Good evening. Welcome. I want to speak this evening about one of the Bodhisattva practices. This is from the Four Methods of Guidance. There's a writing about it by Dogen, the 13th century founder of Soto Zen, a branch of same Buddhism that we follow here. And we've talked about some of these before. This, when Alan Sanaki was here last year, he talked about these four. But I want to talk particularly about the fourth, but I'll mention the other three first. So the first is the practice of giving or generosity. So these are practices that are used by bodhisattvas. enlightening beings who are dedicated to relieving suffering and helping the awakening of all beings.

[01:06]

And generosity or giving is the first. And there's a lot to say about each of these four. One of the things that's kind of provocative that Dogen says about giving is that giving means to offer flowers from distant mountains to a Buddha, to give away treasures from one's past lives to living beings. Giving is not just a matter of giving gifts, but that generosity is something that happens in a mutual way. We talk about giver, receiver, and gift in the meal chant. So generosity is the circle of our sharing. Anyway, there's a lot to say about that, and we'll talk about that practice. It's a real practice. a challenging practice. The second one is kind speech. So to speak kindly to others and of others actually helps beings awaken.

[02:11]

Even to speak kindly if someone is not present. Sometimes we have to speak truth to powers, so to speak, or sometimes we have to speak strongly, but how do we do it in a respectful way? So kind speech is respectful speech, and it is actually helpful and helps all beings awaken. The third one is beneficial action. So this is the center, of course, of the Bodhisattva way, the way of enlightening all beings, the way of awakening ourselves and others, to act to benefit all beings. So we'll do the four bodhisattva vows at the end of this talk, and we talk about freeing all beings, even though they're numberless, but even in a very more limited practical way, to be helpful, to act beneficially.

[03:19]

Again, each of these four is a very complex practice. But the one I want to talk about most tonight is, well, in Tom Cleary's translation, he calls it cooperation. Klaus Tanahashi translates it as identity action. And so I want to read some of what Dogen says about it and talk about this as a kind of intentional practice in the Bodhisattva way. we can do in our life together in Sangha, but also in our life in all the other realms of community that we all have, as when we step out of the storefront of Ancient Dragon. How do we practice this cooperation or identity action? This section of Dogen's writing about this says, cooperation means non-opposition. Identity action, Kastanahashi says, means non-difference.

[04:26]

Same Japanese words, but different ways of translating it, but you can see how both translations are relevant. Non-opposition, non-difference. It is not opposing oneself and not opposing others. It is like a human Buddha being the same as a human being. Because of assimilation to the human world, we know a Buddha must assimilate to other worlds. So as human beings, we follow the Bodhisattva way in the way that works for human beings. We don't know, as I've talked about before, how dolphins practice the Buddha way. They have many advantages that we don't have. They get to swim freely. in the water. Hopefully, they are avoiding the gulf now. But anyway, they don't have the burden of opposable thumbs. They don't have to build big buildings and write books. They can just use their brains, which are much larger than us.

[05:29]

Anyway, that's not our business, though, as bodhisattvas. It's often bodhisattvas can take care of their way. Because of assimilation to the human world, we know a Buddha must assimilate to other worlds. It's like a human Buddha being the same as a human being. When one knows cooperation, self and others are one suchness. So this idea of cooperation is a, a bridge between wisdom and compassion. I talked about that. A couple of you were here yesterday when I talked about the balancing of wisdom and compassion, two sides of practice. And I've been talking about that for the last two or three weeks, more from the side of wisdom, but also including compassion, seeing into the sameness. So we chanted the harmonious harmony of sameness and difference tonight. The sameness of all beings has to do with non-difference, non-opposition.

[06:31]

But then also, how do we practice this recognizing the difference? So compassion is about not just recognizing, but actually appreciating each particular way of being Buddha, appreciating the difference. So this is an intentional practice, identity action, cooperation. How do we find our way to this? What is this practice about? This is a very important practice for us in the human world now. How do we find our way to share with each other, seeing non-difference, non-opposition, and each of us finding our own way to do that? So again, Dogen says, when one knows cooperation or identity action, self and others are one suchness. This is, in some ways, the fundamental problem of our existence.

