Good morning, everybody, and welcome to Beginners Mind Temple on this winter California morning. My name is Shundo, and I'd like to thank Mary for giving me the opportunity to come and sit on this seat for the first time in a couple of years, even though she, like a lot of the city center residents, is on vacation right now. And if it's your first time in the temple, welcome. If you're getting an early start on your New Year's resolution, congratulations. So I lived in this building for about 10 years, and I lived at Tassajara for about five years altogether. And I see some people in the room that I've known in the 20 years I've been around since. David out there moved in about the same time as I did. And I moved out of the building about four years ago. And a lot of what I've been doing since then is kind of an internal dialogue about what practice looks like. How can it be of use in the world? We talk about leaving the temple and going back to the marketplace with the gift of bestowing hands.

[01:04]

So just wondering what those gifts are and what it is that we learn when we come to practice, whether we're coming for one morning to listen to a lecture or if we come and move into the building and do serious residential practice. So I'll be sharing some of my thoughts about that during this talk. But first of all, I want to say happy solstice. This is the shortest day of the year. I grew up in England where the shortest days are way shorter than this, and you really know when it's the solstice at both ends. But nevertheless, even in California, I think a part of us knows that it's the shortest day of the year, and I know this morning the solstice was marked at a ceremony in the courtyard, as all the turnings of the season are. So even though as sophisticated urban dwellers we can mitigate many of the effects of nature for the time being, I think we're still aware of them on some level. I know when I first lived at Tassajara, it was the first time that I'd really been in tune with the phases of the moon.

[02:07]

It was a very interesting thing to kind of really be tracking where the moon was in the sky all the way through the month. And I think it's good to pay attention to these things. This is part of our animal nature. I just read something by a meditation teacher who said, we're basically the descendants of nervous monkeys. And I think it's good to remember that, and I'll be talking about that in a slightly different context later on as well. But it's the holiday season and a time for kind of reflection and turning inwards, and across cultures there have been celebrations at this time of year of kind of lighting the darkness. And... Here in California, on the way over from my home, I picked up a leaf. We don't have many trees that change color in California, but this is a rather beautiful one. I brought it along. I see that the maple out in the courtyard is now completely bare. So just paying attention to the changing of the season. And now with the rains come, things are starting to flourish again in California.

[03:10]

And there's a sense that... at the turning of the season, even the darkest times, remembering the darkest times do not endure. So I want everyone to take a moment just to reflect on being at the solstice, being at the shortest day of the year, how you feel about it, especially how you feel it in your body. Just take a few moments just to reflect on solstice. So in the midst of everything, there is this enduring life force that carries us on.

[04:33]

And it's the season of goodwill. We talk about that a lot, and that's something I'm going to be talking about. So the title for my talk is The Path to Kindness. And a part of this is, as I say, thinking about our motivation for practice and how it is that we transform from... maybe when we first are attracted to practice, the way-seeking mind that we talk of a lot at Zen Center, this kind of desire to be calmer, be better, be a nicer person, whatever it is that drives us or has brought us into this building whenever it was that we came for the first time. And that initially self-centered motivation, and then how over time that shifts And I've been talking and giving classes recently about the bodhisattva vows, and if you don't know what they are, we'll be chanting at the end, so stay tuned, they're also on the bit of paper that you have.

[05:36]

And so how we go from this self-centered practice to a practice where we try to help people, and what mechanisms we can call on to do those things. And there's three books that I've been reading this year, which I want to recommend to everybody. I didn't bring them along, but you can ask Arlene in the bookstore about them. The first was Norman Fisher's The World Could Be Otherwise. The second was Dale Wright, The Six Perfections. And the third one is Diane Eshin-Resetto, called Deep Hope. And I also understand that Tenshin Roshi Reb Anderson has a book also on the same subject coming out in the new year. And the subject is the six perfections, the parameters, which are modes of behavior that we can cultivate through our practice. And they've all been incredibly inspiring books, and I'm going to be drawing on those during my talk. And if you lived at Zen Center in my later years, you might think, well, Shunda is not necessarily the best person to be talking about kindness, because I was not always a kind person when I lived here.

