This podcast is offered by San Francisco Zen Center on the web at sfcc.org Our public programs are made possible by donations from people like you Good morning Every late spring, there's a poet who comes here, teacher Tassahara, Naomi Shihabnai. It's interesting to see little snippets of Zen Center appearing in her books. Wrap a few words around your waist. Persistence. resilience, or some wear passports.

[01:03]

Don't worry too much. Your needs will be met. No test can measure what's important. On the bulletin board of the San Francisco Zen Center, someone is looking for an unobtrusive person whose first duty every morning will be to make the coffee. This could be you. I'm working up to introducing Dogen's Bendawa, Endeavoring on the Way, which is a scary proposition. But with that in mind, Endeavoring on the Way, Crossing the Creek, which stone do you look at? The one you're stepping onto next?

[02:07]

The one you're stepping onto or the next? Which stone do you look at? The one you're stepping onto or the next? This one's a little slick, but you can't get across without it. The eye that sees. activity as the expression of the way, as the enactment of the way. The eye that sees its activity as a teaching of the way. Not so much that it gives the answer

[03:09]

It's more it draws something forward. It's a little slick, but you can't cross without it. How easily that seems to resonate with our lives. So yesterday I talked about the image of Dragon's Gates. I read somewhere that this appeared in Chinese thinking when Emperor Gil created three... He redirected the Yellow River and let the fish go up. He made a fish jump.

[04:11]

But apparently it was quite a formidable fish jump and had three levels. And only the most determined rose up the three levels. Like three gates, three points of initiation. first gate, which I tried to talk about yesterday, that entering in, entering the way, entering the moment, entering the structure and commitment of Shashin. You know, in traditional monastic

[05:14]

architecture, there are three gates. So the first gate may be succinctly said as, make your best effort each moment. And of course, this is why Shashin asked of us, Envying our best effort is a process of discovering our best effort and discovering that it's not about teeth-gritting determination. It's not lax

[06:16]

but it's not tight. Like what is the eye that conjures up the image of stepping across the creed and sees the Dharma unfold within it? Is it cleverness? Is it the ability to reference the Shobu Genzo? Is it something about letting the immediacy of the moment speak? Is it something about seeing through, seeing beyond the preoccupations of self? best effort discovers our best effort.

[07:33]

You come to Shashin saying, I want to sit Shashin. And then in a strange way, you find out there's quite a significant way you don't want to sit Shashin. But in the midst of that, your effort comes forth in a marvelous way. You discover, I do want to sit your sheet. And in some extraordinary way, I want to sit your sheet more than anything else. There's some way... It's almost as if I'm looking for an excuse to make my best effort. There's some way in which when we find that resonance, when we find that commitment, when we find that involvement, it's almost like a sense of relief.

[08:47]

course, in the meantime, in between time, we jump around, we push and we pull. We try to avoid and we try to hold on too hard. But all this is just the process of refining our effort. The first gate. commitment, diligence, entering into Sashin. And then the second gate. Say yes to everything, whatever comes up. Part of the challenge of Zazen

[09:59]

is diligent effort to be the moment, to be body, breath, and to say yes to everything and anything that happens. Accepting it as part of the moment. Practice be about separating from something and have at its core the teaching that everything's interconnected. So here's how Dogen Zenji initiates Bendawa.

[11:04]

the Buddha, all the Buddha Tathagatas. Is that historical people? Or is that moments of awakeness? Is it a singularity or a multiplicity that includes everything? All Buddha Tathagatas who Kastanahashi translates the next word as individually. And Chohakamora translates the next word as together. So maybe take a pick. All Buddha Tathagathas who individually transmit. All Buddha Tathagathas who together transmit. Or how about both?

[12:11]

All bhagadhatas who transmit inconceivable dharma, actualizing, unsurpassable, complete enlightenment, have a wondrous art, supreme and unconditioned. Receptive samadhi is its mark. Receptive samadhi. Yes, yes, yes. This is happening, this is happening, this is happening. What's happening is what's happening. It's already come into being. You can't stop that part. Literally, why put energy into trying?

[13:18]

What's come into being is presence, is what's present. If the intention is to be present, how could no support that? What can support it other than yes? Transmit inconceivable drama. I think for most of us when we hear Naomi's little poem, we get the message. Maybe part of getting the message is that we figure something out.

[14:26]

I think also something more than what we figure out. more than what we deduce or infer. Crossing the creek. Crossing what arises in our life. As we endeavor on the path relating to all the likes and dislikes, as you endeavor to sit up straight, relating to the tiredness, the creakiness, the stiffness, the discomfort of body, as you endeavor to let the breath breathe the body, relating to stuffy nose,

[15:35]

tight chest, some sense of holding. What is it for these to be nothing other than the stepping stones that support the way? What kind of attitude would that be? What would it be for them not to be the hindrance, the limitation, the source of difficulty, frustration or annoyance? But to get to this place,

[16:37]

is already an accomplishment. Because the nature of our more usual karmic endeavor is to try to set things up on the path of getting what we want and avoiding what we don't want. We're more spurring with yes. We're more hesitant with just meeting what arises. We're more inclined to stay within what's being conceived, within some strategy that will produce success and avoid failure.

