Good evening and welcome. So we're about to enter another new year. And this is a time when people make New Year's resolutions. And from a Buddhist perspective, I think of it as a time for rethinking or renewing, re-examining intention. So this works on many levels. We can look at our just basic intentions, regular intentions, our everyday life this week, this month, this year, and also look at our deep intention. What are our intentions?

[01:01]

What are our intentions for practice? What are our intentions for this life? You know, in some ways it's maybe arbitrary when we say it's the new year. So in East Asia they have the lunar calendar and Chinese New Year will be, we will celebrate later, a little later in the solar year. But anyway, this is according to our regular calendar, day after tomorrow will be a new year. So what does this mean? What is the point? What is the meaning of our lives? So in some ways, the basic Zen question the most fundamental question, and the question in many of the traditional Zen koans, why, well, sometimes it's translated, why did the ancestral teacher come from the West?

[02:18]

And this, of course, refers to Bodhidharma, who's considered the founder of Chan in China, which is Zen in Japanese. He's standing on our altar on this side. An image of him that I got from the, was given to us from a student of mine from California when we visited his temple, Kongshan Temple in China, where he taught, Bodhidharma taught. Why did the ancestral teacher come from the West? Why did he come from India to China? Sometimes the question in the literature is posed as, why did he come and make such a mess in China? What was the point of that? Literally, the Chinese character that's used, Yi, in Sino-Japanese, what was the intention?

[03:31]

What was the mind? What was the meaning of the ancestral teacher coming from the West? So this character, one of the characters that's used for mind, be translated as, it also means intention. What is our intention? What was Bodhidharma's intention? When he traveled, well, some people say he traveled across the high deserts in northern, north of Tibet. Some say he came the southern route across the waters. Anyway, what was his intention? And it's translated in various ways. In one story, Thomas Cleary translates it as, what is the essential meaning of Zen? And yeah, that's kind of the point. What is the essential meaning?

[04:33]

What is our basic intention? What is the meaning of this practice? What is our intention in this life? What is the point of our doing this practice? What is the point of our life? So there's so many levels to such a question. The great ancestor, Jojo, Joshu in Japanese, maybe the greatest Zen master of all time. There are more stories about him than maybe any other. of the classical Zen masters, maybe just because he lived longer. He lived to be 120. But he was asked, what was the meaning of the ancestral teachers coming from the West? And he just said, oh, the cypress tree out in the yard.

[05:33]

And there are many, many such stories of pithy responses to that question. So on New Year's time, what is the meaning? What is the intention? What is our intention at this New Year's? What is Bodhidharma's intention for 2020? How will Bodhidharma express our practice in 2020? This is our question this week. What was the meaning of Bodhidharma's coming from the West to China? What was the meaning of Suzuki Roshi coming from the West to the West, taking all that trouble to come from Japan to California?

[06:36]

Lots of ways to think about that question. Why do we bother to care about what we do in this life? What is our intention? There's so many levels of that. What do we do? How do we make our living on all the levels of that? So, right intention is one of the eightfold paths. The Eightfold Path includes right view, right intention is the second one, right speech, right conduct, right livelihood, maybe the most important in our time and place, right effort, right mindfulness, right concentration. This is the fourth of the Four Noble Truths. The first is simply the truth of suffering, the noble truth that we can face the suffering of the world, the sadness of our own lives and of the world around us, and face it uprightly.

[07:58]

The second noble truth is there's an end to that, or there's an end to that suffering, or there's a way to be with that suffering. Well, the second, excuse me, the second noble truth is that there's a cause of that, the cause of that suffering or that dissatisfactoriness are grasping after things, are grasping for objects of desire, are grasping at trying to get rid of the things that we don't like. But then the third noble truth is that there's an end to this kind of grasping, this kind of dissatisfactoriness. Then the fourth is this eightfold path, including right intention. But in Zen, we ask, what is the meaning of the ancestral teachers? What was the intention of the ancestral teacher coming from the West, spreading this meditation practice?

[09:05]

And in some ways our Dzogchen practice is just about this question. So as we sit uprightly facing the wall, facing ourselves, facing all beings, facing our life, facing everything. So the wall is not a wall to keep anything out. We're not trying to keep out. you know, immigrants or people who are different from us or beings different from us or, you know, anything. The wall is a window to all beings, to all the things in the world and all the things in our own life, our own grasping and anger and confusion, our own causes of dissatisfaction This first noble truth of suffering is, so this is all sort of basic teaching, but this dukkha, this first noble truth, is etymologically just misalignment, that things are out of whack, things are out of alignment.

[10:33]

But our practice, our sitting upright, to see this. And then as we sit and face the wall and face ourselves and sit upright and sit like Buddha and allow Buddha to be present on our seat, something happens. We start to see our own patterns of grasping and anger and confusion. We start to see, oh, what am I up to? What are my own intentions? What are my own ancient twisted karma and patterns of grasping, of anger, of confusion, of trying to get this and get rid of that? And as we do this practice regularly, we become familiar with that. We start to see what we're really up to. We start to see our karmic patterns of intention are habits of intention.

