I vow to take the truth of that and to apologize for it. Good morning. Good morning. Some time ago, I don't know how long, but I ran across this sheet which is called The Rules for Being Human. And when I read it, it resonated very much with my own feelings. And I felt that I could have written it, but I didn't. I don't know who wrote it. Could you close the door, please? I don't know who wrote it. I think I heard that the Dalai Lama wrote it, but I don't know, maybe. But, so I want to talk about it today, and I think it will be useful to everyone.

[01:09]

Rules for being human. You could also say that these are rules for practice, how to practice being human. Sometimes we feel, well, I was born as a human, so whatever I do is OK. That's being human. And sometimes when we are willful, we excuse ourselves by saying, I'm just human. It's just being human. It's true that humans are like that. All of us are willful and so forth, and destructive. rude and impatient and so forth. And sometimes we say, well, that's just being human. But there's also an ideal of what the human potential is.

[02:18]

So when we say for being human, what it means here is how to be the best human that you can be in a non-self-centered way. Pretty hard to be a complete human while we're still being self-centered. So there has to be some other center besides self in order to settle and to allow the most beneficial qualities to come forth. So I think one of the basic elements that's not on here, I would say, would be not being habitually late.

[03:46]

So how to be a human being in its truest sense or highest sense, which doesn't mean to have great accomplishments. That's not the meaning. The meaning is how to be yourself. David gave a couple of talks, and he said, well, people said, well, what do you do as Shuso? And he said, well, just to be myself. And then somebody said, what do you mean, just be yourself? So that's a big question. Very good question. What does it mean, just to be myself? In its truest sense. So, the first one is that you will receive a body. You may like it or hate it, but it will be yours for the entire period this time around.

[05:16]

So, each one of us is embodied and has a body. And sometimes we like it and sometimes we don't. Sometimes the body is white or black or brown or red or ochre. But that's fixed. There's really nothing that we can do about that. Sometimes we try to do something but it doesn't work, you know. But to be able to accept this body as it is, very important. And also to take care of this body as if it was our own. So we own this body, even though it's not ours. It's here to, it appears, and our persona, myself, takes care of it.

[06:31]

But it's really not, we own it, sort of, but actually it's not ours. Somebody please close the door. It appears and grows up and changes and there's really nothing that we can do about it. It grows old and then it just comes apart. So there's really nothing that we can do about that. We maintain our health. And sometimes we don't maintain our health. It's sometimes very hard to maintain our health because we have so many cravings and inertias. And then sometimes when things get critical, we start to energize ourself and to take care of ourself.

[07:38]

But inevitably, we have to accept the fact that the microbes are winning. And that's okay. But this is our body and we have to feel, settle into it. Sometimes people never settle into their bodies, but to accept it as it is and settle into it and take care of it. Because you may not like it, you may like it, sometimes you like it, sometimes you don't. But it has nothing to do with that. The second one is, you will learn lessons. You are enrolled in a full-time informal school called Life. Each day in this school, you will have the opportunity to learn lessons.

[08:41]

You may like the lessons or think them irrelevant and stupid. What we don't like is actually a kind of medicine for us. That which is good for us, which is different from what we like, is like medicine, but medicine can taste really terrible. I remember when I was a kid, what they always gave us was milk of magnesia, which is astringent, and you put it in your mouth and it just kind of, like eating an unripe persimmon, but it was good for you. It cured your ailments. So, learning lessons, everything is a lesson.

[09:46]

I remember one time Master Hua, who used to print the Vajra Bodhi Seat, which was a wonderful magazine, and he had a saying in there, and it said, everything is a test to see what you will do. Life is a test. Everything you do is a test to see what you will do, how you'll respond, and how you will act. But we don't always see it that way. If you have a sense of practice, you will see that everything you do has consequences. and is a test of whether or not you are where you are. You can see where you are by what you're doing. And if you don't care where you are, it doesn't matter. You just suffer the results of your actions until finally you say, well, wait a minute, wait a minute, what's going on here?

