Ummon's Every Day Is A Good Day

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ah if you're new to berkeley san center on it especially welcome you and hope you'll come back my name is susan marvin
and we're starting now today the third week of our six week spring practice period and i'm practicing as the chief so the head student during the practice period the shoe so give several talks
and this is my second talk
certain roshi traditionally gives the shoe so come on to study during the practice period and ah so i will be talking today meeting the on to you and talking about the con and
what if what it means to me how i relate to it ah in my limited understanding at this point in time

so ah you can comes from the blue cliff records which is the large collection of sayings or stories
compiled of
generations of zen masters and practitioners and the cohens present a kind of
a situation or statement or problem for the practitioner to try to understand not necessarily solve in the way that we think of a puzzle or are ordinary way of thinking about coming to some understanding but to
penetrate the call on in some way through our experience through our direct experience and how we view the world through our practice and the columns are set up so that
there's the co on and the main subject and then there are some verses and the vs kind of point to the ah
the meaning of the come on and then there's notes and commentary and so it can be quite lengthy i've been looking at three or four different translations and commentaries and some
lectures by suzuki roshi in which he refers to the on that i've been given on i'm gonna use today a translation by cat suki cicada
he died in nineteen eighty seven he was born in japan and studied there he was actually a high school english teacher but zen was his lifelong interest and he on
ah studied in japan than taught in hawaii and london
i'm so the cullen is about whom on otherwise known in chinese as young men and he was ah
ah of the tenth century chinese zen master
he was he founded one of the five major schools of chinese sand and in the blue cliff record there are many many stories about him something like eighteen or twenty seven is quite quite famous there's one story in particular this
quite famous about him in which when he was a young man he went to a masters temple seeking the way and he was turned away twice and the third time when he when the master shouted stink stink and he just as he was about to speak and he put his
his foot through the gate door the master a slammed the door the gate and his leg was caught in the gate and broke
and ah
you know when we hear that story today we can create to we we may think it borders on or is some kind of abuse and we don't like to hear stories like that but actually after i read that i thought well how can we apply that what can we get from that to apply to
to our modern day study of zen and what is it that our own teacher right here is trying to do to wake us up
i'm certainly not slammed the door on our leg but just last week when i went to docusign i went in and i sat down and i asked sojourn to give me advice about the practice period and he said okay but first when you walked in you kind of hesitated
when you bowed don't do that and it was such a wonderful on
reminder i felt like i woke up in the moment to his encouragement because hesitation is kind of an edge in my life and something that i've always worked with
ah so the co on that i've been given his everyday is a good day
and you know i don't want to make lightly of that because when we first hear that every day it's a good day it sounds kind of on well it could sound easy it could sound corny it could sound rosie last week a few days ago i went to charlie whereas house to
i have tea with him and he asked me what the and was and i told them and he said well that sounds like norman vincent peale
and we laughed and i said well why not plan to talk her way and i said what what do you think it's about and and put his arms out like this and he said the whole universe is unfolding every
day
and i said well that's the way that i want to talk about the on

so every day is a good day
sergeant pointed out to me he didn't say every day's a day so what does that mean everyday is a good day
ah they have to find some other way to go beyond our normal understanding of what good is because the minute we say good than we say bad and
so if we go beyond the meaning of good and bad then we can translate the word in the colon to mean something like as it is just as it is every day is at its as it is
and why is that important to us why did we want to go beyond this idea of good and bad sometimes i hear people say i've loved zazen
it's not that that isn't okay but i think this cohen is trying to point us towards going bot beyond this idea that we'd love something or we like something because the minute we say that it's inevitable that we're going to say we hate something or
so i can say i like stars and but don't like service i like saws and but i don't like so do i like czars and but i don't like going to work
and the thing is that the world needs us to bring our attention in our effort to going to work in the same way that we bring our attention and our effort to sauce in there is no difference and are ten
sample needs us to bring our attention in our effort in our joy to taking care of his temple
going to work keep period and going to serve and doing everything with the same mind that we tend to bring to sauce and

