I wanted to say today is a little bit different in that both it's a one day sitting, which is beginning a practice period. And it's the first Saturday of the month, which means we welcome the young people to join us for a while. We have another circumstance. It's a little different in that Riemann Guterres-Baldekin and I are co-leading the practice period. And she was going to give the lecture next week because I wanted everyone to. get to meet her who doesn't know her early on in the practice period. But her aunt Lola, who raised her, has just died after a long illness. And Ramon has to go back to New York for a funeral. So she won't be able to lecture next Saturday. So I got her to help me do the hard part of the lecture today. She's going to talk about Dharma with young people. So I'm going to give you. This microphone, which is now working.

[01:02]

Down here? How's this? How's this? Excellent. Thank you for the feedback. Yes, well, I feel really happy to be here talking to you young people, especially because for me this is not only the first time to talk to such a wonderful group of little Buddhas, but it's also the first time giving a talk here in the Buddha Hall. So thank you very much for joining me on this special occasion. So what I want to talk about today in terms of Dharma is First, I want to find out who you are. So can you tell me your name? Yes. Charles. Charles.

[02:06]

No. Char. Char. Thank you. What's your name? Alyssa. [...] Alyssa Ellie. Char, Elsa, Caitlin, Ellie. Thank you. Well, what I want to speak with you about is this special topic. And it's a topic of, what do you think? What do you think this is? What is this? Anybody? We don't know. Exactly. We don't know. You're a little Zen master already, right? Exactly. Exactly. So because we don't know, because we don't know, sometimes things are, we might feel like we can't see things, right?

[03:09]

Because they might be covered up or wrapped up, right, in a box or in a package. Yeah, you agree? I'll give you your $20 later. So what I want to ask you is to help me look at this process piece of not knowing what's in here, okay? Not knowing what's in here. So do I have a couple of volunteers to come up and look in the box? Okay, come on. Okay, so I have something here that each of you could have a chance to look into if you'd like to come up. Yes? You have a chance? Yeah? Want to come up? Okay, and I'm going to have you each, for the time that we're together here, Pick one of these. Come on. You can come. Okay. Pick one up, but don't open it. Pick one up, but don't open it. Okay. You got that. You got that? Okay.

[04:10]

Okay. Pick one up. Okay. Now, take a look at it. Just hold on to it. And what I want you to do just for a minute is very slowly open what's in your little box. Very gently. Very gently. What's in there? What's in there? Yes. Okay, so here we have a bottle that is painted in the inside with a dragon. It comes from China. And I'm going to hold on to yours for a minute, and I'm going to open it in a little bit, but let's put this here. And what do you have? What do you have? What is it? It's a diamond. Yes, it's a diamond, right? It's a diamond. Look at it. You can see through it, right? You can see through it, right? Yes? This diamond came from Israel, right?

[05:13]

And what do you have? This is Ellie's. This is Ellie's. And this is called a jiso, right? It's a jiso. And it's a protector of children, right? Protects children, right? So let's open this. And I want you to pay close attention. You know what's going to be in it? Yeah, me too. I used to have one of those. You did. Now I lost all the parts. You lost all of them, yes. I think I used to have one of those. You used to have one of these too? Yes. Well, you know, my mother gave me this, but she gave it to me not when I was a child your age. She gave it to me when I was 33 years old. I hadn't seen her for a long time. What this, like all these little precious little boxes, what they have in common is that often inside precious little packages, there is something that's totally special. So in each one of you, there's something totally special. So let's see what's in here. Should we be ready?

[06:14]

I don't know. Oh my goodness. You knew it? Okay. I know it's going to be inside there, another one. Oh, should we take a look? Should we? Okay, here we go, here we go, here we go. Ready? [...] Yes. So, so if we keep, if we keep looking deeper and deeper, what do you think is going to be inside of this? Another and another. Another and another? Yeah. Yeah? I know it's going to be, I saw it. Oh, what do you think? Check that out. What do you think? There's something deeper in there? I think. You think? What do you think? You think there's something deeper in there? Yes? I think there's another one. Oh, well, let's see. Let's see. There's going to be another one because I see a hole where you can get it out of there. You see the hole. Okay, so let's make sure. Is it in there? No. So when does this stop? When does this stop?

