Good morning. So it's a very crisp mid-autumn morning. Looks like the air is fairly clear of smoke at the moment, at least here. So I'm grateful for that. We are having our one day sitting today, which is the closing of our month-long aspects of practice period. And we're sitting from five in the morning until nine at night. And just finishing up, not completing, not exhausting our study of the Paramitas of the perfections, the Bodhisattva's practices.

[01:02]

And today I'm going to speak about, we're going to sort of go back even though Mary and Laurie spoke of Prajnaparamita on Thursday. as we've been joking in the course of the classes, when the subject was announced, a number of people jumped in very quickly with their favorite Paramita. And my favorite is Shanti, the Paramita of Patience, because I need to have more of that. So I want to start by reading a poem and also just by way of I realized by way of complete transparency that

[02:07]

how much of what I'm going to speak about, these different perspectives, different angles at patients, they begin by drawing from the teachings of Robert Akinroshi. And I was reading just this morning, I was reading in his book, The Practice of Perfection, and just realized how influenced I am by his deep understanding of our Zen tradition and the elegance of his thinking and writing, the elegance and economy of it. And I'll say a little more about that later. So there's all these borrowings in this talk and so I I confess that I've stolen this point and that point and there's nothing original, but there's nothing original under the sun, you know.

[03:15]

So I want to start with this poem. It was written in a stormy night in July of 1689 in the far north of Japan. It was written by the Zen poet Basho who was on pilgrimage and it had been raining for three days and there were no trains or buses in those days. You walked from place to place. So, he took shelter in a barn in the countryside. And he composed this haiku. Fleas, lice, a horse pissing near my pillow. That's it. Fleas, lice, a horse pissing near my pillow.

[04:25]

It's very vivid, isn't it? You can see this. You can almost smell it or feel it. It's not a complaint. It's not an idealization. It's not some romanticization of being on the road. It is just this very immediate expression of patience with things as it is. With this poem, looking at his experience, Basho completely enters a moment of what had to be his own discomfort. And he shares it with us in a way that we can have a almost a sensual experience of it.

[05:42]

And what I realized as I was thinking about it this morning is that, and we'll go into this more, is that the practice of patience which has a number of different aspects and dimensions, and there's different kinds of patience, but fundamentally, it's about being patient with myself. It's being patient with my responses to circumstances. It's not so much being patient with the circumstances or being patient with this person who is insulting me. It's actually being patient with how I feel internally at this moment and accepting that as essentially okay. So patience is one of the six paramitas.

[06:55]

And we translate them as perfections or realizations. We had a discussion in one of the earlier classes about the meaning or what the derivation of the word patience is. And I wanted to read you something that I found. Not patience, perfection, paramita. So, the scholar Donald Lopez describes the etymology. He said the term paramita, commonly translated as perfection, has two etymologies. The first derives from the word parama, which means the highest or most distant, and therefore primary or most excellent. Hence, it can be rendered as excellence or perfection and then he cites that this reading is supported by the Majanta Vibhaga where the 12 excellences, parama, are associated with the 10 perfections, paramita.

[08:14]

So, there's a resonance established with that meaning. Then he says, a more creative yet widely reported etymology divides Paramita into Para and Mita, with Para meaning beyond, the further bank, the other shore or the boundary, and Mita meaning that which has arrived. or Ita meaning that which goes. So Paramita then means that which has gone beyond transcendent and the reading is reflected in a Tibetan translation which says gone to the other side. So this is wonderful, the wonderful richness of language, which you can look at from multiple angles and perspectives.

[09:23]

So these six paramitas, as we've spoken of, there's dana paramita, which is generosity, giving of yourself, of oneself. Shila paramita, which is Virtue or Morality, Ethical Conduct, Kshanti Paramita, which we'll go into in more depth, often translated as Patience, Tolerance, Forbearance, Acceptance, Endurance, Virya Paramita, which I think Jerry lectured on, right? Mary, Mary Lakshanviya, which is energy, diligence, vigor or effort. Jnana Paramita, which is meditation or one-pointed concentration. And then Prajnaparamita, which is the perfection of wisdom.

