This podcast is offered by the San Francisco Zen Center on the web at www.sfzc.org. Our public programs are made possible by donations from people like you. Good morning. I heard somebody saying as I was coming in, I want to get out of here. I thought, yeah, me too. Anyway, I'm glad you're all here, especially all the young people. So I'm particularly happy you're here because I get to read from my very favorite book of all times, which is Winnie the Pooh. Yeah, see, you too. Everybody's favorite book. So this story I'm going to read to you, just parts of it actually, is called

[01:00]

Pooh and Piglet go hunting and nearly catch a... Oh, a heffalump. I thought it was a heffalump too, but it's not. It's a woozle. Yeah. One fine winter's day, when Piglet was brushing away the snow in front of his house, he happened to look up, and there was Winnie the Pooh. Pooh was walking round and round in a circle, thinking of something else. And when Piglet called to him, he just went on walking. Hello, said Piglet. What are you doing? Hunting, said Pooh. Hunting what? Tracking something, said Winnie the Pooh very mysteriously. Tracking what, said Piglet, coming closer. Well, that's just what I ask myself. I ask myself, what? Well, what do you think you'll answer, says Piglet?

[02:03]

I shall have to wait until I catch up with it, says Winnie the Pooh. Now look there. He pointed to the ground in front of him. What do you see there, Piglet? Tracks, said Piglet. Pawn marks. He gave a little squeak of excitement. Oh, Pooh, do you think it's a, a, a woozle? It may be, said Pooh. Sometimes it is, and sometimes it isn't. You never can tell with palm marks. With these few words, he went on tracking, and Piglet, after watching him for a minute or two, ran after him. Winnie the Pooh had come to a sudden stop and was bending over the tracks in a puzzled sort of way. "'What's the matter?' said Piglet. "'Well, it's a very funny thing,' said the bear, "'but there seem to be two animals now. "'This whatever it was has been joined by another whatever it is, "'and the two of them are now proceeding in company.'"

[03:12]

Would you mind coming with me, Piglet, in case they turn out to be hostile animals? Piglet scratched his ear in a nice sort of way, and he said that he had nothing else to do until Friday and would be delighted to come in case it really was a woozle. You mean in case it really is two woozles, said Winnie the Pooh, and Piglet said that anyhow he had nothing to do until Friday, so off they went together. There was a small spiny of larch trees just here, and it seemed as if the two woozles, if that's what they were, had been going around the spiny. So around the spiny went Pooh and Piglet after them. Piglet passing the time by telling Pooh what his grandfather had done to remove stiffness after tracking. And now his grandfather had suffered in his later years from shortness of breath and other matters of interest, and Pooh wondered what a grandfather was like. and if perhaps this was two grandfathers that they were after right now.

[04:15]

And if so, whether he would be allowed to take one home and keep it. And what Christopher Robin would say, and still the tracks went on in front of them. Suddenly, Winnie the Pooh stopped and pointed excitedly in front of him. Look! What? said Piglet with a jump. And then to show he hadn't really been frightened, he jumped up and down once or twice in an exercising sort of way. The tracks, said Pooh, a third animal has joined the other two. Pooh, cried Piglet, do you think it's another woozle? No, said Pooh, because it makes different marks. It's either two woozles and one, as it may be woozle, or two, as it might be woozles and one, if so it is woozle, let's continue to follow them. So they went on feeling just a little anxious now, in case the three animals in front of them were of hostile intent.

[05:16]

All of a sudden, Winnie the Pooh heard a whistle. So he looked up at the sky, and then he heard it again. And he looked into the branches of a big oak tree, and he saw a friend of his. It's Christopher Robin, he said. Oh, then you'll be all right, said Piglet. You'll be quite safe with him, so goodbye. And he trotted off home as quick as he could, very glad to be out of all danger. Christopher Robin came slowly down his tree. Silly old bear, he said, what were you doing? First you went around the spiny twice by yourself, and then Piglet ran after you, and then you went around again together, and then you were just about to go around for a fourth time together. Wait a moment, said Winnie the Pooh, holding up his paw. He sat down and he thought in the most thoughtful way that he could think. Then he fitted his paw into one of the tracks. And then he scratched his nose twice and stood up.