[07:15]

I can't have the smallest one. The smallest one? Okay. No, it's not one. Yes. Yes. So here we go. So here we go. Let's see. Oh my goodness. Tiny. Tiny. Exactly. That is the teaching. Tiny. Right? I see a line. You see a line. Open it. Open it. Open it. Okay. So let's see. Well, you know what? You think there's something either tinier in there? Yeah. [...] Oh, let's see. Let's see. Exactly. Well, let's see. I don't see a line. I don't see a line. You don't see a line, right? Well, let me tell you something. And here's the secret. Here's the secret. You see how tiny this is? Well, you see this guy sitting on this altar?

[08:17]

Not this person here. That one up there? You see this guy? His name is Buddha, right? He's the Buddha, Shakyamuni. But he once, before he got to be so serious-looking and sitting in that funny-looking position, he was actually a little boy like Char and a little child like all of you. And as he grew up, he made this big discovery, like you did as you opened these boxes, which is that inside all of us, inside all of us, there's this little thing called Buddha nature. Buddha nature. And it's tiny, right? As you said, it's tiny. So I want you to consider, think about that. Feel it? How tiny it is? Yeah, you can open it. You can open it. That's right. Check it out. Yes. Roll it. You can roll it. Yes. Pretty tiny.

[09:19]

Pretty tiny. Did you feel it? What do you think? Well, so what we had just done here is open all these precious packages. That's right. So what do you think? Soap. Soap? When in doubt, soap. Right. Well, I tell you, Buddha nature comes in many ways. It's our beauty inside in each of you. I can see it in your eyes. and I see it in the attention and in the way that you're engaged. You can see it through there. But you know, Buddha Nature also comes in really wonderful little ways. You ready? You wonder what's in here? Okay, here's the last one. This is my favorite. You ready? Wow! A 56 Thunderbird. That's a good one.

[10:21]

Yes. So thank you very much for playing with me with all these things. And maybe the adults that are in this little group might put all this back together for me later. And particularly the little doll, that'd be great. Yes. What's inside yours? Now, this is an amazing thing. You ready? This is done in China. And inside this bottle, an artist painted a dragon in a cloud. Inside the bottle. See? Can I see? Yes. When you paint, it's inside, not outside. Exactly. Exactly. And then me also. Yes. I see it. You see it? Yes. I'll go check.

[11:24]

Wow. Wow. Well, all of you are deserving of a great wow. What's this diamond? That diamond. Oops. Oops. This diamond is, you can see through many faces of it. Look. Oh, here you go. This goes in here. What do you do with these? What do I do with these? Well, I tell you, I keep them home and they're around my house. And when I'm asked suddenly to talk to a group of children, I walk up the street and I look around and I said, I need my toys to share with you. And I knew that would come in handy. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Thank you.

[12:30]

See you again. Bye bye. Thank you very much. If we had any time to plan this ahead of time, then I wouldn't take off on talking about Buddha nature. Actually, I'm going to talk about the wholehearted way because that's the theme of this practice period. And I like the wholehearted way that just dived in. I'll take care of the kids and did it. That kind of spirit. I've just been been focusing on the causes and conditions that.

[13:37]

Due to causes and conditions, I've been given the gift of life. And so have each of you. And what a wonderful thing. And also due to causes and conditions. I've actually been given this life in the form of a precious human life. How very fortunate. In this human life. Due to causes and conditions. I've had an opportunity to meet the Buddha Dharma. And to meet a teacher. And to meet a Sangha. where I can practice. I've had this opportunity through fortunate circumstances, not through any great skill of mine. They are just given to me. This opportunity to practice has been given to me.

