This podcast is offered by the San Francisco Zen Center on the web at sfzc.org. Our public programs are made possible by donations from people like you. Good morning, everyone. Can you hear me okay? to see you all. Yes, you can hear me? Okay. I came rushing to settle down, as I often do.

[01:15]

And so taking a moment to come into my body and my breath with you. Feel the breath flowing out and in. finding this warm and tender feeling towards this breath as it flows out and in. Better than focusing on the breath, just caring for the breath, a tender, warm-hearted attention. And so this morning, early this morning, bowing in the bitter cold of our early morning service, I found these words of our liturgy once again piercing me.

[02:30]

I take refuge in sangha before all beings, bringing harmony to everyone. free from hindrance, and bringing harmony to everyone. Look at you all here, all of you representatives of everyone, bringing harmony to everyone. So in this season of profound disharmony, these words ring in my heart and my mind. I say ring, but more like clang. They clang like our wake-up bell. Ding, ding, [...] ding.

[03:36]

Bringing harmony to everyone. So just like the alarm, just like the wake-up bell, I... I would like to hit snooze. No. Harmony to everyone? I would like to hit snooze on this particular alarm. But thankfully, some wiser incarnation of myself in some moment of clarity set a whole bunch of alarms in a row. Too many to snooze. So with my vow, just like with my actual alarm, now at Greengold we're waking up early. Just started today with an hour earlier wake up before 25. Wake up to be in the zendo around 10 to 5, which is really very early. So I was resetting my alarms.

[04:38]

And as always, I order them in a row. You know, I have the 355 alarm. and the 405 alarm, and the 408 alarm, and the 412 alarm, I just don't trust my drowsy self. So my awake self sets a whole bunch of alarms in a row. And my vow is like that too. I know that when I'm drowsy, if I'm not quite awake, I'm going to snooze on this vow. You know, I'll be... I'll catch some wind and be gripped by some wave of hatred. And I'll reach out to snooze this harmony to everyone. But it's set to ring again a minute later. It keeps on clanging. Make this vow over and over together with you. We recruit each other to help us stay awake.

[05:42]

these vows. I take refuge in sangha before all beings or with all beings, bringing harmony to everyone, free from hindrance. So if you're like me, you also drift off now and again. into hatred and fear and despair. And then sometimes, by some grace, by some ancient alarm, wake back up, remember this vow, and get back to the work. So I wanted to talk a little bit about what that work is, how I see that today, how do I practice, how might we practice or actualize this bringing harmony to everyone.

[06:44]

So in Zen practice, we start with our so-called self. We start with the objects of mind, the objects of senses and mind that are closest to us, and we bring harmony to them. We harmonize with them, which is to say we include them, we greet them, We allow them into a spacious mind and a warm heart, whatever they may be. So for a minute or two, now and then, I try to let go of everyone else and everything else and just touch what's arising in me, myself. When I do so, I see that, in fact, the everyone else and everything else that's bothering me most of the time has no home, really, but me myself.

[08:02]

My experience of all of that is right here at hand. It's not that nothing exists apart from that. It's just that, for me, Everything there is to harmonize with is right here. It is the objects that appear in my mind to my senses. I sense, you know, as I feel into what is happening in me, there's a great deal of harmonizing that needs to happen in me, myself. So in our practice, we start with the harmony here. the loving care here, the inclusivity here, the warm heart right here, and it flows out to all beings from here. So this is one of the axioms of our practice is that whatever it is, that which brings harmony to everyone is that same practice which brings harmony within me, myself.

[09:10]

It's not even that I harmonize me myself and then I'm able to extend that somehow. It's the same practice. It's not two parts. It's one seamless practice of universal compassion towards everything. Everything I think is inside and everything I think is outside. So this practice of harmony is what our zazen practice is about. We embody this practice through zazen. We're starting a zazen retreat here today, a so-called intensive. It may be a strange time to be doing so, and maybe it's just the right time to be doing so. To come upright. to be sitting more zazen, and to be renewing, each one of us renewing our intention in practice.

