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. Welcome to the Beginner's Mind Temple. Very happy to see you. I'd like to thank the Tanto, the leadership of Zen Center for inviting me to give a talk here today. And I'd like to thank you all for coming and for making up this wonderful community of practice. I've lived here for a number of years and just moved out last year.

[01:08]

So every time I come back, it feels very heartwarming for me to see you and to see the familiar objects, halls and bathrooms and remembering. those teachers and friends who have lived here before I have crossed paths with and have passed on. Blanche, Lou, Jerome, Jordan, Marvin, more. And I'd like to acknowledge these wonderful people who have come before us and lay the foundation for us here today.

[02:25]

years ago when I first came here came to live here in the early 2000 the first year or two I had to make a lot of adjustments like you all do if you are a new resident I remember on Sunday when the kitchen crew was taking a break, and residents would help themselves with food left over or cooking. I would always make my comfort food noodle soup and eat in the small kitchen, the residents' small kitchen. And Jerome... was always there eating his potatoes and cheese.

[03:41]

He was a big guy from Minnesota. Is he from Minnesota? And we had a lovely connection sitting in the small kitchen. And one day I was eating my noodle soup. He looked into my bowl. And he said, oh, you're eating Chinese food. And I said, Jerome, it doesn't taste like Chinese food unless it's shared. And so I realized that's what I was missing. And soon after that, one day I was in the walk-in, the walk-in refrigerator looking for leftover or something.

[04:48]

And I saw Lou in there. Lou by that time was in his 80s. He was looking for leftover. It was like squatting down, opening containers. you know, getting food out of the containers. I said, Lou, what are you doing here? He said, I'm getting food for Blanche. Blanche was a former abbess. She was very busy. She was also the grandmother of the sewing room for sewing the Buddha's robes. And And Lu was always trying to take care of her, bringing her food or getting, you know, taking care of things for her. And they took care of each other, actually.

[05:50]

They lived here for, I don't know, many, many years, and they were together for 63 or 60-some years. I was very touched when I saw Lu looking for food for Blanche in the walk-in. And so I said to them, I said to him, would you like to join me? And so he and Blanche join me for dinner. And that started a tradition of the Sunday night cooking for me. And there were some residents, Chinese residents then. I'm from China. And so naturally we came together and we ate together with Blanche and Lu.

[06:54]

And then pretty soon other residents, some of the residents would join us too, here and there. But always Blanche and Lu were there. That continued on for, I think, about 10 years. Whenever I was here, I would have dinner with them and friends. On Sunday night, we would cook together. Blanche would come and help until she couldn't. She would still sit on a chair watching us. And she used to say to me, the one thing she really looked forward to every week was the Sunday dinner. And that was mutual.

[07:56]

That really gave me a sense of community by being together, cooking and eating in a family-style way. So that kind of went on until they passed away. Lou passed away first, and a few years later, Blanche. And I miss having that multi-generational feeling in the community, that sense of family. So today I'd like to talk about community after that long introduction.

[09:06]

Community and harmony. What does it mean to live in harmony with each other? So I looked up the English word harmony. It means individual notes combined to create chords that have pleasant effect. So harmony is music that's made from individual notes that has a nourishing and pleasant, beautiful effect on our life.

[10:37]

And interestingly, the Chinese character harmony, He, also has something to do with music. The very early Chinese writing on the Xiao and Bung inscription, thousands of years ago when Chinese characters were pictographic, symbols. So the word harmony has a mouth and a musical instrument called shang, which is an instrument that's made of 13 or more flutes, bamboo flutes, together. And that's called shang. And so the character harmony has a picture of the mouth and then a picture of sheng.

[11:48]

So in Chinese, it also means harmony created by making music. Making music. So in the past few weeks, I've been studying Tao Te Ching with a group of friends. Tao Te Ching is a Taoist text attributed to Lao Zi from 500 BC, and it's one of the most foundational texts. in Taoist tradition, which has very strong influence on Chinese culture and other spiritual traditions such as Zen that we practice here.

