Nothing in the Universe Is Hidden

0:00 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. Report an error in the passage at 0:00 Highlight the passage at 0:00

0:20 Welcome to Green Gulch. He or she isn't asleep, is he? No, good. Report an error in the passage at 0:20 Highlight the passage at 0:20

0:30 Tiny, tiny baby. How old is the baby? Five months. First time? Beautiful. Report an error in the passage at 0:30 Highlight the passage at 0:30

0:51 So one of our root teachers here, does this sound okay? Back in the 13th century, Dogen, who's one of the great Zen teachers of all time, traveled Report an error in the passage at 0:51 Highlight the passage at 0:51

1:13 from Japan to China in search of finding a true teacher, in search of wanting to find, answer his deep... questions about practice. And somehow he kept wandering around and meeting head cooks or tenzos. He was very impressed with people who did the day-to-day work in the monastery. And there was one dialogue in which he asked a tenzo, what is Zen? What is Zen? I think it's like asking, what does it mean to be a human being? Report an error in the passage at 1:13 Highlight the passage at 1:13

1:56 What does it mean to be a full human being? And this particular head cook responded, nothing in the universe is hidden. Nothing in the universe is hidden. And I think that's a really important topic right now, especially you might have noticed this is a hard time to be a human being. I think harder than many other times, maybe not as hard as some others, but it's really hard. Report an error in the passage at 1:56 Highlight the passage at 1:56

2:40 I've always liked this little tale that I'm sure some of you know. Report an error in the passage at 2:40 Highlight the passage at 2:40

2:47 It's about the three bricklayers, right? So someone goes up and someone sees three bricklayers and they ask the first one, what are you doing? And the bricklayer, first bricklayer says, I'm laying bricks, I'm putting down bricks. And he goes up to the second bricklayer and says, what are you doing? And the second bricklayer says, Report an error in the passage at 2:47 Highlight the passage at 2:47

3:13 Supporting my family. I'm doing this work to support my family. And the third goes up to the third bricklayer and asks, what are you doing? And the third bricklayer says, I'm engaging in a conversation with God because we're building a church. And I think this is one of the great challenges and opportunities even of these really, really difficult times. Report an error in the passage at 3:13 Highlight the passage at 3:13

3:45 How to In a way, these three bricklayers represent maybe three activities that we're, well, I think we're often, I think in our culture and in our world, we seem to spend most of our time as the second bricklayer. We do something for some purpose, right? For some purpose, to get something done, to achieve something, to make money. Report an error in the passage at 3:45 Highlight the passage at 3:45

4:14 Fame, stat, all those things. And there's many kind of, I think, wholesome and unwholesome things in that second brick layer. The first brick layer to me is really interesting in that it, to me, it aligns a lot with Zen practice. It's paying attention to what we're doing. Actually, it's like being in the moment, noticing that we're laying the bricks. Or if we're in the kitchen, noticing. Report an error in the passage at 4:14 Highlight the passage at 4:14

4:52 I think an interesting question, I often, I was talking to someone outside right before I came in and she was saying how much she doesn't like doing talks. And I said, I don't like doing talks either. This isn't a talk, it's a workshop. Report an error in the passage at 4:52 Highlight the passage at 4:52

5:12 See, someone's calling me right now. I can hear it. Report an error in the passage at 5:12 Highlight the passage at 5:12

5:19 Yeah, so it's interesting, you know, because I believe I'm having, I feel really lucky I get to have a dialogue with every one of you. And in the realm of these brick layers, I would ask, you know, I often like to start my workshops with what brings you here? And what really brings you here? Which I think are really good questions. So you might ask yourself, why are you here? Report an error in the passage at 5:19 Highlight the passage at 5:19

5:54 And then, why are you really here? And perhaps some of that answer might be having to do with the third bricklayer, that I think we come here to have a conversation with God. Or if God word doesn't work, with Buddha, right? We have Buddhas everywhere. With Buddha or with nature or with the sacred, perhaps we come here to see Report an error in the passage at 5:54 Highlight the passage at 5:54

6:31 more clearly, to see more clearly. And there's a beautiful passage, again, from this Dogen fellow. And this is something he wrote. Again, this was... was 13th century. And he says, So maybe it's interesting. When we think there's nothing more to learn, one thinks there's nothing more to learn. When the dharma... Report an error in the passage at 6:31 Highlight the passage at 6:31

