I thought maybe I'd begin by telling a story, and since I'm telling it, it's his story. I'm not going to tell the whole story. of the Houston Zen Center. When I first came here, it wasn't called the Houston Zen Center, it was called the Houston Zen Community. I'm going to try to not... and move on to the beginning of a year called, some people call it, 2020. And I thought, that's a nice number for a year. And at the beginning of that year I participated in an intensive practice at Green Dragon Zen Temple, at Green God's Farm, a yearly intensive we have there.

[01:16]

And that went really well. And other people in America were hearing about an epidemic in China of a terrible virus that was spreading to Europe. But in America, the only thing I noticed was just sitting there watching it come. But it hadn't come yet, so it was happy days. And the intensive ended, and then after the intensive, went to a place called Houston, and did a lovely retreat with you. Some of you remember that lovely retreat? Everything went quite nicely, and again, happy days. I mean, you know, in terms of the virus, it hadn't hit.

[02:27]

So we went back to Green Dragon Zen Temple, and then a few days later, Reverend Johnson came to visit. And we started a practice period, and he was serving as head monk. And things were going really well. You know... The practice period was going really well. Everybody was really healthy. And then it hit. And we had to close the practice period down. We couldn't go into zendo anymore and sit together. So for our practice that was really a death.

[03:38]

And Royce couldn't beat you so anymore in the league. So then I started a period where we couldn't go in the zendo. Month after month we couldn't go in the zendo. Couldn't sit together, couldn't practice together. And then came 2021, and after a while, we felt like we could go back in the Zendo and practice together, and also meet together. First with masks on, it was open, it was really cold in the winter.

[04:44]

Doors open and masks on. But we were together again. We're practicing together again. So, we also gave Zoom talks from Green Gulch. And every time I gave one of those talks, I just felt like so much suffering. How can I start every talk with acknowledging so much suffering? Not just having the pandemic, but taking care of people who have the pandemic. And so much suffering in so many ways. And yeah, so then after a while we felt like we could take our masks off in the zendo. We kept them on when we chanted like we just did here.

[05:52]

And we're still wearing masks when we chant. But otherwise we're sitting in the zendo without masks. We haven't yet opened up at Green Gulch to let people come in and enter our public buildings. Last summer, we were pretty close to opening up, just a little while ago. And at this little temple I have called No Abode, we had our first sitting in years. where we could actually all be together without masks. And it was a lovely day. Everybody was so happy to be back together. And then a couple days later, Delta virus. So since July, that retreat was, that sitting was on my birthday.

[06:58]

We closed the temple again. And now maybe in December we'll be able to have an in-person event again. It's been very hard for community practice. Right in the middle of the COVID, we offered a great assembly at Green Gulch online. Three or four hundred people actually signed up. A wonderful, great assembly. It was studying the Lotus Sutra. And then again, since that time, I felt more and more I'm called to pay attention to the practice of compassion.

[08:02]

And it's not just the pandemic, it's all kinds of other forms of humans being cruel to each other and disrespectful of each other, hurting each other, fighting with each other, respecting each other, being harmed by other beings, and maybe even harming other beings. So much of that I really felt drawn to concentrate on compassion. Concentrating on compassion, also, I often think that When I first was attracted to Zen people and Zen behavior that I read about, I didn't have the in my consciousness.

[09:22]

I just was deeply touched by the behavior of these people I read about. Now I see that they were being compassionate. But the word compassion was in almost none of the stories. I didn't notice the word compassion in the stories. And then I heard about Zen training, and I didn't hear the word compassion. Maybe some other people did, but I didn't hear it. I heard Zazen, but it didn't say, you know, that is to say, compassion. But today I'm here to say zazen is compassion. That's what zazen is. It's great compassion. It's Buddhist compassion. That is our practice. But I didn't have that concept when I first started practicing.

[10:27]

I had, again, the concept of these people are the way people are. I'm not going to say these people are the way people should be. These are the people I want to be. These people are showing the true way of life. And I didn't think, these are compassionate people. I just want to be like those people, whatever you call them. And they were called Zen people. And then there was a training to become like those people. The training was called Zaza. But again, today I saw compassionate people who were showing the life of compassion. to be the life of compassion fully. And the training, again, was called Zazen. And all those people did the same training programs.

