Kindness and Oneness

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

0:17 It all Report an error in the passage at 0:17 Highlight the passage at 0:17

0:32 takes a very long time. Sometimes I have a feeling like I'm just arriving. Books Report an error in the passage at 0:32 Highlight the passage at 0:32

0:43 are kind of done. Report an error in the passage at 0:43 Highlight the passage at 0:43

0:47 There's some famous stories of doing all this ceremony and then... Taking the seat and not just leaving. Report an error in the passage at 0:47 Highlight the passage at 0:47

0:59 I don't yet have the courage. Report an error in the passage at 0:59 Highlight the passage at 0:59

1:05 I'm humbled and grateful to be here on the seat. My name is Jiryu Ani-Avatar Klingolch. I'm grateful to see some old friends and many Report an error in the passage at 1:05 Highlight the passage at 1:05

1:20 friends of mine as well. Welcome to all of you. Report an error in the passage at 1:20 Highlight the passage at 1:20

1:34 And as always, I wonder what we're doing here, what brings us here. And this morning I found a line that might speak to that for you. Can you Report an error in the passage at 1:34 Highlight the passage at 1:34

1:54 hear me okay? Report an error in the passage at 1:54 Highlight the passage at 1:54

1:59 Can you hear me better? You didn't miss anything. I'm just like the dog, you know, walking in circles before I lie down. It Report an error in the passage at 1:59 Highlight the passage at 1:59

2:15 may be a while. Some dogs just need three. Report an error in the passage at 2:15 Highlight the passage at 2:15

2:23 You know, only the Buddha has really laid down everything. So we circle and circle and circle, longing to... Lay it all down. Report an error in the passage at 2:23 Highlight the passage at 2:23

2:49 So these lines from Suzuki Roshi, I feel, are maybe expressing something about why you're here this morning, and certainly they express something about why I'm here. Report an error in the passage at 2:49 Highlight the passage at 2:49

3:04 Zen practice is not so hard. That's good. Report an error in the passage at 3:04 Highlight the passage at 3:04

3:12 Everything else is hard. How about have Zen practice not be so hard? Our practice is everywhere. Report an error in the passage at 3:12 Highlight the passage at 3:12

3:26 So you didn't have to come here, but thanks for coming. You don't have to come next time. Report an error in the passage at 3:26 Highlight the passage at 3:26

3:34 Zen practice is not so hard. Our practice is everywhere. If you don't attain enlightenment, it's okay, as long as you do not lose these points. Report an error in the passage at 3:34 Highlight the passage at 3:34

3:49 How to be kind to others and how to be one with others. Report an error in the passage at 3:49 Highlight the passage at 3:49

3:59 So you don't need to attain enlightenment or have some idea about what Zen is. If we can just stay close to these points, to be kind to others and to be one with others. Report an error in the passage at 3:59 Highlight the passage at 3:59

4:13 Sometimes he says, you know, this is our founder, Shinryu Suzuki Roshi, founder of the San Francisco Zen Center, of which Green Gulch Farm, people are sometimes surprised to hear, is a part. Report an error in the passage at 4:13 Highlight the passage at 4:13

4:28 He sometimes says, you know, it is already enlightenment to be one with others, to be kind to others. And by others, we mean everything, anything that arises in the field of our life. Report an error in the passage at 4:28 Highlight the passage at 4:28

4:53 Does that sound? Familiar to your heart? Oh yeah, maybe that's why I drove over the road to be kind to others and to be one with others without losing our place as ourself. Report an error in the passage at 4:53 Highlight the passage at 4:53

5:18 So the reason that's not hard. is because we already have that nature. The nature of utter intimacy with everything in the field of our life. Report an error in the passage at 5:18 Highlight the passage at 5:18

5:37 and the natural heart. heart shape of love and care. It's not how we don't have to climb a mountain to get those things. It's just already our nature. So maybe we come to be reminded, we touch the teachings to be reminded that this nature is so intimate. Our life is so intimate. We are one with each other without Report an error in the passage at 5:37 Highlight the passage at 5:37

6:10 losing our place. And we naturally long to practice kindness with all things. Report an error in the passage at 6:10 Highlight the passage at 6:10

6:28 So because it's our nature, you know, there's nowhere we need to climb to. There's nothing we need to really change about what we are or what this is. But we have ample opportunity to let go of things. Report an error in the passage at 6:28 Highlight the passage at 6:28

6:40 So our practice is kind of a practice of letting go and resuming that nature that we already are and have. Report an error in the passage at 6:40 Highlight the passage at 6:40

