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. I'm going to say something I said before, which is that there is sometimes the wish of to live for the welfare of all beings that can arise in a being. A wish to live the life, a wish to enter into the actuality of benefiting living beings can arise, this wish can arise, this wish can arise in a living being. And when that wish arises in a living being,

[01:00]

And then they somehow can practice mindfulness and remember that wish. They remember the wish to give life to the benefit of all beings. If they care for that wish and care for that wish and remember that wish and attend to that wish, they become more and more a being that we call bodhisattva, a being that is enlightenment, that is awakening. They become awake to reality by caring for this wish. This wish is the seed which, when cared for, grows, germinates, puts down roots, sends up stalks and flowers and then fruits into what we call, sometimes we call it Buddhahood, and sometimes we call it helping all beings, helping all living beings.

[02:21]

So again, if there's such a wish, something like wishing for the welfare of this world, if we care for that, we not only develop benefit for beings but we move towards an understanding of reality and when we understand reality by caring for this wish then we are more able or one is more able to realize that wish one becomes more helpful as one becomes more wise one becomes more wise as one cares for this wish for the welfare of all beings so the the beings who have such a wish and the beings who have been caring for such a wish they have various practices which care for the wish and one of the practices is they practice concentration

[03:31]

they concentrate on the wish they are focused they remember and are focused on the wish that all beings will be at peace and will be happy they focus on wishing to bring help to living beings They're able to remember that more and more until throughout their daily life they can remember that they wish to live the life of remembering to be focused on the welfare of all living beings. If we are able to be mindful of living beings, like for example, to be mindful of human beings, that usually leads to being mindful of their suffering.

[04:55]

So part of being concentrated on the welfare of all beings... is also to be witnessing their suffering and this includes not just witnessing the suffering of humans but also the suffering of animals And it also includes witnessing environmental harm, environmental poisoning, environmental destruction, environmental cruelty. To witness that too would be part of the focus on the welfare of all living beings.

[06:04]

we go into the streets of the world where human beings live, we often witness poverty in the streets. We witness illness. We witness begging for assistance. And Sometimes we give gifts to people in the street who are begging. Sometimes we give them money and sometimes we give them food and sometimes we give them ponchos to cover their bodies or drawn cloths to sleep on and blankets.

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But I'm today emphasizing that as we give the gift, and before we give the gift, and after we give the gift, that we continue to focus, we continue to remember the suffering, and we continue to witness it. We don't just give material things, we give our witnessing. we give our presence. And as we give our witnessing, we are also witnessing this, the sentient being that is the witnesser. We look at how the sentient being who's witnessing feels. When we're giving, when we're witnessing, we look at how we feel while we're witnessing. That's part of meditating on the welfare of all beings, is that we're aware of our own

[08:24]

own experience so we can demonstrate to the people we're witnessing how they may also witness suffering and they may witness their state because this witnessing is part of the awareness of the suffering which will lead to wisdom and will lead to freedom We don't tell the person we're giving the gift to, we don't tell them, please witness your suffering. We might not say that to them, but we are witnessing it, and they can see us witnessing it. They can see our eyes. They can see whether we give them the gift, and as we give the gift, they can see if we look in their eyes as we give the gift, and if we stay with them all the way while we're giving the gift, we don't...

[09:27]

lose contact as we offer the gift we're not shrinking away from them as we give the gift they can see if we're there with them they don't want us to I don't think they want us to give them the gift maybe they do maybe they're embarrassed and they don't want us to look at them but we do look at them we do witness them as we give the gift and it's hard to look at them And it's hard to be aware, it's challenging to be aware of how we feel when we give. How might we feel when we give something to someone on the street? We might feel like, am I giving too little? Am I giving too much? We might feel like, but there's endless people who are needing help. I can't help them all. We might feel like that. We might feel embarrassed.

[10:29]

And we might feel that they think we think we're better than them. We might have lots of feelings to witness as we witness the suffering of others. Now in the United States, some people are very happy because they realize that we have tremendous resources in the earth that we live on here. There's tremendous amount of natural gas under the surface of this beautiful continent. North America has tremendous amount of gas under the ground. So people think, oh, we can drill holes in the ground and get that gas out.

[11:36]

and then use the gas to heat our houses and so on. But in order to get the gas, it looks like they need to put in lots and lots of chemicals into the earth. It looks like, even to the people who are drilling, they can admit that it looks like they need to poison the earth in order to take her resources to help the humans. So someplace in the United States where this drilling is going on, the poisons and the gases are getting into the water under the ground so that people turn on their faucet and they can light the water as it comes out of their faucet. And people are getting sick because of the poisons that the people are putting in the ground and the plant, you know. And plants and animals are also suffering because of what humans are doing to the earth to get this fuel.

