This podcast is offered by the San Francisco Zen Center on the web at www.sfzc.org. Our public programs are made possible by donations from people like you. So I'd like to offer a particularly warm welcome to the young people this morning. This is our monthly... lecture where we invite children and young people to come. So the first part of the lecture will be especially for them. So how many of you have started school already? Yeah? How many of you? Is anybody starting Tuesday after tomorrow? Everybody's a couple people. Yeah? Okay, well, tomorrow is a day called Labor Day, and it's a holiday, and it's a day of rest instead of working.

[01:09]

So labor is... Sometimes we think of labor as hard work, and sometimes things we do with our hands or our bodies. And there's a story about an animal... called an ox who's a very very strong animal and and this is a story about the Buddha when he was once born as an ox and what happened to him okay so once long ago there was a poor farmer and he was given a present of a little calf and he raised it and took very good care of it and this calf was the Buddha in a kind of another form. And the farmer just delighted in this little calf and cared for it very well. And this calf grew into an ox, and with this farmer's care, the ox grew and grew and got bigger and bigger, and it became a great and powerful ox.

[02:22]

Yet as big and powerful as it was, it was also very, very gentle. Children could ride out its back. It was very tame, and it never hurt anybody, even though it was so big and strong. And it had a very good spirit of work. When the farmer wanted big trees or big boulders pulled out of his field so he could plant his field, he just put a yoke, which is a kind of wooden... harness on the ox and tied a big rope to it and tied the rope to the tree or the rock whatever he was trying to move and he he said to the ox pull and the ox would just pull and out would come the big rock it'd be carried off so he was a very good worker and he pleased the farmer very much being so powerful and so gentle And the farmer named this ox Great Joy.

[03:25]

That was the name of the ox, Great Joy. One day, Great Joy was thinking to himself, my master, the farmer, is very, very poor, but he's so kind to me. I want to use my great strength to help him and repay him for all his kindness. So great joy walked over to the farmer's house, and he stuck his big horned head in through the window, and there was the farmer sitting at his little crooked table, and he said, My master and my friend, you have always been so good to me and kind, yet you're so poor. I want to use my great strength to help you. Listen, I have a plan. And the astonished farmer said, His jaw dropping in disbelief said, I have an ox who talks. Oh, yes, master, replied great joy calmly. There are many more wonderful things than that in this world.

[04:26]

Now listen to me. Tomorrow, said great joy, go into town, find a wealthy merchant and bet him, make a bet with him of 1,000 pieces of silver. And your bet is that you have an ox that can pull 100 carts filled with stones and gravel and boulders. 100 carts. It's impossible, exclaimed the farmer. No ox has ever pulled so many loaded carts. It can't be true. Trust me, said great joy. Have I ever let you down? The farmer thought about it and upon reflection realized that great joy had never failed him, so he agreed. The next day when the sun rose, the poor farmer tied on his worn old sandals and walked into town and entered a tea shop and sat down.

[05:28]

And pretty soon in came a wealthy merchant and the farmer said, my friend, come and sit down with me. Why not, said the merchant. After they exchanged small tog and had some sweets and tea, the farmer took a deep breath and said, I have an ox. So replied the wealthy merchant, I have many oxen, and let me tell you, they cost me plenty. Yes, said the farmer, but my ox is strong. Bah, said the merchant. It's an ox's nature to be strong. Every ox is strong. Not as strong as my ox, said the farmer excitedly. Why, my ox is so strong he can pull 100 carts loaded to the top with boulders and gravel and stone. That's how strong my ox great joy is. Impossible, asked the merchant. Listen, neighbor, no ox, no matter how strong, can pull 100 loaded carts.

[06:33]

The world is made of weights and measures. Everything has its limits. An ox, after all, is only an ox. This can't be done. But it can, said the poor farmer. It can't, said the merchant. Would you like to bet, said the farmer? With pleasure, said the merchant. One thousand pieces of silver, said the farmer. Okay, you're on, said the wealthy merchant. When the sun is as high as... the tallest mango tree in the square, bring your ox and I'll have the hundred carts loaded ready for you. And with that, the merchant left the tea shop swinging his sleeves. Well, the whole town heard about this and everybody was making bets. One thousand pieces, one hundred carts and only one ox? They all laughed. That night, the poor farmer tossed and turned. Would he win?