[06:23]

Yes, said Winnie the Pooh. I see now, said Winnie the Pooh. I have been foolish and deluded, he said. I am a bear of no brain at all. You are the best bear in all the world, said Christopher Robbins soothingly. I am, said Pooh, hopefully. And then he brightened up all of a sudden. Anyhow, it's nearly time for lunch. And so he went home for it. What do you think? Is that a good story? Yeah. So what I like about this story is that it's all about friendship. These animals have been living together in the woods for almost 90 years now, since 1928. And they take care of each other no matter what's happening, something scary, something silly. They help each other. And also, they have this great big friend, Christopher Robin, who's always there.

[07:30]

And... I wanted to let you know that this person here named Jizo is our Christopher Robin. And Jizo is always watching out for children and for travelers to make sure they're safe and no matter how silly they are, they don't feel bad about themselves. So I thank you all for being here. I know there's a program of generosity to study generosity. Is that right? And that's really what friendship is all about. It's about being generous to other people. So thank you all, and we'll see you next month. Okay? Bye. So what I want to talk about today is an idea that perhaps, not coincidentally, can be found in my Buddhist name. It means wind and stream, way-seeking heart.

[08:38]

So it's the second part, way-seeking heart, that I want to talk about this morning. You know, for me, this example of Winnie the Pooh going around and around the tree following his own tracks is a pretty good analogy of my own experience of trying to enter into what we call the practice of the Buddha way. I think it's this word way that leads us to ask some follow-up questions, you know, like, which way? And the way to what? Or where? Or who? And those of us who live here are often asked by people, can you show us the way? Which reminded me of another famous pilgrimage story in The Wizard of Oz. You know, when Dorothy... in looking for the Emerald City, asks the scarecrow if he knows the way. And he, as I recall, points one direction, says, well, you can go that way, or you can go that way.

[09:44]

And then I think he says, or you can go that way. And I think he spins around then and falls on the ground. So that's not so helpful as directions, but he did agree to go with her. which I think is what we also try to do. We try to accompany people as they try to find this way, the way to go. So there's nothing wrong with asking directions, asking questions. But the thing is that in the Zen school, along with many stories from children's literature, you can't always get a straight answer. And not only that, oftentimes you feel as though you've been foolish to even ask a question. And there are many examples to this point. One of them I want to tell you this morning is a teaching story called Matsu's Black and White from the Book of Serenity, which is a collection of koans popular in the Sotozen tradition.

[10:53]

So black in this story signifies non-differentiation or the ultimate truth. the truth in which all things are experienced as equal. In other words, there are no things, there are no separate things, there are no special things. It's also called objectless meditation or non-imaginative wisdom. And white signifies differentiation or relative truth, poetically often called the 10,000 things, swirling around, making up our lives, out of which we humans are continuously creating imaginary hierarchies of value, of preference, and of opinion. These are also known as greed, hate, and delusion. So first I'm going to read this story, and then I'm going to talk about it a little bit. A monk asked great Master Matsu, Apart from the four propositions and beyond the hundred negations, please directly point out the meaning of living Buddhism.

[11:59]

The great master said, I'm tired out today and can't explain for you. Go ask Zitsang. The monk asked Zitsang. Zitsang said, why don't you ask the teacher? And the monk said, well, the teacher told me to ask you. And Zitsang said, I have a headache today and can't explain for you. Go ask Brother Hai. So the monk asks Hai, and Hai said, When I come this far, after all, I don't understand. The monk related this back to the great master, and Matsu said, Zang's head is white, Hai's head is black. So as you just heard, the story begins with this monk asking his teacher for some clarification about... these rather profound philosophical teachings of Buddhism.