[10:18]

Our great Indian ancestor, Nagarjuna, in a section on meditation, in a treatise that's attributed to him about the bodhisattva path, imagines a questioner asking this question. Why do bodhisattvas sit at leisure in forests or marshes or abide still and silent in the mountains, solely benefiting themselves, casting aside and forsaking beings? This is the most important question to ask when we sit down, when we enter some retreat, you know, whether it's 20 minutes or 90 days. Why do bodhisattvas sit at leisure? I mean, my God, look around, what's happening? Why would a bodhisattva sit at leisure in forests or mountains or gulches and abide still and silent in the mountains, slowly benefiting themselves, casting aside and forsaking beings?

[11:38]

Is this the activity of a bodhisattva, someone whose life is dedicated to bringing harmony to everyone? Why are you sitting there? So Nagarjuna replies, Although the bodhisattva may be physically apart from beings, still their mind never foreseeks them. Residing in a quiet location, They strive to develop the meditative absorptions and thus obtain actual wisdom, this in order to eventually deliver everyone to liberation. Still, their mind never forsakes them. So that's Nagarjuna's answer. And we could say more about his answer. But the more important thing is, what is your answer? What is my answer? Why are we sitting here?

[12:40]

What are you cultivating or expressing through your practice? When I'm asked this question or remember this question, I often think of the words that Karagiri Roshi is said to have said when he was caught doing zazen at some time when he didn't really have to be doing zazen. You know, when you're living in a temple life, zazen becomes, you know, this thing you're supposed to be doing. So why would you do it when you're not supposed to be? You're not supposed to be at zazen. Why are you doing zazen? His friends, his peers had left on the personal day and gone into town and he was still there sitting in the hall. And someone said, why are you sitting there? Everyone else is in town.

[13:45]

What is this for? And his answer really moves me. He said, supposedly, to find my peace so that I may share it with others. to find my peace so that I may share it with others. So that was his answer. And what's your answer? What's my answer? That's why I'm facing the wall, caring for my breath. It's to bring harmony to everyone, free from hindrance. And so thinking about in teaching Zazen, our meditation practice, I often come back to this instruction from our founder, Suzuki Roshi. Now this instruction that our Zazen is the practice of a warm heart.

[14:51]

It's the cultivation of warm heart and the expression of warm heart. He says, Even though you sit, trying to have the right posture and counting your breath, it may still be lifeless zazen, because you are just following instructions. You are not kind enough with yourself. You think that if you follow the instructions given by some teacher, then you will have good zazen. But the purpose of instruction is to encourage you to be kind with yourself. Do not count your breaths just to avoid your thinking mind, but to take the best care of your breathing. So to be kind with all beings.

[15:53]

Wouldn't that be nice? To bring harmony to all beings, to everyone. What if that kindness, that harmony could be grounded in our kindness with our own breath? I want to be kind to everyone. I want to harmonize all beings. But I'm being kind of mean to my breath. I'm being sort of short with my thoughts. So these closest objects to us in our zazen practice, why not start practicing warm heart, kindness, harmony, towards those things. So this is a picture of Zazen that is so different from, what should I do in Zazen? What am I supposed to be doing in Zazen? Tell me how to succeed at Zazen. Can we be kind with ourselves? This is Zazen, a picture of Zazen. Zazen is just taking tender care of each thing. And that's when Zazen is alive. Zazen is alive. Each thing arises and we care for it with tenderness, with warmth.

[16:58]

Whatever's there. And we find that this caring, you know, we don't care for our breath instead of caring for something else. It's not that kind of concentration I'm feeling in this practice of warm-hearted breathing, caring for my breath. It's quite concentrated. Can be. But it's not... It's not... caring for my breath instead of caring for something else. It overflows. The caring isn't like that. It's caring for whatever is. This is the warm heart and spacious mind of Zazen. So he says, if you are very kind with your breathing, one breath after another, you will have a refreshed, warm feeling in your Zazen. When you have a warm feeling for your body and your breath, then you can take care of your practice and you will be fully satisfied.

[18:07]

When you are very kind with yourself, naturally you will feel like this. So you might know that feeling of practicing this warm care for this body, just as it is right now, for these sensations, for this breath flowing. What is it to be very kind with it? You know, in this warmth that we cultivate, You know, it overflows from our breath. I sat down just trying to be warm-hearted and kind to my breath, but next thing I knew, I was being warm-hearted and kind towards my body, my aches, my pains, my center, the sounds, my thoughts, my greed, my hatred, my delusion.

