I bow to Thee, Supreme Lord God, Father, and Son. I bow to Thee, Supreme Lord God, Father, and Son. I bow to Thee, Supreme Lord God, Father, and Son.

[01:29]

I bow to Thee, Supreme Lord God, Father, and Son. So lifting up the breastbone so that the whole upper body feels a sense of rising, the back part of the head pressed up toward the ceiling, the shoulders back, lengthening the spine with awareness in the upper part of the back, sweeping our awareness over the whole upper body so that we can feel how we're sitting. Then bringing our attention to the belly, to the breath in the belly.

[02:58]

Breathing in with awareness and breathing out with awareness. Feeling the belly rising and falling as we breathe in and as we breathe out. Breathing in and breathing out. Paying very close attention to each breath in and each breath out. Seeing the whole inhale and the whole exhale so that all of the inhale and all of the exhale

[04:20]

is clear, without any dark places or places where awareness doesn't reach. Breathing in and breathing out. If we notice distracting thoughts or any rough or unclear spots in the breath, just pay attention

[05:28]

to that and keep coming back to the whole breath in and the whole breath out. With peaceful devotion. Thank you. Thank you.

[06:58]

Thank you. And allowing the clear and stable feeling of the breath to radiate throughout the body so that the whole body from the top of the head, the forehead, the muscles around the eyes and cheeks, the jaw, shoulders and arms and hands, upper back, middle back, lower back, body cavity and the organs, all have space, all are vitalized with each in-breath and all are brought to peace. With each out-breath. Each breath in, enriching, vitalizing the whole body and each breath out, softening, peaceful, letting go.

[08:41]

Breathing in, I enliven the whole body. Breathing out, I bring peace and let go with the whole body. Breathing in, I let go with the whole body. Breathing out, I let go with the whole body. Breathing in, I let go with the whole body. Breathing out, I let go with the whole body.

[10:18]

Letting the ears be open, listening with the whole body to sound. Letting the sound come in and harmonize with the breathing in the body. Breathing in, I let go with the whole body. Entering sound, being entered by sound.

[11:34]

Breathing in, I let go with the whole body. Breathing in, I let go with the whole body. Breathing out, I let go with the whole body. And then letting go of sound and turning the awareness into your own heart, your own mind. Being aware of whatever arises in the mind and heart, without naming, without pursuing, just being attentive to the subtle currents of thought or feeling that arise in the heart. Breathing in, I let go with the whole body.

[13:40]

Breathing out, I let go with the whole body. Breathing in, I let go with the whole body. Breathing out, I let go with the whole body. Breathing in, I let go with the whole body.

[14:40]

Breathing in, I let go with the whole body. Breathing out, I let go with the whole body. Breathing out, I let go with the whole body. Breathing in, I let go with the whole body. And then letting go of that also in simply being present, with no focus, with nothing to be aware of and no one to be aware. Simply allowing what arises to arise and pass away.

[15:41]

Thank you. Thank you for taking a little break with me. It's a nice thing to do. Thank you. And I hope that in our sitting, during the rest of the day, you can practice just letting go with attentiveness. And in a way, I think our Zen practice and our Zen teaching

[17:36]

emphasizes this monastic way of practice. Being nowhere, going no place, being no one. Appreciating the experience of just letting go of everything. And how this experience is the source of all of our lives. But as I am fond of saying, there's two important experiences or two important practices in Zen, and you can't have one without the other. One is sitting down, and the other one is getting up. We're talking about sitting down, but also, we get up and bring this to our activity.

[18:40]

So, this morning, I would like to talk with you a little bit about the social practices of Buddhism, which we have to cultivate if we're going to tread the path of the Buddha. And I'll just say a little bit about the important social practices, and then you can study them more later, and see if you'd like to take one part of what I've said and go into it very thoroughly. So, I want to talk about the eight most important practices,

[19:48]

social practices of Buddhadharma. Eight ways of activity and cultivation. The first four are inward things, attitudes, feelings, that we want to train ourselves in and encourage. And the next four are outward things, ways that we would act and behave in the world. The first four, the inward practices, are called the four unlimited practices. Things in the material world are always limited.

