Good morning. Good morning, Dharma friends and Bodhisattvas. I've got a question for you. And my question is, if you consider your practice this morning, And if you consider the people in your life, who would you want to dedicate your practice to the well-being of? That's my question. And so I wonder if we could just, even though it's not the way things are done, just take a moment to consider who's in our life to dedicate our practice to today.

[01:08]

Do you mind? You don't have to look at me, you can look at them. Okay. You got it? Okay. And now, I wonder if just, you don't have to raise your hand, but if we could just take about 30 seconds in glorious, harmonious dissonance to say those names, okay? Jackie, Jeremy, Blanche, Yeah, thank you. I think we just increased the size of the lecture hall by about 5,000 miles in any direction.

[02:19]

Okay, thank you so much. Because people who are remembered do better. than people who aren't, and this is actually scientifically proven. There was a study done by Stanford nurses probably about 12 years ago, I think now, and the nurses had noticed that people who were prayed for, whether they knew the pray-er, whether the prayee knew the pray-er, were not consistently did better than people who were not prayed for. And the nurses thought of the idea of the study, and the study was done because of their observations.

[03:22]

So what I'm thinking is those nurses heard and saw. They felt and studied. what was right in front of them and thought about it in a completely new way based on their own, the impact that those people's reality had on their own lives. This is extraordinary. This is an extraordinary superpower that we have as human beings to change human life and to turn it from a field of suffering and conflict to a field of peace and harmony. And so I would like to talk today about hearing the cries of the world, not as a depressing thing to do, but as a way to actually affect

[04:30]

the lives of people around us in a good and beautiful way. We have a chat that we do in Japanese in morning service called Enmeijuku Kanon Gyo. Enmeijuku, I should say Kanon Gyo. Enmeijuku Kanon Gyo is the ten phrase Kanzeon Sutra. Kanzeon or kanji zai, is the Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara, sometimes depicted as a man, sometimes depicted as a woman, who hears the cries of the world. And so the sutra starts, kan ze on na mu butsu, kan ze on. hearer of the cries of the world.

[05:31]

Namu Butsu, homage to Buddha. It said that Avalokiteshvara was born from a thought of Buddha. Yobutsu u-in, yobutsu u-en. So in, in-nen is causes and conditions. And N is what is internal or intrinsic or part of our equipment, causes, inner causes. N is usually what is external, what is produced. So what's internal and external, what's cause and result, what's inherent and expressed. Yo Butsu U In, Yo Butsu U In. Buddha is internal or cause or original.

[06:34]

The world, Yo Butsu U In, Buddha is the condition, the result, the flower. Buddha is the seed, Buddha is the flower, Buddha is what's motivating us, Buddha is what's shown or expressed. Bu-po-so-en, jo-ra-ku-ga-jo. Buddha, Dharma, Sangha are the N, they're the expressions. What we would usually think of as an object or outside of ourselves is an expression of what's inside ourselves. Bhu-po-so-en. Jo-raku-ga-jo. What are the qualities of Buddha? Well, jo is constancy. Raku, ease or happiness, joy.

[07:43]

Ga, self. cleanliness or purity. Those are the qualities of the cause and the qualities of the condition. Cho-nen-kan-ze-on. Bo-nen-kan-ze-on. Nen is a very interesting character. So Nen has a Roof. It says now. It's kind of a roof. And it has a heart underneath. I don't know how to do it backwards. Let's see. Like this. That's now. And that's heart. So it means now bringing to heart or mind. So it's often translated as memory, but nen is also like nenbutsu.

[08:49]

Nenbutsu is more than just having a memory of Buddha. Nenbutsu is bringing Buddha as a remembrance into the heart and mind. Nenbutsu. So jo nen kanzeon, in the morning or the dawn, is the thought of kanzeon. The dawn is the memory or remembrance. The dawn itself, the morning, is itself the memory, and in the morning, we remember. So both cause and condition. Bo-nen kanze-on. Twilight, dusk, is the expression of kanze-on and the memory of kanze-on, the remembrance of kanze-on. So cho-nen kanze-on, bo-nen kanze-on. NEN NEN JU SHIN KI. JU means outpouring or coming out from.

[09:52]

So NEN NEN JU SHIN KI NEN NEN FU RI SHIN. NEN after NEN outpours from the heart and mind. NEN NEN FU RI SHIN. thought after thought, or remembrance after remembrance. Fu is not the separated shin, mind, or heart, big mind or big heart. So here's my translation. First I'll give Aitken Roshi's translation, if I can find it. Here we go. Kanze-on, veneration to the Buddha. With Buddha, I have origin. With Buddha, I have affinity. Affinity with Buddha, Dharma, Sangha. Constancy, joy, self, and purity.

