This podcast is offered by the San Francisco Zen Center on the web at sfzc.org. Our public programs are made possible by donations from people like you. Good morning and welcome to Green Dragon Temple. First, I just want to acknowledge that there are a couple of major wars going on around this planet and lots of other difficulties and challenges. People arming each other, killing each other needlessly. And may our practice together be our response to the suffering of this world, our own and others.

[01:13]

That's really why we're here. It might not seem like much to be sitting zazen and talking about dharma together in the face of such challenges. But I trust that for now, right now, this is the best response. May it be so. And here at Green Dragon Temple this coming week, we're going to start what we call a practice period. We're hopefully already practicing here, but we'll have a period of more maybe intensified formal practice of Zen, more Zazen, more Dharma discussions, more wholehearted engagement in the way

[02:29]

for the benefit of all beings. And there's various events in this practice period. You all are welcome to attend. There's a couple Sashin retreats, one-day sittings, half-day sittings, Sunday talks, and so on. Please enjoy this offering of practice period the next couple of months to finish off this year. so many things could be helpful to talk about the general spirit of practice period especially for those uh many in this room are are going to join this practice period but today i thought to bring up this old zen story in the spirit of responding to the suffering of the world and

[03:33]

how to practice during a so-called practice period. This is case number 16 in the gateless barrier collection of Zen stories called The Sound of the Bell and the Seven Panel Robe. And the case story is very, very simple. not really much actually a story it's just a saying of the old teacher yun men in tang dynasty china who said to the assembly the world is so vast and wide why do you always put on seven panel robe at the sound of the bell In a Zen temple like this, there's various bells and boards and other signals throughout the day that all the assembly to the next event, and the next event is often something in the Zendo, where if people have some kind of robe, when they hear the signal, they put on their robe,

[05:12]

come to the zendo for the next event. Or at the end of morning zazen, three dawn illness, we start sounding all these different instruments. There's a drum and a little bell and a board and more bells and then another little bell. this one final little bell. If people have one of these traditional robes like this, they'll take the robe out and they'll put it on their head and pay homage to the Buddha's robe and put it on, signaled by this little bell. Priests have a seven-panel robe. made of these scraps of cloth.

[06:14]

And lay people who've received the precepts have these five panel robes called rakasus. And you're all welcome to take refuge in Buddha and formally receive the precepts and sew a robe like that. And today when I heard the bell, I put on, this is a nine-panel robe. But it just seemed like the appropriate response because the nine-panel robe is for giving dharma talks. Everything's kind of like set up in Zen. There's not too much choice, it seems. There's a tradition and a form for everything. And when the bell rings, We just follow the form and do the next thing. I don't know about this, but maybe, why didn't he just say put on the robe?

[07:21]

Why didn't he say the seven-panel robe? Maybe there's some allusion to the seven days and the week. Always, day after day, throughout the week. day after day, hour after hour, would just respond to the bell. Who said that? Such a specific thing. The seven-panel robe at the sound of the bell. I think this is not about the kind of temple guidelines of which kind of robe to wear. It's just the appropriate response to the bell.

[08:25]

And though it seems very narrow and specific, in fact, everything is included. In this vast, wide world of interdependence, we express our devotion to this interdependence by putting on a particular piece of clothing. Like our lineage ancestor, Roo Jing, Dogen, Zendi's teacher, commenting on this story said, At the sound of the bell, I put on a dense web. The inconceivable functions, miraculous powers. The seven-panel robe, the five-panel robe, whatever we're wearing is actually a dense web of interdependent

[09:37]

very specific, but when we put on a particular robe, we're actually putting on a dense web, inconceivable dense web that functions in this miraculous way, miraculous and very ordinary way. And again, I think this is not so much about particular For each of us, it might be like when the alarm goes off in the morning, we sit up and turn off the alarm. Same principle. When the phone rings, we just pick it up. When the light turns yellow, we either start to slow down, or speed up.

