My name is Tim Wicks, and I serve as head of a practice here at Beaconess Mine Temple. Welcome to San Francisco Zen Center City Center. For those of you who are coming for our usual program, which is a Dharma talk, it's a slightly different program tonight. We're going to have what's called an eye-opening ceremony for a statue that's been given to us by Mary Mosin and from the former address of Clearwater Zendo. And Vicki Austin, the two of them will be speaking. Vicki will talk about Samantha Badra, which is the statue. And then Mary will speak about Blanche Hartman, who was the first artist of San Francisco Zen Center. And she was a sewing teacher here for over 40 years. She was my sewing teacher. She was many people's sewing teacher. She taught me how to be a sewing teacher. And her favorite bodhisattva was Samantabhadra.

[17:18]

So that's why it is that Mary chose to give this beautiful offering. And so Mary and Victoria will speak for about ten or so minutes each. I hope that's right. And then we're all going to process down to the sewing room, which is one floor down. and we're going to have the eye-opening ceremony which Mary will conduct. Thank you both very much. Good evening. Welcome. And welcome. So today I'd like to talk about Samantabhadra Bodhisattva, which, as you've just heard, was our Dharma sister Zenke Roshi's favorite awakening being. Samantabhadra, the shining practice bodhisattva. And I see many shining practice bodhisattvas here.

[18:26]

So when we're practicing wholeheartedly, we are shining practice bodhisattvas. And Samantabhadra bodhisattva is our role model for wholehearted practice. So thank you to friends old and new who have embodied Samantabhadra in so many different ways. So Blanche loved to call Samantabhadra wholehearted practice. Excuse the noise, sorry. As I said, we're all fully equipped with the virtuous qualities of the fully awakened ones. And sometimes that's hard to believe because our habits and our preconceptions, based on what we were born with, what happened to us, and what we did, obscure that shining, wholehearted quality in us.

[19:37]

so that we end up with kind of concretized habits and preconceptions that influence what we say, what we do, and what we think. And so it really requires a practice that we can do all the time, continuously, moment after moment, to slowly, slowly convince us of our inner light. And so each bodhisattva, each awakening being, bodhisattva just means awake, awakening, actually being. Bodhi is awakening. Sattva is a being. It's the knowing part of being. And when the knowing part of ourselves is awake through direct experience, that is bodhisattva practice.

[20:46]

And so Samanta Bhadra's method of freedom is to first avow or acknowledge what holds him back, what holds the bodhisattva back from awakening. Samanta Bhadra practices wholeheartedness by acknowledging, avowing, and fully half-heartedness. And wherever possible, not only making amends, but learning and practicing greater wholeheartedness every single moment. And so... When we practice wholeheartedly, there isn't anything left over. We can experience a sense of oneness, of our intention, our action, and our words.

[21:55]

Do you need water? Somebody get choku some water, perhaps? You OK? OK. No, I think she's OK. They're OK. OK? Sorry. And I just, I want to be very brief, so I would just like to say Samanta Bhadra's 10 vows and say what they are very, very briefly. But do you get that part about all of us are fully endowed with all the equipment we need to be awake, but because of our habits and preconceptions... We don't really get it. We don't really understand it. Moments go past one after another in which we act in ways that are kind of circumscribed by the things that we already know about the world, by our less than wholehearted motivations, by the bad stuff we've done in the past that takes our confidence away.

[23:02]

or by our very limited understanding of who we are and what we can do. And that is front and center in most of our consciousness, so we can't really just come forth with all of our brightness. Do you get that part of it? It comes forth most distinctly, like, for instance, if somebody does you wrong and you want to get revenge, And then it goes, you know, before you know it, before we know it, we're saying or doing something that in the middle of the night is going to come back to haunt us, or 20 years later, or when that person sees us next. So I just want to say what the vows, the deep intention of Samanta Bhadra is, so you can get a taste of what Blanche vowed and what she did. So... Samantabhadra's Ten Vows, and this is from, there was a young man who was going around asking a lot of teachers and Buddhas and Bodhisattvas about practice.

