I vow to taste the truth of the Detective's words. Good morning. Somebody gave me a copy of the recent Time magazine cover story about Buddhism in America, with Brad Pitt's picture on the cover.

[01:01]

So, there's these new movies, I guess, coming out, so that occasions the article, but also I think so much interest and awareness of prominent Buddhist leaders like Thich Nhat Hanh and His Holiness the Dalai Lama also certainly contributes, and that's why the movies exist in the first place, I suppose. So, I read the article, and it's always odd to read a popular journalism about something that you're involved with. One can appreciate more deeply how misinformed we all are about almost everything, and yet

[02:25]

it's so compelling. You know, you read that stuff and you believe it all, and this is all of us acting stupidly based on misinformation. Then I went, I have a little group of Dharma teachers from other groups and traditions that I meet with once in a while, just like a group of friends. We get together regularly just to sort of help each other out and commiserate and so forth. Very, very good for me, for all of us. So, we were discussing this article and how good it is and how bad it is that Buddhism is becoming a trend and a fad.

[03:27]

Of course, Buddhism has always been a trend and a fad. Popular Buddhism has always existed in Asia, even before Time magazine. We think that Time magazine came at the dawn of history, but actually there was quite a bit of history before Time magazine. And there's always been pop Buddhism, folk Buddhism, but it is a little embarrassing that Buddhism is temporarily so chic. Even the lead singer of the Beastie Boys, I never knew this, but this is what I learned from Time magazine. The leader of the Beastie Boys is a Buddhist, did you know that?

[04:30]

And they have rock and roll songs about, they gave the lyric in Time magazine, it's like exactly the Bodhisattva vow in a rock lyric. But it is slightly embarrassing. And all my colleagues were somewhat dubious about the whole thing. But we agreed that, on the other hand, it was a good thing, too, because now if you're practicing Buddhism you don't have to feel, as we felt years ago, that you're doing something totally outside the realm of the reasonable or sensible. Which is a good thing because I think everybody now more and more appreciates in this world

[05:41]

suffering and the end of suffering. And everybody appreciates that Buddhism may help with this question. So maybe it's easier for us all to practice Buddhism because of this wider appreciation of this question. And I think because of this, there's a little bit more social support, in a way, to practice Buddhism than there used to be a long time ago. Twenty years ago, the only people practicing Buddhism were dropouts, crazies, and failures. I mean, that's an exaggeration, but more or less. Nowadays, policewomen and museum curators and bookstore owners practice Buddhism. I was in my favorite used bookstore the other day and I wanted to return a book because

[06:51]

I bought a book that I already owned. Which goes to show you the state of my mind and the state of my library. But anyway, I bought a book that I already owned. So I went to the used bookstore to, you know, like, that was a good thing. I said, oh boy, now I have credit. One always wants credit. So I thought, now I have credit. However, when I went to the counter at the bookstore to get my credit, they said, well, too bad for you, but this receipt is so many days after the date of purchase, and so according to our rules, you can't exchange this book. It's too late. So I said, oh, that's too bad. Yeah, that's a shame. I should have come sooner. And they said, and anyway, we only will exchange books after, or before six o'clock, and it's ten after six. So I said, well, that's life, you know.

[07:56]

But, so here's this guy, and another cash register, there's another fellow there with lots of tattoos and so on, who just says, you can come over here. So I go to the other register, he exchanges the book, gives me the credit, and I, you know, got two more books. So then I had to go to the bathroom. So I went to the cash register and said, do you have a bathroom here? And the lady said, well, we really don't have a bathroom for customers. You have to go across the street to the cafe. And I said, oh, okay, gee, that's, you know, okay, I'll go across the street. And the same fellow says, come with me. And he opens up the door, and I went in and was able to use the bathroom.

