Good morning and welcome to the Green Gulch Farm Sunday Dharma Talk offered today by Fu Schrader. This program has closed captioning. To enable, click on the small CC icon at the bottom of your Zoom screen. Click Enable Captions. Using the same menu, you can adjust the size of the captions. To move the closed captioning to a better place on your screen, you can use your mouse to drag and drop. Thank you. unsurpassed, penetrating and perfect Dharma is rarely met with, even in a hundred thousand million Kalpas, having it to see and listen to, to remember and accept. I vow to taste the truth of the Tathagata's words. Good morning.

[02:18]

Welcome to Green Gulch. So I'm going to start this morning with a story that's kind of one of the most popular ones here on the farm. It's called Ditsang, Planting the Fields. Ditsang asked Zuesan, where do you come from? Zuesan said, from the south. Ditsang said, how is Buddhism in the south these days? Zuesan said, there is extensive discussion. D-san said, well, how can that compare to me here, planting the fields and making rice to eat? D-san said, what can you do about the world? And D-san said, what do you call the world? So I would very much like to offer something to you all this morning that is relevant to the world that we are living in right now. A world from where I'm standing appears to be on fire.

[03:20]

And what's more, appears to be running out of water. If that weren't enough, there's also, as we all know, this global pandemic. There's a deepening awareness of racial injustice, record heat waves, violence of every kind, and the not infrequent news of giant asteroids whizzing close by the Earth. And yet, while all of that is so, what's also so is I live in a world, albeit a rather tiny one, on the foggy coast of California where there are people who are sitting quietly together, planting the fields, baking bread, and studying the Buddhist teaching, while at the same time, all the while, trying our best to be friends to one another. You know, it's not so easy. And yet these people and I are willing to offer the merit of our activities to the well-being of what we wish. would be the world, you know, Buddha's world, a dream that is trying to dream us.

[04:26]

So in this conversation between Ditsan and his visitor from the South, I am including in my talk today these two points of view of our one world. You know, there's on the one side, kind of like a cry to the heavens, you know, or prayer to the Bodhisattva of compassion, you know, please, please help us. Please help us. And then on the other side, there's a glimmer of optimism. A feeling that maybe things will improve. Maybe there will be enough rice to eat, enough medicine, enough housing. If only. If only means to me that there are conditions on what it will take for us to make of this world the Buddhist world. A place... that we would be peaceful for all the beings that live in it. You know, the human and the more than human, as Wendy Johnson loves to say. If only we can awaken from our ignorance. If only we could do more than wish for things to be different than they are.

[05:33]

If only we would stop hating and hurting one another. If only we weren't afraid of aging and sickness and death, you know, and so on and so on. So the Buddha was a teacher of gods and humans, so the sutras tell us. And what he taught them were some simple and practical methods for freeing themselves and, by extension, the entire world from suffering. And those methods were then passed down generation after generation, over thousands of miles, by those that we call Buddha ancestors. So that's what I want to pass on to you all this morning. These simple methods for how we might make this world a better place in five easy steps. I kind of made that part up. You know, I don't know if it's five easy steps or 10 easy steps or if it's easy at all, but I thought maybe five is good enough for today. So step number one, find yourself a spot of earth, you know, just as the Buddha did and take your seat.

[06:39]

I think finding your seat, as far as I can tell, is both the start and the end of Zen training. You know, just sit, just this. It's very simple. The hard part of Zen training is staying there long enough, you know, at least long enough to find out who you really are and what it is that you are here on this earth to do. So this first step is both personal and very intimate. No two of us are alike. And therein there is no basis whatsoever for comparison. And yet there is so much that we share and hold in common. For example, this great earth and all living beings. Which is exactly what the Buddha declared at the moment of his own awakening. I and all beings awaken at the same time. I and all beings awaken at the same time. So in that one bright moment, he took ownership of it all. But more importantly, he took responsibility for it all and for its care, you know, clearly a full-time job.

[07:42]

So step number two is to do it, to do that one thing that you are called here to do with your whole heart, you know, all the way to the end. So maybe it's this evening's meal, or maybe it's finishing the last paragraph of your romantic novel, you know, or maybe it's remembering to lengthen your spine and balance your head on your shoulders and breathe gently through your nose while you're sitting. It's simple and it's easy, but we have to do it. So Suzuki Roshi came here, of all places, in order to do that one thing that he was meant to do, all the way to the end. He came here to help these crazy humans with long hair and dirty feet to take a seat. to find themselves, and then to accept the task of helping others to find their seats as well. When Reb asked Suzuki Roshi back in the day who his disciples were, after a moment, the teacher said, those who are here for others.

[08:47]

Those who are here for others. Simple, but not so easy. I've recently started to refocus my own studies on our founding teacher's kind and wise words. As a result of a book I got in the mail from David Chadwick, the great David Chadwick, who's been collecting stories for many decades now. So this book is called Zen is Right Here. And it's a sequel to an earlier collection that David put together called Zen is Right Now. Among the many amazing stories that people shared with David about their meetings with Suzuki Roshi, I was quite moved by a response that he gave when he was asked by one of the students, if he kept an eye on everyone to see if they were following the precepts or not. The Roshi replied, I don't pay attention to whether you are following the precepts or not. I just notice how you are with one another. Which brings us to step number three, the Bodhisattva precepts.