7:14 When the dharma fills body and mind, if we think something is lacking, let me try this again. When the dharma has not yet fully penetrated body and mind, one thinks one is already filled. When the dharma does fill body and mind, one thinks something is lacking. So when we're not connected to God, we think there's nothing more to learn. When we are, When we're filled with the sacred, when we're filled with this sense, something bigger than us, we feel there's something lacking. Report an error in the passage at 7:14 Highlight the passage at 7:14

7:55 So it's interesting, the positive spin on something lacking. For example, when we sail a boat into the ocean beyond sight of land, our eyes can see in the four directions. It looks like a circle. No other shape appears, right? So a great image, right? Out in a boat, out in the ocean, look around, it looks like a circle. He says, this great ocean, however, is neither round nor square. Report an error in the passage at 7:55 Highlight the passage at 7:55

8:28 It is inexhaustible. To a fish, it looks like a palace. To a heavenly being, it looks like a jeweled necklace. To us, as far as our eyes can see, it looks like a circle. Report an error in the passage at 8:28 Highlight the passage at 8:28

8:44 Everything is like this. Everything is like this. Within the dusty world and beyond, there are innumerable aspects and characteristics. We only see or grasp as far as the power of our eye and the study of study and practice that we can see. Report an error in the passage at 8:44 Highlight the passage at 8:44

9:08 This is true not only in the external world, but also right under our feet within a single drop of water. Report an error in the passage at 9:08 Highlight the passage at 9:08

9:19 So it's interesting. It's easy to get caught by the events of the day. And in some way, I think it's important to let ourselves feel, to feel fully, to feel the pain and suffering of the world. Report an error in the passage at 9:19 Highlight the passage at 9:19

9:52 To me, this is one of the great questions of our time. And one of the great gifts of Zen practice is asking the question, how can I feel deeply, how can I feel deeply and keep my heart open? Which is a lot like Dogen's, the answer that this head cook gave about nothing hidden, nothing hidden. Report an error in the passage at 9:52 Highlight the passage at 9:52

10:25 So how do we practice that? How do we practice that in In a way, to me, this is why do we meditate? Why do we practice? Why do we come to places like this? I love this, you know, Sodogan's expression, we Report an error in the passage at 10:25 Highlight the passage at 10:25

10:48 only see or grasp as far as the power of our eye of study and practice can see. So my great aspiration is how can I see more deeply? How can I see and feel? I really appreciate Thich Nhat Hanh's voice these days more and more. Thich Nhat Hanh, great Vietnamese Zen teacher who died almost exactly three years ago. He lived during what we call The Vietnam War, which in Vietnam they called the United States War. And he talks about, he Report an error in the passage at 10:48 Highlight the passage at 10:48

11:50 once overheard a group of American soldiers discussing why they had to kill all of the men, women and children in a village in order to protect the U.S. soldiers. And he was so deeply Deeply, deeply disturbed by hearing this. Report an error in the passage at 11:50 Highlight the passage at 11:50

12:19 So is he, very disturbed by hearing this. He wrote a poem called, the poem is called For Warmth. And he says, I hold my face in my two hands. No, I'm not crying. I hold my face in my two hands to keep the loneliness warm. Two hands protecting. Two hands nourishing, two hands preventing my soul from leaving in anger. I hold my face in my two hands. Report an error in the passage at 12:19 Highlight the passage at 12:19

12:57 No, I'm not crying. I hold my face in my two hands to keep the loneliness warm. Two hands protecting, two hands nourishing, two hands preventing my soul from leaving me in anger. Report an error in the passage at 12:57 Highlight the passage at 12:57

13:16 Maybe I unalesce. A less dramatic story about this question of nothing hidden. I was thinking of a time when I was asked to facilitate part of a three-day retreat. There was a three-day retreat of CEOs who were all on the board of a non-profit. And they were here at Green Gulch. For three days of a strategy meeting about this nonprofit that they were on, I was asked to facilitate a short session in the middle of this three-day retreat. Report an error in the passage at 13:16 Highlight the passage at 13:16

14:01 And I distinctly remember as I was walking into the room, it was over in the Wheelwright Center, someone came out and met me and said, Marc, welcome. This retreat is not going well. Report an error in the passage at 14:01 Highlight the passage at 14:01

