Good evening. Can you all hear me? I guess that's it. Oh, good. Okay. Welcome to everyone here tonight, near or far. Seeing your faces on the screen, I feel your nearness. And sitting on this seat wrapped in my robe, I'd like to thank, first, Nancy Petron, my Dharma sister, the Tonto at San Francisco Zen Center. Thank you, Nancy, for inviting me to speak and to share some words with all of you. As well, David Zimmerman. Thank you, David, for your support. And I'd also like to thank my teachers, Linda Ruth Cutts, and Ed Sadezen.

[01:10]

Their support, their encouragement, their teaching is what informs me and my everyday practice as always. So thank you to both of you. Last Saturday, Shindo ushered in the new year. I so appreciated his opening the door to 2021. Today, this day, we anticipated the confirmation of the election. We instead saw a kind of mayhem and violence that instead of wrapping us together and making us feel united, instead there was a tearing apart. So before I begin my talk, I'd like to together have one minute of silence.

[02:13]

And the easiest way I think to do that is I have a small bell here and I'll ring it to begin the silence and I'll ring it again after one minute. Thank you. Thank you.

[03:36]

So here we are entering the new year. And as I prepared for this talk, I thought about how I might teach tonight starting at the beginning. In Buddhism, we carry around quite a bit of language, rituals and garments to wear in our tradition. I thought I would unfold some of them and share my ideas about why we carry them around. In the morning when we finish sitting zazen, our first chant is the robe chant, a starting place for this talk. It's a beginning that is ancient and therefore I would suggest a good beginning. It's a garment. So tonight I'd like to talk about wearing the robe, being enfolded in the teaching, wrapping up, staying warm.

[04:49]

How are we wrapped by the teaching? How does it warm us and how do we warm others? The robe we wear is a way to remember, to learn and teach. The learning comes from listening and enveloping ourselves wholeheartedly. The teaching comes from passing on and offering a way to wrap up and completely immerse, cover ourselves in the Dharma. Before continuing, let me be precise about this word. this word, the robe. I see the robe as a teaching, a wrapping ourselves, absorbing it, warmed by it, which in turn allows us, all of us, to teach and share the Dharma. In this talk, I use the phrase not to depict an okesa or a rakasu, two garments that we stitch and wear,

[05:59]

but rather the robe as a symbol for teachings. Example, the idea of great teachings of liberation. When we wrap ourselves in the Dharma, there are benefits for the teacher and the student. Rather than the robe being a garment that describes a hierarchy or a designation of a position in the temple, I see the robe as a more democratic, idea and something that's available to everyone. Not something to put on each day, but something we may all wish to wear 24-7, an embracing of the teaching. Studying the Dharma allows us to move back and forth in the realm of study, sometimes as teacher, sometimes as student.

[07:07]

And studying doesn't necessarily mean cracking open a book or memorizing a phrase. Sometimes it's watching and observing and being awake. Sometimes the studying takes our whole life. In the early years of my practice, I was offended by the idea of studying. If I saw someone reading about the Dharma, I had a righteous attitude. I just wanted to sit zazen, no reading for me. Time passed. There were phrases and stories that I heard. I was intrigued. I began to collect some books to read. to study, even going to graduate school to dig deeply into the language and words. Bringing this back to the cushion, my place to sit.

[08:09]

Lately, the studying seems like a more open idea, including all kinds of learning, all kinds of being unfolded. I eat rice cakes on a daily basis. This garment we tenderly care for, this robe we tenderly care for brings joy and requires our attention. So here's the chant. I know many of you know it, but perhaps some of you do not. . Great robe of liberation. Fields far beyond form an emptiness. Wearing the robe of the Tatakada, saving all beings.

[09:15]

I recently read about a conversation that occurred in 1995 when David Chatwick and Sojin Mel Weissman discussed an early memory of Suzuki Roshi. Mel said, just the way he stood up and sat down, his body language was his greatest teaching, also his subtle way of teaching. At Sakoji, we used to do the rogue chant, but in Japanese. I didn't know what it was called even. So I went to him and said, what is the meaning of that chant that we do right after Zazen? Suzuki Roshi said, I don't know. I stood there and Katagiri Roshi was in the office with us. Katagiri was trying to think about it and he started looking through the drawers, looking for some kind of translation. And Suzuki Roshi gestured to him not to do that.

