I would like to ask your forgiveness for being late this morning. I was talking with a Dharma friend, and I guess I got carried away, didn't pay attention to what time it was. We also have something like every clock in the house has a different time, so it's always a little bit of a mystery. So today is Arbor Day here at Green Gulch, and in fact this is the time of year when people are paying attention to trees, not just here. So, my theme for this morning has to do with our consideration of trees, trees in our lives, and what I would like to invite you to join with me in doing is to consider trees as a

[01:12]

focal point for looking at both the outer and the inner worlds. I think that we might, if we have a little inquiry into trees and what they are and their nature and how they grow, etc., we may find some inspiration also for our inner life. At least that certainly has been true for me. This morning I made a list of the trees that I'm aware of in this watershed, and in particular the trees that I know a little bit about. And so what I'd like to do is to go through that list with you, so that we have some shared sense of the specific trees that are our friends and companions here.

[02:18]

Is Wendy here? Not yet. I need to ask her advice about a few things, but we'll see. I live in a house at the end of this valley, where this valley and Frank's Valley come together, actually on Redwood Creek. So there are some differences in the trees that surround us where I live, and the trees that are in this drainage in particular, but they very much are related to each other. And although we are not in the primary drainage for Redwood Creek, we are certainly very much affected by and related to Redwood Creek. Muir Woods, as you know, is at the head of Frank's Valley, and that is where Redwood Creek begins in the slope of Mount Tam up above Muir Woods. And then the creek meanders through Frank's Valley, and at the ocean end of Green Gulch,

[03:27]

where the Green Gulch Creek comes into Redwood Creek, then the combination of the two opens into the ocean. And all along Frank's Valley, all the way down to the Pelican Inn, there are beautiful red alders. I particularly love looking at them at this time of year, because with the leaves dropped, you can see the structure of the trees. They're very beautiful in coloration and in form. The alders are trees that grow in groups, and they seem to move. The groups move. So as the wood that surrounds the Pelican Inn is beginning to show signs of terminating, it's a climax forest.

[04:29]

Climax wood has a relatively speaking short lifespan. There is evidence of the alders sprouting up on the ocean side of the parking lot down at the beach. So, you know, the wood is dying around the inn, but it's emerging closer to the ocean. We have cottonwoods planted along the banks of Green Gulch. Particularly, there's a planting of them in what is now, what is it, the third field? Second field. Second field. Beyond the greenhouses. And then there's a kind of nursery bed of those Fremont cottonwoods, which were gathered together under supervision of Harry Roberts a number of years ago from the mouth of the Klamath River,

[05:31]

way north of here, because he knew that these trees were good candidates for surviving here, for helping hold the banks of the creek. But in an environment where they would be subjected to a lot of wind and salt air. And they have indeed flourished. We also have the native cottonwood, particularly in the creek bed, Green Gulch, and along the bottom valley where Green Gulch turns to the right over towards the Pelican Inn. And intermixed with the native cottonwood is basket willow, which is not native, but is very close in the look, if you will, with the major difference being the kind of golden yellow, especially of the new growth, the new branches. We have fruit trees. In particular, we have apples and plums.

[06:39]

And earlier in the fall, when the apples were all bearing, you could see them, especially in the cordon rose in the first garden. But right out here, we have a couple of plums, which sometimes are called the popcorn trees, because during the season when they come into bloom, it looks like someone popped popcorn overnight and glued it on all the branches. Quite stunning. We have cypress and pines in the windbreaks and planted around in various crevices of the hills, the result of tree planting on Arbor Day in years gone by. And in particular, we have the relative of the redwood tree, the cryptomeria, which comes from Japan. The seed was sent to us by Fukuoka Sensei and was the last planting that Harry Roberts was involved in.

[07:46]

We planted the first seeds in a seed flat on his bed not very long before he died. Bishop pine. We have the exotics, acacia and eucalyptus, which periodically seem to be bashed. Let's get them out of here and enjoyed, depending on your point of view and time of year. But they're definitely a presence, particularly the eucalyptus. Some of those eucalyptus that line the driveway that we all drive by regularly are granddaddy trees. They're really old. There's a long-needled pine on the side of the road that you walk up if you go up to Hope Cottage. What kind of pine is it? It's the great... Is it a bishop pine?

[08:50]

There's a... No. Above the water tank, the next big tree, it's a douglas fir. And it's spawned some very healthy babies. It's a beautiful tree. And we have some redwoods which we've planted and which have taken the native redwood for this area. So those are just a few of the trees that are here in this watershed and in particular in this gulch, so-called green gulch. One of the memories that comes up for me when I think about the trees here is remembering a walk that I took a number of years ago when Stephanie Kaza was still living here, whom some of you know. She's a great biologist and knows her trees. And one night we went out.

[09:53]

I was in the dark phase of the moon and we went out on a silent walk and looked at the silhouettes of the different trees. And I think for many of us, I know certainly for myself, it was the first time I think I'd really looked at the trees here at Green Gulch in their particularity. And I was struck by how much information was readily accessible to me by going out on that night walk with a group of us in silence, just looking at the differences in the silhouette of one tree and then another. So part of what I find myself instructed by when I look at the trees or attend to the trees is the shift that happens when I look at each tree in particular, when I can begin to be particular and descriptive.

