Some of the things I'm going to talk about today sound easy, and as a warning that they're not so easy, I'm going to say that in wanting to talk about the miracle of being present, the miracle of just being present in daily activity, In getting ready to talk about this, I drove many people up the wall. First of all, myself. I completely forgot about the present moment for about maybe five, six days. And I want to thank my Dharma brothers and sisters for all their patience in doing this.

[01:02]

What I'd like to, the other thing I found in getting ready for this, I wanted to talk about a fascicle from Dogen called Miracles. And in, And it was something that touched me very deeply, but then when I went back and read it more carefully, I realized that I had made up, made it up. There was parts of it that were there, the parts that were really important to me, but I'd sort of discarded a lot. I'd done some real big picking and choosing. And I have done that for this Because among other things, there's enough material in this for three or four classes. There are many different cases listed in it. So, I think maybe the miracle is that we can live in the present moment

[02:09]

And this is, the other name for it is Jinsu, and what I'm going to read from is, to begin with, is a translation from, done by Catherine Thanos and Kaz Don Hashi. And I'm going to try to keep this to be not a long talk because I'd really like us to be able to have time to talk about it. So if I forget to look at the clock, will you sort of signal me? Thank you. This is from Dogen, and again, it's jinsu, or miracles. The miracles I'm speaking of are the daily activity of Buddhas, which they do not neglect to practice. There are six miraculous powers One miraculous power, no miraculous power, and unsurpassable miraculous powers.

[03:26]

And there's a note here, and I have... These miraculous powers are listed sometimes as six and sometimes as five. Divine eye, divine hearing, telepathy, knowledge of future and former lives, and knowledge of magical operations, knowledge of cessation of defilement. When they're five, they drop out the knowledge of magical operations. Anyway, he says, these aren't the big ones. Practicing miracles happens three times in the morning and 800 times in the evening. Five or six miraculous powers like these are lesser miracles.

[04:40]

Those who practice them never dream of Buddha miracles. The reason I call the five and six miraculous powers lesser miracles is that they depend upon special practices and realizations, and they are limited by circumstances. They may occur in this lifetime, but not in another lifetime. They may be available to some people, but not to others. They may appear in some lands, but not in other lands. They may appear at times other than the present moment, but may not appear at the present moment. Great miracles are not like that. And so then we go on. And that was Dogen talking, and then he starts to talk about Lehmann Pong, Pong Yun. Lehmann Pong Yun is an outstanding person in the ancestral seat.

[05:46]

He not only trained with Yangshi and Shito, Shito who we know from chanting in Japanese is Sekito Kisan, but met and studied with many enlightened teachers. One day he said, Miracles are wondrously manifested in fetching water and hauling firewood. And I'm going to read the little section of his verse that he reads when he's having a conversation with Sekheto Kisen soon after he had become enlightened. Anyway, the way he got enlightened which should be good teaching for me, who likes to talk all the time, his teacher covered his mouth, asked him a question, and he had his mouth shut. Well, one day Shito said to Lehmann, since seeing me, what have your daily activities been?

[06:50]

When you ask me about my daily activities, I can't open my mouth. Lehmann replied, Just because I know you are thus, I now ask you, said Shito." Whereupon the layman offered this verse. And before I read it, I might mention, it mentions vermilion and purple in here. And those are the colors that only, at that time, that only high officials in the government could wear. My daily activities are not unusual. I'm just naturally in harmony with them, grasping nothing, discarding nothing. In every place there's no hindrance, no conflict. Who assigns the ranks of vermilion and purple? The hills and mountains, last speck of dust is extinguished. My supernatural power in marvelous activity, drawing water and carrying firewood.