[07:35]

Would he lose? Could Great Joy really pull all those carts? The odds were totally against it. The farmer woke up early and went at once to Great Joy's stall. There stood Great Joy calmly eating his straw and flicking his long tail from side to side. And his great eyes looked at the farmer with good humor as if to say, well, today is the day. All shall be well. We won't lose this bet. But the farmer was preoccupied. He couldn't see. He couldn't hear what the ox was so clearly saying. He picked up a stiff brush and he began to brush and clean and curry. That's a kind of taking care of your animal by brushing his ox. And then he put a rope around his neck and in they went to town. Well, they arrived just as the sun was reaching the tallest mango in the square, and the whole square was filled with people, and there were those hundred carts loaded to the top.

[08:41]

And the farmer took a look at those carts, and his stomach just dropped. He was shocked. He thought... I've never seen so many cards. What a fool I've been. I'm going to lose. Why did I listen to this beast? I'm a man and I listen to an animal and just see the result. I'm lost. But he put on a bold face and led great joy through the crowd. There stood the wealthy merchant. So, are you ready? Certainly, work ready, replied the farmer. the wealthy merchant clapped his hands and two strong men came out and put the yoke, the big heavy yoke on Great Joy and tied ropes to it and tied them to the carts. And the crowd grew very, very quiet. Unconcerned, Great Joy looked at the crowd and looked at the clouds that were drifting along and he was kind of acting like, what's all the fuss about here?

[09:44]

Then the poor farmer, feeling all the eyes were focused on him, walked up to Great Joy's side, lifted up a whip and struck Great Joy hard on the shoulders and said, on you beast, on you creature, on you animal, pull those carts, show them your strength. But when Great Joy felt the whip on his shoulders and heard those harsh words, His eyes opened wide. Blows and curses, is it? He said to himself. Not for this ox. And he planted his hooves firmly in the earth and he wouldn't move. The crowd went wild. They yelled and they jeered and they threw sticks and stones at great joy and great joy would not budge. He wouldn't even try to pull the cuts, not even an inch. He stood still beneath all the shouts and the yelling and the sticks and stones.

[10:50]

And no matter how hard they laughed and taunted him, he didn't move. No matter what they did, he just would not move. My friend sputtered the merchant tears of laughter. Some ox you've got. What an ox you've got. And when the yelling and the threats ended and when the merchant had been paid, Finally, great joy allowed himself to be unhitched and led silently home. Once they were home, the poor farmer put his head down and he wept and he wept for grief and loss and shame. And great joy, hearing his sobs, walked over to the mud hut and stuck his big head in the window again and said, my master, my friend, why do you weep? And the poor farmer in great bitterness between his broken breath said, you beast, you creature, you animal, everything you told me I did and I've lost everything.

[11:54]

What's more, the whole town has laughed at me and it's all your fault. But great joy said sadly, did I let you down or did you let me down? Let me ask you something. Have I ever failed you before? Did I ever crack a plow or break a fence or smash a pot? Did I ever track dirt into some clean place in your home or before a sacred place? Did I ever injure a child or fail to pull a load? No, said the farmer, raising his head. You were always a great joy to me. Then why, said great joy, did you beat me and hit me and call me such names as creature and beast and animal? Was this truly the reward I deserved at your hands? I who only wanted to work hard for you and to serve you. Then the farmer sat up and he dried his eyes and he looked at his ox in silence and he grew ashamed.

[13:03]

You're right, he admitted at last. You didn't let me down. I let you down, great joy, and I'm so sorry. Well, said the ox, since you now feel this way about it, let's go back to town, find that merchant, and bet again, and this time 2,000 pieces of silver. My friend, said the farmer to the ox, I'll do it, I'll do it. I won't let you down again. "'Good,' said Great Joy. "'And if you don't let me down, I will certainly not let you down.'" So the next day the farmer went into town and he went to that tea shop and there was that merchant eating sweets and having his tea and jingling his coins in his pocket. "'My friend, may I join you?' said the farmer. "'Sure, anytime.'" "'Let's bet again,' said the farmer. "'What? Don't you know when you're beaten?' said the merchant."

