This podcast is offered by the San Francisco Zen Center on the web at www.sfcc.org. Our public programs are made possible by donations from people like you. Good morning, and welcome to Green Dragon Temple. My name is Gyokuden Steph Blank. And I'm a resident priest here at Green Gulch, and also a mom. Warm wishes to Abbot Juryu, who is recovering from illness. And thank you to the Tonto for inviting me. The Tonto is my husband. So today, with your help, my intention is to permeate heaven and earth.

[01:12]

Ready? You are ready. Thank you. Thank you. It begins with a question that was asked during the Q&A the last time I gave you a talk. The question was, what practice advice do you have for those of us not living in a temple? I said a few things in reply, but then I kept thinking about this wonderful question, and I thought I could give another Dharma talk in answer to this question. So here we are. I have lived in the temples of San Francisco Zen Center for almost 20 years. And I feel that I would like to bow in gratitude for the causes and conditions that have supported that. Before that, I lived for four years on the couch of my first Zen Center in Minnesota and or on the couches of Sangha members.

[02:27]

This is what I did to create a residential environment for myself, even though that Zen Center wasn't a residential facility. During that period of couch surfing in the Dharma realm, I had one foot in the monastic world and the other foot galloping in the marketplace. And I have to tell you, I loved them both very, very much. In those days, we spoke of two different paths of Zen practice, one we called priest and one we called layperson. The life of a priest, I thought, involved a decisive lifetime vow to live for the benefit of all beings. And it also involved, it appeared, giving up some things. Hairstyle, fashion, choice of what

[03:32]

work I do and what food I eat and so on. A layperson I thought of as a practitioner with a life. The life, the person that we could perhaps think about as someone who is deeply committed to practice but also has the freedom to choose the degree of their commitment. and mix that with a blend of their choice of career, family, clothing, and so on. For me, commitment to the temple came with much enthusiasm. I felt clear that I was destined to be a priest. And it was easy to have that vision when I was young because at that time I didn't have ambitions to have a family. And due to those causes and conditions, including having wonderfully supportive employers, I was able to spend a lot of time sitting in meditation at a young age.

[04:44]

Later, I got to expand my understanding of practice by becoming a mom. Now there's a training. But that will be another Dharma talk. For now, let's just say that the monk and the mother are always sweeping across the dance floor together. The mother knows the boundlessness of the heart. The parent knows the boundlessness of the heart. The monk has learned how to make her lap large enough to hold the universe. And most importantly, both are permeated with practice.

[05:51]

When a staff member leaves Green Gulch, we perform a ceremony. The whole community stands in this room around the perimeter of the room. You can visualize that. And the person who's taking their leave starts at the altar and then walks around the room, bowing to all the people that are standing around the room. They walk the whole perimeter of the room in a bow. And as they approach the rows of people, the row, like dominoes, bows as they approach. It's kind of a A beautiful visual. And this ceremony captures our hearts frequently because it's the summary of our effort together. I just thought, it's like saying goodbye to my dad whenever I visit him and then leave because

[07:04]

I think we always feel like we don't know if we'll see each other again. So this moment of goodbye is the summary of our effort together. And it's very, very tender. So after the person goes through the zendo in a bow, and everybody bows to them, They make their way to the back of the zendo and they stand in the same place they stood when they first entered the temple. And the eno makes a statement on behalf of the whole community. So-and-so now returns to the marketplace with gift-bestowing hands. You go with the gratitude of us all. Clack, clack. The staff member's great efforts within this temple concludes with a clack, clack, finished, farewell, gone.

[08:17]

Our hearts are captured, and they really do go with the gratitude of us all. starting to feel gratitude for you now I have to tell you it's happening or for the chance to speak look we all return to the marketplace Mick Do you remember Mick, the celebrated baker of Green Gulch? Well, in 2004, he was the director of Green Gulch. He was the director when I first came to make my request to live here at Green Gulch. And he said, okay, but don't plan on living at Green Gulch forever. Nobody stays forever.

[09:27]

Green Gulch is not set up for that. I was a little stunned by the early messaging and yet it was such a gift that he said that to me because this is my understanding. I'm not staying here and you aren't either. Fine. Because The point is the gift bestowing hands. Your hands. Can I see your hands for a moment? That's really beautiful. Isn't it interesting that at the temple we invoke gift-bestowing hands when we send our residents back to the marketplace?

