Hey everybody. It's nice to be invited to talk at my original temple here. This is where I started to practice a long time ago. We used to be over on Russell, or on Dwight. Now it's on Russell. We used to practice up in the attic over there. I don't know whether you ever sat there, but it was kind of low. The roof. And when they used to, do you still use the kusaku to get over? Stick to hit you, keep you awake, if you want a little service that Zen Master is having. But in the attic over there at Dwight, And the person who did it had to kind of scrunch down and go like this because he didn't want to hit the roof.

[01:08]

Occasionally those people would go to Tassajara and Suzuki Roshi would see them go down Tassajara like that, but they had a really high roof down Tassajara and he didn't understand this drift in practice. If you go to a monastery you think, well, everything is a certain way. And he didn't realize until he came and saw what was going on. At Dwight, that actually was a low roof situation. It wasn't an ancient practice. So things are relative and keep on changing. When I was asked to speak today, I was asked if I could speak a little bit about social action, which I was glad I was asked to do that because it was the furthest thing from my mind. I was actually thinking a lot about silence at the time.

[02:16]

I was glad to shift and found that they do intersect. mutually support each other, I think. I chose a koan from the Mumenkan to answer this subject or topic. A koan is a whole story of an interaction, short interaction, but usually between a teacher and a student. that has been collected over the years, and typical to Zen, which Zen emphasizes immediate experience, bringing things into the present, as opposed to, let's say, intellectual understanding, although intellectual understanding, of course, is also in the present. And these little stories, little interactions, little lively exchanges,

[03:22]

have been collected and put into books, and Moomin was one of the masters who did that, and he collected them in a group of 48 koans called the Moomankon, Gateless Barrier. There have been several commentaries on it. Anyway, it's the 46th one. There are other collections. This one is called Xishuang, this is the name of the Zen master, stepped from the top of the pole. The priest Xishuang said, how do you step from the top of a 100-foot pole? And another eminent master of former times said, you who sit on the top of a 100-foot pole, although you have entered the way, it is not yet genuine. Take a step from the top of that pole, and worlds of the 10 directions are your total body.

[04:29]

I bet he makes a little comment here. Stepping forward, turning back, is there anything to reject as ignoble or unworthy? Be that as it may, how do you step from the top of a 100-foot pole? This is a question that's familiar, I think, to many Zen students down through the ages, this question of leaping off of that pole. What is this pole and who's sitting on it? And where is there to go when you step off of it? Well, just to give you a little background, This particular Zen master lives around 1000 A.D. in China and really was reviving an older koan about jumping off of a 100-foot pole that was around 100 years before. The previous individual was a student of Nan Chuan, who was a famous Zen master.

[05:45]

And he and his brother, Monk, used to study with Mai Shuang. Brother Monk's name was Hui. And Chang Sha was the first, and Hui was the second. And Chang Sha, grew up to be an abbot of a big monastery, and Hui went off and was a hermit. Kind of went off to the mountains and had a nice little hermitage. Changsha was an abbot of a big monastery and served the public and the monks. So these two guys kind of drifted apart. And one day, Changsha wondered, well, how is Hui doing up there in the monastery? And he sent a monk up to question him. And he sent this monk up and told him exactly what to say. So the monk went up there and the monk said, the monk arrives and he asks Hui, what about

[07:00]

When you had not yet met Nanshuang, Hui sat quietly, like a hermit probably would. The monk asked, what about after you met Nanshuang? Hui said, nothing special. The monk returned to Changsha and told him what had happened. And that's when Changsha said, You sit on top of a hundred foot pole, although you have entered the way, it is not yet genuine. Take a step from the top of that pole, and the world in the ten directions are your total body. So, Hui was in this condition of nothing special. He had sort of penetrated the idea of no self, of interdependence of all things, nothing really truly exists independent of anything else.