7:05 The nature that everything, our life arises as one thing with everything in it, intimate, not separate, already. This isn't like a fancy idea. This is just a direct experience of each of us in our life. Everything that comes in our life is together with our life. Nothing is outside. Report an error in the passage at 7:05 Highlight the passage at 7:05

7:34 And this kindness is our natural heart, our birthright. Report an error in the passage at 7:34 Highlight the passage at 7:34

7:45 So one of the ways that we practice not losing these points of kindness and intimacy or oneness with things is to practice zazen or sitting meditation. Report an error in the passage at 7:45 Highlight the passage at 7:45

8:05 So I wanted to refresh a bit what this Zazen practice is, the way we teach it here. Report an error in the passage at 8:05 Highlight the passage at 8:05

8:16 Okay? Report an error in the passage at 8:16 Highlight the passage at 8:16

8:23 And is anyone here for another reason than this? Or a reason that can't be expressed through these words? These words aren't the reason. But what these words express maybe is something like the call of our heart. Could we just love? Could we just be in the intimacy? So Zazen... Isn't some grueling meditation practice. It's letting ourself just resume, return to the unified field of our life. Report an error in the passage at 8:23 Highlight the passage at 8:23

9:06 The intimacy of being alive together with everything and the warm nature that arises from that intimacy. Report an error in the passage at 9:06 Highlight the passage at 9:06

9:23 So to practice zazen, we come into our body. It's this embodied practice. We come into our body and we come into our breath. Report an error in the passage at 9:23 Highlight the passage at 9:23

9:37 And especially we invite the breath and the energy and the awareness down into the belly, into the ground, down. Report an error in the passage at 9:37 Highlight the passage at 9:37

9:55 So as we breathe out, we're breathing out from as deep in our body as we can. And breathing in, the breath flows all the way into the bottom of the belly, Report an error in the passage at 9:55 Highlight the passage at 9:55

10:10 grounded, embodied. Report an error in the passage at 10:10 Highlight the passage at 10:10

10:15 And as we breathe in this full way, the upper body aligns and opens to make room for that breath. Report an error in the passage at 10:15 Highlight the passage at 10:15

10:27 So we sit upright and relaxed, breathing all the way down. Report an error in the passage at 10:27 Highlight the passage at 10:27

10:45 And Suzuki Roshi reminds us that we're not using the breath to achieve some state of mind. We're caring for the breath in this way of breathing. It's just a good way to care for the breath. The breath is here and we love the breath. So we make room for the breath and stay present with it to take good care of the breathing. Report an error in the passage at 10:45 Highlight the passage at 10:45

11:13 Grounded and breathing and upright. And relaxed. Report an error in the passage at 11:13 Highlight the passage at 11:13

11:23 The jaw relaxed and the eyes relaxed. The shoulders relaxed. The belly relaxed. Report an error in the passage at 11:23 Highlight the passage at 11:23

11:36 And the heart relaxes. We Report an error in the passage at 11:36 Highlight the passage at 11:36

11:54 can remind ourselves of Report an error in the passage at 11:54 Highlight the passage at 11:54

12:01 the love that's in our heart already. Report an error in the passage at 12:01 Highlight the passage at 12:01

12:09 You all know the line from Mary Oliver, maybe? You only have to let the soft animal of your body love what it loves. Report an error in the passage at 12:09 Highlight the passage at 12:09

12:21 So just letting the heart, as we relax and open, Sit upright. The heart is softening and just free to love what it loves. Brent sees every single thing that arises. Like, Report an error in the passage at 12:21 Highlight the passage at 12:21

12:42 really? You'll let me do that? We don't have to do the other thing for a little bit? I thought you had said we have to, like, defend and protect and withdraw and retract and fight. Really? We get a breath from that? Like the dog off the leash, the heart off the leash. Yeah, we can just love it all like you want. Report an error in the passage at 12:42 Highlight the passage at 12:42

13:08 Don't worry, I'll tell you when we have to, you know, put the wall back up and reserve the right to close the gate again. But for now, you know, just let ourselves be that love. It's so satisfying. It's so true because it is our nature. And as we let ourselves touch it, it's like, More and more we might feel, I don't want to close the gate again. Report an error in the passage at 13:08 Highlight the passage at 13:08

13:49 So we sit in the natural kindness, upright, open breathing. And then we clear our mind. This is the best way to connect with the intimacy of our being. And this is maybe one of the trickier points to empty our mind completely and forget everything. Report an error in the passage at 13:49 Highlight the passage at 13:49

