This podcast is offered by the San Francisco Zen Center on the web at sfzc.org. Our public programs are made possible by donations from people like you. Good morning. I did bring along, you know, a little friend of mine, you know, He's a little shy today about coming into the Zendo because it's such a spiritual place. And he's not sure whether, you know, if you're this small, you're actually welcome to be here. You know, if you're this small and if you don't really know anything about Buddhism, is it okay to be here? Yeah. Thank you. Oh, Ponce is happy. You welcome him. Yes. All right. Whee. Okay. Hi. Ponce can do hi, and he can also do gasho.

[01:01]

He can bow. Ponce is good at bowing. Do you know we put our hands together and bow? We say thank you and good morning. It's a way to honor one another. I brought in one of my other little friends. He's very small. He's even smaller. But even though he's small, he's kind of big for who he is. This is Binky. So because Binky is so outspoken, he takes up a lot of space sometimes. Hi, Bink. And he's actually kind of a swami. Or he likes to think of himself as a swami. Do you know what a swami is? A swami is like a spiritual teacher. So if you have any questions about your life, you know, and how life is going, you say, you know, I'm having trouble with school or, you know, I don't, sometimes I get bored, you know, I get disappointed sometimes.

[02:14]

Hey, Bink, what do you think? And you can ask Binky, Swami Binky Ananda, or Binky for short. Hey, Bink, what do you think? And then Binky will like... Don't worry. Be happy. Like, you know, Bobby McFerrin, you know, or something. So today, today we're going to, would you like to hold Binky while we're doing this? You could pass Binky around, too, if you want. Binky likes meeting people, you know. So, and he has different kinds of squeaks. Sometimes he'll squeak, and then sometimes he just goes, and Anyway, you know, we're celebrating today a special, special Buddhist holiday. You know, and it's called April Fool's Day. And the way we Buddhists do it, you know, the way we Buddhists celebrate April Fool's is we say things and maybe it's a joke and maybe it isn't.

[03:18]

So I'm going to give you an example of... a kind of a story or a teaching that, you know, you wonder, is that true or is that a joke? So, you know, the founder of Zen Center, Suzuki Roshi, he used to say, you're perfect just the way you are. You're perfect just the way you are. Now, is that true or is that a joke? Is that true? You're perfect just the way you are? You think so? Some of you are saying yes and some of you... I don't know. People have been telling me all the things I do wrong. How could I be perfect if I do so many things wrong? And then Suzuki said, but there's room for improvement. So this is, I decided, you know, this is an example of April Fool's Day humor for Buddhists. Are you perfect just the way you are? Yes.

[04:24]

Yes. And? There's things you still need to learn, right? So I want to tell you a little bit about when I was small and how I knew when I was small that I was perfect. My mother and father sometimes, they called me. I had a little stuffed animal. It was a bear. And also there's a famous, maybe you've seen it in a book, Winnie the Pooh. which is about a little bear. Oh I can hear Binky, I hear Binky squeaking. So I had a little bear and my parents sometimes when they were really happy with me they would say, they would call me Eddie Bear. Eddie Bear Eddie Bear, would you like some hot chocolate now? Would you like to play? How about Eddie Bear?

[05:24]

It's time for bed. And so whenever they called me Eddie Bear, I knew I was a really lovable person. I was really good, as good as you could be, as precious as you could be when they called me Eddie Bear. If they said Edward Bear... Edward Bear was not such a good little bear. So Eddie Bear was like, I was perfect just the way I was when they said, Edward Bear, you need to wash your face. You need to clean up your room. So when I was Edward Bear, there was room for improvement. And Edward Bear, each name has a capital. Capital E, Edward, and capital space, capital B, Bear. Edward Bear. Eddie Bear is just lowercase and no space between the words. No space between them. Eddie Bear. It's just one word. Eddie Bear. So it's like a special name for you're perfect just the way you are.