[13:08]

So last week we were studying Chapter 2. And in that chapter, there's a phrase, or there are several phrases that describe the relationship between the opposite and yet interconnected beings or aspects of all things. And there's a line that talks about music also. Sound and music harmonize each other. Each individual sound that we make.

[14:13]

Create music. Each individual notes come together to make music. The music, a piece of music, cannot exist without these individual notes. They are not exactly the same thing. They are also not different. The whole session says,

[15:33]

Having and not having arise together. Difficult and easy complement each other. Long and short contrast or reveal each other. High and low rest upon each other. Music and sound harmonize each other. Friend and back follow one another. Does it sound familiar? The Sandokai, Harmony of Difference in Quality, a poem composed by a Zen master in China, Shito Xichen, in the Tang Dynasty. We often study here. It has a very similar imagery. just like what Tao Te Ching is proposing here over a thousand years earlier, before Tang Dynasty.

[16:52]

What does it mean in terms of community? And both Daodejing and Sandokai Chantongqi talk about the relationship between phenomena and emptiness. In Zen we call emptiness. In Dao, in Daodejing, it's Dao, where things come from. So the relationship between and the universal, the relationship between having and not having. They co-arise. It doesn't mean that they are the same, but they co-arise, they interact with each other,

[18:10]

And they create life in this way. As a community, we come together as very unique individuals. And we come together because we share something. because we look for support. Because in the depth of our heart, we all understand that

[19:15]

Everything, everyone is connected in this world. So, harmony in the community means not only that we exist or we live together, we are together peacefully with each other, that we get along, that we support each other in positive ways. Harmony is not a static state.

[20:23]

Harmony is a very dynamic, ever-evolving process. Just like notes. Musical notes create melody, just like the front and back foot in walking. Because we are all different. When we come together, it's inevitable that we notice our differences. Sometimes it's wonderful. It's very interesting.

[21:27]

Sometimes it's very hard. How do you have harmony when things are hard? How do you find harmony in sadness, in anger, disappointment, in not getting what we want? Harmony starts with this individual, this particular, this particular note, sound.

[22:40]

If a note is not in tune, you're not going to have harmony with other notes. are a little unhappy about things, about people around us, do you notice Am I happy? Am I well? Am I tired? Do I have enough space and time in my life?

[23:47]

Because how I feel in this body and mind affect how I see the world, how I relate to others. doesn't mean I have to be the same as other people. But it means I have to remember I am part of a whole. In the light there is darkness, but don't take it as darkness.

[25:02]

In the dark there is light, but don't see it as light. This is from Sandokai. Light and dark oppose one another, like the front and back foot in walking. He talks about emptiness and And we can also use that image to think about individual and community. Light and dark, the translation we use here is light and dark oppose one another.

[26:08]

The text, Chinese text says, 相对, it could mean oppose, but it's like relative. They are relative to each other. They are not separate, like opposing one another. They are relative. In one, there's the other. In the other, there's this one. So each of us is part of a whole, a collective, whether it's our family or our spiritual community or this entire human race. all the living beings, the community of living beings.

[27:09]

We are a particular experience, a particular individual in relation the whole. And we are part of the whole. And the whole cannot exist without each particular, each particular thing, each particular being. learn how to appreciate and respect our differences.

[28:20]

It's one of the things we can learn If we all look the same and act the same and talk the same, this world would be very, very boring. Our differences create life energy in this world. differences could be agreeable or not agreeable to each person.

[29:36]

But as a whole, we try to balance each other out. Culturally, first of all, culturally there are differences and each individual has a lot of influence from the culture that we grow up or come from. But no matter what culture we come from, different cultures have different expressions of community.

[30:50]

No matter how different these expressions are, like some culture love to share food, Some cultures love to, I don't know, share words. In some cultures, people are more forthcoming in their words. They say, I love you. They say, I like you to each other. In some cultures, they don't say it. They just give each other things. In Chinese culture, they feed you. But no matter what the expressions are, I think, I feel that the spirit of community is about sharing.

[31:52]

In sharing, Things happen. Sometimes we call it giving and receiving. I don't even think of it as giving and receiving. I just think of it as sharing. Something happens when you share. Something happens physically. Something happens emotionally. When you share. when you share food, when you share the strawberries you just got from the farmer's market with your friends? Can you feel the happiness? And in Chinese culture, it's very... It's...