14:21 But it's worth it. Forget everything sounds maybe like too much, but just forget whatever it's available to be forgotten. Let go of whatever can be let go of. You don't have to hack anything out. But there's maybe some stuff that's ready to fall and just let it fall. And that might just be a passing thought or the energy and story of some grudge. Report an error in the passage at 14:21 Highlight the passage at 14:21

14:57 Or it could be... The idea of body, the idea of mind. Report an error in the passage at 14:57 Highlight the passage at 14:57

15:09 So Suzuki Roshi asks, when telling the story of the Buddha's enlightenment, he asks, why did the Buddha have such joy when he saw the morning star? This is the story, right, of the Buddha's awakening. He's sitting in grueling meditation after years of grueling practice. And he sits, his Report an error in the passage at 15:09 Highlight the passage at 15:09

15:33 breath in the belly, his heart warm and finally unprotected. And he opens his eyes and sees the morning star. And feels this great joy. And Suzuki Roshi says, why so much joy at the sight of the star? Then he says, because he had forgotten everything and the star came up in his empty mind. That's why he had so much joy and could be so intimate with the star. Not be sure if it was the star or if it was him. Report an error in the passage at 15:33 Highlight the passage at 15:33

16:08 So he says, we may say he attained enlightenment, but it's more like he forgot everything. He forgot that he was separate from the star. He forgot that he was supposed to hate. What joy. Report an error in the passage at 16:08 Highlight the passage at 16:08

16:28 So when we forget everything, you know, this is part of the courage or the faith or the opportunity of Zen practice that we tiptoe towards and then scurry back from. And we just forget, just forget what we think we know about our life and just be in the wonder of... Report an error in the passage at 16:28 Highlight the passage at 16:28

16:50 Not knowing in the wonder of just being this totally ungraspable, unknowable, unnameable mystery of just being here as we are human beings. Report an error in the passage at 16:50 Highlight the passage at 16:50

17:05 We get so used to it like it's nothing special. It's crazy to be a lie. And we can't get a handle on it. We can't figure out what it is. Report an error in the passage at 17:05 Highlight the passage at 17:05

17:23 But we're trying and we have lots of stories and lots of maps. So forgetting the maps is not like, oh, you can't have them later when you might need them. It's just... Can we reconnect with what there is before we made some map and story that anyway was not really working for what the situation is? The wonder of the feeling of actually being. Report an error in the passage at 17:23 Highlight the passage at 17:23

17:49 So to include everything, to regain this innate oneness, so to not lose these points, to be kind to others and to be one with others, the founder, Suzuki Roshi, offers that if we want to be ourself in the way of being alive that includes everything, Report an error in the passage at 17:49 Highlight the passage at 17:49

18:11 Then we should forget ourself, forget where we are, and forget how long we have been there. Report an error in the passage at 18:11 Highlight the passage at 18:11

18:31 How does that sound? Risky? Like how will we remember what kind of sandwich we like when we're at the store, or how to get to the store, or that there's a store. Report an error in the passage at 18:31 Highlight the passage at 18:31

18:52 The thing is, we know how to get to the store. This image I keep using is like, you're carrying this backpack, I'm carrying this backpack. Report an error in the passage at 18:52 Highlight the passage at 18:52

19:07 Because I need it, you know, I'm carrying this backpack full of hard tack, full of rations, right, to get me through. And I'm walking with my heavy backpack and I'm going through life. And I, every now and then, you know, I stop and rummage through my backpack and chew on some of the stuff that I'm carrying. Because I have to provide for myself, you know, I'm carrying all this stuff. Report an error in the passage at 19:07 Highlight the passage at 19:07

19:35 And then the Buddha says, you know, you could put down the pack. I say, no, you don't understand. What am I going to eat? Report an error in the passage at 19:35 Highlight the passage at 19:35

19:44 Where am I going to sleep? Report an error in the passage at 19:44 Highlight the passage at 19:44

19:49 It's a good question and we don't need to force it or let go of something that it's not time to let go of. But we can open our eyes and look around. We can put it down for a minute and see there's Report an error in the passage at 19:49 Highlight the passage at 19:49

20:05 fruit on all the trees and the stream is overflowing with fish. Report an error in the passage at 20:05 Highlight the passage at 20:05

20:14 This giant pack, I don't need it. Report an error in the passage at 20:14 Highlight the passage at 20:14

