Thank you. Is that better? Can everyone hear me now? Thank you. And this morning, today, we are having a one-day Sashin with a group of people who are here. And we're happy to have everyone here together for this morning's talk, as we usually do on Saturday mornings. This morning I wanted to talk about something that's very much present for me in the last little while, and it's connected with what we call in Buddhism Right Intention. And just to give a little context, when the Buddha first spoke about his experience of awakening, he talked about what we now know are called the Four Noble Truths, the first being that our our existence is characterized by a kind of unsatisfactoriness, a kind of a difficulty.

[01:15]

Some people translate it as suffering, but sometimes that word is a little confusing, although suffering is certainly part of that reality that we live with every day. existence has that quality, is impermanent, and is not characterized by any kind of permanent self or existence. So we have a lot of trouble with that. And the second noble truth is that the cause of this is largely our clinging to it, or not recognizing these truths and clinging to some other idea of what we would like. or not like. And the Third Noble Truth is that, in fact, there is liberation from this. The Third Noble Truth is traditionally spoken as Nirvana or Enlightenment, but

[02:17]

simply said, there in fact is liberation. This does happen, and the Fourth Noble Truth is an enunciation or articulation of what the path is towards that liberation. This is the traditional explanation of these Four Noble Truths simply stated. And I wanted to talk about the second leg of the Eightfold Path, the second footprint. There's Right View, and second comes Right Intention. And Right Intention, I would say, and traditionally speaking, is the motivation which is in accord with the truth of existence, which is in accord with the First Noble Truth, which is that life has many unsatisfactory characteristics, is impermanent, and there is no real self we can really hang on to here.

[03:25]

So, in our Zen tradition, we interpret these maybe in a somewhat more complex way than the traditional scholastic Buddhist interpretation. And what I'm curious about is how we support our intention in our practice. I mean, there are lots of different ways we do this. We come together like this. We have a beautiful practice place. When you walk into the Zen Center, you think, oh yeah, what was I thinking? We have good friends that we've maintained over many years. We have many practices. I put on these robes. As I put on my robes in the morning to come to Dazen, something changes.

[04:30]

And there's lots of different ways in which we support our motivation to remain aware of what we're doing. To refine my question a little bit further, I'm kind of wondering, how do we support the person who chooses to be awake in this moment? From moment to moment, how do we choose that? How do we support that person, or how do we support that intention to be awake in each moment? We have lots of different supports here and there, but from moment to moment, we make choices either to be present or to go off on a distraction or to get excited about something else and forget about other people or to get excited about, to get angry, you know, there's just

[05:46]

many choices we make during the day, both as something we are going after and in response to reactions we might have to things that come up. Bekaroshi used to say that practice is choice, choice, choice, awareness of intention, awareness of intention, awareness of intention. So what is intention? What is right intention or intention in the context of our practice? And we sometimes come to practice with a very sort of focused direction, a very There's some energy in it. There's a little bit of juice in it.

[06:49]

You know, I'm really going to do this. And that sort of works. That helps. And then it also has other effects sometimes. Sometimes we lose our energy and we become discouraged when we can't stay with that focus and energy. that we somehow developed or arose in us as we walked into the gates of the Zendo or whatever circumstances gave rise to that change. And sometimes it also leads to, you know, a kind of overexcitement and you lose connection with other people perhaps because you're so focused and excited about the feeling you have around your practice. So one thought is that sometimes your intention disappears on you.

[07:51]

You have it and then you feel tired and then you don't have it or something goes wrong. And so maybe instead of trying to keep a hold of it all the time, so the question is how do you support, how do you stay connected with that? and in a way that really does support choices to be connected with it. I don't know, it's a sort of circular statement, but it's staying connected with your intention may be one of the most important ways you can support it. But as Alan was talking last week about Suzuki Roshi's statements about how you control somebody, the best way to control somebody is to give them a huge pasture. The best way to control your cow is to give your cow a big pasture and watch them.

[08:54]

And in a way, this may be a key point here. that as your intention ebbs and flows, refocuses, gets fuzzy and so on if we can just watch that. Sometimes we want our intention to be really pure. Sometimes that sense of purity of your intention is a kind of energizing force that we really like and yet that can also generate a kind of polarizing internal energy. We sometimes say, you know, my intentions were pure, I really had good intentions here. And then it's also said, you know, the road to hell is paved with good intentions.