[10:48]

At some point we wake up and then we look for some direction. So if we have a direction, then everything that we all of our actions should be tested, giving our direction as a touchstone. So the question always is, how is this practice? How is this activity saving all sentient beings? I remember Suzuki Roshi used to, when we had the original Zen Center on Bush Street in San Francisco, there were some houses across the street where the students lived. And the students would just walk across Bush Street, which is a one-way street with a lot of traffic. And he said, you should wait at the signal before you cross the street.

[11:51]

But nobody wanted to do that. Everybody just wanted to go. you know, on Telegraph Avenue. Signal? What signal? But when I'm driving my car, you know, I see all those students walking across the street, across the light, and I just keep going. But each day in this school, you will have the opportunity to learn lessons. You may like the lessons or think them irrelevant and stupid. If I ask you to do some practice which goes against your desires, you may say okay, but you may think this is really stupid because it's not what I want.

[12:55]

My desires are so strong that you're asking me to repress my desires, or you think I am not good. My desires are not good. So we have this kind of problem. This is stupid. But actually, it's good for us to put some brakes on our roller coaster. because our habitual energy keeps creating more and more habitual energy. And then we get caught in the cycle of doing something over and over again, which is detrimental to our health. And if somebody says, back off, we don't like it, even though we know it's good for us. So the next one is, there are no mistakes.

[14:23]

There are only lessons. And growth is a process of trial and error, experimentation. The failed experiments are as much a part of the process as the experiment that ultimately works. This is very important. Lesson is another name for practice, as I said. So we can be very successful. When you enter practice, it's all kind of new and your mind opens up and you have a lot of enthusiasm. And then at some point you get to a place where you get confused. or it's not the same as it was when you started exactly, or your feelings change, or you start reading about Buddhism and suddenly you're very confused.

[15:28]

And whatever success we have goes along and then suddenly meets an obstacle. And then we have to work through this obstacle. Sometimes the obstacle puts us off, you know. But if we really face the obstacle, even though we don't know what to do, then at some point we'll find a way through the obstacle and then everything opens up again. This is the cycle of, it's not success and failure, it's just the two sides of successful practice. The upside and the downside, so to speak, of successful practice.

[16:37]

But the downside is not down. It just looks like it's down. This is the process where you have confusion or you have lack of enthusiasm or something or some combination of things. And to just stay with that problem is the problem is working itself out inside of you, even though you may not know that. if you've ever had some accomplishment and you come to a place where you just can't go any further. You just let go of it. And then a little while later, you take it up again and it's all solved. Because in the meantime, this problem is being worked out in your psyche, in your body.

[17:39]

And it's no longer a problem when you come back to it. This is very common for musicians or artists. You come to a place where you can't go any further and you just let it go. And then when you come back, you just pick up and everything's solved. Because somehow you let go of that tension that's stopping you from actually picking it up. your mind becomes more relaxed. So the ups and downs of practice and continuing in your life are both important because that place of confusion and disenchantment or whatever it is is the springboard to the next opening. So you should value that instead of seeing it as an impediment.

[18:48]

It's of great value. Then the next one is, a lesson is repeated until it is learned. A lesson will be presented to you in various forms until you have learned it. When you have learned it, you can go on to the next lesson. This is very true in life as well as practice. We just keep hitting our head against the same wall in various ways and we keep wondering why that happens. Why does it always happen to me? We look outside for the problem.

[19:50]

Why does this always happen to me? Or why did this happen to me at all? But actually, there's some problem that we're creating. Problems, as well as life, are self-created. There are problems that come from circumstances, of course. These are not problems of volition. Volitional problems are created through our desire, which is called creating karma. and we do create our karma and we create these conditions which hit us over the head as a response. So until we can learn the lesson, we just keep running into the same wall and we keep changing our equipment. Suzuki Roshi used to say, you people

[20:53]

are not really transforming yourselves, you're just changing your equipment. The various props you use to hold yourself up. Instead of changing our circumstances, we should look inside and see what the problem is. Not to blame and not to find fault. So often we are looking outside of ourselves for the problem. Even though things happen to us, that we don't call on, the way we respond to them is up to us.