[13:01]

And I found it interesting. I was reading the commentary to this case. All the cases in the Book of Serenity, the Kohen Collections, come with a commentary to help you try to understand. And in the commentary, they described the monk like this. Although he didn't have a sanguine nature, meaning that he wasn't very optimistic or particularly cheerful, Still, he saw things through from start to finish, which kind of led me to imagine this monk as somewhat humorless and rather dogged in his determination to get answers to his questions. And undoubtedly, he was in a lot of pain. So it may be that it's the seriousness with which this monk was approaching his studies, his teachers, his friends, and his own life that led the... teacher and the fellow monks to try to play with him, you know, this Zen version of hide-and-go-seek. And I think they were hoping, as we all do, that he would wake up from his entrapment and intellectualizing and self-concern, and that he might enter into the joy of living itself, which in my understanding is the very point of the Buddhist teaching in the first place, you know, to bring joy to humankind.

[14:22]

So here's the question, once again, that he asked to Master Matsu. Apart from the four propositions and beyond the hundred negations, please directly point out the meaning of living Buddhism. So in case you're wondering, the four propositions are existence, non-existence, both existence and non-existence, and neither existence nor non-existence. I hope that's helpful. And that's actually an entire other lecture, which you will never hear me give. And as for the 100 negations, I really have no idea. So anyway. But however, I do think we can hear in this question by the monk a suspicion he himself is having about his own lack of feeling alive. you know, truly alive in his practice. He's sincere, he's practiced hard, he sits in meditation all the time, he reads the texts, and he's not very happy.

[15:30]

And therefore, he really doesn't know how to play. So the great master says to him, I'm tired out today and I can't explain it for you. Go ask Jitsang. So this name, Zhang, in the commentary, is referred to as the treasury of the teachings. So Zitsang was himself probably a masterful scholar. And so the monk asks his scholarly question to Zitsang. And Zitsang says, why don't you ask the teacher? And the monk, who didn't even open his eyes, then says, the teacher told me to come and ask you. So kind of like Pu, around and around the tree he goes, you know, looking for something he can't find or recognize. And not even looking up when he's called. Hey, you. Zisong says, I have a headache today and I can't explain for you.

[16:34]

Please ask Brother Hai. So Hai's name in the commentary refers to the practice of meditation which goes into the ocean. So the monk asks Hai, and Hai says, when I come this far, after all, I don't understand. Non-differentiation. No special things, no separate things, no things at all. Like going down into the cave at the bottom of the ocean, where the great dragon resides hiding the perfection of wisdom teachings. The monk related all of this back to great Master Matsu, who said, Zang's head is white, Hai's head is black. So in my thinking, the teacher is now pointing out the two essential methods for practicing of the Buddha way, meditation and study. They're kind of like the runway lights, you know, that help those big planes land from way up in the sky.

[17:40]

land on the right spot. So the way isn't two, but rather through a meditation and study. And it's engaged in faith that we are Buddha, and therefore we enter Buddha's way. We are Buddha. And so we enter Buddha's way. And which way? Well, follow the lights. Follow the clear lights. And right straight on. I was remembering this image of the runway lights came to me because I happened to be on a flight, an SAS flight, last year to Norway with a friend. How many of you have been on an airplane that has a camera in the nose of the plane and turned on the TV? Not so many, yeah. Wow. So I was playing with the TV, and then there was this... shot of the runway as we were taking off and i'm like oh my god so i watched the plane take off i thought that was pretty great and then most of the rest of the way was clouds and dark so i watched something else and then as we were coming into oslo i turned back on the screen and it was just terrifying because way off in the distance was this little row of lights

[19:03]

And clearly, the person driving that plane was heading for those lights. And I thought, that's it? That's all he's got to go on? And he's kind of correcting, and I'm watching, and he's correcting, and I'm thinking, I just don't believe this is happening. But sure enough, they got bigger and bigger and closer and closer, and down we went successfully. So anyway, follow the lights, the clear lights. So at this point in the story, Matsu might also have said to the monk, well, how about you? How's your head? Exactly what my own therapist used to say to me after I'd go on and on and on about the 10,000 things, hoping to get some guidance from the man. And then when I finally would open my eyes and look up at his kindly face, he would say, what's a girl to do? That was the end of our session.