[10:57]

Mornings, my thought is Kanzeon. Evenings, my thought is Kanzeon. Thought after thought arises in mind. Thought after thought. is not separate from mind. So I translated it, hearer of the world's cry, refuge in Buddha, awake to seed, awake to flower. Buddha or express, awake to express. Buddha, Dharma, Sangha, express. Eternity, joy, purity, self, big self. Dawn, recall the hearer. Dusk, recall the hearer. Recall and recall, arriving mind. Recall and recall, undivided mind.

[12:02]

So there's so many ways to translate it because each character is like a hologram of a whole world. and brings up so many things. English is a linear language. It's hard to, you can't really translate. All you can do is write a poem and you can write thousands of different poems trying to translate this that evoke different pieces of it. And so there's so many translations online and there's the characters are online. Try it yourself. and wrestle with this yourself. Because this little 10-sentence sutra, which we recite at morning service, we recite for people's well-being, we recite when they're on their deathbeds and just after they die, it contains a whole world of wisdom and compassion in one easy-to-remember package, and there's more. Sorry, I couldn't resist it.

[13:08]

There's not more. No, no, no. Let's not go there. Okay. So, you know, it was, I don't know if you remember Maile Scott, who is my Dharma sister and now a student. So she loved this sutra. and all the practices that went along with it. So Meili was a kushin seisho. And she was a social worker, a mother, priest, the founder of Rinchenji, Forest Heart Temple. And she died in, I want to say 2001. 2001, yeah. And she was a very quirky human being.

[14:09]

And she used to, we used to often meet like under umbrellas in the pouring rain at peace demonstrations, which she did, she led. She was a flame of of burning desire for peace and for a world that made sense. She loved this sutra and she also loved the Metta Sutra, the sutra on friendliness, because compassion was one of the big topics in her life. Her metta practice was forged in difficulty of her own life and the life of the people she helped.

[15:10]

And so I also want to read the metta prayer that Maywee wrote, I want to say in the mid-90s. She had just written it. when we did that large San Quentin demonstration for the, when the capital punishment, when the execution started happening again, which I think was in the mid-90s, and she had just written it then. So she wrote, and we say at a lot of demonstrations and on a lot of occasions, this is what should be accomplished by the one who is wise. May I be well loving and peaceful. May all beings be well, loving and peaceful. May I be at ease in my body, feeling ground beneath my seat and feet, letting my back be long and straight, enjoying breath as it rises and falls and rises.

[16:16]

May I know and be intimate with body-mind, whatever it's feeling or mood, calm or agitated, tired or energetic, irritated or friendly, breathing in and out, aware, moment by moment, of the risings and passings. May I be attentive and gentle towards my own discomfort and suffering. May I be attentive and grateful for my own joy and well-being. May I move towards others freely and with openness. May I receive others with sympathy and with understanding. May I move towards the suffering of others with peaceful and attentive confidence. May I recall the bodhisattva of compassion, her thousand hands, her instant readiness for action, each hand with an eye in it. the instinct of knowing what to do.

[17:19]

May I continually cultivate the ground of peace for myself and others and persist, mindful and dedicated to this work, independent of results. May I know that my peace and the world's peace are not separate, that our peace in the world is a result of our work for justice. May all beings be well happy and peaceful. Okay, so you can feel that her translation of the meta meditation and this hearing the cries of the world and responding from a place that deeply acknowledges the awakeness of Buddha, respond from there, was central to her work. And because of that, so many beautiful and unusual things came forth from her practice. Like one time I remember Meili, Mel had just had, remember you had just had the episode and so wanted to give Dharma transmission to Meili and Alan and to make sure that Berkeley Zen Center was taken care of.

[18:37]

And so this was, this is Sojin's parental mind. So the first people he thought of in that situation were this sangha, this whole sangha. So he was in the hospital, he thought of this sangha, and thought, oh, let me give dharma transmission to Meili and Alan so that this sangha can continue, just in case. you know, it's probably not, this is probably not it right now, but let me do this. And we talked about it. And so he did. The moment we get to Tassajara, Meili looks at the documents and things and says, where are the women? Where are the women? All these names are male names. Where are the women? You know, and so we have this whole, and she hears, and sees something completely new. Oh, look at the lineage chart.