[14:05]

One more bet on the ox and the carts. Just as before, only this time 2,000 pieces of silver. All right, who am I to say no? So it's a bet, said the merchant. All right. So tomorrow when the sun rises to the top of the tallest mango tree in the square, you be there with your hundred carts and I'll be there with great joy. Okay, see you tomorrow. And he departed. So the next morning, the whole town was there again. Everybody was there, and they were ready to laugh and jeer, and they had sticks and stones ready to throw at great joy. But as great joy was led up to the cart, spiritedly tossing his great horned head, the sun suddenly shone down on him, and power seemed to pulse through his great heart. and his horns seemed to cut through the clouds and his tail lashed around as if it were a dragon's tail.

[15:15]

And the hairs on his glossy hide stood up and crackled with electricity. And the crowd gaffed, what an ox, maybe he'll be able to do it this time. And just as before, the strong man came and put the yoke on his shoulders and tied the ropes to the carts, and the crowd grew very, very quiet. It became so quiet, you could almost hear the clouds passing. Then the poor farmer, feeling all the eyes on him, stepped up to the ox's side, lifted up a beautiful wreath of flowers, and put it on Great Joy's neck, hung it around his neck and patted him on his giant shoulder and said, this is the time, my mighty brother, this is the time, my great friend, so pull with your whole heart and let the world see your noble strength.

[16:18]

And with these kind, encouraging words, Great Joy happily planted his hoofs into the sun-warmed earth stiffened his legs till they stood like ancient trees and pulled, and pulled, and pulled, and slowly, steadily, the wheels began to turn, the wheels of the hundred. heavy carts began to turn and they began to pick up speed and faster and faster and faster rolled the carts and great joy was running, pulling the carts all around the square. The ox has won, the ox has won, cried the crowd. And the crowd ran after them laughing and calling for joy. Never had they seen such a wild and wonderful thing as great joy with his dignity and strength and self-respect pulling the carts and doing the impossible.

[17:25]

It may have happened long, long ago, but it's still remembered today. So that's the story of great joy and the cards. And when he was spoken to with kind words and treated like a good friend, and with a good harmonious relationship with his master, then they could do miracles together. Okay, well, thank you all for listening. And it's time for you to go out and... down to the garden, and today you're going to do some work too with great joy, hopefully. You're going to be digging potatoes, I think, down in the fields, which is a lot of fun. Okay, thank you very much. There's spaces in the front.

[19:05]

If anybody would like to come down in the front, instead of perching on the sides, there's some spots. appreciated this story of the great joy, the ox. Actually, there's a lot of layers to this story that I appreciated very much.

[20:09]

How do you help somebody? What is it that gets in the way of seeing somebody making an effort to help you? What happens when we're overcome by fear and worry and doubt so that's what I wanted to talk about today how we practice practice with those kinds of emotions and in in in turning this story it also occurred to me this this image of the ox is can you hear me okay still it's okay There's a traditional series of pictures called the Ten Ox Herding Pictures, which both in Chinese and Japanese tradition, you can find sets of these ten pictures which illustrate the spiritual quest or the Zen spiritual journey.

[21:26]

And it just occurred to me that this ox image, and what I wanted to talk about today, not only the children's story, but the subject I wanted to talk about, and these 10 ox herding pictures are very closely related. So the... I wanted to bring up what are called, it's a Sanskrit word, and the word is kleshas, kleshas, k-l-e-s-h-a-s, the kleshas. And the kleshas are, the Tibetan definition of the word kleshas are that which afflicts from within. So it's a hard word to translate into English. I've found maybe 10 different definitions for this Sanskrit word, kleshas, and I'll just read a few of them.