[10:32]

These Paramitas, the way I see them is, again, from multiple perspectives. They are descriptions of how the Bodhisattva practices. The Bodhisattva Avalokitesvara and the Bodhisattva Manjushri, in all of their activities, their activities can be expressed as these six paramitas. And they just actualize them because they have attained this perfection in their practice. For the rest of us who are Bodhisattva works in progress, we practice these paramitas as abilities or activities which we have to cultivate.

[11:47]

In other words, even though doctrinally we're all Buddhas, we have to cultivate these practices and the cultivation means that we're not really right there. It's like we have to cultivate patience because we can see how we're impatient. we have to cultivate generosity because we can see maybe our tendency towards stinginess and so on and so forth in the context of all these paramitas. There's a, in A.K. Roshi's book, he quotes the Zen master Ikkyu, who says, I'm convinced there is no natural Shakyamuni.

[12:58]

By which he means, we have to cultivate these qualities in ourselves. were not born with them. And I think I would verify that from my own experience practicing here for many years that I see people who, and in different situations, I see people who come in with difficulties. I see, I see how they have, well, let me put it personally, I see my own shortcomings. And if I thought that Shakyamuni was a state of birth, I would have given up long ago. And if you think that, you should probably leave the Zendo now.

[14:02]

But wait, Lori's going. I married her, I don't know what to think about that. And I've seen this, I've seen this in my teachers, I've seen this in my friends, I've seen this with people in the community and to some extent I see it in myself that the cultivation, the immersion in practice allows our Bodhisattva nature to emerge. It allows us to settle into these kinds of activities, just as it allows us to settle into sort of the fundamental activity that we're practicing today, which is in Seshin, the practice of Zazen. You know,

[15:04]

It was so hard. There's some people who are newer here, and maybe you're experiencing this, but I think all of us experienced it. It's so hard to sit still. You know, Sojin Roshi's first seishin, probably some of you have heard this story, in the middle of the day, he realized, Oh, there's just going to be more of this. And he left. He went out. This is, uh, he went out from this session with Suzuki Roshi. He went out to the marina and he walked around and he realized, well, this doesn't work either. And so you went back. But it's really hard, particularly when you're beginning.

[16:12]

It's hard to sit still. It's really painful. You have to deal with all of one's own shortcomings and one's own wandering mind. And I think that many of us who have persisted have found that something shifted in that over the years. It's a very long, slow shift. Uh, and this is where to me, the relationship between patience and virya is very close that, uh, When Sojourner Roshi saw that it wasn't gonna work to wander around the marina, he had to make the effort to bring himself back and sit down again, even though it was hard.

[17:18]

And I know it was, because he's spoken of this often, it was really hard and painful for him. And I'm sure that many of us have that experience. And this cultivation stage calls for the relationship between, a close relationship between shanti and virya. Virya is effort. Yeah. Effort or vigor. I think the Latin root is vis, V-I-S. It's like virile. It's the same, yeah, yeah, energy, right. And I think that Kshanti has been

[18:20]

It's been a really pivotal practice for me. Yesterday, we had a question and answer with Sogen Roshi in the afternoon, and he was talking about four key elements of practice. Zazen, study, work, and questioning, or meeting with a teacher. And in the course of, he said, oh yeah, and the fifth is patience. So this is like, if a table needs five legs, maybe the fifth one is patience. So the Japanese character, or the Chinese character, for patients is interesting. The word in Japanese is nin, N-I-N. And the character consists of two conjoined radicals.

[19:27]

At the lower part of the character is The character is the radical for shin, heart, mind. And on top of that is the character for first, sword. A sword, yes. So the character consists of a sword hanging over your heart. And so this is our predicament. that our patience is not tested in the context of safety, but actually in circumstances of risk, danger, challenge. And living in just that predicament is the circumstance of waking up.

[20:30]

So we live in this circumstance and our practice in the context of Buddhism is not to return harm, not to escape, but to endure this situation. In the Dhammapada, one of the earliest what seems to be kind of among the earliest layers of Buddhist teachings, verse 184 says, enduring patience is the greatest austerity. This means looking at the conditions and the possibilities that are right there in our present situation. Another early sutra says, this is a verse that I really like, very succinct.

