This podcast is offered by the San Francisco Zen Center on the web at www.sfcc.org. Our public programs are made possible by donations from people like you. Happy New Year. Let me get back to gallery view so I can see you all. It's nice to see your faces and your names. And hi, friends. First, I'd like to thank Nancy for inviting me to give this talk. Thank you, Nancy. And I also would like to thank my teachers and friends at San Francisco Zen Center, especially senior Dharma teacher Paul Heller, and Abbot Ed Setesan.

[01:02]

Thank you so much for your support. I also want to mention yesterday was the anniversary of the passing of Sojin Roshi, Sojin Mel Weitzman. It's been a year, and I want to express my gratitude for him also. So we are in January 2022. I always have to think when I say the year now. And so it's a new year. And by Chinese calendar, Those of you who don't know me, I'm from China. By lunar calendar, we're still in the 12th month of the year of ox.

[02:07]

And the new year will start on February 1st, and that will be the year of tiger. So we are in this... transitional time, and this month is the month of transformation from the coldest time of winter to spring. In China, the Lunar New Year is also called the Spring Festival, although it's still quite cold. It's just... It's the sign that spring is on the way. And so today I intend to take you on a tour to China without having to go anywhere. I guess this is the benefit of having Zoom.

[03:12]

But before I start... To show the slides, I want to talk a little bit about the seasons, the month of January or the 12th lunar month or wintertime. I'll spend a few minutes on that. So around this time, there are quite a few holidays or festivals in China, and one of which is the eighth day of the 12th month, which is the Buddha's Enlightenment Day. In China, it's celebrated by lunar calendar.

[04:21]

So it will be Monday the 10th next week. And at Zen Center here, we already celebrated this Buddha's Enlightenment Day last month because in Japan, I believe they go by Western calendar. So... December 8th, last month, we celebrated here. And in China, they're going to celebrate it next Monday. And that day, we celebrate the awakening of the Buddha. And it's also kind of the coldest time of winter in China. And it's between a day called minor cold and a day called major cold in the 12-month lunar calendar.

[05:31]

And so even though it's very cold at this time, life still happens. In fact, some of the lives really thrive in this time. And one of the trees, one kind of the trees, really, they actually burst out flowers. when snow falls. And that's the Chinese plum blossom. So I believe they are different varieties from the plum trees, the plum trees here in the Bay Area.

[06:35]

In northern China, there are plum trees that flower actually in southern China as well, they flower in winter. And so in Chinese culture, it's considered one of the three friends of winter. So in Chinese art or painting or poetry, you also hear or see plum blossoms. And the three friends are pine, bamboo, and plum blossoms. And because they are very resilient in winter. And plum blossom is a symbol of beauty and hope and strength and courage in harsh times.

[07:44]

So there are many poetry, many poems, many paintings that depict plum blossoms. And one of them I'd like to share with you is a poem by a Song Dynasty poet called Fang Yue. would be around the 12th, 13th century. Let me share a screen. Here we go. Can you see it? Okay. So this poem is called Snow and Plum Blossoms. Plum blossoms without snow somehow lacks spirit.

[08:46]

Snow without poetry is just mundane. I finished up home at sunset when snow starts to fall. Together with plum blossoms, we create the perfect spring. So the poet says here that on this snowy day, well, the plum blossoms, although they are beautiful, without the snow, Something is missing. And even with the snow, it's still just ordinary.

[09:56]

What makes it special is what we create from the plum blossoms and the snow. Together, we transform the winter to spring. And so I thought it's a beautiful poem. And how do we create this perfect season, create a perfect spring, a perfect season, whatever that is, from the conditions of our life? the beautiful things, the challenging things. And in nature, in nature, the energy, the chi from heaven and from earth, they constantly interchange.

[11:09]

They constantly transform things. And we, human beings, as part of nature, we constantly receive energy from nature, from heaven and earth. And how do we create our life from what we receive? And this is a great question. In harsh winter or difficult times, how do we become friends of the winter or in winter? How do we become friends of each other? How do we transform from one season?

