So I want to begin this morning with a short poem by Jane Hirshfield. It's called Evolution and Glass. For days, a fly traveled loudly from window to window, until at last it landed on one I could open. It left without thanks or glancing back, believing only, quite correctly, in its own persistence. So good morning, welcome to Green Gulch. I don't know how many of you have been here the last few Sundays, but it's been quite an inspiring month of celebrations. We've celebrated children and birth and mothers, and today we're celebrating coming of age. So on the ninth was Mother's Day, and Abbot Steve gave a very nice lecture about mom.

[01:01]

And then last week was Buddha's birthday. How many of you were here for Buddha's birthday? A few, a few, yeah. It was really nice. We had taiko drummers and a giant chocolate cake. And there was storytelling and a dragon. And the Buddha also appeared, brought up from the fields in the back of our tractor. So... Anyway, today, following the lecture at 1130, those of us who are here to celebrate with our kids will be coming back to the Zendo for our coming-of-age graduation. This group of 7th and 8th graders have been coming here for almost a year, on Sundays, once a month, to be guided by their mentors in practices such as yoga, meditation, way of counsel, and also they did some journaling.

[02:04]

And most of all, they talked about what does it mean to grow up? So I've been volunteering for a number of years to be the director of the Climbing of Age program because I have two very basic qualifications. First of all, I am the parent of a teenager, OMG. And second of all, I was a teenager, OMG. So on these two counts, I have a lot of sympathy for what it is to go through this particular stage of life. And I consider it a commitment of my vows to do whatever I can to be of help. So last week in my own home, in the latest chapter of Life with a Teenager, my daughter, who is soon to be 17, actually on Tuesday next week, came out of her room, which in itself, as you know, is a highly potentialized event.

[03:11]

And she said to her other mom and me, I am an existentialist. I don't believe in God. or Buddha, nor in an afterlife. We are all going to die. And therefore, I am going to make my own decisions about right and wrong, particularly about how I spend my own money. And then she said, by the way, I don't have any left. And not only that, she was out of gas. So I have learned that this is kind of a teenage shell game. They come at you with philosophy and hubris and stridency and humor, and they try to distract you while they clean out your wallet.

[04:15]

And I have to confess that once again, she was successful. So, now I actually can hear what you're thinking right now, that this is rotten parenting practice. And I actually think that myself. But at the same time, I am so committed to finding out how I can support these budding young humans to find their rightful place in this very difficult, complex, and confusing world. So in order to do that, of course, it means I have to take on this question for myself. You know, what does it mean to find your place? What does it mean to truly grow up? So that's what I'm going to talk about today, is Taking Our Places, which is the title of a wonderful book that was written by our former abbot, Norman Fisher, who was the founder of this program.

[05:23]

And he mentored four boys many years ago. grown men. And so he wrote this book about a pathway to maturity. And as Norman says, and I think we all know, growing up is not about our chronological age. For my daughter and for most teenagers, it's not really something they have to think about at all. It's just part of every day and everything they do. But for those of us who are called grownups, I think we do have to reawaken this wide-open process of inquiry and curiosity, re-engage with the questions that began our lives, to find out who we truly are. And of course, the process itself is the key. So with this idea in mind, I want to suggest that growing up is...

[06:24]

the very heart of what we call spiritual practice. And as with all the things in our lives that truly matter, this process, this practice takes three most basic things. It takes a clear intention. No, you have to want to do it. It takes intelligence. You have to know what it is you want to do. And it takes discipline. How are you going to do it? So from the beginning of time, these requirements have always been those that need lots of help. We need help from others. We can't do this by ourselves. And here's what Norman says in his book, that taking our places as mature individuals in this world is not work that we can do alone. We need others to help us, and we need to help others. For true maturity can never exist self-contained.

[07:27]

It is relational. We are relational beings, co-created each moment with what we come in contact with. Because we change, because we are open to and affected by the world, maturity must involve our capacity to know and to love others. So then he goes on to tell the story of the Zen poet-monk Ryokan, whose own nephew was turning into quite the juvenile delinquent. So Ryokan's sister said, could you please come and help with my son who is starting to misbehave? You are a priest and a very good person, she said. Maybe if you talk to him, it will have some effect. So Ryokan came to his sister's house for dinner, and throughout the evening, she waited for him to bring up the subject of her son's misconduct. but the old monk just sat quietly eating. When the meal was finished, Ryokan made to leave, and the boy bent over to help him with his sandals.

[08:33]

As he worked to fasten the straps, the boy felt a warm drop fall onto his head. He looked up, and he saw Ryokan crying quietly. After that, the boy no longer misbehaved. So it's my belief that the foundation of this program for children and the one we have here at the Zen Center for the adults as well is based in this very great truth that we care for each other, the great capacity we have to care for each other. The tradition of Buddhism itself began when the newly awakened young prince, out of his regard for others, set forth to teach. So as students of the Buddha's teaching, we take him as our role model, as the exemplar of what it means to be truly mature and truly realized.

[09:37]

I think most of you know by now that Buddha means awake. So to be awake is both the intention and the intelligence of our spiritual endeavor. But how to be awake you know, the discipline. This can only be found if we look at the story of the Buddha's journey itself, a story that contains the very same elements as our own. As someone once said, we all want to talk about enlightenment, but nobody wants to talk about the sweating horses. If you know what I mean. So in summary, we are born, we are raised and educated within a culture by our parents, and then we leave home to seek our rightful place in what seems to be a vast and complicated world. Now, as I recall, there weren't too many clues about where to go once I left my parents' house.

