Good evening everyone. It's lovely to be back here at Upaya. So the title I
offered for this talk tonight, Practicing the Fullness of Space with the rather
ambitious subtitle, Dogen Environmental Awareness, Modern Physics and the
Bodhisattva Work. So we'll see how much of that we get to. So I will start with
Dogen, as I tend to do, and very much hope to get to the Bodhisattva Work. So
in his very first writing about the meaning of zazen, called Bendowa,
it's the starting point really of all of his writing, Dogen says this really
extraordinary thing, which I'm still trying to get my head around after, I
don't know, 30 years or so more. When one displays the Buddha mudra with one's
whole body and mind, he says, sitting upright in this samadhi, even for a short
time, everything in the entire phenomenal world becomes the Buddha
posture or mudra, and all space in the universe completely awakens. So what does
it mean? What could that possibly mean? All space in the universe completely
awakens. So we've all been just doing that, you know, displaying the Buddha
mudra with our whole body and mind. You know, even if you think you've been
distracted or sleepy or, you know, here we are. What does it mean that all space in
the universe is completely awakened? This is the starting point of this practice
of Zen that Dogen brought from China to Japan. This totally remarkable,
inconceivable expression of vast interconnectedness. And it's up to you,
for you to display the Buddha mudra with your whole body and mind, even for a
little while. And so this has something to do with each of us and our relationship
to space and vice versa. So what does it mean for space to awaken? It certainly
looks, if we look around in the space of our life, in the space of our world, and
of course of all the suffering in our world, you know, it doesn't look
like there's, sometimes it looks like there's not much awakening going on. It can
look that way. So, you know, this is something to study, to question, to explore.
This is our lifetime work as followers of the way. And we don't know what this
means. But something's happening and we don't know what it is. But still,
something's happening. Dogen also says in that same, a little later in that same
passage called the self-fulfillment or self-enjoyment meditation or
concentration or samadhi, he says that, he talks about the mutual guidance
between people practicing and the earth and the grasses and trees and the pebbles
but also fences and walls and tiles. And he says that all things in every
direction in the universe carry out the Buddha work. And this is not just
original to Dogen. This is his expression of an understanding that was
developing in East Asian Buddhism in China that he brought to Japan. This is
the basis for the idea of Pure Land Buddhism. But this idea that when a
Buddha awakens, they create a Buddha field. That there is this very
strong relationship between what goes on in your heart and mind as you're
sitting and this awakening that is part of what's going on and what's going on
in, you know, out there in the trees and the grasses and the hills and the air and
the water. We don't do this alone.
So, you know, there's some aspect of what brought many of us to do spiritual
practice that has to do with finding some personal, you know, inner peace or
calm or settledness. And, of course, that's part of this. But we are deeply,
deeply interrelated with, well, he says all space in the universe, not just even
this planet, you know. But, you know, maybe we should just think about this planet
for now. So this is not just some, you know, personal therapeutic
psychological technique, this Sazen. You know, it may be helpful in
that way too. And many people are finding ways in which Sazen and Twelve Step
Programs, for example, you know, there are ways in which this is
helpful on many, many levels. Suzuki Roshi, my teacher's teacher,
used to talk about non-gaining attitude, not getting anything from this.
But that doesn't mean that this is not...that there's no purpose to our practice
and it doesn't mean that there's no benefit to this practice. It just means
that whatever we think we're going to get from it isn't it, you know.
If there's something you think you want to get out of doing spiritual practice,
that's not it because we can't see how wonderful and how complex and awesome
reality is. We just don't know what's going on. I mean, there's lots of things
we do know. There's lots of things we can know. I'm not saying we should ignore
science, of course, but, you know, there's more than we can see.
So I want to talk about, you know, I'm starting to not like this word
environment. Part of what I want to talk about is environmental awareness.
But when we say environment, we think of something out there, you know,
the grass and trees outside this endo. But we think of the environment as the
object, you know. We are here, the subjects, thinking. Or, you know,
we might think of that in terms of our friends and family and relations too.
We're the subjects and they are the objects. That's part of the dis-ease of
our species, you know. Of course, we are each particular expressions,
but we're expressions of the whole thing. We are...you know, this is part of what
he's talking about when he says...Douglas talks about how there's mutual guidance
between the people practicing and earth and grasses and trees.
He says in this section that starts off by talking about all space awakening,
he talks about this inconceivable mutual guidance between people and earth is
earth and grasses and trees and tiles and walls. All things in the universe.