[12:12]

to another together. How do we take refuge in each other, in the community? And how do we take refuge in practice? These are the questions that I would like to ask myself and I would like to encourage you to ask yourself. And so that brings me to the next topic, which is a slideshow I created from some pictures I took quite a few years ago

[13:14]

in China, and I want to take you there and see how the plum blossoms and the snow are part of the creation of the community there. So let me try share screen again. Let's see. Where are we? I just talked Try to share screen. Matt, did you see it?

[14:15]

It didn't come up. Try one more time and I will share screen if it doesn't work. Okay, hold on. Okay, let's try again. Here we go. Next slide. Okay. So, I talked a bit about the plum blossoms before this because I named this slideshow. Snow and Plum Blossoms. And it's about a winter retreat that I participated at the Fourth Ancestor's Monastery in China around this time in 2011.

[15:34]

Can you all see it now? Yeah? Great, great. So I'm going to go to the next. So I want to show just briefly a map of China. Can you see my arrow also? The arrow from my computer, yes? Okay. So because I put a star here, but it's not... a good color for the star. So the place I went to is in Hubei province. And that's the temple that the fourth Chinese Zen ancestor started. And here's the mountain gate.

[16:45]

The temple is located near a mountain called Twin Peaks. So there is a Twin Peak over there also. And just to give you a little background about this temple. So the fourth ancestor's name is... Da Yi Daoxin, Master Da Yi Daoxin. We chant the Buddha's and ancestors' name every weekend here at city center. And so when the Chinese ancestors' sessions begins, it's the fourth one. Da Yi Daoxin, Da Yi Daoxin Daoxin. And his name means great healer. And he lived in the 600s.

[17:49]

And one significance about him was that he was the first Zen teacher who actually gathered people, gathered his disciples together and lived together and started farming and support themselves. So this was... in early days. So the community living in the Zen tradition started from him. And just go back a slide. So here in the town, there's a town called Huangmei. That's where he lived. Huangmei in Chinese means yellow plum blossoms. or yellow plum. And in the same town, this master's disciple, who became the fifth Zen ancestor, who became the teacher of the sixth ancestor, Huinen, Master Huinen.

[19:06]

So the fourth and fifth ancestors live in the same town. in Guangmei. And the sixth ancestor initially lived in Guangdong province, and then he went up here and came back to teach in Guangdong. And so there's a brief history of Zen in China. And so the mountain gate When you go to the temple, you are greeted with the mountain gate. And then there is the temple gate, and the temple is very big, and it's walled. There is a wall. As you read stories and koans of Chinese Zen, you often hear about the wall, the gates of temples.

[20:12]

And so here is the main gate. of this temple. And after you enter the gate, there is a courtyard. And in the courtyard, there is a wall. On the wall, there's an inscription of the fourth ancestor's teaching. And this is a teaching that he gave to Master Farong, his student, who became the founder of the Oxhead School later. So this poem says, Myriad Dharma gates return to one square inch. Innumerable, miraculous virtues are always...

[21:12]

at the source of the heart or mind. And so the square inch in Chinese means this little area in your chest where you can feel your heart. So basically it says myriad dharma gates. Literally, actually, it's hundreds and thousands of dharma gates all return to this... one little square inch where our heart is. And the second line says about the same thing. Innumerable miraculous virtues or merits are always at the source of the mind. That's a beautiful teaching and that's probably one of the most famous quotes of this master.

[22:13]

And so the temple is very big, and it's built on the hill. So from the front gate to the Buddha Hall, you have to climb a long flight of steps to the Buddha Hall, and this is the front of the Buddha Hall. And then you climb another flight of steps. This is the Ancestor Hall. Similar to our Kaisando here, except that this Ancestor Hall is a very large hall with the founder... seat well the fourth ancestor seat inside and also the subsequent masters who resided in that temple so there are many many names of ancestors in the founders hall and then you go up you keep going up the hill there's the lecture hall and the

[23:42]

the sutra library. And back to the Buddha Hall, in front of the Buddha Hall, there is a large plaza kind of place, open space. And on each side of the open space are a drum tower. This is a drum tower. On the other side, which is not in the picture, is a bell tower. And early morning and late at night, the monks play drums and ring the big bells and sing beautiful chants. And so you wake up to these beautiful chants and go to bed with these beautiful chants. And essentially, they are prayers. They are prayers for peace. and well-being for all sentient beings.

