At the first Saturday of every month, we have a children's program, so welcome to our distinguished visitors. So the Zen Center is a place that teaches meditation, and quite often the meditation we talk about is kind of lofty in some way, you know, non-dual absorption in the present moment or, you know, compassion for... our enemies, et cetera, et cetera. But meditation is many things, can be lots of different things. And today we're going to talk about a very special and tasty meditation, meditation on a potato chip. And Aliou, if you could help me. What I want to do is I want to actually pour the potato chips out into some bowls and pass them out so everybody gets one chip. And please wait once you get your chip. And when everybody has a chip, we'll proceed.

[01:06]

There's another back here, and you could fill some too. I'm going to need some help in handing them out. Does anybody have any volunteers? Here, please. Take this. No, no, not just take your chip. No. I assume I have sufficient chips. Here we go. You want to help? Okay, here we go. And we've got some more. Others can help as well. We want to make sure these chips get distributed. This goes in the bag. Anybody else? Thank you. And there are some people probably in the dining room. listening to the talk. So does anybody want to go take this to the dining room and then come on back, okay?

[02:08]

And in the dining room, give it to someone to pass around and remind them they can only get one chip. So when I grew up, my family hardly ever ate together.

[03:11]

The cupboards in the kitchen were full of individual meals that I liked and my sisters liked, and some things that my parents liked. Most commonly, actually, we would prepare each of our own meals independently, and I and my sisters would then watch TV as we had our dinner. I just wanted to say that I think that eating together is a very important thing. When I look back on my childhood, on my youth, it's one of the things I lament a little bit. My family didn't come together in that way around meals, perhaps Thanksgiving, perhaps Christmas. But on a regular weekly basis, not really at all. So in some way, this is an experience we eat together. It owes much to my youth. perhaps that I've brought you all together to share this with me. So here's the deal.

[04:12]

Once you get your potato chip, I want everybody to actually hold it in front of them and look at it carefully. To imagine, can you see the potato in it? And actually I brought along Just in case people can't see the potato, I've run along with a potato. And I actually carefully, I went to the kitchen and I carefully selected a potato using a scale because this potato weighs as much as one bag of those chips. About, you know, roughly. About nine ounces. And it's amazing if I look at this and I think that I could slice it and there'd be a potato for everybody in here. So it's kind of a marvel of technology and many people actually have worked together to create this refined American product. From the farmers to the people who brought the potatoes from the fields to the factories to the people who made the oil and the shop down the street that sold it to me.

[05:21]

Very complex weave has come together. Now, I mean, can you smell it? You still can't eat it. So, you know, one way, one thing, a way to be mindful, as he said at the beginning, we teach meditation here. We teach mindfulness. But perhaps the essence of mindfulness is to be fully in the moment and to allow the moment to make an impression on you and to not turn away from it. So let's not turn away from sort of smelling and admiring this chip. And now we're going to put it in our mouth and just for a second, don't bite. Put it in your mouth and then crunch. He's a cook.

[06:35]

You know, when you just eat one picture, I'm not quite sure I see what's in them. There's lots of thought that went into this, including, the Lay's potato chip I bought because they have an advertising campaign that says, bet you can't eat just one. And I wanted to prove them wrong. I wonder if anybody has any, if any of you have any thoughts about paying careful attention to a potato chip? No. No, but behind, back there, yes? No. No? But you raised your hand to say no? No thoughts? No. Yes? I didn't eat it for a long time. I stuck it in my mouth, but I didn't eat it right away. Uh-huh. You just let it rest there in your mouth? Yeah. Was it salty? I bet you it was. It actually softened.

[07:57]

Uh-huh. Some of the potato chip essence is that crunch, you know. Well, I want to encourage all of you, as you go through the rest of the day and your life, and not just the kids, but everyone in the room, to take advantage of every opportunity to be mindful, not just to think that you've got to wait until someone rings a bell at the zendo and then you sit down, but to realize that there's opportunities left and right to pay attention and to notice. And now, I'll say goodbye to all of you. And you can take, if you want, one of the... Well, you can take one of the potatoes here. You've got some back there that you're taken care of. Thank you very much. Are we allowed to take one more?

[08:58]

Yes. I think there's some in the other room, too. If any of you want to move forward, I don't know if anyone feels like they're stuck in the back or something like that. Feel free if you want to come forward. So, We offer these lectures every Saturday and they might seem like they're different topics. Some weeks we talk about potato chips and other weeks we talk about the Four Noble Truths and sometimes we might talk about some old Zen ancestor and what that person said. But really, all the talks on Saturday are about one thing.