[20:48]

There's a limited amount of space, a limited amount of time, a limited amount of material, a limited amount of money or space in our house, and so forth. But these four cultivations are not limited, they're unlimited. Even when we get old and our body is not working too well, and we can't think straight, and we fall down when we walk, even then, there's no limit. In one moment, even, the possibility of a limitless cultivation of these practices is always there. So they're called the four unlimiteds. The first one is loving-kindness, unlimited loving-kindness. Which is an inner feeling of genuine affection and goodwill toward ourselves and others.

[22:01]

Truly wishing ourselves and others well, that we would be happy, that we would experience joy, that suffering and the causes of suffering would be removed from ourselves and others. Even if that's not the case, having a real, genuine wish that it would be so. And it really is impossible to have that feeling for others unless we have it for ourselves. And likewise, it would be really impossible for us to truly have that wish for ourselves if we didn't have it for others. So it all goes together. So we train our mind by turning it toward such thoughts. May I be happy. May I be content. May I be free from suffering.

[23:05]

May he or she be happy and be content and free from suffering. May all of us sitting here together, may each one of us be happy. May we be content. May we be free from suffering. And so on, cultivating that way, encouraging our mind in that way. When we practice that way, definitely we'll notice that we don't always actually feel that way, even as we're saying to ourselves, may I be happy, may she be happy, may they be happy. Sometimes we feel crabby about it or neutral, boring, or even like, may she be happy? The truth is, I really don't really want her to be happy, actually.

[24:09]

I'm a little nifty. And if she were miserable, that would be fine with me. Sometimes that's really how we feel. So it's very important that we not pretend that we feel something we don't feel. Well, maybe we have to pretend a little bit, actually. Like use our imagination to try to bring forth such a thought. But it's no good to not see what's there. Seeing what's there is always an important part of cultivation. So if we see, actually, for example, it may be very common to feel, may I be happy? Well, do I really deserve it? So it's important to notice that we have such a thought. But still go on, may I be happy.

[25:09]

The second of the Four Unlimited is called sympathetic joy. And this means specifically that when someone has fortunate circumstances, that we would share in their joy as if it were our own. Usually when something great happens to someone else, we have various reactions. Like, damn! How come I didn't get that? That's a very common reaction, jealousy, as if somehow joy were limited. And if the other person had joy, then we couldn't have it. As if joy were like a piece of brick. They ate it, so there's no more left. So this is, like I say, quite a common thing.

[26:25]

And even in the holy Buddha Sangha, there's jealousy. How come she gets to do that and I don't get to do it, and so forth. Or even, maybe we don't feel jealous, but we just feel neutral, like who cares whether he or she receives some joyful news or some prize or award or happiness. This is not me, so I'm quite unconcerned about it. But the practice of sympathetic joy is to cultivate the good feeling that others have, to see it as our own good feeling, thereby increasing our possibilities for happiness. Think of how many million times over we have chances of being happy,

[27:27]

if we can see another person's joy and good fortune as our own. Especially if we are feeling jealous, we can not only see the other person's good fortune as our own and become happy, but also shed the uncomfortable, confining feeling of jealousy. So we kind of like always alert when we practice sympathetic joy to see if anybody's happy. You know, got some good reason to be happy, then we like pounce on them right away and say, That happiness is my happiness also. I feel that, the same as if it happened to me. If it did happen to me, when she fell in love, I really feel good about that. That's happened to me. I feel that joy. So this is the practice of sympathetic joy, really connecting with others.

[28:34]

I know that Ray is very knowledgeable about birds and sees birds a lot, watches birds and writes about them in the newsletter. And I seem to do some bird watching at Whole Foods in Mill Valley, where there are actually quite a few sparrows who hang around there because of all the crumbs. And sparrows, little sparrows, have quite a bit of joy in their lives. They chirp around, they seem to be quite happy. They grab little crumbs, they come right up to you, looking, you know, anything here? So I like to practice sympathetic joy with the sparrows. And make their simple joy of living, you know, my own. It can be quite a happy thing. I like to watch these little sparrows.

[29:43]

So we practice like that, looking for opportunities to increase our own joy as we see joy around us. The third of the four unlimiteds is compassion, which is the mirror opposite, in a way, of sympathetic joy. That means when we... Compassion means that when we see another person suffering, we take that suffering as our own suffering. And again, our very natural tendency is to say, well, first of all, not to notice, because suffering is painful, so we find a way to numb ourselves. If someone is suffering, we don't see it, we don't want to see it. Or if we do see it, we say, oh, that's pitiful, thank goodness that's not me, we feel.