[24:15]

And so Samantabhadra's answer about practice and what it meant was to say what their intention was, what their vows were, and to let it be known that when they said or did anything that was less than that, that they would acknowledge it and do better next time. The first one is to pay homage to all Buddhas. So to bow or to circumambulate or honor physically all Buddhas, to allow ourselves to sit a little bit lower than a Buddha, to actually physically look up to a Buddha and physically be attentive to what a Buddha says or does. That's physical honoring. And then there's verbal honoring to actually, you know, kind of praise them and recite chants.

[25:19]

And also it's a respectful thing to avow our own karma, because our own actions, because that helps us appreciate what a Buddha has already practiced. The third vow is to give to Buddhas, to give, to offer things to Buddha, whether it's material gifts or whether it's fearlessness or whether it's teaching. Everybody's experience is teaching for a Buddha. And it's not just Buddhas like that. It's the Buddha nature in everyone that we make offerings to. That's the third vow. The fourth one is that we promise to make full and open confession and full and open amendment any time we act in a way that's less than our vows.

[26:23]

And the point of that is not so we can feel bad about ourselves, but so that we can learn. The fifth thing is to aid and be happy about virtuous words and deeds that come forth from the awakened nature of the people around us, or from Buddhists. The sixth is to request teaching. We can request it by entering the chant fully when we chant, by reading sutras, or by saying, would you teach me something? And we can request Buddhas to remain in the world. So Buddha died when Ananda didn't notice that Buddha had invited him to ask him to remain in the world. That was Gautama Buddha died then. But also our own vows. kind of signify Buddha in us, and we want that vow to remain in the world and to be expressed.

[27:30]

The next vow is to constantly follow and learn from the Dharma that we would advance in realization, and to benefit and harmonize with all beings, not just one or two, or not everyone except my ex, okay? Or your ex. or parents, or people who have done you wrong, you think, or whatever it is, but to benefit and harmonize with everyone and everything, and then to dedicate all the positive energy of the practices that we've done over towards their benefit and to helping them. So you can see that Samantabhadra respects participates, gives, remembers, accepts in his own body and mind, and spreads the light and love of practice that's in the world in a way that unites practice and awakening.

[28:44]

And that's why Blanche loved Samanta Bhadro Bodhisattva, and I could talk about this forever, but I won't because you're going to talk about Blanche, right? Yes. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. So, Blanche, the last time I saw her, she was lying in state right here after she died. She embodied devotion practice, which I suppose you could say is a short word for Samantabhadra practice. And at her funeral, I read a poem, which I'm going to read again, because I think it absolutely gives you the flavor of her.

[29:49]

At the start, though, I can't help this. This is a very common experience, one of those of you who knew her at all. When I first met her, I was scared of her. And I think that's pretty common, because she would sort of charge around, and she had this stern expression on her face. Who knew? And then I got to know her, and within a few months, my father died. And I lived in Berkeley. I went to Green Gulch for a memorial for him. And I walked into the, I don't know what they call it now, Cloud Hall. And she was in there waiting to go into the Zendo, I guess. And I just walked right into her arms and started sobbing. And she just held me. So our relationship changed. And I don't think she changed.

[30:49]

I think she just, it was, she was available. And you had to meet her in some way. I don't know exactly how to say that. Because I can't remember, I've been talking about her lately, and I can't remember how I got from being afraid of her in March of 88. And... walking into her arms and sobbing in May of 89. Somehow. So this poem I want to read you is called To Be of Use by Marge Piercy. The people I love the best jump into work headfirst without dallying in the shallows and swim off with sure strokes almost out of sight. They seem to become natives of that element, the black sleek heads of seals bouncing like half-submerged balls.