20:20 In the letting go, I will have what I need because what I am is arising together with everything. This is kind of the faith. That supports the letting go and then the letting go tests the faith and little by little we drop and drop and drop until maybe for a minute we lie down, let ourself be supported by the life that has been holding us the whole time to Report an error in the passage at 20:20 Highlight the passage at 20:20

20:59 forget who you are or Report an error in the passage at 20:59 Highlight the passage at 20:59

21:05 to create space at least between who you think you are and what this immediate experience of being alive is. Report an error in the passage at 21:05 Highlight the passage at 21:05

21:16 I say I'm Jiryu. Report an error in the passage at 21:16 Highlight the passage at 21:16

21:23 That word has nothing to do with the feeling of being alive. That's what is actually happening for me. Do you know what I mean? So our Zen founder in China, Bodhidharma, was asked by the emperor, who are you? And he said, I don't know. Report an error in the passage at 21:23 Highlight the passage at 21:23

21:48 There's not a word for this because we're so in it, you know? The word would have to be kind of outside of it. So we just sit kind of forgetting, okay, maybe I'm not so sure who I am. Or maybe the things that I think I am are true when I'm in relationship, are true from the outside. Report an error in the passage at 21:48 Highlight the passage at 21:48

22:13 But what am I from the inside, you know? What is this feeling of being? Forget what I know about that and reconnect with the embodied, direct experience of being alive. Report an error in the passage at 22:13 Highlight the passage at 22:13

22:30 And then he says, then maybe we'll notice that in that embodied experience of being alive, There's not two things happening. There's not separation. There's just one arising whole being. Report an error in the passage at 22:30 Highlight the passage at 22:30

22:52 In a similar vein, he suggests you could forget or soften or consider letting go of where you are. And that's been an interesting one for me. Like you imagine, you might not think that you have a strong view of where you are, but we kind of imagine ourself on a map. Do you think? Like, where are you? And you'd point to a map as though that's more real. Report an error in the passage at 22:52 Highlight the passage at 22:52

23:16 than the feeling of of here-ness that you have now or we imagine what's the earth the earth actually looks like this picture from the moon that's just what it looks like from the moon how is that more real than what it's like like right now do you know what i mean where are we And that's not to get like ungrounded, it's to get actually grounded in the aliveness now, which includes everything and is bright and full and supporting us. Report an error in the passage at 23:16 Highlight the passage at 23:16

23:49 So he says, you know, you could forget where you are. And then the wonderful one for dharma talks, which is maybe why I teach on this phrase so much, you can forget how long you've been there. Report an error in the passage at 23:49 Highlight the passage at 23:49

24:02 Forget who you are and where you are and how long you've been there. And some of you know I've really been chewing on this one. How long have I been here on this planet? When did that start on this planet? See? Report an error in the passage at 24:02 Highlight the passage at 24:02

24:20 Breathing out and breathing in. Of course, it started a while back. I guess. But when we step into the moment, we're not so sure, you know. Maybe it just started. Report an error in the passage at 24:20 Highlight the passage at 24:20

24:41 So Dogen Zenji says, no, it didn't just start, but it also isn't continuing from some past. Report an error in the passage at 24:41 Highlight the passage at 24:41

24:54 In other words, Dogen Zenji, our 13th century Zen founder, like our 20th century Zen founder, is saying, forget, stop putting this experience into time. And place, or Report an error in the passage at 24:54 Highlight the passage at 24:54

25:14 at least take a little break from that and feel what it is to be alive. Report an error in the passage at 25:14 Highlight the passage at 25:14

25:20 And I've been feeling that as I practice this kindness, practice with this intention of kindness, I've been feeling that practice of forgetting, of kind of softening the naming and the knowing as a kind of kindness to my life, you know. Report an error in the passage at 25:20 Highlight the passage at 25:20

25:41 Zuki Roshi has this funny image, sort of traditional and sort of his own. Where he says existing in time and space is like putting a snake in a can. Like pushing a snake into a can. Report an error in the passage at 25:41 Highlight the passage at 25:41

25:55 Putting a snake into a jar. Report an error in the passage at 25:55 Highlight the passage at 25:55

26:05 You with me? Anybody feel like a snake in a jar? We won't do hands. So it's like you can have the jar. You can know all this stuff. You can be, you know, on a point, on a map. as though that were more real than the feeling of alive now but you don't have to be you can take a little break and that's our seated meditation practice and you get up with it and then part of what grows our faith as we see where we can respond perfectly well without these extra layers of knowing Report an error in the passage at 26:05 Highlight the passage at 26:05