[10:03]

They're about the same thing. Just circling around the topic A here at the Zen Center, which is what does it mean to practice Buddhism? What does it mean to wake up? And how do we help ourselves practice Buddhism? And how do we help ourselves wake up? And... In some ways, Zen could be kind of grandiose, but the real core, I want to say that the essential teaching of Buddhism, the essential teaching of Zen, the core of Buddhist awakening, is that personal integrity is necessary for us to walk the path. Morality, taking care of our of how we treat ourselves and others is the gateway to living a life of Buddha Dharma.

[11:11]

And making a commitment towards this effort is the ground of awakening. It's the soil that we till. In fact, the farmer, when they till the soil, they make those potatoes that turned into chips. Our ground is this commitment. And so practicing Buddhism, Buddha means waking, wake awake. Practicing Buddhism is making a commitment to a life turned towards awakening. And the question is, what does that mean? Awakening what? The practice of the way, the practice of Zen, is turning towards a life of being helpful to other people. And the Dharma path of the Buddhas and ancestors is embodied, is expressed in questioning our actions and questioning how we go through the day in the light of whether we're being helpful, whether we're actually wasting our time or making effective use of it.

[12:31]

Now, talking, saying as I did just a moment ago that the ground of Buddhist awakening is to pay attention to morality and integrity might seem like an affirmation of rules or restrictions. But I don't intend it that way. And I don't think it is that that is true. These words that I say are based on my sense of what, if we looked at Buddha's life, we would see. And rather than restrictions, this intention, this commitment to live in this way is actually a great awakening, a great liberation, a great opening. And this great opening is found not in large gestures, but more often and more frequently and more intimately is found in small moments, unfolding parts of our day, small moments and small decisions that actually have big consequences.

[14:02]

So the way we do this is pretty simple. We just commit ourselves to the path of waking up. And in the words of Trungpa Rinpoche, a Tibetan teacher who was friends with Suzuki Roshi, in the words of Trungpa Rinpoche, doing this is not only simple, but it's extremely economical. And it's economical because We accept that there actually is already a path that's been strategized and designed and thought out. A path is laid out many years ago. And we realize that we don't have to invent that. There are many gifts that we've been given of teachings and instructions. Maybe I'll just call it the families here at the Zen Center, the family style of the Zen Center.

[15:09]

We turn ourselves over towards that, to learning about it and not trying to struggle against it, but to gain, to make it real in our life. Now, this is not the same as being complacent. We don't just sort of like, okay, well, here I am, and so this is all I'm going to do. We need to be always questioning ourselves, wondering. if we're wasting our time, wondering about how we're doing. And in this effort of surrendering to or giving ourselves over to the path of practice, in some ways our body and mind can become transformed, and almost as though it's almost like on a viral level, we start to sort of feel that the history of Buddhism and the history of this many people practicing life dedicated towards awakening, this becomes a part of us and actually transforms us and is there inside us as a support when things are tough.

[16:28]

So something which is almost physical in the lineage enters into us. Born, as we all are, all have been, into this world, we naturally have desires. And having desires, we nearly inevitably develop dislikes. And figuring out that there are some things that we like more than other things and some things we don't like, we set ourselves off into what we think is our grown-out, bad-out life where we can make the choices that we want. And another way to phrase what I just said is that we're born and there's inevitably a need for us to investigate what in Buddhism is called the three poisons of greed, hate, and delusion. And it might seem that it would be easier for all concerned if we could skip that stage.

[17:37]

But actually, it wouldn't be real. It wouldn't be real to skip this investigation of unhappiness. In some very important way, the power of our practice and perhaps even the helpfulness of our practice and our commitment, all of this owes much to the fact that we're very intimate with our foolish self. To put the teaching of Buddhism in a nutshell, in one nutshell, this big bag of nutshells somewhere, to put the teaching of the Buddha in a nutshell, the point is to transform our worldview. And doing this, we do this, we transform our worldview knowing that it's possible to change and that also knowing that we don't have to look over to other people to find our motivation for this effort.