[12:43]

And some people say, you know, in a moment of honesty that work in this business, they say there's no way, there's no clean way to get energy. Still, some people are studying this. and protesting this. And some people ask me, should I go to these places and protest this commercial activity of extracting the gas? Well, how active should I be? How much of my time should I spend? How much can we witness the damage that's being done to the earth? And in war scenes now, in the Middle East, in South America, I heard that there's one group of women who wear black and wear black masks and they go to war scenes and they stand, they stand,

[14:04]

They put themselves in some danger. The soldiers might hurt them. They know they're just witnessing, but the soldiers still might hurt them. And they risk their life to be a witness to this suffering of living beings. They aren't necessarily thinking about being bodhisattvas but in fact this witnessing what is what bodhisattvas do they witness the suffering of living beings they witness living beings being cruel to each other sometimes they even witness themselves being cruel to people many people are able to be cruel almost all people know how to do it this

[15:06]

And everybody who knows how to be cruel and everybody who is being cruel, all these beings who are being cruel are what the bodhisattva is focused on. He's focused on all cruel beings and focusing on the welfare of all cruel beings. The bodhisattva is witnessing any being who is being cruel. They vow to witness... Cruelty. Violence. Not just to focus on cruelty and violence, but for the welfare of beings who are experiencing cruelty and violence. They vow to practice compassion towards cruelty and violence, to witness it. To be present with it. One simple way of what they're focusing on is they're focusing on facing all living beings.

[16:17]

Meeting all living beings. And whatever suffering they're involved in. Meeting themselves in their own suffering. Meeting the suffering of others. With complete relaxation. to meet the suffering inwardly and outwardly, upright and relaxed and honest and gentle and harmonious, being harmonious with the suffering. They train, they vow to train at remembering to... be mindful of the suffering and they train at being upright and flexible and gentle and honest and harmonious with all this suffering from this practice they may offer gifts and their gifts may be medicine or food

[17:44]

But their gifts may also be, please stop this. Please stop this now. Stop this now. I want you to stop. But they offer this from facing the suffering with relaxation, focusing on the welfare of who they're talking to. Even though the person they're talking to, they may say, please stop this. I want you to stop this. but sometimes they don't say anything. There's a piece of music called shtabat mater, which I think means mother stood or the mother stood. And it's a piece of music honoring and celebrating Mary standing on

[18:47]

at her son's crucifixion. She could have run at the Roman soldiers and attacked them and tried to get her son down. But if she had, she might not have been able to stand there and witness her son. Sometimes we can say, stop hurting that boy. Stop hurting that girl. Sometimes we can say it and sometimes people will listen and stop. But sometimes they don't. And when they don't, we could possibly stay there and continue to witness so that the person has our presence and our compassion. And also, we internally are probably suffering too.

[19:59]

There's a well-known phrase, don't just stand there, do something. Or perhaps in a Zen center, people might say, don't just sit there, do something. It can be turned around. Don't just do something. Stand there. Don't just do something. Sit there. Don't just do something. Walk there. Don't just do something. Recline there. Don't just do something. Whatever you're doing. You're doing something. Yes. But don't just do something. Don't just do something. Make whatever you're doing. Witnessing. the suffering of the world. When you're sitting in meditation, witness the suffering of the world. When you're standing and walking in meditation, remember and compassionately witness the suffering of the whole earth and all living beings.

[21:16]

Don't just protest. Witness. Stand there and witness. Don't just give gifts. Witness the suffering that's there while you're giving. feel what's going on in you as you're witnessing, as you feel like, I wish I could do something. One time a while ago, when a man was going to be executed at San Quentin, we went over there and we stood outside the gates and we stood witnessing this impending execution.

[22:29]

And one of the people who organized the event, who was there witnessing, she said she felt terrible because she thought that this demonstration would be of no use, that it would not stop the execution. And the demonstration did not stop the execution. The execution did happen. We tried to make it clear that we wanted them not to do that. But the execution went forward. however we were there witnessing and and some of us thought this is useless because it doesn't stop the execution and I I'm saying that maybe it's not useless even though we cannot stop the cruelty we can generate something good in the midst of the cruelty that we can generate love

[23:54]

in the midst of cruelty we can also meet the cruelty with cruelty we can make an army and invade San Quentin and make sure and stop them from doing any further executions we could have a war over capital punishment but that's not happening because most people can see that that's not going to be helpful. Now, in this wonderful Bay Area, which has so much enlightenment in it, at the center of the Bay Area, in a way, is the place where people are executed. The execution center is not out in the desert somewhere, it's right in the middle of of a high concentration of people who are trying to practice compassion.

