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. Welcome whether or not you're here in the zendo, the physical zendo, or whether or not you are joining online. If you don't know who I apparently am, I haven't figured that one out yet, but I'm still working on it. My name is Tenzin David Zimmerman, and I live and work here at San Francisco Zen Center, and I currently serve as the central abbot of the center. This is the first time I've given a talk from this particular seat in the Zendo, so I'll take a moment to adjust. Maybe I'll just dive right into it. And I'd like to begin by sharing a short Zen story, or Koan.

[01:04]

It's entailing an interaction between two renowned and beloved 8th and 9th century Chan, or Zen masters. Najuan Kuyuan, the Japanese, for his name is Nenzen Fugan, and his pupil, Jaojo Sungshen. otherwise known in Japanese as Joshu Jushin. And each of these men appear in numerous koans throughout the koan collections. The following case is number six in a collection of koans titled The Recorded Sayings of Zen Master Joshu. I'm going to use, in this case, the Chinese names for these characters. So I'll use Jiaojo instead of Joshu. Once when Zhao Zhou was drawing water from a well, he saw his teacher, Nanquan, passing by. Then, hanging on to a pillar, he extended his legs down into the well and shouted, Save me!

[02:13]

Save me! Nanquan caught up a ladder that was nearby and, counting the rungs of the ladder, cried out, One, two, three, four, five. Master Jaljo immediately got up and gave his thanks to Nan Chuan, saying, just now, thanks to you, I was saved. So, perhaps you've had moments in your life when you've found yourself in a somewhat precarious situation, maybe dangling over a well of sorts, barely holding on and seemingly about to fall in at any moment into a a dark hole of some kind, and wondering the whole while, if you call out, will someone notice and come and save you? And maybe sometimes, like Jojo in this koan, you're in such a predicament due to your own foolish actions.

[03:17]

I know I find myself in such cases. Or worse, you're simply playing at crying wool to see if anyone actually cares enough. to come save you. Of course, it's also very possible that you are generally in need of rescue from a difficult, perhaps precarious situation, one that's due to causes and conditions beyond your control. Regardless of who or what's to blame, there often seems to be something potentially threatening to our safety. our well-being, our happiness, and to the safety and well-being and happiness of our dear ones. I would venture to say that at some fundamental level, one of the most prevailing desires or longing of human beings is to be saved. Of course, what exactly it means to be saved largely depends on each person's particular worldview.

[04:23]

afflictions, fears, and experiences. The first time I recall feeling the wish for someone to come save me was when I was six years old and newly placed into a children's home along with my brother due to difficult family circumstances. And during the first few weeks, there were days when I would sit out the window looking out at the long driveway leading up to the home. wondering, hoping to see my father's car, or anyone, for that matter, who would come and take me back to my real home. You might have had similar times in your life when the hope arose that someone or something would save you. And if that's not the case for you, I think it's safe to say that most of us would at least like to be saved from the general veins of suffering, suffering that comes with human existence, including the form of old age, sickness, and death, as well as pain, loss, blame, and failure.

[05:37]

In other words, what the Buddha identified as dukkha, dissatisfaction, dis-ease. I also think there's a common desire to be saved from experiencing a lonely, loveless, meaningless life, a life that somehow feels empty, unlived, perhaps insignificant. But perhaps what we want to be saved from most of all is ourselves. I want to be saved from myself because I sense with some measure of chagrin that it's me that invariably is the primary instigator of much of my suffering. And with each of these longings, there's the question of who or what can ultimately save us. For those of you who have spent any time at Zen centers, including this one, you've probably heard chanted four seemingly self-contradicting lines known as the Great Bodhisattva Vowels.