14:17 We just fired the last facilitator, welcome. Report an error in the passage at 14:17 Highlight the passage at 14:17

14:25 And I walked in and I could feel the tension. And I was thinking, well, what am I going to do? What am I going to do? So, of course, I did. One of the things that I do a lot, I said, let's sit some meditation. And right away, especially there were the women in the room leapt to the front. Some of the men were sitting in the back. Report an error in the passage at 14:25 Highlight the passage at 14:25

14:49 We've got work to do. Why are we meditating? But we sat for a few minutes, and then I broke them into groups. My son is always teasing me. He says what I do for a living is I get people talking to each other in groups, which is true, and I'm proud of it. That's what I do for a living these days. I got people into groups, and I had three questions that I suggested each person ask. Report an error in the passage at 14:49 Highlight the passage at 14:49

15:21 One, why am I here on this planet? Two, how's it going? And three, what actions, changes might I make in response to how I answered the first two questions? You never know how people will respond, but it turned out they really were ripe to talk about these issues. Again, a kind of nothing hidden. I went around and I noticed there was a fair amount of crying happening in these groups. And then we came back and it felt completely different. Report an error in the passage at 15:21 Highlight the passage at 15:21

16:12 And someone raised their hand and said, this is where we should have started. We tried to go right to... We tried to go right to getting stuff done, and we didn't connect. There wasn't a heart connection. Report an error in the passage at 16:12 Highlight the passage at 16:12

16:35 I later learned that the rest of the meeting went really well. I also heard one of these guys was a CEO of a finance company who had said he didn't really want me to come when they were deciding who was going to come. Because what I do is way too woo-woo. And he then reported that if what we did there was woo-woo, we need more of that. Report an error in the passage at 16:35 Highlight the passage at 16:35

17:05 So yeah, I Report an error in the passage at 17:05 Highlight the passage at 17:05

17:12 don't know of any other way that we're going to change things other than more sacred connection, more connection with God, more. Report an error in the passage at 17:12 Highlight the passage at 17:12

17:28 This Nothing Hidden. Last Saturday, I flew to New Jersey to teach a class at the Rutgers Business School. It was the first time. It's interesting. Rutgers Business School, very successful, particularly in corporate accounting and operations management. But they were... hidden. Report an error in the passage at 17:28 Highlight the passage at 17:28

17:59 They had never done a mindful leadership program and they were very excited about it. I was excited about it. But when I arrived, I walked into the campus and the first thing I saw was a picture of Martin Luther King and a picture that was taken during the depression of people suffering. And underneath it said, Report an error in the passage at 17:59 Highlight the passage at 17:59

18:31 The suffering that has been caused in our world by poor macroeconomic policy. This is what I'd really like to talk about, but I'm not going to today. This is another lecture. But I think so much of our suffering is bad policy, bad decisions that have been made. If you haven't read... The book These Truths by Jill Lepore. It is fantastic read. I'm literally reading it for the fifth time. Report an error in the passage at 18:31 Highlight the passage at 18:31

19:12 And it's a book about, it's the 500 year history of the United States and the line from Columbus to Trump. And it's just staggering. I Report an error in the passage at 19:12 Highlight the passage at 19:12

19:35 also highly recommend a book called Winners Take All, also a book about macroeconomic policy. But back to our program about God. Report an error in the passage at 19:35 Highlight the passage at 19:35

19:49 But it's because God has been left out of creating policy, amazingly enough, somehow that the policies have been geared not toward taking care of people. There's been other... other concerns. Concerns. And I'm very fond of saying that greed, hate, and delusion have been popular for thousands of years. Even from the time, you know, Buddhism and Zen, you could say they were developed and they're here to help us transform our greed, our fight or flight. Report an error in the passage at 19:49 Highlight the passage at 19:49

20:40 The way that we tend to scan for threats. We've evolved to scan for threats. And that Buddhism opens up the sacred side and strategies and practices for finding a way to transform pain, suffering, difficulty, anxiety into possibility. Report an error in the passage at 20:40 Highlight the passage at 20:40

