We have a nice schedule, I think. The schedule is very easy and relaxing. At the same time, very engaging and focusing. And it feels to me anyway like it often does in a session, an intensive retreat. You feel like you've been doing this forever. You can't remember the feeling that you had before you came. Anyway, it feels that way to me. This afternoon I also have a phrase of Dogen to give you. Which, like the one that Bekiroshi presented this morning, is not one that I appreciate for its

[01:23]

traditional power to turn but more for the beauty of the thought that it presents and again this comes from one of my favorite parts of Dogen That comes from my favorite part of Dogen, that I often studied and often talked about. but it wasn't one of the ones that I was thinking of talking about. But it suddenly popped into my mind at lunchtime, and I thought, how could I not share these words with everyone? So this is from Dogen's text.

[02:39]

four methods of guidance for bodhisattvas. And here is the passage. If you study giving closely, you see that to accept a body and give up a body. And here we can maybe pause for a moment and Recall what we heard this morning, so much that enriches what we might think of now when we hear the word body.

[03:56]

if you study giving closely, you see that to accept a body and give up a body are the practice of giving. That is the practice of giving. To produce something or earn a living are the practice of giving. To leave flowers to the wind And birds to the seasons. Are acts of giving.

[05:17]

So, once more. if you study giving closely, you see that to accept a body and give up a body are acts of giving. To produce things or earn a living are acts of giving. To leave flowers to the wind and birds to the seasons are acts of giving. So that's the passage that I wanted to share with you.

[06:20]

And I hope you can, even without any... explanation or commentary at all can appreciate the beauty of it. And although probably most of you know the background of it, let me just say a little bit about the context. First of all, The word bodhisattva, probably most of you know that word.

[07:21]

We chant this word at the end of our chanting in the services. We always offer the virtue of our chanting to our teachers and to bodhisattvas. In gratitude for their effort and their practice. And Zen is a Bodhisattva path. In Zen, the effort that we're making is to understand ourselves and to practice the way of the Bodhisattva. And Bodhisattvas are inspired by two main practices. The practice of wisdom and the practice of compassion.

[08:53]

And the practice of wisdom that bodhisattvas practice is the kind of wisdom that we also appreciate in the service when we chant wisdom beyond wisdom. So that's a kind of a technical term for the sort of wisdom that bodhisattvas develop and depend on. Wisdom beyond wisdom. It's wisdom that crawls out to the end of wisdom and falls off. Therefore, going beyond wisdom. But Miriam didn't like crawls.

[10:08]

So maybe saunters. Stroll. Promenade. Promenades to the end of wisdom and falls off. And the reason it's called wisdom beyond wisdom is because it's the wisdom that recognizes the emptiness of all things, including concepts of wisdom. that realizes that everything is always promenading to the end of everything and constantly falling off.

[11:15]

So although things appear to be fixed in place, actually everything's falling. Which is just another way to speak about time. Impermanence. Everything is always opened up by falling away every moment. Without this, there would be nothing. So, thank goodness for emptiness. We are not supposed to mention God.

[12:33]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, it's okay. It's okay. One time the Dalai Lama said I was in a group with him with Christian monastics. And of course Christian monastics love to talk about God and Jesus and so on. And the Dalai Lama sort of in an amusing way And the Dalai Lama, in a very amusing way, said, Well, I suppose that emptiness is God. Because it's thanks to emptiness that everything exists. But then he quickly said, but don't quote me. Officially, no God in Buddhism.

[13:47]

Unofficially, God is fine. Anyway, that's neither here nor there. So yes, emptiness and impermanence and the wisdom that sees not something but fallen. So that's something that bodhisattvas cultivate and depend on, is that wisdom that brings such joy and freedom. And As a consequence of this wisdom there is a tremendous sense of love.

[14:55]

We're all falling together. We're all just one fallen. So it's as if we're holding hands, falling in space. Which, in a literal sense, we are physically doing. That is, in a literal sense, what we are doing. in the whole planet, after all, is physically connecting. Floating through space. So how do you not love such close companions? So a characteristic of bodhisattvas is that they feel the feeling of others. The characteristic of bodhisattva is that they feel the feeling of others.

[16:13]

And they want what's truly best for others, maybe even more than others themselves want it for themselves. So concern for others and love for others based on this kind of wisdom is the characteristic of bodhisattvas. And characteristically, bodhisattvas are naive and enthusiastic. They are not. They are naive and enthusiastic. They don't see the sneakiness and deceptiveness of human beings.

[17:16]

Or maybe they see it but they don't particularly focus on it. They're only focused on love and concern for others. And constantly thinking, how can I benefit others? What would be really good here? How could I do something good to help others here? So this is the spirit of bodhisattvas all the time putting forth effort in this way. And this is not exactly a kind of self-sacrificing altruism. Because bodhisattvas see that to take care of the self is to take care of others.

