.

[49:23]

There is enough stuff in me to make both a gentleman and a rogue. End of quote. Can we go beyond the dualistic discrimination of self and other that we perceive and realize we are all capable of unwholesome and unkind acts when we're blinded by self-concern and remain ignorant of our own faults and shortcomings? can we see the ways that the practices of the bodhisattva action can have the effect of humbling us, of undermining and reducing our preoccupation with I, me, mine, and show us where we still have work to do in regard to letting go of clinging,

[50:39]

a sense of a separate self. Almost there, folks. Dogen concludes his thoughts on beneficial action by saying that because beneficial actions never regress, if we attain such a mind, we can perform beneficial action even for grass, trees, trees. wind, and water. We should strive solely to help ignorant beings. So he says, any beneficial action that we have engaged in cannot regress. It can't be undone. Unfortunately, neither can destructive actions. Every action taken, whether beneficial, harmful, or even neutral, ripples throughout time and space. So Dogen finds it meaningful to practice the Bodhisattva vow to help all beings that suffer in samsara, even those we consider difficult or our enemies.

[51:54]

In the end, when we get out of our own way and drop our self-serving orientation, the way that we always center ourselves, then all of our actions have boundless benefits. Affecting not just humans and animals, but in this case, as Stokin says, all of nature, including grass, trees, wind, and water, they're a part of us. They're not separate from us. They benefit the entire planet. So Dogen is pointing to the fact that when we wholeheartedly engage in beneficial action, we use our bodies and minds in a way that is harmonious with the whole world. We embody the non-duality of both benefactor and the one who benefits from compassionate activity.

[53:01]

In other words, there is no other who is being helped. there is just wholehearted activity each of the four embracing actions of a bodhisattva is a method for connecting a way to manifest the truth that we are not separate from each other to a way to live out the truth There's no distinction between self and other, between a bodhisattva and an ordinary being. Embracing beneficial action wholeheartedly is to perform a liberating, as Dogen says, act of oneness. Dogen also says that beneficial action is the whole of dharma.

[54:09]

the entirety of the Buddhist teachings is found in an appropriate response. When we truly wake up to the ways things are, things as it is, then the whole of our life becomes beneficial action. What a beautiful way to live this precious gift of life together. Oh, look, I've gone much longer than I anticipated, so I want to thank you. I'll end there. And tomorrow, Abed Ed will finish our exploration of Dogen's four embracing actions with an exploration of identity action. So may you enjoy the rest of your day of sitting, regardless of what day it might be.

[55:16]

Thank you again for your kind attention. 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 sfcc.org and click Giving. May we all fully enjoy the Dharma.

[55:45]

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