[09:07]

And I thought the whole thing was very strange. I couldn't understand why this was happening. But, of course, it turned out that this fellow was a Dharma student and recognized me from the Zen Center over in the city. And that's why he was so kind to me. So there are advantages to the popularization of Buddhism. But my Dharma teacher friends, despite this advantage, were on the whole skeptical of the whole thing. You know, they felt, you know, everything is corruptible. And especially, they said, in our country, you know, everything is corruptible.

[10:12]

Money buys out everything. So they said, Buddhism is liable to be co-opted. Do you know this word, co-opted? It's a word we used to use a lot in the 70s, the 60s and 70s. We did not want to get co-opted. We wanted to remain an indigestible lump in the craw of the society. We didn't want to be co-opted. So I don't know if they still use this word, or those of you who are younger can appreciate this word, co-opted. But the idea is that, you know, you're doing something, and then somebody sort of, like, incorporates it into themselves, and therefore it disappears. So you think you've succeeded because you've become accepted, but actually what you've done is lost your train of thought somehow. You got legitimized out of existence. So this is what the Dharma teachers wondered about, you know. And I think that this is a realistic fear, it seems like, because success is a greater

[11:30]

danger than failure. And if you consider Asian Buddhism, I think you could say that the most successful Buddhisms in Asia became either pernicious or gradually lost their power when they were successful and became arms of the government, which was certainly the case in Chinese and Japanese Buddhism. So Buddhism easily can be watered down, or even worse than being watered down, it can ally itself, you know, in the same in the West, right? The Catholic Church engaged in various harmful activities because of its success in alliances with powerful leaders. And then the Dharma, which is a force for good, becomes something harmful.

[12:40]

This can happen. I remember, what was that guy's name, some of you remember? That Bulgarian guy who came here? Rafael. Rafael, yeah. Poporinov. Right, Rafael Poporinov. He was from Bulgaria and he had been studying Zen, he told us, fifty years. Where did he learn Zen? Well, during World War II, the Bulgarian kingdom initially was aligned with the Nazis and Rafael was a strong young man and he joined the elite corps of troops and so he was shipped off to Germany to train. And in Germany he was trained, he had various kinds of training, but one of the most important

[13:45]

elements of his training was he was trained by a Zen teacher to do Zazen so that he could overcome the fear of death and not be totally able to do whatever it took to perform his mission as an elite corps. And he learned various breathing techniques and all kinds of stuff, which he swore by for the rest of his life as being important, powerful. And he felt that he was strong and handsome even at the age of 75, which he would tell us frequently, how strong and handsome he was, because of Zen, all that he had learned. Of course, it turned out that Bulgaria, the government fell, as happens in war, and then they switched to the good side. So, Rafael later became a hero to the Allied troops because he happened to be there when the Allied troops marched into wherever it was he was. He was the first Bulgarian troops on the good side to receive the Allied troops and so when

[14:47]

he was here in America he would constantly be invited to the VFW events, veterans events, and he was a great hero. And recently in Japan there have been some books that have come out talking about some of the great Zen masters of our time, some of whom are recognized in America as having brought the Dharma to us, were, during the war years, strong supporters of Japanese militarism, which was a terrible thing really. Japanese militarism was really a dark blot on our humanness, all of us. And we all know how successful the Zen people were earlier in Japanese history in promoting the samurai spirit. So, success and popularity can have its downside.

[15:54]

The other day somebody called me, I was late for service this week because somebody called me from New York from Forbes magazine, a magazine which I have never read even one page of. But I assume and I hear that it's, I know it's a business magazine and that it's for entrepreneurs and so on. Anyway, this woman is writing an article for Forbes magazine about Buddhism and about how, and she heard that I'm doing these retreats for business people and so she wanted me to discuss with her how the techniques of Buddhism might help entrepreneurs to become more, their businesses to become more profitable and their work to be more effective and they can have more nerve and more power in their entrepreneurialness using Zen. I tried to tell her that that wasn't the work that we were doing exactly and I explained

[16:58]

to her what we were trying to do in our retreats. And she said, but isn't anybody famous coming to your retreats, somebody that our readers would like to know about? I said, no, nobody famous, sorry. So, I don't know how good that is. Maybe it's good, I don't know. But one has, gives one pause anyway. Dogen says, traps and snares can never touch it, referring to Zazen. And I think that that really is true. The practice of Zazen itself is, I think, from the inside, actual Zazen is, I think, incorruptible.