[30:52]

But when we take up the practice of compassion, we actually cultivate the feeling that is me, that suffering is me, that is my suffering. I feel, as much as I possibly can, the personal pain of that suffering that the other is feeling. The other is not, not me. And one would think that, yuck, who would want to cultivate that practice, because that's only going to increase my misery. Well, in a way, I think that is true. In a way, if we practice compassion and don't have a heavy heart, then we must not be practicing compassion. And you do have a heavy heart, I think.

[31:58]

It's impossible to be open in this world of suffering without having a heavy heart. At the same time, the experience of compassion is not despair or depression or something like that. Because if we really appreciate another person's suffering, very acutely, for the true suffering that it is, you know, we of course know from our own experience that we put confused suffering on top of our suffering. But if we really see another person's real suffering, there's a kind of truth in that suffering, a kind of purity in that suffering.

[33:00]

And the experience of truth is always peaceful and deep. So even though we feel a painful feeling of suffering, we also feel a peaceful feeling. And also, as we practice the Unlimited, we have an unlimited capacity, more and more inside of ourselves, so we can accept another person's suffering and feel the pain of it without feeling confined. And so compassion is an open. So even though we feel pain, we feel spacious and we feel peaceful. And I think that feeling of compassion is a spacious and peaceful feeling, even though we feel true sorrow. It's not despairing. So again, we cultivate, we try to find

[34:08]

a way to practice cultivating this feeling, projecting ourself, projecting our feeling onto another, projecting the other's feeling onto ourself. The fourth Unlimited is called Equanimity. And this means evening out the feeling of the other three practices, so that we don't only practice them with some people and not other people, but we have a more even feeling. Because it's very natural, again, for us to find, if we take up these practices, that we can practice sympathetic joy and compassion and loving-kindness with some people that we like.

[35:12]

But other people, we really don't feel like practicing sympathetic joy and compassion because we don't like them that much. They said something to us, something about them just rubs us wrong. So we're not going to practice sympathetic joy and compassion and loving-kindness with them. Well, the problem with that approach is that then, if we don't have equanimity in our practice of the other three Unlimiteds, is only with some and not with others, then there's a good chance that mixed in with our compassion and loving-kindness and sympathetic joy is attachment and aversion. And attachment and aversion are the basic raw material of suffering.

[36:19]

So, even as we're practicing compassion, we're actually planting seeds of suffering and confusion, unless we also practice equanimity and try to even out. So even those people that we have antipathy toward naturally, karmically, we make an effort, even with those people, to practice loving-kindness, sympathetic joy and compassion. Little by little, cultivating, moving in that direction the best we can. Acknowledging whatever resistance we may have, honestly, but understanding that nevertheless it's important to go in that way. So these are the four Unlimiteds, the four kinds of endless attitudes that we are trying to cultivate. Unlimited means that there's no end to our possibility of cultivating them. No matter how much loving-kindness we cultivate,

[37:20]

there's always more that we can't cultivate, and so forth with the others. The four external, so to speak, activities that we practice in relation to others, the four social practices externally, are called the four methods of the Bodhisattva for helping. The Bodhisattva's four methods for helping. The first is the practice of giving, generosity. They say traditionally that there are three kinds of things that we can give.

[38:24]

We can give material things, which are, of course, very important. People need food and shelter, clothing, and many other things that we would give. We would actually give those things to others. And the second thing we can give is Dharma, encouragement, teaching, sharing our experience, sharing our life with others, sharing our time. And the third is the gift of, it's called the gift of fearlessness, that we could help someone to let go of all their fear by seeing them as the Buddha, who is the fearless one.

[39:36]

The Buddha is the one who has no fear, because the Buddha has nothing to lose, so nothing to be afraid of. And the Buddha is the manifestation of the fundamental all-rightness of everything that arises. If we could see each other that way, then we could give the gift of fearlessness, so all of us could recognize that, just as we are, there's nothing to fear, because there's nothing to gain and nothing to lose. The practice of generosity also extends to all our activity, all activity.