[10:36]

Believe it or not, we don't talk much about gift-bestowing hands in our daily practice here within the temple. Maybe we should, but we don't. We reserve that for when we're sending people back to the marketplace. Why would we do that? It's the reverberations. The endless, unknown, unfathomable, illimitable, magnanimous reverberations of our efforts at practice. Which continue endlessly. When I said those words, I thought of Daigon Luke, a practitioner who lived and practiced with us for many years, who is no longer walking this earth,

[11:58]

but came to me now. And he used to sit right there in the corner seat. Dagon. So these bells that we ring here at the temple are for you. The chants that we do here are for you. therefore your continued practice. Allow the reverberation of the bansho bell and the chanting to enter your cells. Allow it to resonate. This vibration reveals our togetherness. If you live in or visit this valley, You get saturated with certain things. Today it's heat.

[13:01]

I had written here fog, but today it is heat. The resonance of bells, the scent of incense, eucalyptus, also the smells of mold and mice. We have some organic challenges here. Back at home, the smell of your incensed clothing might remind you of Green Gulch, but I really hope that it reminds you of your gift-bestowing hands. Can I see your hands again? Your gift-bestowing hands. Yours. If it fades away, the scent or the memory of practice, you could light a stick of incense at your home. And if you do, here's a tip from the temple.

[14:02]

You have incense. You offer it for something. What is it for? Cam, what is it for? Cam said, all beings. Yam is beginning to sew his priest robes. Thank you. I offer this incense in acknowledgement of my connectedness with everything. I offer this moment of silence for peace, and ease of all beings and especially those that need it most right now. Can you offer incense for your own well-being?

[15:09]

Yes. And we all benefit when you do. Am I separate? Are you separate? Do we sometimes feel separate? When we feel separate, we are at risk of acting out or lashing out at others, at others. This is how we stir up some really complicated karma. The word for this is transgression. And the antidote is confession. It might sound like this. Buddhas, I admit that I feel separate.

[16:12]

It actually can help to dramatize it a little bit. Buddhas, I feel separate. It is painful to feel separate. Help me understand that I'm not separate. Please, help me understand that I'm not separate. I'd do this. Do I do this? He's Sherman. Maybe we should all create a phrase like this, a calling for help phrase, and memorize it.

[17:15]

Something that you can, like a tool you can pull out when you slip into the pit, the pit of separateness, like a flashlight. So how do we return to practice? Well, you can close your eyes. And open them as Buddha. Close them as a separate self. And open them as Buddha. Buddha blinking her eyes. Is this confusing, Buddha blinking her eyes? Practice is always with you.

[18:24]

It's not that it's with you, it's closer than that. You can't see your own eyeball. What does my practice look like when I'm not at Green Dragon Temple? Here's a little cameo. Every week I do a town trip for Green Gulch, the shopping. Imagine me at Safeway. I'm not wearing my priest robes, but I am wearing my Kamala Harris T-shirt. And as I push the cart at Safeway, I am aware that I'm pushing the cart. If I am thinking while I am pushing the cart, where are the vanilla beans I am aware that I'm thinking?

[19:29]

All the while I am completely engaged with my action of body, speech, and thought. This is my practice outside the temple. And when I practice like this, all my activity qualifies as practice. Even residents of Greenville might wonder how to practice outside the Zendo. Like, how do I practice when I'm working in the guest house? How do I practice when I'm with my family? Well, here's a universal instruction. how to practice find your place where you are when you find your place where you are practice begins it doesn't get any simpler but what does it mean to find your place where you are

[20:43]

It means opening your heart to where you are, to who you are, and to what is manifesting. It requires a simple willingness, a simple curiosity to meet what is arising. This can be enthusiastic, it can be tender, but it is respectful. Many times I have thought, but some things are much harder to meet than others. Yes, and strictly speaking, when you are practicing, there is a constancy, there is a power store. that is available for the more difficult situations.

[21:46]

And we are free to meet what is arising with our unique and unlimited potential. A whisper in some circumstances, a roar in others. Did she say roar? is there a roar in the room is there a whisper is there intimacy Why did A. He Dogen promote finding your place where you are?

[22:57]

Because not to do so misses your life. I wrote wastes your life. Now I just said it misses your life. Does that sound a bit harsh? Waste your life? Here at Green Dragon Temple we do have some direct messaging. On the the Han, the wooden timekeeping device, outside this door, there's a poem that says, Great is the matter of birth and death, no forever, gone, gone, awake, awake each one, don't waste your life. I don't hear that chanted at this temple. The person who strikes the Han has the words right before them as they're keeping time for the community.

