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, everyone. Good evening. I feel so happy. Can you hear? I feel so happy to be at Tassajara with all of you for this, I think it's the 37th, no race, is that true? 38 minus one year that we didn't do it? 77, anyway. And the theme is healing our bodies, healing the world. And when we went around the circle, it was wonderful to hear all the medicine that people regularly take to heal themselves, to take good care of themselves.

[01:08]

The Buddha, one of the epithets or one of the names for the Buddha was the great physician. And the Buddha diagnosed the illness, which was basically ignorance, self-clinging. and then had the medicine, which was the dharma, the teaching, practices. And then the nurses were the sangha, and our dharma friends, bodhisattvas, who care for one another, care for themselves and care for one another in myriad ways. So when we hear this theme, healing our bodies, healing ourselves. We may feel like we know what our body is. We know what our self is. We know what the world is.

[02:12]

Healing ourselves, healing the world. We know what the world is. We know what a body is. There's a way we might assume something that we know about who we are and what the world is. And I wanted to... And there is something we... There's one level where, yes, we do know this is... I'm sitting up here and you're sitting over there. And in another way, we are all here together. And where I end and you begin may not be so clear, really. So we have these conceptual ideas of what the world is, what our bodies are, what healing is. And I wanted to give a definition of heal, which I found quite interesting when I looked it up. To heal is to restore to health, to set right, to rid of anxiety, to become whole and sound.

[03:26]

to return to health. So this is all part of healing and the root that etymologically the word means whole, uninjured, and of good omen. And other words, the cluster of words that go along with that are hail, you know, hail and hearty, hail fellow well met, hail is whole, wholesome, hailsome and wholesome, and also holy. and sacred and to consecrate and to bless. So all these, this kind of cluster of words come from the same root. So to heal is to restore into wholeness. And what is wholeness? There's a saying, hurt people hurt people, hurt people, suffering beings, end up causing suffering and hurting other beings.

[04:37]

Hurt people, hurt people. And I recently saw the movie Woman in Gold. I know Tassar students, you're not going to be seeing many. We are going to see a movie, actually, tomorrow. It's the story of... a painting that was taken during the Holocaust from a Jewish family and the kind of journey to get it back. But Helen Mirren, when she went back to Austria to kind of try and get this back, she was visiting the Art Institute there where it was hanging, I think. Anyway, she said if Hitler had been accepted to this art school, things might have gone differently, you know. And that was just a little part of the movie, but it struck me. Hurt people hurt people. Suffering beings act out and hurt many beings and the world. So this direct connection from our well-being, our state of mind, our suffering and emotional well-being, and the world, there's...

[05:52]

There is a flow there that you can't chop up into, well, this is mine. And that's the world's. World, by the way, is the earth and the universe and its inhabitants. And a realm or domain like the world of, you know, a particular group is also their realm. So there's a koan from the Book of Serenity that I wanted to bring up that brings these questions to the fore. And it's a wonderful koan called Dishan Plants the Fields, case number 12, in the Book of Serenity. which is a collection of Zen stories. And in this way of talking about koans, I'd like us to hear it as a story that is speaking to you, that is our story, that isn't, this is from 800s in China, a conversation between two Zen practitioners, a teacher and a student.

[07:19]

But see how it reverberates for you, this particular story. It's always reverberated for me for years, the questions within the story that point to, that illustrate, that illuminate the structure of reality. And there's a kind of back story to this koan story. if I should tell the backstory first or the koan first I'll do the koan first so the characters the people in the story are Dijang and Dijang means it's the Chinese for Jizo some of you may know Jizo Bodhisattva Bodhisattva of great compassion who we have one who's wearing a red bib and cape that's sitting out in the garden right as you walk by the kitchen and And Jizo is the bodhisattva or the enlightenment being who made a vow to enter difficult situations, hell realms, go with children who have died, this kind of feeling of compassion and fearlessness about meeting difficulties and suffering.

[08:43]

So this particular Zen master was named... Dijon for the temple that was on a mountain called Dijon. So Dijon asked another student named Shushan, where are you from? And Shushan said, from the south. And Dijon said, how is Buddhism these days in the south? How's it going? And Shushan said, there's extensive discussion. And Dijon said, how does this compare with me here planting the fields and eating rice? And Shushan said, oh, what about the world? What can you do about the world?

[09:46]

And Dishang said, what do you call the world? That's the story. That's the dialogue. And the back story is, this dialogue came a little bit later, the back story is that Dishang was on this mountain called Dishang, and it was kind of a little bit backwater maybe. And I've been thinking about this koan, and it's sort of like... He wasn't all that well-known, maybe, and these pilgrims who were traveling got caught in this wind and rain and kind of snowy weather and went to that temple which was on that mountain. And it's cold. And it says in the story, they're huddled around the brazier, you know, the kind of fire area, ignoring Dishan, who's the abbot of the monastery, totally ignoring him, and they're busy talking together. So Dijang says, do you mind if I ask you something?