21:09 This is, I think, the practice of And it's the practice of bringing meditation into our day-to-day lives. Again, you know, the third brick layer, connecting with something larger than ourselves. Or Dogen's image of seeing how, seeing that, it starts, I think, with seeing how our vision is limited, right? Report an error in the passage at 21:09 Highlight the passage at 21:09

21:42 Our vision is limited. The ocean looks round. We think that we have a stable self or that things aren't, we don't account for change. We think we can predict the future. And, you know, I love in one of Shunryu Suzuki's talks, he says, strictly speaking, the person that I am now is not the same person I am. Report an error in the passage at 21:42 Highlight the passage at 21:42

22:15 now right that that we are and that what a relief right what are we what a relief so there's the you know and and yet things look things look time and space appear like the ocean time and I want to Report an error in the passage at 22:15 Highlight the passage at 22:15

22:39 talk briefly about two of my favorite acronyms. I'm usually not an acronym guy. But there's these two that I think are really good to practice with in terms of the practice of nothing hidden. One I call the acronym of suffering, and the other is the acronym of awakening or hanging out more with God. Let's see, which one should we start with? Let's start with the one of suffering. This acronym is SCARF, S-C-A-R-F. Report an error in the passage at 22:39 Highlight the passage at 22:39

23:16 And it stands for status, certainty, autonomy, relatedness, and fairness. And we all want status. But if you're caught by status, you will suffer. We're seeing a lot of suffering right now with a lot of people being caught by status, wanting to be better, comparing mind, wanting to be better. It causes a lot of suffering. I think we're getting a... Report an error in the passage at 23:16 Highlight the passage at 23:16

23:48 We're getting a world workshop in the problem of status. The C is for certainty. We all want certainty, but if you are caught by certainty, we will suffer. The A is autonomy. We all want autonomy, but we are so interconnected. We are so interconnected that it's recognizing status. Report an error in the passage at 23:48 Highlight the passage at 23:48

24:18 You know, autonomy. The R is, you know, relatedness. It's like being caught by our relationships, being overly dependent, kind of grasping at relationships. And the F is for fairness, wanting things to be fair. And interesting study was done about these five abilities that when we feel feel a loss of status or certainty or fairness, it lights up in the same part of the brain as pain. Report an error in the passage at 24:18 Highlight the passage at 24:18

25:00 And when we get, when we feel a sense of Report an error in the passage at 25:00 Highlight the passage at 25:00

25:09 certainty it lights up in the brain So I think part of this practice, this nothing in the universe is hidden, is becoming more and more familiar with these. It's not, we're not, we don't, they're all okay, you know. It's okay to want some status, to want some certainty, but to not be too caught by it, right? Report an error in the passage at 25:09 Highlight the passage at 25:09

25:37 To not be caught by it, but to be really curious about it. So the antidote, or an interesting antidote to these, is another acronym, which is the acronym STER, S-T-E-R. Which stands for selflessness, timelessness, effortlessness, and richness. Report an error in the passage at 25:37 Highlight the passage at 25:37

26:02 Selflessness, right? So this is core Buddhist Zen practice is becoming familiar, not skipping over self, becoming more and more familiar with self. And in some way, this other acronym SCARF is a really good way. To become familiar with self is to really be curious about status. I mean, I used to, when I was running my last company, it used to really bother me that people cared so much about titles. Report an error in the passage at 26:02 Highlight the passage at 26:02

26:36 And I realized, I don't care. As long as I'm the CEO, I'm fine. And it's like, oh, status, yeah, yeah, I do care about status. Report an error in the passage at 26:36 Highlight the passage at 26:36

26:49 Certainty, yeah, I want, I'd have my predictions about, I want, you know, we all want, so I'd be fooling myself. So it's an interesting practice to attempt to not fool oneself and to see how we do it again, again and again, right? But one of my favorite book titles, right? I Heard God Laughing. God is always laughing. Report an error in the passage at 26:49 Highlight the passage at 26:49

27:17 It's like, Being able to laugh, to cry and laugh, to cry and laugh. And Thich Nhat Hanh's writing and poetry is so much about crying and laughing. But selflessness and timelessness, right? Realizing that the way that we look at time is mostly made up. It's convenient. We need time. But it's just like looking at thinking the ocean is round, thinking that... Report an error in the passage at 27:17 Highlight the passage at 27:17