[09:56]

So what kind of intentions were those that were so good that took you someplace that you didn't enjoy later? I know you can all think of things that you've done that you felt really clear about at the time that you felt where you were doing something for somebody that you were taking care of numerous things that all were important and suddenly It all came crashing down. I'm thinking of one where I was babysitting for somebody once in a sort of co-op arrangement, somebody I didn't know very well. And I had a request from my family to kind of, you know, can we somehow meet up somehow? What can we do about this situation? I thought, oh, gosh, this child is, like, sleep, you know? Maybe I'll just dash out and, you know, drive somebody someplace and come back in a few minutes.

[10:59]

And I didn't end up doing it because the person arrived home. But I did tell her what I had thought of. And, you know, I went home. The next day I got a call from a good friend of hers, someone I knew well. He said, didn't you know that this person lost her child, a previous child, when somebody wasn't watching? So there's these... So the question, what was going on there? Was I... Was I not really thinking of this thing in a wide enough way? Was I only thinking of my own sort of piece of it? And not necessarily considering all the possibilities that I might not know? There are many, all of us have had these kinds of situations that have arisen. that take us by surprise.

[11:59]

Even the Buddha. There are many stories about the Buddha's enlightenment, but, well, let me step back just a little bit here. You know, there's this, you know, a lot of times these experiences come up of, you know, you do something you feel really good about, you really want to do this, and then suddenly somebody says something maybe completely unintentionally or somehow you start to feel terribly guilty or you're really angry at yourself or something. It generates a choice you have made that you felt really clear and honest about, generates a huge emotional backlash. And this happens. So the question is, well, was making that choice inclusive enough of everything that you are to not generate that kind of polarizing energy?

[13:14]

Maybe it's a good thing to have discovered that about yourself, but it happens. And what I was going to say about the Buddha was that as the Buddha was sitting under the Bodhi tree for seven days and on the last night before he experienced awakening, many things happened. And he wasn't quite enlightened yet, but he was intending to sit there until awakening, until he solved this problem. And lo and behold, the armies of Mara appeared. you know, because there was something not quite right yet. So the armies of Mara appeared, and first, you know, they tried seduction, and they tried violence, and so on and so forth, and the Buddha. But I want to say something about the ferocious attack, in which the way the story is told is, you know, arrows were coming from everywhere, and they arrived as flowers.

[14:22]

So the Buddha received this attack as a blessing. And that's what turned it around for him. Another curious question about, I don't know why, when we had breakfast this morning, we chant at the end, May we have purity like a lotus in muddy water. I believe that's the way it's phrased exactly. And I always, I've been thinking about this concept of purity, and so I kind of bounced off this phrase as it came, as we chanted it this morning. And I thought, or it's, what does it say exactly? May we exist in muddy water. With purity like a lotus, yes, right. So this conjures up a bunch of different images. And the one that usually comes to my mind first is the lotus is so pure and can just exist like this in muddy water and isn't that wonderful?

[15:33]

That the muddy water does not violate the purity of the lotus. And I sort of rebel against this image because I think it's a little more complex in the fact that I think that in a way Well, you know, just to take it on one level, you know, you couldn't have the purity of the lotus without the muddy water. That's just sort of a given. But on the other hand, may we exist in muddy water with purity like a lotus. I'm thinking purity in a different way, in a way somewhat is the way Alan was talking about last week, which is purity as not excluding, a purity which does not exclude anything, that our existence is one of a kind of emergent constellation of different elements constantly, and that

[16:49]

that that, in fact, is purity, and to be able to appreciate that as purity means that we hold it without excluding part of it, without hoping for some part of it not to be there, or some other part should be there, really. that purity can be something that is simple insofar as there's nothing left out. So getting back to pure intention. with nothing left out. I've written this, it seems.

[17:55]

Maybe that's something like as choice to trust and honor your deepest vein of aliveness and compassion, free from aversion and clinging, to honor your deepest aliveness, your own truth as you know it in that moment, in this moment. and compassion, that your sense of connectedness with everything, free from aversion and clinging, free from the wish to change that, to do anything about it. I'm very interested in a practice called nonviolent communication, and I've been working on this for a couple of years. in different workshops and groups. And one of the modalities for exploring what goes on internally with one is a concept called, there's a chooser and there's an educator.