[14:41]

And so the question is, what am I going to do with this opportunity to practice? How will I How will I use this precious gift that's been given to me of life in human form. With the opportunity to practice the Buddha Dharma. With a Sangha and a teacher. And all of you to practice with. I noticed that. There are many possibilities as to how I express this precious human life. And it's up to me. It's my responsibility how I engage with this precious human life. And I've shared with you many times what one teacher, Kobancino Roshi said.

[15:50]

It's such a big responsibility that naturally such a person sits down for a while. Because it's not an intended action. It's a natural action. When we realize how precious this opportunity is, how rare, and that it's our responsibility how we live this life, then we begin to take a good look and see, how do I want to live this life? One time Ed Brown asked Suzuki Roshi, Roshi, what's the most important thing? And Roshi said, to find out what's the most important thing. So as we practice, we begin to notice that we have the opportunity to cultivate those qualities that lead to a joyful life. We have the opportunity

[16:51]

Particularly practicing within Sangha where we can each be a mirror for the other. To notice what kind of habits we've picked up that impede us from living this life as we would like to. I find some of the qualities that are important to me when I think about how I want to be. how I hope to be, what my effort is. I think of kindness. I think of compassion. I think of selflessness. I think if I really put some energy into recognizing my gratitude for this gift of life and recognizing that it is a gift that naturally kind of the partner to gratitude is generosity, I think. So that's another thing that I would like to cultivate.

[17:57]

But I need all of you to help me do that. And all of you need all the rest of us. We really cultivate the possibility of being Buddha. Or at least of being a kind and compassionate and selfless and generous person. Through the kindness and help of all of our friends. And through our own wholehearted effort. Dogen Senji's, the first thing. Dogen Senji was the founder, some of you here for the first time maybe, so I should find out. How many people here for the first time? So Dogen Senji was the Japanese founder of this particular stream of Zen called Soto Zen. When he was a young man, he went from Japan at quite some peril to his life since the high seas were

[19:10]

I don't know, they didn't have ships quite like we have now and it's a little dangerous. But he went from Japan to China to really find the true teaching. And what he found there, as he recounts in some of his stories, were some people who impressed him very much, some monks who impressed him very much by their devotion to practice, by their... unselfishness by their wholehearted effort. The first Chinese monk he met, he was an immigrant and he didn't have his proper papers for customs and he had to stay on the boat for a while. And so a monk came to the boat. He had walked some distance from his monastery. And Dogen Senji was very excited to see a monk and he talked to him and the monk told him that he was the head cook at his monastery and tomorrow was a holiday.

[20:21]

And he had come to this boat that just arrived from Japan to get some dried mushrooms to make something special for the monks for the holiday. And Dogen Senji was so excited to... To meet a monk, can't you stay and have tea with me? No, no, I must get back. I'm expected back. Well, a senior monk like you, why are you cooking? Why aren't you sitting meditation and studying sutras? And the monk said to him, this is the job, this is the responsibility that's been given to me as a great gift. And I want to do it. I want to provide something special for the monks for tomorrow. And maybe you'll understand when you're older. And so this was very impressive to Dogen Senji, this quite senior monk who was

[21:34]

walking all the way from the monastery to pick up some mushrooms, to head all the way back to the monastery to make a special treat for the monks. And this was what the real Buddha Dharma was. How surprising. And then later on, when he was at a monastery on a very hot day, he saw this elderly monk all bent over, turning He was drying mushrooms too. Dried mushrooms must have been a big deal. They still are. They're pretty good. But he was very carefully turning over all these mushrooms which were drying in the hot sun. And he said to the monk, you're all old and better. Why don't you get someone else to do that for you? You're the, you know, you're the head of the kitchen. You can get one of the young monks to do it. And. The Tenzo said to him, someone else is not me.