So, we are deeply connected with everything in ways we can't possibly
understand. Just what's going on in this room right now beyond the sound of my
voice and whatever you think these words I'm...the sounds I'm making mean,
just all the things that are happening in this room right now and all the minds
that are...and all the thoughts and all the, you know, all the beings that allowed
each person on each chair and cushion to be here now. It's so complex.
We can't possibly understand it, and yet it's all happening right now.
So, to think of, you know, to think of the environment as something out there that we
can try and take care of, it's kind of arrogant. And yet, of course,
we have to do what we can to protect the environment because it's us.
We're not separate from the environment. Each of us, in our own way,
is an expression of this total interconnected event of this planet, this universe.
Each of us has our own particular way of expressing this totality.
Each of us has our own particular joys and interests and abilities,
and that's wonderful. So, to see those particulars and to, you know,
part of our zazen is to find that and to creatively express that and to see how
that changes and flows. And so, I'm going to come back to the
Bodhisattva work, but first, just to see that we are part of this flow.
So, I've been teaching a lot recently from another writing by Dogen called
Sansui-kyo in Japanese. Usually, it's translated as the
Mountains and Waters Sutra. And part of what Dogen talks about there
is how the...he starts with quoting an old zazen saying about how the mountains are
constantly walking. And, of course, in lots of ways,
the mountains are constantly walking. In geological time, you know,
our sense of time is very, very quick, you know, 60, 80, 90 years,
70 years, whatever. Mountains, I don't know how long that
hill has been around up across the way there, but, you know.
But even today, you know, how is that mountain walking?
How is it...how are the, you know, are there new leaves and falling leaves
and birds flying? And even today, that mountain is
walking, that mountain is changing like each one of us.
And Dogen says that we should learn our own walking by studying the mountains
walking. So, there's a continuum between our own
walking and that of all other beings, including the mountains,
including the flowings of the waters. But Sansui, as a compound together,
means, in Japanese or Chinese, landscape. So, I think of it as the landscape sutra.
It's not just mountains and waters. So, where I teach in Chicago at the
ancient Dragon Zen Gate, I don't talk about it as mountains and
waters, I talk about it as pastures and lakes, great lakes, and also skyscrapers
and avenues, you know. There's the landscape of nature right
in the city, too, you know. So, we are connected with nature on so
many levels. Mountains and waters is kind of the
traditional Zen metaphor for nature and for landscape because that's, you know,
we can see, it's easy to see how the interplay of water and mountain is how
the topography of the landscape is formed, and that's what there was of
nature in China and Japan and California and New Mexico, but, you know,
in Chicago it's a little different. So, wherever we are and in whatever life
we're in, it's not just the landscape outside us, it's also the landscape
inside us. What is the landscape of your life? What is the landscape of the
walking mountains, the monuments, the great beings, the great people who you
look to, who inform your life? Of course, parents, teachers, loved ones.
How are they walking? How do you learn you're walking from them? So, the word
that Dogen uses for walking, there's a couple of them. One of them also
means conduct or practice. So, we learn our practice from how the mountains
practice. What also means perform. So, how do we perform our walking, our practice,
studying the practice of the landscape around us and within us? And that means,
you know, everybody we interact with and everybody we've ever known. So, again, the
environment is not something out there. We're deeply, intimately intermeshed
with the environment. How do we take care of this planet as part of it? Not as
some, you know, some superior beings who have dominion over it and can figure
out how to fix things. That's part of how we got into the problems we're in now, I
believe. So, a lot of what Dogen talks about is changing perspectives,
having fluid perspectives, seeing our life freshly.
And Zazen is a great teacher that way. We, as we sit upright and just face the wide
pastures of thoughts coming and going and inhale and exhale and sensations in
our knees or shoulders or, you know, just the coming and going of our experience
as we sit. Lots of thoughts or sometimes just sleepiness or whatever it is.
And the next inhale and the next exhale. How do we stay present, keep paying
attention, and we see that things change? So, Dogen talks about this in terms of the
mountains and waters. Well, he talks about it in many ways in many of his
writings, but in terms of water, how do we see the water? How do we, you know,
humans see water one way. Fish see it another way. For fish, water is like their
air. For us, we would drown if we, you know, went to the bottom of the ocean or the
bottom of the lake. Dragons see it another way. Hungry ghosts. Do you know
about hungry ghosts? Hungry ghosts are sad beings who've been, you know, too
brainwashed by consumerism and think they need to have more and more and more
and more of everything and don't have enough. And so they see water as pus and
it's just, oh it's sad, it's sad, it's sad. Anyway, and everything is like that, you
know. There are many different perspectives. And we can get new
perspectives. So how do we open ourselves up to seeing things freshly? Just the
immediate actuality of the next breath.
