This podcast is offered by the San Francisco Zen Center on the web at www.sfcc.org. Our public programs are made possible by donations from people like you. Good morning. And good morning to you who are viewing online. This morning, about three hours ago, we had a peace ceremony. And then we're going to have a six-day meditation starting tomorrow morning, or starting tonight. And then on the seventh day, we're going to join a big march. That's what I'd like to talk about.

[01:01]

I'd like to talk about when we're left to our Zen devices, what do we come up with? And then when we enter the world, with what attitude, with what guidelines do we do that? And to illustrate the two perspectives, I'd like to compare the echo, the dedication that we made in this morning's service to a quote from Aristotle. Let me just go out of line and let you hear the quote from Aristotle. I think many of you have heard me say before that I don't read Greek at all. But the quote that I got off the internet uses the word angry and I replaced it with the word protest.

[02:20]

Let me read it with the word angry first. To be angry with the appropriate person at the appropriate time to the appropriate degree and for the appropriate person purpose and in the appropriate way. This is not easy. And then I took out the word anger and I substituted protest. That's what I was thinking of. And here's the dedication that we chanted this morning. May we awaken Buddha's compassion and luminous mirror wisdom and with full awareness

[03:28]

We've chanted the harmony of difference and equality. And we offer this merit for the resolution of all conflict based on the delusion of separation. And from a Zen perspective, that covers all conflict. It's not like a subsection of conflict. It's the whole thing in all its manifestations. The resolution of all conflict based on delusion and separation. The realization of the one life we live together. May we with all our acts of body, speech and mind, dedicate ourselves to peacefulness.

[04:33]

May our leaders be wise at heart and refrain from all violence and warfare. And may we, with all beings, find solace and strength in the Buddhist way. So I'd just like to start by commenting on a couple of those terms. May we awaken Buddhist compassion and luminous mirror wisdom. There's an image in Buddhism. When you look in the mirror, you see yourself. And so the state of consciousness that sees your conditioned existence sees it clearly and accurately.

[05:41]

And this has its own wisdom. And then the chant of the harmony of difference and equality. In our service this morning, in a way, we were emphasizing the equality. We were emphasizing, to you the Buddhists' term, we were emphasizing the non-duality of existence. That in some ways, every single one of us is unique, as is every moment, every other kind of being. And at the same time, collectively, we create a version of reality.

[06:46]

And this amazing process is going on all the time. And so in the Zen school, this is how we enter awareness. We enter awareness with the notion that luminous mirror wisdom will invite seeing the nature of things, that they're both different and they're the same. And this is the aspiration of the Bodhisattva way. Even though beings are numberless, even though delusions are inexhaustible, we take this up as our guide.

[08:04]

And then we will sit for six days and bear witness to ourselves unfolding our karmic being. Engaging the internal difference that we make up. Moment after moment. narrative after narrative. You know, the process of zazen is we try to create the physical and mental disposition of just being present for whatever happens. Without an agenda to change it, improve it,

[09:16]

Alter it. It just is what it is. And there's a profound learning that goes with that practice. And in Soto Zen, we call it shikantaza, just sitting and experiencing whatever comes up. And this activity creates within us and within our experience of reality a certain kind of trust, a certain kind of validation, like, okay, this is the nature of being. And the okay is significant because it helps us to not get lost in how it could be, how it should be, how to fix it, but more to accept it.

[10:38]

And for six days, those of us in Chisín, and maybe all of us in our everyday life, each of us will engage in this process, noticing that indeed, that's a good description of delusions. They are seemingly inexhaustible. And the myriad ways of being, even in our own being, seems to be innumerable, beyond numbers. And then to compare this to the many qualifications that Aristotle made You know, for good, I thought, well, while I'm looking up Aristotle's quote, why don't I look up Socrates' quotes, too?

[11:55]

I think Socrates was more Buddhist. He said... He defined it... anger as... when we add passion and aggression. But in some ways, they're both trying to explore the same territory. Whoever has been angry with the appropriate person, at the appropriate time, to the appropriate degree, and with appropriate purpose, and in the appropriate way. I think once you've ticked off all those, your aggression has subsided.