[18:43]

And that if you really want to take care of the self in the best possible way, you will take care of others. If you really want to take care of yourself in the best possible way, you'll take care of others. So it's not a question of sacrificing one's own needs for others. It's a question of one's own needs and desires and the desires and needs of others being identical. So you see how naive that is. So these bodhisattvas are naive in this way. And enthusiastically pursuing this bodhisattva program. Even when terrible things are happening right and left and people are betraying them and acting badly and so forth as of course is commonplace in the ordinary world

[20:11]

Bodhisattvas are enthusiastically thinking, oh, that's good. And now how can I help? What could I do now that would really be good? So this is Bodhisattvas. And this essay of Dogen's is four ways that bodhisattvas help others. Because in the bodhisattva path the major concern is how do we generate more positive feeling for others and how do we actually make ourselves of use to others. So there are a lot of different There are many ways to practice this.

[21:22]

And these four methods of Bodhisattva practice are a traditional method that Dogen has from a Sutra. And the four methods of guidance are first of all giving. And the second one is kind speech. And the third one is acting beneficially. And the fourth one is a little less obvious and it's translated into English in the text that I'm using as identity action. Identity actions. So I think giving is generosity, giving to others.

[22:42]

Kind speech is just that, speaking with kindness, with loving words to inspire and give a warm feeling to others. And beneficial action, as you can imagine, is doing things that would be directly beneficial to others. Identity action is something like And identical actions means to connect with others in their actions. And maybe a good way to illustrate this is a story that I remember.

[23:55]

When I first began reading about Zen, I encountered this story and I don't know where I found it. I don't think I've ever seen it since. So maybe 40 years ago or more, I read the story and I still remember it. This sentence is getting a little bit too long now. Sorry. Forty years ago I encountered this story and it illustrates the point of identity action. And the story is that someone was lost in a snowdrift, had fallen down and was deep inside of a snowdrift. So he was yelling out, help, help.

[24:58]

And a Zen monk was coming by and hearing the cries for help. The Zen monk then hurled himself also into the snowdrift. So the two of them were now stuck in this snowdrift together. And although this seems a little stupid, somehow when I read the story I thought to myself, yes, this is exactly the best way to help people. And so I had the aspiration, I would like to help people in just that way. And nowadays one of the things I do is work with people who care for the dying. And you know, doctors and nurses and hospital chaplains and so on.

[26:10]

People who are, you know, really used to doing beneficial action. But there are times when beneficial action has no place. And the best help that you can give is to be in identity with someone. And this is nowhere more clear than at the time of death. When any kind of medical intervention is no longer possible. So to recognize with the person who's in the bed dying, that this person is alive, and because the person is alive, he's dying.

[27:33]

And that you yourself are alive. And exactly because you're alive you're dying. And to be willing to know that and go as close as you possibly can to the person who's dying. This is identity action. And most of the time the person who's maybe in the bed dying feels the difference, feels when that identity action is present. And even though you can't go all the way to death with them, They can really appreciate that you can go at least part way. And so often people don't want to go even part way. So they adjust the pillow.

[29:10]

Straighten out the sheets. Say pleasant words. You'll be fine or something. Don't worry. Say a prayer or something. But I think someone who is close to death sees the fear and the distraction in all that. and really appreciates someone who is willing to go as far as possible in identity. Although it's most obvious at a time like that, this is always the situation. So to be willing to go as far as possible with someone from their side, from their feeling.

[30:28]

And not to carry on with the fiction that one's self is other than. Another. That's the practice of identity action. So this saying that I'm quoting is from the part about giving. And this part that I am reciting now is from the part of giving. And it begins, repeating it, if you study giving closely. So we all think we know what giving is and what giving is not. But if you study giving like in the style of studying a phrase, where you're really investigating everything in the light of giving,

[31:39]

Really trying to see what is giving. What is real generosity. Giving opens out quite a bit. And it strikes me that this is... a very common thing, that the more you look closely at something, the less clear it gets and the more it opens up, the wider and more inclusive it gets. It seems like, I don't know so much about science, but it seems like the advance of science in the last so many years has been this way, that the more that science can look more and more closely at something, the less clear it is what it's being looked at.

[33:01]

I was reading an article just the other day about new machines that will detect lies. Now that science has produced these wonderful machines that can measure activity in the brain, people figured out now we can tell Definitely when someone is lying or telling the truth by examining the brain we can see how someone lies by examining the brain. So we believe in science and we really want to know Well, is somebody telling the truth or not?

[34:14]

So people are setting up companies to use these machines, MRI machines, to tell if someone's lying or not. So the article was all about how Impossible this is. That the more you look at how the machines work, And what they show, the less clear it is whether they can show you whether someone's lying or not. And of course they set up various experiments to prove that it works. And the first problem they have is, exactly, what is a lie? If I'm asked in the experiment, is this thought blue and I lie and say it's green?

[35:34]

Is that the same thing as if I murdered someone and I say a dean did it? And will my brain work the same way in both cases? And suppose I lied, I murdered somebody and I said Adin did it, but I'm very skillful with my mind and I have convinced myself that Adin actually did do it. Because I'm a master of self-deception. What will the machine show? So maybe it will show that I'm telling the truth. And then they try the machine on Adin. And Adin says, I didn't do it.