[06:48]

beings are anomalous i vow to save them delusions are exhaustible i vow to end them dharma gates are boundless i vow to enter them buddha's way is unsurpassable i vow to become it upon hearing these four great vows for the first time we might be struck by the impossibility of them particularly the first line, beings are numberless, numberless, infinite, and yet I vow to save them, meaning all of them, every single one. Really? Well, I think in most cases, it's a natural human desire to want to be of help to others when we see them suffering or in need, even if we don't necessarily know how to go about it. Taking a vow to save everyone seems to me overwhelming.

[07:53]

Even a bit insane, perhaps? Why would anyone make such a vow in which you're almost certain to fail? Nonetheless, if we're formally taking the Brody Supper precepts as done here in the Dukai ceremony, we made a public commitment to make good of a promise. So we have to do something. We have to try. However, if we don't have a sufficient understanding of the teachings of the Buddhadharma when we embark on this vow to save all beings, we might risk developing what is known as a savior complex, of becoming egotistical rescuers, maybe self-snug do-gooders who blur the responsibility by taking responsibility to another person in an inappropriate, maybe overzealous way. Such rescuers frequently do more harm than good for others, and often in many cases create a lot of problems for themselves.

[08:59]

So the question remains, how exactly do I go about saving all beings? So in the koan, Zhao Zhou and Nantuan are obviously joking around. They're having a bit of fun. While drawing water from the well, Zhao Zhao sees his teacher, Nanquan, and decides to put on a little show. He pretends he's about to fall into the well and cause Nanquan to save him. And Nanquan is willing to play along. However, he doesn't respond with a superhero or Satan-like salvation act. You know, he's not here like, don't worry, dear disciple. You know, I've got you. They're heroics here. Instead, he grabs a ladder, that's close at hand, and rather than extending it towards Zhao Zhou, so Zhao Zhou can use it to save himself, he instead dramatically holds it up and counts one, two, three, four, five.

[10:05]

Okay. But apparently with that, Zhao Zhou is rescued. and he steps back away from the edge, and he thanks his teacher for saving him. One commentary on this koan notes that Nan Chuan is not in a rush to save Zhao Zhou, not only because Zhao Zhou's call for help is obviously a playful ruse, but because, from a Zen perspective, even were there a real need for rescue, save from the bonds of karma, All one can do for the other, or for oneself, is to walk, step by step, one's own path. Nanchuan pretends saves Daojo, who in turn thanks his teacher for helping him realize he never really needed saving to begin with.

[11:09]

While this koan offers an example of some fund, that two seasoned and devoted Buddhist practitioners can have playing in the fields of the Dharma, there is, of course, a deeper teaching to be found here, one involving what it might mean from a Buddhist perspective to attain or offer some form of salvation for ourselves and others. You probably well know a majority of spiritual traditions have some concept of salvation or a version of a salvarific narrative that carries with it a particular potency for practitioners of that faith. And for many religions, the concept of salvation entails winning the struggle against some form of evil that's in one's life. Or maybe it's eliminating some form of sin.

[12:10]

or an impurity within oneself. Maybe for others, it's a matter of receiving some kind of award, for example, eternal afterlife, based on how we've lived or what we've accomplished or maybe the degree to which we've heeded a universal law of some sort or shown devotion to our particular all-powerful deity. For example, according to the Mennonite and Brethren Christian traditions in which I was raised, the necessity of being absolved of original sin by accepting the eternal salvation offered by God's absolute love and through his son Jesus was a very, I'll say hardcore, driving narrative. But it was never a narrative that resonated for me. I could never actually find the truth. It didn't line up inside of my being with what I felt was true and real and authentic to the experience of the universe.

[13:20]

However, Buddhism and Zen differ markedly from other religions on their particular view of human salvation. I remember the first time that I read what was said to be the last words of Shakyamuni Buddha. as he was on his deathbed and passed them to Paranirvana, actually yesterday here at City Center, in this very room, we honor the Buddha's Paranirvana. It's a beautiful ceremony. In the translation that I had, the Buddha counsels his disciples to work hard on their own salvation. He said, Behold, O monks, this is my last advice to you. All component things in the world, are changeable. They are not lasting. Work out your salvation with diligence. Now, I've since read a number of different translations and commentaries on the Buddhist last words, and some of them which actually question the use of the word salvation.