[11:31]

I thought, well, I'll try it. So I've been trying. In the Zendo, as you know, in traditional Zen temples, in the Zendo is Manjushri Bodhisattva. The Bodhisattva of great wisdom is enshrined there. Of course, we practice wisdom and worship wisdom. And Zazen is also wisdom. And the Buddha, usually it's Buddha. But where's Avalokiteshvara?

[12:32]

Avalokiteshvara. Where's the bodhisattva compassion? The bodhisattva compassion is around the temple, too, all around the temple. In this zendo, instead of majishi, there's a statue of a bodhisattva of great compassion. In Sanskrit they call this bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara. Tibetan Chenrezig. In Chinese, Guanyin. In Japanese, Kana. The guan and the kan. Avalokiteshvara. means the one who looks down upon the world, on the loki, the one who looks down on the world, who contemplates the world and is self-existent, ispa, is free, the liberated being who is watching the world of suffering.

[13:52]

That being is liberated, and so they're not watching the world of suffering because they're being forced. Their freedom naturally attends to the world of beings who are not completely free. Avalokiteshvara. Bodhisattva. Quan yin means to contemplate. Yin means sound with cries, to contemplate. And so when you contemplate sounds often you say you're listening. But that character also means to contemplate. And kanan means also to contemplate or regard the cries of all beings. That's the bodhisattva.

[14:59]

But again, starting to practice Zen in the sixties, In California, we didn't talk about compassion much, or people were talking about... We talked about zazen, sitting, awakening, enlightenment. So these days I feel we need to balance not just sitting, with the awareness that just sitting is wisdom, just sitting is the treasury of true normal eyes, just sitting is unsurpassed, complete, perfect and eternal. And that is great compassion. Also, there's another name for it. which I think needs to be lifted up.

[16:12]

We need to include that mindfulness that when you're sitting, your sitting is devoted to great compassion. This is the way the Buddhas sit. Their sitting is devoted to great compassion. and their voices in so much suffering. And we're learning to be more consistently mindful of listening to all suffering beings. Also, in most Soto Zen temples in the main hall, there's a central altar, and then there's two side altars, and one of the side altars is a sculpture of the protective deity of the Soto school, whose name is

[17:52]

Daigenshinri Bodhisattva, which means great protector of the Bodhisattva. And that figure looks like a Chinese official going like this. You know, as in, not saluting as much, but kind of like, hmm, how are things out there? The figure is a protective deity. It's a maritime protective deity. It's a deity that watches over the ships and sailors of China. And Dogen saw that figure when he was... and on his way back to Japan his ship had a really rough time and he saw that deity on the bow of the ship protecting him and the other people to bring the Dharma to Japan.

[19:01]

So then he had that deity put into the Japanese Zen temples Protect the practice. And on the other side of the altar is Bodhidharma. Are you all familiar with that name, Bodhidharma? Anybody not? Bodhidharma, close friend of yours? So I don't know who Bodhidharma is. And I also don't know who Avalokiteshvara is. But I imagine, although I don't know who Avalokiteshvara is, I imagine Avalokiteshvara is present everywhere. And so... We have a story about Bodhidharma that he was from India,

[20:09]

And he traveled to China. And somehow he had an audience with the emperor of China, or the emperor of the Liang dynasty, which was in the south. Somehow he got an audience with the emperor, and the emperor also got an audience with Boidano. This emperor was a historical figure, and a great student of Buddhism, and a great patron of Buddhism. Bodhidharma met him, and in the interview, the emperor kind of referring to all these meritorious acts that he had offered to the world supporting Buddhism. Yeah.

[21:14]

The emperor says, well, how much merit do I get? And Bodhidharma said... Then the emperor said, well, what's the highest meaning of the holy truths, the Four Noble Truths? And Bodhidharma said, no holy. Vast emptiness, no holy. What's the highest meaning of the Four Noble Truths? Vast emptiness. What's the highest meaning of the Four Noble Truths? You can't apprehend the highest meaning. It's vast. Space. The emperor says, who is this facing me? And Bodhidharma said, don't know. The actual Chinese says, not, and has a character for consciousness, which could be translated as no.

[22:29]

It is the character for consciousness, rather than another character, which often means to know. What is facing me? It's not consciousness. What is it? That's all I said. It's not consciousness. Or usually translated as, don't know. And the alpha self also sometimes translated, I don't know. But it just says, don't know, or don't consciousness, not. That's who's facing the emperor. something that's not consciousness. What is it? Well, I say what's facing him is great compassion, which pervades all consciousness. Each of us has a consciousness, each moment. Each moment we have a consciousness, which is a limited realm of cognitive awareness.