[11:42]

And so when we ask, well, what was the meaning of Suzuki Roshi coming from Japan to California or whatever? What was the meaning of Bodhidharma? coming across the desert to China, what was the meaning of all the ancestral teachers continuing to share this practice? What's the meaning of our continuing to sit ourselves and do this practice? We can start to see some deeper meaning. So this is a deep question. What is this deep intention? Where does this come from? And there are all kinds of responses to that in the literature from these smart-ass Zen responses like the cypress tree in the yard

[12:56]

There are many kind of vulgar answers, but there's also responses like bodhicitta, this mind of awakening, this first thought of awakening, this first thought of spiritual practice, this first thought of caring about our own lives, the quality of our own lives, and the world, and the quality of the world, and what do we do about that. So this question can go endlessly deep. Dogen talks about Buddha going beyond Buddha, that this practice is not about getting some answer to this question, and then that's it, having some particular understanding deciphering this question and figuring it out, and then we're done.

[14:02]

Or having some deep experience of this, and then we're finished. This is an ongoing question. So we have to ask, so every new year, what is the meaning of Bodhidharma's facing 2020? So there's this deepening question, this ongoing question. Bodhidharma, our Buddha, when he became the Buddha, didn't stop practicing, didn't stop awakening. He continued. And how is it that Bodhidharma is present in 2020? Or is he? We can wonder. But then there's also just the intention to pay the rent each month or pay the mortgage or do whatever we need to do in our lives. That's also part of questioning our intention as we face the new year.

[15:08]

So there are all kinds of levels to this. I'm encouraging this deep questioning, this deep intention. But right intention has many levels. So if we think about New Year's resolutions, there can be all kinds of levels of resolution. So for myself, just to say this, my intention this year is to continue to support this Sangha, to encourage this Sangha, to help develop practice for myself and everyone in this Sangha, and to welcome people into this Sangha. And everyone who shows up is part of this Sangha, and that's wonderful. And so I have the intention to support awareness and response to all of the difficulties in the world, to the climate crisis, to various social issues, to issues of war and peace, to develop my own awareness and to support awareness and response for myself and for people around me.

[16:47]

And I have personal intentions just to try and take care of myself, get enough rest and exercise and, you know, so that I can enjoy this life and my life with everyone around me, my family and friends. So, you know, there are all these levels of what is the meaning? So again, this character. that is the character for mind. It's actually the character for the sixth sense gate. Sometimes it's used for the fifth skanda, too. So when we say in the Heart Sutra, eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, and mind, these six senses in Buddhism, this character that can be translated as intention is also this character for mind. It just means mind, one of the characters for mind, in the sense of consciousness.

[17:55]

But it also is mind as, well, how do I use my mind? How do I use my awareness? How do I use my consciousness? What's it all about? What is my intention? What is the meaning of this? So for me, people come to practice for many reasons. People come to practice because they've had some loss or because they've had some problem or many, many things. But for me, I think it was this question of meaning, of wanting to find some meaning, some way of finding meaning. So this intention, this mind, this meaning is, I feel, very important. And this time when we have this new year in our world, we call it 2020. So this year is actually, they're talking about this as the end of a decade or a beginning of a new decade.

[19:03]

So we have these ways of marking things. So this is an important decade. It's the decade when we will decide whether we want to face the climate crisis and continue as a species or how we will do that. Anyway, so those are some reflections about what is Bodhidharma's intention for 2020. How do we each face the intentions of a new year? But maybe that's as much as I have to say about this right now. So I will offer or invite you all to respond, question, comment. So anyone, please feel free to respond. Oh dear.

[20:12]

Oh, good. So it's a good answer. Yes. I don't even know if it really counts as an answer. But I think in my life, in my head, the meaning of this is that I feel or I can see the most fundamental aspect that makes me everything that's alive. I didn't quite get what you just said. Say it again. So you see yourself in everything that's alive.

[21:51]

And so why do you have to do something about that? Isn't it enough to just see yourself in all beings? There is a responsibility of, in my eyes, how hard it is to be alive. Anybody, anything that's alive, it's tough. And we're only going to get through it by supporting each other. What about just enjoying that we're all here together?

[23:04]

You're like getting me through the ringer here. I don't understand you. Well, I mean, it can be pleasant sometimes. I don't think it's bad for things to be pleasant, but that I think I practice so that I can be ready for the time when it's not pleasant. So you think these are difficult times? Well, but that's wonderful. So from the perspective of bodhisattvas, from the perspective of this practice as bodhisattva practice where we are dedicated to universal liberation of all things. And you limited it to, you said, all living things. But, you know, what is a living thing and what is, you know, do you include plants as living things? So there are some peoples, like the Cheyenne, think that rocks are alive.