[19:39]

Bi-ba-shi-bu-tsu-dai-yo-sho, shi-ki-bu-tsu-dai-yo-sho, et cetera. Those are all guys. My name is going to be the first female name on this? I don't think so. So we go to Mel's quarters, to Mel's cabin, and we sit down in a circle, and Mel says, how is it going? And Meili says, where are the women? And so what happened in that conversation was that Maile and Alan became the first people in our lineage to recite the names of the women every day in that whole ceremony. Not in some imagined way, but in some realistic way that was realistic and honored both through tradition and the the circumstances, both the heart of transmission, which is be faithful and don't let it be cut off, and the circumstances, which is here we are in this new country, justice, naming of a whole group of people who this transmission is for and by, who have not been named, who have been in the shadow.

[21:01]

It was Maile's and Mel's, you know, so, conversation that produced this that has, it's flowered. A lot of traditions now include women, and this was the first. And so, how am I doing on time, Laurie? I've got about 20 minutes. 20 minutes? Thank you. Could you give me like a five minute warning till Q&A moment? Thank you. So this business of men isn't a matter of recalling something outside ourselves. It's of recalling something that is ourselves both in its seed and in its flowering.

[22:04]

And recalling isn't exactly just recalling, we recall by doing. It's a process of verification of the peace and harmony of ourselves and world. And this is like one of the most profound human impulses there is. It's more powerful motivation than 99.9999992% of the motivations that motivate us. It moves mountains. You know. So it can reach from someone who doesn't even know the person to someone who is being prayed for and give them a better chance of healing on their sick bed. It can make someone whole as they're breathing their last breath. It can make a baby in difficult circumstances have friends and supporters to change their entire life from the moment of birth forward.

[23:21]

It can end the Vietnam War, or the American War as it's called in Vietnam. So anyway, there's so many things that compassion can do. Let's just talk about something that really surprised me and has made my life, it's enriched my life over a few years. So last night, I was at the San Francisco Ballet with Lisa and Shelley, You want to raise your hand? Yeah. So Gleason Shelley. And we were reciting the Enmei Juku Kan'an Gyo from the orchestra pit as part of Yuan Yuan Tan's performance in the ballet Raku. So this Enmei Juku Kan'an Gyo in this ballet has gone around the world.

[24:26]

and in each year of its performance since 2011, has been seen and heard live by about 50,000 people each time. So it's been performed in, let's say, Orange County, Hamburg, organized by some of our German friends, London, where it was organized by Lena Barrington, who was a guest student at San Francisco Zen Center about 15 years ago. Washington, D.C., organized by Michael Wenger's student, Bobby Ponsparger. New York, where it was performed at the Kennedy Center. It was performed this past year at the Joffrey Ballet in Chicago, organized by priests and laypeople from Taigen, Leighton Sangha, I think.

[25:31]

And this year it may go to Ballet Pennsylvania, as well as to the Joffrey. It inspired a concert for peace called Resounding Compassion at the San Francisco Conservatory for Music. And anyway, it's gone. everywhere, and it started because in 2011, at the beginning of the year, Lou Hartman was passing away. Lou Hartman is my Dharma sister Blanche's, was my Dharma sister Blanche Hartman's husband, and they were married for 63 years, and he was passing away. This was his favorite sutra, the Enmei Jigokanen Gyo. So Shinji Ishima, an incredible bass performer and a teacher at the San Francisco, he teaches at, let's see, at San Francisco State University, San Francisco Conservatory of Music,

[26:51]

And informally, his friends are legion, you know, so when he calls on, when he calls one of these concerts, like the entire San Jose string section shows up or, you know, senior, you know, performers and, you know, San Francisco ballet, you know, so he's an amazing musician. And he had just written a ballet called Raku. Raku is, you know, Raku ware, that crackly finish, because it's called Raku, it means broken. The town has taken its name from it. So this ballet is about the burning of Kinkaku-ji, the Golden Pavilion. It's based on a true story. And no one really knows why the monk burned the Golden Pavilion, but the ballet says, oh, maybe it was for unrequited love.

[27:55]

And there's a moment in the ballet, it's about a princess, a princess and a prince who have a wonderful relationship. The prince gets called off to war. And there's a point then where the princess goes and prays for his well-being in a temple, at Kinkaku-ji, actually. And the crazy monk sees her and falls in lust with her. And then the rest of the ballet proceeds from there. So Shinji didn't exactly know how that section of the ballet was going to turn out, but he thought maybe he would have people chant Aum or Namo or something like that. And his base student, Paul Grantham, is on the board of San Francisco Zen Center. And so Paul, said, well, what do you guys think? Could you chant Aum or Namo or something? And because Lou was dying, we said, what about the Enmei Juku Kanon Gyo?