[21:56]

We can respond with anger or delusion or any number of ways, but how do we actually respond to problems that seem to be outside? They seem to be outside, but actually there's no inside or outside. So karma is not fixed. Karma or the results of our actions bring about favorable or disfavorable circumstances. But we are always in the position to be able to change the way we act. We're not fixed by fate.

[22:58]

And so all possibilities are open to us. So then it says, learning lessons does not end. There is no part of life that does not contain lessons. If you are alive, there are lessons to be learned. So there's actually no end to it. There's no place where we finally arrive. Enlightenment is not an arrival. It's simply a starting place. And if you become enlightened, That's the beginning of your life. And every experience of enlightenment is a new beginning of your life.

[24:06]

And if you are truly enlightened, you realize that every moment is a new beginning. And every moment is an opportunity. And every obstacle is an opportunity. Every obstacle is an opportunity to find yourself. And an opportunity to change, if change needs to be made. And an opportunity to return from the cycles that we establish through habit. And then the next one is, there is no, there is no better than here.

[25:09]

When your there has become a here, you will simply obtain another there, which will again look better than here. You get that? No? I'll read it again. There is no better than here. when your there has become a here, you will simply obtain another there, which will again look better than here. So if you're in the city, you think, boy, wouldn't it be great to go to the mountains, get away from it all. Then when you go to the mountains, Boy, this is really lonely. I wonder what everybody's doing. The only satisfactory place is here, but it's hard to find it.

[26:15]

So we go looking someplace else for satisfaction. And so we keep moving around, you know, looking for satisfaction here and there. But no matter, as the old saying goes, no matter where you are, where you go, you are always there. That's where you are. So, unfortunately, you bring yourself around with you no matter where you go. Others are merely mirrors of you. You cannot love or hate something about another person unless it reflects to you something you love or hate about yourself. If you want to see who you really are, it's hard to see your own reflection in the mirror, because as soon as you look in the mirror, your mind

[27:32]

plays a little trick on you and wants you to look better than you do. Maybe that's not bad. Not as bad as I thought. But sometimes you'll be walking down the street and you see your reflection in the window and you say, who's that? That looks familiar. But if you really want to see who you are, you are reflected in everyone you meet. And the way people respond to you is the mirror for what you look like. I don't mean what your face looks like, but what your being looks like. Everyone, you know, the people, and sometimes everybody dislikes me. And I don't know, you know, I'm okay. Why do I get disliked from everybody? or people think I'm this way or that way.

[28:40]

I wonder why that is. There's something wrong with them because they don't like me. There must be something wrong with them instead of looking to see what the problem is here. Or People don't love me. Well, why? Well, I don't know. I don't know why people don't love me. Well, it's very obvious, you know, because you don't love people, they don't love you, generally. Well, I love people, but you have to look a little deeper and see what that really means. So it's really hard to look at our faults, you know.

[29:46]

But if we look around, the universe is telling us, giving us messages about what's going on. And I think we should be careful not to judge on the good and bad. The problem we have is as soon as we see some problem, we judge it as good and bad. or right and wrong. But if we let go of that judgment, we can just look at how it really is. And when we look at how it really is, devoid of judgment of good and bad, then it takes the defensive quality out of it, and you can just see something clearly. just to be able to see something clearly. So a good friend will help us to just see something clearly without good and bad.

[30:53]

Your teacher will help you to see something clearly without judging it as good and bad or right and wrong. So teacher reflects, is a mirror that reflects you back to yourself without judgments of right and wrong and simply hopefully you can just see where you are, and the teacher can see where the teacher is too. We should all be just looking with a clear eye at what the problems are, because the problems are just problems, or they're just, you know, what's off and what's on, and how can things, how can I have a more balanced or less fearful approach to my life. Fear drives life. Love and fear drive our life.

[31:58]

And then what you make of your life is up to you. You have all the tools and resources you need What you do with them is up to you and the choice is yours. One of the problems we have is too many choices. That's the problem of our present day life. We're presented with so many choices that it's a miracle that people would come and practice. There's so many things to grab our eye. So many inventions to captivate our psyche. But at some point we become saturated, and then,

[33:17]

we can start to turn our lives towards something meaningful. But we do have all the resources, they're right within ourself. And we create our own destiny because our karma is not fixed. So it's very important to know what our direction is. So there's living by karma and living by vow. Practice is called living by vow. Vow may be a little strong, but it's a good term because it means that you have, you know what your direction is and it's not dependent on success and failure. Vow is different than desire.