[13:00]

The motivation, the righteousness of your anger has already subdued. And maybe Aristotle is saying, well, actually, at heart, we're Buddhists. But we are part of the world, too. To me, there's a wonderful kind of process. Have a ceremony, acknowledge, deeply the wisdom and compassion of the world, sit with it for six days, and then join whoever wants to join in a no-king's march or no-king's parade.

[14:06]

Something that's attempting to be lighthearted, non-aggressive, non-violent, upholding the beauty and virtue that we're capable of. And yet, I would say, Aristotle's cautions are there to be met. the appropriate person, the appropriate time, the appropriate degree, the appropriate purpose, in the appropriate way. And then the end of the quote is, that's not so easy, and not within everyone's capacity.

[15:17]

I think from a Zen perspective, we would say everyone can nurture that capacity. Now, whether they can present it every time, that's another question or consideration. So just think, I think many people are like myself. Somehow the wars around the world are enticing for me, enticing to learn about, okay, what happened today? with a certain notion that somehow disaster has its appeal.

[16:39]

And then the dilemma. Okay, well, I've read about the numberless disasters of today. Now what? Will I skip to the sports results? Will I look up who won the Oscars? Will I read my emails? How do we reconcile that this is what's going on in our world, that we are part of it? We're inclined in our karmic mind to conveniently divide the world into us and them. And guess what? We're the good guys. We're those dedicated Buddhists who see both

[17:56]

what aggressions create and what compassion creates. Can we own our own preferences? Can we own our own judgments? conclusions about others. Can we do that in the context of being proactive in relating to what's going on in the world? To my mind, this is the kohan we're presented with. And I think it behooves us to not shy away from it.

[19:15]

Maybe your other emails other than the news and the details of what bombing, killing has happened across the globe, in particular in the current affairs in the Middle East. How sad that disaster and violence are now created in a kind of hierarchy. And the Middle East is top of the heap. How is it

[20:23]

that we read and a school was bombed and roughly speaking 175 children died. So I'd like to address that question using a story that has been used in Buddhist literature for many and many decades, and maybe the whole way back to the time of Shakyabuni. And it's the story of Kisugutami. How many of you have heard that story? Let me tell you this story and then I'll go into some of the details of it.

[21:33]

Kisugottami is a young mother and she was a Dalit, you know, an untouchable, the lowest caste in Indian society. But having a son raised her up somewhat in a profoundly male-dominated society. And so as a woman, as a young woman, she didn't have much societal status. But then having a son, that raised her up son. And then her infant son died, and she was beside herself with grief.

[22:34]

She became so grief-stricken that she carried her dead baby with her. And everyone she would see, can you bring my baby back to life, she would ask them. And then some of the stories say she was directed to Shakyamuni Buddha. Some of them say, coincidentally, she ran into Shakyamuni Buddha. And then when she asked, can you help me? Shakyamuni Buddha said, yes, I can help. And here's what I want you to do. I want you to go to every house in the village and ask them for some mustard seeds.

[23:39]

But only take the mustard seeds if that family has never experienced death. And so Kisukutami went from household to household asking if they had mustard seeds and had they never experienced death in the family. And then she discovered that there wasn't such a household in the village, that there wasn't such a household in the nature of human existence. That impermanence is pervasive. No one's outside of that impermanence. And this brought about a change of heart.

[24:47]

And then several variations on this story go that Kisugottami became a student of Shakyamuni Buddha and went on to become an arahant. Now whether that part's true or not, the notion of being deeply impacted by your loss And I think there's a cautionary note for all of us. When I was recounting this story to myself yesterday, I was thinking of a phrase, I don't know if you've ever heard of it, the fog of war. Have you heard of that phrase? It's kind of like in the midst of war, there's a kind of confusion

[25:54]

You know, well, what's really happened? And who did it? Who fired that missile at the school? So many things, usually terrible things, are happening. And so rapidly and so all over the place. so various that it's hard to keep track of them all. And in that fog of war, confusion happens. So Kisugatami feels an unbearable sense of loss, an unbearable grief. And in that state, she starts to ask for the impossible.