[08:05]

He was kind of floating there in emptiness up in his hermitage and the separation of these two guys, the abbot in the real world, you could call it the real world, and we in the hermitage illustrates a kind of tension an interesting problem that is discussed today at Green Gulch and in temples and monasteries of all religions all over the world. And that is, what are you going to do, sit there and contemplate your navel when all these problems are going on in the world? What about getting up and going out there and doing something constructive? So even back at Nanchuan's time, even back in China, back in the Tang Dynasty, this question was current, and is very current today. We think, well, perhaps we feel this and it's vivid for us, and we think it's new, but it's always here.

[09:13]

It's always with us. It's fundamental. And it's in this koan. So, Hui is sitting up there, on top of that hundred-foot pole. The question is, what do you do now? Is that enough? Is that old, what is it, saying that mountains are mountains at first, in practice, mountains are mountains and rivers are rivers, and then when you practice for a while, you see that mountains are not mountains and rivers are not rivers. And this is we. Mountains are not mountains, and rivers are not rivers. But something's missing, it's thought, and that is, well, you know, mountains really are mountains, and rivers really are rivers, and without mountains you don't have rivers.

[10:15]

Everything needs itself. A radical understanding of the unity of all things and the interdependence of all things urgently necessary that we take action, that we jump off of that pole, and that we do what seems appropriate given our position, our life. There are things to do. There is the activation of the Dharma. Unless you move the fan, you don't get cool. So, you know, Shakyamuni Buddha sitting under that Bodhi tree reaching

[11:23]

having the ultimate realization, which would be one with the complete personal transformation. I sat there for quite a while and didn't move. And you'd think, well, he'd jump up and run around or something, but he didn't. He just sat there. And he thought to himself, I can't, what do I do now? I don't know what he thought. Maybe he thought, what do I do now? Or what don't I, whoever I'm not, do now? Brahma, the king, the god of gods, was in heaven or wherever he is. And he was watching this whole thing unfold, the whole life of Buddha and the great vow not to move until he penetrated suffering and the end of suffering, and saw the great temptations he underwent by Mara and the great efforts that he put forth and did not move.

[12:45]

And the whole world, all the demons, all the devas, all the gods, every being knew, felt But then he sat there and didn't move. So Brahma said to Buddha, well, you should get up and do something constructive. And Buddha said, well, what do I do? No one will understand. I can't teach you. This is not possible. And Brahma asked him again. And Buddha said, again, I don't know what to do. I can't. This is not teachable. And the third time he asked, and then Buddha said, well, and Brahma sort of discussed it with him a little bit. I'll read you the passage.

[13:50]

that which I have realized through painful toil, how can I preach? For those suffering from thirst and ignorance, this storm is not easily comprehended. It is contrary to the flow of this world, profound, extremely subtle, difficult to perceive, and refined. It will be impossible to be seen by those clinging to greed and covered with ignorance." And Brahma urged him, saying, In the past, impure dharma taught by defiled persons has appeared. Open the gates of deathlessness and please let us hear the dharma realized by a pure man. As though standing on a crag upon the peak of a mountain, observe all the people around. O man with wisdom eyes, climb upon the pinnacle of the tower of the dharma. As you have overcome suffering, observe the people submerged in the sorrow of birth and old age. Rise, hero, victor, master of the caravan. without that, please walk in the world. Please preach the Dharma.

[14:54]

There will be some who can become enlightened." So, he was urged. And like the gentlemen of the time, I mean, he would never anyway go around preaching anything without somebody asking him to. And he was asked. And he did. He at first sought out his old friends who had deserted him and taught to them first. So here we have even the Shakyamuni Buddha hesitating to act in the world. There's a certain kind of comfort that comes from our practice. There's a home on this pillow. There's a pleasantness, an intimacy with the breath and our body, a refuge in a way.

[16:11]

But not for long. don't allow the world to come and sit with us and to go out with the world. I don't think we can separate ourselves successfully. We have to do what's to be done. Arjuna in the Bhagavad Gita was a great king and the great armies were lined up one side against the other and it was going to be a tremendous war.