[07:35]

And I would say, not just for human beings, but anyway, as human beings, the way our consciousness works is subject and object. We see a world of other out there. And our habits from many lifetimes, we say, our patterns of thinking are to react based on seeing other, to want to grab what we think we need or want, to push away that which we think is in our way. We separate ourselves from the world. The basic teaching of emptiness is that we are all deeply interconnected with each other. So this practice of identity action, cooperation, is really how to implement compassion from insight, from prajna, from wisdom.

[08:37]

When one knows cooperation, self and others are just one suchness. And Dogen goes on to talk about this kind of sweetly. Their music, song, and wine accompanies people, accompanies celestial beings, accompanies spirits. People keep company with music, song, and wine. And music, song, and wine keep company with music, song, and wine. So for some people, maybe it's some other kind of drink besides wine. But anyway, we share our activities together as human beings. This is part of our cooperation. People keep company with people, he says. Celestial beings keep company with celestial beings. Spirits keep company with spirits. There is such a logic. It is the learning of cooperation. How do we see our connection to each other? And how do we find our ways to cooperate, to share our life together? So this is the basic challenge of the Bodhisattva life.

[09:42]

How do we enjoy each other. How do we cooperate? Even when we do see the differences, how do we see this underlying non-opposition or non-difference? This is a practice that we each can take on in our own lives with friends, families, co-workers. in our relationships, in our families. And it's also the practice that the world needs now. How do we cooperate? Not for the sake of some personal profit or some company's quarterly profit margin, but to see that actually we are all in it together. What happens to the planet happens to all of us. How do we find this

[10:47]

identity action and cooperation. So, continuing a little with Dogen's take on this, he says, for example, a task of cooperation is a manner, a standard, an attitude, or Klaus translates some of that as a posture. We learn uprightness in this Zazen practice. We sit, we face the wall, we face ourselves. There's a kind of dignity that we learn, this inner dignity, this inner attitude of being present. And some periods of Zazen we may enjoy more than others, or we may think, oh, that was really nice, kind of relaxed Zazen. Or we may be all tangled up in some problem or thinking, or we may be sleepy or whatever, we can have these different ideas or evaluations or judgments about our zazen or about any experience.

[11:52]

But what Dogen suggests is that cooperating, the spirit of cooperation, is a kind of attitude or posture, a kind of way of finding our inner dignity. And then he says, after regarding others as self, there must be a principle of assimilating oneself to others. Self and others are endless with time. So, to say non-difference doesn't mean that we ignore or suppress the ways in which we do think there are differences. I can tell the difference between Douglas and Adam, but also there's something that's The same. There's a way in which we can cooperate together and perform a ceremony, for example, as we just did together, each in our own way. How do we see and recognize and appreciate each other and see also that we can assimilate oneself to others?

[13:05]

So when Reb was here, he drew this wonderful illustration. He drew a big circle on the board at the Centical, one of his talks. So this is the universe. This is everything. And we all see this. We all see the wholeness of this. Then we also, you know, and he drew a little kind of, I don't know, pimple or something on top of it. But we all think that there's a self that's us that's on top of this. So, you know, this assimilating oneself to others, how do we see that we actually are part of this field of cooperation of the whole planet, of the whole universe, of our whole Sangha, and the Sangha of Sanghas, the collection of Sanghas that we each belong to. There must be a principle of assimilating oneself to others after regarding others as self. You see, others are connected to us. Everything is connected. So, Then Dogen quotes an ancient philosopher, and it's something from an ancient Chinese text.

[14:13]

I'm not really familiar with the Guanzi, supposedly from the 7th century BC. But anyway, it says, the ocean does not refuse water. Therefore, it has been able to become so immense. Mountains don't refuse earth. That is why they can be so high. An enlightened ruler doesn't refuse people. Therefore, his community can become populous. Know that oceans not refusing water is cooperation. Know further that the virtue of the water not refusing the ocean, too, is complete. For this reason, water gathers and becomes an ocean. Earth accumulates and becomes a mountain. We implicitly know that because the ocean doesn't refuse the ocean, it forms an ocean and creates its immensity. Because the mountain doesn't refuse the mountain, it forms a mountain. piling up the earth, it makes its height. And then he has this thing about rulers and lords. And so I wanted to say a little bit about this.