[10:55]

I begin to see what is here. In a way that is not true when I just see trees. My husband talks about this with respect to birdwatching. You know, there is that time in one's life as a birdwatcher when there's the category called little brown birds. Well, there's also the category of trees. There are some trees. And it is in the observing of the particular detail that our relationship with the world we live in begins to take on a kind of vividness, a richness, which I think is worth noting in considering how my relationship with the outer world can teach me about how to be in my inner world. Because, of course, in both realms, the more particular and descriptive I can be,

[12:01]

the more vivid, the more rich, the more present, in an accurate and careful and full way I can be. I would like to read a passage as an illustration of particularity. This is in a text by B.D. Jackson, The Glossary. B.D. stands for? Benjamin David. Ah, okay, to be particular. This is his Appendix C, the use of the terms right and left. These terms are but seldom required in botanic descriptions being only used to denote the direction of a twist or spiral. This is what I'm always talking about when I talk to my friends about how we're practicing. Let's get picky. This is picky.

[13:03]

Unfortunately, they have been employed in opposite senses so that the meaning of one author may be completely perverted by his misuse of the correct method. Very picky. In zoology, where bilateral symmetry is common, these terms are always applied to the limbs or organs of an animal with regard to its axis. And the majority of botanists have carried out the same idea with regard to plants. A spiral may be considered as turning to the right or the left. That is, two spirals may run in contrary directions. But the same spiral may be differently designated according to the position of the observer. Rashomon theory begins to arise. The orthodox way regards the observer as being placed within

[14:11]

while noting the direction of the twist. Isn't that lovely? So this image of being inside the tree or the branch. As if he were looking south and recording the apparent passage of the sun from his left towards his right or from her left to her right. This dextrose is the common acceptance of with the sun or like the clock hands. It is also the motion of driving home a screw. I love that expression, driving home a screw. Which receives its name of right-handed from the motion and not from the aspect of the pitch of its threads. I think this is a fine example of particular and descriptive language.

[15:18]

Makes my mouth water. So, some examples. One in particular. As you walk into the garden, on one's left, there is a grand specimen of the Fremont Cottonwood. Which when it begins to form catkins, there is a smell that is in that region. Where is this smell coming from? How can I describe this smell? Pleasant. Reminds me a little bit of the smell of paint or turpentine, but pleasant.

[16:23]

How would you describe that smell? Balsam is the technical description. So, over the years, as I've paid attention to that tree and the smell of the catkins when they first come, for me now, when I smell that smell, what arises is, oh, spring. Spring is emerging. And of course, farther down, just beyond the greenhouses, where there is a group of these same trees, the smell is much stronger. Maybe it's the place to learn to attend to that scent. And what comes with the scent is the history of the tree or the trees. I remember Harry Roberts, when he was still with us, in his vast and amusing form, talking to us about these splendid trees, which he remembered.

[17:27]

He knew were living north at the mouth of the Klamath River, and which he thought would be very good trees for us to plant here. I remember the particular people who drove up there and cut the branches and brought them back. Long, supple whips cut from the trees on the river, stuck in the slow-moving water of Green Gulch Creek, quickly rooting the easiest trees to root and plant that I'd ever seen. The alders, which are such a feature of this watershed, the red alders, are called as having revolute leaf. The edge of the leaf curls under ever so slightly.

[18:31]

And as the alders leaf out, you begin to pay attention to the coloration on the underside of the leaf. Very beautiful. But also, as the leaves begin to show, there is some effect of the water level in the creek. I remember that at Tassajara, when the sycamore would leaf out, and it was like suddenly that somebody nearby had gone, and the creek water level would just drop. So there's this very evident relationship between the trees and the water level in the creek. Some hint of what is going on underground. Some hint of the complex relationship between the trees and the environment around them.

[19:35]

Harry said when we first started planting trees, in our very first arbor days, you should never plant any tree unless you have at least three reasons for planting it. And I sometimes thought he pressed to find the reasons. Especially if there was a tree he wanted us to plant just because he liked it. Just because he thought it was beautiful. Then he would come up with these reasons. So the cottonwoods, the basket willows, he said, well, they're beautiful. They will be very effective in holding the banks of the creek to help with erosion control. And they are, of course, traditionally the source of basket-making material in Europe. And I thought, sure, Harry, that's just what Green Gulch needs is basket-making material. He went on and on about how all the money we were going to make selling basket-making material

[20:40]

with the cuttings from the basket willows. Sure, Harry. And it's true, of course, that you can make beautiful baskets and people do. We have not yet begun making baskets or selling basket-making material. But we may any day now. But they are beautiful. They are very beautiful. Particularly now. The color of the new growth on those trees is lovely. And they do hold the banks of the creek. George Wheelwright, of course, nearly killed himself getting rid of the native willow in the creek when he wanted to straighten out Green Gulch Creek. Made a big pile of the cuttings. Threw gasoline on it to kind of get the fire started. And, of course, the whole thing exploded in his face.

[21:42]

Said he lost his eyebrows in that moment of truth. So here we are planting the relative. So I was thinking, when I was thinking about what I wanted to say this morning about Harry's admonition about whenever you plant a tree, always have three reasons. And, of course, one of the reasons that has been arising as I think about the trees that we've planted is that with so many of them, in our planting the particular trees, I think of this especially with the cryptomeria, one of the reasons for planting them has to do with the story that they carry. So the cryptomeria is an example. Here's a tree that we've planted. Some of them are flourishing. And they carry our relationship with Fukuoka Sensei and with Harry and with many of us who were involved in planting those trees.