[19:02]

The chooser makes choices, the educator talks to the chooser about what you just did. The educator can be very active. And we have these kinds of voices in our head. all the time, feelings, a sense of reaction to something we just did, and so on, in the way that I have been talking about. So, I've been trying to focus on, lately, on the chooser side, to be aware of my intention or choice as what I wish to do, what I feel I need now, but not to exclude the commentary. The commentary is important and useful, but it has its place.

[20:07]

One has to know what that place is. and to, in other words, to allow that big field with whatever's in it, but perhaps not to let the voice in your head dictate how you should be feeling, what you should be doing next, and so on. I want to mention that for those of you who aren't aware, on Monday in the morning during right after service at 620 a.m. we're going to have a ceremony here to install Alan Snoddy as the vice abbot here. And this is going to mark the beginning of a, well, it's going to mark the beginning of a transition that's already been taking place, but our abbot, Sojourn Mel Weitzman, named it. Alan as his successor in the Abbasid, and so this will be the first sort of formal marking of that, and there'll be some slight changes in Alan's role.

[21:14]

He has been Tonto, in other words, the head of some teaching functions here and temple administration duties, and there'll be some of that will be increased slightly. He'll be a little bit more visible in some of those roles for now. So you're all invited to attend. What I really wanted to say about this is that it's very hard to know exactly how we'll go along together during this process. And I have felt very much, not exactly up against, but very much with my intention to hold this process. usually what happens, especially in wonderful organizations like this that have been with a founding leader for a long time, there's some kind of disruption that has to take place before we can kind of have a succession of some sort in leadership.

[22:26]

It's very typical. Someone has to die or someone has to get kicked out or something like that. I am just so hoping, so excited that we are holding hands through this process and I think we're learning a tremendous amount. And so that holiness is with a very wide intention, which I hope all of us can hold this with a very wide intention, allowing for the confusion in our heads and the sometimes confusing and painful feelings in our hearts and knowing that that's really the right intention in this case. So I want to just end my part of this, which is so that we can have some discussion, by coming back to how we support our intention moment to moment.

[23:48]

And as I went thinking about, this was difficult for me to think about, because you can see I've made a bunch of circular statements as I've been talking here, and I'm going to make another one. which is to say that somehow just bringing ourselves to doing this practice as best we understand it is the way we support the person choosing to be awake in this moment. The more we do that, the more subtle and pervasive and embracing, all embracing, that intention can be. So I'm going to stop now and if anyone would like to say something or ask a question, feel free to do so. Thank you. Yes, Ross?

[24:52]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Right, right, yeah. Let's say, well the way I was talking about it was that if intention is, you know, not held widely enough, then naturally Mara appears. You know, let me in, you're excluding me. You know, what about this? Don't you think of this? Wouldn't this be fun to do? Come on. Very naturally. If intention wavers, does Mara step in? I don't know. I don't know the answer to that question. That poses a kind of troublesome thought to me, you know, like Mara's lurking. Of course, Mara's there all the time. Yes? Yeah, right.

[26:19]

Invested in which? I'm sorry? Right. What I was trying to say was to kind of make a distinction or a characterization of how intention can be focused in such a way to generate that opposing energy. And it also can be supported and held in a way that will lessen or perhaps not generate that energy. Yes, yes, yes. So when that energy arises, how do you receive it?

[27:27]

That's another lesson of this story about the Buddha, is that energy arose, and how did the Buddha handle that? Well, he found a way to befriend, to embrace and include. It was a lesson for him. Yes? I'm glad you brought that up because it's connected with something I wanted to say which I hadn't remembered or written down in my notes which is that Our intentions, we have all sorts of intentions. We have intentions to go to the grocery store or, you know, whatever. And so, it's something about knowing what that is on each moment.

[28:45]

When you come to the zendo, we have all kinds, we have a bundle of intentions perhaps, you know. or maybe not, depending. You know, when we just have one intention to come to Zazen, it's usually kind of wonderful. But usually there's other stuff going on, you know, as you're saying. But to know that, to be clear about, you know, in this case maybe if you're sitting on the cushion, how am I choosing to be here? What is my intention in the way I'm here? Is my intention to really let my breath expand in any particular way or to let my body be balanced? Am I just wanting somehow, I just want to be on the cushion and I want to go to sleep? Whatever it is, just to know what it is, is maybe

[29:47]

the support, or it's sort of a key, being able to turn towards being clear about, turns towards clarity about what your intention actually is in that moment. And that whatever you're doing, that's going to be a support for your practice, however your practice manifests in here or somewhere else. Being able to be clear about what you intend now, is really key thank you yes thank you for your talk um i don't know if this is if you're talking about this or not or this is what i'm kind of interpreting but um the difficulty of practicing with no gaining idea that that um somehow gaining idea kind of creeps into our intention sometimes or definitely experienced that.