[19:16]

So it overflows its object. And then it may overflow from zazen. And you may have felt this or you may have witnessed this. This may be part of why you're here. You maybe met someone or glimpsed somehow a warmth that would overflow from zazen, overflow zazen out into someone's life. I think Suzuki Roshi maybe was like this. I think maybe part of why we're still practicing his way is that his warmth that he was practicing in zazen overflowed his zazen. It flooded his whole life. In a recent talk here, I showed a short video, maybe some of you were here, a short video of Suzuki Roshi. And a friend who had read Suzuki Roshi but not seen a film of him said that she hadn't appreciated his tenderness, his lightheartedness, his warmth.

[20:20]

He seemed more serious, you know, in his writing. But what we see when we see the video or when we get into the transcripts of his teaching is this warmth, this warmth overflowing from his own zaza and practice. So this is the family style of our lineage of Suzuki Roshi, I believe. This aspiration, this warm-hearted practice. So Suzuki Roshi continues, a mother will take care of her child even though she may have no idea how to make her baby happy. And similarly, when you take care of your posture and your breathing, there's a warm feeling in it. So we put emphasis on warm heart, warm zazen.

[21:25]

The warm feeling we have in our practice is, in other words, enlightenment. The warm feeling we have in our practice is enlightenment, or Buddha's mercy, Buddha's mind. It is not a matter of just counting your breath or following your breath. If counting the breath is tedious, it may be better just to follow the breath. But the point is, while inhaling and exhaling, to take care of the breath, just as a mother watches her baby. If a baby cries, the mother is worried. That kind of close relationship, being one with your practice, is the point. I am not talking about anything new, the same old things. So I have faith in this practice of warm-hearted zazen. And this is my renewed intention. my intention for this coming month of intensified practice, for this coming month of fear and upheaval in the country.

[22:40]

He says, my intention is to nourish and cultivate that warm heart of practice. That's my answer today to Nagarjuna's question. Why would you sit there So to be clear, this warm heart, this spacious mind and warm heart of zazen practice is not the opposite of hatred and cold-heartedness and separation and blame and despair. We might think we need to get rid of hatred to have a warm heart. We might need to get rid of the feeling of separation and blame and despair. But when we practice in this way, tenderly, warmly, caring for our breath and whatever else, allowing that to overflow, we can find that the warm heart meets the hatred and the separation and the blame and despair that arises in me all the time that I would like to practice.

[24:07]

The practice is including them, bringing them into this warm heart. This is the great power of this warm heart of practice. It's fearless because it can include anything. It doesn't fight separation and hatred and blame and despair. It meets all of those things with warmth. It includes them and tenderly cares for them. So we say, you know, bringing harmony to everyone free from hindrance and it seems like We won't have the hindrance anymore. But the practice is bigger than that. Free from hindrance is totally included. This hatred is welcome. It's welcome in me to be cared for, tended to, in this warm heart of practice. This, to be clear, is my aspiration.

[25:10]

lest anyone think I'm claiming some success in these matters. So to understand this warm heart, this warm heart zazen, warm heart zazen. A recent practice period, Tenshin Roshi rewrote our schedules to say in place of things like sitting zazen, walking kinhin, eating lunch, Buddha activity, Buddha activity, Buddha activity. And I'm picturing that now on our schedule. Warm heart zazen, warm heart walking, warm heart lunch. So anyway, to understand this warm heart in its deepest sense and to not mix it up with something that it's not. I draw a great inspiration from, find myself turning to Dr. Martin Luther King's teachings, on the Greek words for love. And I want to share this teaching with you because I find it very illuminating about what this practice is and isn't.

[26:24]

So I want to play a short clip from one of his talks on the topic and I'm going to invite you to listen to it in light of our own practice of warm-heart zazen. You might see hearing him that warm-heart practice could be not just affection or, as he puts it, emotional bosh. It's not just warm because we like something that's happening. You know, the ocean waves, how wonderful. The chirping birds, how wonderful. My friend's kind word, how wonderful. These are wonderful things and it's easy to have a warm heart for them. But that feeling, of liking something is not this warm-hearted zazen. It's not plastering on a smile or ultimately even any particular feeling. This warm-hearted zazen could be, as you may hear, an actual living dharma gate to the deepest compassion, the ultimate universal compassion grounded in and intimate with wisdom.