[17:28]

And he was in his chariot going back and forth and looking at the opposition over there, armed to the teeth, and his own people, too. And he saw in the opposition brothers and sisters and friends. He saw himself over there. And he threw down his sword and said, I cannot give the order. I cannot do. on what I seem to need to do here. And Krishna, which is Brahma, as a boy, appeared in that chair and castigated Arjuna and said, who do you think you are? Do you think you can step outside the world? There is work to be done, and this work needs to be done

[18:33]

with equanimity, with love, but it needs to be done. And how do we do that? How do we get up? How do we cool our anger? How do we deal with the manifestations of our ill will as it manifested? in the political conflicts of the world. How do we do something that's healing and wholesome? How do we enter the political social arena and not make it worse? It's a profound question. I think Buddhists ask that question of themselves.

[19:37]

The first of the six paramitas or the perfections of the Bodhisattva is giving. And there's something powerful and magical about giving. of the disarming. Just to be in a giving frame of mind is a challenge in such an arena. Has anyone ever given you something unexpectedly and you go, what's that for? How you give, what you give, but giving. is powerful and it's the first one and it's the first parameter for that reason. Because it's awesome leverage on relationships.

[20:45]

And giving in one way is like listening. Fundamental giving is to be there for someone, to listen to someone, to not prejudge someone. to give up your pet position is giving. This is a disarming thing. And remember Gandhi, when the British were in India, they didn't know what to do. Gandhi and his followers, and Gandhi, it seems like something needed to be done, and Gandhi decided that he would go and listen. And he went around India and he listened. Three months he traveled, listened to everyone. And to the consternation of many of his followers, he thought some action should happen here.

[21:55]

And he noticed, one thing he noticed was that the British were taxing salt. Kind of reminds me of the Pots and Tea Party a little bit. But anyway, I guess they taxed tea, but salt is a little bit different than tea. But anyway, they taxed salt. And salt seemed like, well, how can you tax salt? But the British taxed salt. People would go and, you know, you could just go get salt. I mean, it wasn't like you had to go to the store, but they made a law against that. And so Gandhi decided to go on this great walk to the sea to go get some salt. And as he walked, Huge numbers of people joined him.

[22:59]

And they went to the sea and they got some salt. And there was a place where you could just get salt, reach down, pick it up. This was against the law. It was the end of the British rule on India. I was a sensitive and delicate touch. undeniable and right organic imperative. First he listened, though. He listened to everyone. He listened to himself. And then everyone rose. So listening to ourselves and listening to everyone else without prejudging. Not so easy to do.

[24:02]

It requires, I think for me, requires some practice. It requires, or let's say it helps to find a teacher, to take on a practice, to train this person. and listening to that tape recorder, those children, sunshine, going through the window. I didn't do it myself. Of course, you naturally listen, really, but where so much is going on and our fears and doubts and insecurities are so great that it's a blessing we have these traditions that provide us with support to listen to ourselves and others.

[25:14]

So, you know, when you leave the temple There's a ceremony. When you come, there's a ceremony. And when you leave, there's a ceremony. I kind of appreciate that. You know, if somebody arrives, it's good to say hello and acknowledge that. And then when they leave, it's good to say goodbye and acknowledge that. It's called the departing student ceremony. Do you know? We have it for residents and volunteer practitioners. In the departing student ceremony, everybody comes to the zendo, and the departing student is brought in by the manager of the zendo, the ino, and does three bows. And then goes around the room, and everybody bows like this. And the departing student bows like this, following the ino.

[26:19]

They go all the way around. And then it's announced that this student having supported this temple through their work, having practiced diligently at this temple, and having awakened a way-seeking mind, now returns to the marketplace with gift-bestowing hands. I've had occasion to be a departing student. And I always wondered, you know, gift bestowing hands. You sort of left with this question about, wow, you know, I have gifts bestowing hands. What is this gift that I would bestow?

[27:20]

I wonder what it is. What is this gift that we can give that has no strings attached, that is healing and wholesome? What can you give, even in social action? What can you do for peace, harmony, What fundamentally can you do? How can you avoid polarizing, harboring ill will? Do you have faith that there's a way?