[09:49]

The Bodhisattva precepts, which we are now reciting twice monthly, once on the full moon and the second time at the new moon, are kind of like an operating system for how each of us will be able to live together peacefully in this world. You know, precepts are kind of like a well-oiled pivot, which somewhat like the earth on its axis, allows us to turn toward the suffering of our life, the disease, the illness, the fear, anger, lust, and then to keep turning, to turn all the way around toward the medicine for the illness, you know, the cessation, of our suffering. So the medicine is simple and only slightly bitter. And it has to do with going back to this step I mentioned already, step number one, sit down, find your seat, find yourself. And while you're sitting, wait, you know, wait for as long as it takes for the mind to clear from all the pathologies of from greed and from the hatred.

[10:58]

from the delusion, the pathologies of self-love or self-loathing, of self-view, conceit, and ignorance, the pathologies of judgments and opinions and righteous anger. Sometimes I say to the more senior students as they are gaining confidence in their practice, now you're going to have to get over yourself. Or as Dogen Zenji more skillfully said to his students, drop body in mind, drop body in mind. know it's over and over again simple so simple but it's not easy you know it's the over and over again part it's so difficult for us just this you know just here just now no choice so let it go it's already gone there's one of my favorite poems on that is an homage to transiency that Dogen wrote This slowly drifting cloud is pitiful.

[11:59]

What dream walkers humans become. Awakened, I hear the one true thing. Black rain on the roof of Fukakusa Temple. It's been a while since we've heard rain on the roof. Wouldn't that be great? So speaking of transiency, another student once went to Suzuki Roshi after having sat a month-long sesshin with a couple of his friends. And he asked the teacher how to maintain this extraordinary state of mind that he had achieved. And the Roshi said, well, just concentrate on your breathing and it will go away. So once you discover who or what it really is that's just sitting there right now, the spaciousness, the transiency, and I think above all, the extremely good fortune that brought us to this point. We can turn the mind to the teachings of the Buddha in order to find even more help in how to root out the causes of our suffering, root out the greed that wants more than her fair share, or the hatred that harbors ill will, the delusion that leads us to defend, protect, and deny the part that each of us plays in how this world is being made, this very human world, Buddha's world, human world.

[13:24]

Buddha's will, samsara, nirvana, self and other, right and wrong, form and emptiness, round and round again, two sides of one whole world. The Bodhisattva precepts, as I mentioned, are an operating system that help to illuminate this fantasy we have of a self and of others as it's being performed throughout our waking day. You know, here is myself and there is the other. How I treat the other is the entire point of these precepts, just as our founding teacher said. And although the basic precept is the one true reality, the one whole world, for the sake of the human world, the Buddha broke reality up into parts, each one a reflection of a very particular thing that we humans tend to do to the other. We tend to kill them, steal from them, lie to them, sexualize them, intoxicate, slander, and brag about ourselves to them, withhold our possessions from them, and hate them.

[14:39]

We humans in human world, in breaking these precepts, have disparaged the Buddha's world, which is the 10th great precept, thereby making the possibility of turning ever the more difficult. So these 16 bodhisattva precepts are like a verbal reference library to help us locate these unwholesome tendencies arising within our hearts. There's some hatred. You know, there's some lust. There's some arrogance. There are a great number of projections. So the primary tendency from which all of these delusions arise is this one that we have of objectifying the other. of seeing them and treating them like objects outside of ourselves. This tendency for objectifying the world is the very ignorance that's blocking our view of how the world truly is. So whenever I objectify the other, I affirm my own sense of a separate self, a self that grows ever more solid and intractable.

[15:51]

That is my house in my car. This is my country. my opinion, those are my friends, and those are my enemies. It's so simple, and it's so easy, and that's the real problem. When the Theravada nun, Voromai Kabulsing, the first Thai woman to receive full ordination, and the accompanying 311 bhikshuni precepts, nun precepts, she was asked by a young man, how do you keep... the 311 precepts. She responded, I keep only one precept. Surprised, the young man then asked, well, what is that? Then she answered, I just watch my mind. I just watch my mind. So we need to be patient and persistent and curious and enthusiastic about watching our minds in order to break the code on self-making, in order to awaken

[16:54]

our one true self that being all that there is you know so how do we do that in another story from zen is right here suzuki roshi was asked by a visiting psychiatrist about consciousness and he replied i don't know anything about consciousness i just try to teach my students how to hear the birds sing So waiting for the birds to sing brings us to step number four. Practicing with the six perfections, which are also known as the Bodhisattva training program. The answer to how do we do that? How do we do that? So I know a lot of you have heard or read about the six perfections. We talk about them often in lectures. In step four, you will have begun to practice with them as well, to make them habits. of mind, new habits of mind, you know, to think about them and to see how they're working in your life each and every day.

[17:57]

Do you hear the bird? Is it inside or outside of yourself? The first of the six perfections is generosity, dana paramita. And that's the antidote to all forms of selfishness, you know, such as being stingy, being mean, or hoarding. Generosity can be nearly infinite in variety. You know, we can give our attention. We can give our sympathy, our time, our wealth. We can give our protection, our admiration, our love. We can give our understanding of the Dharma. And generosity can be practiced by everyone, you know, by the bird and by the elephant and the polar bear, by a human child and by old humans too. It's the foundation for the other five perfections. So the second perfection is called ethics or discipline, shilaparmita, which is like a moral compass by which we humans can navigate our existence.

[19:01]

Don't do that. Do do that. And before you make a move, consider whether what you're doing is selfish or not. So ethical discipline is the antidote to a non-virtuous life. The third perfection is patience, kshanti paramita, the antidote to compulsiveness and reactivity. By practicing patience with our emotions, whether they're being driven by greed or hate or delusion, we have time to be considerate and reflective, to remember our vows and to do what we can to minimize harmfulness and to increase virtue in our relationship to the world around us. The practice of patience includes not seeking revenge or retaliating when we are offended, which is somewhat hard to imagine, I bet. When we don't become offensive when we're offended, we actually are free to choose our course of action. We're free to question what just happened and how it might be different.