[18:45]

What we need to know and see, the motivation that we need in practice can be found if we just look at ourselves right here. We just turn our gaze back at ourself. And this is something that the Buddha spoke about. He didn't teach about gods or super spiritual persons. He taught about the things that we know and can know and see. He taught about the truth, for instance, that our hair will turn gray. Our skin will get wrinkled, our eyes become dimmer. And he called these physical facts, he called these physical, these simple facts of our bodies aging, he called them divine messengers, divine messengers.

[19:55]

Pali Devadutta, which also might be translated as excellent bearers of news. So these excellent bearers of news are telling us that our hair is turning gray. Our skin is less supple. We need reading glasses when we sit down in a chair to read. This isn't particularly a clever, wise... It doesn't require a master's degree to comprehend this, but it is an important fact to encourage us to take advantage of the time right now and recognize that we're born and we will die and in between. It's up to us how we take advantage of how we live our life. So we might hope that Buddhist... practice, this thing that we've perhaps foolishly and wholeheartedly have given ourselves over to, we might hope that it will give us a kind of momentum, extraordinary momentum that will allow us to break free of the suffering we notice around us.

[21:16]

But really, this isn't undertaken the purpose of remaking the outside world. Our practice is not something that has any ability to change others. Practice is about remaking our own eyes, our own ears, remaking our own point of view. And if we might be, perhaps, immersed in the practice of meditation, and we might be so fortunate as to have An experience where we realized our Buddhadharma in our heart-mind. At this moment of experience, you most likely won't think, ah, this is just how I thought it would be. Because waking up is going to be different from our expectation.

[22:18]

Our Japanese Zen teacher, great ancestor of our Zen tradition here, Ehe Dogen, in an essay he wrote called Only a Buddha and a Buddha, he said, Buddha Dharma cannot be known by a person. Because it is realized by Buddhas alone, it is said only a Buddha and a Buddha can thoroughly master it. Maybe it's simple. I don't know. We're born. We will die. And this is a fact we can't deny. Everyone in this room was born at one point. And every one of us is going to die at some point. I remember this is a digression.

[23:26]

But I was once the... Development Director at Zen Center, fundraiser. And I heard a story that Kategori Roshi, who had a Zen Center in Minneapolis, some friends of the Zen Center made a special effort to organize a reception or an event of some potential donors, people who might have the means and capacity to help the Minneapolis Zen Center. And he came in and... They were expecting and were hoping it'd be kind of an upbeat, you know, presentation of the potential for the Zen Center and all the things it was going to do. And Category came in and told everybody, the only thing I have to tell you is that you're going to die. And I don't know if it was an effective fundraiser or not, but he was true to himself, I think. So borrowing from category, let me say we're going to die.

[24:36]

And one of the things we think sometimes is we have a lot of time to figure stuff out. It may be so. Maybe we've got decades and decades in front of us, but we can't know. Who knows? So I want to say that we can't know how much time. Time is in front of us. To put this effort off for the future when things seem like you can handle it isn't the way to do it. The time to do it is now. The time to start practice is today. The time to continue our practice is this moment. And the time to remind ourselves that we want to make this effort is all the time. It's not going to get easier later on. And really the lesson that can encourage us in this is to realize that doing this we wake up love in our hearts and we feel love for other people and for even people that we might even think at one point might have thought we're not our friends.

[25:53]

We feel compassion and love for them as well. In doing this, it's very important to not just have this feeling and make this effort in the privacy of our own space and time, but to do it in front of other people and along with other people. Making a vow to practice, a personal internal vow is one thing, but saying it aloud in front of, for instance, a Buddhist... Assembly for taking the precepts in front of, in this room perhaps, in a ceremony of ordination, carries a lot more weight. Race is the stakes. Because one deep truth of this bodhisattva path is not that we need to wake up others, even though we do, but that we need others to wake ourself up.

[27:01]

The practice of Zen, this tradition we follow here, has survived through a long unbroken series of friendships that stretches back through history, ultimately goes back to the Gautama Buddha himself. And this, this continuous thread of friendships, of friendship is a delicate line that joins past with the future. And Dharma practice blossoms when spiritual friendships flourish. This is why in recognition of this, we place so much importance in Zen practice at some level, at some point in time, having a face-to-face relationship with a senior student, perhaps a teacher. And of course, you know, we like it when other people understand and appreciate us.