26:47 So feeling like, I know who I am, I know where I am, I know what time it is. That's kind of like jamming that snake into the can, you Report an error in the passage at 26:47 Highlight the passage at 26:47

26:59 Not so kind. So when I think of just, you know, just what actually is this? Let it be what it is without telling it what it is. That's the kind of kindness to being, to just sit not knowing, sit forgetting. Report an error in the passage at 26:59 Highlight the passage at 26:59

27:17 Just let that, the boundlessness of our life, whatever this is, it doesn't have dimensions exactly. What is it to be? So we just let it out of the jar now and then as Report an error in the passage at 27:17 Highlight the passage at 27:17

27:38 a kind of kindness. Report an error in the passage at 27:38 Highlight the passage at 27:38

27:50 So to not lose the point of kindness to others or kindness to everything, kindness to our breath, kindness to the sensations, kindness to the light and the sound and to each other. Report an error in the passage at 27:50 Highlight the passage at 27:50

28:17 You see, that feeling, that kind of warmth, that sort of kindness is Buddha's compassion and it's Buddha's wisdom. It's the kindness of non-separation, the kindness that flows from non-separation. So it is actually Buddha's compassion and Buddha's wisdom. It welcomes everything, just like being alive welcomes everything, just like the Buddha welcomes everything, and Report an error in the passage at 28:17 Highlight the passage at 28:17

28:52 it's not separate. It's Buddha's wisdom and Buddha's compassion, just this little practice of kindness. Report an error in the passage at 28:52 Highlight the passage at 28:52

29:13 I want to share a couple of stories about kindness. And one of the things I've noticed about kindness is that sort of along the lines of the kindness that we're doing is like echoes. Report an error in the passage at 29:13 Highlight the passage at 29:13

29:29 of the buddhist kindness or the fundamental kindness of being that Report an error in the passage at 29:29 Highlight the passage at 29:29

29:37 we don't practice kindness from a place of not receiving kindness the practice of kindness is like the practice of being in kindness do you know what i mean when you're practicing kindness you're like the field is also kind you're receiving kindness you can't really practice kindness and not receive kindness do you think maybe you can but i'm Skeptical. Good try. Kind of like hopping on one foot maybe would count as walking. Report an error in the passage at 29:37 Highlight the passage at 29:37

30:17 So the kindness is this kind of openness in the intimacy of the field of being, and it's not something we generate from inside. It's more like something that we're flowing in. It's more like an Report an error in the passage at 30:17 Highlight the passage at 30:17

30:33 element of what our life is. Report an error in the passage at 30:33 Highlight the passage at 30:33

30:51 So our sitting practice is just to sit upright, warm, open, in Report an error in the passage at 30:51 Highlight the passage at 30:51

31:02 kindness for whatever arises. Report an error in the passage at 31:02 Highlight the passage at 31:02

31:08 Whatever you're feeling now, whatever you're seeing and hearing, this meditation practice isn't getting rid of anything you have or even transforming something you have. It's just to be with what is in open kindness, warm heart. Report an error in the passage at 31:08 Highlight the passage at 31:08

31:36 Our Tanto Eli is there in the back, I Report an error in the passage at 31:36 Highlight the passage at 31:36

31:46 think. Report an error in the passage at 31:46 Highlight the passage at 31:46

31:51 He asks himself, can I be as kind as... Silence is to sound. Oh, wow. You should be the tanto. Report an error in the passage at 31:51 Highlight the passage at 31:51

32:07 Can I be as kind to everything that's arising as the silence is to the sound? No friction. No friction. Just complete embrace. Report an error in the passage at 32:07 Highlight the passage at 32:07

32:25 This has helped my zazen practice to just sit, not kind of doing my tricks to get the feeling I want to get, but just sitting in kindness with what's here. Report an error in the passage at 32:25 Highlight the passage at 32:25

32:38 The kind welcome. Just embrace without friction. Report an error in the passage at 32:38 Highlight the passage at 32:38

32:46 That that's going to be the ground of my transformation. That's going to be the ground of any good that I do. It's not like instead of doing something. It's as the ground of doing something. To just be this kindness. To walk as kindly as the silence is receiving sound. When we practice in this way, you know, the kindness is like we can be kind to the earth as we walk. Report an error in the passage at 32:46 Highlight the passage at 32:46

33:16 We can be kind to the food as we crush it between our teeth. The sensation, I'd say, well, the anger, this is what makes kindness such a grounding practice and why I like to talk about it because I feel like, well, I can just be kind. I don't have to be anything else. You know what I mean? I don't have to reach for anything. If my practice is not to be angry, that sounds great. Report an error in the passage at 33:16 Highlight the passage at 33:16