[20:07]

And of course, there are extremes. There are examples of violence, in which case Patience is not exactly perhaps the best approach, but it can protect us and ourselves and those around us if we still have this time to reflect on what we're going to do. So sitting practice is essentially a practice of patience. It was the final practice that the young prince undertook there at the base of a tree after those six very long years of diligent effort to break the code of self-clinging. The fourth perfection is effort or enthusiasm, virya, paramita, which is an antidote for laziness. Which is not to say that we don't take time off to rest or to play because we do and we must. I recently saw this interesting study that was done in Iceland about practicing with a four day work week, you know, for very large portion of the culture took on this practice of a four day work week.

[21:15]

And it wasn't surprising for them to realize that it was a lot better for everyone, the more time that they took to rest and to play. It was better for their family life. It was better for their work life. Productivity went up 40%. And it was overall better for their health and their happiness. No surprise. And yet once rested, we go back to work, onto the more strenuous aspects of our virtuous life. You know, sitting and chanting, studying, cooking, cropping, gardening, baking bread with our Dharma friends, you know, which when actualized, such work is called joyful endeavors for the benefit of all beings. The fifth perfection is meditation, jhana paramita, the one thing that we are going to do over and over again. Step number one, also known as Zen. Zen is an antidote to the mental complexities that cloud our thinking, that is our thinking.

[22:19]

And it's going to take a certain amount of time, you know, kind of timeless time, along with patience and effort and ethics and generosity to open us to this bright light of the mind, its own clear and radiant nature. So right here and right now, just this is it. There is no choice, you know. which time the timeless time then the bell rings and we go back to work yeah busy and not busy all the live long day which brings us to the last of the six perfections the perfection of wisdom prajnaparamita which is the antidote to erroneous beliefs such as the belief in a separate self such as the belief in permanent objects such as the belief in the great joy that's going to come to us when those permanent objects now belong to me. What results from the practice of perfect wisdom is a mind that is calm, insightful, and devoted to the welfare of the world, to Buddha's world.

[23:30]

In fact, being such a being is a Buddha in perfect harmony with Buddha's world, just like box and cover joining, like arrow points meeting, like the shoes on a baby's feet. In Buddha's world, with Buddha's wisdom, one is free from dualistic fixations of any kind. And yet, one is devoted to helping others still caught in fixations in order that they too might taste the freedom from and for themselves. Great wisdom, as always, is at the service of great compassion. So that's it. That's all of it. a full summary of the Zen training program at the San Francisco Zen Center. Step one, to sit and find out who you really are and what you are here on earth to do. Step two, do it with your whole heart. Step three, for the benefit of others. Step four, allow yourself to be trained and to help train others for the work that we have all set out to do.

[24:33]

So the last step of the five easy steps, for making this world a better place, I'm calling step five, a moral compass. I'm pretty certain that staying on course as we undertake the mission of saving all beings from suffering is about the least easy of the five easy steps. And my therapist often said to me, human first, human first, when I would tell him about how I veered off track into various kinds of self-loathing or other loathing, or laziness or despair, human first, and then he'd smile kindly. Meaning, give yourself a break, take a rest, read a book, talk to a friend, take a bath and then go back to work. So this mission of the Bodhisattva has been likened to a 10,000 mile long iron road. And I think that's an understatement. And yet, soon a number of us who have been on the long road

[25:37]

as residents and teachers of Green Gulch Farm, will be leaving for a place called Enso Village. So Enso Village, for those of you who don't know, is currently under construction in Healdsburg, California, and is going to be our retirement home. And it's going to be a very nice place to live. I've seen photos. However, for those of us who are leaving our life at Green Gulch, You know, like the Enso itself, there's going to be an unfinished circle, such as the one that a Zen master draws, you know, to illustrate the impossibility of completing the task, the task of saving all beings. And still this portion of the circle that has been completed, there's the full meaning of our time here on Earth. And just like the Earth herself in the grand scale of things really means nothing at all. the two truths about this one precious life.

[26:37]

Now you see it, now you don't. Which is precisely why the merit of our full and new moon ceremonies are dedicated at the end in this way. Thus, on this full moon morn, we dedicate the merit of the Bodhisattva way through every world system to the unborn nature of all beings. Recently, I saw a video that my Dharma sister and dear friend, resident tea master, Mayo Wender, sent around about the meaning of this short staff that those of us carry who have received from our own teachers permission to teach. This staff is called the kotsu. In English, one meaning is the bone, which makes some sense since it's shaped like a spine with a head on top of it. That's one of the things I've been told. which is really all you need to sit, right? A spine with a head on top of it.

[27:39]

Step number one. So in this video, the man offered his own understanding of these ceremonial objects by telling us, I think there was a slight twinkle in his eye, about the magical aspects of our tiny wooden mannequins. And among the interpretation that he shared, he likened it to this shape of the kotsu to a very convincing diagram. of the Big Dipper, which, as we know, has allowed us humans to successfully navigate the globe via its fixed relationship to the North Star. So when I was reflecting on this video, a metaphor came to my mind, and it was this, that the teaching staff in the shape of a celestial map is pointing the way to Buddha's world, you know, to the North Star or the Morning Star or any other star that you like. And it's that very moment when you no longer see that star or any object is outside of yourself.

