Arising in Unimaginable Awareness

0:00 This podcast is offered by the San Francisco Zen Center on the web at www.sfzc.org. Our public programs are made possible by donations from people like you. Report an error in the passage at 0:00 Highlight the passage at 0:00

0:15 Good morning. Good to see you. How many is their first time here at the Green Gulch? Welcome. Good to see you. Thank you. How many here is their first time meeting me? I'm Zenju Earthlyn Manuel Osho. Nice to meet you and new people. Thank you. So you're here for the surprise or it won't make you feel good or it won't. Report an error in the passage at 0:15 Highlight the passage at 0:15

0:46 I love that. Like, let's see what's in this box. We have been sitting Sashin, with five-day Sashin, which means basically using the breath and stillness to come home, to come back. To our hearts to help us to not be distracted by everything that goes by. But then we come here and we sit and guess what? We're distracted by everything that goes by. But we get to do it together. Report an error in the passage at 0:46 Highlight the passage at 0:46

1:25 Be distracted and feel into what that might be and maybe sometimes ask questions about it. And sometimes not. Report an error in the passage at 1:25 Highlight the passage at 1:25

1:38 I always feel like I'm floating, you know, after a sashin. So when Q &A comes, are we doing Q &A? No, I don't think. Oops. We might not be doing that because we're still part in sort of in the sashin wave. Report an error in the passage at 1:38 Highlight the passage at 1:38

1:58 We've been riding this wave in which we are co-arising together. And I've been using the image of the wave, not, I've been saying the word surfing, but I don't know how to surf, but surfing without a board. Report an error in the passage at 1:58 Highlight the passage at 1:58

2:20 Who here surfs without a board, ever done that? I don't, you have the experience? Okay, Nick, yeah. I have a feeling of it, and I've never done it before, but it feels like the wave comes up and carries your body. And that's sort of the way our lives are. So today it's raining a little bit. And if it rains some more, we'll have a different experience. Report an error in the passage at 2:20 Highlight the passage at 2:20

2:50 And if it keeps raining, we'll have another experience. And if it starts flooding, we have another. It would just keep going and going like that. And that kind of reminds me of life. I want to share with you... A poem and then also talk a little bit about what we engaged, what teachings we engaged together in co-arising and being interdependent and interrelated and using our inherent interrelationship as the foundation, as everything really, the top, middle and foundation of life. Report an error in the passage at 2:50 Highlight the passage at 2:50

3:34 Why we are sitting here breathing right now together is because of this inherent interrelationship. So I wanted to share this poem. I haven't read this one in a long time and it's been coming to me and coming to me. I wrote it way in 2011. I think I had first, hadn't long been ordained at that time, a novice priest. Report an error in the passage at 3:34 Highlight the passage at 3:34

3:57 And I had, you know, I had written this book called Tell Me Something About Buddhism, and that book was for people in my family and for people who would always see me and ask me, I don't know much about Buddhism, can you tell me? Report an error in the passage at 3:57 Highlight the passage at 3:57

4:18 And I would just name a book, like, you should read, you know, blah, blah, blah, my favorite one, you know, books that I had. And then I noticed people keep asking me. And so I said, OK, I'm going to make a little tiny book with pictures in it. And maybe that will help, because they're not asking me for all of the Buddhism, all of what the Buddha said. Report an error in the passage at 4:18 Highlight the passage at 4:18

4:42 They just want to know, what is it? A little bit. Tell me a little bit about it. Report an error in the passage at 4:42 Highlight the passage at 4:42

4:52 Just so I'll know a little bit about it. The first person to ask me, this was a table full of black Muslim brothers. They were in the black Muslim, Islam. And they were sitting, you know, they were looking at me like, and I'm in my, you know, full on Zen. And we're sitting at the table together. And they're, you know, like, they keep looking at my rakasu. Report an error in the passage at 4:52 Highlight the passage at 4:52