[10:50]

And one of these fellows, Shushan, says, well, if you need some clarification about something, yes, please go ahead. And Dijang says, are the mountains and the rivers and the great earth identical or separate from you elders? And Shushan said, separate. And Dijang held up his fingers. And then Shushan said, hurriedly, says in the commentary, identical, identical. And Dijang held up his two fingers again. And then left them. Left this little group. And they, Fayan, who's somebody, many of us love the koans about Fayan, He said, what do you think the habit meant about holding up those two fingers? And Xu Shan said, oh, he just did it arbitrarily.

[11:52]

It didn't mean anything. And Fa Yan said, I'm not so sure. And Xu Shan said, are there an elephant's tusks in a rat's mouth? Don't pay any attention. So the next day they were going to leave. The weather cleared. And Fa Yan said, why don't you guys go ahead on your own? I'm going to stay around here for a while. see what I can learn here. So they go off and Fayan stays for a long time and becomes the disciple of Dijon. Fayan is the one who said, for those of you who know this story, Dijon said, where are you going? He said, I'm going on pilgrimage. And Dijon said, why are you going on pilgrimage? And he said, I don't know. Fayan said, I don't know. And Dishan said, not knowing is nearest. So this is Dishan. You might be familiar with him. So back to our story. So later, so Fayan's been there.

[12:52]

And later, these guys come back. These monks come back. Shushan and the boys. And they're a little bit, you know, kind of have a little bit different attitude here. And that's when Dijon said, where are you from? From the south. How's Buddhism going there in the south? There's extensive discussion. And Dijon says, how does this compare with me here, planting the fields and eating rice? And Shushan said, what can you do about the world? And Dijon said, what do you call the world? So these two questions, you know, he's questioning his understanding, he's questioning what is he holding to, what ideas, what concepts, what way has he divided up the world, and what doesn't he see about the full activity of living fully

[14:07]

each moment and doing one sincere practice, whatever it may be. So I was thinking it's kind of like somebody coming to Tassajara, let's say, from the Bay Area, you know, the teacher saying, where are you from? The Bay Area. How is Buddhism these days in the Bay Area? And the person saying, there's extensive discussion and conferences and one-day retreats and all sorts of workshops and online offerings, and it's just, there's a lot going on there. And then the teacher says, how does this compare with us sweeping and chopping and cleaning and making beds and cleaning the plunge and taking good care of guests here? And the person said, what are you going to do about the world? Which is a question that we ask ourselves, yes? Often. Is it okay for me to be here sweeping and chopping and taking care of everyday activity?

[15:16]

How is that going to help the world? The world is suffering. And then this question, what do you call the world? What do we call the world? Can it come up? So yes, the world... What do we call the world? And when I think of the world, you know, and healing ourselves as healing the world, like one continuum. I've been thinking a lot about Nepal, and I think there's been more than one earthquake. I think there was over 8,000 people killed, and then another, I don't know how many hundreds. We have one of our women ancestors, Indian ancestors, Patachara. You know, there's a story where she loses everything. She has a baby that she gives birth to on the way trying to get home, and a toddler.

[16:23]

A big storm comes, maybe a big, terrible storm, and her husband goes away to find brambles and bushes and wood to make a shelter and gets bitten by a snake and dies and then she tries to cross a swollen river and loses both children and when she gets back to her home there's been this terrible storm the house has collapsed and her parents have been killed and somehow in reading about Nepal and seeing the pictures it was like that story probably happened you know just last week, you know, to someone in this overwhelming grief. And she goes, she loses her mind, Patachara does, with so much grief and wanders like a crazy lady and finds somehow gets to where the Buddha was teaching. And they want to, his students want to keep her away, this crazy person from him.

[17:30]

And he says, let her come forward. And she's Her clothes had been ripped off. She's just like wildness. And he... There's two versions. One is he says to her sister, regain your state of mind. And another is that he doesn't actually say it, but just being with him, being in close proximity, body to body, healed her. His love and calm... and acceptance, and openness, and fearlessness, and self and other drop away his connection, complete connection. And that healed her, and she became, she ordained right then and there. But in one rendition of the story, it says the Buddha said he can't help her.

[18:32]

This is our life. We cry, and you have cried, an ocean of tears and will cry an ocean of tears of grief. I can't take that away from you. But we can practice. We can live a life that's filled with kindness and love and mindfulness and ethical conduct and acceptance and so forth. So I also, you know, what do we call the world? What do each of us call the world? I just recently heard this, I don't even know the word to use, but a very scathing and difficult to hear. somebody telling the truth about systematic oppression of people of color in this country that was carried out by the states and by governments and by neighborhoods in terms of housing and the GI Bill.