[28:42]

That's Buddha's world. When the bird is singing inside of your own heart or when I and all beings are awakened at the same time. All together now. So as we begin to see how each of these teachings given to us by the Buddha ancestors is a north star, not only reconnecting our minds to our bodies, but also our seemingly small life to the entire universe, just where it's been all along. The all-inclusive miracle from which none of us has ever arrived or left. The very miracle that's happening right now, where the river itself is blue and the flowers themselves are red, where this very mind may never notice that it is Buddha. So what is it that's holding us back from seeing how that's so, you know, from planting our own tiny staff at the top of the mystic peak? In an all-inclusive universe, what's holding us back is also right here with us now, the one thing that we most easily overlook and undervalue.

[29:50]

What's holding us back is how and what we think, you know, and not just how each of us thinks, but how we together are fashioning this world by thinking, this very human world. And for that reason, we awaken together and we slumber together, inhaling and exhaling our views, our moods, and our gestures. So because these two truths about our one shared reality, you know, the truth of our small separate selves and the truth of our big, wide, all-inclusive self, We have to try, Suzuki Rishi says, to always understand things in these two ways. And the best way to do that, he says, is to sit, you know, step number one. And after we sit, step number two, to enter the world of differences and to do the work that we came here to do. In Dogen Zenji's way, he says that work is to find meaning in each and everything, such as a grain of rice or a drop of water.

[30:56]

When you pay full respect to the grain of rice, as you would respect Buddha themself, then you understand the ultimate value of rice, the ultimate value of each and everything. So in this way, as we do our work in the dualistic world of small separate selves, we come to know Buddha's world in its truest sense. And when we practice Azen without seeking for enlightenment or seeking for anything, then there is true enlightenment already here. So here at the end, I'm going to return for a moment to the beginning, to the story of Ditsang and Yangsang talking about the world. Embedded in this story, which is case 12 of the Book of Serenity, is a verse written by Zen master Hongzhu, who is the great teacher of silent illumination Zen. You know, that would be us, Soto Zen. and explanation variously are all made up.

[32:01]

Source and explanation variously are all made up. Passing to ear from mouth, it comes apart. Planting fields, making rice to eat, ordinary household matters. Only those who investigate to the full would know. Having investigated to the full, you clearly know there is nothing to seek. Jifeng After all, Jifong was a meritorious minister of the emperor of China. Jifong, after all, did not care to be granted a fiefdom as a marquis. Forgetting his state, he returned, just like fish and birds, washing his feet in the Changlong River, the hazy waters of autumn. Thank you so much. May our intention equally extend to every being and place.

[33:04]

With the true merit of Buddha's way, 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. I want to thank everyone for joining us today. We feel supported by the Dharma offerings of our temples. We would appreciate any donation that you can offer. And I will be pasting a link in the chat window with different ways to donate. We will also be taking a five-minute break before returning for Q&A. If anybody who needs to sign off now would like to say goodbye, you may feel free to do so.

[34:07]

Thank you, Fu. Thank you very much. Welcome. Bye-bye. Thank you, Fu. Thank you very much, Fu. Take care. Thank you. Thank you, Fu. You're welcome. Thank you. Thank you, Fu. You're welcome. Beautiful. Both is good. Thanks, Audrey. Alrighty. I'm going to go away. I'll be back. We return at about maybe 1055 or so a little bit before that. Okay. See you then. Welcome back, everyone.

[42:24]

We'll begin Q&A. If you would like to offer a question or a comment, please click on the reactions icon at the bottom of your Zoom window. In that panel, there's a raise hand button. If you are on an older version of Zoom, this feature is in the participants menu. You can also offer questions or comments through the chat, and I will also look for hands of people in their video feeds. I see a hand.

[43:25]

Hi, Aaron. You Aaron? Yes, hi. Thank you. Yeah, I'm dialing in from Washington, D.C. And so you started off your talk talking about some things that are societal. And so I was wondering if you could say something about about protest, what does protest look like from a Zen perspective or from the ancients or from Dogen's perspective? What does protest look like? Well, that's a challenging question in terms of Dogen's perspective or, you know, I could offer you mine, you know, my limited sense of things. I think it depends a lot on how you go about it.

[44:29]

Certainly, I have had that energy. I grew up in the 60s. I went to San Francisco State. We went on strike. I went to Sweden because I wanted to be a socialist. I've done as much of the protest of my own, offering my own life as a protest to standards of beauty. No, I will not. You know, I will not do that and I won't do that and won't do that. So I kind of ran out of things I wouldn't do. And then I started to find things I would do that were more on the side of affirmation. You know, I know what I don't like. And I think a lot of us know what we don't like. But in the meetings of don't like to don't like is often this conflict. And the Buddha did tell us, you know, not to hold views for or against anything. And he said, because if you hold views, you're going to quarrel. If you quarrel, you're going to fight. And if you fight, there will be violence. And if there's violence, people will be harmed. So don't hold views. He didn't say don't have views. You know, you can have views.

[45:34]

You can offer them. And you can talk about them and look at different nuances of your views together. That's a pretty sophisticated kind of relationship we can have with the other, right? And that's not so easy to come by. But, you know, there have been times where there have been rules of debate or discourse or conflict or how to, you know, restitution, reparations. All of these things seem to me in the direction of, you know, addressing the protest. Why are they protesting? What's the issue? So to understand the issue and then to see where, you know, and I would say my experience in life, it's the issues have been pretty righteous. pretty much in the direction of peace, not war, not killing. That's my team. And maybe you did too at the time in my life when I had to choose what team I was on. Part of my team was being violent and angry, really angry.

