Work Practice and The "One Who Is Not Busy"

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 and welcome on this wonderful day, this full moon morning at Green Gulch Farm. Report an error in the passage at 0:00 Highlight the passage at 0:00

0:28 Thanks for all of you who... Thiemo drove that nice winding road down here in the sunshine and also thank you for joining online and I want to send a very special welcome to our new farm and land apprentices which are here as are here for the first day today. And I haven't met them yet, so may I see some hands? Who is one of the new... I see they're all distributed there in the back. Report an error in the passage at 0:28 Highlight the passage at 0:28

1:11 Maybe I shortened the name a little. The full name is Farm and Land Work Practice Apprenticeship Applicants. Report an error in the passage at 1:11 Highlight the passage at 1:11

1:27 I really wish for you that your life here seems a little bit simpler than the name we gave you. But I think people just couldn't let go of bringing all these words in to not lose something, especially not the work practice part. And I'll talk more about that maybe today. But for those who don't know what that apprenticeship program also is, I just want to spend a few words of explaining. Report an error in the passage at 1:27 Highlight the passage at 1:27

1:58 what we have here at Green Gulch. So we have all the different temple jobs, and for all the different temple jobs, we have essentially what we call apprenticeship programs. So there's a minimum of three months for these. There's like the farm and land, which just joined here. And then we have kitchen apprenticeship, and then we have guest program apprenticeship, and then we have sometimes maintenance apprenticeship. Report an error in the passage at 1:58 Highlight the passage at 1:58

2:23 And Report an error in the passage at 2:23 Highlight the passage at 2:23

2:27 ...throughout the year. But for the farm and land, because it's such a seasonal work, we actually ask them to commit to come for the whole season. And so they come in a cohort. And as for all the programs, we have people come for two weeks before, just to give them an experience and let them decide, like, is that really what I want to do? Report an error in the passage at 2:27 Highlight the passage at 2:27

2:54 So they come two weeks before, and that's what the farm and land apprentices are right now here for, to see if they actually want to come this year's season and to farm with us, to practice and to farm with us. And then after this time, they can decide if they want to stay here for the season or for their lifetimes. Report an error in the passage at 2:54 Highlight the passage at 2:54

3:23 Just kidding, you're allowed to leave. Report an error in the passage at 3:23 Highlight the passage at 3:23

3:28 So I think I thought like this was the perfect time for me to maybe say something about work practice, which is so highly valued in our tradition. And maybe I want to start with just giving you a little bit of an historical overview because Report an error in the passage at 3:28 Highlight the passage at 3:28

3:55 If you know a little bit about Buddhism, I mean, it's surprising that we actually really value the work. Because at the beginning, at the time of the historical Buddha, Shakyamuni Buddha, the monks were not even allowed to work. So they didn't have any work duties during that time. And not only they didn't have any work duties, they also didn't have any schedule. Report an error in the passage at 3:55 Highlight the passage at 3:55

4:25 It is quite there. There was no wake-up bell, no work meeting or something like that. It was just like everybody lived according to their own timing. And I can imagine for some residents, maybe including me, that sounds like paradise. Like what? No schedule? Or you get up in the morning and when you get up and you meditate a little bit and then maybe you walk into town and get your free breakfast. Report an error in the passage at 4:25 Highlight the passage at 4:25

4:55 Then you come back, and in the afternoon you can rest a little bit, and then hear maybe some dharma talks of the Buddha when he's there, and then meditate a little bit and go to bed. So, I mean, maybe that was a little bit my delusion, and I know it couldn't have been just like that, but I read a little bit up on that, and that sounded quite a little bit different, I have to say. Report an error in the passage at 4:55 Highlight the passage at 4:55

5:16 Even though it was very clear they did not have a schedule or anything, on average, the monks Got up at 2 a.m. in the morning to start to meditate and then got later into their hygiene and into their robes and then went to town, which sounded also a little bit less romantic. They just went into town silently, one row, not looking even up, eyes cast down with their bowls and they received whatever food. Report an error in the passage at 5:16 Highlight the passage at 5:16