[40:38]

Everything in this world can be the practice of generosity, if we would see it that way, if we would dedicate our activity for the benefit of others. Then, washing the dishes and cleaning the toilet and cooking a meal and serving a meal are all acts of generosity, all acts of giving. All of our activity, all of our work, whatever it is, can be generosity. And if we would see that work that we are doing is not benefiting others, but is harming others, then our practice of generosity would be to set aside that work and not do it anymore. So we have the practice of dedication, dedicating our activity to others.

[41:44]

And here at Green Gulch, whenever we work, we always bow in. We offer incense and we bow in, and this means the work that we're about to do, we're doing as acts of giving for the benefit of others. We dedicate this period of work. And we can continuously make that dedication in our hearts as we work. We don't need to be in a temple to feel, I'm working this morning and this afternoon for the benefit of others. Really feeling that way in our hearts, enacting the cord of that feeling, is also the practice of giving. The second of the four methods for bodhisattvas to help people

[42:45]

is called the practice of kind speech. All of us talk all the time, quite a bit, even on days of silence we talk to each other, but on days of silence especially we talk to ourselves. So we're always talking. And we think that we're talking about the world, but it really isn't true. Our talking is another world, and it creates a world. Our words create a world. What kind of world are we creating? In our own mind, and between ourselves and others, are we creating a world of some happiness and ease,

[43:50]

or are we creating a confined world of misery? So the practice of kind speech begins with our paying attention to how we speak, and beginning to notice the kind of world that we create, and to find and strengthen the intention to create a world of happiness and loving-kindness for ourselves and each other. So kind speech means to try to find a way to speak to ourselves and others that would be beautiful and pleasing, pleasant, happy. To try to practice speaking kind words to other people.

[44:57]

How are you? Are you all right? Can I help you? It's a beautiful day. So you can see that this would take some effort, because you can't just exactly fake it. I mean, faking it has its place. Faking it does have its place, in the sense that to cultivate something we have to make effort in that direction, even if we don't feel it sometimes. What doesn't have much of a place is self-deception. So to pretend that we feel something when we don't doesn't help too much. But sometimes you might have to say, good morning, and how are you, even though we might not feel something. There's a way of cultivating that feeling. But kind speech fundamentally comes from a kind heart, and a kind heart comes from the cultivation of the four unlimiteds.

[45:59]

So as we actively work to open our hearts and really genuinely feel loving kindness and true consideration for others, then kind speech becomes something that we just can manifest out of that heart. So it all goes together. And sometimes, as I say, the kind speech can open our hearts too. But the important thing about kind speech is that it opens other people's hearts. And kind speech can be enormously, almost miraculously healing to others. If we can really bring forth kind speech that comes from a truly kind heart, we can awaken kindness and love in others and help somehow to heal the wounds of others. After all, where does all of our unkind speech come from?

[47:07]

Where does all of our non-loving kindness, non-sympathetic joy, and non-compassion come from? It comes from karmic scars and wounds that must be acknowledged and healed. And kind speech can help. The third practice of Bodhisattvas to help others is the practice of beneficial activity. This means very simply doing something to help someone else. If someone needs help, we try to help them. What can we do to help?

[48:09]

Can we fix something? If we can, we try to do that. Can we help heal a wound or provide something that's missing? So we try to practice a beneficial activity in whatever way that we can. And the last of the four practices for Bodhisattvas to help others is called co-operation. And this means simply joining in with others as others. Completely harmonizing and entering the thoughts and minds and activity of others without holding anything back.

[49:19]

And many people remark the kind of miracles that happen when people actually co-operate. It happens sometimes when there's a disaster and people just forget about all their agendas. And join together to do something. Sometimes that happens in work, working together in the kitchen, in the fields, in an office. When we just join our efforts together to accomplish a task without any holding back, without any territoriality. Just entering in and co-operating. Flowing with the activity. Seeing how one person's activity just dovetails into another. And just all together we're like one person doing something. It's a beautiful thing, really, when that happens.

[50:26]

And one of the ways that a Bodhisattva helps others is by himself or herself co-operating in that way and fostering a spirit of co-operation. Making it possible for all of us to co-operate. And truly, you know, co-operation is the nature of the world. If we could look and see a bigger picture than just our own self-centeredness, we would see that even when we're walking down the street, you know, not doing anything in particular, we're in a gigantic co-operation with the whole universe. With the air we breathe, with the pavement, with other beings who are moving in relation to us and we in relation to them in a beautiful pattern. And with the birds and the trees, constant, beautiful co-operation.

