This podcast is offered by the San Francisco Zen Center on the web at www.sfcc.org. Our public programs are made possible by donations from people like you. So welcome to San Francisco Zen Center. My name is Wendy Lewis, and this morning I am going to talk about some aspects of Zen work practice. Now, there are all kinds of cultural aspects, attitudes, interpretations of work and what it means in our lives, our daily lives, our community lives, our personal lives. So one attitude or interpretation of work is called the Protestant work ethic. And this originally applied

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to the relationship of work to one's spiritual salvation. So Max Weber was the person who coined this term, and he examined how the application of the Protestant ethic, which was based primarily in Calvinism, resulted in the triumph of capitalism. So Calvinists believe in predestination, that God has already determined who is saved and damned. As Calvinism developed, a deep psychological need for clues about whether one was actually saved arose. And Calvinists looked to their success in worldly activity for those clues. Thus, they came to value profit and material success as signs of God's favor. Other religious groups had similar attitudes that they adapted from this. Weber argues that this new attitude broke down the traditional economic system, paving the way for modern capitalism.

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However, once capitalism emerged, the Protestant values were no longer necessary and their ethic took on a life of its own. So I was thinking, you know, they're kind of echoes to some interpretations of karma in this idea of, you know, the Calvinist belief in predestination, that somehow you're, you know, because of all these causes and conditions, that's why you're in this, whatever situation you're in. And this kind of looking at things is one of the things I enjoy about study or, you know, the... that in Buddhism is called wisdom. It's not so much to become an intellectual and know all kinds of stuff, but just to use one's intelligence or apply one's intelligence to understand why we and others think as they do and interpret things as they do.

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So when we look at Zen work practice in this way, we can ask, what's our view of Zen work practice based in? So we do often apply this sort of Protestant work ethic and maybe, you know, lose a little bit of track of the spiritual value that's part of that work. Now, in the way the Protestant ethic has worked culturally, it's become this sort of glorification of overwork. And that's not just for oneself, but it's an expectation that everyone will do that, whatever their, you know, level of income or what, et cetera, is. There was an article in The New Yorker by James Sorowiaki, who does the financial page. It was called The Cult of Overwork. And he said, the perplexing thing about The Cult of Overwork is that, as we've known for a while,

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Long hours diminish both productivity and quality. So what do we do with that? When that's a cultural value and then has the other side effects, how do we just keep looking at that and still understand the value and then try to understand what else can be in there? One of the things that happens with this sort of idea of the cult of overwork or the Protestant ethic is that it becomes a habit or an addiction. And it's like other addictions, you can't stop. And it detracts us from taking care of other parts of our lives, our health, our internal resources, our creativity, our sort of sense of the world and what matters. So the cult aspect that Siro Uyeki examines, it's not about working nonstop on a special project, you know, where you stay up and you just, like, get excited and you keep working and working and drinking lots of coffee.

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But usually, you know, there's this side effect to that, and that project usually requires someone to step away and then come back to it refreshed and edited, usually shorten it and redo some of it. And so, but a lot of play and creativity can be involved in special projects that are done in that way. But once you get into the habit of doing it, it's self-perpetuating. And every time there's a project, you know, it happens that way and it becomes easy to justify. So in the Zen tradition, work practice is often encapsulated in phrases such as a day without work is a day without food and chop wood, carry water. Now these are both idealistic and have a sort of edge of maybe sounding punitive. So the first comment I found out was written during a time of persecution in China.

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The monasteries that relied on donations weren't able to survive, but the ones that had resources like grew their own food, had a source of water and a source of fuel, didn't rely on the generosity of donors or the government. They had to work a lot harder, but they were the ones that survived. So this became an ethic. So once you're in this kind of traumatic situation and then you create this ideology on it, and then that becomes the future. And shop would carry water. You know, there's this wonderful simplicity that comes from that phrase and this sense of austerity and care. And that's also slightly, it can be slightly oppressive. You know, there's these, it creates a lot of beauty and a sense of peace when that... sort of chop wood, carry water, is applied to things, but it can have a sort of touch of stinginess about it, or aloofness, and judgment.

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There was an article on a new book about Beethoven, and somebody had painted a picture of him while he was composing. There's paper everywhere, and it's these, you know, He kept all of his musical compositions, every version of them, and carried them every time he moved with them. So they're piled up all around him, and the only clear space is the piano keys. But all around all this stuff, and there's a cello, and next to it there's this stuff holding up. So for each person, to me this is a little bit about the atmosphere of creativity and transformation. Like, what does it look like for one person and for another person? And how do we idealize one and not so idealize another? So these Zen stories and phrases are usually intended, I guess they're always intended, to question egotistical and self-justifying thinking and...

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moving practitioners towards self-understanding, peace, and freedom from these fixed views. And at the same time, we adopt these ideas and they become sort of the way we define everything. And they're often interpreted to justify ideologies and sets of rules. So one in connection between the Protestant work ethic, a positive one you could say, and the Zen work practice is, you know, that Zen practice says a day without work is a day without food, is that when you feel like you've earned something, you might value it a little bit more and steward it a little more carefully. You may or may not. But there's this sense of kind of an investment of your... your enthusiasm, and your energy.