5:19 They're looking at, like, why she has that bib on. Because we are at a breakfast, right? So I think they're kind of wondering how this is going to work. And so, you know, I just kept smiling because I just love that. I love when there's curiosity. Even if I don't, I'm not the one to clear it up for them. You just let people be curious. Report an error in the passage at 5:19 Highlight the passage at 5:19

5:46 And so one brother, he just said, You know, sister, I don't know anything about Buddha at all. And I am so ashamed. I'm so ashamed that I don't know, you know. All I know is about Allah. And could you, he was the first one to say, could you tell me a little bit something about Buddhism? And so I started with my rakkasa. Report an error in the passage at 5:46 Highlight the passage at 5:46

6:13 I just started there because I could tell they were trying to figure it out. And so I told them about the stitches and how it's one. I started talking about that and that I told them I'm wearing my community and I'm wearing my friends. Report an error in the passage at 6:13 Highlight the passage at 6:13

6:53 In my community, that's what this is. And they were like, oh, and I told them about each stitch. And I said, and that's what Buddhism feels to be to me. It's that place in which the teachings, even if they're not spoken in words, just the action, just the expression, brings together people. And many, many people sewed on my robes who never even, you know, studied or stepped into Buddhism at all. Report an error in the passage at 6:53 Highlight the passage at 6:53

7:22 And so they were amazed, and I ended up doing this book, Tell Me Something About Buddhism, under the approval of my teacher. You have to be approved to do that without being dharma transmitted. And I threw some pictures in there, a little bit of art. I am a visual artist, so I threw that in there. And poetry, because I'm a poet, and I started writing. Report an error in the passage at 7:22 Highlight the passage at 7:22

7:52 Poetry, when I was eight, but the most poetry came out of me in high school. And I was very silent. So, you know, I used to have my own personal sashins, you know, but nobody fed me during those years. Or did anything, or offered anything. I was just like, and my mother would just let me be quiet. And so I was, and my teachers too, they were very curious about this quiet. Report an error in the passage at 7:52 Highlight the passage at 7:52

8:22 I was a very quiet person, and I was very quiet, very small person, you know, in the class, always the smallest one, and didn't look like I should be, like high school. So when I was in middle school, I looked like I was in fourth grade. And then when I got to middle school, I mean high school, I looked like I was in middle school. Report an error in the passage at 8:22 Highlight the passage at 8:22

8:48 So I was, you know, getting... All the action from the middle school, the middle school guy, you know, except for the eighth grade. So finally I wrote on my notebook, high school, don't come this way. You know, it was so funny. Or even when I got older and I would start going out. you know, to clubs. I could see them like looking at, you know, how everybody's looking and they would look past me because I imagine they thought I was underage, you know. At first, I couldn't get in them. Report an error in the passage at 8:48 Highlight the passage at 8:48

9:22 It was very hard to get in because I... kids looking like this kid right so but that was very irritating but also very protective Thank you, whoever is protecting me. So this is the poem I wrote in the book. And since it's raining, it kept coming to me. So I said, OK, I'll bring it. And I printed it at the last minute. Report an error in the passage at 9:22 Highlight the passage at 9:22

9:47 And about two minutes before I came in here, I said, yes, I forgot to get the poem. Go get it. So it's called When It Rains. I fall like rain. Some folks protect themselves from me. Some get wet. Zen is rain when I fall from the sky. And now I have arrived. It's muddy and I can't stand it. But only for a moment. I stay muddy. Report an error in the passage at 9:47 Highlight the passage at 9:47

10:18 Zen is muddy. Wet. Because, well, just because. At some moment in the future, I will dry in the sun and rise towards it. Zen is sunny. Until it is time again to fall. Like rain. But there really aren't any words for this rising and falling. If I had time, I would simply roll in the grass. Like when I was five years old, rolling on my father's St. Augustine grass. Neighbors laughing, eating on the porch with mom and dad. Report an error in the passage at 10:18 Highlight the passage at 10:18