[21:50]

Patience is the incinerator of defilements. Patience is the incinerator of defilements. I think that's been a kind of watchword expression for both me and Lori. We heard it from one of our friends, Santicaro, who's, you may have met him, but realizing If we put our afflictions, our difficulties, our shortcomings, we put them into the fire of patience and they're transformed. So to go back to Akin Roshi, he speaks of three aspects of patience, of the perfection of patience.

[23:06]

One is gentle forbearance. The other is endurance of hardship. And the third is acceptance of the truth. For most of us, gentle forbearance may not be immediately so hard, but it has a very close boundary with endurance of hardship. So, Again, referring to the question and answer with Sogen Roshi yesterday, a question came up about speaking or not speaking, say in the zendo or in a class or something like that.

[24:09]

And he was suggesting forbearance. Sometimes for some people, that's easy. Actually, for some people, it's too easy. because they may tend towards silence and may be affected by their fear of speaking. For others of us, and I would include myself, there's an urgency that arises to speak. And sometimes it's quite, it's simple and it's manageable and I can just say, no, you don't need to say that. Let's, let me wait and see because chances are somebody else is going to say or ask what I'm, what I'm thinking.

[25:13]

And I also see where it's the boundary of endurance of hardship, because sometimes my truth, which is one of the most alarming expressions that I know, when somebody says, this is my truth, it's like, watch out, you know, put up your guard all shield. my truth has an urgency to it that I feel that I really need to speak. And then it's a hardship. And I'm just honestly, I'm still working on this. And then there's acceptance of the truth, acceptance of the way things are. Now as I was reading Aiken Roshi's book, it was interesting, I came on a question and I realized that it was literally my question.

[26:35]

that I had, the way he developed this book, he had a series of lectures and then there was a question and answer period which is drawn from two or three different sessions where that was all transcribed. And actually, I helped him and edited the Q&A section. And when I read this this morning, I realized, oh, that was me. And I said, I asked, the idea of forbearance brings me to a tension I feel in engaged Buddhism, which tells me there is a role for acceptance and a role for taking action. Could you comment on that tension? And I think his answer is really good. He said, you put your finger on it. The forbearance and permission involved here is acceptance of the truth. What we see, what we are seeing in the world is not in keeping with primal truths.

[27:43]

Let's bring some harmony here as best we can. I'm sure that this paramita could be misinterpreted as an excuse for not doing anything. I don't think that was the Buddha's intention. He didn't stay under the Bodhi tree. After seven days, he got up, looked for his disciples, and then on for almost 40 years, he walked through India, turning the wheel of the Dharma for and with many beings. Although he accepted wholeheartedly the state of mind of the people that he met, he wasn't satisfied with them. To me, this is This is the virtue of a teacher. This is the virtue of Eiken Roshi.

[28:46]

This is the virtue of Sojin Roshi. And I can see it very much in how we hear about Suzuki Roshi. The remarkable thing about Suzuki Roshi that I see, and I never met him, was that Everyone who met him seemed to feel seen by him and accepted. And, you know, you're perfect just as you are, and you need some improvement. So I like that expression of Akin Roshi's, like acceptance of the truth actually is not a state of passivity. It's a deep vision of what he called the primal truth. And I think a teacher's responsibility or a practitioner's responsibility is to align ourselves with the primal truth, not just align ourselves with the dysfunctional or oppressive circumstances of our world.

[30:08]

but actually patiently to work in a way to transform them. So Suzuki Roshi spoke, it's interesting, he spoke of Shanti in a, he and Thich Nhat Hanh spoke of it in very parallel ways. Suzuki Roshi spoke of, he defined Kunchanti as constancy. And you can find that chapter, I think, in Ten Mind Beginners Mind. He wrote, I have always said that we must be very patient if we want to understand Buddhism. But I was seeking for a better word than patience. I think it is better to translate it as constancy. Constancy means the constant faculty or ability or possibility to accept things.