It's a new one, actually, you know. This inhale is, you never had this inhale
exactly before. You may think you've had, you know, oh, you know, seen one inhale,
you've seen them all, but actually, you know, it's a new breath.
How do we enjoy this new opportunity? So we're doing this in connection with, in
interaction with, all of the plants who are giving us oxygen and so forth. It's
such a complex event, and yet each one of us has our own dharma position, our
own situation, our own way of, our own place in the room, our own position in
which to reflect the whole thing.
So again, to talk about, you know, I want to talk about environmentalism,
but I also, you know, in some ways, I don't like that word anymore. It's just
like, you know, it sort of diminishes it. It's sort of like, reduces it. It's just,
it's not the environment, it's us. How does the environment take care of us? And
how, and thereby, how do we, you know, respond to climate damage and so forth?
So in the title of the talk, I mentioned modern physics, and so I have to issue a
disclaimer. I don't understand anything about modern physics. Some of you, you
know, I'm sure in this room understand a lot more than I do, but I've dabbled, and
I'm a little dilettante, and I've read a little bit, and I just, so I just have to
say that there's so much that's so interesting and actually exciting if you
do read a little bit, and, or even read more than a little bit, and so I've read
a little bit from string theory and other modern perspectives, and nobody
really knows what, what any of it is for sure, but, and some of it may just, you
know, anyway, they're still, the physicists are still arguing over it, but
this is science, folks. This isn't just some 13th century speculation, and so much
of it is really fascinating. They say that reality is composed of multiple
dimensions, and what does that mean? Some string theories scientists say there's
11 dimensions. You know, I can sort of get my head around three and four's time,
and then there's some of them that are so small that we can't, you know, can't
see them in any way, and then even if discounting string theory in quantum,
various quantum theories, they're, they're parallel universes. This is what the
scientists say, you know, and I kind of believe in science, sort of, because
science questions itself. That's part of why I believe in science. It's always
saying, well, okay, what's, what's really going on? But these parallel universes
sound so much like the old Bodhisattva sutras and scriptures, where there's
Buddhas and Bodhisattvas showing up from all these different Buddha fields, and
they're all different dimensions, and they're all coming to hear what this
Buddha's saying, and that Buddha, and some of them are really small, and some of them
are really big, and they're all, some, there, there are Buddha fields where
Buddhas teach with fragrance, if you can imagine that, and sometimes they're, they
teach with silence, and you know, there's just all these different ways that there
are Buddhas, some sutras talk about Buddhas, many Buddhas and Bodhisattvas on
the tip of each plate of grass, or in each atom. So anyway, there's this, this
vision in the Bodhisattva sutras, and in, and in, in some of modern physics, that,
wow, it's exciting, you know, that this might be reality. And we don't know, and,
you know, I just mentioned that because we don't know, and I think it's really
hopeful and really wonderful that we don't know what's going on. We know
something's happening, we know things are bad off, but we don't know, and just the
fact that there are maybe these different dimensions, that's not an
escape. That doesn't mean we can build a spaceship and go off to some other
dimension where things are really cool, and there's not climate damage, and
there's not nuclear, you know, Fukushima still releasing radiation, and so forth.
This is not an escape, you know, we still have to face the problems we have, but
it's nice to know that there are many possibilities. It's nice to know that
things are not, you know, we don't know the answers to what's going on and
what will happen. That's really important to remember. So, how much time do I have? A
The Buddha work, or the Bodhisattva work. Many ancient teachers talk
about doing the Buddha work, so it's not enough to just, you know, enjoy your zazen.