[29:01]

And Shinji said, I don't know. You know, what is it? And so then he said, oh, let's try it. So we went to the first rehearsal where they were starting to put together the music. And he asked me, would you speak about the Enmei Juku Kanon Gyo? And I did. And some of the orchestra members started crying. The chant for people's well-being? Really? And you're chanting this for us? And for Lu? And so Shinji figured out a way that the Enmei Juku Kanon Gyo could be part of the ballet. And so we chanted it. And the dancers started coming by the green room and saying things like, you know, it gives performance a whole different meaning. So I just want to read some of Shinji's words about this.

[30:10]

This is from an interview that he did January 15th. You can find it on the KALW website. It's an interview with Open Air, the show Open Air. And the interview was David Latulippe. And so David asks him about the story and then says, it's interesting that you're using chanters from San Francisco Zen Center on the block of which just last week was the scene of violence. So it was the four young men were killed on Page and Laguna. In a drive-by, they were shot. They were in a stolen car that they had bought for $15. And they ranged from 19 to 22 years old. And, you know, we had memorials, we had a march, we had a vigil. And so Shinji talks about it. The chanters volunteered to come and chant the ballet.

[31:12]

They actually chant for this ballet all around the world now as volunteers. They Skype each other to teach each other the chant. It's kind of amazing to have San Francisco Zen Center do this. It's become the core of the ballet because the chant they sing is the Enmei Juku Kanon Gyo, which literally means, we are here to listen to your suffering. We chant for your well-being. that this recent shooting could occur literally on their doorsteps. And then he talks about the memorial and I'm grateful to all the Zen students and the work they do around the world to show compassion and that there's another way to live. And I think in part it's because of his incredibly generous spirit that completely understood the chant without having to say much of anything, except this is for people's well-being.

[32:18]

And the orchestra members help us. We're not professionals. We sit in the pit, and then at the right time, if we can remember, we stand up, we make some sort of sound, and then we sit down again, right? So we're not professionals. We're just people who are interested in remembering the Enmei Jigokudanon Gyo. So there was more that I wanted to say about this, but I can't remember it so much. So maybe it'll come back to me if we actually talk about compassion and helping each other with our intention or any questions or comments you might have. So good stopping place for me, time for you. And please don't be embarrassed if I repeat your question so that when the lecture is heard on tape that your question could actually be heard.

[33:29]

Oh, okay. Thank you. So, good morning. My name is Shosan Victoria Austin. Shosan Gigan is my Dharma name. And I'm a priest at San Francisco Zen Center. And I started practicing in 1971 and received Dharma transmission from Abbott, Sojin, Mel Leitzman, in 1999. And I teach at San Francisco Zen Center. And in my spare time, I'm also an Iyengar yoga teacher. And in that context, I train new teachers at the Iyengar Yoga Institute of San Francisco and serve on some national committees. Thanks for asking.

[34:46]

Thank you, Vicki. I've heard it said that we can't really do anything for anybody, and that we are saving the beings in our own mind, and I'm wondering if you could speak a little bit about outside of our mind, and who are these people in our mind that are being saved? Thanks, Ross. So to summarize your question, it's like, okay, heard that we can't save anyone outside of our own mind. Who are these beings who are in our mind? Is that good enough for the studio audience? Okay. So, yeah, well, the only part of any being we can know is the part in our mind. You know, in the Abhidharmakosha Bhashyam, there's a phrase that's commonly used, which divides the experience up into citta and cetasika.

[35:59]

Citta means, we usually translate it as mind. Mind is a poor translation of that term. And Caitasika we usually translate as environment, minded environment. But the word citta and caitasika actually mean experience and experienced. The ability to experience and experienced. Okay? It's very interesting because you can divide up experience in different ways depending on how you want to think about it, but we can never get a handle on experience or on beings and what they actually are. I'm not going to go into the technicalities of the Abhidharma and how it divides, but Basically, you can divide it up into how the experience comes to be, or you can divide it up into the part of experience that's important for either suffering or waking up.

[37:13]

So the contact moment between the ability to experience, the experience, the raw experience and the object of experience. Okay? Anyway, it's all one thing, and it's all not one thing. It's all complete resilience of things, right? So, actually, at his enlightenment, Dongshan said, don't see the world or yourself as an object, or far from it you stray. Today, as I walk alone, Whichever way I turn, I meet myself. He is just me. I'm not he. If you understand that you as an object is not you yourself, then you have your own true way. But we get into trouble because what's meant by not you yourself, right?