[22:36]

One is disturbing conceptions, conflicting emotions, compulsions, powerful reactions, obscuration to freedom, poisons, defilements, conflicting emotions, passions. These are all, I think, circling around this term, kleshas. And also afflictions, and that which afflicts from within. So the kleshas are powerful, emotional, but not just their mental afflictions, but they have an emotional body component to them as well. So it's a very powerful experience of being gripped by the Klesias, or hijacked even might be another word, where you feel taken over by these very powerful emotions to such a degree that you can't really act in a way that's based on...

[23:51]

your vows, what you understand to be true, what is based on clarity, you can't see anymore, and you act. So karma, which means action, karma and klesha, the kleshas and karma are like twins. They move together as a duo, you might say. coming from these clashes, we act. And I'm talking, the clashes are usually reserved for acts that are unskillful acts, unwholesome acts, afflictions, where we're afflicted and act out of affliction or out of defilement or disturbing emotions, disturbing conceptions, and then we act. And how do we act? There's just three flavors of actions, by thinking certain things, by speaking, and by bodily actions.

[24:59]

So in our story of great joy, the farmer, you know, had faith in his animal, a great joy, the ox, who had never let him down, never failed him, but at a certain point he was... taken over. He was absorbed in fear, lack of faith, preoccupation, worry, afraid of losing his reputation, afraid of losing money, and that overtook him. And he acted from there. He acted from these afflictions, these mental afflictions, and he couldn't see anymore because the ox that morning was rested and calm and eating his breakfast and mildly, it says, and kindly looking at his master and kind of ready to greet the day and do his work. But his master at this point was taken over and covered over by that which afflicts from within all these worries and beliefs.

[26:12]

And then this... filled his body-mind, filled his mind, and then when he got to the square, he acted and verbally acted and physically acted by whipping his great joy and verbally yelling at him and calling him names, completely covered over by these afflicted So they're not exclusively emotions. They're not exclusively thought. It's a very strong combination that really takes over us, and we become 100% identified with it as true. This is true. We can't see a difference between how we're feeling and thinking and what's before us, the reality of what's before us.

[27:17]

This is something that we all practice with, we all need to practice with, and that we all experience. This isn't a kind of rarefied group who has to deal with this, and maybe as I'm speaking, you're thinking of times when you have felt taken over by kleshas. Now, the... This is another Sanskrit word, which is avarana, A-V-A-R-A-N-A, avarana. And avarana means covering, or sometimes barricade or hindrance, but the meaning of it is covering. And there's two kinds of avarana. There's the klesha avarana, being covered by these kinds of emotions and defilements or afflictions.

[28:21]

And then there's another covering, another avarana called, the word is nyeya avarana, spelled J-N-E-Y-A, nyeya, which is similar to the word gnosis, or it has to do with cognition and thinking and thought, or the knowable. So there's the nyeya avarana, which covers over being able to know the way things are, the way things exist. And so we have these two kinds of covering, the Klesha Avarana and the Nyaya Avarana. And we have to first work with the Klesha Avarana and the actions that flow from these kinds of unwholesome things. Unwholesome meaning causing of suffering, ways of thinking and speaking and acting.

[29:27]

So in the ten ox herding pictures, which I don't want to go over one by one, but in the beginning we have the ox herder who is searching for the ox. And in terms of what I've been bringing up today, Maybe that means having a sense that one's life is really not working so smoothly. Lots of problems, lots of unharmonious things happening, lots of worry and aggression maybe and aversion and grasping and just not working so well. And feeling that you want to work with that in a more skillful way. And in the ox herding pictures, you set out the ox herder. Ox herder has lost the ox, and he sets out to find the ox.

[30:28]

And he first sees the footprints. And then he sees the tail. kind of rounding the bend is the tail. And then he kind of gets the ox in view, and eventually he learns to tame the ox, and they work together beautifully, and he rides, he or she, whatever the ox herder is, rides the ox home. And then the ox and the ox herder kind of disappear as separate, dividable beings. They're just one... being together, kind of one empty. And at the end of the ox-herding pictures, the person returns to the marketplace. Ox and ox-herd are gone, just returning to the marketplace with gift-bestowing hands to help beings in any way that beings need help.