11:02 My sisters rolling, rolling in the grass. Rolling in the grass with me. Report an error in the passage at 11:02 Highlight the passage at 11:02

11:18 Our play clothes stain green forever. And that's me. That's me. No, not the little girl. The green stain. That's me. Don't worry. It will fade slowly until there's nothing. No me. No Zen. This is no Zen. This is the end of the Dharma Talk. Report an error in the passage at 11:18 Highlight the passage at 11:18

11:51 The one I'd like to share with you toward the end just touches me. I've been feeling my family very strongly since I've been here. I have a very ill, young, he's 26, nephew, and he was lost for five days while I've been here. And he showed up, but in a very horrible condition. It's been on my mind, so it just came out. Report an error in the passage at 11:51 Highlight the passage at 11:51

12:25 So thank you for arriving in the grief and the grief for all of those who, you know, get so lost, you know, can't find that way home. They don't have a sashi to come to or a place to gather or they don't know of one, you know, and or a sanctuary, a place in which even with all of our various conditions. Report an error in the passage at 12:25 Highlight the passage at 12:25

12:54 Because we all have some kind of condition that we can go and be welcomed and feel it's home. And so we're looking for that place for my nephew. Report an error in the passage at 12:54 Highlight the passage at 12:54

13:06 He's the sweetest guy. So sweet. And his illness makes him so violent. So it's just really tough. Report an error in the passage at 13:06 Highlight the passage at 13:06

13:19 He knows I like tea. He wants me to talk about it. He knows I like tea. And so I came to visit. And he's like, when's she coming? When's she coming? He gets anxious. And so I finally got there and, you know, he met me at the door and then we sat down and I could tell he was hosting me, you know, like seriously hosting me. Report an error in the passage at 13:19 Highlight the passage at 13:19

13:43 And then he started having some problems while he was hosting me and he was worried about what I was going to think about it, you know, and uncontrollable movements and things like that. I didn't care. I love him. And so he got up, he went to the table and he stood behind the table because he knows I love tea. Report an error in the passage at 13:43 Highlight the passage at 13:43

14:02 He said, would you like some tea? You know, and I was like, yes, you know, I would. And I looked down at the tea and it was that canned Arizona tea. You know, and I was like, you know, you know, I was like. I have a moment here, right? Sugar, everything I can't do, nothing I can do. And I could tell he was like, she's not going to not take my tea. Report an error in the passage at 14:02 Highlight the passage at 14:02

14:36 And of course, I took the tea and I said, I promise to drink it later, you know. But thank you so much for the tea. He wanted to hear about the people I was going to ordain. As I was talking about ordination, I was getting ready to ordain three people. And he says, oh, those people are your posse. You know, I said, yeah, they're my posse. Report an error in the passage at 14:36 Highlight the passage at 14:36

15:05 I have a posse. He said, I have a posse, and I'm teaching them how to do krumping, dance. It's a dance, krump. And he wanted to show me what he was teaching his students. Report an error in the passage at 15:05 Highlight the passage at 15:05

15:20 And it's just so beautiful to arise with this nephew and around, we're completely different, but to him, it was all the same. You know, so from then on, my students weren't my students, they're my posse. You know, we're not going to do the dance. But anyway, this arising is so important to our time where we're living in. Report an error in the passage at 15:20 Highlight the passage at 15:20

15:46 And coming to an understanding of it, not for ourselves, like we really want to understand what is Buddhism telling me a little bit about Buddhism and just a little bit, just enough. So when someone asked me, I could say Buddha, I don't know what they would say, but Buddha, dot, dot, dot. Buddhism is dot, dot, dot. Report an error in the passage at 15:46 Highlight the passage at 15:46

16:06 And I've had people, you know, tell me who Buddha is. And I mean, you could now there have videos. AI videos that tell you everything. And I've listened to them and, you know, interesting. You know, quite on point. Report an error in the passage at 16:06 Highlight the passage at 16:06