[10:24]

And then Suzuki Roshi pointed to his heart and said, it's love. The first line, great robe of liberation, is a shout out, a kind of celebration. Sigh being enthusiasm, being free or unhindered. and puku the clothes that we wear. How incredibly great to be able to become free and unhindered by embracing the teaching, a shout of joy. In the Lotus Sutra, which I've been reading lately over and over, in chapter 10, it speaks about the robe. The robe being one of three main components of practice.

[11:26]

One of three. The first, enter the room to have great compassion for all beings. The second, wear the robe to be gentle and patient. The third, sit to contemplate the emptiness of all things. those three main components. When we enter the room, we are in the room of great compassion. When we wear the robe, we are wearing a robe woven of gentleness and patience. And when we sit, we are sitting in the seat of emptiness. This robe, a robe woven, woven of gentleness and patience. These are elements that have a softening influence. When we carry these qualities, it makes us approachable and able to hear.

[12:33]

The Lotus Sutra concluded doing this, these three main components, we should then teach the Dharma. When Norman Fisher spoke about this chapter in the Lotus Sutra, he said, the passing on of the teaching is the teaching. Even in the midst of the elaborate Lotus Sutra, the simple, straightforward act of passing on, this is a kind of wrapping the effort involved in passing it on, how liberating and free it makes us. wearing the robe, being enfolded in the teaching, wrapping up. The second line in the chant translates as fields far beyond form and emptiness.

[13:39]

Muso, together, means signless, beyond form, or without characteristic. Den is the rice field and A the road. Nothing is an obstacle, but rather there is an opening. It is signless beyond form and brings with it blessing and good fortune. The field brings back the exchange between Buddha and Ananda when they spoke on a hillside above rice fields together designing the patched robe. This patched robe made of cast off cloth describing the field of merit and a field which can provide nourishment. Dogen as well spoke about the robe and mentioned it in the Shobo Genzo.

[14:52]

Dogen was someone who loved language and both clarified and confused us in his teaching. He devoted two chapters to the robe, the power of the robe in chapter 13 and transmitting the robe in chapter 14. Here he said that the ability to wear the robe depends on wholesome past actions. He describes the robe as being Buddha mind, Buddha body, made of great love and compassion, a victorious banner. When we are wrapped in the robe, we hear the Dharma, see the teacher, are illuminated and full of joy. A banner sounds kind of dramatic. like a celebration of good fortune, a 4th of July with fireworks and parades.

[16:00]

This reminds me of an exchange I had with my teacher. I'd come to Linda Ruth for Dokka-san. I had before that bought a statue. my first Buddhist statue of Avalokiteshvara. It was very cold in my room in Cloud Hall at Green Gulch Farm. So I took one of my favorite scarves and wrapped Avalokiteshvara to keep her warm. When I went to see my teacher, I brought the wrapped statue with me to introduce the two of them. There, My teacher and I unwrapped her. We opened her eyes. She warmed the room. My teacher passed something on to me. Only later, I realized that the wrapping was my way of caring.

[17:10]

Over the years of travel, before each trip or project I took, I purchased a length of cloth, hem it, And then wear it whenever it was cold. Or I needed comfort. Sleeping on the deck of a boat, riding in a train car in the middle of winter, hiking in the mountains. And when needed, wrapping something else up or someone else up, including them in the folds. great robe of liberation, fields far beyond form and emptiness. The third line of the chant being, wearing the robe of the Tatakada. In this phrase, we have several different interesting words, being unfold, teaching, and meaning skin meeting cloth.

[18:13]

Based on this translation, we listen to, we feel that wearing the robe of the Tadakra is based on the wisdom of the original teacher. We reverently wrap ourselves in cloth. According to Dogen, when we wear the robe, there are merits that come forth. And he lists these for us in the Shobogenso. Some of these merits are that when wearing the robe, this provides modesty and a practice of wholesome conduct. It provides protection and provides comfort in the practicing of the way. Wearing the robe manifests the form of a mendicant and arouses joy. It averts wrongdoing and brings forth benefaction. It transforms delusion and creates wholesome field of benefaction.