[10:39]

And when it turns red, we stop. And when it turns green, we go. And this is the principle of the inconceivable, miraculous principle of Zen practice during practice period and all the time. Our life is like this, right? It's a series of bells. Calls. Appointments. Time to do the next thing. And we can wonder about whether we should or not or whether we want to or not or just respond. In this kind of Zen temple context, it's nice because it's all just set up for us. The bell rings. You might be the one ringing the bell, which means you have to Maybe set another bell before you ring the bell so you can get up and ring the bell for everybody else.

[11:44]

And then we don't really have to wonder what to do. That's the beauty of it, of a practice period particularly. You almost don't need to decide anything for the next two months, those of you in the practice period. It makes it much easier, I think, to... to live in this mode of practice period if we don't actually decide anything. Just the bell rings and we respond. Or somebody asks us to do something, we respond. We simplify our lives in this way. And for all of you who aren't living here at Green Gulch, you can, of course, when the phone rings, pick it up. And when the light turns green, you can go, of course, but you can also take the opportunity, especially this fall, I think it's a natural time to kind of reboot one's Zen practice in the fall.

[12:56]

I don't know why it feels that way. It's more like maybe the summer is a time of activity and more outer-focused, and the fall is kind of... The earth is kind of... herself kind of becoming simpler and less active. So many of you probably have a daily Zazen practice or a regular Zazen practice. You could use a two-month period to have your own home practice period. Maybe you sit once a week when you come to Gringotts. You could try out I'll sit a few times a week or I'll sit every day And the best way to, I think, best way to set up like a home practice, because it's hard in the midst of all the complications of our life, is to just make it regular. Like, first thing in the morning, I think is the best.

[13:58]

It doesn't have to be, but it's because nothing else is happening yet. Once things start happening in the day, it's hard to come back to the stillness. Not impossible, but... can get up a little bit for those around you before all the talking starts and the activity starts and um you can set an alarm bell can ring and um and you might feel like actually i would like to sleep a little bit longer and um and nobody here when Notice, unlike green goals, where they're taking attendance and they will notice. At home, nobody will notice, but I'm going to try out this practice. If the sound of the bell, I'll just sit up and get ready for zazen. Short or long zazen. I think it's wonderful to have a home practice like that.

[15:05]

You might say it's a little more challenging because It's not like everybody else is getting up, so I should get up. But that's the beauty of it. It's a little more challenging. It's a self-reliant kind of practice. I'm just coming out of a month-long solitary sashin. I set up a schedule of 8,000 periods a day, and nobody knew whether I was doing it or not. It's different. compared to, like, we're doing this group thing. And I really appreciate that challenge. Trying not to cut the corners when nobody knows. Yesterday I mentioned to my wife, Shoho, I said, tomorrow I'll talk about this story.

[16:06]

putting on the robe at the sound of the bell. And she said, well, how is that not like Pavlov's dog? You all know Pavlov's dogs? Pavlov was, I guess, a Russian scientist in the 19th century who was studying conditioning in sentient beings, and particularly dogs. And notice that when you bring really good dog food around the dogs, they start salivating. And then if you ring a bell along with the food, the dog starts unconsciously associating the bell. It becomes conditioned to associate the bell with this savory, smell of the food, and then you can take away the food and just ring the bell after a while, and the dog will start salivating.

[17:16]

It's like unconscious conditioning. So I thought that was a good question Shiloh asked. How is this Zen practice of putting on the robe at the sound of the bell, how is that not just like being unconsciously conditioned to kind of blindly do this thing or just go to the zen day after day year after year i don't know why i just i'm deeply conditioned as a zen practitioner to do that in a way it's kind of nice we condition ourselves to do this wholesome activity called zazen but um But this Pavlovian thing is a little bit unconscious or kind of blind. It could be just going through the motions. I think Zen practice is not really about just going through the motions or being blindly conditioned.