[22:47]

So they carry history. So what are the reasons for planting trees? I hope you'll be able to add to the list. But the things that I thought of were that we plant trees for beauty, certainly for beauty, to provide shelter. Some of the trees we've planted, we've planted as windbreaks because the wind coming up this valley is a very significant aspect. Some of our trees provide us with food. Some trees provide us with fuel for heat. All of the trees provide habitat for birds and little critters, bugs,

[23:52]

probably far more habitat than we realize. They have a very important function as moisture collectors, particularly these days when we aren't having as much rain as we like to think of as so-called normal. But we do have fog. We do have a certain amount of moisture here on the coast. And wherever there's a tree, that tree is collecting moisture on its needles and leaves. And there is a drip line. The tree becomes the conduit, if you will, for the water being collected and going into the ground. So one of the ways of changing the climate here, of bringing more moisture into this valley, is for us to plant trees. Trees provide structural materials.

[24:57]

As Bill said this morning, everything from a light, delicate cedar box to the major timbers used in building a ship. These days, maybe most important of all, the trees are part of the system that provides oxygen. Trees are part of the planet's lungs. And for all of us who are practicing a breath-oriented meditation, we have some direct relationship with the breath. So here it is, the outer breathing of the planet and the inner breath, which each of us attends to. When I think about a particular tree, and what I can see,

[26:06]

what I can observe, what I've learned about the tree, that which is above ground and that which is below ground, I very quickly enter into a meditation on interconnectedness. So I'm going to start with a meditation on interconnectedness. Because, especially to the degree that I begin to see the trees function with respect to oxygen and moisture, I realize that my very life depends upon there being trees. And this has, of course, become a very important issue for us in the world, as the great forests of the world are being cut. And we're beginning to see the effect in the Earth's breathing. If the trees collect moisture and are part of the whole system that brings the moisture into the ground,

[27:07]

look at what happens when we cut them down in big cuts of large areas. We have flooding. We lose soil, precious soil, which takes so many, [...] many years to come into being. It can, in one season, be washed away. Trees, of course, contribute to the creation of that precious soil also. So I may sit under a tree and get to see who lives in the tree. There wouldn't be birds if they didn't have places to build their nests, to perch, to gather food. They're very important in terms of controlling insects. There's this delicate balance, interconnection.

[28:10]

That exists if we will just sit down and observe, notice, allow ourselves to recognize how important trees are in our lives. I have, over the last few weeks, been thinking about all of what goes on with trees underground, especially in the winter, especially with those trees that are deciduous, that lose their leaves, where we have perhaps a little more vivid sense that there's something going on here. All the energy in the beginning of the winter when the leaves first drop, all the tree's energy drops down underground. And so I ask myself, what are the causes and conditions that contribute to a healthy tree? It has to have a good root structure. And to have a good root structure, it needs to be in soil

[29:13]

which is inviting to the root system of that particular tree. A good example is, again, the cryptomeria. We planted some of the coast redwoods which don't have a tap root, which have a system of interlocking roots so that they help each other stand up. So you can't plant redwoods except in a community of redwoods. And you have to have soil, topsoil. So in areas of this valley where the topsoil has eroded away, if not entirely, substantially, it's been very difficult to get the redwoods to reestablish. But the cryptomeria, its Japanese relative, unlike our native redwoods, has a deep tap root. One deep, strong, significant root that goes very deep,

[30:13]

as deep as it needs to in order to find water, but also as a kind of anchor for the tree. And the cryptomeria are thriving. And of course, in the environment that comes into being as the cryptomeria are growing, it's possible to plant other trees, which need shelter and moisture that the cryptomeria are providing. And in the areas where we've planted trees, there is more moisture. There is beginning to be the creation of a deeper level of soil in that area. So the ravines, the draws, the little cracks that go up out of Green Gulch are beginning to be filled in with trees. If you drive from the top of Green Gulch down to the beach, you'll see on this south side of the Gulch

[31:15]

areas where pines and some of our planted trees of Monterey, Cypress, Bishop Pine, redwoods are beginning to creep up. But there are also some places farther down the valley where the bays are beginning to come up. And of course, you don't see that change overnight. You see it over 10 or 15 or 20 or 50 years. In the 30s, when Harry Roberts first was out here in this region, he helped Charles Borden plant all the trees out near beach. If you look at photographs of this valley from the 30s or the 40s or the 50s, there weren't very many trees here then. George told me when he first came here, the man who owned this place, Ray S. E. Button,

[32:16]

raised saddle-bred horses. And he had a ladder that went onto the roof of the main house, the roof over what is now the library, with a railing around the roof, and he would serve barbecued chicken and mint juleps. And then somebody would parade the horses that were for sale on the roof of what is now our meditation hall. And you could sit over there and look over here, because, of course, there were no trees in the between. It's changed a lot just right in this immediate area, with the redwoods in particular. And we're, of course, not serving mint juleps these days. We're serving tea. And we're not selling horses. But sometimes when I see the photograph of the house from those days that's on the wall

[33:17]

as you go down the stairs from the Wheelwright Center room, down the stairs towards the dining room, there's a picture there of what it looked like. Look at that picture, and you'll see how this environment has changed because of the trees right in this immediate area. So these trees have transformed the look and feel and quality of the valley. We have a little more moisture. We have a lot more habitat. Slowly, we may be beginning to have some areas where there is beginning to be a little deeper layering of soil. We're learning a lot about what trees will grow here and which trees will not. What the trade-off is with exotics versus natives. Plant everything and see what grows. So there is this kind of obvious aspect of tree planting

[34:23]

that has to do with transformation. But there's also the more subtle and important vital to our life quality of transformation with trees. Lots of the reasons for planting trees in cities and along roadways is because of their ability to work with the toxins that come from cars going by. Carbon monoxide. They detoxify the environment. But there's also the natural arising of carbon dioxide, which they transform into oxygen. Very important for our health and our life to have more rather than less oxygen. Certainly this transition that I'm describing