[17:43]

What is it to step into an inconceivable process? Some process that's not so much a reflection of what we've figured out, but more a process of discovery. Sometimes the word inconceivable is translated as wondrous. Hastanahashi translates it as inconceivable, and Shuhakukamori translates it as wondrous. And when we pay attention even a few minutes of Zazen, you know, what do we discover?

[18:55]

Amazing things are happening. I sometimes think it's embarrassing even to admit to ourselves what's going on. The way our mind jumps from subject to subject, grasps at a particular idea or memory with an impassioned determination. How wondrous that it's so. And that that story will be repeated. as if within it there is some precious treasure waiting to be discovered.

[19:59]

As we enter into yes, bringing the intentionality of our best effort The world, according to me, cracks open. And some fresh territory, some unchartered territory, some wondrous territory starts to manifest. pay close attention to what's happening in your body. This body that under normal circumstances seems utterly familiar becomes uncharted territory. As you say yes to the sensation in a particular part of your body,

[21:20]

Oh yeah, I always hurt right there. And just say yes and open up completely to that sensation. What will happen next? Just try it and see. Maybe it will expand and float. Maybe it will disappear. Maybe it will bounce like a rubber ball to another part of your body. Maybe it will crack open and become emotion. The conceived world, the world as we think it is, The body, as we think it is, glues things together, makes the world solid and somewhat heavy.

[22:40]

And then we're obliged to live in that world. We're obliged to live in that body, solid, somewhat heavy. But this capacity of direct experiencing, of going beyond what we think it is, Dogen Zenji says, all Buddha Tathagakas, who together transmit inconceivable Dharma. Together transmit. Together communicate.

[23:41]

But not just in words. More intimate than that. Not just in the realm of ideas. in the realm of experience. Just as Naomi transmits something about crossing the creek. Because we know something about crossing the creek. And so her knowing and our knowing allow a Dharma to arise. this kind of transmission. When we meet the moment, when we enter this realm of dynamic activity, we're in the same territory as the Buddha Tathagatas. We get the message.

[24:47]

Something's transmitted. Not something we're going to grasp intellectually. That's something we can know with our mind and put in our pocket. More like a sensibility. More like a sense of wonder. you know, the word that's translated as inconceivable or wondrous, sometimes also has an element of mystery, mysterious. Mysterious, wondrous, inconceivable arising. Actualizing, unsurpassable, complete enlightenment.

[25:56]

actualizing. It's lived. It's made actual. It's experienced directly. And it's every step we take. It's every rock you step on as you navigate the horizons of a karmic life. It's every emotion. It's every memory. It's every sign of a recycling garbage truck going up the street. so elegantly named Recology.

[27:03]

With a spring green stripe painted on it. Each arising is the stepping stone. course, as Hakuin, being the drama queen that he is, says, this is nothing other than stepping into hell. There's a marvelous story about Hakuin, which I think you all know, but for a long time I thought it was mythological. You know, sort of kernel of truth and then thoroughly embellished but someone was telling me quite recently it was not it's it's the famous story where the village girl gets pregnant and then for reasons best known to herself tells her parents that was the monk who lives in the cave outside the village that was the father well apparently that monk was Hakuin and they went to Hakuin

[28:30]

And they said, you got my daughter pregnant. You, whatever. You can imagine the adjectives they added in there. So you're taking the baby. And he said, is that so? So he took the baby. And of course, as a monk, he went on alms round each day for food. And so one of the things he had to... request was milk and baby food for the baby. And he actually wrote in his diary saying, this was extremely difficult to get. He said it was like a lightning rod for abuse, you know. Would you have a little baby food? Well, it came with a few choice comments. He actually wrote in his diary. This was quite a challenge. And then after having the baby for about six months, the girl, who was the mother, relented and said, well, actually, you know, I just can't hold this lie any longer.

[29:50]

He was not the father. It was this other guy was the father. And then everybody went to Haku and said, my God, what a saint you are, what a holy man, what a virtuous, exalted figure, that you would simply tick all this abuse, all this criticism, and just say, is that so? Your soul, you're the eminence of the Dharma. And he said, is that so? to approach what arises with something of that. So be it. This is what's coming up. You know, I thought that story was too fantastic to be true.

[30:50]

But isn't everything too fantastic to be true? That each of us could be sitting here today. Who'd have thought it 20 years ago? One year ago? As we enter the world, best effort creates something extraordinary, something so uniquely itself, it's unsurpassable. It's not second to something else. It's uncomparably, completely itself. Each human life.

[32:02]

Each moment. And that unrelenting part of our human nature that says, this is too much of that, too little of that, I'm going to wait for something better before I say yes. Sometimes it seems we've rehearsed no so thoroughly. We're such an adept that we've forgotten how to say yes. In our karmic world, in our comparing mind, Is this moment perfect? No. In the world of the Dharma, of the world where each thing is allowed to be completely itself, it's just simply unsurpassable.