[14:27]

But the use of this word at the time piqued my curiosity as someone who grew up in a Judean Christian culture. In order to understand the principle of salvation in Zen Buddhism, we must turn not to a transcendent power of a god, but to the basic question of the nature of reality, as well as our own identity. It's only through understanding our human identity and awakening to our self-nature We call in Buddhism our true nature, our Buddha nature, a nature that is inherently pure, boundless, and free from suffering, that we can ultimately find liberation. And yet, we are so often blinded to our true nature and our fundamental goodness by the free poisons, what's known as ignorance, attachment, and delusion.

[15:33]

And it's these obscurations of our naturally awake mind that are the basis for all the immediate forms of harm and suffering that we see in the world, particularly that's perpetuated by humans. Because we're constantly and commonly in bondage and driven by our egoic karmic consciousness. We are prone to engage in thinking and actions that are, we would say, unwholesome, hurtful, not beneficial. Accordingly then, salvation in Buddhism is liberation from the bondage of our ego and our karma through the transformation of our consciousness. and therefore awakening to our true nature, our Buddha nature.

[16:36]

It's the awareness that we are more than we appear, that we all possess the potential to express wisdom and compassion rather than inflicting harm on ourselves and others. While egoic consciousness isn't gotten rid of or abolished in this process of transformation, Its condition, its nature is made clear. And in the process, it has less authority over our lives. It's no longer at the steering wheel driving our lives. You could say it's in the back seat in Buddha. Our awake nature is at the steering wheel. So by becoming aware of the source of our actions, we gain the power then to choose more carefully actions that are beneficial. that are fruitful. Now to mention another important aspect here.

[17:41]

According to Zen and the Mahayana tradition, our fate as humans is inextricably tied to the fate of all beings. Your fate is tied to everyone in this room and beyond this room. And we say all beings, but actually, I think it's more appropriate to say all being. Zen teaches that we are dependently co-arisen with everything else in the universe. And as such, our very being is a reflection of our relationships with each and everything in the universe. So not only with the humans here in the room, the humans past, present, and future, our ancestors, but also with all of nature. with the animals, the plants, the mountains, and rivers, as well as the sun, moon, and stars. We only exist as we do in relationship to everything else. And alas, we often don't recognize the truth of our interdependency.

[18:50]

Instead, we kind of labor under this delusion that we have... an inherent, enduring, independent, separate self, self-nature. That's all mine, right? But in reality, the sense of a separate self is just something that we have dreamed up. It's a fabrication, right? And it's something that we then add to our experience. Rather than experiencing directly a reality as it is, we filter it through this self, the story of self, this fiction of self. Awakening, then, entails recognizing our self-delusion and seeing in what way that we are actually not separate from the rest of the universe. Now, when we have an understanding of our profound intimacy and our interdependence, it naturally wants us to act as

[19:55]

in such a way, it leads us to act in such a way that we want to help others to be free of suffering, just as we want to be free of suffering. And it's this understanding that comes from a profound realization of our interdependency that gives rise, it's said, to the Bodhisattva, a being who is on the path towards liberation, towards nirvana, and understands that ultimately their liberation, or their salvation, if you will, is bound up with the salvation of all beings. However, while a bodhisattva wants to support all beings in the direction away from suffering, toward liberation, towards happiness, towards well-being and wisdom, they need to be careful about not having an idea about what kind of assistance another being is actually going to need. So rather than having an idea of, I know what's best for you, a Bodhisattva remains open to responding to providing what's ever actually needed in the moment, even if it's not something so grand as complete liberation.