5:53 They got, they were not supported to ask for any special food requirements or so, and then they came back and had usually their one meal, sometimes two meals, but definitely before noon, and yes, then they had some rest, and they had maybe some talks and meditation, and they usually meditated until 10 p.m. Report an error in the passage at 5:53 Highlight the passage at 5:53

6:16 in the night to get up at 2 a.m. in the morning again. So, and there was, I mean, I thought like, was there some hidden pressure or so? Of course, you don't know really these days, but it seems like that is what these monks wanted to do. And so the whole discipline to do this pretty rigorous schedule, which wasn't one, came from their Report an error in the passage at 6:16 Highlight the passage at 6:16

6:52 You could say from their inner seeking or from their, they had a word for that at that time, which was amazing. They had the word Samvega, which was the driver for their practice. And Samvega directly translated means like, something like an inner deep jolt or a rattle or so. Report an error in the passage at 6:52 Highlight the passage at 6:52

7:25 And I found a nice, let me see, I found a definition which I wanted to read. Yeah, so the Sanskrit meaning is like a sorrow shake or deep agitation, sometimes translated as existential urgency. And the definition, which I like very much, was the insight that one's way of living is not appropriate. in the face of aging sickness and death and so that Report an error in the passage at 7:25 Highlight the passage at 7:25

8:04 was their motivator and I was touched that they actually in this culture in India had a word for that because it showed that they actually had respect for such assert they had respect for the realization of the impermanence and respect for monks Following their call and going out and following their search to find what they were looking for to make their life meaningful. Report an error in the passage at 8:04 Highlight the passage at 8:04

8:45 And I think if you compare that to our culture, I thought a little bit, if we have something like that and... I think in our culture it's a little bit like that we really try to keep that impermanence a little bit under the rug. I mean, we hear a lot, like in the media, of course, in the news, we hear a lot about death and suffering and so. But still, they're somehow set up in a way that it doesn't come to us so much. Report an error in the passage at 8:45 Highlight the passage at 8:45

9:26 Or at least they try to prevent that. I recently had like, I looked at a life insurance brochure. And you might think like, well, that's the part where it comes really, that's the part where it comes up. But I mean. you know if you look at the pictures it it doesn't show like dying people or really sick people or something like that i mean they look all like they never need this life insurance you know so um yeah even in these situations we try we really try to avoid bringing over um this um this mess this message of you know Life is short, and you will face aging, sickness, and death. And what are you doing about it? Report an error in the passage at 9:26 Highlight the passage at 9:26

10:24 That would be an interesting life insurance message. Yeah. I think the only word, strangely enough, which came to my mind, which we have for something like that, for a person who, like, -message, um... Report an error in the passage at 10:24 Highlight the passage at 10:24

10:45 feels like his life is not appropriate and it's it's short it's like we say oh he's in midlife crisis you know so this is uh this is like the opposite of respecting really that realization um yeah Report an error in the passage at 10:45 Highlight the passage at 10:45

11:08 of course i just want to refer of course in that in the culture in india during Buddha's time life expectancy was about like 30. So death was really in the face of people from very, very young age. Some got older if they managed to become 10 years old or so, but still like people where death was right in front of you. Report an error in the passage at 11:08 Highlight the passage at 11:08

11:41 And also, of course, they didn't have all this distraction through media or other stuff where they Could get into the illusion that life is eternal, more like I feel like we do here. Report an error in the passage at 11:41 Highlight the passage at 11:41

12:00 Anyway, this was a little bit of a sidetrack, just maybe to make a major point that the culture in India during Buddha's time respected renunciates which followed the call. And that was directly connected. To the fact that it was normal in their culture to feed monks, to provide food, to provide labor, to provide places for them to stay and to practice. Report an error in the passage at 12:00 Highlight the passage at 12:00

