This podcast is offered by San Francisco's Zen Center on the web at sfcc.org. Our public programs are made possible by donations from people like you. Let me see first who is here. Let me browse through these pages for a second. I'm very glad to see you all. And I would first like to thank Abbot David and the Tanto Nancy for inviting me to give this talk. And I would also like to express my deep, deep gratitude to my teacher, Rinso Ed Sattesan, for his guidance and for his wise, compassionate teachings on this path.

[01:05]

Matt said, my name is Sozan, and I serve this community as a president of the San Francisco Zen Center. And I'm very, very grateful to be here and be here with you today and sharing the space, this space of practice. I first came here to San Francisco Zen Center in 2013. And in 2014, I did my first practice period. first Ango here at City Center. And I would say that that actually started my process of becoming a full resident here at San Francisco Zen Center. After coming here and after 2014, it became very important in my life to devote my whole energy, my whole time to studying the self and to deepen in Zen practice. So I decided with my wife, Paula, come here and become a permanent resident.

[02:07]

And this has been an amazing journey so far. And as I said before, I'm very grateful to my teachers and also to the Sangha and everybody and everything who supports me on this Bodhisattva path. And even though my Zen practice started within another lineage many years before I came to San Francisco Zen Center, Before I moved here as a resident, I was engaged with the world in another way, in my other life, as we used to say here. That's what we did before becoming a full-time student. So what I did before becoming a full-time student was that I worked in advertisement. I was an advertiser. After graduating from high school, I studied advertising. Business Administration in the Catholic University in Buenos Aires, in Argentina. That's where I'm from.

[03:10]

And after that, I started working on marketing for big multinational consumer grid companies in different areas of marketing. And after several years of working in these big corporations, in 1999, I founded my own advertising company. And In time, I opened offices in Buenos Aires, in Mexico City, in Barcelona. And this was my professional life, my work, what I did for 15 years. And honestly, I enjoyed marketing and advertising very much, actually. And I think I was more or less good at it. And I learned many, many things. I'm nowadays convinced that that this part of my life, being an advertiser, being in marketing for those many years has been kind of instrumental, I would say, in leading me to the place I am today in my practice.

[04:14]

When I look back, I can see how all those years are so important today or to who I am today. Because, you know, It is said that a big part of Zen practice, or we think a big part of Zen practice, is to study need, to study craving, to study attachment. And as a matter of fact, many of you are familiar with the Four Noble Truths. In the Second Noble Truth, which is a truth about the cause of suffering, the Buddha says that the cause of suffering is... dissatisfaction, need, craving, attachment. And I see this to be fully true. And probably still think that one of the best ways to fully understand need is to study the Four Noble Truths.

[05:20]

So if you want to understand need, you need to study the Four Noble Truths. Or, and... to work in marketing and advertisement for 20 years. Because my job then was basically understanding as much as I could about a need and the satisfaction of need. And of course, to try to fulfill that need with something or a service or a product. And I got really good at creating needs and fulfilling them. Your next pair of... tennis shoes or whatever. And in hindsight, I think this exploration as an advertiser was one of the main things that brought me to Buddhism. Really. Because I could see how not feeling ever satisfied and the way we relate to need and craving is such an important part of our lives. I could see it as an advertiser.

[06:21]

It was all about need and craving. So probably because of this, many really fundamental questions started to arise in my mind. Questions about the human aspect of need. And then actually when I started practicing Zen Buddhism in the mid-2000s, a new world around the concept of need happened, appeared, and therefore the satisfaction of need. and the understanding of need. And I started relating these two, all my study of need through my professional career and what Buddhism was bringing forth, particularly in the Four Noble Truth. And since need is such an important part of our exploration, of our experience, of our path of practice, this is what I'm going to talk about to you today.

[07:25]

I'm going to talk about need, craving, and how we are usually never satisfied. So let me tell you a short story. When I was in marketing at one point in my career, I worked as a brand manager for one of the main brands of shampoo in the country's, in Argentina's marketplace, a very important shampoo brand. And as we always did regularly, I met with the sales team and the research and development team to come up with the next product. What would be our next shampoo in our line of shampoos? The new and improved, a new iteration of new and improved version of our shampoo. And at this particular time, we didn't have a clear idea of what we wanted, of what could be a good shampoo, a new and improved shampoo to launch. So as you do many times in marketing, we conducted a market research with a group of shampoo users and a group of shampoo non-users to have a deeper insight of what was important to them.