[06:29]

So maybe your parents have some special name for you and you know, oh, I'm a perfect... just the way I am. I'm a lovable, precious, good-hearted person. And they can see that. And it's very, and it's hard sometimes. Hi, Pinky. Hi. Hi. Hi there. So, you know... So when I was Eddie Bear, and then the funny thing is when they'd say Edward Bear, and they're like, well, what happened to Eddie Bear? Where did he go? And somehow they can't see Eddie Bear anymore. All they see is Edward Bear, you need to wash your face. You need to clean up your room. Stop talking like that. Don't say those naughty words. And... You know, one time when I was a little boy, I was saying the wrong thing, and it was at school, you know, and the teacher said, if you say that again, I'm going to wash your mouth out with soap.

[07:39]

So I had my mouth washed out with soap. And that could never happen to Eddie Bear. So I used to wonder, where did Eddie Bear go? Why didn't people see? What a precious little, you know, a precious Eddie Bear I was. What a wonderful, lovely person. And all they could see was, stop that. Don't do that. You need to. There's room for improvement. So this is very interesting, you know, because both for us, whether we're children or whether we're grownups, can you see yourself? You try to see yourself. You know, in Zen we say, for who you are, who you really are, what is your true nature or your true self, your true spirit, you know, your own good heart, or sometimes we say Buddha nature. And we say, that's perfect already. And everybody, but it's funny, but it's hard to see it.

[08:46]

See, because then people start thinking, you need to wash your face. You need to... You need to stop fighting. You need to be quiet. You need to stop playing. You need to sit down, be still. And then maybe we'll be okay with you here. We won't notice that you're perfect or special or wonderful or adorable. But anyway, we won't bother you anymore. So this morning, do you understand you're perfect just the way you are? You and your way are like, you know, a precious Eddie Bear. Eddie Bear is just the nicest, sweetest little boy you could possibly know or have in your life or be. But, you know, something happens to that precious little person as you grow up. So you're going to have, you know, study as you grow up, how can you find your precious self again?

[09:47]

The one who was so... loving, and kind, and sweet, and good-natured, and we forget. So I want to encourage you, you know, invite you, you know, I thought we could do a little kind of a meditation today, and you could repeat, you know, to yourself, and this is called sometimes metta, metta meditation. So it's a kindness meditation, and you say, sometimes if you don't notice you're Eddie Bear, if you don't notice, and all you know is people are telling you you need to you have some improvement, you say, may I be happy. May I be happy? Okay. May I be healthy? May I be free of pain and distress and suffering? Okay. And you say that for yourself. May I? You want to try it, Ponce? May I be happy? May I be healthy? May I be free from suffering? May I be free from pain and distress?

[10:49]

And you remind yourself, I'm a precious person. Maybe I can't see it right now, but I know I'm a precious person. And you see if you can remember about your good heart and your true nature. And then you can say, okay, yep, I got some improvement to do, but... I'll work on it, okay? Now, I'm also remembering, you know, the last time I was here, we, Honsei, was helping me lead you in chanting the four vows. Have you been working on singing the four vows? Huh? Yeah, so I'm wondering if you'd like to try that with me today. Shall I try it first, or, you know, and I'll remind you about how it goes, and you can see how it goes? So this again is, you know, a children's version of the four vows that you can sing instead of chant.

[11:56]

We're going to wake up all the beings of the world, all the beings. We're going to put endless heartache to rest, achy breaky heart. We're going to walk through every wisdom gate, walking on through. We're going to live the great Buddha's way. Yahoo! do you want to try it or you can just come in with the end part but we're gonna wake up all the beans of the world all the beans we're gonna put in this heartache to rest achy breaky heart we're gonna walk through every wisdom gate walking on through we're gonna live the great buddha's way yahoo And we're going to remember at least once in a while about what a precious person I am and what a precious person other people are.