[23:31]

where there's a self, we have that every moment. Great compassion is not that. But great compassion pervades it. And that consciousness which each of us has each moment, each moment of our consciousness is what great compassion embraces intimately. Great compassion is in solidarity with our limited, cognitive, self-centeredness. And that was facing the Emperor. And then the story says, Bodhidharma left across the Yangtze River and went north. And after he left, the emperor asked the court Buddhist teacher, who was that masked man?

[24:46]

And the emperor said, that was Avalokiteshvara. As you can see, that was Avalokiteshvara. And I've heard that story, told that story many times, but the first several times I heard it, it didn't really strike me to my core. The Dharma is Avalokiteshvara. The founder of the Zen school is Avalokiteshvara, who has paths like Manjushri, Samantabhadra, and Maitreya. But the founder is great compassion. Great compassion is the founder of the school, and it is the school.

[25:54]

Great compassion is the main cause of Buddhahood. And it is the result of Buddha. I'm praising great compassion. I've been doing that now for most of this... And I will continue to the end of 2021. And after that, no one knows what will happen. But I pray that I continue to remember great compassion, moment by moment, with every moment of my own awareness and every moment of each person I meet, that I remember great compassion for this being, his sufferer.

[27:02]

and great compassion for all beings, all beings, even those who are really cruel and disrespectful, and have been abused, frightened, and angry, etc. They too are calling for Avalokiteshvara. And it's very difficult to remember that. That's why we have to train to remember it. Some time ago, Abbott Snowhawk invited me to come and do And I agreed, and then one thing led to another, and I had a big surgery on the left knee.

[28:12]

And that surgery was six weeks ago, and here I am. Some of the people at Green College, when they heard I was coming to do a session, they said, cuckoo. Wow. And my daughter says, Daddy... I said, I'm just going to go and tell them that I'm here with you, and I'll be here with you for this retreat, but I don't know what I'm going to be able to do. I have not... I'm not going to descend... the process, whatever it is that's going on, which I think is healing, takes a lot of energy to address the trauma of the body.

[29:21]

And it's just amazing how much rest I need. I'm here, I'll be with you, but I don't know how I'll be with you, and so I might be a little different than you're used to me being. Support me, and with your help, I think I can be with you, and I will be with you. With my help, you could be here too. So let's do this retreat. Let's focus on this about how Buddha's compassion, which is great compassion, which is not compassion for a few people, or even a lot of people, it's compassion for every people, and every animal, everything, all phenomena. So let me just briefly say... The first few words I say are going to be brief.

[30:49]

There's two things I want to start talking to you about. One is, how do you generate great compassion? I mean, part of it is to want to. Part of it is to realize that beings we really want to be like are compassionate ones. Then how do we a lot. That's where it comes from. And there are certain kinds of trainings which help us generate it. And there's two I'd like to start talking to you about. One is just to contemplate the suffering. Listen to it. Look at it. Review how beings are being tortured in this world. Review how they're being tortured.

[31:57]

Review how they're being tortured. Review their torture to contemplate it. And it's very painful to contemplate it for most of us. Some people don't have much trouble contemplating it because they're being tortured. But even then, it's hard to stay alert when they're being tortured. Like somebody told me just recently that she went to the scene of an accident where her husband was injured and she couldn't think of anything. The pain was so intense, she couldn't think of anything. She couldn't think of license plate numbers, names of policemen, or whatever. Sometimes the pain is so intense, we can barely face it, but we sometimes ignore it.

[33:02]

And we have, most of us, been ignoring the suffering of this world. like we just chanted, through our ancient evil karma of ignoring suffering, that ignorance has become a big obstacle to practicing compassion. So now we're being called to look at what we're to look into the areas of suffering that we've been ignoring. And it will be painful to look at our ignorance, to look at our habits of turning away from suffering. It will be painful. But it will be medicine. And not looking causes much greater pain.

[34:06]

So first, We meditate on the suffering of beings. That's the first point. The third is to imagine some way to deeply appreciate the preciousness and deeply cherish all life. even the life of people who are enemies. And say they are. And also cherish those who don't care about us and we don't care about them. And of course, cherish those we do like. We do appreciate and cherish those who have been kind to us, not miss how important they are. So that's another practice to look at.