[25:01]

Perfect place for it. And now for some time there had not been any executions. People are still scheduled for it, but it's being held up. So maybe there is some effect of these protests, of these vigils, of these vigils, of these witness things. Maybe there is an effect. But I don't know. The main effect, the most important effect, is the generation of compassion. Because we do get born and we do die one way or another. The question is, during this time between birth and death, is compassion being generated? Is kindness being generated? Are people benefited and brought happiness and peace between birth and death? It seems to me that in order to bring peace in the space between birth and death, in the world of birth and death, we need to practice focusing on the welfare of the beings who are going through birth and death.

[26:18]

That we need to concentrate on that. That we need to witness that inwardly and outwardly. And from that witnessing, again, we may do something. But also, when we're doing something, I'm encouraging us to bring witnessing to what we're doing. And then from the witnessing, action that comes from there, I propose will be more beneficial than action that comes without witnessing the source of the action. Being kind to ourselves, being kind to the source of our action. Noticing the source of our action, noticing our intentions and aspirations and caring for them makes our actions more beneficial.

[27:21]

Witnessing others while witnessing oneself helps others learn to witness themselves so that their actions also will be more beneficial. another point I'd like to make about concentrating on the welfare of others is that this concentration is mindfulness the the cultivation of remembering to think of the welfare of others that focus that concentration

[28:34]

that focus that concentration in order to really be steady and unbroken and support wisdom the concentration needs to also be relaxed and flexible and open so the concentration on the welfare of others that leads to the realization of understanding actually what's going on which is what liberates beings compassion by itself supports a state of concentration that enters into understanding and the understanding is what actually not just benefits beings but liberates them once again suffering beings who are witnessed with generosity and ethics and patience are benefited. But without wisdom, beings are not liberated in this world of suffering.

[29:45]

So beyond and based on generosity and ethics and patience is the enthusiasm to develop a concentrated state of mind and body, mind and body, that can witness things in such a way as to bring the witnesser and the witness into reality where they will be liberated together and the concentration is focused it is mindful it is it can become unforgettable but it is also open it's open to everything even while it's concentrated on something so for example being concentrated on the welfare of all beings, yes, that is the bodhisattva's concentration, but their concentration on the welfare of all beings is also open to all beings. If they meet one person, they're concentrated on the welfare of this one person, because this is the person they're meeting, and they're simultaneously not rigidly fixated on this one person,

[31:01]

They're focused on the welfare of this one person, they're concentrated on the welfare of this one person, and they're open to the welfare of all beings. They're talking to this one person, yes, for the welfare of all beings. And this one person might actually wish that they weren't so open. They might wish the person only had eyes for them. The bodhisattva does not only have eyes for them. Even though the bodhisattva is not distracted from their eyes, the bodhisattva is not rigidly fixed on their eyes, but is simultaneously open to all eyes, but can't see them all right now. It just needs two or one, depending on winking or not. The bodhisattvas' concentration on the welfare of all beings is totally relaxed.

[32:12]

Or rather, the bodhisattvas are aspiring to a concentration which is totally present with whoever they're meeting, with whatever they're meeting, totally present, not the least bit distracted, and totally open to everything else. And not fixated on what they're distracted by, on what they're concentrating on. Not closed to being totally distracted. Ready to give up this concentration and look at another one. Ready to give up the concentrated state of mind that they have, which is very pleasant and relaxed. They're not holding on to their relaxation. They're not holding on to their calm. They're not holding on to their peaceful ease, even though here it is. And they're sharing this with all beings. They're sharing the ease that comes... with concentrating on the welfare of all beings. All happiness, all great happiness, true happiness, comes from focusing on the welfare of all other beings.

[33:20]

When one is focused in this way, one is also open and not attached to the focus or the bliss that comes with such focus. There's a current article in The New Yorker about bloodhounds. Bloodhounds are really good at focusing on scents. Once they get a scent, before they're encouraged to focus on a scent, they're pretty relaxed. Drooling. Cheerful. But when you actually encourage them to focus on a scent, they focus on it, but then they become... kind of like unaware of anything else. And until they find it, what they've been put onto, they're kind of rigid about it, in a supreme rigidity, until they find this thing.

[34:25]

So the bloodhound, in one sense, is showing us an aspect of concentration, but in another sense they're showing us... that kind of concentration that's not appropriate to wisdom. Wisdom is focused on what's appearing right now and also open to everything that this thing isn't. That isn't this thing. Because wisdom understands that that's primarily what everything is. Primarily, everything is the total of everything that it isn't. And that's how liberation is possible. because nothing is really itself everything is really all the things that it isn't everything is ungraspable everything is infinite everything is bottomless therefore suffering is insubstantial unreal and we can let go of it but we must be kind to it first with no

[35:35]

holding back and we need to train a long time until we can be that kind to it and that concentrated with it again totally present with it totally focused on it totally undistracted and not afraid of any distraction and willing to be distracted if it would be beneficial because we're focusing on the benefit of beings Like if someone was performing an operation, they would concentrate on performing it well. Of not being distracted from the excellent performance of the operation for the welfare of the patient. Right? But then if you showed them that if they were distracted, they would do a better job, they should be distracted. Because it's not that they're going to get a prize for getting the most concentrated or being the best surgeon. They don't care about that. They just want to do what's best for the patient. And if them being stupid and making mistakes would help the patient, that's what they would do.