[24:46]

And so this open space is used oftentimes when there are big ceremonies and holidays because there could be hundreds and thousands of people who come to the temple and they will gather in this space because the Buddha Hall is not going to fit everybody in. And on one side, or well, on the side, there's the dining hall here. And then above is the guest house. And I stayed on the top floor of this guest house. And from there, you can see the view of part of the temple. And then a little in the distance, On the other mountain, there's this little building here.

[25:49]

It's the stupa of the fourth ancestor. And it's still the original structure from the 600s. And the temple ground here, most of these buildings have been rebuilt and rebuilt and rebuilt again over the centuries. But there are a few original structures that you can still find, and then the stupa is one of them. And you can see in the courtyard here outside the dining hall and the guest house, these are the plum trees. And the town is named after these yellow plum flowers. They are very special. because most plum flowers we see in China are pink, and these are yellow.

[26:49]

And when I arrived, it didn't snow, but one night it snowed, and then these yellow plum blossoms just bursted open overnight when snow fell. And that was just the most beautiful scene, snow scene I had seen. And here's more snow and more snow on the plum flowers and snow on the cypress trees. And there are a couple of cypress trees in the temple, which is not in this picture. According to legend, they were planted by the fourth ancestor. And so they are like over, let's say, 1,500 years old.

[27:57]

And this is the Zendo. By the way, I'm going to just run through the whole slideshow, and then if you have questions, you can ask me later. Is everything okay so far? Good. You're welcome to get your tea and popcorns. I'll try to be as entertaining as possible here. Okay, so this is the Zendo area. So there is a gate that opens to the outside, and like I said earlier, the temple is big, and then there's a wall surrounding the temple, and then this is one of the few gates. And so there's a story I'd like to share.

[29:06]

When I arrived, I arrived kind of late, in the evening around, let's say, 8 o'clock. It was in the dark. And the taxi dropped me off right outside this gate. And it happened so that this gate was open. The other gates were closed. That was, I found out later, because people were in Sishin, but it was during Qinghin, or walking meditation. in between the sitting meditation. So there were people out in the courtyard and they opened the gate. And oh, I didn't tell you, I went there because I wanted to participate in the meditation retreat during this month. And it's similar to our Rohatsu Sesshin here in the city center.

[30:11]

And so every winter, they hold this winter retreat, winter angle, for actually quite many weeks. So the winter retreat there at that time, that year, was seven weeks. So they were having a seven-week session. And I arrived in the middle. And I had no idea. what I was getting myself into. And when I arrived, I arrived with the suitcase, and people grabbed my suitcase at the door, at the gate, and then they got the guest manager, the shika, and there were people in the meditation hall, the zendo, they were doing walking meditation. And then the guest manager grabbed my suitcase, said, hurry up, let's put your suitcase in your room. Zazen or meditation is going to start in 10 minutes.

[31:16]

So I ran with him to the guest room and put my suitcase down and then ran back in the dark. And then they kind of just pushed me in the Zendo and the bell ran and the walking meditation ended and then Zazen started. right when I entered. And so I started my retreat like that. And that was really fun. And this is what it looks like inside. There's no heat in any of the buildings. So everybody's given these thick... blankets and comforters. So on each seat, you can see people are all wrapped up and it's snowing outside, but people are all wrapped up inside doing meditation.

[32:22]

And the walking meditation is fast. It's fast walking. And people circumambulate the center where a big Buddha statue is. So in the center of the meditation hall, there's a big Buddha statue, and then people do walking meditation, just circle-ambulating that statue. And people walk in different speeds, different pace, and there is the fast lane toward the center and the slow lane toward the outside. So coming from a very slow... walking meditation habit. I always walk on the outside circle, very slow, while already faster than our pace here.