[27:42]

Suzuki Roshi says, that warm feeling is, in other words, enlightenment. So what is the warm feeling that's not just, oh, it's so nice, I feel good. The warm feeling that is enlightenment, grounded, one with wisdom. So I want to try something here. I hope it works. Let's see. You can let me know if it doesn't. always have to stop and explain what I mean when I talk about love and in this movement and in the non-violent context because people raise a question all the time what do you mean when you say love those who are oppressing you and love those who are exploiting you and those who are violently seeking to destroy you and certainly when I talk about love at this point I'm not talking about emotional Bosch I'm not talking about some uh

[28:44]

or even some affectionate emotion. I'm talking about something much deeper. It would be nonsense to urge oppressed people to love their violent oppressors in an affectionate sense. Fortunately, the Greek language comes to our aid at this point. There are three words in the Greek language for love. There's the word eros. Eros is a sort of Aesthetic love. Plato used to talk about it a great deal in his dialogues, the yearning of the soul for the realm of the divine. It has come to us to be a sort of romantic love. And so in this sense, we all know about Eros. We have read about it in all of the beauties of literature, and we've experienced it. In a sense, Edgar Allan Poe was talking about Eros when he talked about his beautiful Annabelle Lee with the love surrounded by the halo of eternity. In a sense, Shakespeare was talking about eros when he said, love is not love which alters when it alteration finds or bends with the remover to remove.

[29:49]

It is an ever-fixed mark that looks on tempest and is never shaken. It is a star to every wandering bark. You know, I can remember that because I used to quote it to my wife when we were quoting. That's eros. Then the Greek language talks about phileo, which is another level of love. It's a kind of intimate affection between personal friends. On this level you love because you are loved. You love the people that you like. This is friendship. Then the Greek language comes out with another word. It is the word agape. Agape is more than romantic love. Agape is more than friendship. Agape is understanding, creative, redemptive goodwill for all men. It is an overflowing love which seeks nothing in return. Theologians would say that it is the love of God operating in the human heart. And when one rises to love on this level, he is able to love the person who does the evil deed while hating the deed that the person does.

[30:57]

And he is able to love those persons that he even finds it difficult to like. For he begins to look beneath the surface and he discovers that that individual who may be brutal toward him and who may be prejudiced was taught that way. He was a child of his culture. At times his school taught him that way. At times his church taught him that way. At times his family taught him that way. And the thing to do is to change the structure and the evil system. Thank you. Maybe that was resonant for you as it is for me. And what is the depth, you know, of this warm heart we're practicing? This line, it would be nonsense to urge people to love their violent oppressors in an affectionate sense.

[31:59]

Such a helpful pointer as we orient. our warm heart and our deep compassion. It includes affection, but it's not about affection. It's universal compassion. I think part of why I snooze, you know, or pass or resist this vow that I myself have taken, harmony, bringing harmony to everyone, and part of why I deny myself and others this warm heart, is because I don't want to harmonize with those who are disharmonious. I don't want to harmonize with those who oppress and abuse and destroy. I don't want to have a warm feeling. So I can find my way again, you know, I can recover my faith and compassion in this actual warm heart practice. When I think of it in these terms, when I see that it's agape, this universal compassion, more than a feeling, more than affection, this understanding, creative, redemptive goodwill towards everyone, this deep and practical wisdom.

[33:16]

So I don't need to have affection. Or do I need to cultivate or certainly not teach affection? towards these two familiar acts, these habitual reenactments of brutality and oppression. But if I'm in any way to be an agent, a part of creativity and healing in this world, to in any way live out this vow to bring harmony to everyone, you know, I may not need affection, but I do actually need profound compassion for everyone. for everything, inside and outside, for all suffering beings. So when I can make and hold this distinction between affection, warmth as a warm feeling as affection, and this warmth of universal compassion, this warmth of a truly open and responsive heart, then I can trust compassion again.