[28:31]

How can you help? Brahm Das wrote this book, How Can I Help? I'd like to read you part of it. It has a poem by Thich Nhat Hanh called, Please Call Me By My True Name. I think you've heard it before, but I'm going to read it again. Do not say that I'll depart tomorrow, because even today I still arrive. Look deeply. I arrive in every second to be a bud on a spring branch, to be a tiny bird with wings still fragile, learning to sing in my new nest, to be a caterpillar in the heart of a flower, to be a jewel hidden itself in stone.

[29:51]

I still arrive. in order to laugh and to cry, in order to fear and to hope. The rhythm of my heart is the birth and death of all that are alive. I am the Mayflower metamorphosing on the surface of the river, and I am the bird which, when spring comes, arrives in time to eat that Mayflower. I am a frog swimming happily in the clear water of a pond, And I am the grass snake who, approaching in silence, feeds itself on the frog. I am the child in Uganda, all skin and bones. My legs are as thin as a bamboo stick. And I am the arms merchant selling deadly weapons to Uganda. I am the 12-year-old girl, refugee on a small boat, who throws herself into the ocean after being raped by a sea pirate.

[30:55]

And I am the pirate, my heart not yet capable of seeing and loving. I am a member of the Politburo with plenty of power in my hands. And I am the man who has to pay his debt of blood to my people, dying slowly in a forced labor camp. My joy is like spring, so warm it makes flowers bloom in all walks of life. My pain is like a river of tears, so full It fills all four oceans. Please call me by my true names so I can hear all my cries and laughs at once, so I can see that my joy and pain are one. Please call me by my true names so I can wake up, so the door of my heart can be left open, the door of compassion. And Ram Dass says, when this vision is strong and durable, when it moves us, when we truly love it, then we can take it with us wherever we go.

[32:10]

It becomes our practice. We remember the bottom line. We're here to awaken from the illusion of separateness. As we meet, as we plan, as we speak out, and as we march, a consciousness of unity is quietly there at the heart of our action. We call on it, in fact, we look for it in whatever comes up. And we do so not because it's useful or generous or conciliatory, but because it's true. Unity has to be what's most real in consciousness if it's going to have full power in action. Ultimately, it's got to be what we are. Should we

[33:21]

It's something, when you were talking about Gandhi and I was thinking about the stepping off the hundred foot pole, the quality of the other quality that's necessary for both practice and social action is courage. That he needed the courage to actually listen without attaching to his own ideas or attaching to his self and also that the situation that they faced actually in the salt march there was you know, fierce repression. They had to face soldiers. They had to face British soldiers or British trained troops. And so everyone on that march had to have that courage.

[34:30]

And also the leaders had to have the courage and the confidence to know that they were actually leading people into potential harm. And That has a lot to do with stepping off the hundred foot pole to me. And the courage is like the flip side of the various fears that we all carry. And you have to see the fears pretty clearly before you can or to plunge into them totally. So courage comes from, in part, an understanding of fear. Yeah, an understanding of your attachment to... the attachment that you have to yourself.

[35:33]

It isn't something that comes out of the blue. It comes from an investigation of your nature. Yeah, sometimes we wonder, well, how do you get courage? Seems like it's a gift. Probably is. But where most of us are, it doesn't take that kind of courage. It's more finding our way. model of what to do. I mean, I've been thinking about my daughter and her friend who have been working very hard on 187.

[36:34]

And last week, she went to Greencoach. They were invited there to speak. And no one came. The only person who came was the person who organized the invitation. And that takes a different kind of bravery. But also, I found it very painful. And she came back and said, well, we've walked Yes, we don't know what's going to happen.

[38:06]

Or what the result will be. Why we do what we think we need to do. I'm being a resident of Green Goats. I apologize for Green Goats. Or, I apologize for the world. Being the way it is. It brings up a question of practice without... We have an idea of how we want things to come out.

[39:23]

We can't help it. It's part of really acting in the present. Things keep on shifting. And suffering, of course, is related to things not working out the way we had hoped. And that is, jumping off the hundred foot pole, is to just practice for the sake of the Buddhadharma and trusting to its functioning in the long run. Now let's delete the part where I said in the long run.