[34:20]

When desire is turned toward beneficial action, it's called vow. So desire wants a result and is going in a certain direction and wants something. Vow doesn't want anything. It's not in the realm of wanting, it's simply in the realm of knowing what the direction is and staying with it with determination. And it's not dependent on attainment. It's constant and it's not dependent on hope or hopelessness. And it's called liberation. So, what you make of your life is up to you.

[35:27]

If you have a strong determination and vow, practice, this is how you actually save yourself. And then, The next one is the answers lie within you. The answers to all of life's questions are inside of you. All you need to do is look, listen, and trust. But sometimes it's hard to see that even though the answers are there. So that's why we have teachers and why we have peers to help us and give us confidence in the fact of our decisions and helping us to verify that those answers are within ourself. When you come to see your teacher, it's not to get psychoanalyzed.

[36:37]

It's to get some help in staying with your intention to practice, basically. And some encouragement to realize how you practice and to stay with the practice and be consistent. And to practice with your peers, to have the encouragement of the Sangha and to add to the encouragement of the Sangha. Because what you receive is also what you give. So sometimes people say, well, isn't it okay if I just kind of sit at home? You know, that's zazen, isn't it? Well, it may be zazen. It may look like zazen. It may not be zazen. Just sitting there is not necessarily zazen.

[37:42]

and doing something by yourself, all by yourself, without the encouragement and the understanding of the practice place can be egotistical practice. I'm doing the Zen all by myself. Can be very egotistical. When you practice in the midst of the Sangha, you learn things not through your intellect, but through association. You learn how to practice through association. Zazen practice is silent, and it looks like each one of us is sitting independently, which is true.

[38:56]

But although we're sitting independently, there's deep communication that's going on, communication very deep. without a sound. So when you meet, when you see other practitioners, there's some bond there, there's some communication, there's some understanding which is nonverbal and which you share. So there is some verbal teaching, But the teaching permeates the practice. And so practicing together, you understand what practice is by that association over a long period of time.

[40:08]

but just to learn, just to get Zazen instruction and then go home and sit Zazen. You may be sitting Zazen, but I have my doubts. Anyway, So even though the answers lie within you, there needs to be some stimulus to bring them out. And then the last one is, you will most likely forget this. You will most likely forget all of this. Do you have any questions?

[41:20]

Paul? Can we have copies? I did post it once. As a matter of fact, I may even have put it in the newsletter once. But anyway, that doesn't matter. Yes, of course you can. That still doesn't matter. I'll put up more copies. I will. Yes? I just wanted to let you know who the author was. Her name is Cherie Carter Scott. She used to live in the Bay Area. Thank you. Paul? In being oneself, there's a self beyond myself. Myself, yourself, herself. There's a self beyond There is your self and my self and his self and her self, you know, but this is a kind of tentative self.

[42:35]

So if you take away all the dharmas that compose the self, you'll see that there's no central, no permanent entity, essence there. So the essence of our self is the universe. Our essential self is the universe. Dogen calls this zenki, the total dynamic interplay of the universe. And each one of us is an expression of that dynamic interplay. So when we say self, just be myself means to harmonize with that interplay.

[43:44]

Because there's no individual inherent self in ourself. This is Buddhist understanding. So when we let ourself go, let go, drop body and mind, let go of self-centeredness, then we allow that harmonious interplay to express itself through this body-mind. I know you talked about here and there, and we're looking for nirvana, but there does seem to be in my experience, to be places where, for some reason or other, one can feel closer to that dynamic force, whether it's out in nature.

[44:49]

And I don't know, I don't understand it, but it does feel like that. Well, every environment is different. So, yes, when we go to a certain environment, we feel in a different way. But that's not the meaning here. The meaning is always looking for the right place. So you're always looking for the right place and you're always missing the right place because the right place is always with you. That's the meaning. then you can take your right place. And we take our right place with us looking for the right place. It's like selling water by the river. Or you're in the midst of the ocean, and you're saying, where's the ocean? I'm thirsty. Of course, you don't want to drink salt water.