[22:36]

And these were very big lessons for Dogen Zenji that he brought back with him from China. These really impressed him very much. And it brings up for me Suzuki Roshi talking about Zen is making your best effort on each moment forever. Also saying a bodhisattva should be very happy for their difficulties. Because when you have a difficulty, there you have a way to practice. And I look at my life and I realize that the difficulties, I came to practice because of a big difficulty. because a friend of mine suddenly got very ill and died. My age was shocking. And that same, within a month or two, I was very ill and almost died.

[23:46]

And that combination really woke me up to, you know what it says on the Hans, don't waste this life. Everything is impermanent. Wake up. Don't waste this life. I had to find out after that how to live my life if it was impermanent. But it was the difficulty. It was the illness. It was the seeing how vulnerable I am that turned me toward practice. If everything had just been going smoothly, hunky-dory, I probably would not have found this practice, which has been the joy of my life. So we need to look at the difficulties that make us turn toward practice as a gift as well as this life itself. And this discovery that my life is a gift came through another difficulty of a heart attack which I survived.

[24:53]

So our difficulties are very helpful. And the value of sangha is that all of your friends can be a mirror for you. As we do this practice period together, we can help each other by being mirrors for each other. If we want to cultivate kindness, if we want to cultivate compassion, if we want to cultivate selflessness, It's actually very kind for someone to mirror back to us in a kind way that something we may have said or done was not quite so kind. For me that's very helpful. I give any of you permission to give me that kind of feedback. Find out how to do it kindly and gently.

[26:00]

You don't just go up to somebody and say, you know, you're a real schmuck. What you said really hurt my feelings. That's not practicing kindness on your own side. But you can say, ouch, you know, if a mirror is going to bite, you don't look at it very often. So if you want actually to be able to learn from your friends and have them learn from you, you have to be kind in the way you give feedback. But if you're going to be a mirror, you do have to learn how to kindly give feedback. And we can help each other in this way. We can find out from each other, from our friends, where our work is in cultivating this Buddha nature, this Buddha within that Riman was talking about. And that's where this wholehearted effort comes in.

[27:00]

is not getting put down by seeing the ways in which we're not quite living up to our ideal, but letting the possibility of seeing how we're not living up to our ideal help us to turn more closely toward how we really want to live this life. When Dogenzenji really discovered the practice at the monastery he went to and the teacher he went to that really changed, turned his life around. He said to spread this Dharma and to free living beings became my vow. I felt as if a heavy burden had been placed on my shoulders. So having found the true Dharma, he felt it was completely his responsibility to go home and share it with people.

[28:14]

So the first thing he wrote when he got back, we chanted in morning service this morning, Phukhan Zazangi, universal recommendation for the practice of sitting meditation. And the second thing he wrote was a talk on the wholehearted practice of the way. That's what Bendo Wa means. This book is a translation and a commentary on the second thing he wrote about wholehearted practice. And of course, the first thing I think of. When I think about wholeheartedness is, yeah, well, who wouldn't want a whole heart? Who wants to be half-hearted? We all want a whole heart. This is the way, this is the direction we go if we want to cultivate a life of joy.

[29:20]

A joyful life is based on learning how to be kind. compassionate, generous, and selfless. So it's very helpful if that's the way we want to go. It's very helpful to be able to see when old habits that don't express that kind of life crop up and Just see them, say, hmm, OK, got to keep an eye on that one. You don't have to beat yourself up. You don't have to say, oh, I'm such a terrible person. Actually, that really does not help. It's something that we in this culture do quite a lot of, I think, of putting ourselves down.

[30:27]

You know, the precept, one of the precepts, number seven, I think, says, don't put yourself up by putting others down. You know, or don't praise self at the expense of others. But the other is true, too. Don't put yourself down either. Just take yourself seriously and realize that it matters how you live this life. It matters to you and it matters to everyone around you how you live this life. And so it's important to take up a practice that helps you really be awake and aware in your life as you're living it, moment by moment. And that is the effort that we try to cultivate as we sit Sazen. To learn how to be right here where we are while we're doing what we're doing.