[31:32]

So this ox, it occurred to me this morning, this ox is like working with the Klesias skillfully, working with these strong, powerful states of body-mind that arise in reaction to our life that are in and of themselves, the Klesias have the same energy as anything else, as it's the consequences of our actions. The fact that they arise is what happens with human beings. These things do arise based on the basic, basic dynamic of being drawn to things in attachment or greed and having aversion for things and wanting to pull away, which is very...

[32:36]

instinctual, very, this dynamic is basic to all beings. But how we work with that skillfully is our task, is our practice, is our, is the footsteps we need to walk. And it's not enough to think, oh, you know, I'm sitting, I'm sort of practicing, so I guess eventually these things will just wear away and I'll be fine and dandy and go into the marketplace with gift-beestowing hands. Actually, the Buddha teaches and the Buddhas and ancestors and Zen masters and all the teachers teach that we have to practice this. We can't just assume. We have to practice working with things. moment by moment, as these things arise. And they arise, surprisingly, out of the blue. I think the farmer, he was going along fine, and then he was gripped by, oh my gosh, I'm going to lose everything.

[33:44]

And then blaming the ox. It's his fault. So at any moment, there can be a turn like this for us, where due to our conditioning due to actions and ways we've thought of in the past and attitudes and our perceptions of the way things are, we can be gripped very strongly by these kleshas. I wanted to read, in case you're wondering, now what are kleshas again? I don't know what she's talking about, really. There's three basic kleshas which are translated into English. often as greed, hate, and delusion. And that greed can also be attachment. And the hate can also be aggression and certain kinds of anger, anger based on wanting to harm or wanting things for oneself, things we can't get, and the anger that comes from that.

[34:48]

There's other kinds of anger that are based on seeing... injustice, seeing boundaries being crossed, that arises in us as a very strong emotion and can have positive consequences. So I'm talking about the unwholesome kinds of hate and aggression and anger. And the greed, hate, and delusion. Delusion can also be confusion, translated, or basic, basic ignorance, which I'll get back to in terms of the coverings, the klesha avarana, and the nyeya avarana, the nyeya avarana, which is the covering of knowing, not knowing, not knowing, has to do with this basic ignorance. So those are three very, very primary kleshas, and they're sometimes called the three poisons. And if our actions are flowing from greed, hate, and delusion, then

[35:53]

even though you can't see it right then, eventually there will be consequences of creating conditions for suffering. This is the cause and effect. This is the dharma of cause and effect. Now, you may not see it, but as the... There's an image that the Buddha uses of, you might have a big jar, and drops of water are going into the jar, and it doesn't look like the jar is filling up, but eventually the jar will fill up. So some other kleshas stemming from the, there's those three primary, there's another three that are called arrogance, wrong views, or afflicted views, or false views, and then doubt, or afflicted doubt.

[36:54]

Now in Zen, we actually uphold doubt as an encouragement to practice more strongly. If you have doubts, well, let me get to the bottom of this. And also, the Buddha encouraged us to not take... the Buddha's word or our teacher's word, but test it yourself. So that kind of doubt is encouraged. But there's a kind of corrosive doubt or skeptical doubt that eats away at our practice, and this is called a klesha. So greed, hate, and delusion, false views, or this conceit or arrogance, and this corrosive doubt are the six primary kleshas. And then flowing from those, for example, under hate is envy, malice, spite, vengeance, revenge, these kinds of things flow from hate.

[37:54]

They're just different variations, maybe not quite as strong as hate, but envy, as you know, can be pretty poisonous, right? Can ruin relationships, can color our relationships with our friends and our family. And under greed is miserliness and also excitement, like wanting something, like excitement that pushes us over into overboard excitement about something, where we look at the object and we're so filled with attachment and greed that the object looks far more enticing than it really is, you know. Actually, this is one of the things about the clashes. They are not dependent on the object that you're looking at in terms of wanting it or not wanting it. The object of our desires or the object of our aversion is a neutral, inconceivable, coming together, dependently co-arisen, unfathomable thing.

