hi everybody welcome welcome to the San Francisco Zen Center on a Saturday that also is a one-day sitting and also is kind of in the midst of a practice period that we've been that we've undertaken here at the Zen Center and in this practice period we're especially studying and thinking about Suzuki Roshi, using his book Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind, and other things he said and wrote as the theme. And sort of apropos of my about to speak, or already starting to speak, I ran across a quote of his this morning. One day, a student standing next to Suzuki Roshi asked him, so what do you think about us Zen students?

[01:17]

And he said, I think you're all enlightened until you open your mouth. And so excuse me, I've already opened my mouth. I can't know the reasons that all of you are here. But I believe, I have a feeling that most of you, maybe even all of you are here because you're interested in what it means to practice Buddhism. Interested in understanding how to make that something

[02:19]

real in your life. And perhaps the reason that if you do have some curiosity about Buddhism, perhaps the reason for this is that at some point you had a kind of curious thought of wonderment. How can I live? How can we live our life in a way that's useful? this human life we have, this special opportunity we have of being alive is something that is a challenge for us. And at risk of perhaps aggrandizing a simple moment like you just sitting here, let me say that

[03:23]

Being here today is exactly all of your way-seeking minds being expressed, is just exactly the active seeking of your deepest heart. And also, one thing that I want to say, I think I'm going to say the first thing that I want to say, is please know that Buddhism holds no monopoly on the answer to this question. And in fact, this thing called Buddhism is in some ways nothing much. But saying that practice is nothing much is kind of flipping the normal sequence because we often begin, it seems to be that practice begins by the feeling that Zen or Buddhism or practice or whatever your spiritual endeavor begins with a feeling that this is a big thing.

[04:54]

This is, it begins perhaps with a sense that this is almost a revolutionary activity being set forth upon. That we are excited to have in our life, excited to have the chance to develop. So at first, I think we actually have a tendency to make something big about practice. And making it big is another way of saying that we have this thought that practice might be something different than our everyday life. And it's later. after some years of pounding our heads against the wall in Zazen, or pounding the heads against the wall of the way we relate to people and things, that we might realize our practice is nothing special, which is a kind of special sort of realization.

[06:21]

So I want to say again, welcome to the Zen Center. Welcome to this Buddhist temple. That a special place that exists to help us. To exist to help us meet our life and wake up. And a place like the Zen Center is a sanctuary. It's a place where everyone should feel safe to be at. And what does it mean to make a safe place? Is this even, in fact, possible? Is it possible to make a spot that everyone feels included? It may not be. We can try. But we are not a closed container here that we can tinker with.

[07:41]

We're porous and open to anybody who walks in off the street. Zen Center, I hope, is a place where Buddhas are born and Buddhas are nurtured and Buddhas are launched forth. But along the way, it's not such a simple thing. And right here in front of our everyday life, we, I say myself, I, I'm busy creating karma.

[08:50]

And I think it may be true for you too. And we are, even though we're mostly doing our best, maybe even completely doing our best. We are living in ways that entangle us. Here's a story of separation. One time, this was a a year or so ago, maybe more. I walked down the front steps of the Zen Center, and there was a resident who was wearing a suit, a really nice suit. I normally didn't see this person dressed in such a fashion.

[09:55]

And I said, you know, you're looking really good. What are you doing? And he said, I'm going to a job interview. So I said, well, good luck. And I walked away. Later, the next day, I saw this student. And he told me that shortly after I walked away, a bicyclist pedaled by. And as the bicyclist pedaled by, the bicyclist said, hey, you look really stupid in that suit. I don't know, but I think it might be possible that that bicyclist is somebody who, on another occasion, rode that bike to a peace rally.

[10:59]

Maybe. Maybe. I can't know this for sure, but I hope that somewhere in that person who called out, hey, you look really stupid in that suit, that this person also knew that such a simple divide is how war begins. Such a simple beginning is how suffering is And also I thought, what a mean thing to say. What a mean thing to say. And for a moment I thought I felt a little bit righteous until I remembered something about myself. Here is another story of separation.

[12:07]

I was driving my car in the mission district and my daughter was beside me. When we came to an intersection where the light turned red and there was another car besides us. And this other car besides us was a full-scale Hummer. this humongous vehicle, this humongous engine of global warming, and the windows were rolled down, and loud, happy music was coming from this car, and a handsome, well-dressed young man was at the wheel. And while the light remained red, and I looked over and up at this car,

[13:08]

car I don't know what came over me but you know at one point I said hey and the driver turned his head and I said you know that's a really stupid car and then the light turned green and we drove away and my daughter said what did you say? And I thought to myself, oh, God. Oh, stupid Jordan. Stupid Jordan. I sort of melted inside as I thought about how I had insulted someone else. Because my words were also a part of how separation begins, of how war is seeded.

[14:18]

At that moment, I thought, there's someone over there who's stupid. There's someone over there who's wrong. and I did not turn the light upon myself. So we're at the Zen Center, a Buddha factory, and this requires this factory's admonition on the wall of this factory is not to do harm to others, to encourage others, to bring them forth, not to make them shrivel. And acting with a kind of practice integrity in our life

[15:36]

is not a certain state of mind. It's not something that we can gain once and keep with confidence forever. It's a flexible, responsive, humble place that we need to be in touch with inside of ourself. Perhaps one question that we need to ask ourselves over and over is not what's the right thing to do, but what's the compassionate thing to do? What is the skillful thing to do here to bring forth awakening? And one of the delusions as we move through this Buddha factory.