[07:53]

You should thoroughly understand the meaning of these words. To fetch water means to draw and carry water. Sometimes you do it yourself, sometimes you have others do it. Those who practice this are all miracle Buddhas. All this is only noticed once in a while. Miracles are miracles. It's not that things are eliminate or they perish when they are not noticed. Things are just as they are, even when unnoticed. Even when people do not know that fetching water is a miracle, in fact, that fetching water is a miracle is undeniable. To carry firewood means to do the labor of hauling, like in the time of the sixth ancestor. Even when you do not know about miracles being practiced 3,000 times in the morning and 800 times in the evening, miracles happens. Those who see and hear the inconceivable function of miracles by Buddha Tathagatas do not fail to attain the way.

[09:15]

Thank you for your patience. When I see people bringing this much paper and piles of books, I think, oh, here we go. But really, it's just my miserable cut-and-paste system. I still actually have real glue and scissors rather than using the computer. The next thing I'd like to read from and skip to is from the Engaged Buddhist, which is a collection

[10:56]

done from other earlier publications. This is from Thich Nhat Hanh, which says, Life is a Miracle. And includes, I think, the part I was looking for in this that I couldn't find. basically talks about these miracles does not mean being a matter of faith, but a matter of practice. And in this Thich Nhat Hanh talks about some matters of practice, some ways of practicing. In Vietnam, when he was a young monk, each village temple had a big bill like those in Christian churches in Europe and America. Whenever the bell was invited to sound, all the villagers would stop what they were doing and pause for a few moments to breathe in and out in mindfulness.

[12:04]

At Plum Village, the community where I live in France, we do the same thing. Every time we hear the bell, we go back to ourselves and enjoy our breathing. When we breathe in, we say silently, listen, listen. And when we breathe out, we think, this wonderful sound brings me back to my home. Our true home is in the present moment. To live in the present moment is a miracle. The miracle is not to walk on water. The miracle is to walk on the green earth in the present moment. To appreciate the peace and beauty that are available now, Peace is all around us, in the world and in nature and within us, in our bodies and our spirits. Once we learn to touch this peace, we will be healed and transformed.

[13:05]

It is not a matter of faith, it is a matter of practice. We need only to find ways to bring our body and mind back to the present moment So when we can touch what is refreshing, healing, and wondrous. Sometimes we rush about, but we are not at one with what we are doing. We are not at peace. I call that my white rabbit thing. Those of you who are Alice in Wonderland readers, remember the white rabbit who's always rushing in and out of the holes. And I think in the Disney version, he's always saying, I'm late, I'm late, I'm late for a very important date. That's a mode that I can very easily fall into. And I notice a lot of people smiling at that out there, but they can too. Our body is here, but our mind is somewhere else.

[14:11]

In the past or the future, possessed by anger, frustration, hopes, or dreams, We are not really alive. We are like ghosts. He has a story in here from Camus, but I'd like to share a little incident that happened, and I've spoken about it before, Nifendo. When Suzuki Roshi was already diagnosed with cancer, my friend Anne Overton and I went tiptoeing up with flowers to give Okusan, who loved and got a lot of strength from doing her you know, with long faces. And somehow we'd already killed Suzuki Roshi in our heart. He was always ready dead. We were chipping, toying around, and Oka-san opened the door and said, Come on in! Come on in! Come see Roshi! Have a cup of tea! And Suzuki Roshi was sitting there with his son, and they were laughing and had the biggest smiles on their face.

[15:19]

And, uh, And they were able right then to live in the present moment where we had thrown ourselves into a future. There was quite a way off yet. He goes on to talk about, this is Thich Nhat Hanh again, his love of trees and how he planted many trees And he found that when he got away from the present moment, that hugging a tree was a great thing for him. And when there was a great storm at Plum Village, and many of the trees were destroyed, and some were in very bad shape, he would just go and touch them with compassion. And luckily, they had a friend who was a tree surgeon, and they saved this one especially important tree that had been important to them

[16:24]

not just for its beauty, but for the shade it casts and how many people would come and sit under it. And so he says, now, whenever I can, I touch its bark and feel it deeply. In the same way we touch trees, we can touch ourselves and others with compassion. Sometimes when we try to hammer a nail into a piece of wood, Instead of pounding the nail, we pound our finger. Right away, we put down the hammer and take care of our wounded finger. We do everything possible to help it, giving first aid and also compassion and concern. We may not need a doctor or nurse to help, but we also need compassion. We may need a doctor or nurse to help, but we also need compassion and joy for the wound to heal quickly. Whenever we have some pain, it is wonderful to touch it with compassion.