16:24 Yeah, one of them has like 2 million views. So there's 2 million people being reached. And they also have books, AI book, you know. Quite on point. Report an error in the passage at 16:24 Highlight the passage at 16:24

16:39 Even their books are AI and they're selling those like quite, you know, it's not a person. And they have like, you know, a million views and followers and they're selling books at, you know, half a million. Buddhist books, Buddhist books. I'm scared. Not about whether or not it will happen to me, but whether or not what's being said is understood. Report an error in the passage at 16:39 Highlight the passage at 16:39

17:12 And I did do an experiment, and I put a question out on AI. And I asked them, what would Zenju Earthlyn Manuel say about that? Report an error in the passage at 17:12 Highlight the passage at 17:12

17:25 Just to play around with it. Just try it. Try it with your name. And they were on point, except for one thing. And the one thing was the most major thing. Report an error in the passage at 17:25 Highlight the passage at 17:25

17:36 She talks about mindfulness. I never talk about mindfulness. I never really... Speak on it. It feels not to be part of my teachings or what I'm focused on. But I do sense, and not to put AI down altogether, it's just there is some kind of arising happening even in that. And it may be frightening or it may be on point and people are being creative. Report an error in the passage at 17:36 Highlight the passage at 17:36

18:06 People have been using it for decades. It's not new. They're just kind of now revealing it to you. You've been talking to a robot for 20 years. And, you know, they sound perfectly like a human being. I mean, they don't sound like robots anymore, but they sound like a human being. And they can respond. And so what kind of arising is that? Report an error in the passage at 18:06 Highlight the passage at 18:06

18:27 And where is the context of that arising? When we've been studying this week, is a chant called the Song of the Trusting Mind that's based on faith and mind, the Xing Xing Ming. So we're not going to get into all of that, but just wanted to share this sentence and this teaching that actually shows up in several chants. Report an error in the passage at 18:27 Highlight the passage at 18:27

18:55 And for those who were in the Sashin, this will be a review. This will be your debrief. We don't debrief, but I'm playing with them because I talked about my needing to be debriefed. So anyway, the great way is not difficult for those who hold no preferences. The great way. What way and why is it great? It's not difficult for those who hold no preferences. Report an error in the passage at 18:55 Highlight the passage at 18:55

19:24 When longing and aversion are both absent, it becomes clear and undisguised. When longing and aversion are both absent, it is the way becomes clear and undisguised. So we're still trying to explore what is this way? Because if we have it, why can't we use it like right now? You know, what is keeping us from that? Make the smallest distinction, however, and heaven and earth are set infinitely apart. Report an error in the passage at 19:24 Highlight the passage at 19:24

19:54 Infinitely, just a distinction. If you want the way, here we go with this way. To manifest and hold no opinion for or against. Have you recently been against anything? Report an error in the passage at 19:54 Highlight the passage at 19:54

20:10 I have, so I'm going to confess. Repent and confess. I have. Have I been for anything? Yes. Both. For and against. And because of that, I can't see the way. When I'm there, I can't see the way. It doesn't mean I can't go there. It's not forbidden. The teaching is not forbidding you to have it. It's asking you to look at when it's for or against and where is that coming from. Report an error in the passage at 20:10 Highlight the passage at 20:10

20:42 And they're saying the teaching is if you want the way to manifest, then have no opinion for or against. So we want this way. We want to not suffer as individuals and as a collective. So the struggle of likes and dislikes is the disease of the mind. And so we talked about that quite a bit too, the struggle of likes and dislikes. It's a disease of the mind. So as this chant goes, it's trying to move us into that already inherent interrelationship, that already vastness we were born into, you know, a vast life. Report an error in the passage at 20:42 Highlight the passage at 20:42

21:22 So vast, so big that all of us are in it. All of us are in this. And it pervades through all of our lives. And it's not something like we're all alike because we're human. Because then that's too tight. That's just way too tight. I don't think I ever prescribed to that because there's so many other living beings and so many other things in the world that are part of this pervading life. Report an error in the passage at 21:22 Highlight the passage at 21:22