[35:29]

about the collection of moisture and sending it into the ground is a very important kind of transformation work that the trees do. How much of our inner life is about transformation? Is about taking that which is toxic the inner toxic dump of the afflictive states of mind, of greed, hate and delusion, of self-clinging. I think that if we can simply hold the possibility that anything and everything can be transformed, that in itself is a significant and important consideration. Oh, this grouchy, irritated, grumpy,

[36:30]

maybe even angry state of mind can be transformed. Well, how? What are some things I can do to transform the state of mind arising in this moment to a state of mind which is more harmonious and peaceful? So if the trees are our reminder, our example of the capacity for transformation, they can awaken us, our sensitivity to our own capacity for transformation. If trees need a proper, wholesome environment for setting roots, for establishing a root system that allows them to be strong, to grow tall and not be blown over in the wind, how much of that depends on what is not seen, what goes on underground? What do I need to do to establish that kind of inner stability and strength and flexibility

[37:33]

so that when a big gust of wind comes along, I'm not blown over? What would be akin to a tap root? How much of my practice of meditation, of sitting down, taking a seat, letting the spine be as straight as it can be, discovering full and deep breath, is the cultivation of the underground structure which may not be visible, but which is essential in the cultivation of that stability and strength, which allows me to cultivate a calm and a quantumist mind in our suffering world. Sunshine and compost are transformed into an apple. Think about all the stuff that goes in the compost.

[38:35]

Yuck. Unless, of course, you're a gardener, and then you say, oh, goody, let me have it all. Wendy says eagerly, give me your compost. It's everything about transformation. Trees can cultivate a beautiful, rich habitat out of desert, but one must be very patient and perhaps even willing to do work which will not come to fruition in one's own lifetime. There's a tree growing in the garden where I live, and there are two more brothers or sisters, I'm not sure which, up in Franks Valley. A redwood, a Chinese... I just lost the name of it.

[39:38]

Dawn Redwood from China. A deciduous redwood. So people think, oh, my redwood tree died. I better cut it down. They don't realize it's just lost its needles, and that in the spring will come these soft, delicate, green new needles. But the trees don't come to maturity, don't produce seed for 75 years. So you need to be patient if you're going to plant a Dawn Redwood. You're planting it for your children or your grandchildren. I think tree planting brings us into that bigger view, what our dear friend Harry used to talk about with having the 500-year plan. If we have in mind the 500-year plan, we will plant differently, we will behave differently than if we have the one-year or one-month or five-year plan even.

[40:40]

What about the 500-year plan? What about the 500-year view? Trees are very much about the 500-year view, I think. So I hope that today we will let the trees that we plant and the trees that we look at and discover something about help us cultivate that capacity for the long view and the patience that arises. And it is exactly the same patience which allows us to do the work of inner transformation and cultivation. And so for those of us who are bent on a spiritual path, the trees can be our good companions and teachers and our inspiration. There is, throughout part of the Buddhist world anyway, a painting that goes along with a story about the four friends.

[41:48]

And a few years ago when some friends of ours, monks from the Gyuto monastery, were staying in our house in the midst of our remodeling our house. It's a kind of unbeatable combination, a house full of monks while you're remodeling. So they were there while the walls were just going up and looked awfully empty. And they had a month of holiday with no special schedule. So the head artist monk decided he should paint on the walls. And in fact I had to defend a few walls that I thought we needed to put a dish cupboard up against so we'd have a place to put some dishes because he was going to paint everything. But one of the pictures he painted just inside the front door was a picture of the four friends. And I think it's a fitting picture for us to hold in our minds for today. In the picture there is a tree, quite a big tree.

[42:54]

And standing right next to the tree is an elephant. And on the elephant's back sits a monkey. And on the monkey's shoulders sits a rabbit. And on his back is a bird. And the story is that a great king who lived at the time of Shakyamuni Buddha wanted to know how to rule his kingdom so that it would flourish with happiness and harmony. And Shakyamuni Buddha said to the king, go into the forest and watch how the birds and the animals live together because they know how to live together in harmony. So he went to the forest and he saw these four creatures standing in the way I just described. And they were having a conversation about how did this place come to be and who was here first. And the elephant said,

[43:57]

well, I remember this tree being this big tree like this for as long as I can remember. And if I reach my trunk up high, I can pick the fruit and leaves and I have some food. But the tree has been here just like this for a long time, bigger than I am. And the monkey said, oh, but I remember when the tree was smaller, when I could easily jump around in the upper branches. I could get up into the tree very easily. Took me just a few moments. But I remember it's smaller than you're describing it. And the rabbit scratched behind his ear and said, well, I remember when it was more like a bush. And if I stood on my hind legs, I could just nibble the top leaves. And the bird said, I have a memory long ago

[44:58]

that I was flying in this region and I had a seed in my beak and it fell from my beak. So then they knew that the bird had lived the longest and been in that area the longest. And so he was the boss. He was on top. So whenever you see these four beings arranged in this way, it might be a reminder about the harmonious aspect which these four friends are reminding us of. And I hope that you will all plant a tree, if not today, someday this month. There's still enough of February left so that each of us could plant one tree this month. Thank you very much.

[45:59]

I vow to save them. Illusion. I couldn't find the hammer. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. If you go down and look at the grove around the Pelican Inn, it's a perfect example. And it's a combination of the alders having reached maturity, which takes about 35 years. It's also the consequence of there having been a lot of landfill in what is an old floodplain area. So the whole water table in that area has been disturbed. And that made the trees much more susceptible to certain insects that have come in and killed the trees.