[18:22]

It's similar. I think many similarities. That's why I thought it was a good question. So I said to her, good question. what do you say? How is it, how is it, um, how is this, this Yun-men saying, uh, the world is so vast and wide, why do you always put on the seven-pounder robe at the sound of the bell? How is that different from, uh, Pavlov's dog's conditioning? And she said, uh, Maha Karuna. This sounds great for great compassion. If we have a bodhisattva vow to start with, we can renew it again and again.

[19:27]

Why are we even here in the first place? Maha Karuna. Where... We're doing this very kind of narrow, specific, formal practice of putting on a particular piece of clothing and a particular sound in the spirit of great compassion. We want to make these ordinary, simple activities into a gift for everyone. including ourselves and everyone we're practicing with, and everyone we're practicing with is ultimately the entire universe. Almost like the spirit of this conditioned response, the spirit of just do it, which is another summary of Zen practice.

[20:34]

What's Zen practice? Do it. Especially practice period. What's practice period? How do you practice during practice period? Just do it. But what about this, that, that, that? Just do it means like when the bell rings. I wonder if I know now. I'm a little bit tired. No, no. Just do it. But this is like, there could be lots of just do it. that might not be so helpful. When somebody says, just pick up your gun and take it to the front line, there's all kinds of questionable activities to just do. And even like salivate at the sound of the bell, it's somewhat questionable too.

[21:38]

But if we arouse the spirit of great compassion, the wish that our practice be a benefit to everyone, that kind of sets the stage. It sets the tone. It infuses all these kind of conditioned responses with this spirit or intention. It makes Zen practice a little different from conditioning of Pavlov's dogs. The world is so vast and wide. It means like there's infinite possibilities here. It's kind of, we are totally free. us human beings.

[22:40]

We might not feel that way, but in a sense, we're all completely free to live this life however we feel inspired to. Within the conditions we're given, we're totally free. So why would we put ourselves in some situation where when the alarm rings, we just get up whether we feel like it or not? That doesn't seem like freedom. It seems like the opposite of the freedom of the vast and wide world. And yet, that's how we're expressing our freedom with great compassion. And the spirit of just do it is actually quite a bit more free than actual practicality. Since I'm so free when that alarm goes off to not get up or to get up, what should I do? We're already kind of, we're already losing our freedom.

[23:41]

So, um, the collector of these Zen stories, and, uh, the Mumon Khan, teacher Mumen, Wu-men, uh, wrote a comment on this story. He said, um, in practicing Zen, and studying the way, we don't follow after sounds. We're not swayed by sounds, and we don't follow after sights. So this is sort of bringing up another side of the story, right? In Zen, if we don't kind of follow after sounds and sights, we're not swayed by them, then we shouldn't just put on the robe at the sound of the bell. But there's another side of the story. We get caught up in sights and sounds. We might even say that, I don't know, most, some large percentage of our discontent as humans is getting caught up in, being swayed by sights and sounds.

[25:01]

You might say, that's a weird thing to say. It doesn't seem like such a problem. But the sounds of people saying, like, I don't like the way you're doing that. Can you do it differently? We get swayed by those kinds of sounds. Or those sights, like, I don't know. In a Zen temple, it's like big, like, dust bunnies on the floor or something. Or we can get swayed by even really refined kind of sites, like we're offering incense at the altar, and the incense box is off to the side a little bit. Why did the Doha not align that incense box? Zen practitioners can get swayed by things like that. There's nothing really wrong with it being misaligned.

[26:07]

We can just realign it, but there might be some discontent arising from the box being misaligned, not to mention all kinds of other disturbing sights and sounds. So Wu Man, this commentator on the story about this bell, is saying, in practicing Zen and studying the way, we intend to not be a victim, That's another way it's translated. And not to follow after or get caught up in sights. And regarding sights and sounds, you may actually have some realization when seeing a sight. Or you might illuminate the mind when... hearing a sound. But that's just like an ordinary matter.