[35:11]

These practices will help us generate great compassion. And I would also then like to look at different kinds of compassion. So great compassion is Buddha's compassion. But then there's many other kinds of compassion, which are compassion which you have felt individually at various points in your life. You felt compassion here, compassion there. You felt compassion for some people, sometimes. All those little compassions are embraced by Buddhist compassion. But it's good to understand their little compassions, and be compassionate to them, but also not get stuck in them, not be limited by limited compassion, by working with it in a proper way.

[36:18]

I'd like to respectfully look at some different types of compassion. because they're part of the landscape of developing Buddhist compassion. So, that seemed like maybe that was a kind of an outline of what I want to discuss with you. Another way to put it is, I want to examine compassion. I want to explore it. I want to investigate it. I want to experiment with it. With you. In other words, I do not want to practice compassion in a way where my practice is unexamined. I want questioned, called into account compassion.

[37:26]

So now I think my introduction maybe has gone on long enough. I wouldn't say it's complete, but just maybe long enough. Anything you want to say before we conclude this session? Yes, yes. Yes, Neil. First, thank you, Roshi. Welcome to Texas. Thank you. Nice to see you. You said to me once that practice is passion practice, practice contributing, wisdom practice. What did you mean by that? I guess maybe what you're suggesting now is that they're actually interchangeable, maybe they're the same thing. I'm not surprised that I said that. I can say by country practice I kind of mean also monastic practice.

[38:32]

So I think you can develop certain things in the monastery, away from the city. You can deepen the wisdom, I think, in some ways, And the country environment, the silence of the country, is very conducive to concentration and samadhi, which are necessary for wisdom. So you can develop those a little easier out in the country, if you don't have to get in your car every day and drive around and so on. Driving cars is so dualistic. So to take a break from certain activities, you can concentrate on concentration and wisdom, country and monastery. But the city is such a great opportunity to develop compassion. And sometimes in the country, people might forget about all the suffering people in the city.

[39:42]

So it's good to go there. Look at all these suffering people. So the city does, in a sense, offer something that the country doesn't, and vice versa. But what we want to do is have compassion. It's constant and all-pervading, but still sometimes we do focus maybe on concentration and wisdom, without mentioning compassion. But if we forget it, our concentration won't be deep. So Buddhist compassion is Buddhist wisdom. I was feeling a lot of compassion, and I was thinking of it, I was enjoying compassion, and I'll say why. And then when you used the word feeling a little compassion, I realized it was actually a little compassion.

[40:49]

So my question is, I don't know, expanding one's capacity for compassion is a challenge, as well as expanding one's capacity Because I was looking at this little table, the reed table that Dave Johnson made. So he's probably here in the room. And he'll be coming today. His wife is bringing him, so he'll be in a wheelchair. Parkinson's is very advanced. I feel teary. So I was feeling compassion for all the wonderful things that he's done for Houston's community. Really, you know, full of compassion. And it is a little compassion. So how do we through that capacity one wants to turn away from compassion to. Well, yes. To examine how so-called little compassion, what's the problem with little compassion, and how is it little as compared to some other kinds.

[41:53]

So you look at somebody who is very dear to you and who is suffering, You feel compassion. It deeply touches you. But in that compassion, the limited part is that maybe at that moment you're not remembering that this person is also an illusion. You're deeply touched by the illusion of the sweet person who suffered death. But you're not thinking, oh, that's an illusion. That's my view. Somebody else thinks he's a white guy. He's difficult, yeah. Again, that's an illusion. He's not this or that. None of us are. So that's part of it. I look at it. What is it about? What do we mean by this first kind of compassion?

[42:55]

And what are its strong points and what are its limitations? And then there was other kind where we start to become still practicing compassion, but bringing Dharma into it more. So we can feel, and I see this all the time, people feel they're just so compassionate towards babies and puppies. And people are so compassionate, it's so touching. And they think they know who that person is. They think the person is what they think the person is. So it's deeply moving, but it's also... It's called sentiment. And that kind of compassion, although it's deeply moving, it has the... What's the word? The drawback, or the... What do you call it? It's at risk of turning into burnout. Buddha's great compassion doesn't burn.