[12:59]

And sometimes it's very hard to see. And so all people can see is Edward Bear, you need to be more quiet. You need to go to bed. You need to clean up your room. And then we might be okay with your existence. But you know, this is also known, besides your true nature and your good heart, this is also known as seeing your own good intention or your positive, positive wish, positive intention. And whenever you can see that, you'll realize I'm perfect because I have positive intention. And in Buddhism, what we say, positive intention is like, I want to benefit others. I don't want to harm others. You know, I want to live a life that is beneficial. I don't want to cause harm and pain and suffering. And I remember this. I remind myself, I have this positive intention.

[14:00]

And sometimes I don't know how to express my positive intention, but I'll work on that. So positive intention is like your true nature. You're perfect just the way you are. And we all have that positive intention. Hi, Pinky. Aren't you happy today? Good you came today, huh? All right. You get to meet lots of people. And they all like you. Isn't that interesting? And they all go like, oh, Pinky, I know you. You're a good, warm-hearted person, aren't you? Yes. You're like me. All right. Huh? You know, I think of Ponce as a pig. But see, he has this big, he has this sort of a snout for a nose. So I think he's a pig. And actually, if you go on the internet, you can find that there are pigs that look like this. Pigs that are black with this little white stripe here and white paws in the front. Only they don't stand up like this.

[15:02]

They're like this. And so I don't know about the tail. I don't know that they have this kind of tail. But they have the black and the white. And it's a certain kind. It is a pig. You can check it out on the internet. All right. Well, thank you for coming this morning. Okay, now it's time to be serious. So it's pretty interesting, isn't it? You're perfect just the way you are. And there's room for improvement. Suzuki Roshi, you know, also from time to time spoke about how, you know, we have a tendency to do what he called step ladders in. Step ladders in, you think, I'll improve this much today and then I'll improve some more tomorrow.

[16:05]

And then I'll get better and better and better and better till I get somewhere. How well has that worked out for you? You don't tend to ever notice your perfection or your warm, tender, good heart because you're busy looking for what you need to improve on and what you need to fix. what you need to do better. And you're busy focusing on, we get busy focusing on how other people see us. You did such and such. You didn't do such and such. What's wrong with you? You have problems. You need help. And people tell you these things, you know, even if you've done years of Zen practice.

[17:12]

And then they say things like, and if you hadn't already done years of Zen practice, I would suggest you do. You could use it. So if you, one of my favorite books about working with children is a book called by Becky Bailey, a woman named Becky Bailey, and it's called Easy to Love, Difficult to Discipline. And one of her rules, basic rule of awareness is what you look for. you'll spot it. So if you're looking for mistakes, you'll see mistakes. If you're looking for positive intention or what Suzuki Rishi also called virtue, you'll see virtue. But it's sometimes difficult to have any confidence in that because we've become so strongly enmeshed or entranced in the We've become in the trance of fixing, improving, responding to people, seeing if we can get them to see what a good person we are, seeing if we can see ourselves as a good person, not noticing what a good person we are.

[18:28]

And of course, our culture doesn't help with this because our culture says, get a good set of rules in your head and use those to... and then impose those on your life so that you will do the right thing and not the wrong thing. And, you know, we hear all the time, he should or shouldn't have, she should or shouldn't have. What were they thinking? Why weren't they thinking? They need better standards. They need better rules. It's called law and order, you know. But, of course, sometimes they... Law and order is so... When the law and order is very intense, what happens? You sneak out and misbehave. We see that all the time too, don't we? You know, the fundamentalist preacher who's caught with the prostitutes and, you know, the people who are so anti-gay and it turns out they're gay and... But...

[19:36]

You know, when the voice of what to do is so strong, you need to stop smoking. You need to stop smoking. That's just horrible that you smoke. And that voice is going on and on. And finally you say, you know, to heck with you. I'm going to have a cigarette. And then you have your cigarette and that voice goes away. You don't have to listen to it. And then once you stop smoking, after a while that voice goes away. See, I told you so. See what happens when you smoke? If I'm not here to tell you not to, then you just go ahead and smoke. But the two are actually together, you know. We do things sometimes to get away from the voice that's telling us how to improve, what we need to do differently. Eating is overeating, you know, alcohol, lots of things are like this. We look for something to do that allows us to go unconscious. So we don't have to listen to the voice that's trying to perfect us. But have we realized our perfection?