[31:15]

There's no particular effort involved, but only the constant ability or faculty which we have to accept. This is our way of practice and our way of continuous practice, even after you attain enlightenment. So he's emphasizing patience as an activity, as the constant application of oneself to reality again and again, even in the face of difficulty, in the face of frustration, in the face of resistance. And Thich Nhat Hanh talks about it to slightly different, but very similar. He translates kshanti as inclusiveness. So he says the capacity of the bodhisattva's heart is very big.

[32:21]

The capacity to receive, to embrace, and to include. The reason why we suffer is because the capacity of our heart is very small. We hear the words, we have the same treatment, and some people can accept it, but we cannot. We suffer a great deal. Therefore, we have to practice the capacity to include, to embrace. If we practice, if we train, the capacity of our heart will grow and we will suffer much less. And he uses a metaphor that's drawn from the Sutras. The metaphor is a metaphor of a handful of salt. If our heart is small, then those words, that action, that injustice will make us angry.

[33:25]

A small injustice will cause us many sleepless nights, and we may not even be able to eat for a week. If our heart is great, like the river, then those words will not have any effect on us. That behavior and that injustice will not have any meaning. Then our heart will become a river. So the metaphor is if you throw a pound of salt into a small pond, you can taste it and it would be poisonous to the fish. Pounds of salt. I don't want to be technical. If you throw that same amount into a river or into an ocean, it will hardly be noticed. So the idea is to make our hearts big, to be able to include everything.

[34:33]

And that is, of course, the watchword of our Zazen practice. Again, yesterday Sojan Roshi was distinguishing between different aspects of concentration, which is the fifth of the paramitas. And he spoke of the aspect of a very narrow, focused concentration, which is really infused with energy. But he also, he was saying that our style of practice is an open, receptive, inclusive concentration. So you could say, I tend to say, concentrate on everything. You know, just have an open, receptive mind.

[35:34]

And I think that's what Suzuki Roshi, that's what Thich Nhat Hanh is talking about in in his translation of Kshanti as inclusiveness. And what Suzuki Roshi is advising is just stay with that, dwell with that inclusiveness, which means quite realistically, as I'm sure all of us are encountering in the course of today, it means We put our mind in that place, we settle our mind in our bodies and we find in the next moment our mind has drifted away. And we just saw like the cook just walked out and we're thinking, I wonder what's for lunch. And

[36:36]

then just to bring ourselves back. So to bring ourselves back is this kind of conjoined practice of patience and energy or effort just to return. So when we return, we can include the whole reality of our circumstances. So I think that I'm going to stop there and leave time for some questions or comments. And, you know, all of us are patiently impatient. But I wanted to read you one more quotation. This is from the Blue Cliff Record. And I think it's apropos of our activity today.

[37:44]

A monk asked Xianglin, what is the meaning of Bodhidharma coming from the West? Xianglin said, I am stiff from sitting so long. A monk asked Chong Lin, what is the meaning of Bodhidharma's coming from the West? And Chong Lin said, I am stiff from sitting so long. So the floor is open. Harlow. I think the relationship is very close and you know we've got these different systems, these different dharma systems.

[38:53]

So equanimity is and actually over the years Sojan Roshi has been he tends a little more to favor the the factors of enlightenment Seven factors of enlightenment, is that right? And equanimity is one of those. And, you know, it's sort of like, it made the cut in that list and didn't in this and, you know, who knows. But I think that there, it's hard to say what is cause and what is effect. Equanimity may be a fruit of patience, perhaps. So, I don't know. It's like, I think we use all these, the thing about all these systems is that they're basically medicinal.

[39:57]

They're aimed, they're not absolute teachings. They're aimed to bring us back to the center, bring us back into balance. So that's why you have these different systems because they're looking at things from slightly different ways, but I think that they're quite related. Yeah. Some discussions of patients or a lot of discussions of patients talk about of defilement. Right. So the question there is how? And I'll tell you what I do. And I think this is part of practice of patience.

[41:10]

And it's not perfect. You know, sometimes I'm caught. Anger comes up so quickly. And we can begin to understand over time what our triggers are. and be hip to the circumstances that are likely to bring that up. And sometimes we can see it almost before it happens and sometimes not. What my practice is, and actually in the sutras what it says is the core, the heart of the practice of patience is Patience in the face of insult. Patience in the face of being unjustly accused.

