Good evening, everyone. I want to talk tonight about just a couple lines from an essay by Ehei Dogen, the 13th century Japanese master who founded this branch of Zen or brought it from China to Japan. This is an essay called Only Buddha and Buddha. And the main line I want to talk about is a story that goes like this. Long ago, a monk asked an old master. He doesn't mention the master's name. He's a fairly obscure guy named Zhaozhou Baozhou. He was a second generation descendant of Linji or Rinzai. Anyway, the monk asked, when hundreds, thousands, or myriads of objects come all at once, what should be done? So I relate to that question. It seems like these days myriad things come up all at once.

[01:08]

How to deal with all the different demands, all the different issues, all the different demands and things that arise. When hundreds, thousands or myriads of objects all come all at once, what should be done? The Master replied, don't try to control them. So I want to talk tonight about letting go of control. Or it could be translated, don't try to manage them. But, you know, we have a tendency to think we can control things. Even sitting for 30 minutes or so, we see that we can't even control our thoughts.

[02:14]

Maybe we can a little bit, you know, some of the time, but basically reality is beyond our control, beyond our ideas. You know, we can control things sometimes for a little while. We can control something some of the time. But this letting go of our sense of control is kind of liberating. Of course, We can make plans. We can try and take care of things. We should try and take care of things. But events are beyond our control.

[03:17]

Things happen that we can't control. as a Dharma teacher, you know, I'd like to control all of you and make you all wonderful, luminous beings and all that. But, you know, I can't do that. Seems like the best policy is just to, well, Suzuki Roshi talks about giving the cow a wide pasture, just to allow thoughts, feelings, allow everything to, and everyone to just be themselves. And then giving great attention to that. Allow ourselves to be ourselves. You know, when we're sitting, we may see that we can't even control ourselves all the time. You know, hopefully as surviving adolescents and as becoming adults, if that's what we are, we learn some impulse control and so forth, but we can't always even control ourselves.

[04:33]

How do we, but how can we allow ourselves to be ourselves and pay attention? without trying to maintain a tight grip. So the dual Mara Samadhi says, turning away and touching are both wrong. We can't grab a hold of it and manage everything. But ignoring it, turning away, doesn't work either. Of course, we have some control. But reality, reality has its own way of fooling us. And trying to be in total control can cause a lot of harm. There's a way of this allowing that is attentive allowing.

[05:38]

It's not disregarding. But it's not controlling either. As I was sitting, excuse me, excuse the example, Hector, but Hector is an actor and I'm sure you memorize your... your lines, but when you're there performing, many things are beyond your control, who is in the audience, what the other person who you're doing a part with, how they perform their part. So we can't control exactly, even if we know our lines. So I can't control this dharma talk. I have some notes, but it's... Some dharma teachers actually write out their whole talk and read it. I've never been able to do that. So I can't even control this dharma talk. And yet, it's okay. I can allow it to be whatever it's going to be. Some people are very good at controlling.

[06:47]

So business tycoons, billionaires have lots of control over things. Sometimes when they take over governments, they find they can't control things as much as they thought. So we're seeing that. Scientists think they can control things, too. And sometimes, you know, physics and reality have their own reality. And maybe reality can't even control things. Some physicists say there are many realities. So one Zen recommendation is not knowing. to actually be able to pay attention, to allow things to be themselves, to allow us to be ourselves, to allow the situation to arise, to pay attention to it.

[07:49]

Again, as Suzuki Roshi says, to give the cow a wide pasture, to pay attention, to try and respond kindly to the situation. But to know that we're not in control, we're not in total absolute control. Thinking we have total control can lead to lots of pain for ourselves and others. How do we allow each other to be ourselves and to be each other with respect, with kindness? to appreciate the flow of reality beyond our ideas of management. There's another line in this essay that's relevant to this. Dogen says, when you realize Buddhadharma, you do not think, this is realization, just as I expected.