21:48 And I think when I came to Zen, I felt that in the teachings. You know, whether other people feel about that. It's not the focus, my focus, but it was something, I guess more than a belief too, it felt like it's in my heart. I could know this, like I've been knowing this since I was young. So how can we know some things already, you know, and you're young, you know? And I think that's because, for me, so many things happened to us as kids. Report an error in the passage at 21:48 Highlight the passage at 21:48

22:24 And so then we start trying to figure it out. You know, in our heads. And then somehow we can't because we're young. But we begin to set ourselves on this trying to find a way, you know, to understand why this is happening and why that is happening. So you can't do it alone. And the way is not something you can, you know, buy or, you know, I might be able to do it. Report an error in the passage at 22:24 Highlight the passage at 22:24

22:54 I haven't tried it, you know, but. you know maybe it would be interesting to find out what they what would be said but in another chant it says the way is basically perfect and all-pervading so it's just like okay we're back there again the great way is not difficult for those who hold no preferences it's showing you about distinction and that if you go for or against or like or not you're going to stray away from this way and so um How could it be contingent upon practice and realization? This is in the Fukon Zazengi, which is instructions. So how can the way that is basically perfect and all-pervading be part of our lives? Report an error in the passage at 22:54 Highlight the passage at 22:54

23:42 And is it the same way they're talking about in this one? And so I think I've been telling people about my top 100 sutras. Report an error in the passage at 23:42 Highlight the passage at 23:42

23:56 It gets longer and longer every time I talk about it. But I think that when I hear something like that, even if I don't understand what the way is, I somehow in my, not understand in my mind, not understand intellectually, but somehow in my body I know this. I know this when I sit Zazen, and I know it when sitting in Sishin. Report an error in the passage at 23:56 Highlight the passage at 23:56

24:24 How we all arise together. I can just feel the energy of those who were in this machine. And I can feel you joining in that. You didn't even have to be here arising in it. And we don't have to put it on you. And you don't have to reach out for it. But if you make no distinction, there's no like or dislike about what you're seeing, then you're going to enter that way. Report an error in the passage at 24:24 Highlight the passage at 24:24

24:51 That I'm speaking about and that I'm feeling. You're going to enter it. Or maybe you already did as soon as you came in the door. And those who may have been here before several times, maybe they could speak to that. Or know that more when they come in after sashin. It's a very different feel than when you come in. Maybe there hasn't been a sashin. Report an error in the passage at 24:51 Highlight the passage at 24:51

25:16 Maybe. I don't know. So the way it's basically perfect and all-pervading. The great way is not difficult, then what's the problem? That's a lot. That's only two lines of a million sutras. Report an error in the passage at 25:16 Highlight the passage at 25:16

25:32 You know, what is it? How could it be contingent upon practice and realization? They're saying it's so big you can't even practice it. So what are we doing? Report an error in the passage at 25:32 Highlight the passage at 25:32

25:44 We always talk about my practice, you know, my practice. The dharma vehicle is free and untrampled. What need is there for concentrated effort? indeed the whole body is far beyond the world's dust oh my gosh it's just like we're like beyond dust Report an error in the passage at 25:44 Highlight the passage at 25:44

26:07 We're beyond that. Beyond that dust. That to me says that the potential of this living being, this arising together, it is out of our hands, thank goodness, but it also is something that was felt and experienced and received. By the Buddha himself in his quest, in his teaching, in his life. And then those with him. I always say that Buddha wasn't alone in all that thinking. Report an error in the passage at 26:07 Highlight the passage at 26:07

26:38 I do feel like he also was co-arising with others and could see. And I really, in my own, I like to add stories to other people's stories. And in my own story, I do know that they must have been part of the teachings that came. There's so many of them. And then as they kept teaching, the others kept joining. Nagarjuna, Vasubandhu, all these different people coming, you know, to talk about the life, you know, life and death. Report an error in the passage at 26:38 Highlight the passage at 26:38