[06:45]

And I entirely acknowledge that. But there's a quote from the... Diane Aisin Rosetto book that I think encapsulates the effort that we make in our practice. And she's talking about the Bodhisattva vow. She says, the power of the vow is in living it through the actions we take in each condition that arises. Its function is to bring us over and over to face ourselves, not to judge or berate ourselves, but to meet ourselves squarely, like looking into a mirror and meeting our humanness with curiosity, openness, and love. I like to think of the vow as a type of atonement. The true effort of the vow is always in the present moment, and we are always vowing. So the power of the vow

[07:48]

is in living it through the action we take in each condition that arises. Its function is to bring us over and over to face ourselves, not to judge or berate ourselves, but to meet ourselves squarely, like looking into a mirror and meeting our humanness with curiosity, openness and love. The true effort of the vow is always in the present moment. We are always vowing. And that's because as humans, we always forget whatever our intention is. In the moment, it's very easy to forget. So I was ordained as a priest 10 years ago, and I know that I've failed in my vows on many occasions and hurt people in the process. And while I'm sitting up here, I'd like to take this occasion to apologize to anyone who felt hurt by me for the unskillfulness of my actions, which is generally dictated by delusions of my ego. So just know that I keep reflecting on these things and I keep vowing to do better.

[08:53]

So in our wish to do better, this is a quote from Enkya O'Hara, a Zen teacher in New York, from her book Most Intimate, which I think illustrates what it is that can bring us to this practice. She says, when we first come to Zen practice, Many of us think that it is only about us individually. We think it's about me getting better at something. We might want to be a better student or parent or runner or just a better person. Personally, I wanted to be free of my fear, fear of others, of being seen in a negative light, of not being good enough, of not being accepted. I thought meditation practice would give me courage, and it did, but not in the way that I had anticipated. I had put the emphasis on myself, not recognizing that the self is made up of everyone I encounter, and especially of those people in my daily life.

[10:09]

Through the quiet awareness of meditation, I began to realize the freedom of experiencing myself as relationship rather than as an entity, a separate being. The courage meditation gave me is the courage of my wholeness. And I think this is a quote that we can all relate to, a sense that we're not good enough at whatever it is we think we're not good enough. I think everyone is in pain in one way or another. And when we land fully in our practice, We can stop simply acting out of our own pain. And we can start to help others. Because we recognize the universality of the pain. And we recognize our place in relationship. And sitting in this room, to me, feels like an amazing manifestation of that relationship. So thank you all for co-creating this. And for people on the livestream, I'm sorry that you don't get to influence that quite so much, but you are also contributing.

[11:20]

So Reb Anderson has a slightly different take in his quote, in his book, The Thorough Turning of the Wheel, and this is how he puts it. You are actually a person. You do actually depend on everybody else. The one thing you don't depend on in this whole universe is yourself. But you do depend on everyone else, and everything else, and everything else has power in your life. That's who you really are. And our practice is to be that person. Our practice is to be that unpredictable, unreliable, undependable, impermanent, other-dependent, inconceivably beautiful person. Everybody is, moreover, the same inconceivably beautiful person. In order to be ourselves, we must understand that, and we must understand that we cannot do it on our own. Because, in fact, everybody is helping us to be who we are.

[12:27]

So this is where we start to... appreciate how we shift from self-centeredness to connection and relationship. The practice of meditation that is the building block of any Buddhist practice is essential to this. And I want to put a plug in for the value of silence as a part of this process. I just read a couple of days ago in the New York Times an article talking about how high-level athletes can tune out a lot of noises around them in order to focus more clearly. And there was an auditory neuroscience professor who had this line, making sense of sound is actually one of the most complex jobs we ask of our brain. And it goes on, many interconnected areas of the brain must coordinate to decide whether any given sound is familiar, what it means, if the body should respond.