so to say good and bad doesn't quite go deep enough or real enough but if we treat everything with the same attitude it doesn't mean i don't think it means
we don't feel bad some days
or we don't have difficult moments during days are we don't have problems we all have all of those things and i don't think to come on saying cheer up and don't
don't concentrate on those things we need to bring our attention to our problems as well
but it's our attitude that we bring to everything in our lives that means the most what zazen and mind can we bring to all of our activities
when we go from good to bad and back to good and back to bad we're adding something extra
and returned to in her practice practice dropping the extra
the the weather is always changing around us moment to moment and yet the weather isn't trying to be something other than what it is it's there in full force and and so are we we're changing moment by moment just like the weather is
is and were a part of something much bigger than our own small
moments with part of something part of the universe sense it changes moment to moment when we realize that we can let go of
of our preoccupation with likes and dislikes good and bad
every is a good day reminds me of a college i had some years ago maybe twenty years ago and i used to teach 'em mills college campus and she was probably the age i am than and she had a recurrence of cancer she'd had
cancer and she was quite young and it had been in remission and ah it came this time as bone cancer and so she stopped she had to stop working i think sometimes towards the end of the summer and she died on no
thanksgiving day but after she stopped working i went to visit her quite regularly and she called me up one day in late september maybe it was early october and she said it's time to plant bulbs and i've had these big bags
of planting mix delivered but i'm getting weaker and weaker and i can't lift them and i want to plant the bulbs and would you come and help me and i said sure so i went over there and was she lives in lived in north berkeley and had these big big pots on her
front steps several of them and we planted bulbs together had a a lovely time and how we were planting the bulbs i thought you know she's not gonna be around to see these bulbs bloom
and ah i know she was aware of that and we didn't say a word about that but i was so moved by her joyful presence in that day of planting bulbs knowing that she wouldn't see them bloom planting bulbs in and of itself with
to a wonderful activity in to me that's what this congress is about every day's a good day

so i'm gonna read the the main subject and then i'm gonna read some of the versus versus are written by seto and he was another famous zen master and poet
and then i'm going to talk about what it means to me as we got along so the main subject since oman address the assembly and said i'm not asking you about the days before the fifteenth of the month but what about after the fifteenth come and give me a word about those days and hymns
self gave the answer for them every day is a good day
so human addressed the assembly he addressed a group of priests and he said i'm not asking you about the days before the fifteenth of the month in other words i think he's saying i'm not asking you about what already happened it doesn't matter what happened yesterday or in the past
or the fifth fifteen days before now or even this morning i'm asking you about where are you right now
what about after the fifteenth come and give me a word about those days where are you in this moment where is buddha where is our human nature
and when i'm reading various commentaries they said that oh man was a quite a fierce teacher himself and direct and may have shouted those words out and that
people didn't know what to say so it says he himself gave the answer for them every day is a good day
so st joe's verse says
setting aside one you gained seven no can kindred rival you above below or in the four directions
quietly waiting the rapids you extinguish the sound of the waters watching at leisure you retain the tracks of flying birds grass grows rampant missed was thick
setting aside one he gained seven
i think he means put the past behind you set aside the past set aside the moment before this one and when we do that you gained seven think he just means there are many things that present
themselves to opposite
the present moment presents a whole new world to us
this line reminded me of arm
when sojourn invited me to practices the shoe saw
i had some doubt on you know i'd practiced here for about ten years and then i left temple practice when our daughter was a young child and my parents were quite old and moving towards their own deaths and i have a lot of responsibilities so it
didn't practice here for ten years and i came back three years ago when our daughter went to high school and i thought they're gonna be some people that aren't gonna like the idea of me being she served because i haven't been around and sojourn said oh forget about that just pract
does
and i thought you know if i follow that thought that i'm having it's gonna lead me right away from practicing as the sheep so it's going to leave me to making a stories and it's going to hinder the way out pratt
optus
set aside one you gain seven and in these last two weeks on during our classes sojourn is
presenting the eight levels of mind consciousness he's been talking about watering the seeds that don't hinder practice and why don't water the seeds that hindered practice and so i thought that's exam
spend when when i realized i don't want to follow that thought i don't want to follow that worry he that will be watering a seed that won't a safe that will hinder the way i continued to practice
no one can rival you above below or in the four directions i think this is my favorite verse wine and verbs
what it means to me is
there's no
this is not an elite membership zen practice
ah this practice is for anyone who wants to dedicate themselves to practice this line is so encouraging to me just like oman just like our ancestors just like the great sage or someone beginnings and
practice today yeah it's right there for us inviting us to to step into the path and make our effort
we're no different any of us
oh and it encourages us not to put ourselves down and not to puff ourselves up and not to compare ourselves to each other
i wrote a little note here it says each of us has a chance to touch buddha nature are human nature to bring that forward and remove the coverings of the mind
quietly waiting the rapids you extinguish the sound of waters
ah quietly waiting the rap and something that just means slowing down
we all lead such busy lives and through the practice of zazen we learned to slow down
quietly waiting the rapids you extinguish the sound of the water so how do we find that quiet place in the middle of those loud rapids how do we find that silence in the midst of noise or
or discomfort or dissatisfaction or pain or suffering
you extinguish the sound of the waters

