This podcast is offered by the San Francisco Zen Center on the web at www.sfzc.org. Our public programs are made possible by donations from people like you. Good evening, Bodhisattvas. Thanks, Tanto-san, for inviting me to give this talk. Thanks, Director San and your many bodhisattva friends, supporters, and helpers. And thanks, everyone who's come here to ready your mind, think about communication in a mountainous way, or to love the mountains by reflecting the mountains. And so whether you're in a retreat, Whether you're here personally, whether you're here giving the gift of service and your practice day after day, we're all engaged in the same basic task, which is to wake up as best we can.

[01:28]

in a way that benefits everyone. So in that spirit, I call you a bodhisattva. And that's who we are. And that's what we're doing. And I'm not ashamed to say it. I'm actually really happy to be here with you. It said, a community for a day. abiding forever. And so if we can be together today, thinking and acting on what's most important for us in this life, I think that the world is a healthy place, even in all of its pain. Today, tonight, I'd like to speak about a poem that I never really intended to be part of the teaching of this retreat, but somehow found myself reciting it in the retreat.

[02:43]

And it's a Zen poem that's part of the transmission of our teaching. And it's a difficult poem. It doesn't open its secrets so readily. So usually it's not one that I would choose for the summer. I would usually choose something less complex. But I love this poem for its images and for its teaching. And it's called... Wait for it. The Song of the Jewel Mirror Samadhi. And... How many people have never heard of the Song of the Jewel Mirror Samadhi? Okay, so I should say something about the poem, and especially since I told several people wrong information about where the poem came from and what era it was written in.

[03:46]

So the Song of the Jewel Mirror Samadhi is not by... Sekito Kisen. That's a different poem on the similar subject, which is called The Harmony of Difference and Equality. The Song of the Jewel Mirusamadi is by one of my favorite characters in the entire Zen collection of characters, and there are many characters, including quite a few in this room, right? But one of my favorite ones is Tozan Ryokai. Dongshan Liangjie. And Tozan started practice as an earnest young man, and he practiced with his teacher, Yunyan, for quite a number of years. And one day, Yunyan decided it was about time for Dongshan to go.

[04:49]

And so Dongshan was sat And he said to his teacher, teacher, when people ask me about you in my entire lifetime, when they ask me about you, what should I say? How do you want me to remember you, basically? And Yunyan said, just this. And so Dongshan did not understand, and he was very perplexed. And his teacher also invited him to come back in the middle of the night to receive the essence of his teachings. And he did, but he still didn't really understand. And so it became time for him to leave, and he packed up his little backpack.

[05:54]

and started to go and as he crossed the stream on the way out of the monastery he looked at the water and the water reflected his face and he suddenly had an enormous awakening experience it just descended on him like grace and he spontaneously said this poem and this is not an exactly literal translation of the poem. This is the translation that I wrote with Greg's and Linda's and my teacher and Gil's teacher, Sojin Roshi, for my shuso ceremony in 1987. And it's based on Suzuki Roshi's translation. Don't see the world or yourself. as an object, or far from it you stray.

[07:00]

Today, as I walk alone, whichever way I turn, I meet myself. She or he is just me. I am not he. If you understand that you as an object is not you yourself, then you have your own true way. Should I say it again? Okay. So he's writing this as a young, he's saying this spontaneously as a very young man after seeing his reflection in the stream, and it strikes him in a completely new way, that reflection. Suddenly he's pierced to the bone. with a feeling that he doesn't really have words for, but he says words anyway in the form of this poem. Oh, don't see the world or yourself as an object, or far from it you stray.

[08:06]

Today I walk alone, and whichever way I turn, I meet myself. He is just me, I'm not he. if you understand that yourself as an object is not you yourself, then you have your own true way. So that was his experience as a young man. So now let's fast forward many, many years, and he's been teaching for quite a long time. And actually, to be perfectly honest, We're not sure that he wrote this poem. But the legend is that he did write this poem as part of his way of encapsulating the main Dharma teachings available at that time. But we do know, whether he wrote it or didn't, that he did these teachings because they're the same teachings that are in this poem that I just recited to you.