[31:50]

I love people who harness themselves and ox to a heavy cart, who pull like water buffalo with massive patience, who strain in the mud and the muck to move things forward, who do what has to be done again and again. I want to be with people who submerge in the task, who go into the fields to harvest and work in a row and pass the bags along, who are not parlor generals and field deserters, but move in a common rhythm when the food must come in or the fire be put out. The work of the world is common as mud. Botched, it smears the hands, crumbles to dust. But the thing worth doing well, well done, has a shape that satisfies clean and evident. Greek amphoras for wine or oil, Hopi vases that held corn, are put into museums, but you know they were made to be used.

[32:55]

The pitcher cries for water to carry, and a person for work that is real. That is she. We used to have to stop her sometimes at... At Tassajara, there used to be this deck that went over the creek right by the old bathhouse. And in the fall, early in the practice period usually, we'd have to take it up because otherwise when the creek rose, it would get swept away or make a huge mess. So it had to come out. And so everybody went to take it up at Tassajara. And we had to insist that Blanche could not get into the creek to help do that. She was already, I guess she was in her 70s then. I don't know. But anyway, it was something for younger and stronger people. But she wanted to do it.

[33:56]

And she always was willing. She was one of the abbots. few abbots, I must say. I'm sure it's not true anymore. But on days off, we'd have a meal in the dining room, and she would actually help clean up. And then back then, that was not common. But she would. She loved sewing. She got into it. She was not a sewer by nature. She took home ec. in high school, as girls did. And the second semester, they sewed something that was kind of complicated, and the sewing teacher said, Blanche, how would you like to refurbish the sewing machines instead? So she did, and she was very happy. And then she came here, and so on, and she learned that a sewing teacher was coming, a woman teacher was coming, and so she wanted to work with a woman teacher.

[34:59]

And lo and behold, that woman teacher was coming to teach sewing. And there was another one first, but the main one for her and for us was Joshin-san. We are Joshin-san's disciples, those of us who were taught sewing by Blanche. And she fell in love with Joshin-san, and she became Joshin-san's assistant. She would draw the bath for Joshin-san, and Joshin-san liked it hot, and so did Blanche. But Blanche was, you know, she was a southern bale. She was quite white. And so she'd get into the bath. When she'd come out, Joshin-san would make fun of her. She looked like a lobster. Anyway, they were great pals, even though they didn't speak much of the same language. And a great example that she was to talk about, that she really got it, It was, one time, Joshin-san was going to be, had been at Tassahara and working with people sewing Raksus, and Joshin-san was about to leave, and apparently some people, as happens, had abandoned their Raksus.

[36:15]

And Blanche went into the sewing cabin, and there was Joshin-san working away late into the night, finishing up these Raksus, and Blanche said... you don't need to do that. We'll finish. It's okay. And Joshin-san said, no, you do not leave Buddha's robe. And Blanche, she didn't use this phrase exactly, but she got it. And that stayed with her. You're smiling because you've heard, she used to tell this story regularly. It was really important to her. And because of that, partly, It's really important to me. I had to make her teach me how to sew, because she's one of those people, you know, you say, could you help me with this, and you give it to her, and she'll just pin it all and sew half of it, and so on.

[37:19]

So I would have to say, no, I want to understand it, and I did. I did learn. Years later, some of us, Kathy and I, among others, we went to Japan with Blanche and did a practice period, a women's practice period, at Suzuki Roshi's home temple, Rinsuin, our home temple, Rinsuin. And after it was over, we split up and people went, and some people went to Kyoto, and some people did other things. And she went to Antaiji. a place of deep devotion to practice. I don't think she'd been there before, but she loved An Taiji. She talked about it. They did Sashin without toys, which she introduced here. I don't know if you ever do it anymore, but when she was abbess here, we did that. That means for seven days, there's no lecture, there's no service, there's no doksan.