[20:40]

It's a kind of pseudo-perfection. It's a kind of stillness and quiet and relief from being the voice that judges us and criticizes us and tries to fix us and improve us. For our own good, of course. I'm only doing this for your own good. This is what the voice says. Our judgment. voice of our judgments so many of you know the story I tell sometimes but when I was the cook at Tassajara you know when I was 22 and it was a big job I didn't have any experience so I I was very busy telling people what to do you need to get to work on time this is an We follow the schedule. You let go of other things. You get here on time.

[21:44]

And so forth. Anyway. And, you know, after a while, I thought, you know, I'm not very good at this. I'll ask the Zikirashi for some help. You know, before this, I had asked him, you know, what should I focus on when I work in the kitchen? He said, when you wash the rice, wash the rice. When you cut the carrots, cut the carrots. When you stir the soup, stir the soup. I thought, oh, this is great. So I, when I wash the rice, okay, washing the rice and then cutting the carrots and then stirring the soup and do what you're doing and concentrate on that and don't be thinking about something else and, all right, so I thought, okay, I've worked on this and it didn't look to me like the other people in the kitchen were doing this they'd be washing the rice or the lettuce and they'd be talking while they were doing that they'd been talking to somebody else in the kitchen I and you know and in Zen centers you know one of the things out in the world you talk about television the movies you know what I how was survivor last night or you know it you know your wasn't that great and then

[23:05]

This morning somebody was telling me about a show called something like Portlandia. He's from Portland. And they have the allergy, the allergy pride parade. Lactose intolerance queen. Different floats. And finally the... The final one is a woman in a bubble, you know, whose hands reaching out, you know, all protected. But she's got to be in her bubble. I mean, you know, and often we do, but, you know, it also gets to be sort of seemingly exaggerated from time to time. But, you know, anyway. And obviously, whatever it is, we can make fun of it. Anyway. I thought, well, these people aren't washing the rice when they wash the rice. They're busy talking. So you don't talk about dreams. You know, you don't talk about movies or television and say, you know, I had a dream last night. And then, you know, you start hearing about, you know, whatever the dream was and, okay.

[24:12]

But they didn't seem to be following the Zen teaching and practicing Zen. I thought, so what do I do to encourage them? And I went to see Suzuki Roshi and I said, you know, They're not, I'm trying to do what you said, wash the rice when you wash the rice. Cut the carrots when you cut the carrots. These people, they're not coming to work on time. And then they go to the bathroom and it's like they're gone for, and then the next thing I know, they're gone for half an hour. You know, I don't know what's happened. They don't show, they don't come back. And then when they're working, they're not working, they're talking. And when they talk, their hands stop moving. And it's, you know, it's hard to get things done. And aside from whether it's Zen or not, we're not getting the work done. What do I do? How do I straighten them out? And Suzuki Rishi seemed to be, like, while I was saying all this, nodding. Yeah, I know what you mean. It's hard to get good help these days, isn't it? You know? The kids these days and people, like, what can you do?

[25:15]

You know, I mean, yeah, I know. That's right. And I was all set then for the teaching of what to do with these slobs. And he paused and he said, Ed, if you want to see virtue, you will need to have a calm mind. And I thought to myself, I didn't say it. I thought, that's not what I asked you. I asked you how to get compliance with my agenda. How do I get compliance with my agenda? I didn't ask you how to see virtue. But this is an example of what are you looking for? Are you looking for how people aren't compliant or are you looking for virtue?