[08:36]

What is important to people when we're talking about their shampoo? Actually, their lives. We start by big picture. And we have people sitting in these focus groups. You might know about this. had seen them in the movies or you might participate in one with a mirror in the wall and that it's not actually a mirror, but it's a whole bunch of marketing folks behind this glass watching what's going on. You know what I mean. So there we were behind this mirror, this glass. And to make a long story short, at one point we asked people what was really important to them. What is really important to you in your life? Just name anything. And of course, many things were expressed about this. This is important. That is important. But then one person said something that was really important to him, and that this was air.

[09:43]

Air. Air. That without air, he would die. I'm not sure if he was teasing or what, but... But I remember that actually he seemed kind of dead serious. Air is very important to me. Of course, the rest of the people agreed in the room. Say, yeah, of course. Who wouldn't? So why is this? And why is air important to this person? And he said, well, basically, I might need a lot of other things, but this is one need that if I don't have, the rest don't make sense. If I don't have air, I die. Well, okay, we concluded. It seems like air is important to people. Yeah, and it came out of further analysis that actually what was important or what they really appreciated about air was oxygen.

[10:51]

Not so much air, but it was oxygen. Oxygen is important. But oxygen is really important. It's the oxygen in the air that keeps us alive. So our next question to the research and development team was, OK, so if oxygen is so important, if oxygen means life, is there any way in which we can have a new shampoo formula with more oxygen? Great idea. And the answer was, oh, yeah, of course. We'll make it happen. Will it make a real difference in the actual performance of the shampoo? Maybe, that's a bit more tricky. Probably not the point. What is important here is that oxygen is important. Oxygen matters to people. Oxygen is life. So, as you can imagine already probably, we launched the new and improved version of our shampoo with more oxygen. Actually, this became one of our top selling shampoos for a long time.

[11:53]

You want improved shampoo with more oxygen. Because oxygen is life. And you really want life and volume for your hair. Of course. You would definitely need this shampoo. It just makes sense. And there you go. Another need fulfilled. More oxygen in your shampoo. Who doesn't need that? Mission accomplished. So what is it that we really need? And what do we really want? Do we need shiny and great hair with a lot of volume? Or do we need to feel beautiful? What is it? Do we need to feel beautiful? Or do we actually need the feeling of being accepted by people around us because of our beauty? And do we need to feel accepted?

[12:57]

Or do we actually need the sense of safety we get from this acceptance? Or is it about self-esteem? So we start with a hair. We start with whatever result this shampoo with more oxygen will give to your hair. But actually, there are layers and layers of need. And some we can see very clearly and some are more deep. And you get more and more deep. And we can continue going down this rabbit hole deep. We won't go there right now. But you get the point. There are many layers of need. It starts with, yes, I want my hair to be shiny. But actually, I want to look beautiful. But actually, I want to feel secure, safe. Doved. So this is very important to understand, I think. Need, in and of itself, It's neither a good or bad thing.

[13:59]

Craving is different. And we'll get back to craving later. But need is not something that we judge in and of itself. The person in the focus group said he needed air. And I wouldn't argue with that as being good or bad. It's just a need. A basic need for that matter. Air. Oxygen. The issue here is where... This need actually comes from what we could call the source of a need or the want. And understanding what is our deep relation to this need is very important. So we could classify or determine the source or origin of the need in many ways. But for today, and to make things simple, I will say that needs usually come or can be born from three distinct places. they can arise from a place of basic survival, what we call basic needs.

[15:02]

They can also come from a place of values, or they can come from a place of karma. You know, like the guy in the focus group, if I don't have there, I die. Yes, absolutely. This is a need that comes from a place of survival. It's a basic need. like shelter or food. And for those who are familiar, this is kind of a marketing concept, but for those who are familiar with Maslow's hierarchy of need pyramid, the pyramid that has a hierarchy of human needs, the basic things you need in life, which are classified according to this person Maslow as basic are safety, biological and psychological needs, basic needs. So that's one type of need. It's one classification of need. But then there are needs that come from a place of value. I chose to name it that way, though.

[16:07]

When I explain this, you'll understand. This is what I might need, for example, when I need justice in the world or being respected or peace. It's the things that are important to me because of my values. It could be many things, but they're not basic, but they're very important to me according to my values. And sometimes we call these aspirations, not needs. Things that are really important to you. But what I wanna really focus today are the needs that arise from And we just had a whole 10-week practice period that ended a week ago or so with Abbot David, where he taught about karma here at Beginner's Mind Temple. So those who participated in this practice period will probably appreciate this.