[46:37]

And that seemed to be, that was the choice. And I thought, I don't want to live in that anger. I don't want to be that anger. So I found Buddhist practice and Buddhist teaching, which goes way back to the beginnings of the formations of city-states, the taking over of the neighbors, the empire building that was going on in that time. Buddhists have lived through it all, and they have become famous for the ones who are willing to be killed. Okay. You know, I'm not going to fight you. I'm not going to pick up a gun and shoot back. I'm just not going to do that. So that's my position. You know, Martin Luther King Jr. You know, that's my position. I will stand here and you may throw rocks at me, but and you may see me bleed. Just like we saw in the dogs attacking the black gentleman in the South.

[47:39]

You know, how horrifying. Yeah. That was protest. I'm getting a chill just, you know, thinking of those images like, no, you may not do that. You may not do that. So to me, it's a heartfelt no. And then what's the strategy? How do we get to yes, you know? You're in Washington. I hope you're doing something to help us with that. Thank you very much. Okay. Blessings. There is one request from the chat for wondering if you could go over the five steps again. Oh, the five easy pieces that I made up? Oh, yes, I can. So step one is sit. Zazen. That's probably step two, three, and four, too. So just sit. Just sit. That's the easy pieces, the easiest of the easy pieces.

[48:43]

Step two, well, during step one, you figure out who you really are. Who are you? Who is sitting there or what is sitting there? And you may come to some realization that there's a lot of space there and there's a lot of kindness there and compassion and curiosity, all of these virtues. You may find that those are there along with the growling and the grumpy and all that. But the ones we turn toward turning toward the light of our compassion, our awareness, they're stronger. And that's because we want to be that. We want to be light and open and spacious. So there's a motive. So step one, figure out who you are. Sitting is a great way to do that. Step two, now that you know who you are and what you are here on this planet to do, then step two, do it wholeheartedly, you know. Be that dream of yours, you know, whatever you dreamt of being. If it meets the criteria of not harming, you know, of nourishing certain things, virtues, you know, it's virtuous.

[49:47]

Do it, you know, really do it. And step three is the precepts, which help us. They're a guidance system to help us to do it in a wholesome way, to not harm others, because by our ambition, we're not taking something from somewhere else. We're not hoarding. You know, precepts are all about how we treat. How do we take care of ourselves by caring for others? So that's number three. Number four is the practice or training mode that the students of the Dharma have engaged in for centuries, millennia, called the six paramitas or the six perfections. And I went through those. So that's step four. And then step five is the moral compass. You know, how we keep orienting toward these two truths. There is something, there isn't something. You know, which is right? They're both right. You know, there's this very funny logic in Buddhism. It has a name. I'm not going to say it because I think it makes people nervous when you use these kind of, well, I will say it.

[50:51]

It's called dialethism. So dialethism, di means two. Alethism means truth. So in philosophy, you're not allowed to have two truths that are opposite in the same. It's against the law. That's against Western logic. But the Buddhists are not using Western logic. They're actually using a deeper kind of wisdom eye. The Buddhists said, actually, there's nothing and there's something, and both are true. Light and dark, they're not opposites. They're on a spectrum. Self and other, not opposites. We're on a spectrum. We're connected. So that's step five. is staying in touch with the wisdom teachings, really come to understand them, because that will then take you back to step one. So when you're sitting there, you'll have some support for understanding what that you're experiencing and that you're learning actually is creating in you a commitment to an awakened life.

[51:53]

You know, that's the step six, the outcome. of our efforts, hopefully, that we all will, before we leave our turn on planet Earth, will awaken to the absolute magnificence of life itself. What a gift. Yeah. That's it. That's it. Thank you. Yeah. Well, we have an offering from Terry. Hi, Fu. I just feel like your Dharma talk is exactly what I needed here at this moment. Oh, good. Yeah. And I feel like I have come to a new realization of why I'm here. Great. And it's, you know, to write my blog five days a week.

[52:56]

And it's very time consuming. I've been doing this blog and I've been contemplating. I mean, I'm really vowing not to rush into anything to make major, major changes in my life to give myself more time. Do you think it makes sense once you have a pretty strong, I feel like. I'm really pretty sure I'm right about this. This is my priority. It makes sense to make decisions so that the rest of your life kind of falls from that field, from that intention. Including, you know, could be drastic changes, you know, just to free up more energy for that intention. Does that make sense to do that? Well, it makes sense whether or not it happens is inconceivable.

[54:00]

You know, you don't know if what I'm doing right now is what resulted in that thing later. We don't really know what causes outcomes. It's too complicated. So we try our best, which is what you're talking about. Try your best to establish your priorities. And then, you know, sometime later, well, how'd that go? How'd that go? We can't drive our priorities into a conclusion that we want. Wouldn't that be nice? I'm going to do this and this is what's going to happen. But we're not in control. We're just not in control. We are kind of like sea turtles on the open ocean. And we're very blessed. So the best we can do is keep swimming. Just keep swimming and keep Coming up with your best stroke. Does that make sense? It makes sense.

[55:01]

It isn't what I expected. How would you want it? Sorry. I just wanted yes. Okay, let me start over. Terry, yes. Thank you. Let me know how it turns out. Okay. Is that Carol? There we go. Hi, Carol. Hi. You're maybe muted. I unmuted. We can hear her. Maybe it just will take a second for you. Can you hear me? Yes, now I can. Okay, good. You mentioned Enso Village, and I'm just curious, is Enso Village in your future? It is.

[56:03]

Yeah. I've been given my date. We've all been given our expiration date. Yeah. I mean, I've also been made very happy about that. They've shown me the pictures of my apartment, and there's a school, and there's an art room. And I'm going to go to the art room first day I get there. And a Zendo, very nice Zendo's bean plant. At the heart of it is a Zendo. And the people going there are really people who have a wish. It's called a Zen-inspired senior living. The people who want to have a Zen-inspired life. They don't want to golf. They don't want to do whatever that was. So now it's kind of... And it went like hotcakes. I mean, they put out the... the news that this was available and it was like, you know, people just went, yeah. So somebody told us we're, we're partnering with the Quakers. So we've had these really two wonderful reputations, the Buddhist.