[34:24]

I can remember that I really do long for universal compassion, to bring harmony to everyone. So, you know, many of us are skeptical or concerned about teachings on compassion or what they might imply, how they might be defensive or leave the status quo untouched. And unfortunately, that's how these teachings are often used and maybe why You yourself may have been, or I often do, cringe when someone like me, a white man at the microphone, starts quoting Dr. King. I think we can and should fear these simplistic teachings that compassion can sound like. We should all just get along. Just everybody settle down and be harmonious. That's what the Buddha said.

[35:27]

That's what Jesus said. I don't trust that, and I hope you don't either. But the compassion in our practice has nothing to do with this simplistic teaching. When we enter this warm heart in an embodied way, caring for our breath with a warm heart, and then letting that overflow, then the actual embodied experience of that is entirely different. I often have shared the quote attributed to Desmond Tutu on the elephant and the mouse, maybe you've heard it. He is said to have said, If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor. If an elephant has its foot on the tail of a mouse and you say that you are neutral, the mouse will not appreciate your neutrality.

[36:30]

So when compassion is taught in a shallow way, compassion as an equivalency or above the fray neutrality, it has the same problem. You know, to say, well, universal compassion for everything, oppressor and oppressed, and now let's call it a day. That is not the point of our practice of this teaching. The point is a true warm heart, this universal compassion, this warm heart that is, in other words, enlightenment, this universal compassion that is the wisdom of non-separation and the creative healing whole activity that emerges from that. So Dr. King and our own Buddhist teachings are totally clear and in, I would say, absolute agreement on at least this one point that without that grounding in universal compassion, the wisdom of non-separation this warm heart that is enlightenment, then there's no actual possibility for transformative action.

[37:41]

Without that basis in true warm heart, in the deepest sense, then all we do, all we can really do is hit things, sometimes win, sometimes lose on some narrow goal, but just go along stirring resentment, adding to the great store of karma, this great gurgling vat of human hatred, this engine of bitterness. So reminding myself of this deepest meaning, I can practice without reservation, a warm-hearted regard for my breath, my body, my thoughts, and endeavor to practice it with everyone and everything I meet. Before I end, I wanted to just go back to this last bit from the excerpt I played, and I'll read it again.

[38:53]

So he says, you know, the practitioner in this context, the nonviolent practitioner, say the person of the way, is able to love those persons that they find difficult to like. And, you know, in this version of the talk, he was quite restrained. But in other versions, you know, he soars in expressing this difficulty. Difficult to like is an understatement. He says, I find it difficult to like, you know, people who are bombing my house. I find it difficult to like people who are seeking to destroy me. But this person of the way able to love those persons that are even so difficult to like because they begin to look beneath the surface and discover that the individual who may be brutal toward them and who may be prejudiced was taught that way was a child of their culture. At times their school taught them that way.

[39:55]

At times their church taught them that way. At times their family taught them that way. So I'm so struck by this part because it gets right at the Buddhist understanding of how wisdom and compassion unite. How wisdom and compassion are merged in this practice of warm heart. And it shows how we can lean on this wisdom, this wisdom to open our compassion. And we can practice this compassion to open further wisdom, which opens even deeper compassion. So in our Buddhist language, this compassion comes with the understanding of no self. So this is the basic insight that no one exists by themselves. No one by themselves decides to be who they are. We are each responsible for our life.

[40:56]

There's no question about that in our teaching. We are each responsible totally responsible for our life. But we did not decide on our own who to be. How did he get to be who he is? How did I get to be who I am? At times, his church taught him that way. At times, his family taught him that way. In the Buddha Dharma, neither we, ourselves, nor those we interact with, ultimately speaking, are independent individuals. We are all just something that has been shaped by something that is not us. We are all just long chains of karma, of habits of body, speech, and mind held and shaped by preceding conditions. So this is part of our wisdom practice is to look with this light that no one willed themselves alone into existence. No one is an independent agent doing their own thing for their own reasons.

[42:01]

Everyone and everything is the result of something else, and we are all in that together. So you might worry, many have, that to admit this obvious truth is nihilistic or disempowering or deterministic or morally reckless. But, you know, again, in our actual embodied practice, this wisdom that at bottom there are no separate actors, just chains of karma, in a very practical way, opens our compassion. So this may sound abstract. So I wanted to share an image that I think is wonderfully clear on this point from Zen's Chinese Taoist predecessor, one of them, Zhuangzi. The image of the boat, maybe you know this one as well. So the image is that you're peacefully rowing on the water.