[51:33]

And the more that we would come from that place in all of our activity, with compassion, seeing that all of our activity is in a dynamic connection at all points with everything. And this is the fourth method that Bodhisattvas have to help others, to demonstrate co-operation. I think one of the most wonderful insights of the Buddha is that cultivation of these kinds of attitudes is possible.

[52:36]

And I think that we don't believe it that much. We very much feel that our attitudes, our feelings are kind of like a given. This is how I am, we say. And even when we don't say that, deep down I think many of us believe that. But there wouldn't be Buddha Dharma if the Buddha didn't see that the feelings and attitudes and activities that we produce can be cultivated and worked with. We can tame our mind and heart. So these eight practices, these eight social practices of Buddhism are eight ways of taming the mind and heart, cultivating, working with ourselves. And as I said before, it's very important in doing this to be very honest with ourselves.

[53:51]

Because these practices can easily be seen as idealistic ways we should be. It's a natural thing that we should be this way and we should be that way. That's a kind of poison. Because then we do violence to what actually arises in the heart. And that never works out well. So it's very important to know that in taming ourselves in this way and cultivating ourselves in this way, we have to really look at what truly does arise with awareness, without fooling around and pretending that we're nice. If we're not, at a particular given moment, all of us are nice and all of us are not nice. That's the way it is. So be honest. But if we can be aware of all the ways in which we don't manifest loving kindness, compassion, beneficial action and the rest of it,

[55:01]

we can be honest about that and let that arise and just go. Without grabbing onto it, without beating our breasts about it, without being resentful about it, without being angry and so forth. But just allowing our true feeling to be there and allowing it to pass away as it will. And coming back to our intention and our commitment. To cultivate these practices. Little by little it is possible that we can have a feeling, a true feeling inside. Not a contrived feeling. But a true feeling inside of love and consideration and compassion. And that more and more that can be characteristic of our heart and mind. And when that's so, there's more and more happiness for ourselves and everyone who comes in contact with it. Suzuki Roshi said in Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind, that if you want to tame a cow, you should give it a big pasture.

[56:19]

That to tether the cow tightly is not a good method. Because when the cow is tethered, he or she will stay put as soon as the rope is gone. The cow is maybe even more wild than before. Instead, have a wide pasture. So the cow can roam and explore and see. Lots of space. But the pasture is fenced. There are boundaries. There are intentions that we are trying to fulfill. There are directions in which we are committed to going. And with some honesty and some spaciousness and some flexibility and willingness to experiment.

[57:30]

But always seeing the pasture fences ahead or behind or to the right or left. We can truly cultivate this way. Now I know that most of you know these eight practices even better than I do. And I'm not giving you news today. But it's a funny thing. That even things that we know very, very well, we forget. And we need to remember that reminders are very important. Always. Almost every day, actually. Almost every day. Maybe even every single day.

[58:33]

We need to remember those things that we know very well. We need to encourage those intentions that we really do have in our hearts. But we forget about them. It's almost a miracle. Ten minutes later, we forget. So we need to know that that's so. Realize that that is how this Saha world works. And within that, to continue practicing little by little. So I would hope that each and every one of you would think about this. And consider in these eight practices. And one could easily speak of ten or twenty practices within each of the eight categories.

[59:46]

Is there one practice that you feel that you would like to take up for a while? So I would encourage you, if you find one practice among all of this that you can see, please do take it up. Study it. Speak to your teachers about how you could practice this way. And tell your teacher, Okay, I'm going to practice this one. And I'll come and see you in a week's time and I'll tell you how I did with it. So then you know, uh-oh, I've got to do it. That's how we help each other, right? Anyway, I hope that you will test this for yourself. In the meantime, one day of sitting is a rare and precious opportunity.

[61:00]

I feel that one day dedicated fully and meticulously to practice really reverberates through our lives. It should not be taken lightly. With each one-day retreat and seven-day or five-day Sashin, our practice deepens, our life changes. But only if we give ourselves to our practice. It's certainly possible to sleepwalk through a one-day Sashin. I've done it myself. It can be done. It's easy to. But that would be a shame. For the rest of the day, please consider this. And make an effort that is strong, steady, meticulous, but also joyful and peaceful.

[62:20]

Thank you very much for your attention. I hope I didn't make you sit there too long and hurt you. Thanks.

[62:31]

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