[36:41]

Because they're focused on the welfare of the patient, not their fame and glory as a skillful helper. That's their concentration. Present, meeting with complete relaxation. Someone pointed out yesterday to me and some other people that actually I have said a number of times that the word philosophy could be etymologized as love of Sophie. And Sophie or Sophia is wisdom. So philosophy could be translated as the love of wisdom. But Buddhist philosophy, this person pointed out, maybe it would be better to be spoken of as love of delusion.

[37:45]

Love of delusion for the sake of Sophia. Love of delusion means, where is delusion? Delusion is living beings. There's no floating delusions. All delusions are connected to bodies. Living beings are deluded. And because of their delusions, they are tricked. Their delusions trick them. They think there's something that they can get a hold of. And they can't help but grasp and then they suffer. If we love this delusion, enough the delusion will be seen as a delusion and there'll be no more tricks nobody will fall for the tricks and the and the sentient being and their delusion will enter into wisdom the wisdom which is open by loving delusion loving deluded beings like us deluded beings can actually cultivate great love

[39:04]

And with that, deluded beings can understand how deluded they are. And when deluded beings really understand how deluded they are, which means when deluded beings are totally deluded, they realize wisdom. But it's hard for living beings to be... totally a living being. It's hard for deluded beings to completely accept being deluded. So we need all these practices of compassion to help us embrace our delusion. We need practices of generosity and ethics and patience and concentration so we can love our delusion into the realization of wisdom. Lovingly witness our delusion inwardly.

[40:12]

Lovingly witness others who are suffering from their delusions outwardly until we realize wisdom. I said we realize wisdom but it's more like until wisdom is realized in the midst of this compassionate witnessing it isn't that we realize wisdom but that the love of delusion realizes wisdom the witnessing of the suffering of others the focus on the welfare of others and the witnessing of their suffering, that witnessing, that love, that compassion, that is the environment where wisdom is entered and realized and where beings are liberated.

[41:21]

Beings are benefited by the love, benefited by the love and benefited by the love. And then they are taken from that benefit into the concentration and into the wisdom where they are not just benefited but are liberated and when they're liberated after being benefited then they can work to benefit others and liberate others I don't know but I don't know what you put prison this was in it might have been San Quentin But one of the prisons in California is a place where a friend of mine went to teach poetry. And while she was teaching poetry in the prison, she met a man and she felt like it would be a good idea to be this man's partner for the rest of her life.

[42:26]

So she married him quite a while ago. I don't know if this man is schooled ever scheduled to get out of prison but you know they live in two different places I mean they have different bedrooms she lives outside the prison he lives inside she goes to visit him in prison they're married she's happy to be married to him he's happy to be married to her she's a wonderful compassionate person and she loves him and she thinks he's a wonderful compassionate man But when he was young, he felt the need to do some really unskillful things. And she said to him, when you were engaging in the activities which led you to prison, you knew that these things might lead you to prison, right? He said, sure. And did people try to stop you from doing these things because they didn't want you to go to prison?

[43:28]

He said, yes. He said, could anyone have stopped you from doing these things, these unskillful things? And he said, no. No one could stop me. I had to do these things. I had to find out for myself that there were mistakes. She said, is there anything anyone could have done for you to help you when you were doing these things? And he said, yeah, somebody could have loved me. If somebody had loved me, that would have helped me. I still would have done them. But that love would have helped me learn from my mistakes. And that's what she said to me, but I would add that I think she...

[44:30]

teaching him to love she's showing him love so he can continue to learn from his mistakes mistakes he made before the mistakes we made before to learn from our mistakes by loving the results of our mistakes the results of our mistakes are our current mistakes well I should say that our current mistakes are based on our past and the results of our past mistakes so somebody needs to teach us to love so that we can learn learn and learn and learn until there's a wisdom I I can't see that there's going to be an end in mistakes until everybody's wise until then there's going to be more mistakes basic mistakes, you know, like feeling separate from each other and believing it.

[45:39]

Those basic mistakes are going to go on until we really have wisdom and see that that's not true, until we see that it's really not true, really understand that it's not true that we're separate. Until we see that, we're going to make mistakes sometimes, maybe quite frequently. But if we're kind to the delusions and the mistakes that arise from them, this will lead to wisdom. That's my proposal to you this morning. Thank you very much. Thank you for listening to this podcast offered by the San Francisco Zen Center. Our programs are made possible by the donations we receive. 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.

[46:45]

May we fully enjoy the Dharma.

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