[13:36]

and how a particular sound fits in to the continual bombardment of other sounds around us. So this is the nervous monkeys that we are trying to make sense of the world, trying to keep ourselves safe. And as we sit quietly in silence, we start to notice what it is that our minds are doing all the time. Our wish for safety. So there is a value in resting in prolonged silence. We don't get it maybe to the extent that we would like to in the city. But it's still something to cultivate. So Christina, in one of her talks during Sashin, talked of meditation as a kind environment for our confused minds. So it's the ground for moving towards a clearer sense

[14:37]

of ourselves, and a clearer sense of the reality of the present moment that we're living in. So we can start to learn the possibility of non-reactiveness, of equanimity. I have an equation that says equanimity equals resilience and flexibility. And this is manifested in our sitting upright. Last week I was here sitting on this seat in a slightly different context, offering the zazen instruction. And a lot of what I talk about is just sitting upright, the posture we embody. So this is our embodiment of being upright in the middle of everything, everything that's unfolding within us and around us. and offering ourselves the space to allow the courage of our own vulnerability.

[15:43]

Because in silence, we don't get to be anyone in particular. We can drop those roles, the good and the bad. We can see to what extent our behavior is motivated by what the Buddhist tradition called the three poisons of greed, hate and delusion. or if you want a different spin on those selfishness, anger and ignorance. And within this internal work that we can do during meditation, or the internal quieting that allows some understanding to come out, I think the transformation, the catalyst, is our encountering the perfection of wisdom. So this is one of the six parameters or perfections. So all of them can be illuminated in our meditation. And we can start to embody all of them in our practice. But the perfection of wisdom, Prajnaparamita, is called the profound understanding of our true nature and of our true relationship with all beings.

[16:56]

And it's the wisdom that understands everything is empty. And as a result, everything is interconnected. In Dale Wright's book, he talks about the irony that when we discover that everything is empty, nevertheless, we start to focus on helping all beings. He says, seeing all things wisely as empty of their own being. The bodhisattvas, and bodhisattvas are awakening beings wanting to help people. Bodhisattvas begin to live differently in the world. Based on the vision that this perspective enables, this new way of living absorbs energy from the surrounding world and transmits quantities of energies that can be harnessed by others. And I think this is only possible when we start to break down this notion of separateness from other people.

[18:04]

We start to understand permeability of these barriers that we perceive. And in that passage by Dale Wright, when he talks about absorbing energy from the surrounding world and transmitting quantities of energies that can be harnessed by others, I immediately thought of Dogen. I don't go very far without talking about Dogen. He was the founder of Japanese Zen. And in this particular passage, reminds me of what I call his five-part harmony in the Genjo Koan. And you may be familiar with the first couple of lines, but the whole five lines is, to study the Buddha way is to study the self. To study the self is to forget the self. To forget the self is to be actualized by myriad things. When actualized by myriad things, your body and mind, as well as the bodies and minds of others, drop away. no trace of realization remains and this no trace continues endlessly.

[19:10]

So this is all about these perceived barriers of separation dropping away, allowing everything that is arising in this moment to be a part of your present existence, your energetic makeup, your physiological wellness. He also says... in the Bendawa, excuse me, in the Bendawa, another of his very early works. A line that resonated with me from the very first time I heard it, even though I didn't really appreciate exactly what he was saying. He says, grass, trees and lands together radiate a great light and endlessly expound the inconceivable profound Dharma. Grass, trees and lands bring forth this teaching for all beings, common people as well as sages. And they, in accord, extend this dharma for the sake of grass, trees, and walls. So everything is encouraging us to be awake, to be alive in the present moment.

[20:11]

Even in the depth of winter, the life force continues. So being open to tuning in to the life force around us, the life force of the trees, the grass, and the lands, allowing that to encourage us in our understanding of what is happening, allowing us to participate fully in the present moment that is going on around us. And this is our physical experience. And I think this is what we can really get to understand through sitting, or feel through sitting, even if conceptually we might not understand it. Our minds might want to grasp a conceptual understanding. But our bodies, I think, understand this. And our bodies understand the physiological wellness that upright sitting can cultivate. So I think of this as a virtuous feedback loop of energy.