[17:59]

Traps and snares can never reach it, so we don't have to be freaked out or worried, I think. We can practice with some confidence. But one needs to be careful, I think. And another, you know, aspect of all this, the growing acceptance of Buddhism in our world is the fact that it causes us to become involved in the world. Because, you know, we're not a bunch of crazies. We're viewed as, you know, like any other good religious person, someone in the world that can be helpful. So, we get involved. And this involvement is certainly a fulfillment of our bodhisattva vow. And I certainly feel that we misunderstand our practice if we don't embrace the world

[19:06]

and its suffering as a part of our practice. I think that, to me, that's a misunderstanding of Buddhadharma. On the other hand, of course, it does present a problem, because it's easy to lose your way if you're too involved in the world. Maybe it's not bad to lose your way. Sometimes, it may be required of you that you lose your way. But if so, one has to be clear about what one is doing and why. And the fact is that I don't think Buddhist practitioners are all that good at taking care of the world's problems. A couple of weeks ago, as I told you, I went to a protest, a homeless protest over in the city with religious witness, with the homeless.

[20:08]

And when I go to those protests, usually a bunch of religious leaders get up at the rally and say something. They try to have a good mix of people, so they get a Buddhist and they get somebody who's Muslim and a Jewish person and so on. So, I always feel so admiring of the people from the other traditions. I admire their clarity and their strength in speaking out. And I feel, myself, much less equipped than they. I think that the technology of their traditions gives them more that point of view. And I don't think it's necessary for us to get as good at it as they are.

[21:14]

I don't feel that we need to do that. I do feel that it's important for us to show up and to do what we can to help and to offer our services and our spirit. But the fact of the matter is that our strength as practitioners and our unique contribution, something that we have to offer to the world, is this sitting practice, is this contemplative way and the insight and clarity and peace that comes from it. And I think that the world really needs this incorruptible practice of Zazen, this supremely useless practice.

[22:17]

There are too many useful things in this world. Good things, bad things, useful things. And the world is spinning in confusion for lack of what is supremely useless. So I think it is our main mission to continue to offer this Zazen and to practice it. And so our sitting together today is something very, very important, I believe, and not only for ourselves but for the whole world, that we are taking our places alongside of many, many others over many, many thousands of years who have preserved and continued this practice for the benefit of others.

[23:22]

And so we need to sit always with that kind of spirit, dedicating each and every breath to the alleviation of suffering for all creatures. Someone might ask, is that enough? Well, maybe it's not enough. But it is, for today, absolutely enough. I have often thought about a persistent attitude that is so common to all of us,

[24:27]

so buried deep within the Western psyche, and I often think, where does this attitude come from? Sometimes I usually blame it on Kant, who spoke about the universalizing essence of morality and truth, that that's how you know it's morality and truth, that it's universally so. But maybe it's not Kant's fault. Maybe it's already implied in the Bible, although I'm a fan of the Bible. Maybe it's in the Bible, implied there. Maybe the Greeks made it up, I don't know. Who knows, but it seems to be our cross to bear, so to speak, this attitude. What I mean is this idea that we have, that we just have a hard time getting away from, that if something is right and good, it must be right and good for all times and places. It must be universally good. So if it is right for us to do zazen today,

[25:31]

then it must be that zazen is the best thing and that everyone should be doing zazen, and if they're not, they must be doing something that's somewhat less good. Or, if we are out there working directly for the benefit of others, and that this is a good thing, then it must be that others should be doing this, and if they are not doing this, there's something wrong with them, or at least they're not quite as good as we are. And if we're lay Buddhists, then it must be that the coming trend in Buddhism is lay Buddhism, and everybody should be a lay Buddhist. But if we're monks or nuns, then we think that this is the real way, and that everybody who isn't a monk or nun really is somehow lesser. Or if we are nice, educated, heterosexual, white, Buddhist people