[10:40]

College was kind of a time when I acclimatized to living on my own. But once that was over, I really didn't have a clue. And It was kind of a surprise to me that the pattern I expected to happen, the one that had happened for my parents and grandparents and so on, you know, as back as time can be known, was that I was going to find my partner and start a family of my own. I was going to grow old and die. Somewhere in between there was lives happily ever after. And in fact, that's the only story that I'd ever really been told. So when that didn't happen, I was pretty sad and pretty scared. Now what? Now, the young prince, on the other hand, had been protected from this story until he was well into his 20s.

[11:45]

And then when he found out, he got quite upset. when he learned that there may be nothing more to life than get married, have kids, and die. So unlike me, he ran away from home. But still, at that point in our experience, I think we were very much in the same place, even though his was voluntary and mine was not. We were out there in the world. We didn't know where we belonged. And we both had deep in our hearts a great desire to find the cause of our suffering. Now, one great advantage that the Buddha had over me following his departure from the palace was that he was trained by the religious teachers of his day in the practices of meditation and yoga, a training which only now I can truly testify would have been of great help.

[12:49]

And why is that so? Well, it's because we human beings, when we're looking for something, for example, the purpose for our life, have basically two options in our navigational system. We can either look outward or we can look inward. Now, according to certain teachings on religion, almost all of the great spiritual traditions of the world make use of one of these two choices. Looking outward is called the way of works, making things work, working with things. Looking inward is called the way of knowledge. And apparently, the way of works was a pretty natural development for human beings as they looked out at the world and saw repeating patterns. patterns of the stars and in the plants and animal migrations, patterns of their own lives.

[13:53]

And then little by little, they ascribed to these patterns human qualities. It's called animism. They animated the natural world. And they talked about the wood nymphs and the forest nymphs and the water nymphs. Nymphs, nymphs were everywhere. And they made offerings to these human-like beings. with things that humans would have been pleased to have, such as milk and flowers, fruit, things like that. This is still happening in many places in the world. I was just looking at a National Geographic article about people who live in these volcanoes, the foot of volcanoes, and they take fruit and flowers up to the gods of the fire. Now, over time, in some parts of the world, people gave these forces greater and more divine attributes, such as omniscience, immortality, and unspeakable power.

[15:00]

And not surprisingly, it was then deemed that these forces deserved more valuable offerings, such as live animals and even children. And to this day, the way of works is clearly one of our options. We can try to manipulate, to bribe, to threaten, bargain with, placate all the forces of the world. And there are many myths about humans making deals with both the demons and the gods. The problem is really knowing which is which. So the other option, the way of knowledge, is a turning inward. And this is what the young prince finally came to do. But first he asked permission from the earth herself to sit there and to look inside of himself for what he was seeking.

[16:03]

And the earth quivered and then responded, Yes, you may, my son. So many days on end, he turned his attention onto the workings of his own mind. And here we have what we call the discipline. And like the fly in Jane Hirshfield's poem, this turning inward takes a lot of persistence. And then finally, somehow, the window was opened. And from that moment on, the Buddha was grown up. He was a happy, and a grateful man. I think it's most interesting to us who seek to know just what such awakening might mean that the Buddha said a few surprising things on that occasion. One thing he said was, I and all beings are awakened at the same time. I and all beings are awakened at the same time.

[17:06]

And he also said, The entire universe in the ten directions is the true human body. So what I make of this in brief is that the way of knowledge of turning inward reveals to those who seek a sacred pathway that runs up the back of your spine, out through your eyeballs, around the morning star, back into your heart, and up to your brain, which is why we care. Awakening is the fruit not of isolation. I am awake. I am enlightened. That'd be kind of weird. But of a deep and certain connection between ourselves and all that exists. I and all beings are awakened at the same time. This is the big I, the big love.

[18:13]

And I think that we know this and we live this long before we understand it. And it's the not understanding that causes us to suffer. So the Buddha was very patient with us, and he repeated the same lessons over and over again. The world is not where or what you think it is. please look again and open your eyes. Now, our children themselves are born from this deep connection. It's the strongest need that they have from the moment of their birth. But like us, they have to be reassured that they belong, that they are important, and that they are loved. And so we who are still journeying to the fullness of our humanity must call out to them with encouraging words, with words of respect and appreciation, as we encircle them in the great warmth of belonging.

[19:19]

And so today we are going to do just that. During our ceremony, we will witness each of these young people, we will listen to their words, and we will offer them our affection and our love. And who knows? Perhaps at the end of their days, they will remember this the way it really was. So I'm going to end with another poem by our own Zen monk poet, Jane Hirschfield. It's called, It Was Like This. You were happy. It was like this. You were happy. Then you were sad. Then happy again. then not. It went on. You were innocent or you were guilty. Actions were taken or not. At times you spoke, at other times you were silent.

[20:24]

Mostly it seems you were silent. What could you say? Now it is almost over. Like a lover, your life bends down and kisses your life. It does this not in forgiveness. Between you there is nothing to forgive. But with the simple nod of a baker at the moment he sees the bread is finished with transformation. Eating too is a thing now only for others. It doesn't matter what they will make of you or your days. They will be wrong. They will miss the wrong woman, the wrong man. All the stories they tell will be tales of their own invention. Your story was this. You were happy. Then you were sad. You slept. You awakened. Sometimes you ate roasted chestnuts.

[21:25]

Sometimes persimmons. Thank you very much.

[21:30]

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