[40:39]

I think there are a number of ways of getting off the hundred-foot pole. Sometimes it's jumping, sometimes it's just letting go in disgust because you're so tired of hanging on to it, become obnoxious, and so you let go. But then, and as you say, it's just broking around. But we always hope that we'll find some connection when we jump. I mean that you go to Green Gulch and there will be people there and there'll be a connection. And sometimes there's a connection and sometimes there's not. But can you say something about how each one of us can cultivate a kind of a sense of direction in this free fall that we're in? Maybe your experience of how you meet up with something that does have meaning and does connect you and does keep you moving.

[41:52]

Well, I'm always surprised. My experience of my life has been sort of wandering through it, you know. I look back on it. You know how we have to tell our stories sometimes, or at Tansahar or at the monastery. We all go around, how did you get here? How did you get it? And you sort of make this story up, you know, you go back and you pick events out and then maybe a few years later you're asked again and then you sort of pick a few different events out and you sort of make your life up, you know, in retrospect. Always wondered about that. People, I sort of envy people who seem to have their life together, you know, have figured it out. They were going to do this, they were going to do that, and they actually do that. They use the 24 hours instead of being used by the 24 hours. I definitely have a feeling of being used by the 24 hours.

[43:05]

The only thing I can say really is, well, I'm reminded of Suzuki Roshi saying, you should know what you're doing. And the student saying, oh, OK, but what if you don't know what you're doing? What do you do then? And he said, well, don't move until you know what you're doing. And it's a little bit like Gandhi, going around listening to all the people. Don't move. Don't do anything that's going to create karma that's going to make it even harder for you to know what to do. Don't do things that are going to create situations which you're going to have to fend off while you try to figure out what to do. There's calming the mind and practicing the way.

[44:06]

And calming the mind, we can do that. But we can get a little leverage on that. We don't know what practicing the way is, but we can. And we can do it by simplifying our life, by cleaning our room. by returning a few telephone calls, by not creating more projects every time you feel like your IQ is high and you've got a lot of energy. And resisting the temptation to manifest yourself and your potential every time there's an opportunity. Pick a place where you can calm the mind and practice the way and be aware, be in awareness.

[45:12]

You can do that. You can. You can do it every day. There's a chance somewhere during the day where you can kind of enter that and say, I'm going to do this, I'm not going to do that. I'm going to take care of it. I'm going to tie it up. and not make it more complicated. You can do that, and you can organize your life a little bit. And when you organize, you're organizing your mind. You're being a real friend to yourself. And then you become more intimate with life. And then your actions are more grounded in the fundamental. So that's all I have to say about that. That's my hope. Yeah. I believe. When you talked about Nama telling Buddha that you've got to do something or move from here, from the tree out, I was thinking of Moses

[46:26]

I have a, what does one do, seems to be a combination of understanding yourself and the circumstances in which you find yourself in time or space, and trying to match that so that your action and your practice of silence is appropriate. I mean, I think of Thich Nhat Hanh and how The circumstances in which he emerged may not have been his choice. Maybe he wanted to be a violinist, I mean, or something. And the violin that he's playing is entirely different. But that's what the matching was. I find it so challenging to find the matching that's not predetermined. OK, well, I should march, or I should do this, or I should do that. Because that looks like I'm doing social action. And so what is the social action that really fits what I can offer and my contribution?

[47:45]

And that's a very delicate and challenging place for me. And I feel it very strongly. But I think about that when Buddha, the image that he gave me was of Buddha being struck with all this responsiveness to what was going on and then having to teach then and maybe And Moses was certainly reluctant to move. Buddha was pretty careful about how he taught. When he finally taught, he searched out people who he could communicate with, his old friends. He had a way of doing an appropriate kind of teaching, and he gradually developed it over time. I think silence, if I could say, true silence,

[48:48]

It's your mother, you know. It's good to ask mom.

[49:16]

@Text_v004
@Score_JJ