33:43 But then when I'm angry, I'm going to have a problem, you know, and I'm going to start scrambling for the non-anger. And I'm going to be way out on a limb. It's like, I'm pretty angry, but I think I'm supposed to not be angry. And then just, I think Report an error in the passage at 33:43 Highlight the passage at 33:43

34:04 I'm supposed to be concentrated, but I'm pretty all over the place. I better get concentrated. I think I'm supposed to feel something that I don't feel. Report an error in the passage at 34:04 Highlight the passage at 34:04

34:14 And I've been in this talk for like, I've been at Green Gulch already for an hour and a half, and I still don't feel the thing that I'm trying to feel. So then we're out on the limb. Where is that? And the more we're out, where is that thing that I'm supposed to be feeling? The more like, Report an error in the passage at 34:14 Highlight the passage at 34:14

34:30 We're just leaving behind the being of our actual life where we are as it is. And for some reason, the kindness, I mean, you could have kindness practice in the same way. Like, don't be unkind. When you're unkind, you have to kill the unkind and get back to the kind. But it's not really that feeling, you know. The feeling of kindness is more like, wow, I'm so unkind. Report an error in the passage at 34:30 Highlight the passage at 34:30

34:56 It's okay. I'm feeling so unkind. And I'm acting so unkind. Wow. Okay. The kindness doesn't fight with anything, just like the silence doesn't fight with any sound. Silence and say, well, that one's too loud. Or those notes were not quite right. So this kindness practice just can meet whatever it is, even the unkindness. Report an error in the passage at 34:56 Highlight the passage at 34:56

35:24 Yeah, it's welcome. Report an error in the passage at 35:24 Highlight the passage at 35:24

35:31 We never have to be any way other than how we are. So then we can always be ourself. We can always be right where we are. Report an error in the passage at 35:31 Highlight the passage at 35:31

35:43 This isn't really a practice of becoming Report an error in the passage at 35:43 Highlight the passage at 35:43

35:52 something we're not. It's a practice of loving what is and noticing that what is is totally ungraspable, has no inside or outside, and is warm, is love. Report an error in the passage at 35:52 Highlight the passage at 35:52

36:11 So these couple of images that I wanted to share about kindness. One I shared last time and I've just been chewing on it and I wanted to share it again just to refresh the story and bring it back to mind. This is again of Suzuki Roshi. Report an error in the passage at 36:11 Highlight the passage at 36:11

36:26 whose work I quote so much because I'm studying it closely, not because we're a cult of Suzuki Roshi. Disclaimer. Report an error in the passage at 36:26 Highlight the passage at 36:26

36:54 His students all really loved him. His family wasn't so sure. Report an error in the passage at 36:54 Highlight the passage at 36:54

37:02 We're all just practicing the way. We're just making this great effort together to Report an error in the passage at 37:02 Highlight the passage at 37:02

37:17 come back to our intimacy and oneness with each other and all things, to stop forcing inside and outside on the one arising of our life. And to just let our heart love what it loves. Report an error in the passage at 37:17 Highlight the passage at 37:17

37:37 So he has a story of doing the begging rounds where as a temple priest in Japan, he would walk around with his bowls for donations for the temple to support him and his family. Report an error in the passage at 37:37 Highlight the passage at 37:37

37:49 And this is during the Second World War. During wartime, sometimes I went on takahatsu begging rounds. And if I came across people who were digging a trench for shelter from the bombs, I helped them. Report an error in the passage at 37:49 Highlight the passage at 37:49

38:04 I'm not so strong, but I could help them. So he's asking for people's kindness, going with his empty bowls. And then you see some people digging and he puts his bowls down and says, I'm not so strong, but I can do a couple of shovelfuls. Report an error in the passage at 38:04 Highlight the passage at 38:04

38:19 Receiving kindness and giving kindness, natural. It's just in the field of kindness. He wasn't like generating it. He was asking for it and then giving it. Report an error in the passage at 38:19 Highlight the passage at 38:19

38:31 And then I transplanted cucumber and eggplants around the trench because we got such good dirt from the trench. So they're digging the trench to like lie down in when the American bombs are falling on them. And he's like, well, this is some good soil. Let's put some eggplants and cucumbers in here. So we planted cucumber around the trench. So sometimes I helped in that kind of way. Report an error in the passage at 38:31 Highlight the passage at 38:31