[21:17]

And this enables us, as Dale Wright suggests, to start to live differently, absorbing from the surrounding world and transmitting back to it. So to continue with Dogen, he's not often prescriptive beyond recommending Zazen and monastic practice. But there's one passage that he wrote called The Bodhisattva's Four Methods to Guidance, or alternatively, the Four Embracing Actions for Bodhisattva, which sit very well alongside the parameters and the perfections. And you don't also have to be a monk to practice them So the first of the four methods of guidance is generosity, which also happens to be the first perfection. So we can get a sense that generosity is a great practice to kind of put all these things into effect. Dogen says, giving means non-greed. Non-greed means not to covet.

[22:20]

So greed is the first of the three poisons I talked about, part of the delusion of separation. So in a season of giving, think about the different things that you can give. We might think of giving material things. Think about what else you can give. Three things that come up for me are time, money, and attention. So since I moved into the building almost 20 years ago, I've had very little money, which is fine. But I'm just very careful with what I do with it and who I give it to. Our time and attention right now is a very precious currency that is much in demand. So choosing where we give our attention and who we give our attention to as a gift that we can always be giving.

[23:30]

So where can you give your time and attention that feels connecting and beneficial? And this is where I think lifting your eyes from your phone and focusing on your surroundings, focusing on the people around you is something that is a great practice to cultivate. And in meditation we start, I think, to become more familiar and more comfortable with continued attention on ourselves. I know for some people it's a very challenging proposition when they sit on a cushion. They like to be alone with their own thoughts for the first time. We get to be more comfortable with that the longer we continue. And then taking that off the cushion, here at Zen Center the practice of Dokusan, meeting with the teacher. face to face, right across from each other, seeing the presence of the teacher, or even not just in Dokusan, but around the building.

[24:42]

And I want to invoke Blanche, who was the abbess when I first moved here, and how much she taught me just from how you could observe her attention to detail in everyday life. And her husband, Lou, as well, as they lived in the temple day by day, is paying attention to things. and watching them paying attention to things. The great teaching that can be offered. And traditionally, one gift of the bodhisattva is the gift of fearlessness. And Dale Wright talks very movingly about the skillful generosity of being able to stay and meet other people's suffering when other people are suffering and not taking it personally and turning away from it because it feels uncomfortable. but just meeting it and responding whatever might be appropriate at that time. Because these are hard times and people are afraid. So meeting them and helping them is wonderful generosity.

[25:45]

The second of the four methods of guidance is beneficial action. Dogen says, 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. There are simple ways that we can do this. Just connecting with something bigger than ourselves. Maybe even it's just helping somebody get a stroller off a bus. But just lifting ourselves out of our own continual preoccupation with ourselves and our own worries and struggles. helping other people, and the difference that has on our mood. I know if I get off a BART train and all I'm concerned about is how quickly I can get to the exit, I can feel that in my body. And if I choose to step back, slow down, and let other people move freely as well, it makes a big difference.

[26:54]

And following closely on from that, identity action, the third method of guidance. Dogen calls that right form, dignity, correct manner. This means you cause yourself to be in identity with others. However, the relationship of self and others varies limitlessly according to circumstances. So I think of this as Dogen expounding what we call the harmony of difference and equality. We're all human beings. We're all in this together. We all... struggle and suffer in the same way. We all think we're not good enough. Everybody's individual manifestation of that is different in different circumstances. So holding both of those things together, that's identity action. And I think going with that, paying attention to dynamics of power and privilege and seeing how we can help from our particular position.

[28:02]

And finally, kind speech is the fourth one. This is my favorite part of the whole chapter. Dogen says, it is kind speech to speak to sentient beings as you would to a baby. If kind speech is offered little by little, kind speech expands. Know that kind speech arises from kind heart, and kind heart from the seeds of compassionate heart. Ponder the fact that kind speech is not just praising the merit of others, it has the power to turn the destiny of the nation. So this is Dogen writing 800 years ago in Japan, and I think this is entirely appropriate for this time, this place, and this moment. So with these four activities, generosity, beneficial action, identity action, and kind speech,

[29:06]

I think this is how we can see the path to kindness. It's our speech and our actions. Turning back to the perfection of wisdom, Norman Fisher in his book, The World Could Be Otherwise, says, Wisdom that sees emptiness is not smart. It is expansive and leads to kindness. He goes on to say, years ago when I was in university studying Buddhist sutras on the perfection of understanding, my professor remarked that he could not comprehend how the teachings on the perfection of wisdom, which seemed so abstruse and philosophical, could possibly lead to compassion and love. He knew that in Mahayana Buddhism, which is our branch of Buddhism, understanding and love always go together, but he couldn't really see how. But to me, all these many decades later, the merging of understanding and love, both contained in the English word understanding, makes perfect sense.