[26:33]

with a certain peaceful and liberal sensibility, even though we know, of course, there are all kinds of other people, and it is all right to be another person, kind of a person, really having our view and sensing the world in our way is better than other people would be a little better off if they were more like us. And this happens all the time, even in our temple, where we're all very similar, the differences are noticed and subtly put up or put down according to what we think. And somehow it's so ingrained with us, our sense of rightness or morality simply isn't subtle enough to appreciate the simple fact of difference, the deep reality of difference. Actually, there is nothing but difference,

[27:40]

each and every moment, in each and every place, there is nothing other than difference. Everything is different, even we ourselves, if we look closely, as I hope that today we can settle enough to look closely, we see that we are absolutely different from ourselves. There is nothing but difference, difference, difference, arising on each moment. And all of it is absolutely true and good, even what is bad is true and good, and all of it must be embraced and let go of. What's right for me today may not be right for me tomorrow. What's right for me may not be right for you. What's right for us may not be right for others. But unless there is a me and a you,

[28:47]

and then in the next moment another me and another you, and other groups of people and their histories and necessities, and other species, how many untold numbers of species are there? It's amazing, scientists are only now realizing how few species we are aware of in this world, how little we know about the diversity of creatures, large and small, unless there is all of this, difference, mutually supporting, there is no world. The whole world depends exactly on difference. And yet we are convinced that we have to make ourselves and each other miserable

[29:50]

trying to make everything the same. And we even fight wars, and we even destroy our beautiful planet just because we want everything to be the same, everything to suit us and our ideas of how the world ought to be. So I hope in your sitting today you can appreciate difference, every moment different and fresh. You may think that you know who you are, I am so-and-so, this is how I am, this is my problem, this is my suffering, but actually you don't know who you are because it is different every moment, it is fresh every moment. Every sound, every sight, object, every taste and texture,

[30:56]

every thought arising in your mind is a different world and completely new if you can see it clearly enough without being blinded by experience. It just is. It just flashes up. We don't know where it comes from, and we don't know where it's going. Of course we are persons too, and our personhood has to be recognized and appreciated. And the purpose of our practice is not to become idiots and fools. Oliver Sacks tells a story, I might have mentioned this to you before, of this fellow who was in an ashram in the seventies, and something happened to him

[31:59]

and his frontal lobes of his brain became damaged, causing him to only be able to live in the present moment. So he lost all sense of past and attachment and suffering, and people in the ashram thought that he was enlightened and began to sit at his feet, and he spoke to them and they were quite impressed, and even when he was brought to the hospital where he lived the rest of his life, they still came to the hospital to see him. And in a way he was happy, but he had lost his personhood because of his brain damage. And that's why in Zen we emphasize so much personalizing the Dharma, manifesting the Dharma through our actions

[33:02]

as people. So it's not that we want to eliminate or de-emphasize our personality. We want to transform our personality, revolutionize our personality. Literally the texts say, turn it around, which is what a revolution is, right? To turn around. We want to turn our personality around. Turn it around so that we're no longer stuck to it. If you have a friend whom you love a lot, someone whom you love so much that you're really willing to let go and let that person be free so that he can be himself or she can be herself, and that you can affirm him or her

[34:02]

in everything that she does or he does, then you have a wonderful friendship, a wonderful relationship. And both of you can be quite happy. But if you have a friend whom you identify with strongly, and whom you have very heavy expectations of, and who doesn't fulfill your expectations, then you have a painful relationship that is full of suffering. So that's the difference. We want to be the first kind of a friend to ourselves so that we can turn our personality around and be happy with ourselves. I have a good friend who's a Tibetan Lama, Lama Surya Das. He was here visiting not too long ago.