[19:23]

Wearing the robe makes unwholesome actions disappear. It nurtures the Bodhisattva mind like a rice field. It allows one to be born in the heaven of purity and it frees one from the five senses of desire. All that in a garment. all that in the robe. While staying for a time at Rinso Inn in Japan, the mornings that winter were very, very cold. Each day I joined Huitzu and Shungo and maybe four or five other persons from the nearby town to sit Zazen in the Zendo. My feet were bare. My breath made clouds of heat and I shivered as the time passed.

[20:29]

One day while sitting, I felt a warm, soft garment being wrapped around my bare feet that poked out from the edge of my clothing. I was too embarrassed to turn and see what was going on. Only later, when I stood across from Huitzu and a stack of flannel blankets, did I realize that in the midst of Zazen, sitting on the cushion, he had stepped down and then he had wrapped me up, warmed me, and folded me in the teaching. Wearing the robe, being enfolded in the teaching, wrapping up. Now we come to the last line of the chant.

[21:34]

Great robe of liberation, fields far beyond form and emptiness. Wearing the robe of the Tathakara, saving all beings. Kodo Shoshujo. is people or multitudes. Joe is alive or sentient. Kodo is to save over a broad range. Saving multitudes of people or multitudes of various beings that are sentient. That's what we do when we wear the robe. Wearing the robe is we prepare to enter the day enacting our vow to save all beings.

[22:40]

I'd like to return again to Dogen and to a story that he tells in the show about his first experience with the rope chant. Here's what he says in chapter 13. During my stay in Sung China, when I was making efforts on the long platform, I saw that my neighbor at the end of every sitting would lift up his robe and place it on his head. Then holding the hands together in veneration, he would quietly recite a verse. At that time, there rose in me a feeling I have never before experienced. My body was overwhelmed with joy. The tears of gratitude secretly fell and soaked my lapels. The reason was that when I had read the Gama Sutra previously, I had noticed sentences about humbly receiving the robe on the head, but I had not clarified.

[23:54]

the standards for this behavior. Seeing it done now, before my very eyes, I was overjoyed. I thought to myself, it is a pity that when I was in my homeland, there was no master to teach this and no good friend to recommend it. How could I not regret? How could I not deplore passing so much time in vain? Now that I am seeing and hearing it, I can rejoice in past good conduct. If I had vainly stayed in my home country, how could I have sat next to this treasure of a monk who has received the transmission of the robe? And who wears this robe? The sadness and joy was not one-sided.

[24:57]

A thousand myriad tears of gratitude ran down. Because a devout anonymous monk sat next to Dogen in China around the year 1223 and recited the rogue chant, and because Dogen valued and carried this teaching forward, we now engage in his chanting and wearing this robe. being the first sounds we make in the morning. We are wrapping ourselves in the Buddha's teaching, prepared to enter a full day of work and family life with this depth, connection, and warmth as the foundation of our activity. Wearing the robe, being enfolded in the teaching, wrapping up. Next month, here at San Francisco Zen Center, there'll be a course called Favorite Pages, a literary look.

[26:12]

And this class will be offered using the haiku of Mutsu Suzuki, Suzuki Roshi's wife. In closing, I'd like to offer one of her poems written in January of 1975. . Dharma robes. Sleeves rolled up. First sweeping of the year. Dharma robes. Sleeves rolled up. First sweeping of the year. Perhaps this talk is like the good friend in Dogen's recounting who recommends.

[27:20]

Perhaps. Thank you very much. Thank you so much, everyone. Thank you so much, Marsha. As we transition into some time for Q&A, which we have about 15 minutes, we will, before doing the closing chant, I just wanted to point out that I put in the chat a link to more information about the the course that Marsha just mentioned. And after the chant, I will also put in a link for a January intensive registration for which closes on Friday. Marsha, when you're ready, we'll do the chant. May our intention equally extend to every being and place. with the true merit of Buddha's way.

[28:25]

Beings are numberless, I vow to save them. Delusions are inexhaustible, I vow to end them. Dharma gates are boundless, I vow to enter them. Buddha's way is unsurpassable, I vow to be coming. So as questions or comments arise, please feel free to open the participants pane and then click the button to raise your hand and when I see the blue hand I can unmute you. Kodo, are you calling on people or am I?