[26:19]

you know, somebody's positive intention, somebody's good heart. And it's very easy to be put off by somebody's, you know, lack of compliance. And like, but you're not doing what I want you to. This isn't, you know, I'm sorry. And you need to do it differently so that I will be happy. So, And then I also thought to myself, OK, OK, I'll work on this. I'll see what I can do. And the first thing I started doing was I used each kind of complaint I had about somebody to say, OK, wait, wait, wait. Why don't you also look for virtue? And I began to see that, you know, everybody I was working with was in their own way, quite sincere, quite good hearted. They just weren't always very focused. And I also saw, you know, how vulnerable and fragile each of us is to walk out in the world and have so many people out there going like, you need to this, why aren't you that?

[27:33]

You know, you could be more that. You could be more calm. You could be more awake. And people are looking at each of us and all this stuff is going on in the air. And then how are you possibly going to see your good heart, your true nature, your perfection, your perfect just the way you are? How will you see it when we're awash in all the judgments and directives and criticisms? And we stand in the middle of that each day, in each room, in each place. What will you do? And this all kind of reached a climax the day I asked somebody to get 18 cups of white beans. And, you know, I don't know, 20, 30 minutes later, I realized he hasn't come back.

[28:35]

And I thought, well, I'll go see what he's doing. And I'm busy stressing about, are we going to get this meal done? Because to remind you, in Zen, when the bell rings, the food is served. I've been at Tibetan Buddhist centers where when the food is ready, the bell is rung. Shunyata Graf, who's a Zen teacher in Vermont, said the two most embarrassing minutes of her life were the day that she was tenzo, had cooked, and the meal was two minutes late. And everybody in the Zen Do is waiting. Where is the food? What kind of practice is that? It's two minutes late. But at Kermit Scholling, I finally got used to it, you know, and I had one meal that's like two, two and a half hours late.

[29:46]

And, you know, we try to take care of things so like, you know, if you're the cook, you take on all the stress of the situation. When the bell's rung, the food is served. It's up to you, the cook. And then other people go like, oh, will the food be here? Yeah, when the bell rings, the food will be here. No problem. You can relax. In the Tibetan, for the Tibetans, you know, people are wondering, when's the food coming? And then people try to reassure them. You know, when the food's ready, they'll hit the bell, don't worry about it. But in the meantime, the whole place is like, what's happening with the food? But in our school, the one person says, yes, I will see that that's what happens. So you have a fair amount of pressure focused on you. We want you to take all that on so we don't have to.

[30:49]

We're Zen people and we're calm and spiritual and relaxed. And you take on the stress. That's your job, not mine. I'm not going to worry about it. I just sit and the food comes. Easy. Heaven. So... So I went, you know, and white beans, you've got to get them cooked. Beans take a while. So I went out to the shed, our outdoor storeroom there, to see if I could find him. And he was in there, like, looking at each bean. Is it a bean? Or is it a stone? Bean by bean. So, what's going on?

[31:54]

What are you looking for? You idiot! Or, oh, I see you're being very careful. Here, let me show you another way to do that. Here, let's put these out on a black plate, and then you can glance at a plate's worth and see if there's any stones there. Or a white plate, you know, white plate, and then you can see that you'll spot the stones that are, you know, gray or black, more than white. And you'll spot them on the plate here, and then you can look at a whole plate and then check a plate at a time. Oh, okay. Okay. There was a cooking teacher that I never studied with, but friends of mine did. Her name was Josephine Geraldo, and she was apparently about 5'4 or something, and she was quite feisty French woman, taught French cooking.

[32:55]

And if anybody cut their hands in her class, she'd say, Oh, are you okay? Are you all right? Do you need a band-aid? Here, let me help you. And then after the class had calmed down and everything was okay and they're all bandaged and everybody's back to work, she'd say, You idiot! Cutting your own body with a knife? That is so stupid! So she did. She took it upon herself to do both. But to do the... Let's take care of your preciousness first. Once that was clear, she'd... She was also known for, one time she was on television, and I now study these kind of things, you know. I teach people in cooking class now, you can get a small pinch, you know, use your hand. A small pinch is a small pinch. A large pinch is a large pinch. Two large pinches is one quarter teaspoon. Two fingers and your thumb, that's a half teaspoon. Three fingers and your thumb and your grab is one teaspoon.