I mean, that's great, please enjoy your zazen, and it's not enough to,
you know, realize that we are deeply interconnected with the whole universe,
although, you know, please enjoy that reality. But each of us, as students of
the way, have this responsibility, this ability to respond. We each have work to
do, each in our own way, each in our particular situation, in our particular
Dharma position, and whatever it is that, whatever life it is that you are doing
now. And, you know, sometimes that, sometimes it means shifting and changing
and, you know, seeing new possibilities and new options, but each of us here in
this room has this possibility of doing the Buddha work, doing the Bodhisattva
work. So, I do want to talk about this in terms of what's going on in our, quote
unquote, environment, even if I don't like that word. So, I want to try and
share some post-environmental perspectives, and first, you know, I do
want to talk about climate damage, and I know it's rude and it's impolite to talk
about this, because it's so serious, and, you know, and it's daunting, and, you know,
and, but there are people who are taking this on and thinking about this in fresh
ways, and I, so I want to try and share some of what I've heard about this, and I
think, and probably some of you know a lot more about this than I do, but
there are people taking this on in terms of eco-psychology, and the unconscious
effect and anxiety that all of us feel, because whether or not we think about
this or whether or not we, you know, we're all aware, you know, there are acute
things that happen, the fires and the heat and the drought in California, and I
don't know, is that happening here in New Mexico? Yeah, and things like, and
tornadoes in the Midwest where I am, and storms in the East Coast, and terrible
things happening in Australia and Africa. Anyway, it's happening all over the
world, and so, and, you know, I can, I can read you some, some scary facts about it,
and I don't want to do too much of that, but, well, just a little bit. They, the
scientists say that it's likely that by summer of 2015, that's next year, that
there will be a time when there's no ice on the North, in the Arctic Ocean, the
North Polar Ocean. That's a major event in the world, and already there is mass
extinction of species going on. They say this is the sixth mass extinction. One of
the effects of the Arctic melting is a massive release of methane, which is even
more dangerous than carbon dioxide in terms of the effects of climate damage
and the accelerating of that. Anyway, it's, it's really serious, and this is what
the scientists are saying, and there's a fellow, you know, I wasn't going to
mention this because it's, as a metaphor, this is sort of too gloomy, you know, but
I think there are people here who study hospice. Is that right? And there's a
fellow in California who's written a really interesting article called
Planetary Hospice, trying to apply individual hospice to what's going on in
the planet and how to apply the lessons of individual hospice to perspectives
about not facing denial and facing grief in terms of what might be happening to
our species. And, you know, I don't, I think it's a little bit too gloomy to talk
about it that way, because I don't think it's realistic, but he does talk
about it, about this as an opportunity for a kind of species rebirth, but part of
the problem is that we don't, there is this denial. We don't want to talk about
it, not just the denial that's sponsored by the fossil fuel corporations who
control our government and our media, but, you know, that we don't want to, we
don't want to think about it. It's just, to think of the possibility of, you know,
I mean, facing our own death or the death of loved ones is bad enough, but
to think of no more people, it's just horrible. I don't think it's really
realistic, though, which is why I don't like to talk about that as a metaphor,
because something will survive, but I will read something that this fellow
says from, just a little bit, there's a positive, hopeful, helpful aspect of
facing this change that's happening. At the very least, there's going to be
massive change in the next century and maybe in the next couple of decades. It's
going to be, it's, you know, the scientists say that the situation on our
planet will be more inhospitable to human life than anything in the last
hundred thousand years. I mean, it's that bad, and yet it doesn't mean, we don't
know what the results are going to be. You know, that's one thing the
scientists are saying. It doesn't mean that there will not be people surviving.
It doesn't mean the end of everything. This fellow quotes a Hopi tradition, a
Hopi teaching of purification. Throughout Earth's history, they believe, there
have been four worlds, three of which have perished, and from this, their
perspective, this one is on an even more dramatic trajectory of self-destruction.