[20:05]

You know, whose paw prints are those anyway? Check it out. So this is a good question, I think, for all of us. Just what is it we're going to do when we discover that we are, once again, going around and around the same old tree and that those are our paw prints that we're following, you know? If we're lucky and if we have a good friend around like Christopher Robin, we might begin to notice that those patterns are starting to multiply. Silly old bear. But still these questions remain. What are we trying to do or hoping to find through these repeating patterns? Maybe our search is for meaning, or maybe it's for material well-being, or maybe, I suspect, it might be for love. In all the wrong places and all the wrong ways, Probably it's a little bit of all of those. So seeking and looking is not something new that we've come up with in our post-modern era.

[21:11]

Throughout recorded human history, there have been seekers, some seeking wisdom, others seeking God, some seeking emeralds, diamonds, oil, or gold, some seeking fame. It really doesn't matter what the object of our search is, because from inside it It's pretty much the same. It feels like longing, it feels like desire, it feels like separation from the things that we think we need or that we long for, things we love. So this is what the Buddha saw as he completed his own search for a pathway out of suffering. He saw how the terrible pain of separation was coming from within his own mind, his own imagination. And yet somehow he had the good sense to sit down and to consider the source. And as the story goes, although we're not really sure exactly how he did it, he suddenly woke up in the clear light of a morning star.

[22:18]

So in talking about this idea of way-seeking, I thought it would be helpful to start with the object of our search, you know. What is it that you truly want? Sometimes we call it our deepest wish. For the silly old bear, it seemed enough to have some innocent faith that he'd know it when he found it, and that hopefully it wouldn't be hostile. And I think there are those many times that we start off in a particular direction with an outcome in mind and then end up entirely somewhere else. due to all of the intervening circumstances that occur along the way. The master's too tired, the Dharma brother has a headache, or when we get there, we just won't understand. So personally, I was planning to be a high school biology teacher. And clearly that didn't happen. Or maybe it did. I'm not so sure anymore.

[23:25]

as I'm entering into this darkening phase of non-differentiation, the final exam, the end of the semester. Speaking of which, recently, I've been taking a course on DVD by a wonderful teacher by the name of Jay Carfield, whose writings I've admired for many years. He's a Buddhist scholar and lecturer, and now I have him on tape. I'm so happy. Anyway, the course is called The Meaning of Life, Perspectives from the World's Great Intellectual Traditions. A rather modest title. So the first three lectures, he talks about the Bhagavad Gita and the disciplines of the spiritual practice called yoga. And then after that, he turns to Greece and the notes that were taken by Aristotle's students. And in one of those teachings, Aristotle asks his students this question.

[24:29]

What is it to flourish as a human being? What is it to lead a good life? And then he goes on to answer. A good life must be evaluated by three distinct criteria. The first being virtue, as demonstrated by excellence, such as a good doctor skilled in healing. The second is practical wisdom. such as the knowledge a doctor will need in order to do things well. And the third is moral strength, which involves both the right things to do and setting aside overriding desires that might prevent us from doing them, what we Buddhists call distractions. If you're not in awe, you're distracted. So Aristotle then goes on to teach that not all good things, all good actions, have equal weight. that there's a hierarchy of values, and that the highest value is the most important one, and from that value all the greatest joys of life will be derived.

[25:32]

He then defines the highest good as the one thing for which everything else is done. And what might that be? The one thing for which everything else is done. He says that the highest good is called eudaimoneia, meaning flourishing. And by flourishing, he means lifelong happiness, the kind of happiness that is an end in itself. In fact, there is nothing that you can add to it to make it any better. You can't add wealth, knowledge, or honors. Happiness is not dependent on anything else. And moreover, and most importantly for we Buddhists, it's not simply our personal happiness that leads to the greatest joy. but rather the happiness that comes from living for the well-being of society as a whole. The collective good is always better than the good of an individual, which may not be so obvious when things are going our way, such as when we've just won the lottery.

