I vow to taste the truth of the Togetherness with... Good evening. Last Monday night we did metta meditation. Tonight I want to do a little commentary on the sutra, the metta sutra. You've been chanting in the morning, so you must know it somewhat by now.

[01:09]

Pretty simple, but very deep. This sutra seems to have three parts. The first part is a kind of introduction. My feeling is that the middle part, may all be happy, may they be joyous and live in safety, all living beings, whether weak or strong, in high or middle or low realms of existence, small or great, visible or invisible, near or far, born or to be born, may all beings be happy. This is the heart of the sutra. And the first part is the introduction to the sutra and the last part, which comes after that, is a commentary, kind of commentary on the sutra. And the sutra starts out, this is what should be accomplished by the one who is wise and who seeks the good and has obtained peace.

[02:24]

So in a sense, it presupposes that one has already obtained peace. This is... And so the sutra itself, or the heart of the sutra, the gatha, is like the offering to the universe. of one who has obtained peace. In other words, if you have something, then you can offer it. If you have a million dollars, then you can offer a hundred thousand, because you have some money. If you don't have any peace, it's pretty hard to offer it. But if you have peace, then this is what you have to offer. Whatever we have is what we offer.

[03:34]

If we have anger and hate and ill will, then this is what we offer. So wherever we live, or whatever is our state of mind or our abode, this is what we offer to the world or to the universe. So we have to decide in some way what it is that is our offering. So Bodhisattva's life is life of cultivation of peace, and so this is what Bodhisattva has to offer to the universe. So this sutra says, this is what should be accomplished by the one who is wise and who seeks the good and has

[04:43]

One who is wise means one who, according to the sutra, devotes their life to peace. So wisdom and metta are the two sides of prajna, the two aspects of bodhisattva's life, wisdom and peace or metta or karuna or compassion.

[05:49]

So, for the one who is wise, who has wisdom, and has obtained peace, this is what should be accomplished. this is what should be offered. And then the Sutra says, Let one be strenuous, upright, and sincere, without pride, easily contented, and joyous. This is the suggestion of how to behave or what to cultivate. Strenuous, upright, sincere, without pride, easily contented, and joyous. Those are six factors to be accomplished or cultivated.

[07:01]

What to work on or what to cultivate, what to think about in your life. how to conduct oneself. And then it says, let one not take upon oneself the burden of riches, let one's senses be controlled, let one be wise but not puffed up, and let one not desire great possessions even for one's family. So these are what to cultivate, and the second part is what to avoid. So, let one be strenuous. To cultivate strenuousness, or strenuous is maybe a little funny word here, effort, I think is strenuous, is the expression of effort.

[08:13]

and effort is the active side. We have an active side and a passive side. Passive side is how we accept things, and the active side is how we make things work. And both sides need to be balanced in our life. In zazen, we accept everything as it comes and let everything go as it goes. This is the passive side. The active side is that we sit up straight and make a strong effort to offer ourselves to the activity at hand.

[09:18]

Matter of fact, the next one says to be upright. First one is to be strenuous, the second one is to be upright. goes with effort, but it's upright means not to lean to the left or lean to the right or lean forward or lean backwards, but to be really centered and not to be swayed by things and to have a mind of equality. If we have a mind of equality then we're not pulled one way or another by things and we can fulfill our intentions.

[10:26]

It's interesting how Zazen is a model for our life and not just a model for our life, but these same qualities that we cultivate in zazen are exactly the same qualities that we cultivate in our daily life, effort and uprightness. But uprightness implies always doing things right, but as you know, we never always do everything right. But When we do something, when we get off, we climb back on. This is a quality of uprightness. And the third one is to be sincere. We mean what we say, and we say what we mean, and we do what we say, and we say what we do.

[11:38]

Our actions match our intentions. This is also very difficult. But even though we can't always completely do it, our effort is in that direction. This is, I think, a very important point for all of us. Dharma is beyond our ability, completely beyond our ability to fulfill it. But Because it's beyond our ability to fulfill it, it gives us a wonderful challenge, and it's always beyond our grasp. If it could be fulfilled, it wouldn't be the Dharma. And yet, in its unfulfillment, it's fulfilled.

[12:49]

in our inability to fulfill our intentions, our intentions are fulfilled, strangely enough. So even in the face of failure, we continue. even in the face of incompleteness or non-fulfillment, we're always making the effort to find that fulfillment or to complete our effort. And if you look at our Zazen, our Zazen is the same thing.