[21:12]

For example, while offering a Dharma teaching might be a benefit, sometimes what's really needed to alleviate suffering is something as simple or straightforward, as a smile, as a kind word, a receptive ear. Or maybe it's something just practical, like food or shelter, maybe just a band-aid. And even if being is so entrenched in their suffering, wholly identified with it, to the degree that they refuse to let it go. I am my suffering, sometimes we feel, and I won't be existent if I don't have my suffering to know who I am. If they're not able to let go of their suffering because they've identified with it, then perhaps all a bodhisattva can do is stand by as a compassionate, witnessing companion.

[22:18]

Wow, that person... works through whatever it is they need to work through when they're not able to fix their suffering for them. And we never really know what others truly need, but where their journey of liberation is going to lead them. While bodhisattvas may have vital and many inspirational virtues that we could explore together, I'm not going to go through those today. I just want to touch upon one of them. And this is the virtue of what Dogen called identity action. So as Ehi Dogen describes in his classical bodhisatta shishobo, which you can translate as the four armbracing methods of a bodhisattva,

[23:24]

Identity action means non-difference. It is non-difference from self, non-difference from others. When we know identity action, says Dogen, self and others are one. And sometimes I've seen translators, for example, Yishijima and Cross, offer a colloquial expression. to describe this idea, this virtue of identity action, saying it's like being in the same boat. So we're in the same boat with each other, you know, in this case. So you can think of it in this way, then, that liberation is impossible for the individual in isolation, in their own little boat, right? It needs to be understood as a collective endeavor. We're all in this together. And even if we personally attain some kind of great spiritual awakening or insight, good for you, our spiritual development is still incomplete if we turn our backs on other suffering beings.

[24:27]

Yogan also says in the same fascicle that foolish people 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. So in this case, according to Dogen, such action is in fact enlightenment or awakened activity. However, as we endeavor to enact the bodhisattva vows in the service of saving all beings, what is particularly emphasized in our Zen training is the need to cultivate an understanding of emptiness, of shunyata. And with the correct understanding, we then have a proper perspective by which to approach our wish to be of service to others. And this is important because we might otherwise take up the bodhisattva vow to save all beings from a place of ego, falling in the trap of becoming some kind of godlike savior or rescuer, you know, out to free those other unfortunate souls.

[25:40]

Through my awesome, and heroic, enlightened activity. It's kind of like, see me, see how compassionate I am, see what a great Bodhisattva I am. Of course, if we want to be compassionate and beneficial, first we want to be beneficial, we want to be compassionate, but if we're attached to the ideas about who it is that we're trying to help, what we think they need, or what's going to be ultimately beneficial for them, then the whole endeavor just becomes another exercise in self-conscious aggrandizement. But when grounded in the insight of emptiness and interbeing, then compassion for other beings arises spontaneously, arises even before thought. like a hand reaching back in the middle of the night for a pillow to bring some sense of comfort and ease.

[26:50]

There's no fault attached to it. And it's an unselfconscious moment because it's done with a profound sense of interconnectedness. And there are two seminal texts in Mahayana Zen tradition. that are particularly helpful in cultivating understanding of emptiness while in service of the bodhisattva vows, including the vow of saving all beings. And the first, of course, is the Heart of Great Perfect Wisdom Sutra. In the Heart Sutra, we are presented with a path of liberation that sees the nature of all phenomenon as empty of own being. I'm not going to say more about the sutra today other than to note that we could describe the focus of the Heart Sutra as one of personal emancipation. And the other text that offers a supportive understanding of emptiness is the Diamond Sutra.

[27:52]

The Diamond Sutra, while sharing the same orientation as the Heart Sutra to emptiness, as being the true nature of reality, we see that the central theme in the Diamond Sutra is universal emancipation. It's not personal. So in the Diamond Sutta, Sabuti, who is a senior disciple of the Buddha, approaches the Buddha and asks him what a person on the path like himself should do to further their understanding of the Dharma. And the Buddha replies saying, Sabuti, those who would now set forth on the Bodhisattva path should give rise to this thought. However many beings there are, in whatever realms they might exist, in the realm of complete nirvana, I should liberate them all. Then again, here's this impossible vow to save all beings. And then the Buddha goes on later to say, and though I thus liberate countless beings, not a single being is liberated.