12:40 And that went on for the next like two, five hundred years after Buddha died. Even in the early monasteries, it was like the monks did not, they got a little bit more of a schedule, but they did not. they were still not supported to work. And so it was that all the lay practitioners, or lay practitioners, they didn't call them practitioners, but all the lay people around really liked to support these monasteries. Report an error in the passage at 12:40 Highlight the passage at 12:40

13:13 And they did the work in the monasteries. They did the cooking. And they did the farming, or whatever was necessary to do. Report an error in the passage at 13:13 Highlight the passage at 13:13

13:25 The big change came when Buddhism traveled from India to China. And that was like, yeah, you could say like 500 years later or so. And Buddhism there met a totally different culture. And the culture they met there was not set up at all for giving alms or providing food, or providing free labor for people. And then there was also, not only it was not set up, there was from a culturally like, there was a suspicion of I think what we call Report an error in the passage at 13:25 Highlight the passage at 13:25

14:23 Buddhism for Buddhist practitioners to survive while moving to China was to become self-sufficient. And so the monasteries which developed in China started to do their own farming. And they had, of course, their own kitchen where the monks cooked. And they had their maintenance and all of that. So that was the big change where for the first time in Buddhist practice you could say work was introduced. Report an error in the passage at 14:23 Highlight the passage at 14:23

15:04 And at the beginning you could say, I mean it makes sense that at the beginning when the work was freshly introduced that people, they knew it was introduced because it was necessary. It was not introduced because there was a change in philosophy. philosophy, but Report an error in the passage at 15:04 Highlight the passage at 15:04

15:22 It was necessary for them to survive. So then at these first few hundred years again in China it was more like meditation was still like the crown and the work was necessary. But through these new conditions after the hundreds of years also people felt more and more the value and the potential of And that's where work slowly moved into becoming work practice and a substantial part of our practice in this tradition. Report an error in the passage at 15:22 Highlight the passage at 15:22

16:16 And maybe so... We are just before, we are now just in Tang Dynasty China, like 1,200 years from now, backwards. So Report an error in the passage at 16:16 Highlight the passage at 16:16

16:39 one famous, there's one famous recording or quote of our ancestor Bai Zhang during that time, which showed clearly that change. And the quote is like, A day without work is a day without eating. And you might think, hmm, I thought, hmm. Report an error in the passage at 16:39 Highlight the passage at 16:39

17:12 But maybe first let's say, well, it really acknowledges, actually, which is totally new for Buddhist practice, that monks work and that that has a value. I mean, the second part is a little bit hidden because, I mean, the first impression of the sentence is like, oh, well, that could have been, my dad could have said that to me, you know. Report an error in the passage at 17:12 Highlight the passage at 17:12

17:36 It's like, well, you better work to earn your living or so. But that would be not really respecting Baisang and his life. And knowing that, in that complex, one could say that this was a A very early and not so clear expression, really, of what came up more and more, and which came up especially when later than Chan went to Japan with Dogen, where the value was, or the realization was, that work and practice, or you could say with Baizong, like the activity, of work and the nourishment were not really separate and that it was not like oh yeah there is practice and there is work or there is practice and then there's realization waking up that was all you could say realized or that was our the major philosophy which come up that these are not two different things Report an error in the passage at 17:36 Highlight the passage at 17:36

18:54 And so I think Report an error in the passage at 18:54 Highlight the passage at 18:54

19:00 that is where our value, and I'll say more about that, where our value of work practice came from, how it developed. And of course the question then comes up at that point, like, well, work practice, okay, what's the difference between work practice and work? Report an error in the passage at 19:00 Highlight the passage at 19:00

19:28 Is there any or is there not? Or how about somebody is just like, say the word busy, working busily. Is that the same than somebody working as practice? And not answering this question. I mean, I want to read. There's a wonderful, exchange between between two brother monks from the time actually they are both students of Baisang from the time of the Tang dynasty and there's an exchange exactly about this question and we are lucky that it was written down and noted down in the in our collection of koans the book of serenity It's case 21, and it's called Yun-Yun Sweeps the Ground. And I just want to read that plain case, how it's written there, and maybe then comment a little bit about it after. Report an error in the passage at 19:28 Highlight the passage at 19:28