[36:38]

He did it. But Adin knows that the machine showed that I was telling the truth. Which makes her very nervous when she answers the question. So it shows that she's lying. Or something like this. In other words, we have this wonderful machine that will tell whether someone's lying or not, but it doesn't really work because things are more complicated the closer you look. So when you study giving closely, In this way, you realize that it is a tremendous act of generosity to be born.

[37:54]

I mean, if you ever saw someone being born, you realize this is a tremendous act of generosity. To be willing to give oneself to this world, to take on a human body and enter this world with all of the difficulties involved is a tremendous act of generosity. In traditional Buddhism, they often say that you're born in a human world. Because of generous acts of the past. It's the karma of the generous acts of the past that propel you into human birth. And when you see someone being born, you feel the generosity in the coming to this world, and people arrive in the world as if they have something that they're trying to do.

[39:29]

The babies are born with this tremendous sense of mission, I think. I have gifts to give. I have something I must contribute here. I must get out here into this world and do this. And when you... feel the generosity involved in this. You look at oneself and others in a very different way. And similarly to give up a body. In other words, to die is also a tremendous act of generosity.

[40:36]

I mean, as far as I remember and know, I have never died in the way that we usually mean death. And when I have been with people who have died, I've been awestruck by their tremendous courage. and their generosity. And I think to myself, how could they do it? I could never imagine being that courageous or that generous. And even though people die very differently, some peacefully and with an overt generosity and some not.

[41:59]

There always seems to me to be a quality of generosity and courage in the dying in all the different ways that it expresses itself. So these tremendous things that every human being by Our nature always does, is born and dies. These things that we all do by our very nature are tremendous acts of generosity. And I appreciate that Dogen points this out to us. And the more I keep it in mind and the more I remember this, the deeper is my sense of connection to everyone.

[43:04]

And then he says to produce something or earn a living is an act of giving. So we don't think of it that way. We think producing something is producing something and then giving it is giving, but just to produce it is not giving. But Dogen is saying, no, if you give yourself and enter into this world, and participate in this world, that in itself is giving. So he's saying that giving or any of the great spiritual virtues are not extra things added on top of life, but that when we completely enter life with the Bodhisattva spirit, everything we do is offering.

[44:25]

To enter life completely, like a bodhisattva, everything that we do, is a giving. And this is also something else that interests me very much and that I work on at home. where I meet with business people and lawyers and we meet on a regular basis and we think, what would it be like if we viewed the work that we're doing? As practice itself. Not that the practice is in the Zendo or when we go somewhere for seminar. But what if it's really true that to produce something and earn a living

[45:40]

If we really understand this, that producing and giving is an act of giving, how would we see this? How would we define life from this? And then he says finally, to leave flowers to the wind and birds to the seasons is an act of giving. In other words, to let things alone. That's giving. In the wind, sometimes flower petals blow off. And as the seasons go on, birds die.

[46:45]

But without wind and without seasons there are no birds and no flowers. So to bear witness to that process and let it alone. to take it into our hearts but let it alone. This is also an act of giving. So bodhisattvas want to engage and participate And they know that their monastery is everywhere. Their fellow monks is everywhere. Even the hardships and the shortcomings and the difficulties are part of what is needed for practice.

[48:19]

So if we have this vision of our lives as bodhisattvas and use our imaginations in the deepest possible way to go forth in living in that spirit And understand that when we come together for practice, when we sit, when we talk, when we are in each other's presence, we're here to encourage that vision in one another. Then If we can have a continuity of that spirit, we can really live a different life. So, that's how I appreciate that saying of Dogen.

[49:32]

Maybe now we take a break, a half hour. All right. So you don't know what's going to happen. I remember once I was asking some question, who knows what it was. Some sort of question. And it was staying kind of floating around in my non-discursive associative mind.

[50:34]

And I was, you know, trying to sort of stay with it while I'm doing whatever I was doing. And on the periphery of my inner self, inner scenery there was a brown phone and that's not strange a brown phone it was ringing so I tried to stay concentrated you know in this or stay with my question so finally I but finally it kept ringing so I went over in my mind and answered it And it told me the answer. So you actually don't know what's a distraction and what's not a distraction.

[51:41]

The very thing that looks like a distraction might be what's knocking at the door. So now usually on Saturday afternoon I... And I didn't know I thought we ought to do it, this seminar, but it occurred to me to do it. Yeah, I would like us to break up, and I've talked to Norman about it, into small groups, maybe four. And maybe one English group or two English groups. I'll let... But what could you examine together? Of course, everything you want. The Buddhist police aren't watching. But I'd suggest you think about do any of you have any experience with this bringing a question into the

[52:49]

deeper text of your life. Which is where vows work, where marriage vows work, where decisions to be a singer work, or something like that. When we make decisions and say, I had no choice. So can this capacity we have be coupled to wisdom. So it's a general topic of how does this mantric questioning work for us in a practical way.

[54:00]

So So that's one question. The other is, how would you like to go on with the seminar? With more the process of practice or more of Dogen or what? What works for you? Okay.

[54:23]

@Transcribed_UNK
@Text_v005
@Score_77.48