so in our daily lives we learned to find the way
within activity refined kind of middle way
oh i was telling sojourn the other day this line reminded me of something that maley scott once told me many years ago i went to her and i said oh you know i'm not really sure that i'm cut out for this practice because i don't really
lee enjoy being in large crowds of people i'd rather be out somewhere far away
in cheaply ascendant she said well you know ah you're resting spot might be more solitary but for all of us if we practice this way continuously we can all find our comfort within any situation
that we find ourselves in and always remembered that is really generous ah encouraging words that i've thought of many times over the years

quietly waiting the rapids you extinguish the sound of the waters right here at berkeley san center when we have weekends machines i'm just a couple doors down we have the thai temple and they often have lots of loud time music
going on
you know it's so quiet today but often there's a lot of music and sometimes they hear people say oh i love that music and i hear other people so i can't stand that music and on so quietly waiting the rapid slowing down we find our way in the midst
oof that sound whether we like it or don't like it
and how do we slow down during our day we you know zazen and helps us to slow down but what are some other ways that we learn to slow down during the day i've heard people i've heard sojourn say come back to your breath and posture too
throughout the day
that's really helpful
i like to garden and we live on a corner and i have a lot of flowers planted along the side and the front and i've planted the rather intensively and i go out there probably eight times a day maybe even ten times a day and just look at them walk along as
sidewalk on both sides and just observe the flowers and on
you know there's always something different like a a bud is opened or a pedal as fall in or plant has grown an inch and just by going out so many times during the day i find that it helps me think about how much our lives are
changing ahem helps to slow me down and remind me to look to see what's around me
there's another verse hear silence raining all around the song of the gk cato's penetrates the rocks it's a kind of nice image about
quietly waiting the rapids you extinguish the sounds of the waters
watching at leisure you retain the tracks of flying birds
watching it leisure how many of us take the time to watch at leisure
at such an encouraging phrase isn't it
watching at leisure you retain the tracks of flying birds will flying birds leave no trace its right
but we often bring so much
to our assessment of what we see we always bring some something more than our perception of what we see but watching at leisure perhaps we can see more of what's there
we have her sense perception what we see and then slowly we begin to have an idea and identification of was it is to see and then before we know it we're ah
adding of story line or something that ah
is extra
i see those birds in the sky and how many times to just stop and enjoy that but maybe i start thinking about well the last time i saw them was this time and this time a year they do this and so i know they are this kind of birds and they're going here and all the sunlight on
off and running
and it might be true but it might not be true
so watching at leisure
you retain the tracks of flying birds sometimes we miss what's around us when the mind gets going

he says here the mind and things are of one piece the birds and the sky or not to but one not one but two