[08:55]

Even if you think so, realization, awakening, invariably differs from your expectation. Realization is not like your conception of it. Accordingly, realization cannot take place as previously conceived. When you realize Buddhadharma, you do not consider how realization came about. You don't try and figure out, oh, how did I realize this is the flowing of everything arising right now. You should reflect on this. What do you think, one way or another, before realization is not a help for realization? Trying to figure out some plan to get to some wonderful state of enlightenment, that's, you know, That's not helpful, actually, is what Tolkien is saying. Although realization is not like any of the thoughts preceding it, this is not because such thoughts were actually bad and could not be realization.

[09:57]

Maybe every piece of your planning was also realization, but it wasn't that the planning for each piece of the planning was real. It was how you realized that piece of the planning. But everything is like that. Nothing happens according to our expectations. Exactly. Of course, you know, we, you know, we, how you got here tonight may have been based on some route, you know, whether you drove or took the L or whatever, you had some expected routine, maybe ritualized way of getting here. And it worked. Here you are. That's wonderful. But the details of each step along the way, if you examine them closely, were not what you expected.

[11:00]

Each moment is fresh and raw. Each moment is actually unique. Each breath is a wonderful new opportunity to allow yourself to be yourself. So nothing happens exactly according to your expectations, which isn't to say that, you know, again, you can plan things and you can take care of your life and you can take care of the things in your life and the people in your life and we make our best effort to do that. But if we think we can control things exactly, at some point we'll get into trouble. And we can't even control things based on, depending on, you know, the words of Dogen or some, you know, great spiritual teacher. So, you know, Dogen was teaching in 13th century Japan, how do we use

[12:12]

that guidance and the guidance of our Zazen now to respond here and this time and place. How do we not control or not hold on to some idea of controlling our own response to the problems of our own life and our own lives and our own world? How do we meet the freshness of each situation We have guidance for that and we have guidance that has been verified in each generation that's been passed down to us, the guidance of transcendent practices like patience and ethics and effort, skillful means. We have those practices. We have the guidance of Bodhisattva precepts and values to act with respect, to benefit all beings, to include all beings, to act with kindness,

[13:32]

to try and be helpful rather than harmful. So these are values that are being tested now. How do we try and support all beings, not just Buddhists or not just Americans? How do we respond to people being excluded, many people being deported this weekend? we have in our Sangha people from other countries. We have a situation and we can't control how to respond to that. I want to support the resistance, unquote, from Buddhist values of patience and steadiness and nonviolence and how do we do that.

[14:35]

So we don't have, we can't control that either. We can make our best effort. So Dogen also says in this essay, the last part I want to refer to, He says, when a Buddha has unsurpassed wisdom, it is called unsurpassed wisdom, not to know what it is like on this path is foolish. Well, you know, maybe we're all foolish. We don't know completely. Literally, he says, not to know the being time of the face of eyes on this path, on this way, not to know this time of being right now is foolish. And then he says, what it is like is to be unstained. To be unstained does not mean that you try forcefully to exclude intention or discrimination.

[15:38]

Of course, we have intentions, we make discriminations. We use our discriminating consciousness to assess what is happening in our world, to try and see how we want to act and respond. He says, it doesn't mean that you try forcefully to exclude intentional discrimination or that you establish a state of non-intention. So this is not about reaching some state of not thinking. Of course, our thoughts arise. And we can't control them. But we can pay attention to them. Being unstained cannot be intended or discriminated at all. We can't decide to be, you know. without discriminations or intentions. He says, being unsane is like meeting a person and not considering what she looks like. Also, it is like not wishing for more color or brightness when viewing flowers or the moon.

[16:42]

So when we see the moon, when we see flowers, do we want them to be some other color? Well, you know, we can do that. And, you know, it's not that everything just as it is is okay. Part of everything just as it is, part of the flowers of the world is that we see, you know, the difficulties of the world and we want to respond helpfully. How do we see things as they are? including our response, including, you know, acting from precepts, acting from patience, acting from kindness. So this is subtle. And we can't, you know, our usual way of being in the world,

[17:48]

The way our minds usually work is we're trying to manipulate things. We're trying to control things. This is so deeply ingrained. This isn't just about our consumerist culture, our capitalist culture. I think it's part of discriminating consciousness. We're trying to arrange things to get what we want or to get rid of what we don't want. How do we see that and not be controlled by that, but then also how do we apply the values of kindness, of benefiting all beings, of patience, of effort? So this is the koan of our attempt to live unstained, attempt to live kindly. without being caught in our ideas of how we can control the world or ourselves or somebody else. And we don't know how to do this.