27:14 And so if it's perfect and all-pervading, and we don't need to practice, it doesn't say we don't need to practice. How could it be? How could it be contingent upon practice and realization? Report an error in the passage at 27:14 Highlight the passage at 27:14

27:36 It is not. That's why. It is not contingent. It's contingent upon understanding your perceptions and your views, but mostly it's contingent upon how much you think you already know, how much you think you are yourself arising by yourself with what you know and what you do and how you are and what you've decided and how you've shaped your life and how you're different than me and I'm different than you. Report an error in the passage at 27:36 Highlight the passage at 27:36

28:03 You know, tea was tea to Said. Just tea. And that was like, when he offered it, tea was tea. It wasn't Zenju's little matcha that she likes to make or whatever, you know. Different teas, I love tea. Report an error in the passage at 28:03 Highlight the passage at 28:03

28:28 So the reason why we... probably try to practice or try to open our bodies and minds to it is if we sit meditation or we sit Zazen or we are mindful whatever practice you choose we are working to look at the distinctions I won't say working I said let's say we're sliding into what those distinctions look like or sliding into our intellectual mind Report an error in the passage at 28:28 Highlight the passage at 28:28

29:02 Which a lot of us have and have a very intellectual process of knowing Buddhism. And also we pursue words and following after speech. You know, we're taught that the truth is in the word. You know, I remember being taught that a long time ago. The truth was in the word. And that's like, hmm, okay. And then I had a teacher in sixth grade said, don't believe everything you read in a book. Yeah, okay. So, you know, that's life. Report an error in the passage at 29:02 Highlight the passage at 29:02

29:38 That's the contradictions, right? So what do I do? And so I believe that the sashins and the sitting in hours and are doing the activity of our interrelationship helps. So we're in activity of the interrelationship when we're in sashin. or yoki zazen Zazen, bowing, chanting, over and over, arising, arising, arising. Now, we're not going up. I'm using that word so not to get caught in that, that we're going beyond where we are, right, where we are, because it's pervasive. Report an error in the passage at 29:38 Highlight the passage at 29:38

30:18 It's already pervasive. It's not difficult without prefaces, and it's perfect and pervading, so it's already there. We don't have to practice it, but when we... Come and sit, take the time out of our lives to stop and see what is it that causes the suffering within our lives and between each other. So I did invite the participants from the beginning to use the Sashin to notice their arising with others. So not just to come and do their own thing, you know, and maybe that's what happened and that's still okay. Report an error in the passage at 30:18 Highlight the passage at 30:18

30:52 Next time they come back. Rice was three more, two more, three more, and maybe the whole sashimi. I mean, it took me a while. All I ever saw was me in the beginning. I know that for a long time. And then it became very difficult because then I had the preferences. This preference one is really something that I focused on. I started having... Report an error in the passage at 30:52 Highlight the passage at 30:52

31:18 Preferences of who I was going to sit next to, and, you know, I remember one time, nothing wrong with the people at all, but I remember when I would first start sitting, I would sit like this. Report an error in the passage at 31:18 Highlight the passage at 31:18

31:29 You know, like, it was some kind of habit or something, you know. Or, you know, sit over, like, to one side or over to another side. And I remember the time when it, after a few days, that's going to hurt you, right? hurt your body but and you sit back you sit back and you're in that place of just being with and breathing together even though you don't know the person and so that's when all of the distinctions fall away because obviously there's something i make up in my mind that i lean this way even though i'm not even aware and i lean this way and then when i noticed i was leaning i was pretty like why am i leaning you know i really didn't even know i was leading leaning until a couple of days later you know So that the mind and noticing that and beginning to just sit with the breath and then eventually you still get caught up in the people. Report an error in the passage at 31:29 Highlight the passage at 31:29