[45:52]

So you're in the midst of the stream. I'm so thirsty. I'm so thirsty. So it's that seeking behavior. It's looking for it outside of yourself. In the 50s, you had to make a decision. A decision in the 50s? Between practice and being a painter. And I remember your painting. You were a remarkably gifted painter, and undoubtedly could have become very distinguished. In fact, you had chosen that. The life of a painter or a composer or a poet is a very solitary one. It doesn't involve the sangha. But it's too obvious to say that artists

[46:57]

painters and musicians that suffer a great deal. It was interesting, Beethoven, it turns out, had some incredibly distressing mental condition that could have been relieved by medication, but he chose not to use it because he wanted his mind to be clear. He chose to suffer. So, what is the proper I mean, to turn in that direction, lacking a community, perhaps, being lonely, but to be creative, if I can use that word. You do without the Sangha, and it's difficult to know how to resolve this. Yes. Because you can't have both, it seems to me. Well, there's several ways to look at it.

[48:01]

One is it might have been nice if Beethoven had Zazen in the saga. That's one way to look at it. Another way to look at it is that if you want to be, you know, put all of your energy into painting and so forth, that's what you do. If you want to practice Zazen, and have it be real, you have the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Sangha. That's just what you do, to have it be fruitful. For Beethoven, what he did was the fruitful thing for him. For a Zen student, to practice this way is the fruitful thing for a Zen student. It's not, you know, No need to compare, actually, in that sense. Well, given that the solitary needs, what would be the equivalent to the community with the solitary?

[49:19]

Well, let me say something about solitary. As a painter, your mind is always involved with images and your work and so forth. But at the same time, and time has a different meaning, because your time is not regulated. It's regulated according to your inspiration. as a painter. Most creative painters don't have a specific time they get up in the morning and a specific time they go to bed at night. Most painters probably work all night because the nighttime is inspirational too and it's quiet. So you're on your own time schedule.

[50:19]

So to get up in the morning and come to Zazen and then eat breakfast at a certain time, It's not inspirational for painting, is it? But it could be, you know. Why not? You know, Beethoven wasn't exposed to Zazen. Who knows, it might have been pretty good for him. Well, I can't say that he wasn't in harmony with it. I don't know. He was in harmony with various things. We don't know. He may have produced something even greater. Greater than what he did. Even greater than what he did.

[51:27]

Wow. Or maybe he wouldn't have done anything. And that might have even been greater. But we wouldn't have known what we had lost. Right. So, anyway. As a practitioner, I think what you're thinking is that you're just doing Zazen for yourself. If you're only doing Zazen for yourself, then it's a very insignificant thing. But we don't do Zazen just for ourself. We do not do Zazen for ourself. When you come to practice, you're thinking of doing something for yourself. After your practice matures, you realize that this is not something you're doing for yourself.

[52:34]

You're doing zazen for everyone, for the benefit of everyone. It's not something you're doing for yourself at all. You're included, of course. But it's not a self-centered activity. This is where people just do not understand it. It's not a self-centered activity. That's why if you just go off and do Zazen by yourself, that's okay for you, but it's not a self-centered activity. Zazen is, of course, it's for the sake of Zazen, but it's for the sake of harmonious, activity in the universe, and selfless activity. Charles?

[53:39]

Well, that brings up a very good point, one that I've been concerned about. You know, in a lot of quasi medical publications and New Age thinking, meditation is recommended for good health and relaxation. And I've been meditating for a while, and I don't think it's contributed much. I do agree with you. In fact, it's a universal activity. It's not a solo activity. So I'd just like to know what you think about Right. Meditation is beneficial, but zazen is not meditation. Thank you. What is it?

[54:47]

Okay. That was my thinking. Zazen is letting go of yourself, totally. and presenting yourself. Zazen is an offering, offering yourself totally to the universe and letting go of self. And that can be very beneficial. But that's secondary. Somebody else, oh yeah, Bill. But I don't think I understand either of them at all.

[55:53]

I don't think that I understand either of them at all. Well, next time.

[55:59]

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