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That sort of makes you value that a little more. But when you receive something as a gift or as a donation, things can get a little cloudy about just how you relate to that gift. And that's one of the reasons there's laws regulating how organizations that depend on donations use them. and sometimes they misappropriate them, and they're often interpreted as being earnings, and so that makes a lot of sense. But you have to be careful. So how do we define Zen work practice in the context of San Francisco Zen Center, which is a non-profit institution supported primarily by donations? What do we do? How do we struggle with that? How do we just say, oh yeah, that's the way this place works?

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And I think there's many answers to that as there are people who have certain values and ask questions, whatever it may be, and it's very complex. And this is partly, you know, based on our sort of spiritual intention. So in the historical Buddhist tradition, issues of accountability or how people are practicing, how they're living out the precepts and that sort of thing, arise periodically. And one of the teachings is the Buddha speaking, and he said, this is really hard, but... There are five acts that are intolerable in the religious life. These five are equivalent to theft and are called the five robbers.

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The first is to neglect to observe the precepts and at the same time conspire with one's fellow monks to squander the offerings made by the faithful for the support of worthy monks. The second is to harbor evil thoughts and do impure deeds and at the same time pretend to be a decent, worthy monk in front of others. The third is to grow arrogant because of one's knowledge and look with contempt on other monks. The fourth is to think nothing of trampling on the rights and dignity of others in order to ensure food and clothing for oneself. The fifth is to treat the common possessions of the Sangha as if they were one's own. Let no one who treads the holy path to enlightenment even think of doing such deeds. So I think any of us kind of might tremble at hearing a teaching like this. You know, we all do some stuff like that in whatever area of work or community we function.

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And you know, this must be, be something that was happening in Buddhist communities that would require this teaching, or this reminder, you could say. But I think there's another question underneath this, and that is, why would monks do this? Why would the members of the community do these things to whatever varying degrees? And what does that have to do with how the precepts function in our work, our community, our relationships, and our practice. So Suzuki Roshi commented on work practice, or samu, as he calls it. In samu, or in your zazen practice, or observation of rituals, you should try to work on something difficult and something hard, or something which people do not like to do. Usually, you know, if you are in the position of a teacher, you will be very happy. But to study Buddhism, a disciple always will, as he said laughing, but to study Buddhism as a disciple always will not be so good.

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When you feel something good, you know there is some danger. So if you want to practice, or if you realize how difficult it is to practice Zen in its true sense, you should rather prefer to work on something which people will ignore or will not like. So this is very interesting. Our founder is telling us, giving us this instruction about work practice and about all of our practice, actually. And underneath this, I think, is that the most difficult teachings to follow are the ones that look most like the simplest or the most basic, the Four Noble Truths and the Precepts. Very difficult. And I think when they begin to have an effect on us, whether it's subtle or we have some understanding about something from studying them or thinking about them or applying them, and possibly when they begin to transform us, our tendency will be to resist.

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And this can be, you know, by applying the teachings to others more than ourselves, or becoming a little frightened of what the teachings require of us. This is like, you know, right after a sishin or an extended sitting or a retreat, like a practice period, all of a sudden, you know, people go right back, all of us go right back to our habitual way of thinking and doing things. And even over time, you know, many years of practice, it's easy, you know, to cling to or revert to our habitual behavior and thinking. It's just the human condition. So Suzuki Roshi considers work practice, meditation, and observation of rituals. That's like when we do service, or we just chanted that short dedication at the beginning. They all require a similar attitude of questioning our preferences.

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He says, work on something difficult and something hard. And I don't think he means to do something difficult or hard that we're kind of good at or that we enjoy or that we get rewarded for necessarily, but to do work that challenges our pride and our sense of superiority to others. And you can do that in a work that you enjoy and that you're good at and that you get rewarded for as well. So at the beginning of the lecture where he talked about Samu, he said, when you want to study Buddhism or Zen, you must realize that it is useless to seek for worldly desires. Sometimes people mix up religious way-seeking mind and worldly desires. By worldly desires, I mean to seek for fame or profit. For instance, you may say, you are wrong. My understanding is right. Look here, Buddha says so-and-so.

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That is a true understanding of life. But reflect on your mind when you say it. In your mind, there is just pride and no mercy or no kindness in your mind. You should reflect on your mind. In this case, you mix up the study of Buddhism and worldly attainment. If you are very proud of yourself, that is wrong. You are not studying Buddhism. If you are too proud of your understanding or your practice, eventually people would get tired of seeing you. And he laughed. But I'm studying Zen. And he's laughing, laughing, laughing. That's very, you know, foolish. You know, it's difficult to quote from Suzuki Roshi without it being a big piece because he sort of has, there's little, this train of thought that often goes through his thinking and his lectures.

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So, you know, in all the areas of our practice, and this is also part of work practice, we'll move, you know, between extremes of arrogance and steadiness, is what I think of it as. And in between there's resentment, and joy and surrender. So in the context of an organizational structure, if that structure is unsupportive or seems to have moved towards what Suzuki Roshi called the worldly desires of fame and profit, work practice can sometimes feel sort of burdensome and unfulfilling. There's always the the authority that comes from those in leadership positions infuses everyone else with their energy, enthusiasm, effort, and recognizes how hard this is at the same time.