20:45 But it shows nicely how they struggled with the question which we, or maybe our apprentices, will struggle here too with. Report an error in the passage at 20:45 Highlight the passage at 20:45

21:00 The case reads, as Yun-Yun, was sweeping the ground. Daowu, his Dharma brother, said, too busy. Yunyan said, you should know there is one who isn't busy. Report an error in the passage at 21:00 Highlight the passage at 21:00

21:22 Da Wu said, if so, then is there a second moon? Yun Yan held up a broom and said, Which moon is this? I Report an error in the passage at 21:22 Highlight the passage at 21:22

21:40 always love these koans, and many do. It's very popular for this playfulness, the light. I think I want to I want to just restate the koan a little bit in my own imagination, just to bring a little bit of life into, like, how did that really look like? Because it's a very short and dry koan, and I hope I don't suffocate it too much. But so imagine the story like there's this monk. Report an error in the passage at 21:40 Highlight the passage at 21:40

22:42 In the morning, like we do here, for example, what we call soji in the morning, like people are cleaning toilets, sweeping the ground around the temple or so, every time after our morning service. So one of the monks is sweeping the ground nicely, and then another monk comes up to him and says like, you know, it looks like you're a little bit too busy, you're a little bit too involved in work. Report an error in the passage at 22:42 Highlight the passage at 22:42

23:12 I don't think you are practicing. Like, how about doing something spiritual? And then, so I clearly see this like, ooh. Report an error in the passage at 23:12 Highlight the passage at 23:12

23:27 And then Yunyan, obviously, at least it seems like here, stays calm. He doesn't say, I'm busy, I'm not busy, or anything like that. And, I don't know, plays a teaching ball and says, says, um, You should know that there's always one who isn't busy. And that sounds a little bit, I mean, for me, that sounds a little bit like, okay, yeah, even if there's a busy one and then there's also a realization of not being busy at the same time. Report an error in the passage at 23:27 Highlight the passage at 23:27

24:07 And Da Wu got that and realized that and said, like, I got you. Report an error in the passage at 24:07 Highlight the passage at 24:07

24:18 and asked him the Before you ask him the question about the two moons, I just want to give you a little bit of background, sorry, which is written in the commentary, which it doesn't state in the case itself. And so what comes to Da Wu's mind, they are very, the monks are very well trained, and so they are very knowledged. Report an error in the passage at 24:18 Highlight the passage at 24:18

24:42 of the sutras, even though it says like Chan or Zen is the transmission beyond the sutras. They're very knowledgeable about them. And Da Wu recalls a sūtra. It's called Shurangamam Sūtra. And in this sūtra, Buddha explains to Manjushri. Manjushri is that guy on the altar back there, by the way. Buddha explains to Manjushri how Ordinary deluded people, because of their distorted way of seeing things, see two moons. Report an error in the passage at 24:42 Highlight the passage at 24:42

25:23 And that really there is only one moon, as Manjushri also realizes. So having this in mind, he throws that back to Yunyan and says like, are you seeing two moons? I mean, now you're one of those who are deluded and see two moons. And I'm sure Yun Yan knows what he's referring to. But he does what a real Zen master does, you could say. He doesn't go into further philosophical or conceptual debate. Report an error in the passage at 25:23 Highlight the passage at 25:23

26:07 He just... Leaps out in the presence, you know, and leaves all this conceptual behind. He leaps out and says, which moon is this? And Report an error in the passage at 26:07 Highlight the passage at 26:07

26:27 I hope nobody here or Dawu was trying to answer that. Report an error in the passage at 26:27 Highlight the passage at 26:27

26:34 Just like our text which we read in the morning sometimes say like, if you try to answer it, if you try to answer it, you just move further away from it. You just move further away from this moment. And so the koan ends just with that statement, leaving for us the practice of not answering it. Report an error in the passage at 26:34 Highlight the passage at 26:34