[30:18]

Of course love and understanding go together, and I can really hear Norman saying that. To really understand something, not just as an object of scrutiny, but in a deeper way, an intimate way, you have to have a warm feeling about it. So this deeper, more intimate way of understanding is what we can continue to cultivate through our city. And when I see the word warm feeling, I immediately think of Suzuki Roshi. I think that was one of his favorite expressions, having a warm feeling about things. And we're here, we're all here in this room because of how people felt met by Suzuki Roshi. Because he'd got out of his own way and he was able to meet people as Buddhas. If you read any stories about people encountering him, that's what you hear. So we have, even if Norman's professor could not understand it, and I've read other books by people coming to Buddhism who don't quite understand the connection or haven't experienced the connection between meditation and kindness.

[31:30]

But I think practitioners get to experience this over time. And if you haven't yet, having faith, having a little bit of faith in the practice. And I think our teachers, those who have come before us, embody that faith. And when I first came to Zen Center, there were many people who had been practicing, not just Blanche and Lou, but many others I could invoke, who encouraged me because of their demeanor and how they treated me and other people. How are we doing on time? I didn't have a watch, and I don't want to go on too long. 10 to 11, thank you. I can't remember when I first read the book A General Theory of Love, but I know that in probably my second practice period at Tassahara, which was back in 2003,

[32:40]

Linda Ruth was talking about it. And general theory of love is all about love. And the point that the authors like to lean on is that, as human beings, you have three separate brains that are going on. So there's the reptile brain, the lizard brain, that is very easily triggered into fight and flight. And then there's the mammalian brain, the limbic brain, which is where our sense of connection comes in. And then on top of that, we have the prefrontal cortex, which is the rational brain that usually gets us into trouble. And we spend most of our time kind of dealing with the prefrontal cortex and what it presents to us. But I think the reason these practices, the parameters and the four methods of guidance, are powerful is because they meet this basic human condition we have, this animal condition. of wanting to connect, the limbic brain that wants to be in connection with people.

[33:43]

And in Zen, we talk about face-to-face transmission. And that's often regarded as a vertical thing, from teacher to student, the live transmission of the teacher's understanding to the student's understanding. And I suggest that in community and in relationship, we can do that horizontally as well. Anytime we meet somebody, anytime we fully meet them in the moment, Without our barriers of self-protection, a face-to-face transmission is happening. And there's some wonderful research going on in different realms about this. So Barbara Fredrickson is someone who talks about micro-moments of positivity resonance. And she talks about this love as connection, characterized by a flood of positive emotions. which you share with another person, any other person, whom you happen to connect with in the course of your day.

[34:46]

You can experience these micro moments with your romantic partner, child or close friend, but you can also fall in love, however momentarily, with less likely candidates, like a stranger on the street, a colleague at work, or an attendant at the grocery store. And I believe this is fully possible. This is one of my practices out in the world, of just trying to meet people exactly where they are. And it feels like nourishment. Sharon Salzberg, in her book on real love, which I would also recommend, says, we gaze at an infant and feel our hearts swell. When we notice it's not the result of anything the baby has done, we can begin to imagine ourselves the same way. Again, this virtual feedback loop of energy. Another researcher, professor of psychology, I'm not sure, excuse me for the exact title, Susan Pinker, talks about face-to-face contact releasing a whole cascade of neurotransmitters.