[13:58]

Our Zazen never comes up to our ideal. Even though we sit in Zazen day after day, week after week, year after year, making a big effort, our Zazen our effort always falls short of our ideal, but we continue to sit. And in this continuation, in this effort of striving and also settledness, comes tranquility. Peace is tranquility. Tranquility means non-contentious and is the basis for being peaceful.

[15:07]

So even though our practice is imperfect always, it still rests on the base of tranquility and peacefulness arises out of that. How to stand up in the midst of confusion and unfulfillment and with confidence So then it says, without pride. Pride is a little extra. We should, in our practice, even though our practice is not perfect or completely fulfilled, we still have confidence.

[16:21]

But because our practice, because we know that we're not perfect, we have humility. So confidence makes us feel some faith and makes us feel like we can do what we're doing. But humility keeps us from thinking more of ourself than is actually true, whereas pride is inflation and is a way of fooling ourself that we're more than we are, or we want others to feel that we're more than we are. we take a lot of stock in how people think of us. So we want people to think that we're, we want people to look on us kindly, nicely.

[17:35]

But the more we want to make that happen, the worse it gets. we can't make it happen, it can only happen through our sincerity, not through our pride. You know, we always appreciate someone who is constantly failing and yet very open and honest and sincere. But someone who does things easily but is always bragging or feels proud makes us shy away or criticize or not feel so good about them.

[18:39]

So it's important, I think, for us to be really straight with ourself and with each other. When we're straight with ourself and with each other, we can accept ourself and we can accept each other. And perfection is right there. But if we're always trying to make things perfect, there's nothing but failure. So then it says, be contented and joyous, easily contented and joyous. Easily contented means not to be greedy, to be satisfied with what comes to us, not to demand too much.

[19:53]

Sometimes the more we get, the more we feel that we need. It's kind of an interesting way that it works. And joy, you know, is not something that we can go after. joy is a kind of product, or joy comes through our effort, and it's not something that we seek, but something that sneaks up on us, or it's like a product of our activity, but it's not an object to be sought after. So it's very important in our practice to just do the work.

[20:57]

Seeking joy is like seeking enlightenment. It's not an object to be sought after, but through our effort, without thinking about it, enlightenment arises and joy arises. But if you expect they don't appear, not real joy or real enlightenment. So then it says, the sutra starts telling us what to avoid. let one not take upon oneself the burden of riches." Well, riches can be a burden, but riches in themselves are just riches.

[22:03]

They're nothing. It's how we see them, how we use them, and how we attach to them. So the burden of riches is not riches, but our attachment to something. So when riches are something that are very desirable to people in the world, but to a Bodhisattva, those are not riches. Those kind of riches that people seek in the world are a kind of burden. and lose our way or lose our tranquility or calm mind when we seek after those riches. But once we get something in our hand, pretty hard to let go of it.

[23:08]

So we have to be very careful not to carry around this burden of desire for things, for wealth. Some people don't desire wealth, but wealth comes to them. There are some people who are just magnets for wealth, for some reason or another. And if you are a magnet for wealth, then wealth is something that you have to take care of and know how to deal with. Money is not bad. It's useful. It's necessary. We can't run Green Gulch without money.

[24:12]

And people can't live their lives without money. Money is very useful and necessary. And we need to know how to respect riches, wealth, but not to be run or turned by wealth. So it's very dangerous, but necessary to deal with it. There are people who completely give up wealth monks, traditionally Buddhist monks, were not allowed to carry any money, or own anything, or even dig in the ground to grow anything. But on the other end of the scale, there were people who had something, support the monks. So whether we have something or we don't have something is not really the point.

[25:29]

It's our attitude, our attachment, or our freedom. So the main thing for Bodhisattva is to maintain freedom from attachment to anything. So the sutra says, Let not one take upon oneself the burden of riches. Didn't say don't have money. Says don't take on the burden of riches. And let one's senses be controlled. That's a big one. Controlling the senses. Controlling and not controlling. If we're too controlled, then we become very tight and tense, and squeeze life out.

[26:32]

And if we're not controlled, then life just pulls us around by the nose, or by whatever organ it is that is attached to, that's giving us this problem. how to find a balance in our life between control and allowing life to live itself through us. If we're too controlled, life can't live itself, can't get through. And if we don't control, then we're just pulled around by the fire of life. So where do we find that balance? Always. To have self-control without being controlled.

[27:34]

To always find the proper balance and do the right thing in every situation. Sometimes we need to really impose rules on ourself. And sometimes we need to relax rules. But to control our mind and control our body is very important. to always be the boss, as our old teacher used to say. So some discipline is necessary. To put ourselves under some restriction is necessary.