[39:08]

that can't be, in its ultimate sense, it can't be confined into whether it's a likable or a non-likable thing. We create our world with our own attitudes and perceptions whether or not something is desirable or not desirable. And you can test this out very, very easily. Like so-and-so loves to eat... snails or something. If you grew up in a certain country, it's a delicacy. Somewhere else, you know, the thought of it makes you ill. Or like the other day I was in Tassajara and I went into the closet and there was a scorpion, which I had only seen once before at Tassajara, about 30 years ago, there was a scorpion on my robes hanging in the closet. And it was big, you know, it was about like this. And I thought, You know, do they leap?

[40:10]

I don't know. I knew that their tails would strike if you got close, but I didn't know if they sort of leaped at you. So there it was, and it was night. Anyway, I captured it under a glass, and it brought it out to the creek side. But then I was just reading about scorpions as a delicacy in this particular place in a tribe somewhere, Australia or Africa, I can't remember, but we're finding a bunch of scorpions who's like, yay, we've got dinner, you know. So scorpion in and of itself is, it's just scorpion. What is scorpion? Well, it depends on who you are, what your experiences are, you know, what's happened to you, did you get stung, were you born under the sign of, et cetera, et cetera. You give it its meaning. We create the world. And we create our attitudes and perceptions are colored by aversion and grasping and aversion, aversion, and being drawn to something, attachment and aversion, and the clashes.

[41:26]

Another, so foods, who's somebody's partner or not? You know, you think, oh my gosh, I couldn't imagine living with that person. We've had these thoughts, right? This is the wondrousness of our diversity in terms of likes and dislikes and so forth. But we can tend to blame it, blame what we're feeling. The clashes are that which afflicts from within. We are afflicting ourselves. The object is just what it is. So just... Ten days or so ago, I was on a bike trip in northern Minnesota. My husband and I biked from Duluth, Minnesota, up to Thunder Bay, Canada, and five days on the bike along Lake Superior. It was a marvelous vacation, lots of physical activity in the lake and the birch trees. And the last day, we woke up, and it was a thunderstorm in...

[42:34]

Grand Portage, Minnesota. Lightning and thunder, a real summer storm. I'm from Minnesota, so it was like a great summer storm. And we had 43 miles to get into Thunder Bay. And my husband said, we don't have to do it. We can just cancel. We'll stay here. We'll read War and Peace all day, which we're reading. And we don't have to go. So in terms of the Klesha, you know, somebody might have said, great, oh, thank goodness, I didn't want to go out in the rain. Let's cozy up all day and read books. And I felt, no, I want to finish this vacation and bicycle into Thunder Bay in the Thunder, and I don't care if I get wet, it's okay. We put on our rain gear and we set off. We were soaked in about 20 minutes and cold, and the rain was... like needles as you're on the bikes. And it was exhilarating. It was fun. It was great. It was unforgettable, right? Somebody else in a rainstorm, wet to the bone, is, you know, cursing and angry or despairing.

[43:45]

I mean, I was thinking, actually, about Haiti and, you know, Pakistan and... being out in the rain and cold for hours on end. So the object or our experience in and of itself just is what it is, and we bring to it, we create our world. So the Kleshes, in some way, actually Stephen Batchelor in an article on the Kleshes says, this is a way that we... to try and cope with unpredictability and impermanence and the flowing reality of our life that we can't control. We bring these attitudes, you know, thinking that that's going to help control, to be vengeful, to be, you know...

[44:50]

seeking and greedy about things and get mine and procrastinate. I'm reading some of these for faithlessness, inattentiveness, just zone out. This is some way that we bring to the flowing world of inconceivable moment-by-moment change. We try to control it in some way. And there's a Zen story where the monk says to the Zen master, what do we do when the 10,000 things come forth, come at us? And the Zen master said, don't try to control it. Don't try to control it. We try and control it with these ways of thinking and acting, which... do not serve and actually cover over klesha avarana.