[29:30]

Oh, you're welcome to, and I'm happy to do it in service to you, whichever way you'd like to go. Okay, I can't see everyone, so maybe you should. Sounds great. I see Philip. And, Philip, you should be unmuted. Hi, Marsha. Hi, Philip. Hi. How does one know that one is worthy of wearing the robe? That's a long question. A good one. I think that Practicing and following the precepts and embracing the teaching is not about being worthy or not being worthy.

[30:42]

It's about a sincere intention. That sincerity and devotion are what allows us to be wrapped up in the teaching. And... There's no qualifier. We're all good to go. Thank you for your question. I hope that is helpful. Well, I think so, but I'm still struggling with that. I'll be having Jukai soon. Okay. Well, I think I'm a... I'm a big proponent of struggle. I think struggle is not a bad thing to have happen. And we do quite a bit of that in Buddhist practice. So struggle on. Thank you.

[31:44]

Thank you, Phila. Nice to see you tonight. Other questions, comments? Terry. Hi, Terry, I don't see you. Hi. I want to thank you for just talking about this. I've never really heard it talked about before. Maybe it was talked about and I wasn't ready to hear it. I never really have thought about the robe or wanting to wear it.

[32:49]

It just seemed an onerous thing to me to have to qualify for. And... It just you put it in a different way of being wrapped. And it's just interesting because I've been reading Dombey and Sons by Dickens. And one character talks about another character who is dying about she wasn't wrapped tight enough. She wasn't wrapped tight enough. And there's no explanation of what this means. It suddenly resonated with me of her just being unprotected and not having a way of understanding the world, you know. So anyhow, thank you. I've never thought about the world before. Thank you for that commentary. And thank you for that connection to Dickens.

[33:50]

I think, you know, one of the reasons it came up for me right now is with COVID, I feel, such an absence of being wrapped up or touching or being warmed and wrapping other people up. And for a long time, you know, now I'm hearing a couple times now the word qualifying or worthy, you know, and I think that when I first came to practice, I did The robe had a more concrete meaning to me than it does now. And so I wanted to share that because I think that we all wear the robe. We all have the capacity to wear the robe. So thank you, Terry. Nice to see you. Thank you.

[34:53]

I see Cotto, I see Celeste. It has her hand up. There's one person I see on my screen. Great. Let's do Celeste. And then we had a question come through in the chat from Christopher. So Celeste. Thank you so much. It's really just a comment. And you said something about when we chant, do the rope chant in the morning, that would be the first time we speak. And that is so liberating to me. I've been trying to figure out ways to be quiet in the morning. And that's really helpful. Not only just to not talk myself, but to not receive a lot of information, which is so seductive and so easy to do. So I'm thinking about a way to integrate just...

[35:56]

even if I am not putting my rakasu on every morning, but maybe even imagining it as a way to have a more quiet experience in the morning. So thank you. I love that. Thank you, Celeste. I like imagining you waking up and then that's the first thing that comes forth. And yeah, I think... Now, it might be a little too much latitude, but I think one could chant, the rogue chant. I mean, you don't have to be putting something on, literally. You are putting something on when you chant it. That's the whole point. And I think the idea, I mean, one of the things that I work with a lot is what is the first thing that happens when you wake up, you know? And... If you go to Tassajara, that's, you know, you know what it is.

[36:59]

You go to the Zendo. But I think that there is a wonderful connection that can happen if you take something like the rogue chant, which embraces the teaching and use that as the first sound of your day and wrap yourself in that sound. And how that... affects you, as I mentioned, the gentleness, the weave of the gentleness and patience that's described by Dogen is really, those are qualities that so allow us to, you know, make the day one where we're really available. So I think I... You'll have to let me know how it goes. Thank you. I appreciate that because I think the rock is to some extent, at least I remember sewing with wonderful Dharma sisters and there's a sense of accomplishment about it, I will say, but always wanting to find ways, new ways to experience it.

[38:10]

So thank you. It's very helpful. Nice to see you, Celeste. Christopher. everybody. Thanks so much, Marcia, for your wonderful talk. Also, I don't know whether this is true for anyone else, but it seemed like the raised hand feature was locked. But anyway, I got through the chat. So, yeah, I just wanted to express appreciation for the mention and of the events in Washington and the turmoil there and the, you know, wishing for peace and, you know, serenity brought to the conflict that we're experiencing. I think it, I find it in a way, it affects me. I think it affects us all that this is the leadership, you know, and the society that we live in.