[33:23]

It's not until the very end of Sashin. I kind of change lanes closer to the center. And so when it's time for meals, a monk rang the unpan, yunban, cloud board. So it's in the shape of cloud. And outside the dining hall. And they serve the meals. We all sit on... a long bench, rows behind rows of long tables, and we sat on narrow, long benches. And everybody has two bowls. One bowl you put rice or steamed buns or noodles, and the other bowl you put vegetables and tofu,

[34:33]

and the side dishes in. So there are usually quite a few things every meal, and then the servers are very fast. They just kind of zip through all the rolls and give you, offer food to you, and then they will serve seconds and even thirds. And the servers are all volunteers, and they are very... They are very kind of fluid. Like, you know, every day people, some volunteers, just stand up and go grab the containers, and then they just come down the rows to serve those who are sitting at the table. And there's noodle soup, as you can tell. And so on the eighth day of the 12th month, the Buddha's Enlightenment Day, we had a day off.

[35:44]

And after the morning ceremonies, we all piled into the kitchen to make dumplings. And we had a big feast. Well, we all cleaned the temple and we went to the kitchen. Well, we cleaned the temples before the ceremony, the day before, I think. And then we had the ceremony. And then after the ceremony, we had a day off. And that's when everybody was in the kitchen helping out, making dumplings. And this young woman is making... these delicious pancakes, and I was just watching kind of with fascination how well she handled the pancakes.

[36:48]

Those of you who know me at City Center, I like to cook, and when I cook with the community, I'm often the one who's who is in front of the stove. But over there, I got to be a helper. I got to be the watcher and the helper, and that was also wonderful. And this man is the main cook in the temple. He is not the Tenzo, the kitchen manager, but he's the main cook. He cooks most of the meals. And he is the most welcoming and pleasant, happy man there. And because there is no heat in the building, in the guest room, I always found myself...

[37:58]

visiting the kitchen after the meals because it's a little warmer there. And he always greets me with this big smile and then take me to a little stove in the corner of the kitchen, like a little stove on the floor with a few charcoals burning inside. And then he always said, come here, come here, sit down. And then... He made me sit down next to the little stove, and then I wore my hands on the stove. That was my routine after lunch. And so things are, well... In the Zendo, things are very formal, very strict. But outside the Zendo, things are very, very friendly and very informal.

[39:03]

And we had lots of teas on the day off and after the retreat ended. And so this is in the center over here is Venerable Chong Di. He was the temple director. And this is Venerable Mingji. At the time, he was the head of practice, same as Tanto here. So he was head of practice back then, and now he is the abbot there. And so over here is Marco, who came from Germany. He was the only... foreigner who joined the retreat. And he doesn't speak much Chinese, so he followed me around wherever I go.

[40:06]

And so we had tea with Master Chong Di and Master Ming Ji. And actually, with Master Ming Ji, we were actually having a practice discussion And this picture was taken, I think, after we finished, and we probably already cleaned up the table. But anyway, it was funny because when we asked Ming-ji if we could talk to him, he said, oh, just come after lunch. And so we talked for a bit after lunch, and then we were still like... and we were all very into the things we were talking about. And then he looked at his watch and said, why don't we all go take a nap and then come back and continue?

[41:07]

So we came back after our nap, and then we talked for another hour, and that was wonderful. And so, hold on. So it's very, I don't know, it's a very different style. There's a lot of tea. Every time we talk, we will sit down for tea, and then we talk over tea. And at the end of the retreat, I took this picture when everybody was trying to line up to take a group picture, and I think that's Very universal. Anywhere we do retreats, we like a group picture at the end. And after we finished the retreat, I stayed a few more days and visited the fourth ancestor, Stupa.