[17:10]

The needs and wants that arise from our karma. Because basically we are conditioned beings. We know that. Our mandates, society, our family, our culture, our life experience. our language. Everything that we are is conditioned by how we got here into our present being in relation to everything else. And whatever we need and how we need it is very much also defined by our conditioned self, by our karma. And this is what I mean by these wants or needs that derive from karma. They are the needs that arise from our habitual patterns and tendencies. They are the results of our actions in our life. You know, the unique and particular way we perceive the world. Are those needs that arise from there, from karma, from our conditioned self.

[18:12]

And again, I want to go back to this. Need is not in itself something good or bad. But then... when it arises from karma, then we probably need to take a closer look. When need arises from our conditioned self, we need to stop and look. Why do we need what we need? And when I use the word need, I also mean the word want. Why do we want what we want? So exploring our karma, understanding our conditioned self can really help us understand better and understand more deeply the origin of our wants and needs by exploring our karma. And then through that exploration, understand why we want this and we don't want that or why we need this and we don't need that.

[19:23]

And at the end of the day, to get to the real point here is how the way we want and need, how the way we pick and choose can be conducive to what we know as dukkha, which can be translated as suffering or a sense of dissatisfaction in life. Four noble truths. The truth of dukkha, the existence of suffering, dissatisfaction in life. So to study the link between some of our needs, especially those needs that arise from karma, and our sense of dissatisfaction and suffering is what we're talking about here. There is a very well-known text in Buddhism and in Zen called the Xing Xing Ming. And maybe many of you have read this before. This text sheds some light on this matter. It's attributed to the third patriarch of Zen called

[20:26]

Jinji Zenkan, or as you know him in Japanese, Kanchi Sousa. And actually it's considered to be the first Chinese Zen document that we know of. The very first Chinese document we know of. In one of the paragraphs of Da Sinsing Min, the teacher Kanchi Sousa says, Attaining the way is not difficult. Just avoid picking and choosing. If you have neither aversion nor desire, you'll thoroughly understand. A hair-as-breath difference is a gap between heaven and earth. I'm going to say that again. Attaining the way is not difficult. Just avoid picking and choosing. If you have neither aversion nor desire, you'll thoroughly understand.

[21:27]

A hair's breadth difference is a gap between heaven and earth. Marvelous. I should have had that printed in my office when I was in other times. My understanding of what the master Jinji Zenkhan is teaching here is not to be attached to our needs, basically. Both aversion and desire are a way of attachment. So he says, if you have neither aversion or desire, you'll thoroughly understand. And what I think this might mean is that, you know, in your life, you should not be regulated or should not be directed by your wants. And then you won't have them. But you are not... directed by your wants. You don't let need and want be in the driver's seat of your life.

[22:29]

And, as the teacher says, if you can accomplish this, the way the path is not difficult. Easier said than done, I guess. And I say easier said than done because as I first learned as an advertiser, and later I corroborated as a Buddhist, the needs that arise from karma are really deeply engraved in who we are and the way we live our life. It takes a lot of practice and commitment to really understand the depth of what gives life to our wants. All those layers I was talking about. But where those needs come from. And as I said earlier, what we usually perceive and relate to is an outer layer of the one in these layers I'm talking about. You know, we need a new phone, you know, the latest version.

[23:35]

And you think, well, yeah, I want, I need the new iPhone 25 or whatever. And, you know, you do need, you do want that new iPhone. But probably what you really need is to feel that you're maybe seen as tech savvy. Or maybe it's just about the sense of safety that comes from status. Or maybe the reason might be that you fear your old phone will be obsolete in no time and then you'll be disconnected from the world. Who knows? These things run really, really deep. And what is behind whatever is shown in the surface as a want or a need can be very and really not on our radar. And most likely in most cases, and at least, if not most of the cases that come from karma, the most fundamental reason that we need things, that we want things, if we go deep, deep, deep in those layers, is usually fear and uncertainty.

[24:49]

Fear and uncertainty are one of the most fertile grounds for the seeds of wanting to grow. It might show as oxygen in your shampoo or a new iPhone. But really, if we go deeper, there's usually an important component, if not a basic component, of fear and uncertainty. Because our needs... might show up in all kinds of different ways, right? Like, you know, not being respected or fear of being wrong, or even as we go deeper, the primal fear of scarcity, of not having, not having enough, or just a basic fact of not knowing, which is a fear that there is from uncertainty, not knowing what's going to happen next. So if you forgive me for paraphrasing Jinseng a bit here, let's go back to the Hinseng.