[57:06]

Right. So wonderful. And I feel really grateful for that partnership. And somebody said, one of the Quakers said, I think we have a product. Oh dear. We're going to plant potatoes and start building. retirement center. Anyway, I think it'll be wonderful. And I think you're welcome to visit, you know, and there'll also, I'm sure be talks being given and we'll come back down here to help with practice periods and all of that. It sounds wonderful. I, um, I'm probably too late, but it's definitely, I'm, I'm looking for my next, my old folks home. So yeah. So, um, Yeah, I'll definitely check it out. It may be too late for me, but it's good to know. Good to know about it. It's online. Give them a look. I mean, it's a little bit. Well, anyway. Yeah, it's way up there in Healdsburg, which is.

[58:07]

Oh, well, thank you so much. And I have found my purpose in life. Good. And it is to be... It sounds very strange, but I come from a very dysfunctional family, and I think... And I'm still kind of... After 35 years, I'm in touch with my brother, who is very isolated, and I realized that... My purpose is to give a home to love. And today is his birthday, and he wasn't giving me his phone number, but I got the phone number, so I'm going to give him a call.

[59:08]

What's his name? Greg. Happy birthday, Greg. Tell him we all wish him a happy birthday. Thank you so much. Thank you. Yeah, thank you. I want to join the mission. Yeah. Yeah. Thank you. We have an offering from Mary Ann and Philip. Hello, Mary Ann. Can you hear me? No, I can't, but I think it kicks in. Can you hear me now? Yes. I'm not sure how to articulate this, but you have a sound that's going along with your... For me better? Okay. Yeah. Thank you. I think I'll have to put the headphones back on when you speak, okay?

[60:13]

But... What I'm saying is it's hard for me to articulate this, but I would like some guidance in how to back off from or disengage from a feeling about an other. There is a member within our family who is very against vaccines and believes a number of the things that go along with that or go along with extreme right wing. And they are coming to visit us in two weeks. And they are coming from an area that is having a surge of the Delta variant.

[61:15]

Wow. And the reason they're coming is because my partner, their father, he loves them and he hopes for them in the future to evolve away from that kind of extremism. And I'm concerned about his health. He's 77. And so I'm thinking, how can I view them with less fear and resentment and judgment on my part. I guess it's sort of like if you have a fire inside you, those views of them, and it's smoldering, how can I damp that down? Or if my view of them is like a little trailer that I'm pulling along,

[62:16]

how can I make that trailer less of a burden? I'm just looking for like some starting points because I do see them with fear and resentment and judgment about this health threat. Maybe nothing will come of it, but in this uncertain world, with the surge of the Delta variant and the fact that he is older and has health issues, but he loves this person, so they're coming. How can I personally damp down that fear? I'm gonna put my headphones on so I can hear you. Okay, good, it gives me a little time to think. You're at the not easy part.

[63:25]

This is the not easy part. This is the very, very, very hard part. The actual living of our vows or of our intention. It's very easy to say certain things like, oh yeah, just be generous. Be patient. Be kind. So easy to say. But... We all know it's the doing. It's in the doing. The proof is in the pudding. How does it go? So you have a real situation that you're going to live through. And I would say, without being disrespectful, that I would protect myself. I presume you're fully vaccinated. I presume your husband's fully vaccinated. So maybe that's one less concern. That's pretty good. And if you need to be... masking or asking them to mask. I don't know how that would go, but that would be another request that might up the ante. So, you know, how, how you work with that part.

[64:27]

But I, I think a lot of times what my own experience with difficult relationships with the other, I think patience with myself, you know, generosity with my feelings, like, I'm really feeling this anxiety. I'm feeling this judgment. That's mine. And I want to take tender care of that. That's my heart. That's my beliefs. That's how I care for the world is not by thinking like that. So, you know, you're going to need to really kind of protect and nourish the softness that's in there. You know, those things you're feeling are protective of the soft heart, you know? You're hurting me by that behavior, by the things you're saying. And so I'm putting my spikes up. Because I'm hurt. It hurts. And it's hurting others. So I feel like something called wise restraint, which is a practice I have valued much of my practice life, to really not say that thing that just wants to come out of here.

[65:42]

Just don't say it. I can't stop thinking. I can't stop my thinking. It's never worked. I can be spacious about it. I can be generous with it. I can be, you know, notice it. And I can notice the emotions that arise about how I'm thinking. And I can practice patience. And breathing. Inhale. Exhale. Inhale. Exhale. Over and over and over again. You know, I mean, it's this is how long are they visiting? Three days. Three days. I thought you were going to say three weeks. OK, three days. Three days. That's doable. That is doable. That's a reasonable length of time to breathe. And, you know, and what have you what have you done in the past? I mean, this isn't your first meeting, I assume, with the family members. What have you found that works for you?

[66:44]

When you're feeling kind of like those things, fear and anger and the third one you said, what have you done? You know, you're grown up. How have you managed yourself in your life? Well, I'm not sure I have anything to brag about with management practices. I think before we simply weren't facing something so concrete as a visit with people staying with you who are coming from a surge area and have disavowed the use of a vaccine. It's hard to understand why they do it because they are in a religious group where their profit is has gotten the vaccine, called it a miracle, and told people, avail yourself of it, and this person doesn't.