[27:05]

Can you bring this baby back to life? And for us to ask ourselves, how is this impacting me? Do I suppress it? Do I, with relief, think about other things? How is my grief being related to? And can that grief be a connection rather than a separation? Can that grief help me to feel and acknowledge what's going on in the Middle East?

[28:24]

where country after country is being torn apart. Is that a political statement? Or is it just a statement that accepts delusions are inexhaustible? confusions of war, the confusions of having an agenda that's supported by aggression, supported by us and them. And in that state, we arrive at conclusions. Oh, the appropriate thing.

[29:30]

is to bomb, to massacre. And how do we relate to that? This is our dilemma. And Buddhist practice says that There is a way we can acknowledge the suffering, our own and everyone else's. And there is a way we can help cultivate within our limited human being the capacity to embrace what's going on. to start to see that as we open up to our own loss.

[30:48]

You know, quite recently, a couple of months ago, I read this story to a group of physicians. And then, spontaneously, they started to talk about what they had recently and who they had recently lost. And then there was about 30 physicians. And it seemed like every one of them was tenderly close to their losses. Maybe this is the challenge for us. Can you be tenderly close to your grieving? However it might be.

[31:52]

Whoever it might be. And as these physicians, it was an online exchange, one after another, put forth their losses. The feeling in our meeting sort of shifted. It wasn't about the cleverness of combining Zen practice with being a physician. It was more about How do we have fortitude given the human condition? Shall we just hate all the people who practice, who are part of the aggressions in the Middle East?

[33:00]

Shall we disavow them and say, oh, they're terrible. But me and my people, we're pretty good. We have our own virtue, our own compassion, our own patience, our own generosity. Can we look at the difficulties in our life, the annoyances in our life? Someone recently contacted me and their father had died the night before.

[34:09]

And then they were describing how it had been. His death was imminent for several days. And she was insightful, competent, taking care of what needed to be taken care of until he actually died. And then she was shocked, grief-stricken, and deeply upset. Who wants to feel that way?

[35:14]

Nobody. We don't want to feel that way as we're sitting for the next six days. We want to find the path beyond it. But however, when we sit just experiencing what's happening. We trust our own process, not because we've figured something out, but because in our way of being, we're discovering and expressing what's going on for us. And as we do that, And as we continue to do that, a process that isn't just calculated by our mind, but is more coming from the depths of our being, start to guide us and support us.

[36:35]

Someone wrote to me and they quoted this story about Kisugottami. And they work in the tenderloin as a social worker. And from their perspective, the story of Kisugottami. Okay, you have a terrible thing happen to you. You meet the Buddha. And then something wonderful happens for you. And they said to me, I can't take that story seriously. It's too slick, was the word they used. Can we trust our own being and let it unfold through contact with our deepest sensibilities.

[37:58]

This is our challenge. And this will be our challenge for the next six days. we will join the extravaganza of No Kings parade. And, of course, you're all invited. I mean, I was going to say, You're all invited if you're a human being, still subject to the vicissitudes of being a human. But if you've gone beyond the vicissitudes of being human, come anyway.

[39:05]

We could use your support. It's a delicate business when an organization, a religious organization such as ours, ventures into... We're getting very close to taking a political stance. But actually, we're addressing the human condition. We're not saying any religious, any political party is lesser than or more than. It's more that we see this as a human tragedy and our vow of practice obliges us to respond.

[40:12]

And we don't respond because we know all the answers. We respond because our vow is to include everybody in the process of relating to their suffering and relating to how they cause others' suffering. This is what we're trying to go beyond. And as we attend to it, there is within it, within that attention, a courage, a nobility, a discovery that the middle way

[41:21]

is between the suffering and the trying to be greater than. We bring together both our own suffering, our own confusion, our own koan, puzzlement, We bring that together with our good-heartedness, that we attend to our suffering and the suffering of others. And the middle way that holds them both, it will steer us in a positive direction. Thank you.

[42:25]

May we fully enjoy the Dharma.

[42:52]

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