[16:39]

One of the delusions of our life is that we have lots of time to work things out. We look around and see most of the people we know live to some ripe old age and believe this is going to be true for us. But really, the time to make this effort is not later, but right now, because we cannot know for sure that later will come. As it says on the Han, this wooden sounding board, we strike, life is fleeting, vanished in an instant. Don't waste your time. Our lives might be short or long, whatever may be this allotment.

[17:56]

For sure, our years are limited. But the arc of our life, the direction of our life, the instinct that... brings us to practice is greater, is a greater story than any individual moment. And this leaning towards awakening has survived for a very long time through a series of friendships that people have had with each other, an unbroken string of friendships that stretch back in time.

[19:02]

In Zen practice, we make a special story out of these friendships. teacher and student and teacher and student and teacher and student. I am a student of Norman's, who was a student of Mel's, who was a student of Suzuki Roshi's son, and so on and so on and so on. This continuous line of relationship is a delicate thread that joins us with the past and goes forth to the future. And that we have a responsibility ourselves to not break. So please understand, at least I understand, that our practice is

[20:12]

Our life, forget about practice, our life is real when we're face to face with another person. As much as we encourage people to go to the zendo and sit down, turn around and face the wall and be with themselves, the real test of our practice is when the bell rings, we get up, walk out and say hello to someone. What sort of hello do we offer? I say, what sort of hello do we say to someone? Because in some ways, the biggest challenge of our life is to treat the people that we know with respect. And it is also the challenge of our friends to allow us to grow and change.

[21:24]

To not think, oh, I know who Jordan is. One of the things that I appreciate about Buddhist practice is that you do not have to take it on faith. As a matter of fact, you should not take it on faith. Maybe there's a place where we can bridge a few tricky spots with some faith. But in fact... Practice is not a kind of received wisdom that we receive from on high or from over there, but it is something that we make real in our own experience, that we exercise in our own life.

[22:28]

And when we exercise it in our own life, sometimes we make mistakes. A hammer pulls up beside us. But I learned something at that moment. I think for myself I learned something. And also, I say I learned something. It was a small thing at that moment. But practice is not so much strongly founded, stably founded on a tremendous moment of inspiration. Though that might happen. Practice in our Buddhist commitment is made...

[23:39]

secure by a whole succession of many small decisions, small observations, small wakings. A simple process over time of loosening a grip we have on some old way. and not even necessarily tightening the grip on a new way. I don't think I brought a watch. I wonder if someone has... I don't know where we're at with our time. Thank you.

[24:42]

It is not just the task of our personal journey. It's not just the responsibility that we take to understand or wake up ourself. We also need to help others. We also have to meet others in a way that encourages them. Have to, such a tricky word, have to. Really, the most effective way to train ourself is to understand that our great pleasure is found in being encouraging to other people. Because everyone is actually on the same path that we're on. And just as we need support,

[26:13]

from our friends our friends need support from us from you and me from we starting off in this thing starting off to practice is actually sometimes not so difficult it's not the toughest thing to do we based on things that we've seen in our life based on based on moments of our upbringing. We want to do something different than where we see ourselves going. We actually, I think, want to see the world and see ourself in it

[27:16]

in a straightforward, clean, clear way. Starting off in practice is just a sensible thing to do. But what is really tough is to continue. Continuing becomes complicated. And, you know, there is a secret to success in the Buddha journey. It's a very simple secret, but the secret to success is just simply to continue, to not stop. When I, sometimes I find myself on an airplane, and they have this little safety demonstration where they talk about oxygen drops down, those little yellow masks.

[28:44]

And they say, for parents, if you're a parent traveling with a child, please put the mask on yourself first rather than the child. It might be an instinct to... take care of the child first or the other person first. But really, in order to have the means to take care of that person, you need to first take care of yourself. So while practice is all about waking up other people, practice is also founded on making our own life okay simple words the trick is how do you do it maybe already you figured that out you know congratulations if you have

[29:52]

We chanted this morning in our morning service something called the Fukan Zazengi. It's instructions on sitting zazen. And it says in there that the way is basically perfect and all-pervading. How could it be contingent upon practice and realization? The Dharma vehicle is free and untrammeled. What need is there for concentrated effort? Indeed, the whole body is far beyond the world's dust. Who could believe in a means to brush it clean? Who could believe in a means to brush it clean? This is one truth, and another truth is that we are always brushing ourselves clean.

[31:44]

Another truth is that in this Buddha way, in the Buddha way, There is no possibility of failure. Just as there is no possibility of success. This is the way things are. There was one of those friends that came before us in the Zen tradition who was a Zen Japanese Zen monk named Ryokan. He lived 200 or so years ago in Japan.

[32:46]

He was a remarkably humble person. left no successors, created no temple. One time he returned to his hut and saw and came upon a thief who'd broken into it and was looking for things. disappointed thief found there was really nothing to take there. Ryokan offered his clothes. After the thief left with a fond farewell, Ryokan said, I only wish I could have given him the moon. Here's one of his poems.

[33:53]

Because of the finger you can point at the moon. Because of the moon you can understand the finger. The moon and the finger are neither different nor the same. This parable is used only to lead students to enlightenment. Once you've really seen things as they are, there's no more moon, no more finger. Once you've really seen things as they are, there is no more moon, no more finger, no possibility of success. no possibility of failure.

[34:56]

This, I think, truly is what brings us here. This, I believe, is what brings us all together in this room. Thank you.

[35:17]

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