[67:50]

So considering that they don't even follow their own prophet, I find it hard to understand their mind. And so what, you make things up to try and understand that kind of mind? I just want to back off from it a little bit. You have to understand your mind. Their mind you will never understand. You won't. Okay. You need to understand your mind and your vow, your intention to not make it worse. Wise restraint sounds good. Wise restraint is very good. It's very good. It's not my strong point. Well, great. Good. There's some growth. You can grow your wise restraint and you can practice on them. How perfect. Three days of experimentation. Make yourself proud of yourself. Make myself proud of yourself. Good luck.

[68:56]

Our next offering is from Brian. Hello, Brian. Hello. Thank you for your teaching. As I was listening to Mary Ann's question, it struck a chord with me because I am living in a deep red state in South Carolina. We used to live in New York and we have lots of friends there. And we have several dear friends who my wife and I have several dear friends there who we stay in contact with and who were planning a trip down here to visit us. And when news broke of the COVID variant, they became really concerned because a lot of people here just weren't vaccinated. There's a lot of disinformation and there's a lot of entrenched ideology that wouldn't allow people to overcome suspicions about the vaccine.

[70:09]

Now, my wife and I have been fully vaccinated early on in March. Both had Pfizer, so we're fine. We're waiting to see what happens. And, you know, plans were well underway, and then all of a sudden we're getting calls and emails, well, we're not so sure about this visit. And, of course, I'm going to let them do what they feel like they need to do about the visit. But it also brought up for me going through all of that and hearing Marianne's comments about her visit. It reminded me of something that is still painful and happened a year ago. And it happened as a result of a discussion over COVID and the need for vaccination when it became available and all of this social distancing, following all the guidelines. And when you said earlier, you tried to practice wise restraint, I did not do that. And of the Paramitas you were speaking of, the Shanti Paramita, just practicing patience.

[71:15]

I didn't do that. I didn't do that. I got into a Facebook Messenger exchange with my best friend from college. I'm sorry. And all of a sudden, what I said... without wise restraint, just letting the floodgates down to say whatever I felt like saying at that moment, I retaliated. And it escalated. And it damaged that relationship. And it's difficult to talk about because it's a very old friendship. Somebody knows me probably, other than my wife, this person knows me best in the world. And right now we're sort of very slowly trying to re-engage. And it just, it's, I don't, I worry that it's never going to be the same. There's nothing that I can do that, that can repair it. And I just, I'm sort of at a loss, but hearing this conversation was helpful and hearing your comments and hearing your discussion of the Paramitas very, very helpful to me.

[72:25]

So I was just wondering if, if you might have any insights or observations about this and practice that I might think about applying. So thank you. Yeah, you're welcome. I think, you know, your story is probably something that strikes all of us that, oh, yeah, I remember doing that. Or, oh, yeah, I've done that, you know, with family or with friends or, you know, it's so sad. And you don't know if there's repair, you know, but it's for you too. Can you repair how you feel about what got, you know, how you got triggered? Are you able to receive and also to you know, asked to be received back. There's a kind of reconciliation. There are a lot of good books about that kind of thing, you know, what to do and what to say and not to say, how to have a difficult conversation, which many times I've had great success with these very practical, you know, one of them was start the conversation by agreeing, find an agreement about something.

[73:27]

So this person I was having difficulty with, I had a stack of Post-its with all of the instructions on them. And I said to the person, may I use my Post-its? And she said, sure. I said, great. Step number one. We have an agreement. So it was amazing. And it also lightened, you know, as we moved through it, it really lightened my feeling of despair or irreparable because we were making repairs and we were coming at it from both directions. I could see her. willingness. I felt I had a willingness. It's like any repair. You can still see the scar. That's going to be there. You won't forget. But it can get sutured. It can get mended. And that's even stronger. So I would say it's an opportunity for you to know your friend even better and them to know you as you go through this process with each other. And there's also the next step

[74:29]

as you admitted to kind of having lost it, is that the next step for us in our practice is called confession and repentance. I lost it. I blew it. I really wasn't skillful. I am admitting that, that I admit that to myself. I will admit it to anyone who will listen to me, as you just did, you know. And therein lies the, and I don't want to do that again. So my repentance, my confession, my repentance is I'm not going to repeat it. I'm going to make that part of my intention in practice is to not do that, to not let myself loose when I feel big feelings. That's the trigger. Oh, time for a wise restraint. Big feelings, much quiet, calm the breath, calm the mind, and then speak your truth. You don't have to give up your truth, just how you present it.

[75:30]

How do you share it? You know, not like this, but like this. I'd like to tell you my truth. Do you mind? And hopefully your friend, you do love each other all these years and that that will, that'll be it. The secret sauce. May it be so. We have a request for the chat from Sally if you could read the poem that you had read in the beginning and mention its source. About Dietzsang and his pal? Mm-hmm. That one? Yeah. It's from the Book of Serenity, which is our collection of koans, Soto Zen primarily, koans. It's Case 12. Ditsang asked Zuesan, where do you come from?

[76:33]

And Zuesan said, I'm from the south. Ditsang said, how is Buddhism in the south these days? Zuesan said, there's extensive discussion. Ditsang said, how can that compare to me here planting the fields and making rice to eat? Zuesan said, what can you do about the world? And Ditsang said, well, what do you call the world? That's just this book, Book of Serenity. Wonderful, enigmatic. Sometimes I call it the book of anxiety. You know, it's all these koans. You know, what? But they're wonderful. They're beautiful poetry in there, too. And it does get you kind of turning. You know, it's like catches you off guard. Think what you expect them to say. They don't say. Don't say. We have an offering from Pamela. Hey, Pamela.