[36:00]

And like a vaccine, they protect you now in the present and well into the future. So this is beneficial action. Just meeting somebody is beneficial action for yourself. And I think if you try it, you notice the effect that it has on other people. She continues, it doesn't have to be long, close interactions to have an immediate effect. Making eye contact, shaking someone's hand, giving someone a high five, lowers your cortisone levels. And it releases dopamine, making you less stressed and giving you a little high. And I saw a quote in a recent study from UCLA saying, engaging in kindness, contemplating how you can be kind to others lowers blood pressure, has therapeutic benefits. And Dale Wright in his book suggests that when we act with kindness, we do something incremental to our character. We shape ourselves slightly further into a person

[37:05]

who understands how to act with kindness, is inclined to do so and does so with increasing ease. We etch that way of behaving just a little more firmly into our character, into who we are. So this is our bodies, our nervous systems that we're getting to work on through these practices. Our physiological well-being as mammals. So when I lived in London, I would commute by bike pretty much every day. And I would pass this building on the Woolworth Road, which is between Elephant and Castle and Camberwell. And it was a 1930s building, a beautiful art deco brick building. And above the door was a quote which said, the health of the people is the highest law.

[38:07]

And apparently this is a quote from Cicero, but I found it quite inspiring anyway. The health of the people is the highest law. And now that seems as old-fashioned as the building does. I think in these times, we have impeachment here, we have Brexit back where I come from, we have climate change. We can seem powerless. We can just seem like individuals. And the government does not have the health of the people as the highest law. So what can we do? How can we behave? How do we continue? So Bodhisattva vows to help all beings. But as Norman in his book points out, Bodhisattva's whole purpose is to help. They can't do this by badgering or proselytizing. They know this won't work. and that it misses the point. When I practice, others practice.

[39:09]

When others practice, I practice. So there's no me practicing and others not practicing. In the big bodhisattva picture, we're all always advancing together. So bodhisattvas don't need to conjole or convince. They influence others non-intentionally, simply through their actions. Bodhisattvas do these four methods of practice, the four methods of guidance, to inspire others to become bodhisattvas. So when I first lived here almost 20 years ago, I was inspired by the bodhisattvas who were already living and practicing here. And I hope that if you're coming for the first time or are new to practice, that there are some people and actions here that inspire you to continue on this path. And just to remember that we are all here, all in this together. And what we have are our actions and our speech.

[40:13]

And within that, this is not just a grim undertaking. There is joy. Norman translates the fourth perfection, which is often translated as diligence or energy. He calls that joyful effort. And I saw in an extract from Reb's new book, he says, if you don't have joy, you're not actually doing the practice. The practice has joy running through it. This virtuous feedback loop where we take in, for me this morning walking here, the pleasure of a red leaf. Taking in the things, the joyful things that we can notice all around us. I remember when I first came back to the city from practicing at Tassajara, it seemed a place full of suffering. And I kind of like, ugh, I can't deal with that. Let me get back to Tassajara. It's a little quieter down there. And then eventually I learned how to land fully in the city and to fully be with the beeping buses and the trucks and the homeless people and the suffering.

[41:24]

And it's not that it's all amusing and lighthearted, but within all of that, the life force that endures There is joy to be found there. Getting off but remembering not to rush. These actions can become ordinary and the ordinary can become special. So take a moment to connect. I'm not going to ask you to do it here and now because I always hate it when people do that in the Buddha hall. But maybe when you leave, take a moment to connect with somebody, either somebody that you know and want to say hello to again or somebody you don't know. Just allow yourself to be open in that moment. Most people who live here don't bite. I encourage everyone going about their business.

[42:26]

Don't bury your nose in your phone. Really look up. I'm looking out the window, I'm seeing this amazingly beautiful tree out there. But really notice the trees. Notice the burrets. Notice what is happening. Make eye contact. And if that's an anxiety-provoking proposition, try it with babies. Babies don't have an agenda. You can just make eye contact with them. So I want to finish with a quote from Sharon Salzberg in her book. real love. She says, when we pay attention to sensations in our bodies, we can feel that love is the energetic opposite of fear. So as bodhisattvas, we're giving the gift of fearlessness, and we give it with love, this energetic opposite. We're training in fearlessness, training in paying attention, training in cultivating connection and appreciating connection as it arises, and training to do our best.

[43:30]

to help everyone else who is suffering. And this is our path to kindness.

[43:36]

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