[18:58]

And yet, we kind of don't have any choice. Here we are. in our lives, in this world, trying to respond, trying to be upright, trying to pay attention. So, I'm not going to be able to give you some answer or some guidance or some plan or some rule book about how to handle each situation. I'm only giving you this problem. But it's a good problem. It's a noble problem. It's about how do we be upright and calm and take the next breath and not try and push things around, to look at what's here and be kind. So comments, responses, questions?

[20:00]

Please feel free. Brisha. Good. Right. Yeah, I think allowing things to be themselves doesn't mean that we don't respond when there's harm.

[21:04]

Part of this is that there is this bodhisattva value of being helpful. Now, it doesn't mean that we have to start name-calling and blaming. But how do we try and stop harm when we see it? This is kind of subtle. It's a different way of responding than just, you know, name calling. But actually trying to stop the harm. And yeah, maybe, you know, there's accountability, but it's not about, you know, forces of evil out there. It's about, you know, what's actually happening? How do we help? Coming from that place, we can try not to cause more trouble. We can't control whether or not we always succeed.

[22:07]

Yes, Bill. So I'm coming off of a few days of a writing binge where Mr. Trump and his liberal detractors are keeping me very busy. And so, yeah, it's very hard for me to sit right now because of the 10,000 segments. Well, congratulations. You managed to do it. I think realization is a really interesting term. In some ways, I think it's a better term than we use in the West or in Enlightenment. I agree. The second thing I wanted to mention is that there was one of those German military theorists back around the time of Hegel and Clausewitz, who said something that sounded like, when I was first thinking about it, I thought it had to come from Sun Tzu, and I bet it is in Sun Tzu somewhere, that no plan survives a counter, or as he said, with the enemy.

[23:31]

I mean, you could say that no plan really survives encounter, but reality, I think, in a way, captures something of what you're saying. In that sense, you probably did say something along those lines. Probably Dogen had read Sun Tzu, I don't know for sure, but he had read all the classics. But yeah, that's interesting that no plan survives encounter with reality. That doesn't mean we don't make plans. It's just that the plan isn't going to be the way things actually unfold. Right. And that leads me to my third point, which is that I do think there's a lot of wear and Yes. Thank you. Other comments? Yes, hi. I think it was flowers and how that wasn't slain, but flowers in the midst of the reality.

[24:55]

I think it was how I only could see that in the picture, how everything in front of you, which was really cloudy as fuck. I think a good part of the realization is how I'm waiting, how I'm building this. I think a good part of that realization is how I'm letting go, and this is how I interpret it. Yeah, letting go is part of the art of this practice because we have all kinds of ideas about who we are and how the world is and how things should be. And some of those are very good ideas, you know. They might be in some accord with some big part of reality, but also when we hold on to them too tightly, they get in the way. So, yeah. Yes, sir. Risha was making the first thing that I thought of when you were beginning to talk was the idea of tolerance and this notion of attentive allowing, which seemed very useful.

[26:11]

But then I feel like with all the kind of views we're encountering and all the realities But I mean, I don't know that that's, I don't think that was really. Yeah, I guess, as you can see, it's kind of confused by all of it or overwhelmed. But is there a point where allowing is allowing harm or allowing destructive forces? I think that's what I'm getting at.

[27:13]

Yeah, good question. So yeah, sometimes we don't know what to do. So, you know, tolerating, tolerance is a synonym for the Buddhist term that's translated often as patience. Kshanti, it means patience or tolerance or forbearance even. And it's not a passive. It's a dynamic active practice. So it involves attention and being ready and willing to respond. But sometimes we don't know what to do that's helpful. So rather than just running around trying to do something just for the sake of doing something, to actually just stop and pay attention and wait to see what to do. So it's not allowing harm, but sometimes we don't know how to respond to help stop some harm.