[77:36]

Hi, Fu. Nice to see you. Thank you for being a grounding presence through the pandemic. I just have like a concrete question, which is, I am wondering, you know, I'm aware of the need for everybody to stay safe, but I'm wondering, is there any... Are you guys talking at all about the possibility of some kind of outdoor masked, like allowing people to come visit, but outdoor masks on? I miss you guys. We miss you too. And I miss the community. We miss you too. We are going to be slowly opening to groups of people. It's going to be a programmatic thing. Like we'll say, okay, we can only do 50 people or 30 people. you know, to start, and we'll need you to sign up so that we can actually greet you and offer you. So we'll probably have a sitting. There'll be Zazen instruction for the newer people.

[78:41]

Then there'll be the talk, and then there'll be question and answer, and then there'll maybe be some more sitting. But some of this kind of moving around in large groups of people close in to each other, you know, we can't guarantee safety in that situation. in that the crowd, right? So we're going to do our best to open slowly. So it's Tassahara. Same thing with the children's program. Children aren't vaccinated yet. So we've got probably a year to go before we can start thinking about the kids again. So I think we want to do something. We want it to be more intimate, like that people would really come in and they would, we'd know them. We'd have conversations. There'd be teaching going on. conversations with each other, probably less of the mass gathering, you know, for a number of reasons that also have to do with water and septic and parking and, you know, all of that. So the big thing, the big public gathering is not going to probably come back anytime soon.

[79:49]

It's going to be a much more of a, you know, kind of like Tassajara. You sign up. You attend, we take care of you, and we get into relationships more closely. You know, that's the fantasy. That's where I think we're going to go. And probably, I mean, practice period's coming for any of you who have that option in your lives. So we'll do a two-month practice period. That'll be for fully vaccinated people coming to live here for two months. And in January, we'll probably do... the January intensive that rebel lead, again, fully vaccinated, relatively small number, and then in the spring. And I would think these public openings would come around in the spring of next year. I'm sorry, it's not more like, I wish I could say, yeah, we're gonna go right back to it, but we can't. And so we're gonna try and do something that we hope you'll want to do with it.

[80:50]

And we'll also stay online. So we're not going to do away with this because we get it, that people really appreciate accessibility to the talk. So those will be live streamed. Every Sunday, there's going to be the talk online as far as we know forever. So that part, we hope, will be really supportive for all of you who could never come here on Sunday anyway. So that's what I know of the plan. Phu, actually, for that one question about the poem, the request was actually about the poem you had mentioned after the initial story. It was about which was your favorite poem? Oh, about Dogen's poem about impermanence? Yes. That's the one. Oh, yeah. What? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Let me look at that. I am not a memorizer of anything for that matter. Let's see. Here it is. Dogen, Dogen, Dogen, where's our guy?

[82:00]

This slowly drifting cloud is pitiful. What dream walkers humans become? Awakened, I hear the one true thing. Black rain on the roof of Fukakusa Temple. This slowly drifting cloud is pitiful. What dream walkers humans become? Awakened, I hear the one true thing. Black rain on the roof of Fukakusa Temple. If any of you have ever been to Tassajara in the winter, you know what that rain sounds like on the roof of the Zendo because it's a tin roof. And boy, when it's coming down hard, it is amazing. Just like... It's instilled in my cells. Black rain on the temple roof. Wonderful sound. There's one question from the chat about wise restraint and if it is one of the paramitas within them.

[83:08]

I would say patience is the wise restraint. Sitting zazen is wise restraint. Being quiet while you work is wise restraint. So we do a lot of practicing of wise restraint throughout the day. Taking care. of body, speech, and mind, how you gesture, you know, did you just open the door in someone's face? You know, that's wise restraint. Don't do that. You know, so taking care of how you place your things, how you share space, how you leave up, you know, are you leaving things behind you when you move on? Your dishes or your cups or your shoes, you know, what are you doing? So we catch a lot of people off guard because, you know, most of us didn't get trained. as children. Some of you did, I betcha, but a lot of us didn't. We're kind of indulged, I think. So I really have appreciated Zen training as a way of kind of re-educating the child toward caring for things. It helps me not to lose my keys, for one thing.

[84:14]

I know where I put them because I have a practice. I have a practice. So there's a lot of things that flow from patience. Okay. It looks like that's finished. Great. Okay. Well, thank you again, all of you, for your kind attention and presence and interest in the Dharma, of course. And I hope we'll see you again soon. Blessings. Thank you. Welcome to say goodbye. Bye. [...] Thank you. Thank you, Fu. Thank you for the wonderful teaching. You're welcome. Thank you. Thank you, Fu. Thank you. Thank you, friends. Thank you. Goodbye. Thank you. Bye.

[85:15]

Bye. Thank you, Fu. I will endeavor to practice wise restraint. And a girl. That's the team. That's our team. Wise restraint. The team wise restraint, yeah. They're not getting anywhere. That's right. There's this great story the Navajo tell about, you know, trying to teach the missionaries are trying to teach the kids how to foot race. So they got them all lined up at the starting line and they drew a finish line and they said, OK, run. And then the older kids would stop before the finish line. And wait for the little kids. I said, wait a minute. That's not how you race. And they said, but that isn't fair. I said, who's teaching who? That's not fair. Why is restraint? Thank you, Fu.

[86:18]

You're welcome. Bye. Bye, Lisa. Thank you. Wonderful Dharma talk today. Thank you. I know you're home now, aren't you? Yes. Great. Thank you. You're welcome, Bettina. Thank you, Kogetsu. You're very welcome. Yeah. Very kind. Hello, Richard. Nice to see your name. Jason, Judy, Sunny, Lisa, Bob, Mary. Yeah, same to you. Same to you.

[87:16]

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