27:45 Past, present, and future, that we're so caught by it. So in some way, meditation practice is a chance to step out of time, to just for some time every day, let it go, and then bringing that into our day-to-day lives. Effortlessness is a really interesting one. I'm often laughing at myself for noticing extra effort and seeing if you can... Report an error in the passage at 27:45 Highlight the passage at 27:45

28:14 Trying on. What if it were easy? What if it were easy? What if it were even a little bit easier? The last one, the R, richness. Richness. Richness is, I think, a lot like a beginner's mind. Seeing a great experiment is, you know, when you leave here, when you go outside, Try seeing everything as though you're seeing it for the first time. And the good thing about that is you are seeing it. Report an error in the passage at 28:14 Highlight the passage at 28:14

28:49 You don't have to make it up. We are changing and everything is changing. So this practice of richness I think is a tremendously beautiful practice. I Report an error in the passage at 28:49 Highlight the passage at 28:49

29:13 think I've already broken my 20 minute rule. No one should talk for more than 20 minutes. But I want to think, I think I want to just, yeah, Report an error in the passage at 29:13 Highlight the passage at 29:13

29:31 I'm trying to decide. There's two poems. Maybe I'll do both of them, but really briefly. One is a beautiful, profound poem by Thich Nhat Hanh. Some of you may know Please Call Me by My True Names. And I'll just read a little bit of it. He says, Don't say that I will depart tomorrow, even today. Report an error in the passage at 29:31 Highlight the passage at 29:31

29:58 look deeply every second I'm arriving to be a bud on a spring branch to be a tiny bird with still fragile wings learning to sing in my new nest to be a caterpillar in the heart of a flower to be a jewel hiding itself in a stone I still arrive in order to laugh and to cry to fear and to hope. The rhythm of my heart is the birth and death. Report an error in the passage at 29:58 Highlight the passage at 29:58

30:33 And then he goes into a whole number of imaginings, and just one is, I am the child in Uganda, all skin and bones, my legs as thin as bamboo and sticks, and I am the arms merchant, still selling deadly weapons to Uganda. So this ability, To me, this is a God-like, that we have these amazing imaginations, that we can imagine what it's like to be in another person's shoes. Report an error in the passage at 30:33 Highlight the passage at 30:33

31:08 And this is one of the definitions of compassion. And God or Buddha or emptiness as a force of compassion, feeling others' feelings, cultivating understanding. Report an error in the passage at 31:08 Highlight the passage at 31:08

31:27 This aspiration to help. And Thich Nhat Hanh talks about these, you know, the miracle, the miracles of mindfulness, the miracle of feeling another person, cultivating our understanding, wanting to help more. So in this poem he says, My joy is like spring, so warm it makes flowers bloom all over earth. My pain is like a river of tears. Report an error in the passage at 31:27 Highlight the passage at 31:27

31:55 So vast it fills the four oceans. Please call me by my true names so I can hear all my cries and laughter at once, so I can see that my joy and pain are one. Report an error in the passage at 31:55 Highlight the passage at 31:55

32:13 So how do we practice this stuff? How do we practice? This is the great question. I think, you know, I suggest keep... Keep staying with the three bricklayers, especially the first and the third one, but they're all good, right? Paying attention, noticing, why are we here? What is our motivation? And this hanging out with God or emptiness or the sacred. Report an error in the passage at 32:13 Highlight the passage at 32:13

32:52 And I have in my, I really, I highly recommend poetry and I've been trying to, Memorize poetry of late. See if I can remember this poem. This is a part of a Mary Oliver poem where she says, this is what we were born for. This is what we were born for. To look, to listen, to lose ourselves inside this soft world. Report an error in the passage at 32:52 Highlight the passage at 32:52

33:22 And then the end of, this is a poem called Mindful by Mary Oliver. And she ends it with, oh good scholar, I say to myself, How could I not grow wise with teachings such as these? The untrimmable light of the world, the ocean's sheen, and prayers made of grasses. Prayers made of grasses, right? So seeing God, right? Seeing God everywhere. Seeing God or seeing the sacred everywhere. Report an error in the passage at 33:22 Highlight the passage at 33:22

33:57 This not avoiding pain, not avoiding laughter. 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. May we fully enjoy the Dharma. Report an error in the passage at 33:57 Highlight the passage at 33:57