[43:05]

Probably very warm-heartedly because you like it. It's so pleasant. You're out on the water, gentle waves, you're rowing your boat, enjoying your nice day. And suddenly, you know, a boat, you see a boat coming towards you. And you see that it's coming right at you, and it's picking up speed, and it's on a collision course. And you say, watch out. And then you become more and more upset and animated. Move your boat! You shout and get more and more angry and upset. How could you? How dare you? The hatred and the blame take root at this irresponsible person driving their boat right at you. And then as it clears the next wave, this boat is about to hit you and you look inside and see that it's empty. An abandoned boat. Pushed around by the waves. No one in it. And that moment we see that, you know, it's not that we don't then respond.

[44:13]

We steer our boat clear and we try to keep this boat from harming others. But the seeds, the root of the hatred, the blame is gone. I would say it's gone immediately. As soon as we see the boat is empty, the hatred and blame have no, you know, have no root, have no basis. There's no one there. Another way to study this really deep and important point is to study our use of and, I would say, everyday belief in the expression, if I were you. I often think this way, you know, well, if I were you, I would have. If I were you, I wouldn't have. I think this is possibly the most un-Buddhist thing that we could possibly say.

[45:16]

If I were you, you know, I would never, ever use this expression. Buddhists know, you know, in the Buddha Dharma, we know that there is no me that could be in you without it just being you. There is no me part. There's no soul or self that we could surgically remove and put somewhere else. So what are you? What am I? Right now, you are... Me being you. That's what you are. You are me under the conditions of you. And that's what I am. I am you under the conditions of me. So what you did was what I would have done if I were you. As soon as I were under the conditions of you, there would truly be nothing left of me. There is no independent core. All we are is the conditions that make us up.

[46:20]

So this wisdom, this insight is the source of our liberation in this teaching from dis-ease and suffering. It's at the deep source of our compassion too. There's not an independent and unique deciding self plus all the conditions of our life. There's just the conditions of our life. So at times his church taught him that way. That's what he is. At times his family taught him that way. That's what he is. The boat is empty. The hatred has no root. So we study this wisdom teaching to open our warm-hearted zazen and our universal compassion. And as we practice in this universal compassion, the wisdom, opens and deepens further. So just to come back to our zazen, you know, the way we cultivate and manifest this liberative wisdom and this, you know, terrifyingly universal compassion, we start just by practicing warm-hearted zazen.

[47:44]

Rule-bound zazen won't get us there. Doing it right zazen won't get us there. Attainment-oriented zazen won't get us there. Only warm-hearted zazen to be kind to yourself, to all that arises. This warm-hearted zazen already carries the wisdom of non-separation, the wisdom that allows it to include everything. And this warm-hearted zazen carries this universal compassion. So we practice this with our body, in our body, with our breath, every day. We put emphasis on warm heart, warm zazen. The warm feeling we have in our practice is enlightenment. The point is, while inhaling and exhaling, to take care of the breath. So please practice with me in these coming days this tender care of your breath and body.

[48:50]

Tender care for each word spoken and heard, each thought, each step, bringing harmony to everyone. You can allow everything and everyone to be included in this. Remembering, please, that without this basis, without this deep warm heart zazen, our deluded action will just bring more chaos and hatred. And that from this basis of warm heart zazen, however imperfect, you know, or not quite there, something can leap, something creative and healing can leap. So we really need this warm heart zazen today, this creative healing response based on it. and we need it tomorrow and we definitely need it Tuesday and Wednesday I think we'll need it too so thank you for coming this morning any good that comes of our gathering and practicing together we offer to the well-being and liberation from suffering

[50:14]

of everyone as we take refuge in Sangha before all beings, vowing to bring harmony to everyone. Thank you. Thank you for listening to this podcast offered by the San Francisco Zen Center. Our programs are made possible by the donations we receive. Please help us to continue to realize and actualize the practice of giving, by offering your financial support. For more information, visit sfzc.org and click Giving. May we fully enjoy the Dharma.

[51:00]

@Transcribed_UNK
@Text_v005
@Score_93.17