[35:03]

And sometimes people ask him, especially newspaper reporters, whether he's enlightened or not. And he has a great answer. He says, Well, I'm enlightened enough to be happy. So, maybe today you can sit with a strong spirit and a strong determination, not measuring the day, thinking, Oh good, Dharma talk's almost over, a few more periods and there's lunch, break, you know, we're going to get through this. Not thinking like that. But you can sit with a strong determination but really focusing your determination on just doing each period and each moment of each period,

[36:05]

letting go of all your worries and your concerns and bringing your energy into each moment, into each breath, into each fresh and new instance of posture and sight and smell and sound and taste and touch and object of mind, letting each thing arise and pass away without grabbing it and expecting something. I know that there's something that you want because there's something that all of us want. This is our situation. We human beings are all either greatly dissatisfied or slightly dissatisfied or something in between. And we want something. Maybe we don't know what it is.

[37:07]

Maybe we think we know what it is, but of course that isn't it. Or maybe we know. We don't know what it is we want, that we're just slightly or greatly dissatisfied. But there isn't anything that's going to satisfy us. There really isn't. There's only the coming and going of each absolutely different thing, now and now and now. And when we can release ourselves to that, and maybe you can do that today for one breath, this would be liberating, for one breath, to release yourselves to that, then questions of satisfaction or dissatisfaction entirely stand aside. So this is what we

[38:10]

sit with. This is the kind of effort we need to make. And if you want to, you can practice, literally, with each and every breath, breathing in and breathing out, asking yourself, what is difference? Or what is sameness? Or what is it? What is it? Or who is it here? Who is it? Who is here? Dissolving all our questions into just this one question, dissolving all our problems, all our suffering into just this one question, until everything in the world becomes

[39:10]

just this one question, beyond words. Anyway, this is one way you could practice today to help you let go of all your worries and concerns. And I've been quoting, as those of you who have heard my last few talks and come to my previous class know that I've been thinking about the Malayunkaputta Sutra, the one, the Buddha, the one sutra in which the Buddha speaks of the famous simile of the man shot with the arrow. Do you know that one? You've been hearing me mention this. A man is shot with an arrow, Buddha says, or sets up this image. Suppose there's a man

[40:12]

shot with an arrow and a surgeon comes to pull the arrow out, but he won't let the surgeon pull it out until he finds out what clan the person is from who shot the arrow and what their name is and how tall they are and what they look like and what's the color of their skin and so on. And also, until he finds out where the arrow was made and how large it is and what it was made from and what kind of feathers are on the arrow and so on and so on. And of course, the Buddha says, this is really ridiculous because even before you find the answer to any of these questions, you're already dead. So the Buddha says, don't hold on to ideas and don't look for anything, especially answers. You want me to give you answers, the Buddha said, but I didn't give you answers on purpose, not because I don't have answers or do have answers, but because answers are useless when you're wounded.

[41:15]

And when you're looking for answers in the process, you'll just die. So don't waste time. Truly, death is coming very fast. This morning, I sat a period of zazen, always a delightful thing, and I had a strong image in my mind as I was sitting there of a very fast train coming down the track toward me. And I thought to myself, this is death. He is coming very fast right toward me. And as I was sharing

[42:19]

with a friend the other day, I cannot count the number of friends of mine who are facing death right now, today. I actually try to keep a list of them so that I can remember to call them once in a while and see how they are. But there are too many and I can't keep track and I can't stay on top of all of them. And I know that pretty soon it will be my turn. I feel, you know, pretty soon. And maybe also your turn pretty soon. Of course, this train coming down the track is not outside of you coming toward you. The train of death is already inside you. It is deeply