[33:57]

And then when you put one teaspoon in your hand, and you can get three of those, and you have a tablespoon. She says, that's not a tablespoon. But I said, get the spoon. And we pour it, and it's like, oh, that is a tablespoon. So one time she was on a television show, and the television... Anchor person said to her, so how much is a tablespoon of salt or a teaspoon? How much is a teaspoon of salt? And she said, hold out your hand. I'll show you. And she takes some salt and she puts it in his hand. She says, that's a teaspoon. You got it? And he said, oh, OK. And then she whapped his hands in the salt. Oh, when it hit. So she had, she had, she was sort of, I guess, in your way like Suzuki Rishi. You're perfect. You're great. I appreciate you. And, you know, you've got some problems here. You can work on some things. But often, of course, the hardest person to see this good heart is yourself.

[35:12]

You know, often we are... We acknowledge others and then we say like, oh, but I still feel angry or I still feel sad or disappointed or scared or hurt or sorrow. And if I'm such a good-hearted person and if I'm already perfect, if you're perfect just the way you are, how can this still be going on then? Wouldn't if I was perfect, wouldn't that stuff have stopped? This is big, you know, spiritual, religious kind of question. If God is good, why is this stuff happening? But also, I heard a curious statement just in the last day or so. I think the Greeks said the unexamined life is not worth living. And recently somebody added to this, and the examined life is not a whole lot better. So I also want to say just briefly, you know, sometimes Buddhism and people focus on the fact Buddhism says there's no self.

[36:38]

So what is this Is this self masquerading as true nature or are you slipping in a self here? The Buddhism says there's not when you talk about true nature or your good heart or your positive intention, your wish to benefit others. And there's not really a self. So this is very interesting because it's also saying that when we say there's not a self, we mean don't to find the self that is identified with all these phenomena, the happiness, the sadness, the distress, the anxiety. And if you think that's yourself, no, that's not a self to be found. Because it's always changing, isn't it? Phenomena are changing. So there's no self that can be found, grasped,

[37:40]

identified and objectified. So true nature is something that is not graspable, cannot be grasped, cannot be, you can't have it and keep it. And yet we know when something resonates with our heart. when our heart is vibrant and alive and awake, and when we see virtue, when we see good-heartedness, when we see people's sincerity, good heart, warm-heartedness, whole-heartedness, and when we're calm enough, so to speak. In other words, when we're not busy finding fault, seeing what's wrong, what needs improvement, what needs perfecting, then we can see Oh, it's another human being with all the good, sweet, tender-heartedness of a person.

[38:50]

And of course, some people it's harder than others, but this is why we practice to see our own true nature. And Suzuki Roshi, of course, said that... We practice to realize our true nature and to express our true nature. And this again is so, so what is the difference between, you know, doing what you're supposed to do and expressing your true nature? And we get distracted into all the improvements we could be making, step ladder practice, step ladder Zen, rather than I'm aiming to express my true nature, my good heart, my positive intention, and sometimes I miss the mark. But I keep aiming. And so to have some sense of this in your own life, then you can come back to your ground, your center, your core, your true nature.

[39:59]

And see what, you know, to bring that forth, to share that with the world. How do you offer what you have to offer? And I think I've mentioned this before in my talks, but Dogen at one point, you know, in his instructions for meditation says, think not thinking. And this is, and then he says, And then the translation used to be, what is not thinking? Non-thinking. And then he says, this is the essential art of Zazen. And then, like, what? What is he saying? So, the part he took out, the part that replaced it, used to say, if you have a thought, notice it. and it will disappear on its own. If you do that long enough, your mind will get really quiet.