[30:53]

So I was thinking about maybe that's what you're talking about. And then also I was thinking about this image of purity of the lotus and the muddy water and thinking that, in my opinion, purity is not about being I also like the image of the cow with the big pasture, and that Suzuki apparently said encouraged people to be mischievous. And I think mischievousness and curiosity has a lot to do with not getting caught in the trap of thinking, I have to be good all the time to be pure. Well, definitely, when you think you have to be good and that you're going to be good, it's going to bring up the other side.

[31:55]

But what you said at first about, you know, sometimes thinking you're doing something for somebody else when you're doing it for yourself. It's really okay to be doing that for yourself, but you need to know that. And if you know that you're doing this thing for somebody else and it's really for you, then you might approach it a little bit differently. Maybe, maybe not. Yes? You were talking about aliveness and so on. It seems to me that something can feel very alive. Well, for example, say, desire to fight for one's country, for example. That can be very alive for people. Or, say, a passionate attraction to somebody who maybe isn't available. That can also be very alive. So how do you, you know, identify what is, you know, I don't think that's the kind of aliveness you're talking about.

[33:05]

Well, I think that the statement includes a lot of qualifying ideas. You know, coupled with compassion, free from aversion and clinging. So, then if you consider aliveness in that context as a sort of joyfulness. Probably there are I mean, from my own experience, it's probably taken many years to experience that aliveness as opposed to the other examples. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Well, but, you know, you wouldn't be here if you hadn't known what it was. Probably. You had something? Yeah, that's another piece of it too.

[34:10]

Yeah, turns the mud. Yeah, that's great. I'm glad to hear those thoughts. Don't think it was wasted energy at all. Thank you. Yes, Peter? Yeah, thanks very much. Your talk reminded me of But to me it was my whole-hearted commitment to my present intention within the larger intention.

[35:37]

Or I guess sometimes it's interpreted as perfect intention. Sometimes, yeah. And I recently read a book by a Zen priest scholar, Brian Victoria, called Zen War. You've probably read that book. I haven't read it, no. Very disturbing book. Because it talks about our sect, Soto Zen, and Rinzai Zen, and other imperialism of the Japanese during World War II and before, with a lot of intention, a lot of purpose, a lot, and part of the way to enlightenment became doing this kind of practice, which involved supporting the emperor and supporting the troops and supporting, you know,

[37:26]

Japanese imperialism in China and all of this stuff. It was a very appalling book to me. And I think that it's, you know, we need to delve into that history of our school. So, you know, in relation to your talk, in relation to some of what other people were saying, it's like, where is that, what's the intention about, it's not, What is the right intention? And is there a wrong intention? Well, as I characterized it in the beginning, I said it's motivation in accord with the truth of existence. I don't think that what the Soto sect and others participated in, and the way they participated in it, in World War II.

[38:28]

I mean, that's just my judgment for what it was worth. It was not in accord with the truth of existence. So I think that, you know, almost any time a religious or spiritual or what have you kind of institutional life gets hijacked into a political project like that, it's going to become distorted in just those ways. And so I've been trying to talk about Right Intention as not clinging, as in accord with not-self, in accord with impermanence. And so we're down here at a pretty low level here. But when you start to translate those concepts into a social arena, I think it gets very tricky.

[39:32]

We may have to do that sometime. That's part of, you know, maybe not our generation, maybe some of the next generation, but it's, I think it is tricky and something I'm very interested in, but, you know, I haven't really stepped into that. Does that answer what you were saying? Well, it's a discussion. How are we doing on time? Looks like we have one more. I'm curious to read this book, because I don't know the details, but I'm curious to read the thinking.

[40:58]

Because this is what Suzuki Roshi talked about, or what it's reported he talked about, is that he would have discussions about the way people were thinking, which is really the root of it all. And it's, of course, why Right View is the first of the Eightfold Path. I think we're out of time. Thank you all very much. He's our number one

[41:28]

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