[47:28]

So you've also got some trees dying there because of the fill and the degradation of the environment, which then caused the trees to be more prone to insect stuff. But there are two places where you can see an alder grove in climax fading. It's that grove, and the grove which is much farther along in the process, which is on Highway 1 just north of Stinson Beach. There's a small, kind of the tag end of an alder grove that's just got a few trees. But also if you just go along up Franks Valley towards Muir Woods, you'll see there are a lot of mature trees, there are trees that are falling down or that are dead and going to fall down soon. You've got the whole phase along the creek. But because it's such a good environment for the alders, they're constantly regenerating themselves. But when you get a big grove, like the grove we've got down here,

[48:29]

which is about nine acres, it's beginning to go. And what thrills me is to see that the young alders are now really establishing themselves. Thanks, Jan. On the beach, right next to the parking lot. So maybe we'll continue to have an alder grove. It'll just be a little bit different. And people who live out here now remember when the alder grove around the Pelican Inn was a field full of irises. It was an iris field run by old man Banducci. Well, that's why we've still got calla lilies in there. So that's like 30 years ago. It was an iris field. So you get this wonderful cycle. And we're not so used to seeing that cycle because most woods are made up of trees

[49:32]

that have a longer lifespan. For me, it's a real lesson in attachment because I find the trees very beautiful. And that particular wood provides extraordinary habitat. We have great horn owls. We have a couple of clutches of, I don't know what you call a fox family, but we have a lot of fox in there. And there are three stories. There's the low story, the middle story, and the high story of the wood. And they're radically different plants and animals and birds that live in those three different stories. And when you live near an environment like that, you begin to realize how rich it is. And it's quite wonderful. And as I said, I think as an opportunity to do a meditation on interconnectedness, it's a very easy way into the territory. And the minute you begin doing that in that kind of external way, it wakens our sense of interconnectedness that's much more subtle and more interior.

[50:33]

So... Hi. So what would you like to talk about? Yes. Are those the cottonwoods that you were behind, above that roof? That's what you call the cottonwoods? Um... The which? No, no, no. Do you see any cottonwoods out there? No. This is a sprunus. And bishop pines. And over here some redwoods. No, if you look at... Go down the creek. Go down through the road that goes through the valley. And the minute you get through the garden, or if you go around the garden, there's a Leyland cypress hedge on two sides. If you go on the creek side, you will immediately see a combination of the native willow and basket willow. There's a basket willow that's now a good tree size, planted right by the ranch road

[51:37]

that goes through the garden, next to the Zendo pond. It's not a very good specimen. It's been hit by the dredger when it's come in to dredge the pond a couple of times in its youth, and it shows. But farther down, you'll see some basket willow, which will be this golden yellow. And right in the field across the street from the Pelican Inn, there are several down there that are very beautiful. which is much more green. And then farther down, kind of around the Pelican Inn and then beyond, going up Franks Valley, you have a lot of what's called red oyser, which is a kind of purple. You see these long purple branches which haven't leafed out. It's the local dogwood. And before it leafs out and flowers, you get these incredible strands that's also classically basket material and very beautiful.

[52:39]

But all that stuff grows in the creek environments and is very important in terms of erosion control and that sort of thing. It's very beautiful. Would you say a little more about being particular and descriptive of the outer world as well as the inner world and the connection? Well, I'm operating and my process is pervasive. So if I'm interested in cultivating my capacity to be particular and descriptive, I can start with that which is easy for me to be particular and descriptive with. There's a way in which it's not a big deal to be particular and descriptive with a plant or a bird or a tree. And as I cultivate my ability to be particular and descriptive about a tree, that informs my ability to be particular and descriptive about states of mind so that I begin to notice

[53:42]

the difference between I am angry and so-and-so said something and anger arises or irritation arises or fear arises. What's the anatomy of it? Tensing in the stomach, tightening in the throat. And the more I can describe accurately, the more information I have that allows me to see how and when and what to do in the interest of transformation. And the language which is particular and descriptive is free of judging, that habitual judging that's such a barrier for most of us. So it's among other things a key practice for stopping that habit of the inner telling me about what a creep I am and I can't do this

[54:42]

and I always had a bad back and my mother and mom endlessly, which is such an obstacle in a spiritual life. So I'm interested in cultivating descriptive and particular language as an antidote to the habit of judgment. The more I learn how to describe, the more I learn how to see so that I can describe the way the needles are on this kind of redwood tree which is different from the way they're placed and arranged and the coloration and the texture on the dawn redwood, for example. Well, that refinement of my capacity to observe is absolutely what I need for an effective cultivation of my cultivated inner life. The book I recommend to all of you is by a woman named Joanna Field called A Life of One's Own and it's a book in which

[55:43]

she describes her own discovery of the power of her ability to observe accurately and her life changed. Yes, it's... Well, she's also got a book on not being able to paint but it's The Life of One's Own is really the one to read. It's very, very effective. Joanna Field. Yeah. The more I know about the root structure of a tree

[56:44]

and see what the relationship is with what shows and what I can't see, it gives me some information about what it takes to be stable. The root system that's underground in relationship to the upper... there's a definite relationship. So, you know, if I'm standing here and I'm standing with my feet close together, I'm not stable. I can be pushed over much more easily than if I have my feet a little bit separate. If my feet are parallel, I have a certain kind of stability that's different than if I do this or this. It affects my breathing. I begin to pay more attention to detail in my inner life to the degree that I can observe some relationship between stability, strength, flexibility, all of that. Yeah, I completely agree with you. And it gives me some language that I can apply to the experience I have in a more interior way.