the slime reminded me of ah
my father at the end of his life my father died at ninety five and he was here for the last two years of his life and
i guess when he was in its ninety fifth year one day he said to me
he his mind was fine until the end but his body really started falling apart in the last few months he said to me my whole body is falling apart and it's taking a very long time
and i said to him well you know dad you could stop eating and he looked at me as if i was crazy and he said why would i want to do that susan and i realized i had completely misconstrued when he said because i added my own
background agenda my own ideas of what i thought i might do if i was in his position and i realized it all at once that he was just saying my whole body is falling apart and it's taking a very long time pier
holding he was actually hold then
his great love of being alive and his complete preparedness for dine together
in the same
well

watching at leisure you retain the tracks of wine birds
grass grows rampant missed lives think

he says the activity of consciousness often becomes entangled in jungle like complications which brings worry and saffron
in positive somebody however positive somebody's like are
daily activity activity silence within activity
in positive samadhi however you penetrate into the complications
he doesn't say pushed the complications away
don't pretend they're not there
you don't get mad at them you penetrate into the complications and this brings serenity of mind just as the shrill singing of educators penetrates into the rocks and by contrast creates serenity all around grass grows rampant represents the busy
activity of consciousness in active positive i
by contrast missed lives thick represents the absolute aspect of samadhi were all phenomena retire into the background of consciousness
zazen
so even if we all to agree that every day is a good day
how do we how do we practice with that had we practice that day by day
ah
so i'm thinking about this i was thinking we have ah
a lot of things that are our practice encourages us to do encourages us to be flexible
and ah you know we have all kinds of positions that we rotate here so we can't get used to one particular position so we're learning to be flexible in this way to
ha
get off our spot our way of thinking about something
who are encouraged to be flexible and were also can encourage to connect with others to depend on others to rely on the people around us and so when i think about that i think about the natural world actually ah many years ago before i came to teach
king are farmed and we lived up in yolo county and i used to drive every day pass these huge sunflower fields and in the fall when sunflowers are harvested they're very tall they're harvested for oil
in the fall and yolo county their heavy heavy winds so driving by these large large fields you'd see a thousands of sunflowers on a windy day completely bent over and horizontal position
it was the only way they could survive the great wins if they determined to stay apprised they would break the with ah
they would not be able to withstand those winds and by being planted together in rose closely they supported one another
ah
and i used to think about what a wonderful image that was for for us to think about that ah through our flexibility and through our dependence on each other ah were able to bend and growth through the difficult ah
times that we all face as we go through our lives

on the other thing that were another thing were encouraged to do in our practices to say yes it's not that it isn't okay to say no it's important to say no sometimes too but saying night yes kind of clears the way
and i certainly have found that to be true myself in saying yes to accepting this position it cleared the way for me to in practice in a way that ah
that's been very joyous and a supported by all of you
do you say yes than we ah
we break the habit of hesitation
and we can go deeper
and through that process we develop face

we make mistakes we fall down and we stand up ah
ah but really in my mind it's the standing up that's more important than the falling down our culture sometimes focuses on why we fall down it's not that falling down understanding why is an important but how we stan
up what our attitude is toward standing up when we make mistakes is what's most important
and now i think another thing that really encourages in are a sinner practice or all the members who've come before us who've been practicing for so long here and our sanga we have so many people have been practicing for so many years and
when those people come to the end of their lives there are their equanimity and facing their own deaths can be a wonderful
example to all of us
i remember actually the day that darling and toes he died she was up and walking around in her kitchen above the community room and i was having tea with her and we were chatting and many many people had brought these little bags of food and
she had the wind up on the counter she said i can't eat anything but would you please thank all these people for bringing me this food and by afternoon she was in her bed and by late late afternoon she was no longer talking and by evening of
top of us had gone there to ah to chant the heart sutra around her and by late evening she died in the company of her teacher and her good friend lives on and it was a good damp everyday is a good day
and her her her way of dealing with where she how she died wilson inspiration to so many of us

i guess the other thing that i wanted to say with some were also encouraged to ah to watch our follow her breath and her posture and that can really help us in moments of difficulty throughout the day
focus on what's right in front of us helps to bring us back to the present moment
not to linger in the past or jump to the present