[28:17]

That may happen, but it's not tolerating the harm. It's actually paying attention and trying to, you know, it may be talking about it and sharing information and listening to others and how they see it. So it's an act of tolerance. It's not just accepting harm. It's waiting to see how to respond and be helpful and intervene where there's a way to actually make some shift. And often it may be just some little shift, but that makes some difference. You know, there are lots of people now who are being actually harmed. There are people in Chicago who are being taken away and deported very quickly. And I haven't been able to track. There are people who are going and trying to block the government agents from going into the homes of those people.

[29:18]

And, you know, I haven't been able to find out when and how that's happening. I think I would try and go and stand in their doorway if I could find out. That's just me. But to talk about it, I think, is also not just accepting it, but we don't always know what to do. So allowing means allowing the fullness of the situation, including our intention to be helpful, but also sometimes we don't know how to be helpful. So it's subtle. That may not be a satisfying response, but that's, I can say, Douglas. probably try to exercise, when we have that condition, an automatic response to something.

[30:34]

If I see their internal faces in objects of attraction, or anger, or fear, I'm concerned that there's a problem. I think that we certainly don't. and then you respond with this moment of pandering. That's not necessarily passive. It's not allowing yourself to automatically respond with anger or attraction. And by not turning the things of the world and the circumstances into the object of fear or attraction. There's an intimacy there that is challenging, I think. One of the things about it is that way, there's a difference.

[31:44]

And it's in your face because it's not in the theater. And we can't separate ourselves from other people. It's about determining if we are objects of attraction or anger, if you can treat it that way. I think Dougan is certainly not a passive kind of person. A lot of what he's doing in children's films is trashy in some ways, and I don't think it's okay. How do you deal, how do you deal in real life when you face, see someone who is, it sounds more like mediating anger, hatred, or doing harm, not responding in kind, but certainly resisting. That's a pretty hard question. Yeah, so I think that you should be aware of your own medication, and then respond in a more awake way.

[33:05]

Just let it all be, everything is okay. Yeah, so I've made the distinction between responding rather than reacting. And Dogen is always talking about expressing something, how to express our awareness in the world somehow. So, yeah, Ben. When I was sitting right now, I was getting really, really sleepy, like I sometimes do. It's a bit warm, yeah. But so I had, if I didn't do something about that, I'd be snoring right now. I didn't hear that. It was close a couple of times. So I feel like I had to respond. I had to recognize that my sleepiness wasn't going to go away. So I couldn't force the sleepiness out of my head.

[34:13]

I couldn't just be okay with it, otherwise I would have been asleep. And so what I find myself doing, and I know it's not going to be very satisfying, is watching myself fall asleep, fall asleep, fall asleep, and then waking up, and watching myself fall asleep, fall asleep, and then wake up. And I think after a while, I was going to say I find a balance, but I don't. I think it's that constant going back and forth. And I have some colleagues at work who irritate the heck out of me. And I think over and over again, I find myself getting irritated, getting irritated, getting irritated, getting irritated. Pull back. I don't know. I mean, it seems like maybe control isn't the right word. Maybe responding is the right word. But it seems like there has to be some kind of reaction or some kind of response.

[35:15]

Yeah, there's a kind of attention. And paying attention makes a difference. When we're paying attention, we can respond somehow. Anyway, this is... This is not just academic. This is how do we take care of the 10,000 things rising up all around us? Greg? I wanted to add something. This may sound a little bit frivolous, but it's not meant to be. When you were talking about we should make plans, and everyone made a plan to get here tonight using their usual route, why didn't you do that? I think the reason I wanted to mention that is because it made me think about, when I get scared, when I get, when I feel out of control, I don't know what to do.

[36:16]

I really am quite freaked out while I'm climbing down, and I've noticed it in my behavior. I mean, kind of, maybe, and on a scale of 1 to 10. Thank you for that. That's actually an important point, an important practice. And I think now, in the current situation, there are a lot of people who are feeling fear and uncertainty and so forth. But we do all have rituals. Rituals is a good word for them, routines, ways, things that we do. And one of the skillful practices to keep us paying attention is to do something out of our usual. So everybody should just go get a Dairy Queen, or whatever it is that will do that for you. So thank you for that. That's actually a helpful practice.

[37:36]

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