[27:13]

And I think here he's referring to these Zen stories like one time a Zen practitioner in old China was sweeping a garden and a pebble from the broom hit a piece of bamboo and it went... And because he wasn't caught up in that sound, the sound just struck him to the marrow. And he was awakened hearing the sound. He disappeared into the sound. And another Zen ancestor was walking in the mountains and saw a peach blossom just opened. And I'm seeing this color awaken to the way. So there are these stories of awakening when hearing sounds and seeing sights.

[28:22]

And so Wu Men says, if we're not victims of sound and caught up in sights, we can have this kind of awakening to sights and sounds. But then he says, but that's just an ordinary thing. That's like, so what? True Zen practitioners not only have these momentary awakenings with particular pebbles and peach blossoms, but they can ride on sounds and they hover over sights or become one with sights, with everything clear moment by moment, handling each situation skillfully. So I think this would be like relating to sights and sounds in a way where we're not separating from them, and we're not generating a self in relation to them in a big way, and ultimately in a little way.

[29:30]

So then Wu Men says, That's the ideal kind of practice, but tell me, does sound come to the ear, or does the ear go to the sound? And even if you transcend the sound and silence, what can you say at such a time? If you hear with the ear, it's hard to understand, but if you hear with the eye, this is true intimacy. quoting our ancestor Dungshan in these last lines. So I think this is one of the highlights of this commentary. Does sound come to the ear, or does the ear go to the sound? Take a look at how sound works. There's a... This famous sutra in the Buddha's early teachings, some of you may have heard, but it's worth hearing again.

[30:37]

The teaching of the Buddha to Bahiya, where Buddha teaches one of his new students, train yourself thus. In the scene, there is just the scene. In the heard, there's just the heard. In the sensed, there's just the sensed. The felt. In the cognized, in the thought, there's just the cognized. When this is the case for you, then there is no you in relation to that. And therefore, there's no you here there or anywhere and just this is the end of discontent this business of discontent is uh seems to be based on me and you in relation to the world

[31:59]

We kind of add ourselves as kind of an extra subject that stands in relationship to the world. Conventionally, it does seem like there's a body, we call a person over here, and there's the world all around it. Then we identify with ourselves as the subject of experience. and the world of sights and sounds, sensations and thoughts as external to ourself, as opposed to ourself, even in relation to ourself. It's over here. It's called subject-object duality. And even in this early teaching of the Buddha, it kind of looks like... saying this is the root of our problems.

[33:01]

So the purpose I would understand in the sutra, the purpose for training ourselves thus to just have the sight, just have the seen and the seen, just the heard and the heard, is really for the purpose of forgetting the you, the me, that's in relation to it. The subject, it's me, that seems to be relating to the objective world. There is just the objective world. So much so that I forget myself. I melt. into the world of sights and sounds. When there's, in the scene, just the scene, there's no you in relation to that.

[34:12]

Therefore, there's no you anywhere. There's no you over here, over there, or anywhere. And this no you is the end of discontent. There's just a world we call. What is the world? its sights, its sounds, its sensations, bodily sensations, and its thoughts, basically. I think that's what the world is, experientially, for each of us. If we have more abstract ideas about the world other than that, they would fit into the fourth category, I think, of thoughts. But we don't have to have a... it's the subject of these thoughts. Often we do feel tortured by our thoughts, right? Because they're, how can I stop these thoughts? What about, thoughts are okay, but how can I stop the I that's having them?

[35:13]

Seems like that's more of the issue, actually. It's a subtle matter. Like, uh, Dogen's end, he says, to carry yourself forward, to carry your subjective self forward and practice and verify the world of myriad sights and sounds is delusion. Practice the world is how he says it. We translate it in different ways, but literally to carry your subjective self forward and practice things, do things, and verify things like sights and sounds is delusion. But these myriad things of the world, these myriad sights and sounds, these myriad sensations and thoughts coming forward and practicing and verifying things

[36:26]

Your true self is so-called awakening, according to Dogen. I think this is his commentary in the Bahiya Sutra. And this true self that the myriad of things are verifying, I would say, is not the subjective self. It actually is just the totality of the myriad things, the all-inclusive self. It includes this body and these thoughts and sense of subjectivity, but it also equally includes the colors and sounds of the world. It carries our limited, subjective, personal self forward, and do things and verify things is delusion.