[17:26]

Even if the pain is inside, in our livers, our heart, or our lungs, we can touch it with mindfulness. And then he suggests an activity that you can do right here, or if your hand's in mudra, you may already be doing it. He says, our right hand touches our left hand. And when we touch our left hand with compassion, our right hand also feels that compassion. The compassion is there for both the giver and the receiver in both hands. The best way to touch is with mindfulness. You know it is possible to touch with mindfulness.

[18:29]

When you wash your face in the morning, you might touch your eyes without being aware that you are touching your eyes. You might be thinking about other things, but if you wash your face with mindfulness, aware that you have eyes that can see, that the water comes from distant sources to make washing your face possible, Your washing will be much deeper. As you touch your eyes, you can think. Breathing in, I'm aware of my eyes. Breathing out, I can smile to my eyes. I think, in my experience and my experience of my friends, there are different ways, in some gates, some Dharma gates, that because of our own nature, that are more available to us. I mean, for all of us, Zazen is one of those ways. But I have friends who don't sit Zazen and are in touch with the miracles of the present moment.

[19:42]

Some of them through their practice of music, and some of them through their practice of walking. And some of them for their compassion and their work for nature. And some of them through their compassion and work for those who live on death row. And some through their practice of gardening. For me, in a way, one of my ways is I tend to sort of thrive in dirt. So I love to garden, I love to get out there and dig, and I love to work in clay. I even love to clean my house. Sometimes I even love to wash the dishes. But those are some of my gains. And I love my friends and my family. But for different people, they're different.

[20:42]

I have to practice and make part of my zazen practice. The practice of keeping my ears open while I'm sitting and letting that sound be part of my awareness because my practice is usually my eyes as well as my hand practice, usually my gaze. And I can stare for an hour at a wall and easily just totally trip out on that wall instead of bringing myself to zazen. Just what happens is light changes. So he goes back and said, I'll go back to that. Our eyes are refreshing, healing, and peaceful elements that are available to us. We pay so much attention to what is wrong. Why not notice what is wonderful and refreshing? We rarely take the time to appreciate our eyes. When we touch our eyes with our hands and our mindfulness, we notice that our eyes are precious jewels that are fundamental for our happiness.

[21:50]

Those who have lost their sight feel that if they could see as well as we do, they would be in paradise. Seeing is a miracle, a condition for our happiness, and most of the time we take it for granted. We don't act as if we were in paradise. Even when we have just a stuffed nose, we know that breathing freely is a wonderful thing. When we walk mindfully and touch the earth with our feet, when we think, when we drink tea with friends, and touch the tea in our friendship, we get healed, and we can bring this healing to society. Often, the more we have suffered in the past, the stronger a healer we can become. We can learn to transform our suffering into the kind of insight that will help our friends in society.

[22:53]

We do not have to die to enter the kingdom of heaven. In fact, what we need is to be fully alive. The miracle is to walk on earth. This statement was made by Zen Master Lin Chi. The miracle is not to walk on thin air or water, but to walk on earth. The earth is so beautiful. We are beautiful also. We can allow ourselves to walk mindfully, touching the earth, our wonderful mother, with each step. We don't need to wish our friends peace be with you. Peace is already within them. We only need to help them cultivate the habit of touching peace in each moment. I'd like to read one very short poem. This was on the back of this month's newsletter, and it's by Suzuki Roshi.