39:00 If they did not end up needing the trench, anyway, they could eat the cucumber. So I prepared cucumbers, a vegetable garden, and a trench. Below a trench. Above the vegetables. So I just love that image of kindness, of just natural kindness. Report an error in the passage at 39:00 Highlight the passage at 39:00

39:25 Tender and intimate and mutual giving Report an error in the passage at 39:25 Highlight the passage at 39:25

39:34 and receiving kindness. And we say, I'm kind to my breath. My breath is pretty kind to have come, you know. Who's been kind to who? Report an error in the passage at 39:34 Highlight the passage at 39:34

39:46 So then the second story I've also shared, which I want to spend a little bit of time with, though I don't want to keep you all too long. Fortunately. Report an error in the passage at 39:46 Highlight the passage at 39:46

39:56 This may have just started in beginner's mind. I mean that, you know. Report an error in the passage at 39:56 Highlight the passage at 39:56

40:10 We're just so often living just in such a thick kind of mesh of our ideas and views about what's happening. Report an error in the passage at 40:10 Highlight the passage at 40:10

40:29 So there's some of you, many of you maybe know the work of Ryokan the Great Fool, the Japanese poet of the early 1800s. He's kind of a cartoon character, I think, In my image, and I think in Japanese culture in a way, in the kind of antics that take place around him. Report an error in the passage at 40:29 Highlight the passage at 40:29

40:57 So the story of him and the bamboo, there's a couple versions of it. One is that under his house, some bamboo shoots started to grow up under his house and push against the floor. Report an error in the passage at 40:57 Highlight the passage at 40:57

41:10 And so he cut holes in the floor so that they could get through. And then he said, don't worry, you know, when you get to the ceiling, I'll cut the holes in the ceiling. Report an error in the passage at 41:10 Highlight the passage at 41:10

41:21 That image of, it's welcome, it's welcome. You don't have to block the bamboo sprouts. Just get a hole in the floor. Totally foolish. The great fool. Another version of the story is that one night when he went to the outhouse with his candle, he noticed that there were bamboo shoots growing up, bamboo growing up in the outhouse and brushing against the ceiling. Report an error in the passage at 41:21 Highlight the passage at 41:21

41:56 And he just felt this great concern for the bamboo shoots that couldn't get out. It's kind of like the snake in the can, you know, or our heart in its little crate. Report an error in the passage at 41:56 Highlight the passage at 41:56

42:12 So he thought, I'm going to put some holes in the ceiling so these bamboos can get out through it. So he took his candle to burn holes in the ceiling for the bamboo and burned the outhouse down. Report an error in the passage at 42:12 Highlight the passage at 42:12

42:27 What a great fool. Report an error in the passage at 42:27 Highlight the passage at 42:27

42:31 It's funny, right? It touches our heart. It's like the joy, the total non-self-centeredness. It's like problematic, you know? I mean, he just burned down, he just ruined his house. He just burned down the outhouse. It's not like a model for us exactly. It's not mature. It's not wise. But it's so pure and it's so actually selfless. It's not hedged. Report an error in the passage at 42:31 Highlight the passage at 42:31

42:58 And I think that's what's so kind of exuberant about it. You just feel like, so much for me, at least. So the kindness is kind of like, well, as long as it works for me, then yes, I'll be kind. And that's good, you know. Our kindness should include everything. It has to include everything. It's Buddha's kindness. It includes everything. Ryokan's foolishness, and there's many other cases like this, like he would sleep with one leg out from under the cover so the mosquitoes could eat. Report an error in the passage at 42:58 Highlight the passage at 42:58

43:30 Now and then, you know, when it was a really nice day, he would take his robes and lay out some rice paper and take off his robes and shake all the lice out and then move the paper into the sun so the lice could get sun for a while and then shake them back onto his robe, you know, and put the robe back on. Report an error in the passage at 43:30 Highlight the passage at 43:30

43:48 So, like, he's being very kind with no thought of himself. And it's off balance. The kindness is, you know, like, what about your leg? Could you also be kind to your leg? What about your outhouse? Could you be kind to the outhouse? Report an error in the passage at 43:48 Highlight the passage at 43:48

44:03 So the exuberance of it touches our heart, I think. And then, of course, it's a cartoon, you know. Our wisdom comes and sees the kindness includes everything. Report an error in the passage at 44:03 Highlight the passage at 44:03

44:16 In this practice of forgetting, of just being our life, we stop saying, this is me, this is not me, this is inside, this is outside, and we stop having a different policy based on, is it inside or outside? Report an error in the passage at 44:16 Highlight the passage at 44:16