[28:44]

And it gives us a lot of trouble because it thwarts, restriction thwarts our desire, but it also helps us because it gives us strength and uprightness, allows us to be upright. Then it says, let one be wise, but not puffed up. It means don't be puffed up about your accomplishments. And let one not desire great positions, even for one's family. That's a big one. It says, don't let one desire great possessions even for one's family.

[30:02]

That means that one is in control of one's family, it presupposes that one is in control of one's family, but actually a family is a combination of saying things. So one member of the family may feel that we shouldn't have so much, and the other member of the family may feel, well, we should have more than this. So that's a great, family problems are great problems for us because we meet sometimes very difficult situations about who's right and who's wrong and who should prevail. That's why it's good to have some sense of the law. The law means the dharma. If we have a sense of dharma, then it's not I'm prevailing, or you're prevailing, or your opinion is right, or my desire is right, but let's see how it accords with dharma.

[31:11]

How does our desire accord with dharma? With the law. Law is something that, not something imposed, but what makes sense, given all considerations. But it's good to live simply and frugally. Sometimes it's impossible to live simply and frugally. In this day and age, children's lives are more and more complex.

[32:14]

I remember when I was growing up, I played all day. in the neighborhood, all around the neighborhood. But nowadays, children have schedules like adults. Their lives are scheduled like an adult's life. Morning you do this and this, and in the afternoon you do that, and in the evening you do this. And then the technology is taking over the lives of children. And it's becoming more and more expensive to bring up children because of what children have to have. Difficult. How are you going to live a simple, frugal life? How are our children going to be taught that?

[33:18]

Very difficult. But I think that if we know how to cultivate our own life, and with all these qualities that are mentioned in the sutra, that even though the families and children may give you a hard time, they will appreciate you in the end. Because that's all we have. All we have is our effort, our uprightness, our sincerity, and these qualities mentioned in the Sutra. If you want to say, what do we have, really, that's all we have.

[34:20]

And if we sell out for some other something to replace those, we lose in the end. So, these qualities are difficult to maintain and cultivate, but they're really the sustaining qualities of our life, and they influence people. And it's really all we have to offer to the world. So then the sutra says, the next part is really the heart of the sutra, this is the offering. It says, let one do nothing that is mean or that the wise would reprove. That means if you have examples, old teachers, the old ancestors, every day we

[35:32]

and day after day we do that. Isn't that interesting? The people that you never met except as you chant their names, and yet these people are examples for our life. When we chant the names of the ancestors, the Buddhas and ancestors, we become a Buddha and ancestor names or our family lineage or our great examples and we join that family of Buddhas and ancestors. So we feel, you know, that we would like, we feel surrounded by them and So we wouldn't want to do something that would make them feel not so good about us.

[36:42]

So the sutra says, if we keep this in mind, it helps. It helps your life. Helps you to go straight. It says, let one do nothing that is mean or that the wise would reprove. And then it's, here's the offering. May all beings be happy. May they be joyous and live in safety. All living beings, whether weak or strong, in high or middle or low realms of existence, small or great, visible or invisible, near or far, born or to be born, may all beings be happy. That's the heart of the sutra, the offering. And then there's a little commentary afterward. Let no one deceive another, nor despise any being in any state. Let none by anger or hatred wish harm to another.

[37:48]

So this is Bodhisattva work, to always have that awareness. My wife and I were planning to go on a little vacation to the snow next week. And she had some time off. And we found out that the place that we were going wasn't available. And so she'd been trying to get some other places. to go to during that time, which is pretty hard. And then she said, well, so I talked to her on the phone tonight and she said, well, why don't you look in your book and see what other time we have to go?

[38:50]

And I said, well, for me to change my time, my time is all interlocked with other people's I can't just change it so easily. I have to consult people and so forth. And I was getting, my voice was getting, rising, and I was getting very frustrated. And she said, is there anybody else around here listening to you? And I thought to myself, I'm going to in about an hour or so, I'm going to be talking about this sutra to all these people, you know, about this subject. And here I am, you know, over this whole thing. My voice is rising, my impatience is growing, and I'm getting kind of mean, actually.

[39:56]

And then I kind of wonder about that, and I think, well, what am I doing talking about this stuff, you know, if I can't even follow it myself? So it's helpful for me to be able to realize that. So actually, my wife's a very good teacher for me, because she always points this stuff out to me. Truly. She stopped sitting zazen several years ago, but she's a very accomplished, actually, person, and she's a big help to me, because she's always pointing at my faults. It's very good, although I don't always like it.

[41:07]

I don't say I like it.

[41:08]

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