[57:46]

Because a lot of what's going on is that for many of us we aren't in touch with certain levels of our experience because we don't know how to describe the experience. Yes? Every time I hear you talk, I'm so amazed at how much you notice. And I'm wondering if you can give practical hints on how to take a walk so you notice. Because I always fuzz off into fancy language. Pay attention to the sensations in the bottoms of your feet and the surface you're walking on. The more you're attending to some specific relatively neutral physical sensation and breath,

[58:47]

the more present in the moment you will be. Jack Kornfield tells a wonderful story about shortly after he came back from Asia, having been a monk there, he was still in his monk's robes and just kind of wandering around America trying to figure out how do I, now what do I do? I don't know what he was doing in his monk's robes in a casino in Las Vegas, but he said look at that, a Dharma teaching on the wall even of a place like this. You have to be present to win. It is also true when you go on a walk. For example, in doing the kind of walking meditation that Thich Nhat Hanh teaches, which is, it's a wonderful practice to do out of doors,

[59:47]

because it's not so much it's not so strict, it's more about listening, noticing, and there's a gentleness in this particular style of walking meditation which I appreciate a lot. One of the things that I notice and I hear this from people that I practice with over and over again is that when I walk attending to the bottoms of my feet and the surface I'm walking on and my breath and my eyes dropped a little bit, all the other sense perceptions become quite heightened. So I begin to hear sound and feel the breeze or the sun on my face, have a greater degree of sensing in the bottoms of my feet than if I'm looking around because I'm distracted and my mind goes from one thing to another. And sight dominates, tends to dominate the other senses. If I walk along and suddenly I'll go by a flower bed and there'll be this

[60:49]

brilliant purple of an iris just blooming, I'll let my eye go to that flower and then gently return to walking and breathing. So it's not strict or uptight, but there's a way in which suddenly that purple, purple, purple of the Douglas iris that's there in the corner of the bed that just caught my eye as I was walking by and I really see it. I hear all the different sounds of the birds and the bushes nearby. When you're sitting in the Zendo, especially during breeding season and you hear all these birds just carrying on, especially the birds that have built nests and their babies chirping and feeding, etc., and you sit there or you hear the frogs, there you are sitting, attending to your body and breath and like this whole extraordinary symphony, suddenly you think, has that always been there? Like Bill's saying,

[61:51]

going out bird watching and there's this category of little brown birds. Well, as you begin to know the details of yellow-crowned sparrows or song sparrows or house finches, the more you know about the specific birds, the more you see. A couple of days ago I was sitting at Bill's desk in his study which looks out the window on there is this abundance of bird feeders immediately outside the window and there were maybe, I don't know, easily 20 or more house finches. The range of coloration on them was quite wide. All the same kind? All house finches but within that category there was this quite big range of coloration and of course the difference

[62:52]

between the males and the females. Are the yellow ones also house finches? There were two that were really like canary yellow and then the purple ones are a different range of coloration. Well I've not seen here but at Slide Ranch I've seen house finches that were purple. More of the purple end. And the more you are with birds the more you begin to realize the same species of bird singing in one area will have a slightly different song in San Francisco. The detail

[63:54]

takes you into the landscape in a way that is like it's really entering a tapestry of such satisfaction and richness. Who needs TV? TV looks pale compared to the world of birds and flowers. To say nothing of the inner landscape of the breath. But we're so overstimulated we're so entertained we're so jazzed that we don't slow down enough to attend to the inner landscape. So then when we got locked in our bed with you know cancer or a broken leg or dying it's like we don't know where we are. We get freaked out oh my god I might be bored. How could we be bored? I mean it's just we just don't know any better yet. I mean I really

[64:54]

appreciate enormously the natural world for teaching me how to see what is there and sometimes what isn't. One time years ago up in the Sierras I had a quite remarkable experience with a brilliant green parrot. Who knows if the parrot was there or not. I don't know. But you know I just hung out in this tree with this bird for a couple of hours. I don't quite know what was going on but it was like the world opened. This time of year our friend Patty Schneider who some of you know from her calligraphy work and she started

[65:55]

incorporating in her calligraphy watercolors of wildflowers. She does a lot of practice verses to you know so we have signs to hang up to remind ourselves about what it is we want to do. So she went out on the Miwok yesterday and she came home and her eyes were like this. She says you can't imagine what's out there. Slink pods it's other name is fetid adder's tongue. The blossom comes at the end of this long slinky stem and then out here is this little tiny orchid-y flower. Not that many years ago I'd go for a walk in the woods of Franks Valley this time of year Slink pod what's that? I never saw any you know just walked past a hundred of them. Anyway she just came home just just ecstatic with all the she said you remember that tree that we saw

[66:57]

that day when we went out with our friends that was all covered with pink blossoms the little pink buds are just showing. You know she was positively thrilled to be alive I mean this is what we mean when we talk about being awake. The word Buddha means the one who is awake. This path is about being awake waking up so we see what is there clearly clear sightedness. In my experience is that developing one's capacity to see in this way is the cause of joy and you can't buy it it's not for sale. It's for practice. Yeah I mean effort

[67:57]

and work and attending and cultivating and practicing leads us to the cultivation of opening our eyes instead of worrying about the future and re-living the past. It's that alternative. So when you talk about you know where your mind is when you go walking so you don't see the flowers it's because you're in the past or the future that's where most of us habitually live. But walk down in the garden in a way where you're really attending to some detail of the physical body and the breath. So you're really in each moment with each step and you will see. You will see what's in front of you. You will sense what's in front of you. You'll smell. You'll feel the breeze on your skin or your hands or in your hair. We all have