[37:31]

But the whole world arising, coming forth, and doing and verifying this all-inclusive self is just fine. This is the realm where the sound of the bell is heard, rather than like, I'm here in bed, and now that alarm clock over there is ringing, so I'm going to get up and turn it off and see what I'll do next. It's the same situation, but more like... There is no me in addition to the sound of the alarm going off.

[38:33]

It might be challenging to practice this way, but it would make it much easier, I think, to get up at that point. Because then we don't have that. I really don't feel so awake yet. It's not time to get up. It's dark out there. But what if it's just the bell? In the sound of the alarm bell, there's just the sound of the alarm bell. Then there's just the sound of the alarm bell. There's no me in relation to it. And then there can be this, it might be, and there's also sensations. Sensations called like, the body feels like a ton of lead. It could be an early morning sensation. It's so heavy. There's no way to drag it out of this bed. I think it would be humanly impossible.

[39:38]

That's just a sensation, a bodily sensation of heaviness coming to be along with the sound of the alarm clock. And how interesting, how wonderful that... That this awareness that's always here is manifesting this morning as this heavy body and this sound. Beep, beep, beep. I don't suggest an alarm. It sounds like tapping. You can set your alarm to play a Dharma song or something. And then it mixes the sound. The alarm is mixed with the lead-feeling body, and it's mixed with the thought of, huh, how did I get in this situation?

[40:47]

It's dark out. That's the sight. The sight is like it's pitch black. We have sight, sound, sensation, and this thought of, huh. how did I get in this situation? And then there's just this sight of dark room. There's just this sound. There's just this sensation. I thought there was a body here, but it actually feels like a ton of lead. And there's the thought, huh? And there's just this sight, sound, sensation, and thought. There's no me needed in relation to that. And then, The world is really vast and wide here. It includes all these sights and sounds and sensations and thoughts. And within that, based on maha, karuna, great compassion, somehow a body can sit up and turn off that beeping.

[41:54]

Because, as Dogen Zendi says, The mind that has been directly transmitted is, one mind is all things. All things, I would understand to be all sights, all sounds, all bodily sensations, and all thoughts. I think that kind of covers all things, pretty much, and various combinations of those. the mind that has been directly transmitted by the Zen ancestors is, quote, one mind is, actually, all things, all things are one mind, unquote. Mind is mountains, rivers, and earth, the sun, moon, and stars. Nothing can be added to or taken away from what is said here.

[42:59]

Dogen says, the mountains, rivers, and earth mind is just the mountains, rivers, and earth. There's no mind needed in addition to this. The mountains, rivers, and earth mind is actually just the mountains, rivers, and earth. In seeing the mountains, There's just the seeing of the mountains and the hearing of the river. There's just the hearing of the river. There's no you or some kind of mind over here that's knowing those things. Then when we hear the sound of the bell, it can put on the dense web, the inconceivable functions. miraculous power. So that's some thoughts about how to respond to the challenges of this confusing and confused world and how to practice during practice period and at any time.

[44:25]

And it might seem like, this is too much. He's like, I'm up for, like, put on the robe at the sound of the bell. Just do it. I got that part. And that's good if you got that part. This one mind is all things business. Maybe that's a little too much. That thought might arise. And if so, I think then it's just... Hearing these things over and over, I think, is like, we're like Pavlov's dogs. Hearing these things over and over, we eventually might start to salivate when we hear those things. Thank you for listening to this podcast offered by the San Francisco Zen Center. Our programs are made possible by the donations we receive.

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Please help us to continue to realize and actualize the practice of giving by offering your financial support. For more information, visit sfzc.org and click Giving. May we fully enjoy the Dharma.

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