[29:00]

And why not? So Bhuti, a bodhisattva who creates a perception of a being cannot be called a bodhisattva. And why not? What's the word? Savuti, thank you. My verbal dyslexia kicks in every now and then. Savuti, no one can be called a bodhisattva who creates a perception of the self, who creates a perception of a being, a life, or a soul. So here the Buddha shines the light of prajna, the wisdom that sees the emptiness of all beings and all phenomenon, on the great thought of liberating all sentient beings itself. In other words, even the thoughts that I can save other beings must be seen through, must be understood as empty. Now, we have to be careful here.

[30:04]

Otherwise, we're going to mistakenly think that the Buddha is saying here in the Diamond Sutra that beings don't exist. when he says that a bodhisattva shouldn't create the perception of a being. And therefore, we don't have to worry about their welfare. They're empty. I don't need to worry. You're all empty. You just do your own thing. I don't care. You don't actually exist, by the way, so why should I worry? I'm just going to do my own thing. There is, in fact, often a common misunderstanding around the Buddhist teachings of emptiness that because all things and all beings are empty of our own being, that they don't really exist. And because they don't really exist, we don't need to make a sincere, tangible effort to save them from their suffering. But the teachings of emptiness aren't saying beings don't exist, nor that we don't need to make any effort to aid them, because whatever suffering they're experiencing is just a simple matter of their delusion. What the Buddha is saying in the Diamond Sutra is that beings and all phenomena,

[31:09]

All reality, including ourselves, don't really exist in the way that we conceive of it, of ourselves, the way we think they do. Beings obviously and definitely do exist. I'm here. There's something here. But we have this tendency to project something extra onto our experience, onto beings. notions, ideas that are extra. They're unnecessary. And these ideas, these notions have a tendency to restrict the compassion and the wisdom and the sense of mutual care that we might want to extend to all beings. And this restriction subsequently causes suffering. So what we're to understand then, and as the Heart Sutra underlines for us, is that despite the truth of emptiness, bodhisattvas engender in themselves great compassion.

[32:23]

So all this is to say that while we must all pass through the stage of our Zen training where there are no beings to be saved, if we remain stuck in that that understanding of emptiness, enjoying some form of solitary bliss, then the profound desire to save all beings will never arise. So it's actually in this way that prajna, the wisdom of emptiness that we find in the Heart Sutra, in the Diamond Sutra, serves as the antidote to self-clinging, to the egoism, right? as well as from the trap of becoming a rescuer who thinks they can save all beings in some way. Okay, now returning once more to our koan with Zhao Zhou and Nanquan. Putting himself seemingly and purposely at risk by falling into the well, Zhao Zhou calls out to his teacher, Save me!

[33:35]

Save me! Now, interesting, there's another translation of this koan that actually has him calling out, save us both, save us both. And then once saved, thank his teacher for saving both of them. Now, it's important to note that Zhao Zhou and Nanktuan created their situation together, right? And they got out of it together. Like all reality, theirs is dependently co-arisen. interdependently created. Given this, we might ask ourselves the question, who's saving who here? Now, it's not that Nanquan doesn't want to help Zhao Zhao when he grabs a ladder and starts counting rather than actually running up and holding and grabbing onto his friend to help him. As a committed Bodhisattva, he really does want to help. And he's naturally and spontaneously responding.

[34:37]

There was no hesitation when Zhajo called out. So he's responding one step at a time, one rung at a time, one breath at a time. One, two, three, four. This moment, this moment, this moment. But ultimately, he can't save Zhajo from being Zhajo. Jiaojo is Jiaojo and Nanjuan is Manjuan. Each of them is fully engaged in acting out their part. Each of them have their respective karma for which they have to take responsibility. Neither can save the other from themselves nor from having to bear the realities and the consequences of their particular karma. You can't save them from their particular karma, nor their dharma positions, a particular point in the universe where all reality comes together and manifests as this one.