[15:13]

He says, because an enlightened ruler doesn't reject people, he forms a community of them. The sovereign does not reject people. Though the sovereign does not reject people, that does mean that there are no, I think it should be, that doesn't mean that there are no rewards and punishments. But though there are rewards and punishments, there is no rejecting people. Basically, the Bodhisattva idea is that we don't abandon anyone. That as difficult as some people may be for us, there's some way to cooperate. There's some way to see how we are connected with everyone. Everyone is welcome in the field of Bodhisattva identity action. He goes on to say, following up, he says, because an enlightened ruler is wise, he doesn't reject people.

[16:14]

People always form a nation. And I want to talk about this in terms of forming a community. Though they have a mind to seek an enlightened ruler, because there are few who thoroughly know the reason an enlightened ruler is an enlightened ruler, they only rejoice in not being rejected by an enlightened ruler, but don't know how to not reject an enlightened ruler themselves. Therefore, because there is the logic of cooperation or identity action in both enlightened rulers and in ignorant people, cooperation is the practical undertaking of the bodhisattva. One should face everyone with a gentle expression. So, you know, this part of what Dogen says about this cooperation or identity action is kind of interesting to me. I'm sitting up here with a brown robe and a staff, and I have Dharma transmission, and I'm the Dharma teacher here.

[17:17]

But actually, there's a way in which what he's talking about here as an example, along with Oceans and Mountains, of how nations form or communities form, is based on a kind of Confucian ideal. This idea of an enlightened person, enlightened master, in some ways goes back to the Confucian virtue of the ancient great kings who were these legendary mythical Chinese kings who were looked back upon as these paragons of virtue. But I think we need to update this idea of identity action and cooperation. Early on in American Zen, and occasionally still, there was this problem of thinking of the Dharma teacher as this great enlightened master.

[18:23]

And that's really not what Zen practice is about. If you want some perfected master to tell you how to be, how to take care of your problems, and if you think the goal of the practice is to become some great perfected master, that's not the spirit of identity action and cooperation, and that's not the real Bodhisattva way. Our practice is to find out how to be human beings. So this ideal of of the perfect Zen master, which was very appealing in the beginning of American Zen. People got into trouble because they actually thought they were great perfected masters and then did ugly things. The real spirit of cooperation is, again, that there is not self and other.

[19:27]

So my job is to sit up here and do these Dharma talks. Some of you also give talks sometimes, and we have guest speakers. But the point of Zen practice is not to become perfect. Maybe I'll say it again. The point of Zen practice is not to become some perfect being. The point of Zen practice is not to get high. The point of that practice is not to reach some exalted state of mind. We sit as we are. The point is to be the Buddha you are, to be the Buddha as a human being, who you are. So there's another way of thinking about Buddhist teachers. It goes back to early Buddhism, the kalyāṇamitra, the spiritual friend. So I'm sorry if you want me to be some perfect master.

[20:30]

That's not who I am. And yet I have some experience of, well, 35 years of sitting every day and studying this dharma and struggling with how to share it. And it's something we do together. Identity action means that all of us are in it together. We are all spiritual friends. And I can't tell you how you can be Buddha. And even if I could, I wouldn't. It's not, you know, there are some styles of Zen of, you know, it's very intense, pushing the teacher, pushing the student to be, to break through and, you know, become, have some dramatic awakening experience. Those things happen and it's fine when that happens. But really, how do we find our way to cooperate? To share together? this Bodhisattva intention, this direction towards beneficial action and generosity and kind speech.

[21:39]

How do we see each other in Sangha, in the world, in the struggles with all the problems in the world? The world needs this. The world needs kind speech. The world needs true generosity. The world needs Lots of beneficial action. How are we going to clean up all of the pollution of this world? This is not something that some great ruler in the White House or whatever is going to accomplish. The Bodhisattva way is actually about how do we see each other? How do we see through our illusions about self and others? As Dogen puts it, after regarding others as self, after seeing how others are related to oneself and not separate from oneself, there must be a principle of assimilating oneself to others.