[33:20]

Actualizing unsurpassable. Waking up. Use hacker words. How does this toss us into hell? It tosses us into hell because despite its beauty, despite its charm, despite its jewel-like offering, our karmic tendency is to say, nah, I'm busy. had things to do. I'm not available to be just this moment. It doesn't quite meet my wishes or my aversions.

[34:29]

This deep, exquisite request makes evident the flickering of our mind. Makes evident the grasping and aversion that arise. And to say yes to that too. Is that so? It's like an exercise in shamelessness. It's an invitation into wonder at the human condition. When you just can't stop thinking about something. How amazing.

[35:31]

But that thought could be so utterly tantalizing, captivating. relevant, significant to your life. That in this moment, this thought is the most important thing. And maybe this thought is you're trying to remember the lyrics of a Rolling Stones song. Or something of equal grandeur. Is that not wondrous, mysterious? All Buddha Tathagatas who transmit inconceivable dharma, actualizing unsurpassable enlightenment,

[36:38]

have a wondrous art, supreme and unconditioned. A wondrous art. It's not an unrelenting determination. It's not bang your head on the wall of reality till it cracks open. You can figure which the it in that sentence refers to. It's a wondrous art. It's the art that crosses the creek and sees the stepping stones as the stepping stones of life.

[37:41]

It sees the creek as a constant, that's in constant motion. And playfully asks, which one do you look at? This one you're stepping on or the one you're about to step on? What is the way? What is endeavor in the way? What is the practice of the way? Where is your life happening? Is it happening here? Or is it happening in the anticipation of what's next? Or the memory of what's past? Where can the Dharma be actualized? In the dreams, in the understanding, or in the meeting, the activity of the moment?

[39:00]

What wondrous art is it that takes something nondescript, trivial, simple, and plucks it up and says, this is the Dharma of the Dharma of all Buddhas. wondrous art. Supreme and unconditioned. Of course, in a karmic world of higher and lower, supreme has a certain meaning. But in the Dharma world, the yes of yes.

[40:17]

What's happening is completely itself. As we start to taste the activity of best effort schedule, rather than being some affliction, some limitation, becomes a gift. You know, from our karmic life, a break is like such a treasure. Finally, liberation from the torture chamber called the zindo. And then as we pay closer attention and see how it can invite in all the habituated thoughts and feelings and behaviors that tie us into the discontent of our life.

[41:45]

As we start to see that within what the Zen do evokes. That it offers a taste of liberation. Discovered through best effort. Presence is an utterly exacting and demanding activity. It demands everything you've got and nothing at all that you don't have. In a moment, it's just noticing. And noticing, and noticing, and noticing, and noticing.

[42:54]

This is how the carp ascends the waterfall. And in the wonderful imagery of Chinese mythology, flies off a dragon. This is how each of us finds the stepping stones to cross over all the amazing, wonderful, awful stuff that arises. Is that so? Someone came to me once and said, I'm enlightened, and now I look at those other people with such pity, those other people struggling to practice. Is that so? Then they come back later and said, I'm embarrassed having said that.

[44:03]

Is that so? What we're capable of. heights of our grandiosity and the depths of our self-criticism. And all this, the very same territory of the Buddhas. almost drove himself crazy, thinking and worrying and obsessing about dying.

[45:11]

Had to travel around to find someone who could actually get him out of his profound agitation, distress and distractiveness. And the very same person accused of fathering a child, reviled, criticized. Is that so? What we're capable of. Amazing. honor of Naomi, even though I'm not quite sure.

[46:20]

Did I lose the place? I did. I lost the place. But I opened up at another poem. Is misery near Kansas? I asked. No offense to anyone from Kansas. Finding my way was a pleasure. Every meeting, a shiny maybe. This nice lady has something to tell us. Hello, friend. We have so much to talk about. You know, often when people receive bad news, the instinctive response is, no.

[47:46]

And sometimes that brings on fear, agitation, distress. And as that's crossed over, sometimes The immensity of the request that's revealed draws the person down to a place to meet this arising. This is the wondrous art. to admit to yourself how utterly demanding presence is. Each period of Zazen, you can utterly spend your time rattling around in what you want and what you don't want, reliving past dramas and dreaming up new ones.

[49:01]

What is it to bring forth notice, notice, notice, notice? An expression of best effort that your life wishes. What is it to crack open that karmic charade, and let the wondrous dharma be transmitted. What a formidable opportunity. And what a formidable request. Give it everything you've got. So of course it frightens the life out of us.

[50:12]

Of course we say, well, I'm busy right now. You know, my knee hurts. Sorry, it's not a good time for me. Check in with me later. I'll get back to you on that. But to let that reformable request draw us down. So what? It's going to illuminate, elicit all the stuff that rattles around within me. So what? Is your human life ever anything other than amazing? could it ever be completely described in some trite terms as good and bad, success and failure?

[51:27]

This is the wondrous argument. For more information, please visit sfcc.org and click Giving. May we all fully enjoy the Dharma.

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