[31:35]

And if we're present and aware and awake while we're doing what we're doing, we actually won't do anything that we'll feel bad about later. The times that we do stuff that we feel bad about later, we're not really paying attention. So this wholehearted way is about really getting your energy behind being present, paying attention, noticing what's happening, noticing some feeling before you've acted that makes you hesitate. Take another look. Really trying to see something as it's arising. In his commentary, Chiyama Roshi says, usually we begin to practice the Buddha way with an idea that practice has no meaning unless we attain enlightenment and become great persons.

[32:49]

However, this is completely contrary to the true Buddha way. We must see the difference between this kind of worldly idea and the real Buddha way. Then we must put all of our energy into practicing it. This is the meaning of the Ben of Bendo Wah. Putting all our energy into practicing the real Buddha way. So our efforts. as we do this practice period, is to cultivate continuous awareness of what we're doing and to notice when it slips away and to return. Without judgment, just notice and return. Just know this is the way I want to go and I'm going to keep

[33:52]

Going like an airplane on automatic pilot, you know, when you get off course a little bit, as soon as you get off course, it notices and corrects. And that's what we're doing. We don't go this way. But we notice something's a little off and we come back. And we notice something's a little off and we come back. Excuse me. And, you know, we were reading. The who can say this morning and it was talking about our posture, you know, and being upright. And some of you may have had meditation instruction today and there was very precise description of posture. And it's not to look good. You know, that's not that's not why we take very precise care of our posture. We take very precise care of our posture so that we are upright and balanced. and not tending to fall in any direction.

[34:54]

It's actually the most comfortable way to sit. If you're leaning in any direction, you have to tighten up to keep from falling. So we pay, that's one of the ways that we can train ourselves to be really present, is to notice how our posture is when we're sitting. And one of the ways we notice that maybe we're a little off is that maybe something starts hurting. If your head gets out in front of your body, you'll start to get some pain in your upper back because all those muscles tighten up to keep your head supported that way. But when your head is back over your spine, it's just supported by your spine and your back doesn't get tired. And the same thing if you're leaning. Everything will tighten up to keep you from falling and your knees will tighten up to push back if you're leaning forward. But if you... If you're balanced, if you find that balance point, then it's the most effortless way to sit.

[35:56]

And it also trains your attention to catch whenever you get, you know, slumped down like this or leaning one way or another. Probably during the sitting in the afternoon I'll go around with a just posture a little bit. Don't be surprised if I touch you. just to help you find where is that balance point in your posture. Or have you kind of collapsed a little bit, which, you know, it cuts off your breathing when you collapse like that. When you're actually upright, breath can move quite freely. So what we're doing today is tasting wholehearted practice, tasting what it means just to dive in and do your best moment after moment with the support of everyone around you.

[37:03]

And we'll keep it up all week, all month, all practice period for the rest of your life. Zen is making her best effort on each moment forever. I'd like to read you a poem that Katagiri Roshi wrote a couple of years before he died. It's called A Peaceful Life. Being told that it's impossible, one believes in despair. Is that so? Being told that it's possible, one believes in excitement. That's right. But whichever is chosen, it does not fit one's heart neatly. Being asked what is unfitting, I don't know what it is, but my heart knows somehow.

[38:12]

I feel an irresistible desire to know. mystery human is. As to this mystery, clarifying, knowing how to live, knowing how to walk with people, demonstrating and teaching, this is the Buddha. From my human eyes, I feel it's really impossible to become a Buddha. But this I, regarding what the Buddha does, vows to practice, to aspire, to be resolute, and tells myself, yes, I will. Just practice right here, now, and achieve continuity endlessly, forever.

[39:18]

This is living in vow. Herein is one's peaceful life found. May our intention

[39:48]

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