[38:15]

Anyway, I don't want to tangle myself up in it, but let's just say that your question is like the single phone call that we can send to universal truth, and it reverberates back into subjective reality. Beings are not other, beings are not ourselves, beings are not something in between, but it's a mystery, it's a great mystery, and whichever way we come at it, we'll both be awakened to the whole picture, whole story, and we'll be completely wrong. May I tell you a story? So this is from the vigil the other night for those four young men. So I brought candles. And so I was handing out, I had this box of candles. Candle, candle, candle. And I was handing the candles to people so that we could respect the vigil when it came and show that we were there to honor the spirit of these young men.

[39:25]

And so as I reached to hand a candle to the woman next to me, she looked at me and her eyes changed, felt like she recognized me. And then I looked at her and I recognized her, but I couldn't tell where I recognized her from. And I said, do I know you? And she said, were you part of a group that ran out on the street 15 or 20 years ago when there was a woman being attacked? And I said, yes. And she said, oh my God, was that you? She said, I was working the streets that night. And it was the early morning and this guy came up to me to, I didn't hear what she said because I was reeling in shock, but I think he was trying to get the money.

[40:33]

And he held her up at knife point, she said. And I screamed. And she said, suddenly the door opened and all these people in flapping black robes ran out. Like, we're coming! And the guy went, ugh! And ran away as fast as he could, right? And she said, and then, I was shaking, and you gave me some tea, and you held me until the EMTs came. And she said, that moment saved my life, changed my life. And she said, I just graduated from CIIS with a degree in psychology. And I said, what are you going to use that degree for?

[41:37]

And she said, I'm going to use it to help people in trauma, like tonight. Thank you for your lovely story. Impulse control sometimes, so this is kind of tricky. I'm wondering, I was contacted to do a march, and I was a student of Maitley too, loved Maitley, to help ban fracking, and it starts at 11.30 next Saturday. And Frank Obama applauds me. I was feeling like, oh, should I announce it? But it conflicts with our lecture, unless we just all decide to be a little late and show up anyway. So I'm just having trouble with whether to say that now.

[42:39]

And I also, while you're having that talk, I have this image of Suzuki Roshi when he was dying. So that they mentioned in his book, Perfect Cucumber, of him touching foreheads with, now I can't think of his name because I have the image, but the app habit that San Francisco has. At that time, that was Richard Zenitatsu Baker. Okay, there's no way in the world I'm going to be able to summarize this question. But suffice it to say that it started with indecision and impulse control around whether to announce the march against fracking or not, and kind of segued into a gesture of touching foreheads that Suzuki Roshi did when he died that's kind of like what Nancy did of making contact with people.

[43:55]

Yeah, okay. What I can say is that your question or statement evokes something. It evokes that there's more than one kind of transmission. There's vertical transmission from teacher to student, but there's also horizontal transmission, like in my own circumstances, in my own causes and conditions, how does the Dharma arise here, in this way, hand-in-hand with all beings, you know, equal with all beings. How does it arise here, like pearls on a string? How can we see and feel the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Sangha in what appears to us as experience? How can we see I-nen in everyday life, instead of just a random collection of depressing stuff.

[44:58]

How can we hear and evoke the beauty of human life? So, yeah, that's actually, that's what the, and what I suggest you do about your, the thing that you did not want to mention, What I request that you do is to ask a group of people who might be interested, including leaders, to help you work out the conflict, to understand how, because that way you can understand what would otherwise be painful and dissonant. Oh no, it's a conflict, I have to choose this or that, or hide that I'm doing this because of that, or I don't know, it turns the dissonance into a dharma game. And that is what, that is the power of avalokiteshvara, the power of hearing.

[46:02]

So let's see what comes forth. Yeah, so we won't mention it. How am I doing? Pretty much time. I should shut up now, right? You can say one more thing. One more thing? Elisa was going to say something. Again, I don't know if this is the proper thing to say, but... No, no, it's terrible, but say it. There's a resonance here. Just having read some of the writings of the remarkable Dr. Atul Gawande, who is looking at the whole medical system and everything about how we care for each other and how broken everything is and yet how healable it is. And I find all of this is precisely the same form of clean and awakening compassion. Ask a question, what is right in front of me?

[47:05]

It's remarkable that he is manifesting the same thing coming from a different direction. we have this marvelous opportunity to share this together. So Atul Gawande. Do you remember the name of Atul Gawande's book? Because I don't. The one I'm most enjoying now is called Better. Better. His most recent and famous one is Being Mortal. Oh, Being Mortal. Yes. Okay. Yes. Everything he's written is gold. Thank you. Thanks, Lisa. So that wasn't an ad. That was just... Okay, so I think we should, I think this gig is complete. Let's go outside and enjoy the sunshine and spend a few minutes with each other. Thank you very much.

[47:57]

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