[23:59]

In my Minnesota Zen temple, a version of this poem was dramatically chanted by the timekeeper during the very last period of the evening. I beg towards you, everyone, life and death is a great matter. All things pass quickly away. Awaken. Awaken. Take heed. Make use of this precious life. We all have what we need to awaken. We all have gift-bestowing hands.

[25:09]

Nobody needs to hear the end of this talk. So just close your eyes and open them as Buddha. Today I want to leave off with a picture of practice that is radiant, fun-loving, and funny. Is that okay? When people are deeply committed to practice, they learn to be funny in very subtle ways. I love that about Zen. Before I invoke this charming story, I want to encourage a little bit of discipline.

[26:17]

I want us to pay attention not just to the darkness of our time, but also to the brightness that is manifesting in the midst in the midst of and despite the darkness. So while I acknowledge that there's much more going on in our hearts these days than funny, I want us to choose to pay attention to the light. So let's tune into the light. Do you remember Mr. Rogers? It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood, a beautiful day for a neighbor. Won't you be mine? Won't you be mine? Fred Rogers said, when I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, look for the helpers.

[27:32]

you'll always find people who are helping. And speaking of helping, this is Ling Zhao's helping. This story is about a family in our lineage, a family of lay practitioners. They are called the Pong family. In this family, there is a mom, a dad, a daughter, and a son. The stories about them reveal that they are deeply committed to one another, especially in support of awakening. That's what we came together here for today, to support each other's awakening. Yes? Yes. So the Pong family is said to have put most of their possessions into a boat, taken the boat out into the middle of a lake, and sunk it.

[28:44]

How's that for lay practice? I can't even imagine most of my possessions fitting into a single boat. The dad is called Laymen Pong, and he appears in many Zen stories as an astute practitioner. I imagine him being called Laymen Pong, in substitute for reverent. Sometimes I keep my eye out for him at Safeway. He has a daughter, Ling Zhao, whose name means shining spirit. She is also an adept and arguably the hero of the Pong family. This father and daughter duo are said to be inseparable. Ling Zhao's helping. Pointer. Such a girl, light on her feet and swift in response. A swifty?

[29:46]

Listen carefully, but don't try to understand her meaning. She simply respects her elder, permeates life, and delights in the power of her gift-bestowing hands. Case. One day, Layman Pong and his daughter, Ling Zhao, were out selling bamboo baskets. Coming down off a bridge, the Layman stumbled and fell. When Ling Zhao saw this, she ran to her father's side and threw herself to the ground. What are you doing? cried the Layman. I saw you fall, so I'm helping. Luckily, no one was looking, replied the layman. Commentary.

[30:53]

Already there is intimacy. This father and daughter are well-possessed of the Bodhisattva vow. And they have a great time. traveling together on the path of practice. Laman Pong stumbles down and falls. Ouch! Lin Zhao dives onto the earth beside him. How surprising! What are you doing? asks the father from the dust. I saw you fall, so I'm helping, Daddy. Have you ever had a child bouncing on your back saying, I'm helping. Let me help you.

[31:58]

Leap. She's right there with him in the dirt, his beloved companion of the way. Is there someone in your life who teases you in a liberating way? Do you have a dharma companion? The father replies, luckily no one was looking. He receives his daughter's help with wry wit in exchange for the usual embarrassment. a keen practitioner is deeply satisfied to be upstaged. Verse, paying tribute to the miracle, she plunges to the ground, her generosity sending resonance through the eons of a vital family humor that permeates heaven and earth.

[33:14]

brightness as the old fellow said good thing nobody saw great assembly that's you the seen and the unseen assembly in our midst Whether you live in a temple or in the world, please live it up like the Pong family. Permeate your life. Use your gift-bestowing hands. You can do it. You're doing it.

[34:22]

We're doing it. And you go with the gratitude of us all. It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood, a beautiful day for a neighbor. Won't you be mine? Won't you be mine? Thank you for listening to this podcast offered by the San Francisco Zen Center. Our Dharma talks are offered at no cost and this is made possible by the donations we receive. Your financial support helps us to continue to offer the Dharma.

[35:32]

For more information, visit sfcc.org and click giving. May we fully enjoy the Dharma.

[35:42]

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