[42:14]

And so it's situated on an adjacent mountain. not far from the temple. And so this is the gate to the stupa. And then you have to climb up many steps to go up the mountain. And the stupa is built, was built on the mountain. And I went with a young man from Beijing. He was a and he was one of the volunteers who helped to create the magazines for the temple. And all of these journalists or editors, volunteers, they came to Sixin also. And so he and I went up the mountain.

[43:14]

We... we did three steps and a prostration up the mountain. And because I got sick during the retreat and I wasn't doing very well, and he was a little worried about me, so he offered to come with me and help me carrying. You know, you get very sweaty or you get warm after some time and I have to take my jacket off and have things, you know. He carried things for me, and he did the bows with me, and it was very sweet. And so we came up to the stupa, and it's a beautiful structure that's from the original time. And I still feel an affinity with the fourth ancestor because he was...

[44:15]

a great Zen master and also a great healer. And there are lots of stories about him helping people, healing people in that time. So I just went to pay respect to him. And there is a nunnery near... the main temple, and it's part of the temple system, but in a separate location. It's probably about half a mile or one mile away, and the nuns live in the buildings there. It's quite beautiful, and I don't have much time to show all the pictures from there, but everything there is a little more feminine, like the Buddha Hall, It's quite lovely, and it's very feminine. And then there's this beautiful young nun. I just love her smile.

[45:19]

And after the retreat, Venerable Congdi took us out outside the temple. Just right outside the temple, there is a bridge. There is a creek or... Yeah, there's a creek that runs under the bridge along the property, the temple ground. And there are a lot of big boulders. And on these big boulders, people over the centuries, over a thousand years, they carve poultry and they carve words on these big boulders. They are beautiful. And then that day, we tried to make rubbings of the carvings. And in summer, the creek becomes more like a river.

[46:23]

So this is under the bridge. In summer, the water mark will go up. But in winter, there's much, much less water. So it goes down. And then all the boulders will will show, will surface. And we get to see all the carvings. And one of the boulders in the bottom has these two characters, Xi Xin, washing the mind. So all year round, when the water washes the boulder, you don't see these characters. But in winter, when the water is low, you see it washing the mind. And this is the youngest resident in the temple.

[47:25]

His name is Yuan Lai, original coming. He was six at that time, and he must be 17 now. He was just the cutest boy, and he loved to help. And this is his mom. And this is during work period they were helping to make envelopes. And so the magazines were printed, and then they were going to mail the magazines to the members. And they did everything from scratch. They... they make their envelopes from scratch. So this little guy, along with all these other people, they were just making envelopes that morning. And Master Congdi, he, or Venerable Congdi, in Chinese we address the monks with a title,

[48:32]

He is a really, really friendly and happy guy. And he has these big smiles all the time on his face. And at the end, at the very end of our days there, he took us around. And he even took us, you know, the... the people who came from out of states or out of the country, there were quite a few of us, maybe I want to say 10 of us. And he saw us off all the way to Wuhan. So Huang Mei was a few hours, it's a few hours drive from the big city of Wuhan. You've all heard of Wuhan now. So that day on the... departure day. He got a SUV. I think it's a little bit like the SUV we use in Tazahara.

[49:37]

It's like a nine-seat or seven-seat SUV. And we packed 15 people in there. And we drove to the city from Hwangmei for a few hours, like on bumpy roads. And so being a very good Chinese host, he took us to a famous Taoist restaurant for our last meal, and there was our feast. And so, the yellow plum flowers, snow, yeah, snow and yellow plum flowers. Friends, of winter. And that's my sweet memories of my time at the Fort Ancestor's Temple.

[50:39]

And so that concludes this slideshow. And I like to dedicate these pictures and memories to the triple treasure, Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha. And may we all take refuge in the triple treasure during harsh days. And happy days. Thank you for listening to this podcast offered by the San Francisco Zen Center. Our Dharma talks are offered at no cost and this is made possible by the donations we receive. Your financial support helps us to continue to offer the Dharma. For more information, visit sfcc.org and click giving. May we fully enjoy the Dharma.

[51:42]

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