44:33 We're conditioned differently. Some of us, the way that policy got written, Whoever did that, the policy is if it's labeled inside, then it doesn't get much. If it's labeled outside, it gets everything. And then many of us have this other policy, which is like if it's labeled outside, probably not. And if it's labeled inside, yes, go for it. Report an error in the passage at 44:33 Highlight the passage at 44:33

44:56 It's yours. The Buddha way is stop doing that to the boundless being. It's just kindness as the posture. Kindness before there's anything. So of course it doesn't matter if the thing is my leg or the mosquito. It's equally arising in the posture of kindness. The kindness is already there before something happened. And I get that from these images. It's not like Suzuki Roshi was not being kind and then he saw some people and then he responded with kindness. Report an error in the passage at 44:56 Highlight the passage at 44:56

45:31 He was already walking kindly on the earth. The kindness is already in the posture before something comes. It's too late. Once there's something, it might be too late, you can try, but it may be too late. This practice of kindness that's inspiring me is like the practice before there's anything, just to practice kindness already, to be in this tender, open way, then things that arise naturally there will be kindness. Report an error in the passage at 45:31 Highlight the passage at 45:31

45:59 And it doesn't matter if they're inside or outside, so it's not off balance. It's trustworthy. It's not self-care. It's not not self-care. It's... Kindness towards everything that arises. And then our mind freaks out and says, well, yeah, but it's going to be one or the other. Who gets the thing? You know, got one ice cream cone, who gets it? Report an error in the passage at 45:59 Highlight the passage at 45:59

46:22 Them or me? But the heart of kindness doesn't have that problem. It's not like that. All of it, the mosquito and the leg, the bamboo and the outhouse, the monk on begging rounds and the people hungry and afraid. Report an error in the passage at 46:22 Highlight the passage at 46:22

46:49 So I want to close just with one image to get at this question of how do we practice this kindness and just invite in closing the study of how do I cultivate kindness in my posture, in my being? Report an error in the passage at 46:49 Highlight the passage at 46:49

47:13 What gets in the way of that and what waters that? Report an error in the passage at 47:13 Highlight the passage at 47:13

47:20 Can I feel my heart calling me to kindness and intimacy and can I respect that and how? How do I support that and nourish that? Report an error in the passage at 47:20 Highlight the passage at 47:20

47:43 So once when I was at the Tassajara Zen Mountain Center, also part of San Francisco Zen Center, I was working in the kitchen and the head cook, I appreciated, but I found it a little bit difficult to work with, and I wasn't the only one. One might say he was objectively difficult to work with. A little bit sharp. And sometimes I was frustrated with him. Report an error in the passage at 47:43 Highlight the passage at 47:43

48:08 You know, do you think that Zen... Students would be naturally kind. If we had already done the practice, we wouldn't be here. Report an error in the passage at 48:08 Highlight the passage at 48:08

48:21 People who already have it together aren't here. They're just like doing their thing. This is remedial. It's like we're trying to catch up. So then people come to the Zen Center and they're so discouraged that somebody's not kind and somebody's not wise. And it's like, give me a break. How about you? And then later, you know, 5, 10, 20 years later, we see, wow, that person was so kind to my little arrogant thing. Report an error in the passage at 48:21 Highlight the passage at 48:21

49:06 So once I was getting something I needed from his desk, and I saw that in a place that other people couldn't see it, a place that only he could see, he had taped this sign that said, am I being kind? Report an error in the passage at 49:06 Highlight the passage at 49:06

49:17 And I was so stopped, you know, so touched. Report an error in the passage at 49:17 Highlight the passage at 49:17

49:34 So to practice kindness is to ask, you know, am I being kind? And more often than not, be willing to hear the answer, which is like, nope, not being kind. Not to your breath, not to the light, not to the sensation, not to space and time, not to your friend, not to your partner, not to your kid. Report an error in the passage at 49:34 Highlight the passage at 49:34

49:57 But to be asking and to know that each other is asking. Report an error in the passage at 49:57 Highlight the passage at 49:57

50:11 So Zen practice is not so hard. Our practice is everywhere. It doesn't matter if you attain enlightenment. Just don't lose these points to be kind to others and to be one with others. Thank you so much for your kindness and attention this morning. I'm sorry to go on and we'll close here. Thank you for listening to this podcast offered by the San Francisco Zen Center. Report an error in the passage at 50:11 Highlight the passage at 50:11

50:39 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 50:39 Highlight the passage at 50:39