32:28 I wonder what happened to that person that was sitting there. You still go over there. Maybe they're asleep. Oh, they're still asleep. They're not a good practitioner. They're still in the bed. I just know they're still in the bed. They took dead Zazen time off. Report an error in the passage at 32:28 Highlight the passage at 32:28

32:47 Well, oh well, maybe I could take off. I wonder what would be a good time for me to take off. Okay, I kind of don't like the tea part, but okay. Report an error in the passage at 32:47 Highlight the passage at 32:47

33:01 I do like the tea part, of course, but if you haven't gotten that part yet of the talk. So pursuing words and following after speech and learning the backward step that turns your light inward, that's the way. That's the way. Great way, if not difficult, for those who hold no preferences. The way is basically perfect and all-pervading. So this is one way to express it. Report an error in the passage at 33:01 Highlight the passage at 33:01

33:30 There's so many ways you could express it. Pursuing words and following after speech and learning the backward steps. So not pursuing the intellectual practice and taking the backward step and turn the light inward to illuminate yourself. Report an error in the passage at 33:30 Highlight the passage at 33:30

33:46 In my first... In terms of day after day after day sitting there was another there was a very scholarly young man who was in the in our practice of that of those days that week rather that we were sitting together and we would meet for tea at City Center you meet for tea sometimes during these you know in a group with a teacher. Report an error in the passage at 33:46 Highlight the passage at 33:46

34:14 And this person kept meeting and meeting and I would see them when they first started, you know, like they knew it all because they were going to, I think, San Francisco University. They were in the Buddhist Studies Department. I think they had one there. And they would sit and, you know, and then each day, you know, the body would drop, drop, drop. Report an error in the passage at 34:14 Highlight the passage at 34:14

34:33 I mean, literally, I could just see it. They were really changing. You know, I could just see it in their body. And the more dharma talks that happened, the more they were like, you know. And then one time at tea, he came in and he just burst into tears. He said, I don't know anything about Buddhism. Nothing. Nothing at all. He said, I've never experienced this before. Report an error in the passage at 34:33 Highlight the passage at 34:33

35:03 And I invited him and said, you can come and do this again and again. Anytime, you know, but it was surprising to them that you could actually express it without those words that he had learned. You know, so maybe we have ideas and I think that that's quite, you know, part of being human and the conditioning that we have. Report an error in the passage at 35:03 Highlight the passage at 35:03

35:27 But is there a space in there for allowing something else to arise? And this is my wish and my... The invocation for us in this time is to be able to allow things to rise for us that might seem different and to be patient enough to not go, okay, I think it's time something should have changed by now and it's only been like three months and it's something that's affecting the entire world. Report an error in the passage at 35:27 Highlight the passage at 35:27

35:56 I think that's not allowing something to come through. Yes, a lot of things are being destroyed. Things are being taken. People are being hurt. And sometimes waiting feels like if we wait, then it's not right to wait. Report an error in the passage at 35:56 Highlight the passage at 35:56

36:17 But is what we're doing right now, are you waiting right now? Just because you're sitting here in a Zen center, are you waiting? No, you're doing something. You're doing the activity of our inherent interrelationship. and to Report an error in the passage at 36:17 Highlight the passage at 36:17

36:34 We're doing that right now together. Don't know everybody. You don't know me either. But we're doing that. And that can be carried out without words, without writing, without a book that says, tell me something about Buddhism. Without all of that. Take one sentence of one sūtra and live it for the rest of your life. That's all you need. Report an error in the passage at 36:34 Highlight the passage at 36:34

37:02 That's all you need. It might take you, it will take you, you know, might, it will, let me let you know, it will take you all your life. Not to think it out, but to hone it, cultivate it without, like going to the teacher, please help me cultivate this, I think you're my teacher, you know, cultivate this. Report an error in the passage at 37:02 Highlight the passage at 37:02

37:24 That might be, maybe true. But what I got from my teacher, what was translated Zenkei Blanche Hartman, had nothing to do with what she said, ever. Report an error in the passage at 37:24 Highlight the passage at 37:24