[26:00]

I'm going to change it a tad. Attending the way is not difficult. Just avoid being controlled by need. If you have neither fear nor doubt, you'll thoroughly understand. A hair's breast difference is a gap between heaven and earth. Of course, one thing you can do is just to restrain from certain needs, right? Because, okay, great. So there are needs that arise from karma. There needs that arise. And through this karma, as we go deeper, we can see that there's fear, that there's uncertainty. So what do I do, right? And as I say, one thing that one sometimes does is restrain. from certain things. So you work in ways that will help you be less impulsive when you want or you need something.

[27:09]

As we say in advertising, don't let them think twice or they won't need it. Because reflection is a great antidote to need. If you can't respond instead of reacting to an urge, you may find yourself not needing or not really wanting something you thought you wanted. That's why responding to whatever arises is so important here. And then you might still think or feel you want it. You might choose to restrain yourself, saying, well, no, not now. Or not this. And this is important, and it's great. Most certainly should be part of anyone's practice. But also to understand that while we're doing that, we're kind of working on the surface here, on the most visible expression of the need.

[28:13]

And again, this is a very good thing to do. Yes, respond, don't react to your needs, control yourself to the extent that you can. But in some ways, It is good as it's also good, you know, taking ibuprofen if you have a fever. It's important, but it's also important to investigate further, to try to find the real reason why you have a fever, to try to find the real reason why this need arises, this want arises. It's the same thing with needs. It's great to really reflect on them at the more visible level and act, maybe, to the extent that one can at that level, but it's also very important to go deeper. You don't want to find the more intimate reasons you want, what you need. Why is it that you still want more oxygen in your shampoo? Because if you don't do that, then this first layer of need keep popping up from everywhere.

[29:21]

Because we're not attending, we're not going to what's really creating this need. That's why it's so important. Yes, you know, if there is a weed, you might cut the weed, but you also might want to understand what's the composition of the ground and the reason why those weeds are growing. Here, for example, in the temple where I live, in Beginner's Mind Temple, we actually have a real opportunity to explore our wants and needs. It's part of what we do, a big part of what we do. We live somewhat of a frugal life, yes. And I think, I believe that's an important part of our practice. And because I say it's an important part of our practice because through that we examine what it means not getting everything we want. Not having everything the way we wish it was. We usually eat what's being offered. We follow forms and rituals.

[30:22]

And all this is in a way designed to give us the opportunity to explore the self, to understand our karmic conditioning. Let me give you an example. For example, I wish I could sleep in the morning and wake up later. But actually, I'm expected to be in the meditation hall at five in the morning. So in this way, I'm confronted with my own self, with my own karma in the action of waking up in the morning. This is a good example because it brings to my mind something that Suzuki Roshi said once to his students. He said, to get up when you hear the bell is the most important practice for us. The moment you hear the bell, you should get up. To get up when you hear the bell is the most important practice for us. The moment you hear the bell, you should get up. He said that sometime in 1969.

[31:24]

So this is what Suzuki Roshi said to his students, I think. Let go of your wants and needs and just get up. Just say yes to practice. Get up. And I really appreciate the clarity with which Suzuki Roshi explains this. Because he doesn't say that to get up when you hear the bell is an important part of our practice. He actually says it's the most important practice for us. Nothing else. The most important practice for us. He seems to be saying, there is nothing more important than the wake-up bell. If you understand this, you will understand the way. So the bell rings and you wake up. And needless to say, what comes after the wake-up bell here, Zazen, meditation.

[32:28]

is a fundamental opportunity to see deeper into the self and to observe those needs and attachments. You know, the dropping of the body and mind that happens in Zazen, where everything is dropped, that everything also includes or can include our needs. So maybe what Suzuki Roshi is saying here is, when you hear the bells in your life, let go of your wants. Just get up. Wake up. When you hear the bells, wake up. This is our practice. When you hear the bell, wake up. Now, if this is not Zen, in a nutshell, I'm not sure what is. So, I have to think. Deeply thank Susugiroshi for that. And of course, Susugiroshi's advice can apply to anyone, anywhere, right? Not just practitioners living in a temple or a monastery. When you get up to work or to sit Zazen with your

[33:30]

probably online group now. Or if you're lucky, maybe you have a sitting group right now. Well, you just get up. You can explore frugality. You can observe your needs wherever you are and see what arises, what comes up in your practice. When you hear the bell in your life, just get up. Wake up. So the question here is, was it so hard to let go of our wants? Why is it so difficult not to be driven by the needs born from our karma? Why is it so difficult to get up and stay sleeping? You know, what is really behind whatever manifests in our conscious mind and needs? And we're talking about, before us, you know, fear. In the Abhatansaka Sutra, also known as the Flower Ornament Sutra, there is a passage where a boy named Sudhana goes on a spiritual journey, visiting a total of 53 ideal bodhisattvas or bodhisattva archetypes. And he asks to these bodhisattvas about their gifts.