[26:39]

And even the Buddha, for a brief time, imagined his own relief from suffering was good enough. He was reluctant to teach. But fortunately for all of us, it wasn't long before he realized that the welfare of others was the highest value, and his alone would not make him happy. So that's when he got up from the seat of his enlightenment and found his way to the five ascetics who were to become his first disciples. So the reason that I'm bringing up this matter of the highest good is that in order to understand how to enter into the practice of the Buddha way, it's essential that we locate within ourselves this highest good or this deepest concern. For the Buddha, it was the cause and cure for suffering. Initially his own, but ultimately that of the entire world. And out of that came his lion's roar, his vow to live for the benefit of all beings.

[27:45]

So by knowing what it is that we care about most, as with the North Star, we then know how to direct our minds, our actions, and eventually the course of our entire life. And in order to do that, in order to direct our minds and our actions, it is highly beneficial to train our minds. You know, this is the same thing that we need to do with our children, with our dogs, and with baby elephants. Otherwise, they are very hard to live with. So this word discipline, which has gotten a rather bad rap for my generation in particular, actually simply means to learn. So a disciple is one who has come to learn. The monk in the story is a disciple of Master Matsu, who in turn is a disciple of his teacher, Nanue Rai Rang. And he Nanyue was a disciple of the sixth ancestor, Huenung, and so on, all the way back to Shakyamuni Buddha.

[28:54]

In the Zen tradition, we call this the lineage of the Buddhas and ancestors, you know, warm hand to warm hand. There is a chart of those names called the Ketchmyaku, which is printed out, and students receive that chart from their own teachers. And in that way, they seal, literally, their relationship with their teacher. And they also seal their relationship with the practices of the Bodhisattva precepts and the Bodhisattva vow. These are the primary methods through which students are trained in the wisdom and the compassion of the Buddha, the highest good, the Buddha way. So learning is probably the most important element of Buddhism, as it is with all disciplines. And it requires not only moral strength, but it also requires generosity and patience, energy, concentration, and wisdom. So to aid us in the development of these qualities, which are highly valued both in Buddhist tradition and the Western philosophical tradition, I also found it inspiring to listen to the lectures that Dr. Garfield gave on the Bhagavad Gita, in which he

[30:16]

explained to me in my living room the core teachings from the great Hindu epic poem. And he then goes on to say that the emphasis here is on the practices of yoga. So I think many of us probably in the West have a mistaken view of yoga based on the many yoga studios that are in every little town. You know, I've taken yoga for many years, and mostly I remember doing lots and lots of asanas or postures, different postures, which felt great and I really appreciate it. I still do. I'm actually sitting in one right now. But the term yoga really refers to a vast body of literature and ritual practices. And the word asana actually means seated. And originally referred to cultivating a body, so the reason for all that stretching, is to cultivate a body which can remain seated in a posture that is both firm and relaxed in order to meditate for extended periods of time, which is what it says in the Yoga Sutras.

[31:34]

And through this seated practice, which is called Raja Yoga, one may enter into union with Brahma. the personification of the entire cosmos. So interestingly, to this very day, when we sit in meditation here at the Zen Center, we hold our hands in what's called the cosmic mudra, connecting us with the cosmos, from which, of course, we're never separate. So the Buddha was a yogi in this original sense, having developed the capacity to sit still in an upright posture for long periods of time, a posture that we refer to when we say the word zazen, and when we give zazen instruction. So it was really inspiring for me to see that this word yoga, meaning in English to yoke, began as an entire spiritual practice. And in its own source text, referred to as a discipline. Yoga is discipline.