[68:58]

far greater capacity I think in this way than we just begin to know. Somebody I know someone who is a very sincere practitioner given to being a little bit idealistic. She's been reading some things about how the Buddha turned his mother away when she came and said I want to be ordained and practice with you. And she's been worrying about it for the last three weeks. So she started out our conversation with I don't know if the Buddha really was enlightened. I guess I'm just going to continue this path but I'm not so sure the Buddha was really enlightened. I said the name Buddha the word Buddha means the one who's awake so that's like saying the one who's awake is asleep is not awake. I mean you're either awake or you're not awake. And it never occurred to her that some guy a few centuries later

[69:58]

had gone back and rewritten the early sutra with some of these things in the sutra. She said oh I hadn't thought of that. Well that makes me feel much better. Waking up. I think the Buddha Dharma is about waking up being awake being able to see these beautiful narcissists that Wendy thought of planting for us a couple of months ago. Smelling them. You can absolutely do it. Now just notice what you just said. What I call the great it.

[70:59]

It's scary. Reality is scary. Let me make a suggestion. I feel some fear arising in this moment because I have a sense that I will also then be letting in the suffering of the world. It's a little closer in. It's not so distant than when I say it's scary. That's a little more out there. And the language we use to talk to ourselves has a big effect on our view. I love the word it. It is so troublesome. Every time it arises it means uh oh put it out there a little bit. And of course I think that's exactly accurate. I remember after a five day retreat that a group of us did here with Thich Nhat Hanh some years ago where we spent those days doing loving kindness

[72:00]

meditation. That's all we did. Receiving and sending loving kindness. And at the end of those five days we were puddles. We were puddles of tears and joy. And what was so striking for me in that retreat was I had a direct experience that joy and sadness are of a piece. They are not separate. They're not even different faces of the same thing. They are the same territory. My capacity for joy is one with my capacity to endure being witness with mine and others suffering. And so the price I pay in protecting myself from the suffering of the world is that I also minimize my access to joy. That's a big price. Yeah.

[73:02]

Yeah. I think that's right. May as well. I think the language we use and the way we talk to ourselves about our experiences it's the place where I can enter into what's going on with my mind and have some access with the state of mind immediately. No, not at all. I was thinking you were going to come sit up here where it's comfortable. Judy. That's great. In the same vein, I've been trying to take on in some fashion identification around the ozone hole figuring that it's lack of attention really that's causing the ozone hole to accumulate. And not quite having language to understand how to talk about that. Where we have this sense

[74:04]

of those cars are emitting things that are doing in some mysterious ways something we've heard about. Maybe it's those space rockets or but what came to me was the rabbits that aren't becoming blind and had a gun and that I had eyes still. I don't know how to talk about it too much but I feel like I have to say. Well, this makes me think of a conversation that I had with Joanna Macy when she came to visit with Chogyam Rinpoche last week. And she was talking about the guardianship project as the work of Dharma practitioners in the world. This is our great opportunity. And how much the project has to do with our being informed having good accurate

[75:04]

information. And the project is that the way to take care of the toxic waste nuclear toxic waste dumps is to watch them. If we try to hide them or bury them or put them away that's when we're in trouble. Because we have the technology for containers that will contain the stuff for a while. But you have to watch the containers to see when they cease to be effective so you then get a new container. So that means you get to observe and watch and attend what is so. She says sort of with a smile on her face. It also means we get to meditate on our shit. We made this stuff. But the only way we can take care of the nuclear waste is to attend to it. And the minute

[76:05]

we start to pretend it isn't there or hide it put it underground put it in the ocean where we can't watch it that's when we're in trouble. But isn't that true of the I mean this is where the relationship between the outer and the inner I mean I immediately got off on you know the inner nuclear toxic waste dump. The elements in the waste dump. It's exactly the same. So I've taken to describe this sangha of observers as a mob of many observers. You go out bird watching and a great hot bird's been sighted and then every month they send a list around about all the great birds that have been sighted. And they'll be the initials of Rich Stalkup RS you know a few of the really hot birds you've seen all these birds and then every once in a while on the list they'll say great mob. Who's that?

[77:05]

It means many observers. I think that's the name of our sangha. Playing on the word mob I think it's just delicious. A new kind of mob. This is why I think we have to practice because if we don't have a strong root system if we don't have our seat we will freak out. Our despair and grief as we really meet what is so knocks us over. I think that's completely right and I imagine that every one of us has a similar this incredible fear and grief that comes up in us when we really look at how thoroughly we have spoiled Ernest. And of course

[78:06]

to imagine that it's not too late. You know, this little piece of paper that I've got hanging on the bedroom wall. Do not say too late. Reverend S. Suzuki 1963. Who knows what's possible if we keep that mind of right now I can do something. What is it? Can I bear to know that the rabbits in Patagonia are going blind? And what are the implications of that? I have a tape of about some Indians called the Chogi Indians who live up in the Andes who have finally their medicine their priests if you will are kept in a cave without with a little bit of candlelight until they're

[79:07]

nine and then they come out into the world. They go through this very intense training. They're very far out people. They finally decided to let somebody talk to the world about their wisdom tradition because they see all the evidence of the world coming to an end in their environment and they know from what they see in the high mountains where they live what's happening in the rainforests thousands of miles away and they want to get our attention. So when we think about trees as being part of the lungs of the planet it's a way of imagining how the trees that are being cut in Tibet or being cut in the rainforests around the world that affects me right now today and this piece of the planet that we're all sitting on. And I

[80:13]

agree with you I think to consider to notice to observe what is so in the world today what arises in me is fear grief panic oh my god I feel overwhelmed and it makes me appreciate my seat my cushion because that's where I come back to center and breathing and from there I can figure out what's possible in the next moment. How many trips have I made to Berkeley? Have I done the maximum number of things with this trip so I don't make two more? Because every time I get into my car what are the consequences? Yeah, please.