[22:46]

How do we share? How do we share the that which we know, that which we have to give. How do we share our gifts and generosity? So today also happens to be the birthday of my favorite American Dharma poet, Bob Dylan. I thought about doing another Dharma talk about one of his songs, but I'm just going to throw in a a verse or two that's relating to this sense of cooperation or identity action. So in Dear Landlord, he says, each of us has her own special gift, and you know this was meant to be true. And if you don't underestimate me, I won't underestimate you. I think this is the spirit of this identity action. Each of us has their own special gift, and in the harmony of difference and sameness, our great ancestor, Chateau, that we just chanted said, each of the myriad things has its merit expressed according to function and place.

[23:54]

So each of us has our own way to be Buddha. You know, I can't push you into becoming the Buddha you are. I don't want to do that. Our main practice is patience and just watching and seeing each other. And the training of bodhisattvas depends on each of us in our own way showing up and saying, okay, how do we find our way to cooperate? And as a spiritual friend, I or Sangha with each other can help in the opening up of this spirit of cooperation. That's what we're here for. There's another, this is a little more complicated, but there's another Dylan line. This is at the end of Talk on World War III Blues, an early song where he's talking about seeing the end of the world and, you know, maybe you could update it towards Talk in British Petroleum Blues or something.

[24:59]

It's the way in which the world is being damaged now. But in that context, he talks about his own dream of being the last person alive or something. At the end of the song, he says, now time passed, and now it seems everybody's having their dreams. Everybody sees themselves walking around with no one else. Half of the people can be part right all the time. Some of the people can be all right part of the time. But all the people can't be all right all the time. I think Abraham Lincoln said that. I'll let you be in my dreams if I can be in yours. I said that. So, how do we let each other be in our dreams? How do we let each other be part of this field of cooperation, of identity action, of the Bodhisattva way? This is a great challenge, and yet, in some ways, it's just a matter of relaxing into who we are.

[26:06]

Sushita's other chant that we sometimes do, the Song of the Grass Huts, he talks about letting go of hundreds of years and relax completely. How do we relax into this assimilating ourselves to others, or assimilating others to ourselves? Working together, sharing each in our own way the gifts that come forth from our own cushion. I'll let you be in my dreams if I can be in yours. Each of us has our own special gift, our own special way of being generous, our own special way of helping ourselves and each other. The point is that we're not separate. So the idea of compassion, as I was saying yesterday, the idea of compassion maybe in Western society is charity.

[27:15]

I'm going to give something to you as if I have all these goodies. Actually, we all have this thing to share. So I learned about how to be Buddha from seeing each of you as I see Buddha. emerging in some way from your cushions. So, maybe that's enough to say happy Bob Dolan's birthday. Does anyone have comments, responses to share? Yes, Brooks. It might be just kind of self-evident, and it might be a pun to say that, but identity action is the spirit of cooperation.

[28:20]

I was wondering if you could elaborate a little more on that term, identity action itself. Yeah, thank you. Identity action means that when we share something, it's not in the spirit of, You know, I'm here and you're there. It's something we do together. It's not about you asking me a question. It's about something coming forth together. In one of his writings, Tolkien says that Buddhists sometimes sit and give Dharma talks and Buddhists sometimes sit and listen to Dharma talks. It's not that, you know, the speaking, So this identity action has to do with honoring the identity, honoring the non-separation that each of us with our own special gifts offers to this process of the Bodhisattva way.

[29:29]

Thank you. Yes, I'll get some sun. I don't want to. Yeah, we sometimes fall into underestimation. So we need to be reminded. Thank you. Other comments or responses? and an eight-year-old, and we spent about the first 10 hours struggling until I figured out, and I would say it was cooperation.

[30:40]

I wasn't taking care of them. We were all three taking care of each other while the parents were gone because we were all sort of in this pickle together because it was all different, and Mommy and Daddy were gone, and I was there, and we were all sort of confused, Once we sort of got on each other's wavelength and cooperated and just realized we were doing this together, we were a lot better off. So this is just different language for that, but it's beautiful. Yeah, cooperation works, actually. Or it can work. Yes, Adam. There was a great, a replay of an interview with Bob Dylan from 1963 on WFM-TV, MMI. He was in Chicago in 1963, and this guy who used to have a radio show.