[43:20]

who you are and what you are. Do you know, according to Buddhist philosophy, it is very clear what the cause of death is. Do you know what the cause of death is? Life. Yeah, life is the cause of death. Illness, accident or whatever befalls you are viewed as incidental things. The actual cause of death is life. Think about it. If there is no life definitely there won't be any death. And if there is life there will definitely be death. And that's why death or life is basically the cause of death. So, death is already in you so you better work on your practice now with all seriousness because just as it's

[44:25]

foolhardy to think oh, there's only one more period before lunch and then there's lunch and then there's break and so on. This sitting will be over very quickly no matter what and so will your life. There isn't much time left. So the Buddha said because there's not much time left it would be stupid not to heal right now while you have the chance. That's why I haven't given you any answers. That's why I have only spoken of suffering and the cause of suffering and the end of suffering and the path. Because of suffering in us and all around us we must sit. Most of the

[45:29]

acharyas whose names we chant in the morning were women of tremendous courage who knew suffering and I thought I would like to just appreciate with you for a moment before I close the story of one of them Kisa Gotami. You notice her name Gotami and Buddha's name was Gautama. She was in the same family as Buddha. She was a cousin of Buddha's and she married a banker's son but

[46:37]

since she was from a poor family she was not respected in her home and she was given a hard time. Throughout Asia there is this tradition of women going to live with the in-laws and often like in Japan this is very famous your mother-in-law the mother-in-law and the daughter-in-law it's one of the worst relationships you know mother-in-law after you all the time so she had that problem but when she gave birth to a son this was very good thing and so she got a lot of credit for that but the child died when she was when the boy was an infant not an infant a toddler you know like two or three years old he died and Kisa Gotami had never seen anyone die before

[47:39]

didn't understand about death and loved this child so much she actually went crazy with grief and in her delusion she refused to accept that the child was dead so she picked up the child and went to the Buddha for medicine to cure her child and this is you know how wonderful Buddha was sometimes there's some people that I know who are also you know deluded off the edge not so many but some people that I know need help but if you say you need help you should go to see the psychiatrist sometimes they don't get it they don't hear that so you have to work with them carefully

[48:40]

and Buddha didn't say to her you're mad you know the child is dead he said I will give medicine I need to make it though and you can help me by bringing me the ingredients I need a white mustard seed but it has to come from a house where there has been no death so please go find a place where there's been no death and bring me a mustard seed and of course she went knocked on all the doors of the village and went to the next village into the bigger town looking for a mustard seed from a house where there had been no death and she couldn't find one because she couldn't find not a single house anywhere

[49:40]

where there had been no death and little by little in bringing up with these families their grief and sharing it with them she healed and her insanity left her and she brought her child back to the Buddha and met the Buddha and took the child to the forest and buried it and then she came to the Buddha and requested to join the Buddha's Sangha and ultimately achieved Nirvana and became one of our great ancestors and I'll just close with a short

[50:41]

poem of hers her enlightenment poem the enlightenment poem of the great Dharma hero Kisa Gotami I have practiced the great eightfold way straight to the undying I have come to the great peace I have looked into the mirror of the Dharma the arrow is out I have put my burden down what had to be done has been done Sister Kisa Gotami with a free mind has said this I have practiced

[51:43]

the great eightfold way straight to the undying I have come to the great peace I have looked into the mirror of the Dharma the arrow is out I have put my burden down what had to be done has been done Sister Kisa Gotami with a free mind has said this so this is so simple and is I think the essence of our practice which is not a fad or a trend or something interesting not something we will master and exhaust and go beyond to some other newer something we practice straight through our mortality

[52:44]

and our suffering to touch the unborn and the undying to find a great peace not by turning away from life but by looking straight ahead at our lives in the mirror of the Dharma until our own face disappears and we only see the face of Buddha we don't waste time on speculation we just pull the arrow out lay down our burden we do what needs to be done nothing more and nothing less and to me there is something so profound

[53:45]

and so beautiful in the last stanza of this poem which doesn't seem like anything at all but think how wonderful Sister Kisa Gotami with a free mind has said this Thank you

[55:01]

@Text_v004
@Score_JJ