27:13 That's one way of saying it. You Report an error in the passage at 27:13 Highlight the passage at 27:13

27:23 could also say like, well, being in the present moment right now, who can say, Busy or not busy. Being any time really wholeheartedly here, there is no distinction between busy, not busy, good, bad, or all of this. And that is a little bit where this koan is pointing to. Without saying to us, like we often say, we point with the finger to the moon. And this koan points us to the one moon with the finger without telling us the details. Report an error in the passage at 27:23 Highlight the passage at 27:23

28:25 So Report an error in the passage at 28:25 Highlight the passage at 28:25

28:33 there's Report an error in the passage at 28:33 Highlight the passage at 28:33

28:38 still the question you could say, but what is there left to do for us? Report an error in the passage at 28:38 Highlight the passage at 28:38

28:48 The commentary of this koan addresses us directly and says, Good people, as you eat, boil tea, sew and sweep, you should recognize the one not busy. Then you will realize the union of mundane reality and enlightened reality. Report an error in the passage at 28:48 Highlight the passage at 28:48

29:21 That was the commentary written. A few hundred years after that, so around 1200, so it's a really old commentary on this case, recommending like, you should recognize the one not busy. Report an error in the passage at 29:21 Highlight the passage at 29:21

29:40 But then how do we? Report an error in the passage at 29:40 Highlight the passage at 29:40

29:51 Wouldn't we all like to? I Report an error in the passage at 29:51 Highlight the passage at 29:51

30:01 think I want to move at this point to an analogy which I love very much and I brought it quite often, but I'm not giving so often talks, so you might have not heard it. It's an analogy which Suzuki brings up from time to time between the movie and the screen. So the analogy would be like the one who is busy, the one who is involved in the conceptual world, or you could say in our conventional world, is the movie. Report an error in the passage at 30:01 Highlight the passage at 30:01

30:46 That's usually what we are looking at, and that's what we are very familiar with. And then there is the screen, the screen which relates to the one who is not busy. And I just want to read again how Suzuki himself, that's actually our founder of San Francisco Zen Center, worded it. He says, says, our everyday life It's like a movie. Most people are interested in the picture on the screen without realizing there is a screen. Report an error in the passage at 30:46 Highlight the passage at 30:46

31:31 It's like most people are interested in whatever we can figure out in our busyness, but are not realizing the one who is not busy, are not realizing the screen. But when you are practicing, you realize that your mind is like a screen. Report an error in the passage at 31:31 Highlight the passage at 31:31

31:52 To have, I would say, to recognize a pure, plain, wide screen, that is the most important point. Report an error in the passage at 31:52 Highlight the passage at 31:52

32:06 So he's saying the same thing that actually this commentator said like 1,200 years ago. He said, recognizing the one who is not busy is the most important point. Report an error in the passage at 32:06 Highlight the passage at 32:06

32:22 Why I brought up this analogy and what I like very much on it is that In this analogy, it is very clear, A, that the movie is never separate from the screen. The busy one cannot be separate from the non-busy one. Without a screen, without anything to project on, there is no movie happening. Report an error in the passage at 32:22 Highlight the passage at 32:22

32:52 And so screen and movie are totally interwoven. There are two sides of the same thing, you could say, nearly. And the second part is like, for the one, for the actor in the movie, you could say, like, we, how I see myself, how I walk through the day as I know these things and I perceive things, as this person, as the actor of the movie, there is not a way. Report an error in the passage at 32:52 Highlight the passage at 32:52

33:30 I can touch the screen. No actor in a movie can see or touch the screen on which they are projected on. That's just not possible, but that is a very important realization, because otherwise we just keep trying to move, to touch, to find the one who is not busy, to find enlightenment, and to always think like, oh, it must be somewhere deep. Report an error in the passage at 33:30 Highlight the passage at 33:30