i wanted to leave a little bit of time for people to
ask questions or ah
or
tell their own ways of dealing with everyday is a good day but i wanted to just end by reading something that i read in one of suzuki roshi his lectures he mentions everyday is a good day and he says or he calls it everyone has buddha nature or in our
whatever we do that is our great activity
and he says from that viewpoint when we say everyone everything has buddha nature nothing is great or nothing is small we're talking about our original nature
and when you know when we put emphasis on this on actual practice than practice is the way to have direct experience
but when you hear that and you try to understand everything has been buddha nature if you say then or bot
it does not follow when we talk about this you can say them or bot but then your understanding is not any more
everything has buddha nature period
surgeon would you like to say something
and bilingual
over
no good or bad
a problem here and to come to
jason for bloomberg
for a new hope this new little dog with a little
very reformed strong
him when he's good very good it
is pretty good and which fetched very bad
that which is neither good nor bad she just put herself via with the i fall into
why you should keep midterm in order such as
the applicants have been the right
every moment a good
it's hard not to say those words in there i mean you know me try to go around for a day not say those words it's this approach
maria
it's such a pleasure to see with it's a pleasure to see you there
oh and i think search and recognize it has been practicing for all those ten years raising your daughter and having your home and i shared a lot of that with her and it was practice it is practice the your ta
up just reminded me i drive to the city every of other day in terrible traffic and at this juncture is a vantage point seven foundation which has been a nazi heritage is the sum of its trap music and there's this song out there about
to disguise in that you know you can't pay your rent and you don't even have many a freer and it's dr edgar you know all of these things you know to pay for that if you're not six feet under it's a good
comment i'm in this terrible traffic going three miles and and are in it such an inspiration to
day is what's my problem that see a different the separate that's a really
for all oh was thank you so much thank you for a year
peter or i set up here today with a question for a surgeon but since you share to see a hope that doesn't mean it's to do about this problem good bet that your your your your eloquence about choosing
practice is the next thing saying yes to that is really wonderful
you touched down something so talking about watering season
generosity drought and coincidence what you know we we we want to choose that it's understand of choose
ah good com
but how do we do that without food again something
yeah it's really good question isn't it
i think we have to the minute we recognize or on that path to gaming
just got a catch it and remind ourselves like befriended in a way not slap it but oh there you are again hi
and then come back to the breath and posture
because it's kind of like what i was saying about if i follow that far it's gonna take me right away
from practice right it's going to hinder real practice it's just a deluded thought that i'm gonna gain something
so it's kind of like gum
i remember when lee hong was taking a
class ah
we was that way hung on the sub
a self defense class and they taught them to take bad thoughts and go like this and dump them in the garbage
and they taught didn't they teach you to actually do that physically
it's kind of like that we have to take that little idea and throw it away then
try again on what do you think
first
thank you
you browse and now
well you were talking i was thinking about when i
well last fall i planted i'm a forty forty five and my ceilings were all about this big and you know bring them in every night and i take them out in the morning and i check on the little day and all this stuff at one point the blue or the golden crown sparrows came in at
mode half of down and i wasn't sure what it was look and see might see them but they will never buy those men while the next day all of the leaves work on and then the third day went out all the stems were
the year and the thing is is i taught i spoke with our friend robin who was having a similar situation i just was like well there are hungry and they're kind of thrown off these days they probably normally wouldn't have been around that time
and i notice in the deer come in and they mow what's left down and the theme of and it is is a pretty generous with a part about this you know i did it doesn't seem to get me much less generous with people
so i i know if the animals i do i think well you know the deer were taken over there space pain need some the all sparrows you know they're in a hard time as weather's bad thing it's the
and so it become it's a good day i mean when they beheld a down it was kind of fun cause well well there are only a few elements zoom they were gone they were plants were there for weeks i watch them grow and then they were just got it it didn't bother me but so how do i bring that because it was a good
day got a really great meal if they were well fed plants and how do i shift that what can i do because i must have the ability and what can i do masks
people to think of all those people that driving lot since those little birds but put but if things are basis
the
either a that you to be an impediment
it's a big believer in an accident got loud just that one
me
it looks like it's time to start
no i cannot go at it as another benefit to share thank you all so can really feel so much support anymore