[09:16]

They're just said in a different way. So... Why don't I say some of the poem, and I'll skip through the poem in different ways, because some of the phrases are so evocative. And just listen to them as music, and we can talk about them in a little while. So it begins. And this is the part that always touches me. At the very beginning, it starts... The teaching of thusness has been intimately communicated by Buddhas and ancestors. Now you have it, so keep it well. Now you have it, so keep it well. It doesn't mean some other you. It means now you have it. You meaning us. So keep it well. Now you have it, so keep it well.

[10:17]

filling a silver bowl with snow, hiding a heron in the moonlight. Taken as similar, they're not the same. When you mix them, you know where they are. So that's a sample of the poem. The poem is actually about different ways of seeing reality and how we work with that. So in the poem, there's many beautiful images and this filling the silver bowl with snow or hiding a heron in the moonlight. You know, it's bright. They're bright light. A silver bowl and snow are sparkly. Okay. They're both of the same nature of bright, sparkly light. But you know which one's snow and which one's the bowl. Okay. The brightness and sparkliness that the bowl and the snow share doesn't make them indistinguishable.

[11:24]

If you know bowls and you know your snow, you know that the bowl is not a snow and that the snow is not a bowl. So that's actually a truth, that perception. Being able to see the sparkliness that's part of everyone and everything and to be able to distinguish them is actually a truth. It's actually the direct experience of part of what we think in this tradition is wisdom. It's part of the point. So if you can be in the world of equality and the world of difference at the same time, if you can go through the day with perfect attention to your posture and breathing. That doesn't mean necessarily focused attention, but if your day has a thread of awareness that doesn't waver. And, you know, coffee at 7.30 is coffee at 7.30.

[12:32]

You know, sweeping is sweeping at the same time. Okay? So... It's very lovely when it's theoretical, like that coffee out there. But if somebody says, you just did such and such and you should do such and such, then it's very hard. You understand what I'm saying? So it depends what your triggers are and how your life is, whether this is easy or difficult. And for most of us, it's a challenge. But there is a kind of a naturalness to the Dharma, to the teachings, because they're about life, not about something else. Anyway, the poem goes on to talk not just about this sameness, this one way of seeing things that includes everything, but it talks about the different ways of seeing everything that include oneness.

[13:41]

And it talks about oneness as oneness and difference as difference. And then finally, the poem talks about integration. And we can study that lesson in any activity that we do. And it's actually accessible to us and is healing. It's part of how we heal the world in this practice, how we heal ourselves and how we heal the world. So rather than go through this full poem line by line, which, you know, it would be kind of a lullaby, but it's not really my intention, I'd like to talk a little bit about how Suzuki Roshi handled this teaching in Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind. And then I'd like to give an example as to how... we could see this same teaching in a yoga pose or some other situation.

[14:48]

And then I just want to throw it open for anyone to comment or ask, because this is a subject we all are familiar with. I'm not the only person in the room who thinks about oneness and thinks about difference. So there's this wonderful section in Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind, where Suzuki Roshi is talking about right understanding. and it's in the middle of the book. And so he says, the little quote that they chose to exemplify this section, our understanding of Buddhism is not just an intellectual understanding. True understanding is actual practice itself. So... I just want to call your attention to some chapter headings from this book first. Naturalness, emptiness, and readiness.

[15:49]

They're actually a teaching progression. So, I don't know, if you think of some situation that's kind of difficult or questionable, it becomes clearer. So, for instance, today, someone was asking about his sitting practice, and he was a good student and he was sitting in full lotus. And the response that Donald gave was to give him a posture to sit in that was a little bit easier so that he could feel where he was in space. And then suddenly, I'm trying to be general about this, but suddenly the posture and how to do the posture was unknown.