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So in the midst of this, you know, there's gratitude, appreciation, for this opportunity of living in this unusual community, for instance. And that what is offered here is available to residents and non-residents and visitors. And yet, you know, in the way of the world, I think occasionally we have to stop and sort of pick up pieces of what Suzuki Roshi calls the religious way-seeking mind. And in both corporations and religious institutions or organizations, I think that's a remembrance of ethical values and appreciation of everyone's effort and contribution.

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So sometimes you just need to rethink how and why and by whom decisions are being made and how and why and to whom rewards are being given. You just have to look at it. Just stop for a minute. So many of our public teachings emphasize compassion and mindfulness, and yet it's a little ironic that we're so far behind many organizations and institutions in terms of diversity protocol and the ethics of equity. So our decision-making processes often seem mysterious and people don't feel included. you know, in the decisions about how money is invested and what kind of projects the institution is taking on and that sort of thing.

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And I'm not trying to say this to discourage anyone. I actually think, what's going on, you know? Well, how does it feel to be here? It's complicated. You don't just say, oh, yeah, everything's going to be wonderful. I'm going to go and live in the Garden of Eden. and there's not gonna be any problems with people there. You can't live that way. You'll lose something, I think. So I think a lot of this type of decision-making is expediency, and that kind of makes sense because this is a community of people here, and there are communities of people everywhere that are from so many different kinds of backgrounds, and have all different kinds of assumptions about how things work or should work. And this is, in a religious institution in particular, there's an atmosphere of misunderstanding that isn't resolved, the oppression of being good, not getting angry, and these various interpretations of what practice is and what it requires of each person.

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So work practice, or SAMU, is the way we apply practice realization through activity, creativity, and collaboration. Now, coming from someone who's seen as a privileged person or someone from an authority position, it can sound kind of controlling. or even corny. But what it means is that we keep asking a certain question. Am I doing what I came here to do? So right in the midst of things being imperfect and challenging and absurd and are being that way as well, can we remain in the midst of that question? and keep applying these efforts to practice realization.

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Because we're always caught in the mix. Particularly, I think, in a place like this where we have these high ideals. We have this wonderful founder who said these things that we just, like, we listen to him and we just feel this kind of relief or this sense of peace that somebody could say something clearly that feels supportive for us. And we have wonderful teachers now who say things that are supportive of us and help us with many different things. So in the midst of seeing things that are wonderful and things that are wrong and struggling to find a skillful way to inquire and challenge circumstances that call for change, we have to consider what's necessary. Well, I think anger is necessary. And also patience and confidence. So how do we express our anger and not keep going with it?

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How can we express our anger and also think about where we are? Because... I think particularly with the issues that I think are still being called diversity and white privilege, we have a tendency to take those on and they become these, you know, they get co-opted as kind of these buzzwords. And yet, you know... I've been feeling very emotional about this lately, so. I think that the people who are in residence here and the wider community really comprise an extraordinary potential for shifting the habits of our culture.

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And I think this is one of the, you know, this is the purpose, in fact, of transformative religious experience and application. And there's examples, historical examples for us. For instance, when I was studying theology, there's a school of theology, I guess you would call it, called Liberation Theology. And it's based on this idea of preferential option for the poor. The preferential option for the poor and vulnerable includes all who are marginalized in society, including persons with disabilities, the elderly and terminally ill, the victims of injustice and oppression. Although liberation theology has grown into an international and interdenominational movement, it began within the Catholic Church in Latin America in the 1950s to 1960s.

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It arose principally as a moral reaction to the poverty and social injustice in that region. The term was coined in 1971 by the Peruvian priest Gustavo Gutierrez, who wrote A Theology of Liberation. Other noted exponents are Leonardo Boff of Brazil and Juan Luis Segundo of Uruguay. And Segundo, I used his... theology for a paper I wrote, so I was very familiar with it, and it was just wonderful, brilliant. These ideas for change, for hope, for something. So, work practice. includes creative thinking that's based in personal transformation that can transform those who engage in it, and that offers the possibility of transformation to everyone.

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This is work practice and the other practices that Suzuki Roshi mentions. You know, our meditation, all the things that we do here are in conjunction. So sometimes the context of transformation can seem to require too much sacrifice. What do I have to give up? But I think what's hard to remember is the vitality it can bring. You know, this vitality of being free of some of our self-centered ideas. So, consider the freedom available to us from not resisting the requests that come to us that will help to undermine our selfishness and our fear.

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When I was living at Tassajara, Kobanchino, she was there for a month. as a visiting teacher. And one day in the morning, everybody's sitting there silent and still, and we're all trying to be good because we have this wonderful teacher there. And he just said, all the people in the world, the variety. That was it. I experienced it as this generous, unjudgmental expression, and it stayed with me all these years. All the people in the world, the variety. Thank you very much.

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For more information, visit sfcc.org and click giving. May we fully enjoy the Dharma.

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