[81:13]

Hmm. A couple of you have heard me tell this story yesterday so bear with me but I think it's pertinent because the sort of subtext of what I'm bringing up about trees has to do with our cultivating our capacity for transformation. This Lama that's doing this series of talks with Joanna Macy whose name is Chogyal Rinpoche who is himself trained as a tanka painter. The other night after spending some time with him I drove him back to Berkeley to Joanna's house and after he went to bed Joanna said oh before you leave I want to show you some pictures that he gave to me that are not for sale because he's selling a lot of his pictures to raise money for some projects he's doing with the Tibetan refugees

[82:24]

in India and Nepal and some of his people in Cam in eastern Tibet. And she showed me this watercolor about like so and it looks like in the middle is kind of very muted watercolor drawing of a monastery glowing fiery orange red but then over it is this kind of overlay of gray like rainstorm and it's a drawing he did remembering the experience he had I've heard the story twice now once he was eleven and the other time he was thirteen young he was the abbot of his monastery in Cam and the Chinese soldiers were headed towards the monastery so his it's interesting

[83:24]

my heart's just starting to beat hard so his teachers and tutors quickly got him out of the monastery and up into the mountains overlooking the monastery and from where they were hidden he could look down and he watched the soldiers come in and get all the monks into the puja room where they did their daily practices and they then burned the monastery and he sat there and watched them as they as the monastery burned and as he showed Joanna this picture the day he gave it to her he said this is a drawing of my remembering that experience through my tears they put the drawing down

[84:25]

on the table and he said poor Chinese the poor Chinese they are making such terrible karma for themselves and when you meet this man today he is a person of remarkable presence and softness and open heartedness it took him a year to escape from Tibet and get to India and as he talks about the experiences when he first left there were a thousand of them trying to leave together and they very quickly realized that they wouldn't all make it in that bigger group and they had such an investment in saving his life that a smaller group of 30 including a family took him and most of the remaining

[85:25]

group didn't make it they died they were killed they were imprisoned but he and the group he was with did make it although they were captured twice and he said you know I knew that the Chinese would destroy Tibet completely there would be nothing left including the environment and so part of what I've been doing especially in those first years after leaving Tibet is to paint what I remembered so that we would not forget what it looked like so many of his paintings are these absolutely beautiful renderings of this exquisite landscape and the life of the nomads who were his people in eastern Tibet in this exquisite landscape so that we will remember it and when when Joanna said how have you transformed fear anger your grief

[86:27]

and sadness great sickness he said through my painting and through my practices and when I think about that picture that night I came home and I wasn't able to sleep and it wasn't so much my response to the horror of what he was remembering as much as a sense of his ability to stay present he didn't turn away he watched what happened and to see the quality of his mind and his presence today just having a slight glimmer of what his history has been over the last what is it since 1959 and I think gee what I'm working with is pale so what comes up for me is feeling inspired to apply my energy and attention once again to

[87:28]

the inner toxic waste dump of my mind and to feel inspiration that this man is able to continue with a happy and joyful and open heart perhaps then I can also and he's going back into Tibet and working with the people who are there and finding a way to have the tradition which he knows so deeply be relevant in the world he's living in so he's not trying to recreate the monastic structure as much as he wants to work with lay people he wants to train lay people in this great and ancient wisdom tradition he's particularly interested in cultivating women teachers it's a remarkable being and I think we all need examples of people who are actually

[88:28]

able to transform our experiences that bring us to a halt in the way that this person is able to and I think it's totally what Joanna's work with the Guardian project is about anyway I encourage all of you to hear the two of them they're doing a talk Friday night at a church near CIIS in San Francisco the what right 1350 Waller Friday night at 730 and he's also going to be speaking at a conference in Santa Cruz on Sunday but you know we all have if we're lucky upon occasion met people who are inspiring and I think what inspires us are people who have shown us that this path is actually

[89:28]

possible to be on it's not some sort of theoretical description of something some mythic being did once 2500 years ago how do we look at the impermanence of the earth well impermanence doesn't mean the end I mean I think it's the trap for us in our Western philosophical system you know if we really believe this is what's real then when this gets burned up we don't notice that oh now it's ash impermanence means everything changes it doesn't mean everything comes to an end the end no more the void so the earth is this

[90:28]

extraordinary constantly changing system which is out of balance how do we to me the question is how do we come back into balance you know the Yurok Indians thought that they had to do the jump dance at times like this they had to jump on the side that was down too far or up too high to bring it back in balance with the other part of the world that's why you do the jump dance and you'd have to fast and purify yourself before you could do the jump dance or why you do the deer dance would be to bring the world back into balance back into harmony everything changes is I mean you know that's that's where we have this extraordinary meeting of quantum physics and particularly the articulation of emptiness and dependent arising that comes out of the Buddhist teaching it's the same

[91:33]

description what exists is relationality and we freak out because we think oh emptiness that means voidness it's just a misunderstanding it's why the central focus of meditation practices is on impermanence so we become more accustomed to noticing that what is true is everything changes so where do I get caught? where do I get scared? where is that mmm come from? when does that arise? let loose

[92:33]

hold on to your hat and enjoy the ride that's not so easy though you noticed I know I have been involved in this Buddhist practice for a while a few weeks ago my daughter just a few weeks

[93:01]

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