[16:52]

It wasn't as one would suppose because it was an unfamiliar posture. And then awareness started coming up and new life started coming to the pose. And whenever we work with the unknown, it's kind of like this. First, we have to understand, just in the unknown situation, what's happening now. We have to be willing to just be in the situation and see what it is, or be with it as it is, in a natural way. And that's one of the hardest things, because a lot of times, unfamiliar situations stress us or trigger us in various ways. And given a little bit of information or experience about how the situation is, emptiness arises.

[17:54]

Emptiness meaning shunyata, meaning it's not what we think. Oh, it is what it is. It's not what I think. And then attention allows us to proceed. So I just wanted to say this very everyday example, because often we think that the experience of emptiness is something that doesn't come up every day. But it is actually something that comes up every day, and not just every day, it comes up every minute. And not just every minute, but like 16 times a second. Every inhalation, the world is constructed in every exhalation, it dies. So that with the next inhalation, the world can be new. And the way we approach whatever it is can be fresh. And this is not unknown.

[18:57]

It's just something we forget again and again because we get triggered or because we have habits or whatever. So for instance, so I gave the example of sitting in lotus. You might think, I should sit in lotus. And maybe that's true. I mean, Dogen Zenji says, sit in full or half lotus. Place your left foot on your right thigh and your right foot on your left thigh. If you can't sit in full lotus, it's okay to just simply sit in half lotus. I'm paraphrasing. etc. He goes on with more instructions. And so he says this. So we think, oh, I should do it. I should do it. And then we try. But what we don't realize is that in the first attempt, our habits are being embedded in that posture, even as we try something new.

[20:00]

So to find out what full lotus is, we may have to back off. Say, oh, when I said full lotus, this happens. Oh, no. Well, what is that, really? What is happening? Oh, maybe I'm doing full lotus from, who knows, my legs instead of my hips. Wow, I never knew about hips as part of full lotus. Now I do. So now I'm ready to attend to something completely new. And so... The problems and questions that come our way moment after moment, or even the direct experience that we're confused about or don't attend to, is actually... Thank you, John. Awakening. A gate for awakening for us. So John has given me the signal.

[21:03]

Eno has given me the signal. Eno is the head of the meditation hall practice. And that signal means that we have 15 minutes until bedtime. Or bath time. You know, quiet, serene, low conversations, starry, steamy bath time. Or restful, horizontal, relaxing, dreamy sleep time. Okay? So we have 15 minutes, 14 and a half. So any questions about what I introduced? Anything that you want to bring up or ask about? anything else.

[22:06]

You don't have to raise your hand. Can I speak to the heron in the moon? Speak about the heron in the moon or speak to the heron in the moon? Oh, heron. Yeah, oh, heron, you are so bright and shiny in the moon. Yeah? Herons have beautiful white feathers, right? They fly against the moon and the color is the same. But the heron is of the nature of flight and the moon is way above the flight path of the heron, right? So it's a similar... function in the poem to the snow in a silver bowl. But isn't it beautiful to think, to see that image of the heron in the moon, heron flying across the moon?

[23:22]

At City Center, we actually have a heron who sometimes comes in the moonlight, but more often comes in the sunlight. But what this heron comes to do is to fish in the fountain where we have our goldfish. So it's not exactly the same as the image of the heron in the moonlight. This is more like, get out of here, heron! You know, right? But he or she is still extremely beautiful in that light. Even though I don't think the goldfish would agree. Yeah. Yes. Don't see yourself, the world or yourself, as an object. Or far from it, you stray. I guess what's it, right? And what's seeing?

[24:25]

So this is really important, isn't it? Because often we see the world in the form of other people or events as objects. We split off from them, especially if they do something. Like... You know, if, for instance, you're trying to get to have a drink of water before zazen, and there's four other people in front of the sink with their cups out, and they're in front of you, and you know that the Han is going, and if you don't get your water, you won't get water before zazen. It's very hard not to see those people or that activity as an object. Or let's say you're, I don't know, you have a deadline. And the deadline has certain measurables that are associated with it that will cost a great deal of time, money, and possibly change the configuration of people if you don't actually fulfill that deadline just as possible.