According to the tradition, there must be a purification at the end of one world
before another can begin. You might say that the Hopi have held in their psyches
a profound sense of collapse and near-term extinction for millennia. It's
an integral aspect of their tradition, as is dancing, singing, and a wicked sense
of humor. A useful practice with many indigenous people is this, live as if
every act, every task performed in daily life, every kindness expressed to another
being and to oneself might be the last. This is one way I stay connected with
the light in dark times, walking in reverence, living contemplatively with
gratitude, generosity, compassion, and an open heart that is willing to be broken
over and over again. This is another, this is a traditional description of the
Bodhisattva way, too. But we don't know, you know, what's going to happen, and
hopelessness is not realistic, I think. So there are a lot of creative responses
to this. There's, many of you heard of the Dark Mountain Manifesto? You can Google
it. It's a long paper some folks in England have done, some post-
environmentalists, you know. They talk about uncivilization and how one of the
part, one of the, they, I like it that there's a lot of poetry in it and
they encourage storytelling and telling stories and poetry that comes
from the mountains and waters, not from, you know, human civilization and human
culture. It begins with a quote from Ralph Waldo Emerson, the end of the human
race will be that it will eventually die of civilization. So they kind of talk
about uncivilization and they have eight principles of uncivilization. I'll
just read a couple. We believe that the roots of these crises lay in, lie in
the stories we've been telling ourselves. We intend to challenge the
stories which underpin our civilization. The myth of progress, the myth of human
centrality, the myth of our separation from nature. These myths are more
dangerous for the fact that we have forgotten they are myths. We will reassert
the role of storytelling is more than mere entertainment. It is through stories
that we weave reality. And then the last one is very important. The end of the
world as we know it is not the end of the world full stop. Together we will
find the hope beyond hope, the paths which lead to the unknown world ahead of
us. So all the things that are going on, as difficult as they are, provide new
opportunities. And I think this really relates to how we can practice as
expressing all space awakening. So yeah, I have time to say this. One of my
personal mentors in all of this is a teacher who lives in Berkeley named
Joanna Macy. Some of you may know of her. And she's long been talking about despair
in the face of the truth, going back to Hiroshima, you know, empowerment
in despair in the faces of the truth of the reality that from Hiroshima that
we have that power to destroy so much. And also about befriending beings
of the future. So think about who will be in this little valley, you know,
in 50 years and in 200 years and in 500 years and how we are connected with them
here this evening. Joanna talks about what is happening now
positively as the great turning in response to the great unraveling of the
industrial technological society, you know, kind of the culmination of the
industrial revolution. So it's possible to see, you know, just like the mountains
are walking, it's impossible to see our walking and human walking in these terms
and to see what's happening now and our part in it. Each of you, in whatever
you're doing, you know, none of us by ourselves can solve any of this, but each
of us in what in just in our own acts of kindness, in our own particular ways of
being and expressing wholeness in the world makes a difference. We really do.
So again, she says that in response to the great unraveling of the industrial
technological society that's obviously happening as climate damage gains
more traction, that there's this great turning. So one truth that is undeniable
by all the climate deniers or whoever is that there are many, many, many, many, many, many
good people all over the world who are working very hard in different ways to
try to make things better, who are trying to help relieve suffering. That cannot help
but have some effect. So Joanna talks about three aspects of the great
turning and I think it's very helpful to think about these three aspects. One
of them is what we might call holding actions, trying to do what's possible to
minimize the damage and suffering. So this includes, you know, political
activism and political action, trying to act to make what's going on in
government and so forth. Lobbying to work to make our corrupt institutions
less damaging. And also, but this also includes social work, working with people
who are suffering from various things that are happening and increasingly
there's going to be, so there are acute instances of climate damage when
there's a big event, but chronically food prices are going to go up very soon.
It's happening already because of the effects of droughts. So there's going to
be displaced populations, that's already happening. Actually the war in Syria, I
one big factor, I won't say the whole thing, but one big factor in that was
that there were serious droughts for a number of years that led to a lot of
displacement and that was part of what led to the unrest there. So they're
already climate wars or climate impacted wars. Anyway, so holding actions, just
helping with people who are suffering. This is one of the three
aspects of working on the great turning. The second one is developing
alternative systems, structures, bioregional structures, legal and
economic structures, as our legal and economic structures start to unravel. So
for example, the micro banks in India and other parts of the world, farmers
markets, organic farms, regional structures for agriculture and the
economy, which is happening in little ways that don't get publicized. I'm sure
it's happening here in New Mexico in various ways. The third of the three is
very much what Upaya is about and that's changing mental paradigms. It's the work
of meditation, changing hearts and minds, changing the way we think. Our job as
meditators and Dharma students, changing our way of thinking from competitive,
aggressive, nationalistic mindsets to thinking in terms of cooperation and
collaboration and interconnectedness. So the meditation we do helps foster
flexibility, adaptability, thinking about new options and sturdiness so that we
are ready to be helpful when things are needed. So all of these are examples of
what's happening now already. So this Bodhisattva work, this Buddha
work, is about directing ourselves, each in our own way, in the ways that are
part of your lives already, towards healing and wholeness of the whole
landscape of our lives, the landscape of the work around us and the world around
us. And part of what will help that is to listen to the earth and grasses and
trees and all of the world around us and listen to what it is asking of us. So
thank you for listening tonight. Please enjoy your practice. Enjoy the work that
you each have to do. Thank you.