[31:47]

Anyway, it was meaningful, fascinating, listening now. And I was thinking, where are the Bob Dylans now? You know, that's kind of, because there's such a, so much quality to not only him as a musician, but his person and what he was struggling with and thinking about. And, uh... No, he's still around. I know, I know he is. I like his new stuff. The last several albums are very much worth listening to. But yeah, it's a question. Where is having lived through and thoroughly enjoyed the 60s and even remembering a lot of it? There are different times and there's different energies. And I think things are in such a terrible state in some ways in the world that our goodwill

[32:52]

and our caring and maybe our protests and demonstrations, I don't know, our poetry, our open hearts are needed now. So I think there are Bob Dylan's around. Maybe because of the internet and one of those websites where you can download music for free. We don't know all the good songwriters who are out there now, but I think they're out there. They don't get as much. I was thinking about, you know, Matt Brody and Sutton and Fong are the popular ones today. Well, you need to send me some links because I don't know them and I want to. They're like writers for The Simpsons and Family Guy. Yeah, The Simpsons is, yes, okay. I've seen the film like that once or twice, but yeah.

[33:57]

But I think they speak to, you know, this sense of longing and lack and delusion as well as playful possibility. Yeah, playful possibility. That's a good way of talking about cooperation, identity action. When we're in it, when we realize that actually we're in it together, it's not, you know, obviously President Obama isn't going to fix anything, you know. With all due respect, there's this problem that we all have. How do we all find playful possibility together? Dawn? It's really a power struggle.

[35:04]

This is a big power struggle. Or not wanting to be in control or wanting to put it onto somebody else. Not wanting to have to deal with it. And that's always that. So I like that, the cooperation. I like that. I've forgotten that my mommy sees that a lot. We need to cooperate. And, you know, that's such an important thing, and I forgot that, like, just that word, you know. And children learning to share, you know. Yeah, because it's not just about playing nicely either. It's, you know, it's not always going to be that way. Right. Sometimes we have to say to some people, hey, stop stealing all the resources and share with the rest of the species, please. And we can say it kindly, we can say it strongly. It's not that they're evil, it's just what's happened to the way the world's organized. Is this possible? It's very strange.

[36:04]

Anyway. And in terms of how we all work together in so many ways, just sharing, cooperation. Other responses? Well, I was thinking of cooperation in terms of, yesterday, during our one-day sitting, one of our neighbors had inadvertently parked a car that was blocked then by all the other cars. Actually, only two other cars, cars that belonged to Taiga and myself. And so I'm cooking the meal, and I'm like, focused on, I want these muffins to be, these biscuits to be warm for the sangha. They were good. So, you know, I was like, you know, it's hard to keep biscuits warm while there's all this stuff going on. So, you know, in the middle of that, there was this knock on the door. And this young lady, woman, is like, can you move your car? And I said, I cannot do that right now. However, in 20 minutes, there will be a break.

[37:10]

But it created this sort of like, how do you harmonize, you know, with this outer world? You know, we have this little insulation of my kitchen and all this happening. And, you know, somehow we ate and the car stopped moving. You know, the mind is like, oh, hey, I don't mind you here. You know, I don't want to deal with your car. Yeah, they parked in our space. So, you know, it was sort of, And I noticed that car in the morning. I was like, oh, I wonder whose car that is. I wonder if he has a nice car. And we got his car. One of our group got his car. We thought, oh, it was somebody else. Maybe we should have checked it out before our car got haunted. So I know I just thought it was a fun thing to play with. We remind the others it's a world apart, even if we're concentrating on our own. And she didn't get into her car and try and move the other cars.

[38:22]

Yeah, that's good. Because I thought it crossed my head for a moment. I thought, oh, shit, she was really upset. And that's the cooperation. Yeah. And I started getting drunk, and I said, Dawn, could you arrange this car for me? I'm like, keep the safe, this gets warm. And that's what I was on the movement. I'm just like, what orchestration? you

[38:51]

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