34:03 But as a special state of mind or I just need to do this and maybe I can get a glimpse of it. But the actor will not get a glimpse, will not get a glimpse with his perception of the screen. That's why the texts always tell us like it's not within reach of feeling or discrimination or anything which is. Report an error in the passage at 34:03 Highlight the passage at 34:03

34:33 At hand to our normal senses to us. And I would add even to the supranormal senses. Report an error in the passage at 34:33 Highlight the passage at 34:33

34:45 And I feel like this is an important point for clarifying also what we do during zazen. That we are not sitting there and waiting for something which isn't present right now. Because we are the actor, the movie. which is always on the screen no matter what stupid thought i just have and if i have the thought oh i'll find it and it will come soon i see like i'm very close it's funny because that's already all happening on the screen so there is not a need really to go out and find it somewhere else so Report an error in the passage at 34:45 Highlight the passage at 34:45

35:49 that comes back then to okay Report an error in the passage at 35:49 Highlight the passage at 35:49

35:57 And so, how do I practice? Report an error in the passage at 35:57 Highlight the passage at 35:57

36:10 And one way, a good way of answering that is, in our tradition, not to answer that, but to live with that question. But Report an error in the passage at 36:10 Highlight the passage at 36:10

36:31 since I know this is very unsatisfying, and I'm not a Zen master who needs to just leave questions open, I'll just say something. Report an error in the passage at 36:31 Highlight the passage at 36:31

36:44 I think what I feel like, One word which fits well is to develop faith, to develop trust in what is not graspable or perceivable to us. So that's a very important point of our practice. Report an error in the passage at 36:44 Highlight the passage at 36:44

37:08 Another point is all like, is there something we can do? Yes, there's lots of things we can do. practice. Report an error in the passage at 37:08 Highlight the passage at 37:08

37:20 And there are millions of recommendations in Buddhist. There's all this very profound teachings of the following the parameters and so. But I'll just give a little bit more of an angle from our Zen practice. I think what we can do or what we think we can do is like to study, to study our own movie, to study our own movie very closely. Report an error in the passage at 37:20 Highlight the passage at 37:20

37:51 And to settle down and look at what is happening there. Not so much with the goal of finally seeing the screen, but maybe with the goal of playing with the movie, playing with our belief, with our belief in the movie, playing with letting go of our concepts. Report an error in the passage at 37:51 Highlight the passage at 37:51

38:23 And with this playfulness of letting go of our conceptual, we are, you Report an error in the passage at 38:23 Highlight the passage at 38:23

38:40 could say, we are developing further the faith towards the unknown. We are getting closer, even though we were never apart, but we are developing trust in our own nature which we cannot grasp. And that might Report an error in the passage at 38:40 Highlight the passage at 38:40

39:14 feel, because part of that path is to let go of our concepts, let go of our knowing who we think we are, let go of our knowing who we think others are. And that might feel a little bit scary or unusual and strange. Report an error in the passage at 39:14 Highlight the passage at 39:14

39:41 especially if you exercise letting go of this muscle because we use this muscle just to constantly during the day reaffirm that we are a person that we know the world and we have sort of control of it so you might move into the space when you let go of these concepts and all of this effort where Things get a little bit unclear and where you are more frightened about am I still functioning when I let go of this? Report an error in the passage at 39:41 Highlight the passage at 39:41

40:19 When I don't know anymore who I am? And although this practice is very rewarding, we have to be very careful when we practice this way. And a major part of this practice is just to be very kind. Very gentle and very loving to this person who is letting go because the loving, the warmth we give this person will allow this person to trust to let go and for us to find rest or home in the one who is not busy. And Report an error in the passage at 40:19 Highlight the passage at 40:19

41:14 so, just to stress again, That our practice is not going on a rigorous search for something outside, but to just send warmth Report an error in the passage at 41:14 Highlight the passage at 41:14

41:30 and love to this person as whenever we remember, whenever we remember to let go of all of our business during the daily life. Report an error in the passage at 41:30 Highlight the passage at 41:30

41:50 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 41:50 Highlight the passage at 41:50