[43:59]

And Buddha's compassion embraces all the people's small compassions, which are at risk of burning out. So if we don't understand small-scale compassion, we might actually abandon the very beings we're devoted to, because of our lack of exactly what we think they are. But it doesn't mean you stop seeing the illusion. It's just you see it and remember it. And it's still very precious and touching, but you're not caught by it as you develop. To develop understanding of compassion, it grows through understanding and studying. That's why I like to study with your compassion in terms of true and beyond. But not excluding the compassions that any of us ever feel, but just realize, is there some ignorance of the reality of the being that you're devoted to?

[45:11]

And often is. But let's look at that ignorance compassionately. Our limited view of other people, which means our limited compassion. Well, it's okay with me if nobody else has a question. Louise? Thank you, Ben, for bringing out Dave's name. Because I was thinking about him, too. I was not sure if it meant this much. But what I was thinking, he had been one of the Bodhidharma... And that's the tip of my eyebrows. Yes. Markable eye. So. I think a little bit better out there.

[46:13]

I remember Dave from the first retreat. The speaker's seat was back on that side at that time. I remember Dave being kind of way back here by the window. His scrubs, green scrubs. And, you know, having a very strong voice. And, you know, beautiful, powerful voice. Kind of yelling at this man. Kind of yelling at me. But that was his love for me. And Rick talked to him about that. I was his roommate. Oh, he does, right? He used that voice frequently for a side wish for me. It wasn't a side wish.

[47:32]

We should also remember the illusionary character that will become with me without compassion. Yeah, the lady. I know. I know. How many kinds of compassion does the man have? Also, in the first retreat I did here, at Margaret Austin Center, I just came, they asked me to do a retreat, and they told me it's going to be a silent retreat. I didn't say, You want me to do a retreat? Well, the retreat should be silent. I didn't say that. I was told they wanted me to lead a silent retreat. I said, okay. And I went into the kitchen, and it was like it was a party. It was a party. And one of the leaders was Dave.

[48:35]

And people were like really talking it up. It was a very, very chatty silent retreat. And especially in the kitchen, but all over the place. Not in the Zender. Zender people were quiet, but all over the place people were very, you know, and I thought, you know, I thought, these people haven't seen each other for a while. They're so happy to see each other. They love each other so much. They just want to express their love, and they did. Southern hospitality, left and right. It was lovely. But I didn't really think it was a solid retreat. It was more like... Which reminds me that I didn't talk to Khadgar Roshi about this, but I heard that his favorite TV show was Love Boat. I never watched it, but... Anyway, I think I really felt like the people in the Houston Zen community really loved each other, and I just observed them loving each other and being very chatty.

[49:53]

And then I also observed, over the 25 years, that they don't. And I thought, I think they've learned, over the years, that they can express their love without talking. And they can feel love from others in silence. That's one thing I thought. I don't know if that's true, but it's not true. No, it's something I thought. I think we'll meet together more often instead of once a year. That's my story. That's another story. That's her story. So you've heard her story and his story. And it actually seems kind of unfair that we don't have her story books, just history books.

[50:57]

But we should have her story books. Anyway, I am listening to... One part of my compassion practice is to listen to her story. I'm listening to a lot of her. from my perspective, young women telling stories about the suffering in this country. And these books that I'm listening to are read by professional actresses. And their voices are so lovely. And the readers' voices are so lovely. I'm going to call it A Spoonful of Sugar Helps the Medicine Go Down. So these beautiful voices are giving me this really bitter medicine.

[51:59]

I need a little bit of it every day. My experience with Chinese herbs is that when I first started taking them, they were super bitter. But after a while, they started to taste like Coca-Cola. So every day maybe we need some bitterness. Maybe not just bitterness, but some bitterness we need to be healthy. So I'm listening to to bitter stories of our wonderful country. This is part of my compassion practice, is to listen to these cries, to her story, to her stories. Histories are stories, yeah, part of my practice. And it's part of traditional bodhisattva practice, is to listen to the suffering of the world.

[53:12]

Yes? The root of the word history is the story, which is witness. Yes. And also, Be open to expanding what you're listening to. Don't just listen to a small band. Try to find... Where haven't you been listening? Sometimes it's hard to find, but ask your friends to help you. I think it would be good for you to listen to that. But do you listen to her? Listen to them? to listen to everybody, but our vow, which we'll soon chant, is to listen to everybody. Since he gave us that number, I vow to listen to him.

[54:13]

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