[28:19]

But really the effort, really the best way to have other people appreciate and understand us is to make the effort to understand ourself. So in Dharma practice, in Zen practice, you might say that there are two kinds of peacefulness that we can realize from our efforts. And one is the peacefulness and calm that comes from meditation. And the other is the peace that comes through wisdom. And it's important to understand that the mind that finds peace through zazen can still be deluded and confused and chaotic.

[29:28]

This sort of zazen peaceful mind is something we experience when we're separated from stimulation, from stuff, when we sit quietly by ourself. And it can be a tremendous encouragement to feel that sense of our calm inner heart. But when the bell rings and we get up and walk down the street, things happen and our attachment to desire and experience is activated all over. Karmic actions still occur and still complicate us. There was a time in my life when I had a tremendous sense of calm and peace in Zazen. It was a pretty special moment, actually.

[30:31]

I felt really encouraged. Not forgetting about encouraged, I felt connected to everybody. I felt the energy of my body integrated. I felt this and I felt that. It was a wonderful thing, actually. At that time, I had a friend who, afterwards, I shared with her what I felt had happened to me. And she became furious and pissed off. And she said, I don't want to hear about your wonderful Zazen experience because you haven't been treating me with respect. And I thought, yes, she's right, actually. In a way, the real test isn't what happens on the cushion, but when we're off the cushion walking around. And I think that's an important thing for all of us to remember. So even though it's a very good thing to do, to sit and to settle ourselves and to be...

[31:45]

to recognize and find that place in us that fully meets exactly just this present moment, even though that is so much a good thing to do, at the same time, we need a little bit more. We need something else to transform ourselves. We need to understand, and as I heard here, always the devil is in the details, but we need to understand... the real nature of how things are. We need to cultivate the perfection of wisdom. We chant every day here at the Zen Center a text called the Heart Sutra and it is about this teaching of the perfection of wisdom. So when we are inspired by when we have made real in our life, in our hearts and minds, the wisdom that is talked about in our sutra.

[32:53]

Then in that case, when we rise up from the quiet of sitting in meditation, being grounded in this deep understanding, we're unafraid of sights and sounds and smells and tastes and touches and mental thoughts that might arise. In other words, using the kind of technical Buddhist lingo, when wisdom is woken up in us, we can embrace the five skandhas and not be caught by the things of the world. knows about the beginning of their life, or who knows about the end of their life, how that will be, how that was, and how that will be.

[33:58]

You may have doubts about life, about your life, about your commitment to the path, about how to navigate today, but know that every Buddha's practice, every Buddha's life is lived in the midst of the entire universe. And if it's not a practice that includes all of us, it's not the Buddha's awakening. This being so, all Buddhas from the moment of their great awakening realize and practice the way together with us. with the entire universe. And these Buddhas are here with us now. They haven't left our side, and they won't. This text by Dogen, in a moment I want to read some more from this, only a Buddha in a Buddha text.

[35:09]

But first I want to say, what's important to remember, what's important to keep in mind is that Zen practice is not something that we take on faith. We need some faith at some point to get started, but we don't keep to it just because we have faith in it. In fact, it's not some received truth. It is a practice that is made real and unfolds and becomes clear to us in the actual experience of our life. At least it should. That's the test. And what's strong about our practice is that it's not just a matter of some single tremendous moment, though that might happen. Our practice is more simply a process that over time loosens our grip on old ways of thinking and allows our mind and heart to find its own true course, like a stream that flows out to the sea.

[36:20]

in an ancient channel. Quoting Dogen, there has been a saying since olden times, no one except a fish knows a fish's heart. No one except a bird follows a bird's trace in the sky. Yet those who understand this principle are rare. To think that no one knows a fish's heart or a bird's trace is mistaken. You should know that a fish always knows one another's heart. A bird can see traces of hundreds and thousands of small birds having passed in flocks. A bird can see traces of so many lines of large birds having flown south or north. These traces for a bird may be even more evident than the carriage tracks left on a road or hoof prints of a horse seen in wet grass.

[37:29]

In this way, a bird sees bird traces. You may wonder why you do not see and know. The reason is that while Buddhas see these traces with a Buddha's eye, those who do not have a Buddha's eye just notice. the Buddha's attributes. You never know a Buddha's trace when you're not a Buddha. If you find footprints, you should investigate whether they are the Buddha's. On being investigated, the Buddha's trace is known. Whether it's long or short, accomplishing this is the path of waking up. Please keep on investigating your life and keep on being alert to seeing the Buddha's trace. Thank you very much.

[38:32]

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