[45:52]

They cover over our moment-by-moment, fresh, unconditioned response to what's happening, to a rainy day or a sunny day or a loss or a gain. These things are, we can't stop it. We can't control that. So how do we skillfully work with these twin klesha karma, this twin event of Klesha and Karma. And the teachings of working with Klesha have to do with, I suppose, as usual, awareness, presence, practicing being present in the moment, and finding with a relaxed body and mind, are two feet on the ground and are not going forward and trying to make things and control things, but allowing the 10,000 things to come forward and be what they are, and to notice, to be mindful, to be alert, and to guard our own alertness, as Shantideva says,

[47:15]

the 8th century poet says, to guard our alertness rather than going off into these kleshas of distractedness and procrastination and unconscious activity, staying alert and aware. This undermines kleshas activity and helps us actually in the moment not act from kleshas. We can realize anger is arising in me or hate is arising in me. How do I want to act with body, speech, and mind in the face of this situation right now? So if we allow ourselves to be controlled by the kleshas, rather than us being aware of them, and as in those ox herding, find them, notice the tracks, see the tail.

[48:18]

Oh, that was, oh, that action came out of this whole attitude of, you know, some false view about this person or this group of people, or how can I see clearly? Can I see clearly? What do I have to do to be present enough to see clearly? And then haltering, you know, yoking the ox. and riding the ox. And this is not, you know, I'm not advocating a life that is devoid of emotional ups and downs. You know, that's a life of a robot or something. To live a life of joy and exhilaration and full-on relationships that include everything that human beings can feel, but skillfully to work with those things that can cause suffering and create conditions for suffering.

[49:19]

So working together with sangha, you know, we can do this individually through our own practice of zazen, settling, stabilizing our body-mind. This undermines these kleshas. undermined meaning unloosens them, allows them to, when they arise, to not act on them, and then there becomes a time when there's the non-arising of the kleshas, the non-arising of these kinds of things, or the weakening by our practice with them. So our... our zazen practice, our practice in community with others, at work, families, friends, working, being willing, just like that farmer with great joy. He listened, he saw, he turned, he apologized. He saw that, no, you never let me down.

[50:29]

I let you down out of fear, lack of faith. being overcome and hijacked, really, by kleshas. So our practice, and also there's the practice of sangha life, community life of various kinds. Hoitsu Roshi, this is Hoitsu Suzuki, Suzuki Roshi's son, talked about our sangha practice life as potato practice, which is a great image. Since we've just been harvesting potatoes, we harvested potatoes of potatoes last week and the kids are going to harvest today. Potato practice, he said, is you dig out the potatoes, they come out of the ground and they're jewels in the earth, but they're really covered with earth. You couldn't really cook it like that. And you don't kind of wash off individually each potato. This was his image. You put the potatoes... in a big bucket together.

[51:31]

And then you fill it with water and you slosh them. And the potatoes kind of slosh around together and rub off the dirt with each other. This is Sangha potato practice. The Sangha jewel of potato practice. Working together, allowing what comes up between people and working with it skillfully, asking for help. apologizing next time something similar comes up, remembering, finding our stomach and our breath and asking, you know, how can I skillfully work with this, knowing that I create, I'm creating, I'm contributing to the creation of what's going on. So these are all ways to work with clashes and So this is a hard practice to be fully human.

[52:40]

We have to work with these. And they cover over, what they cover over is our interconnected life where we're not separate from each other. And we don't exist as a separate I, me, and mine who has to act in these ways to protect. This is the ignorance. This is the basic ignorance. And this nyeya avarana, that covers over that basic ignorance. We can't work on that without also working on the klesha avarana. We have to work on them both. You can't just think, oh yeah, all those things, all those ways I have of unskillfully acting and speaking and thinking in the world, I'll just sit zazen and I'll, you know, even if you have a glimpse into interconnectedness, then you begin the work of these kinds of karmic situations. So the two coverings, klesha avarana, neya avarana, cover over our inconceivable life together of interconnectedness.

[53:54]

Okay, thank you very, very much. Please help us to continue to realize and actualize the practice of giving by offering your financial support. For more information, visit sfcc.org and click Giving. May we fully enjoy the Dharma.

[54:29]

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