[25:40]

It was offered to you. Very hard not to become harried and think, oh, the deadline, the deadline, right? That's a challenge. And I'm sure that, you know, however many people there are here in this room, we could easily each think of one enormous example just from the last hour because it's not hard. But what... Tozan is pointing to is how karmic consciousness gets built. So karmic consciousness and big mind are not actually made out of different stuff. They're made out of the same stuff, but seen in different ways. And part of this poem frees us from having to see it one way. But in usual life, karmic consciousness is like a stream of consciousness that has a particular flow and force of thoughts.

[26:46]

It goes in a particular direction. And if we're not careful, what we do is we just get pushed along by that flow in the direction of the flow. So our habits and preconceptions form our lives in very particular ways and determine how we think. So a decision to wake up is a decision to stop in the middle of the karmic stream. And as soon as we stop, unfortunately what we next feel is unconcentrated and unawake because we begin to feel the force and direction of the stream. And we understand how we've seen everything as an object or how we've separated ourselves in life. When we sit zazen, we actually turn around and instead of facing downstream with the stream behind us, we turn towards the source of the stream and we take a step.

[27:49]

We take another step, another step, another step, all the way up to the source. And we can watch our dualistic view being born moment after moment. And when we have it in our view, it doesn't have the same seductive quality, that process, doesn't have the same seductive quality as it otherwise would. And actually, you know, sometimes in the worst situations, when we're thrown off of our habitual way of thinking, sometimes we see things in the freshest way. Like I'm recovering from very bad accidents, But after those accidents, when I was the most broken, was when I was the most glad and grateful to be alive as well. And so the pain of the accident is like the letting that allows the beautiful colors of the stained glass window to show, to glow.

[28:58]

You know? So... Not objectifying the world or yourself is not how we usually do things. It's not our MO. And if we avoid objectifying, if we get counterphobic about objectifying, that doesn't work either. Try it and see. People will just get disgusted. They'll think, ew. You know? So there has to be kind of a naturalness to our experience where We let objectification occur, but we're not seduced by it. And eventually it loses its power over us, and the process changes and becomes open to us. I hope that's helpful. Thank you. We probably have time for one or two more comments or questions. So I just want to say that readiness of mind is to be able to be in such a physical, physiological, and emotional state that one's capable of responding rather than reacting no matter what comes up.

[30:42]

It's not an unattainable ideal. when we notice what we usually do, we can actually respond from a wider place, and it's not hard to do. It's like, oh, I don't know, if you were standing someplace and gossiping about somebody, and the person came by, it would be very easy to change how you were speaking. Just having something remind us of the larger context changes what we do. And if we don't have any further reactions about it, it's actually quite refreshing. So am I making sense, or is this kind of as clear as mud? Okay.

[31:46]

So I just want to, I would just like to close by saying refresh your mind. You know? It's not that you have to do anything to refresh your mind. It's that the mind is constantly being refreshed by a stream of unknowns. If we don't approach our life, with a preconceived notion or pre-planned agendas that take the place of the world as it is, then we're constantly refreshed. I'm not saying don't have goals. Do have goals. But the only part of the goal that can be realized is the part that's relevant to right now. Right? So, please. Stay with, let's stay with and let's help each other stay with what's really important and the air of Tassajara, the beauty of this life, a single moment of being together.

[33:01]

Let's just enjoy. our lives and help the people around us enjoy life, not in a ya-ya way, but in a way that truly relates to who and what we actually are. So thank you very much for your attention, and I hope you have a good rest. I look forward to seeing you in another context, and please take care of yourself. If you're going tomorrow, what you're taking with you is this. If you're staying here, what you're giving is this. Just this. So it's precious. It's every day. It's precious. Thank you very much. Thank you for listening to this podcast offered by the San Francisco Zen Center.

[34:09]

Our Dharma talks are offered free of charge, and this is made possible by the donations we receive. Your financial support helps us to continue to offer the Dharma. For more information, visit sfcc.org and click Giving.

[34:24]

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