[19:54]

And it was so painful to hear that slums were created kind of on purpose by not picking up the garbage in that area so that it did become run down and then not allowing people to get housing in other places and then charging very high in the only place they could be. And it was part of policy. It was city and state policy. And even with the Supreme Court saying it's unconstitutional, it went underground. It was amongst neighbors. covenants that were not spoken in. It was an incredible description, which many of you are probably very familiar with and know about. But somehow, and the effects of that we're feeling, the effects of creating that world through actions and thinking in a certain way creates, you know, Baltimore and Ferguson and all these...

[21:01]

This is a created world. What do we call the world? What world do we want to live in? And our world is a world of our conceptual thinking. There isn't a world out there that is a certain way. We bring our karmic consciousness and create worlds. through our thinking and our actions and our speech. And we do it with others and we do our own. So when Shushan says, well, what can we do about the world? What do you call the world? Are we clear about that? Are we clear about our held biases and beliefs and actions stepping from those unexamined? I'm taking a course at Stanford on compassion, developing compassion, and it has the kind of neuroscience underneath a lot of what we already know by practicing the changes in our world view, the changes in the way we relate and see and feel about ourselves and others, and dropping...

[22:28]

ways of separation and there was a study that was done a kind of psychological study with brain scans with showing people pictures of humans different humans and then watching what parts of the brain light up and so forth some of you may know about this and there were certain pictures if you showed them to people where the the parts of the brain that light up for recognizing human beings like faces and other parts lit up that were not human when certain pictures were shown. So it was helpful for me to understand this was, you know, deeply embedded ways of seeing the world. What do we call the world? What do we call this world? sentient being and that our brain registers as not human or inhuman or dehumanized, you know, dehumanized.

[23:38]

And then actions will follow from that. If that's, you know. And it was modified if before that picture was shown of this particular being, this is so interesting, they would show a picture of a vegetable like broccoli or kale. Show a picture of that and then ask them, what preference for vegetable do you think this person has? And then they'd show the picture of this person that over and over again in the test was identified as non-human or the parts of the brain that recognize human didn't light up in the same way. But when you ask what vegetable they might have, prefer, then the human parts of the brain lit up. I found that fascinating, that as soon as there's some relationship about shared likes and dislikes, or they don't know this person, a stranger, what vegetable they may like, and to begin to think about what is our common humanity, what might they like, what might they prefer, all of a sudden there's a human being there.

[24:55]

Neurologically, I mean, in the neuronal pathways. This is so, you know, what do we call the world? What do we call human? And what is ascension being? The bodhisattva's vow is to live for the benefit of all beings. And where do we make these distinctions? These are worthy, these are not. This person I go out of my way for, this one I won't. These are, this is koan, this is our life koan. So what do we do about the world? And what does our life at Tassajara, for those who are here year-round or here for the summer, how do we understand our practice down here in this tiny valley being of benefit to the world and taking care of the world.

[25:59]

I think we can see it in the faces of the guests what it means to people to come here, how it changes their hearts and their sense of well-being that's then passed on. This is creating worlds together. So there's a kind of a verse commentary that I'll end with that goes along with this koan that I brought, that I brought, that I didn't bring. So I'll end with another part of the commentary which it's talking about, you know, Dijon is planting rice, planting, tilling the soil just like, you know, green mulch is in full tilt, full tilt.

[27:20]

And we're doing community work and hoeing and the vegetables are coming. What can we do about the world? How about planting food with care and offering it? And this part of the commentary is deep in the mountains. It's talking about the ancients who lived a very simple life, gathering chestnuts and roasting them, hoeing some vegetables, and just living a simple life. They didn't have to create big temples and big, you know, lots of discussion. Deep in the mountains, their fortune was no more than contentment.

[28:23]

All their lives, they never sought from anyone. Their nobility was was no more than purity and serenity. What need for bushels of emblems, medals and special capes? Deep in the mountains, their fortune was no more than contentment. And I think contentment, now this is one of the eight great attributes, you know, of a Buddha, is contentment. Not acquiescence and complacency, but full contentment. Not seeking from anyone. Because why? There's nothing really to seek. And as we practice more and more, we see that what we thought would bring happiness and well-being and healing may not be, we might be going in the opposite direction.

[29:30]

outside oneself. Their nobility was no more than purity and serenity. What need for bushels of emblems? So I think I'm right on time to end so we can get up tomorrow morning and walk together, run together up into the deep mountains in contented fellowship. Thank you all very much. Thank you for listening to this podcast offered by the San Francisco Zen Center. 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.

[30:36]

For more information, visit sfcc.org and click Giving.

[30:42]

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