[32:39]

So discipline is that, you know, yoga is what we need when we take up any art, craft or athletic endeavor. You know, we yoke ourselves to our instruments, to our art form, to our dance or to our movements. And we practice again and again and again until we gain mastery of our chosen, our chosen endeavor, our chosen form. Zen Master Dogen refers to our yogic practice as the essential art of Zazen. So last week I had a very good fortune to help the Zen Center host the travel writer Piko Ayer in both a lecture and a workshop over in the city in which he was discussing his recent book called Stillness, which is an interesting topic for a travel writer, as he said. So during his talk on Friday night, one of the many things that he said was that Buddhism, in his mind, was not a religion but rather a mind training.

[33:40]

And I didn't exactly disagree with him, but out of curiosity I looked up the word religion in my handy dictionary and found a very interesting connection with the word yoga. Religion is a word based in the Latin religare, meaning to bind, to tie, or to yoke. So in terms of its origins, both religion and yoga are of the same source. You know, we bind ourselves to a commitment that has direction, a direction dictated to us by our own deepest concern. It's like that jet plane heading for the runway, you know, focused. You're focused. That pilot was focused. Bless him. I often say to the students here at Green Gulch that our community is a training temple. and that our training that we offer requires them to endeavor to find their own deepest concern and thereby establish the direction of their life.

[34:42]

And they may well decide, as did the Buddha, that their deepest concern is to live for the welfare of all beings. But knowing your deepest concern and doing something about it are two sides of a very big coin. True value comes from full realization on both sides of that coin, from study and meditation, from stillness and movement, from black and white, relative and ultimate. When one side is illuminated, it informs the other. It's like another game that we played as children, I think many of you remember, called Red Light, Green Light. In both cases, we're required to have a great deal of potential energy in order to make the next move. When it's red light, you're stopped, but you're not unaware. It's like shivering with anticipation of green light.

[35:48]

Green light, same thing, red light. The potency comes from giving our full attention to the play, to the activity. to the game, the joyful game of life. So briefly, yoga as with religion is a discipline, the kind of discipline that allows us to accomplish things. And there are three kinds of yoga which are taught in the Bhagavad Gita, each representing one aspect of a fully developed life. And so I'll just mention these three briefly. There's karma yoga. Karma means literally action or the results of action. So in that to be alive is to act, for a person of virtue, the only choice is how to act appropriately and wisely. In the moment-to-moment gestures of our lives, the gestures of our body and speech, we determine our actions as either virtuous or not.

[36:50]

When a teacher was asked, what was the Buddha's teaching of a lifetime? He replied, an appropriate response. So the second kind of yoga, after karma yoga, is called jnana yoga, or the yoga of knowledge, of study, of discipleship. And jnana yoga has to be paired with karma yoga. In order for actions to be informed, we have to know more and more about what we're doing, about the world around us, and about the outcomes of our behavior. I think one of the most powerful statements in all of religious traditions to me is the one that Jesus made from the cross when he said, forgive them, Lord, they know not what they do. They're ignorant. Of course they're ignorant. Actions based in ignorance clearly are without virtue of any kind.

[37:54]

So the last type of yoga, bhakti yoga, is the yoga of devotion, in which we surrender our own limited and personal goals to the well-being of others. This requires our awareness of our place in the world, of our relationship to the whole of society, and a continuous questioning of our motives and of our actions. So I thought for just the next few minutes, we could all enjoy for time, together, a taste of Zen discipline by engaging in the three yogas, the action of stilling our minds and bodies, the knowledge that stillness can lead to insight and to peace, and the devotion, the deep wish for the welfare of others, including every one of you in this room right now, everyone in the county of Marin, in the state of California, in the United States of America, and the entire world, And this is our deepest wish.

[38:57]

So why don't we just enjoy each other's company quietly for a few minutes. Ditsan asked Payan, where are you going?

[41:28]

Payan said, around on pilgrimage. Ditsan said, what is the purpose of pilgrimage? Payan said, I don't know. Ditsan said, not knowing is nearest. 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. May we fully enjoy the Dharma.

[42:13]

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