37:37 And she had a lot to say, you know, very feisty and also very dedicated, devoted. But I wondered, I said, well, maybe she's not quite the right teacher because, you know, I'm intellectual and I like to talk about the dharma. And that was not happening. And I thought, OK, I'll stick with her. And I just was with her as many times and as often as I could. Report an error in the passage at 37:37 Highlight the passage at 37:37

38:10 Constantly, constantly with her. Eating lunch, you know, I'd get my partner and say, come on, wash the clothes. You know, she would go help wash clothes and things like that, you know, bring food, bring persimmons. That was her favorite thing. Her other favorite thing were mochi, but, you know, that was a bad no-no, but we would sneak them in there. But she transmitted her joy. Report an error in the passage at 38:10 Highlight the passage at 38:10

38:39 Which her dharma name, Zenkei, meant unsurpassable, insurpassable joy. That was her dharma name. And she believed that that was her last, you know, you have to shunbo Zenkei. Shunbo Zenkei. And Zenkei was unsurpassable, incomprehensible joy. And that meant when she got that name, she wasn't joyful. Report an error in the passage at 38:39 Highlight the passage at 38:39

39:09 Like Zenju means complete tenderness, got it? Report an error in the passage at 39:09 Highlight the passage at 39:09

39:16 She's practicing, she's learning, she's growing, she's arising into tenderness from others. Learning that from other people, other people's lives. You know, I need that help. And so she transmitted her incomprehensible joy, not a life, of just the practice of Zen. Because she always seemed happy, you know, always bouncing down the steps like, you know, it was like she was going to some kind of party in the Buddha Hall, you know, you know, put on her best Zen outfit, you know, and it would look really good on her. Report an error in the passage at 39:16 Highlight the passage at 39:16

39:54 So I did learn that. I do try to put on my best Zen outfit. But that, I arose with her. We co-arose and not just teacher-student. not for me to get something from her or for her to push something into me, but a way of just being together and feeling all the emotions from anger to love. She was from Alabama. Report an error in the passage at 39:54 Highlight the passage at 39:54

40:33 Alabama, and so So my parents are from Louisiana, and so she would always say, yeah, you and me, we're from the South, you know, and I'm like, kind of, you know. Report an error in the passage at 40:33 Highlight the passage at 40:33

40:50 But she loved it so much, I didn't ever take that away from her. I think you had, you know, a maid and everything, you know. We're two different kinds of South, but it's okay. It's okay. I love it too and very much became protected by her in the practice so I wanted to read another poem because we can go on with this. Report an error in the passage at 40:50 Highlight the passage at 40:50

41:18 I think that the one I'm pointing at has been made I think hopefully. I wanted to, this one is about silence and that my book The Deepest Peace which was written Pretty much from bed. I was not well, you know, at this time. And I began to write this different kind of poetry, still different to me. And I love it. It's my favorite book. Not selling it. Books don't make money. So anyway, silence leads to the interior. Report an error in the passage at 41:18 Highlight the passage at 41:18

41:58 Silence leads to the interior where moss grows in layers. Bamboo sinks itself into you. In your innermost earth, the deep speaks. It does not think, it calls. Go unafraid into the dark, into life, without doubt that your heart is open. Report an error in the passage at 41:58 Highlight the passage at 41:58

42:29 Do you want me to read it again? Okay. Silence leads to the interior where moss grows in layers. Bamboo sinks itself into you. In your innermost earth, the deep speaks. It does not think. It calls. Go unafraid into the dark, into life, without doubt that your heart is open. Report an error in the passage at 42:29 Highlight the passage at 42:29

43:05 So we arise together in our open hearts. Thank you for listening to this podcast offered by the San Francisco Zen Center. Our Dharma talks are offered at no cost and this is made possible by the donations we receive. Your financial support helps us to continue to offer the Dharma. For more information, visit sfzc.org and click giving. May we fully enjoy the Dharma. Report an error in the passage at 43:05 Highlight the passage at 43:05