[34:34]

And what we discover in the sutra, one of the most important gifts of a bodhisattva is a gift of fearlessness. The gift of not being afraid. One of the most important gifts of the bodhisattva. And this is actually not the only time that we see that this is important, that fearlessness is important in our practice. You know, you might see many statues of bodhisattva archetypes and even in Buddhas, a hand position, we also know as a mudra, that reflects the same concept of fearlessness. You will see that the left hand up like this, right? In the palm facing forward and kind of a shoulder height. This is called the abhaya mudra or gesture of fearlessness. And it's a gesture that symbolizes reassurance and safety. You can look this up on the internet. You'll see it when a Buddhist temple. And I bring this up because, as I said before, fear and uncertainty are one, if not the main thing that fear needs to come from karma.

[35:42]

So what do the Bodhisattvas and Buddhas are trying to tell us when they express the gift of fearlessness or when they raise their left hand? Why is it so important in our path of practice? And one of the main reasons for this is the relationship between fear and uncertainty and craving and wanting. You know, the way they are very tightly knit. Many years ago, I was in Mexico City for the commemoration of the 400th anniversary of the first diplomatic mission from Japan to Europe. And of course, they were traveling by boat and they left Japan and they had from the Pacific to the Atlantic, they did that through Mexico. And that's why this commemoration was happening there. And I was at that time there as a way of tea, a chattel student for the Iurasenke Tea School from Japan.

[36:46]

And one of the main events for this commemoration was a tea offering. A tea offering that that was done at the altar of the same church that was there, San Francisco Church was called, it is called, it's 400 years old, where actually these Japanese were baptized so they could see the Pope. And this ceremony was done by Onsak Daisocho, who is a former head of that Urasenke T school. maximum tea master. Well, actually, now it's his son, Byoyemoto, which is a person in that seat. But he was, before him, the main tea master, you know, head of the Igarasenke school. And Isocho is around 90-something. And you should see him. You know, he's been traveling the world for years, promoting peace through a bone of tea.

[37:49]

You know, true bodhisattva, one of the most... calm, frugal, and wise people have ever met. So we were there in the church, and after the offering, they sort of said, well, I answered some questions. Full church. And they sort of was in the pulpit. And at one point, and I'll never forget this, the bishop of Mexico said, well, we've been here together for some days now, and I can't help to notice that you're always smiling. Why is this? Why are we always smiling? And the social I know is peacefulness and serenity said, oh, I smile because I'm not afraid. I smile because I'm not afraid. And that was a huge aha moment for me in my life, in my practice. So I'll always be grateful to the social for it. Because it made me realize that I had to explore with more depth what that meant.

[38:52]

Go further in understanding all the ways in which I don't trust myself. All the ways I don't trust the world. All the ways I don't trust my practice. You know? And this is, you know, why this brings, what is it that brings fear to my life? What is it that brings an easiness, uncertainty? And hence, crazy, want, need, the rise from karma. most of those needs that arise from fear, that arise from karma, is what reflect in those upper layers as a new iPhone. And that's why connecting with this gift or gesture of fearlessness is so important in our practice. Because if we work with our fears, if we can connect with abundance in our life, instead of abiding in scarcity, fear of abiding in scarcity, if you can do that, something will transform in your sense of need, of always wanting, of this endless craving.

[40:01]

So I think the way will not be difficult if we can do this. By exploring our concerns, our worries, and the ways in which we do not feel at ease, we'll get a fundamental insight of why we need certain things, of what we want, what we want, when it is born from our karma. why we need more oxygen in our shampoo. In a world that's overburdened by consumerism and greed, with natural resources being depleted and the division between human beings getting deeper and deeper, with all that happening, I think that working on our fears and therefore engaging in different ways with what we want and what we need, one of the most important things we can do right now. Letting the Bodhisattva gift of fearlessness permeate our practice, permeate our life. And in that way, it has helped us be less afraid.

[41:06]

Connecting with abundance instead of scarcity and finding ease and balance in what is here right now in the present. You know, we might find that these are the most important antidotes to the needs and wants that arise from our karma. Attaining the way is not difficult. Just avoid being controlled by need. If you have neither fear or doubt, you'll thoroughly understand. Thank you 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. For more information, please visit sfcc.org and click Giving.

[42:08]

May we all fully enjoy the Dharma.

[42:11]

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