[39:14]

And I guess to the extent that you are drawn to do so, I guess I would, curious if you have any more um any further expression to offer on well how how do we bring say the the you know the teachings of the the robe or the mention of suzuki roshi like oh it's all about it's just here you know it's just just love like how do we how do we how do we promote promote that and and perhaps facilitate healing for the pain caused by the events today That's a really thoughtful question, Christopher. I'm still a little speechless about it, I have to say. I had been anticipating talking, and then today, when everything started to happen, I started to feel very shaky about the talk tonight.

[40:18]

In fact, I think I'd shout out to one of my The teachers, you know, what are we going to do? And I think. I go back to the idea that wrapping ourselves in gentleness and patience and wrapping other people, wrapping up other people, warming them and embracing them and bringing people. bringing each other close, bringing each other together in whatever form that takes in your daily life or in anyone's daily life. They're hard times. And... I don't really have a good answer on that. Maybe somebody else does that's sitting here in the room that would like to offer it.

[41:20]

But thank you for your thoughtfulness, Christopher. Thank you. Thank you. may have time for one more exchange. That sounds like a do-si-do. One more dance. One more dance. Or, Moshe, it may be time if you'd like to offer a closing word. Oh, Nancy raised a hand. Oh, yay. Right in the nick of time. Uh, Thank you for your talk, Marsha. And I guess something that came to me in your exchange or after your exchange with Christopher was a few of us received an email this afternoon just letting us know that the normal posts

[42:38]

that we're going to go up on the social media for San Francisco Zen Center this afternoon about a few different events that are coming up. Actually, it was decided by communications that they weren't going to go up and that a prayer for of loving kindness was a very simple post was posted instead. So I it makes me. it made me think of what is the response during these times, you know, or on a day with what's happening today. And then also what came to me was just the action that each of us took this evening to make the decision to come to the Dharma talk, to turn off the, whatever we might've been plugged into, you know, there's still, It's a statement of, I think, of what each of us hopes for in the world, who we want to be.

[43:48]

And so I appreciate your reply. In a way, we've wrapped up the world with our actions this evening and taking a stand for what we want. world to be so um yeah thank you i love i love what you said nancy and you said it so well and um it's that kind of sincerity that yeah makes the difference so thank you thank you for that thank you and thank you for your question christopher I see that that brings us to the end of our time. Marsha, would you like to offer one closing word or shall we say goodnight? I'd say that what Nancy was describing is sleeves rolled up, which is what Mitsu Suzuki said.

[44:55]

The Dharma robes, sleeves rolled up for sweeping of the year. That idea that the robes or the teachings enable us and they are with us and we wear them and we step forth and we do what we need to do. We do the sweeping and we, we roll our sleeves up to enable ourselves to do that. And I like, I like to think of that and I like to think of what those simple, those simple, gestures mean to roll our sleeves up and to sweep. So perhaps that's the best place that I can leave you with tonight. So thank you so much for coming and for listening and being all together and wrapping each other up in this evening's talking.

[46:06]

Thank you so much. Thank you so much, Marcia, for your wonderful talk. I really appreciate it. Thank you, Barbara. Thank you. Thank you, Marcia. Thank you, Doug. Thank you, Marcia. Very much. Wonderful to see you. Very much, Marcia. Thank you. Thank you very much, Marcia, for your talk. Thank you very much, Marcia. You created a comforting space, Marcia, on a very difficult day. Thank you. Oh, thank you, Tova. Yeah, so true. Thanks, Marcia. Good night. Good night. Good night, everybody. Have a gentle evening. Yeah, have a gentle evening, all, and hope for better days soon. Absolutely. Good night. Getting your feet wrapped up in a cold Zen. Nice to see you, Tova. Good night. You too, Chris. Good night. Thank you for your talk. Good night. Thank you for coming.

[47:15]

Oh, hello, Ed. Yes. Hi, Marcia. Hi. Thank you, Marcia. When I show up, it means the Zendo is about to close. All right. Thank you, Eli, for your stewardship. Thanks, Eli.

[47:32]

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