[24:10]

And geologically, we can discuss that. But anything that's in process. In process. Oh, that's a good word. Anything processing. OK. So yeah, in Japanese culture, they think of teacups as alive, for example. Teacups. Yeah. But yeah, so all things are all living things, if you want to put it that way. So you think it's difficult times, but for the Bodhisattva practice, which is you know, this idea of universal liberation and that we're not just practicing as a self-help practice for just the person on my seat, but we're practicing together, communally, sangha, sangha in the greatest sense, then you want to practice. So that's what brought you here? Thinking about everything being alive and you... Well, I think I don't know if I could have articulated it

[25:15]

Right. So you came here so you could articulate it better. No, don't do that. Because we still have a lot of work to do. But I was just going to, from what you said, just add a little piece that I think if this is difficult times, and a lot of people would say this is difficult times. and all kinds of things going on, climate and wars and elections. And our president is being impeached. I mean, really, it's a difficult time. But for bodhisattvas, difficult times is the best time to be alive and to practice. Because from the perspective of our ancient twisted karma, This is the time when whatever we do can have the most beneficial effect.

[26:19]

And we don't know if we can, you know, this isn't about fixing everything. I mean, maybe it is. If you could fix everything, please do. But anyway, I'm sorry. I'm giving you a hard time. But that's because you had an answer. And good answers always bring up other questions. So anyway, I'm sorry. So other people, questions, answers, comments, responses. Anybody, please feel free. Yes, Jen. There was one boy in the camps, and I don't know what camp it was and I don't know where he came from or anything like that, but he had had a very difficult time and had lost his family.

[27:31]

But he was like the spirit of the camp and he was being interviewed and he said, And his situation was terrible. It was really abysmal. But every day he woke up in Germany and he was happy, and the people in the camp all benefited from this. The way he expressed his happiness was to go around and help everybody else. That's lovely. Yeah, our practice allows us to, I don't know if this was part of Bodhidharma's intention, you know, a lot of the images of him, we don't know much about Bodhidharma historically, but a lot of the images of him traditionally are always kind of frowning. Japanese Zen people like this.

[28:38]

But yeah, I think maybe bringing happiness is a good intention. Now what does that mean in a context of, you know, children being separated from their parents and being in, I don't know, concentration camps or whatever they are? How do we bring, our practice allows us some, some, some settledness, some calm in the middle of all this. And that, so that's a good story. Thank you, Jen. How do we enjoy? our life, even in the middle of facing the first noble truth of sadness and loss and difficulties and troubles in the world.

[29:47]

Garth, you have some? No? OK. Just listening is a good intention. And I welcome new people to add any comments you have. Jan, something else? each one of us looking over the situation and assigning what is our intention.

[30:55]

In my life, it's been extremely helpful because I grew up in a situation where I was And when then you decide, well, maybe that's not the right answer, it's very troubling. and that you're kind of in it alone and you need to pursue your own mind and your own answers and your own understanding and your own part of expression and your own karma.

[32:08]

determined to overcome. Well, I did that again yesterday. And it's very, it creeps up. It's difficult to accept, okay, just to accept your crime. That's why we say that chant, we fully avow them. And it's not that by doing that we can get rid of them. Some habits we get rid of. Some habits we let go of. It's not that we get rid of them. They just, some, they go. You know, like I've told the story of how I stopped smoking a few months after I started sitting. It just happened. It wasn't, you know, but mostly our habits of grasping and anger and so forth are very subtle and we get familiar with them, but some of them never go away, but we get better at not reacting.

[33:25]

And that's lifelong practice. But going back to the thing about one right answer, I mean, what you said, there were a number of things that you said that were really valuable. I mean, I liked Dylan's answer, and that was a good answer. But there's sometimes many answers, or many right answers. And part of our practice is not to find one right answer, but to allow questions or have many answers, or the good answers may shift and change, or there's different situations. And each year, there may be new questions and new answers. So to be alive is to, as opposed to fundamentalist, dogmatic philosophies or religions where you have to believe this one way to allow inquiry. And part of our Zazen is just to be open to new, to not know the answer.

[34:31]

And if we get some answer, that's great. But anyway, to be open. Maybe time for one or two more comments or responses, anyone? My intention about the word intention is it requires a self-conceiving of the thing. And that's an ongoing process that's never ending. It's living. It's living. It's very different from, say, the term resolution. Resolution is sort of final. Intention is, yeah, keep going. It's self-conceived, maybe, as opposed to resolution, which is none of those things, necessarily. But more of a convergence of one's own karma with imagination of what appropriate action would be.

[35:39]

It's not necessarily all about yourself. So it's very difficult. I mean, I shouldn't say difficult. It's a very genuine or authentic undertaking, potentially. And what you were saying, Janet, suggests all that as what Bill was saying. Yeah, and people make New Year's resolutions and famously forget about them after a week or a month or a couple days. But this idea of intention as the mind or the intention of the ancestral teacher coming from the West, it's something really deep and fundamental, but also alive. And each generation, each place, each time. each year, maybe. If the teacher had come from the east, the question would have been the same.

[36:41]

Yeah, maybe we didn't, you know, Bodhidharma didn't need to bother traveling all that way, you know? We still would have this question. I want to tell you my favorite New Year's resolution. OK. This was not mine. It was a friend of mine, and he said, for the New Year, I resolve quit trying to give up smoking. That's a good one. So we can resolve to quit trying to resolve. Yeah. So sometimes resolutions can be just, yeah, impediments. Well, unless anybody else has something, we'll do our closing four bodhisattva vows, which we chant three times.

[37:37]

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