[38:26]

There's just sazen and meals. And then I guess you got a break. And I guess there were work periods because there kind of had to be. I don't remember. There must have been work periods. Some of them, there were no work periods. Anyway, that was very powerful, turned out. Anyway, she went up to Antaiji because that's where Joshin-san was buried. And Shohaku Okamura took her to... Joshin-san's grave, and she made an offering, and I'm sure she spoke to Joshin-san, but what she told us later was that he, Okamura, had looked at her and said, I see, I see that you are Joshin-san's disciple. And I'm sure she was, and I think, for me, what I learned from her was a lightness about sewing that, you know, everybody does it differently.

[39:29]

And she told people to take stitches out sometimes, but not, it was rare. She said, for every stitch that you take out, Buddha sheds a tear. So you didn't get to be a perfectionist about it. And you did, and she said to me once, you know, about rock, they're all, all the rocks are beautiful. You know, some, some are perfect little dot stitches. She was of the dot stitch school. And some were not. But as long as it was, you know, reasonably good, and it comported with that person's practice, that was fine with her. So you didn't tell somebody that they had to do every little stitch just exactly the same and make little chug dots for them to follow. No, that was not her way. You felt the love from her when you were sewing, and you felt her joy.

[40:30]

If you ever sewed with her in the sewing room, you could feel it. And I'll close with this. She also had a great sense of humor. She was one of those people that had a little trouble with silence. I was Eno here many years ago. It was in a sushine. She used to take the people in the sesshin that needed to finish the raksus, she would take them to go work in the sewing room during work period. And I needed to, as you know, I needed to ask her something. And the sewing room at that time was over in the next building, in the ground floor. And you could enter before you had to take your shoes off, you had to go up some stairs so you could enter. And so I needed to talk to her and I knew that she, so I go over there and I open the door to the, So I just stood there, walked in far enough, and I just stood there and waited.

[41:33]

And at some point, somebody noticed. She turned around and she saw me and she said, and I quote, busted. Oh, I can't. One more. No, no, stop. I know I'm over. She spoke of something called instant karma. And her story about it was that she was studying tea. And so she was, you know, we'd eat in a formal way called oryoki, right? And they were in the zendo eating oryoki. And everybody used to sit on the floor. And Suzuki Roshi was up above on a little raised platform. And she was pretty close to the front. And he said the classic abatial statement, please be quiet with yourself. I'm sorry, because abbots say this. I loved saying it when I was abbot. I get to say it now. Please be quiet with your spoon. And so she's sitting there because she's been studying tea, right?

[42:34]

So she's eating and she says to herself, I wonder if he sees how nicely I'm doing it. At which her bowl leapt out of her hand and rolled across the floor. And she called that instant karma. Oh. It's all about devotion for her. It was all about devotion. And she loved Samanta Bhadra, and I saw that statue at a gift shop. They didn't have any idea who Samanta Bhadra was, but I know a saint on an elephant when I see one. And it's a very female. I think it's a she, this particular Samanta Bhadra. At any rate, so our temple bought it. It really is from the Vallejo Zen Center from Clearwater Zendo. I didn't just give it away. We talked about it, and we felt that since I was stepping back as abbot and we were shutting down just about, that it made sense.

[43:35]

Tim had been helping us with sewing sashine, and we just thought, oh, what a perfect thing to give this statue to the sewing room in Blanche's honor. So we did. Thank you. May I say one more thing? Sure. That is just that. Remember when Blanche and I did that week at Tassajara? And that was when Tim started learning how to be a sewing teacher. So it was 1999? 2001. 2001. So that was a while ago. Yeah. So thank you. Thank you for... Do we, no, what do we do? Okay, we take office. Not doing the chat for lecture or not? Okay, we just...

[44:37]

downstairs or other than down the sewing room and the sewing room is open to the library and we'll try and get as many of us as we can get in there. You can keep your shoes off in the sign. Push it off with fast food. Yes, thank you very much. Amen.

[51:40]

Thank you.

[60:07]

@Transcribed_UNK
@Text_v005
@Score_96.24