[24:12]

If we try to listen to something wonderful, it means ignoring the bird that we are listening to now. When you think Buddha said something wonderful and I must find out what he meant, then your mind is directed toward Buddha's words so that you don't hear the birds. So always we sacrifice actual reality because we stick to something. And we stick to something that looks like it is very good, but it is not so good. If we have this kind of attitude when we listen to words, or teaching even, we will lose our life. And maybe our whole life will be sacrificed because of some special teaching. So our way is rather to enjoy our life right now, without sacrificing. This is the kind of desire which human beings have to some extent. Desires we have are good, but if we are enslaved by desire, we lose whole being.

[25:20]

Well, I would like to leave the remaining time for people to ask questions, but also if you have some particular path or practice that you've experienced that helps you to stay in the present moment, I would like to hear about that too. Perhaps you can teach us all something in these moments we have left. Yes? You said something about... I didn't quite get it. Perhaps I missed some words. Things are not as they are, that are being noticed or something. I didn't quite understand. Oh, that the... I guess it's sort of Dogen's view is, you know, if the tree falls in the forest and there's no one there to hear it as it's still falling. That's a rather jammed up version of that. But that the miracles are happening all the time.

[26:54]

That the miracles are there, they're still there whether we see them or not. I think that's what you're referring to. Yes. I was four years old and I was very uncomfortable and the comment that the person made triggered all kinds of just old stuff that was really painful and I sat there with this knot in my stomach and like I wanted to cry and all of that and I did not feel particularly miraculous. And it was very painful. And fortunately I had a good friend who kind of provided a shoulder and so forth. But I'm just always interested to hear how, I'm interested, how do you practice with that when it doesn't feel like it's a miracle and when what the present moment is is extremely uncomfortable and all you want to do is just get the hell away from it as fast as you can?

[28:14]

We have a lot of practice practicing that when we sit zazen, don't we? I guess that's what I wanted to say at the beginning, is that we can't always... sometimes we have to set that present moment aside and gather ourselves together, or as you said, your friend together. Long time ago, Well, when I started to sit zazen, and I talked about this in a talk, some of you were here a long time ago, that when I start to sit zazen and I still fall back into that, my mother is present, turning me into a child immediately, with all the well-meaning mother, It's just like they say in the sentence, sit up straight, don't move, don't talk, eat mindfully, you know, don't make a mess.

[29:27]

I'm great at making messes. And soon that well-meaning mother inside of you turns into the mean mother. And I think that's one of the, you know, till you straighten your back, you know, till your back is like fire. And I think that's why I sometimes am suspicious of Thich Nhat Hanh's words because they seem so easily accessible. They don't seem to be a great mystery, but they're those things, you know. When you sit or when you're dealing with those things, if you can try to bring compassion back, touch yourself with compassion as you're sitting, to breathe through the knee, with compassion. And then sometimes, you know, sometimes you can be a good four-year-old while you're doing it, too. A happy four-year-old. I don't know if that's to the point, but... Yes, Al?

[30:34]

that the feelings are accessible. to open this door of ease. And they don't. You just can't separate them out. And I was also thinking like, you know, what Shannon was saying, it reminds me of, it's not entirely Nowhere in Dovian or in what you read did anyone say that you had to like whatever miracles you were experiencing.

[32:13]

But it doesn't necessarily underscore their miraculous quality. I certainly have had that experience. I don't like them, you know, when things are happening and they're just, you know, inconceivably complex and amazing. get me someplace else. But I think it's the seal of practice that is how we meet it. When we talk, I'm reminded of that Suzuki Roshi saying, you might not ever like it. You might not like it. I think of someone. Well, see, I never promised you a rose garden. And when I first heard that, I thought, oh, she was never promised something as great and as beautiful as the miracle of a rose garden.

[33:17]

And then someone else said, yes, but what about the thorns? And I had never thought of the thorns, you know, in that rose garden. I had just gone off in this. And of course, the person who wrote that had a lot of thorns. Ah, yes. It's not as when you're worrying about the stuff or what's going through you. You're not doing anything in the moment anyway. I mean, it's happening, but you're not really still enough to notice the moment. That's where the miracle is. Yes. I actually have two things to share. One was, you said, what were some of the factors because they are what they are and I love being with them and they are so predictably present with me wherever I am.