[35:53]

Each one of you is the center of the universe, that nexus, the whole universe is coming together right here, and it could only be you right here. Nothing else can be here. You have to take responsibility for this location. this life, right? And you have to take responsibility for the choices that you've made in your life up until this point and that you will make going forward. Only you can own that crime, that responsibility. And at the same time, the teaching of dependent origination reminds us that relationships between humans, human beings, are complicated. They're a complicated matter of each person creating and being created by their engagement with others and with the world. Therefore, as one said, by acting for oneself, one involves the other. By acting upon the other, one finds oneself involved.

[36:55]

But Zaojo is quickly saved, and then he says to his teacher, Thank you, Venerable, for saving us both. In his commentary on this koan, Chan Master Zhutang Zhiyu says on Nanquan's behalf, Vulnerable monk, already no need. In other words, there's no need to thank me because I didn't save anybody. In his commentary on the case, Hakuen says, I feel ashamed, I feel ashamed. So all the same, Zhao Zhou offers his gratitude on behalf of all of our efforts to save both ourselves and each other from the dark well of ignorance and dualistic perception. So, closing in a moment, perhaps we can say something like this. I can't save you, much less all beings. And you can't save me.

[38:00]

Why? Because the I... the I of the delusory separate self, can't save a you that's a fabricated separate self. The moment we start talking about you and I, we fall into the well of dualism and conceptualizations, with a me over here trying to save a you over there. As such, it's just an egoic endeavor which will leave everyone further We can't save other beings because fundamentally there are no other beings. There is just this one life. And so we make our best effort to bring as much care and intention and love to this life as we can, as is within our means. We take care of this one life in all of its multiplicity and diversity, all of its ugliness and its beauty, its heartache, its profound tenderness, all of it.

[39:11]

But ultimately, the only way this one can truly offer help is by doing away with the notion of you and I to begin with, to go beyond our dualistic perceptions of the world, And when we can do this, then our endeavor becomes Buddha saving Buddha, the world saving the world, the universe saving the universe. And furthermore, the truth is that we are already saved. We are already saved because we are already and always have been free. Our Buddha nature is already free. pure, and boundless. So there is nothing that otherwise binds us except our own minds and the karmic obscurations and thangmas that they create for us. This is the essential teaching of Buddha's Four Noble Truths.

[40:19]

Yes, there is suffering. But there is also an end to suffering. when we realize that suffering is a matter of the way we perceive, think about, and relate to reality and ourselves. And the path the Buddha recommended for how we might recognize and actualize the truth is that of the Eightfold Path and the precepts. So in closing, I'm going to let you in on a little secret. If we try to act like a bodhisattva, Even when we don't feel like one, we don't see ourselves like one. It challenges our attachments to our sense of self. And it teaches us about our interdependency, our interbeing, how it is that we're in relationship with everyone. And then over time, as we continue on our particular path of practice, one, two, three, four, five.

[41:25]

Begin to recognize that each and every one of us is making our best effort to understand and live from the truth of our true nature in our own way. Even when we don't recognize it, it's actually happening. And you trust that. You have faith in that. The wish to be of assistance to others, to engage in beneficial action, and help others in this case, and arises spontaneously. And seeing someone in need, we just spontaneously jump into action to assist them, not knowing, not having any guarantee that whatever we're able to do to support them is going to have any benefit or not. That's not for us to determine or judge. We just give. what there is to give of our being.

[42:26]

Again, one, two, three, four, step by step, we walk the path of salvation, of liberation together. So thank you for joining me on this path and joining each other on this path. 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 Giving. May we fully enjoy the Dharma.

[43:16]

@Transcribed_UNK
@Text_v005
@Score_97.08