[42:12]

I would just like to point out the other side of that is, which may be worse, is patience in the face of being justly accused. But for me, when that trigger happens and I can realize that I'm triggered, I try to step back almost literally. There's an urge to come forward and really get in your opponent's face. And it's good to step back, whether this is literally or figuratively. And I will say to myself, I actually do this. This is, I am triggered. I'm really angry or I'm really hurt right now. And right now this feels like I've swallowed a burning, molten piece of lava.

[43:21]

And I'll say, but I'll say, okay, let me, let's see, let me step back and not engage this now and see how this feels in an hour or tonight or tomorrow morning. Because I know from experience, from long experience that that that impulse, which feels like it is the absolute center of the universe at that moment, will actually feel differently later. And the same thing, you know, just to give you a stupid example, which is not about anger. My first regime after lunch, which I didn't find entirely satisfying, I don't remember what it was, I really wanted a hamburger. I urgently wanted a hamburger.

[44:24]

And I was obsessively thinking about this. You know, it was that was the center of the universe. You know, this red disc with a piece of meat in between. And I said, What am I going to do about this? And I said, Okay, I'm going to go over to the bowl. And I walked over to the bowl. And I just was, you know, just looking all around and I saw a bagel. And I thought, well, that's close enough. And I put a bagel and the urgency of that impulse dissolved instantly. Now, that wasn't anger. It was maybe the realm of desire. But I do, I literally tell myself, I wonder how this is going to feel. Can I see how this is going to feel in an hour or later today? Yeah, I can. It goes through this great thing that anybody could pick up pretty quickly.

[46:40]

And then it asks them, what happened? So you're really falling to your feet now. OK, what happened to that angry feeling? And they will say either that it kind of went away or that it's a lot less. now and there's there's nothing else it's not like you're trying to suppress right then you then you start getting them into their recognizing the triggers right what caused that anger oh it was when we test you out something uh so now go back to your feet now what happened to the trigger uh so if they can get the get it when the trigger happens happens and so the anger may never even arise. Right. Or if it arises, it's already kind of preempted a little bit.

[47:43]

Anyway, I was thinking that was kind of, there was nothing said about patience. Right. In that instruction, but actually what it's doing is that the students are learning that when a trigger arises, you focus on And then it's not that you're repressing that, but it's just that you're in the context of this other thing, that trigger may just kind of dissipate or it's less important. It's not like you're focusing on it, you're focusing on your feet, not as you're told to do all this. So I think that's a practice. Yeah, that's a great, it is a patient's practice. That's a practice that I was given early on and I use it a lot just to ask people, I just say to people, you can always ask yourself, where are my feet?

[48:48]

In any circumstance, that literally grounds your practice. And what it does in the context that you're saying, it's like you can't really have two things foremost in mind at one time. So you're redirecting your mind. In what I was saying, Jerry, it's also redirecting my mind, but it's a more open investigative process, but yours is really helpful. That's a really helpful practice in terms of actually redirecting, and that is the practice of patients. So I'm going to take one more. Mary? So I'm interested in the relationship between patients and energy. And it seems like there's a, or at least I have had a cultural Yes.

[49:50]

Right. The image that came to mind is that someone you adore, your date, your three-year-old child, who you completely adore, has just touched your last nerve. And the energy that it takes to still adore them and treat them Yeah, but I think that this is what I was saying at the beginning. We tend to think of patience as a quality that we project on something external.

[50:52]

So you need to be patient about that line in the supermarket. But actually, the patience is a totally internal reflection. It's like the lion is an impatient, I'm impatient. And so that's why it's a bodhisattva practice. That's why it's something that we have to cultivate in ourselves. And it's hard because it might be that biologically we're impatient. You know, but some, I just also think about the frog sitting on, sitting by the side of the pond and just waiting for the fly to come by. Very patient. Patients may be motivated by hunger, you know, but I need to cultivate that within myself.

[51:57]

And I also feel like the activity of Zazen is a moment by moment training in that practice. So thank you very much. Enjoy the day.

[52:11]

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