[33:04]

a very particular thing to share things, to share food. They may not say much about how they appreciate you. They just try to give you things, give you food. And sometimes little red envelopes You know what it is? It's little red envelopes with money inside. During New Year or birthday or some events, or let's say I go visit my grandma, my parents, before I leave, they give me little red envelopes. It's just a gesture. They try to make me eat.

[34:06]

It's a gesture of caring. You know, in Chinese culture, when we eat, we eat family style. So we share all the dishes and we have our own rice bowl, but we pick up the vegetables and whatever. from shared dishes. And sometimes people will serve each other food just to show that they care about you. And, you know, coming from living here, we're used to having our own plate and just pick the kind of food we like. and eat what we like. But in China, it's often when you go and have meals with friends and family, they would get food for you.

[35:17]

They would serve you. Make sure you eat. But it may not be the kind of food you like. But once you remember, it's not about food. It's about their love. Then everything feels delicious. Everything tastes delicious. Years ago, I went to the fourth ancestor's monastery in China, Siju Si. The fourth Zen ancestor, Dai Yi Daoxing, Dai Yi Daoxing, his temple. still there and people still practicing there. So I went to participate in retreats there. And so during the retreat, during sitting, it's all very formal and very strict.

[36:21]

But outside of the Zendo, people were super warm and friendly. And so the first time I went, I brought some incense and some, I don't know, like a book or a package of tea or something, like a small gift package to the temple. And I gave it to the director. And... as a gift from me. And so before I left, I was packing. The director showed up outside my room, and he brought me this whole bag of things like teas and teapots.

[37:29]

It's good that he also... put them in a bag because I wouldn't have room to pack it into my suitcase. So I was very touched. And I was also like, oh, they gave me so much. So next year I went, I brought them a big bag as a gift. Different kind of things. Oh, I brought several bags. several smaller bags for, like, different people and for the temple. And that was before Chinese New Year. And the kitchen and people were very busy, like, making all kinds of food, all kinds of, you know, people were donating different kind of teas and, you know, those puerh tea, like, like tea cookie, like, like, puerh tea is like, um,

[38:30]

They compressed into these big cookies or what do you call it? Cake. Cake. So there were buckets and buckets of puerh tea cakes in the kitchen. And then some of these lay people, they had a whole crew coming to help make New Year treats. It was very festive. So anyways, before I left, while I was packing, the director showed up again outside my room. And this time, he brought me an even bigger bag. There was so much New Year stuff in it. Like, you know, I don't know. There's a whole stack of poor tea cakes and all kinds of other things. You know, New Year cookies, New Year stuff. And I was like, oh, wow, we're having a competition here.

[39:39]

I was really, really warmed. Oh, and then before, during the Sashin, there's the Buddha's Enlightenment ceremony. We do it here on December 8th, around that time, right? In China, they still do it by the lunar calendar, which means it's roughly a month later. So I would do the ceremony here, and I'd go to China, and then I'd do it again. And so the ceremony was very festive, and people did the circumambulation outside the Buddha Hall because there were so many people. So there's like a big... a big... courtyard outside. And then when we went back to the dining hall for lunch, there were all kinds of dumplings and food.

[40:42]

And then because the monastics sit on like different rows, the monks sit on the front rows and the lay people sit kind of toward the back. And the lay people, many lay people brought in things to give the monks. And so in front of each monk's seat, there are these little red envelopes and little oil bottles, like herbal oil, and like cute little things from the lay sangha. And even I got those things just, I don't know, I had no virtue other than going there from far away. And it was so cute.

[41:43]

I still have that little red envelope and a little oil bottle with me. And so this is the culture I came from. So next time I give you something, don't turn it back. It's not about that thing. Not only about the thing. How do you express your care, your love for others, for yourself? We come together.

[42:47]

Because we share. We share. This aspiration. This aspiration of awakening. of this vast interconnectedness of life. How do you express your practice, your understanding?

[43:50]

this interconnectedness. Thank you very much. and click giving. May we fully enjoy the Dorma.

[44:32]

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