[34:38]

And part of it is the predictability and knowing that I can go to that place. And part of being in the present and knowing that I'm straight forward is knowing there's a place to be. And what seems to be really in my mind these days is, it's okay to feel the pain, and how can I be with the pain? And that there's a lot of messages, all sorts of them, that it's not okay to feel the pain, whether it was from where I was born, like you were, or not. And so, it seems to me I think it's, yes, staying with the pain, staying with our own pain, the pain all around us in society is important.

[35:55]

But I think also the other side of that is if you grow up, as I did, in a good Jewish family, you can hold on and cling to that pain with guilt. There are a lot of people who did grow up in Jewish families that I see laughing. And you can cling to it when your friends are suffering, when their children are dying unexpectedly, when they are dying. It's easy to think, you know, I have to stay with that suffering. And you do in a way. That's part of your gift and compassion to them. but you also have to stay with the other part of it. Yes. Or I think you do. Yes. You had your hand raised before. Oh, yeah. I was going to say something similar to that and to what the fellow behind me said.

[36:56]

I think being in the present moment does mean not necessarily getting caught up in old stuff. That notion of being with the pain, I think it is somewhat paradoxical. One way I use it is with a different emotion, which is with fear. When I start to be apprehensive about something in the future, I try to tell myself, look, in the present moment, I'm absolutely safe. Nothing bad is happening right now. And it's always, at least 99% of the time, it's anticipatory fear. about what's going to happen. But at least the experience in my life has been, most of the time, things are good, things are okay. And there's always something, there's always something to key into in the present moment that is not painful.

[38:00]

I don't think that's necessarily running away from the pain at all. And there's a whole lot out there. It's a question of what you tune your receiver into. You know, you can tune your receiver into a bird, you can tune your receiver into any number of things, or you can, you know. And to me, being in the present moment, and I don't do this most of the time by any stretch of the imagination, but being in the present moment means looking at what's there right now and not what happened in the past or what might happen in the future. That's why it's so difficult. And it really means losing yourself. That's why gardening is so wonderful. You get out there and you dig and you look at the plants and you decide what means pruning and this and that. You know, you lose yourself completely. That's the But when it happens, it's so easy.

[39:06]

I don't know why it's so hard. I've got to take a moment to say something. Well, I'll leave it and then come back, OK? Yes. All right. You know, as I am listening, I'm going to see what my understanding is and what I do actually do. I agree with the gentleman's statement that the miracle is being present in this moment. But as Shannon said, she was feeling like a four-year-old, and there was pain in her stomach, and even though that may have been initiated by thought, an association, the present was pain in the stomach.

[40:07]

And the question for me is, how can I be with pain in the stomach without any judgment? I mean, whatever may happen, or feeling like a four-year-old without letting it be wrong to feel like a four-year-old, or judging it in any way, perhaps I'm not open at that very moment to the whole of the experiences before me, but my whole consciousness is taken by this pain, and that's all that I can see. That is my present moment. And the question is, how do I open totally to that? How do I... without constricting or judging it, mooring away, how do I open consciously and gently to that and really be with it in a compassionate way like that, not right hand touching the left hand.

[41:15]

How can I be with my pain at that very moment? I can tell you two things that Sogyal has told me. Could you speak louder? Oh, and thank you for letting me know. I can tell you two things that our teacher, Sojin, has told me at different times. My body is such that I have quite a bit of problems with pain at different times, and it's an unusual time when I sit with no pain. And I find, and it took me a long time to realize that that has its own pain because the pain always brings me back to my body in reality. Keeps me from tripping out the window. But to breathe through it and to breathe into it and to breathe out and to be aware of it with your breathing.

[42:18]

But the other that he said was, no matter how big your pain is, you are always bigger

[42:26]

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