[41:01]

And after 20 years, he rewrote it, and he said, think not thinking. And now Kaz, in his new translation, Kaz Tanahashi, who's been working on translating Dogen for 50 years, has redone the translation, and it says, think not thinking. What is not thinking? Beyond thinking. Thinking is, what's right? What's wrong? What's good? What's bad? What should I do? What shouldn't I do? And can I give myself the right directive? And beyond thinking, what is beyond thinking is something more like, what did you come here to earth to do with your precious life, with your good heart? What did you come here to do? And, you know, besides, and we all know, we need to know something about how to behave and how to talk and how to walk so that, you know, we get through the day and we don't end up in the pokey or the hokey or the, you know, too devastated by folks out there who are lambasting us.

[42:11]

I parked my shopping cart. You know, there was a man with his unloading stuff with his cart. where I wanted to get something. And then I didn't notice it, but right past that there was another cart on the other side of the aisle. So there was just actually a little place to the carts to get through. And I turned my cart sideways while I was trying to get something off the shelf there. And then when I went to turn back, there was a woman coming from the other direction with her cart. And I looked, and then I realized, oh, there's another cart there. There's the cart here. pretty narrow, and I said, oh, there's really a lot going on in this aisle here, isn't there? And she said, yeah, especially when you park your cart sideways. This is going on all the time.

[43:17]

A lot of it's not voiced, especially when you're in your car, you know. and in our car we feel safe to snipe at other drivers mostly we feel like we won't get have to pay for it you know oh you're right I was parked sideways wasn't I anyway cause change the translation you know beyond thinking so in one hand We need to know what to do, how to do what people do here on planet Earth so that we are part of our society and our family and what is more or less acceptable and so forth. And on the other hand, there's this big question, what did you come here to do? Or can you be true to yourself and express your true nature?

[44:25]

Will you be true? What will you do with your... In Mary Oliver's poem, she says, what will you do with your one wild and precious life? Do you hear that? That's the one wild and precious life is you're already perfect. You have a one wild and precious life, a true nature. something from beyond so it's nice to have this word you know beyond something from beyond because we're not just here as something separate some individual who has to function and and we've spent so much of our life getting in this world of being graded assessed thinking there's improvements to make and we forget our perfection and and then our good heart our true nature and then there's a kind of courage you know and how do I share this can I can I be tender-hearted can I be gentle can I be kind will people take advantage of me will they expect me always to be like this do I dare do I dare do this

[45:42]

And any of us who, you know, and it's so, in a simple way, you know, this is coming to, you know, again, Suzuki Rishi said, Zen is to settle the self on the self. I think he might have said to settle the self on the self. But, you know, Japanese have this, this is the center. Second chakra is the center of your, being it's the felt sense it's how we connect with the world through you know feeling but the heart is you know the head will give out the directives this is this you need to improve that fix this change that and we our culture as and some people of course associate that with the masculine there's been too much of this not enough heart and of course we need some balance and have more the heart the head serving the heart rather than giving out directives to the heart as though it knew better than the heart because once it starts to think it knows better then we forget we're perfect just the way we are and we start just and we're we've lost that April Fool's

[47:14]

I'd like to stop and I'd like to just sit for a minute and let's focus on our true nature, our good heart, our perfection, perfect just the way you are. You know, sometimes the bodhisattva kuan yin is another way to do that. Because sometimes if you focus on yourself, all you can find is the imperfections. But, you know, there's also the Buddha in you, kuan yin, or the bodhisattva of compassion in you. And we can touch that by, you know, tuning to that frequency. There's a short poem by Kabir I'd like to share.

[48:19]

In your body, there are flowers. Each flower has a thousand petals. That will do for a place to sit. Sitting there, you'll find a glimpse of beauty before gardens. Thank you for your good heart and good presence today. Blessings. Thank you for listening to this podcast offered by the San Francisco Zen Center. Our programs are made possible by the donations we receive. Please help us to continue to realize and actualize the practice of giving by offering your financial support. For more information, visit sfzc.org and click Giving.

[49:22]

May we fully enjoy the Dharma.

[49:25]

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