Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: For more information on Ancient Dragon Zen Gate, please visit our website at www.ancientdragon.org. our teachings are offered to the community through the generosity of our supporters. To make a donation online, please visit our website.
[00:00:16] Speaker B: So good morning Dragon Bodhisattvas.
This springing spring like assembly of groundlings here on the ground, Lincoln Square and Cloudlings coming together as one practice body.
Our zazen tells us reminds us that we're always in community, in communality with all beings.
When separation, when we rip the fabric of reality into this and that, you and me, it's Sometimes we forget that we inter be with every being in place.
It can be so easy to be distracted from this truth, from reality by the pull of delusion or a screen so much nonsense running around readily available that we can forget our true nature.
So I'm really grateful to be practicing in community with everyone here.
Practice in Sangha is a wonderful gift.
And even if sometimes we Joshua, jostle, hassle bump into each other once in a while, our zazen practice together is how the truth of inter being appears in this appearance of a human realm.
You know, the great Chinese lay practitioner famously said, only a Bodhisattva can hassle another bodhisattva.
Isn't that great?
I think what I believe it's female acerty means is that we learn how to live the Dharma through our relationship with each other.
You know, kind of like kittens who are. Sometimes they bat each other, you know, sometimes they snuggle, sometimes they're indifferent, sometimes they're all trying to vibe for the same food bowl.
But this is how awakening occurs in communion.
Never alone, even if we feel lonely sitting on our cushion facing the wall.
So our Sangha is entering a more focused, intensive period of community practice that is beginning next Saturday evening at 7pm when we have a one day meditation retreat known as Sashin.
Gathering into this deep meditation together for one day to initiate our 12th spring practice period.
12 is kind of a nice number.
I saw I got a little side eye from the Eno who will be invited the Monday after Sachin to be our Shuseau, our head student for the practice commitment period.
And I don't know, there's been only a handful of Shuseau's because it takes a lot to put on for a community to support a practice period. And it takes even more effort to support Chiso's and to be ready to serve the Sangha completely.
And the Shiso shares the teaching seat with me.
So this is all in the works.
So today in this talk, I'd like to offer a little bit of warm up for practice period so we can start to orient towards the next eight weeks.
Some of you may know, because I think about half of everyone here, if not a little more than that, has already signed up for the practice commitment period. So maybe I'll just say a little bit about what you're getting into now that you've made your commitments.
This theme is Buddhist practices for caring for all beings.
It's a pretty broad theme, right? I mean, isn't that what all of Buddhist practice is aimed at? Of course it is.
Of course it is.
But I think it's good to really dive into how deeply interwoven this Bodhisattva wish to benefit all beings until everyone is completely awakened and at ease and. And happy, true happiness.
How deeply this vow wish is woven into zazen and all of our practice here at Ancient Dragon.
And given the state of affairs in this world, what appears, what's appearing, at least to me, this is especially very good time to explore the great question of appropriate response or how can I be present?
Caring and beneficial when meeting every person in every situation.
And how that works isn't always how we think it should look.
And how it works, how this caring works, we can't even know or grab onto.
But it's how we live moment after moment, learning from each other. And I would say all of Buddhist technology, meditation, devotional chanting forms in the Sendo, studying the sutras and teachings, this is all designed to support us, to express and offer beneficial, say, energy, beneficial awareness, Beneficial activity in every moment, in every situation.
And a lot of practice is studying what gets in the way of that. It should seem so easy, right?
So we learn, we train to relax with uncertainty and with difficulty, and live centered in our Buddha nature and really essential goodness of ourselves and others.
So I thought it might be helpful to share a little bit of my understanding of practice period.
Some of you might not be so familiar. Some of you are probably rolling your eyes inside going, oh my God, I've done enough of these things already. I don't need to hear any more about it. Let's get the show on the road.
I'll get to teach some dharma. Don't talk about the practice period or I can't wait to hear more. I don't know what a practice. You know all that goes on, right?
This is our mind.
Whether you're familiar or not, whether you're formally registered or not, our entire community is embraced by the practice period, like it or not.
So just a little background.
So since Buddha's time, supposedly I wasn't there, But I remember 2,500 years ago, there began this tradition of what they call the summer rains retreats.
You know, the monsoon rainy season in India is in the summer, by our calculations.
And Buddhist monks would cease their wandering and come together to live in various practice places, viharas or kind of monasteries or caves, nasty caves come together.
And this was traditionally about three months.
And it's said that these rains retreats or, you know, practice periods occurred during the rainy season to avoid killing.
Because this was a time when, you know, critters and insects and new plants would start growing and emerging, maybe worms coming out of the wet ground.
So I think it's kind of nice that our practice period here at Ancient Dragon occurs during this rainy season of spring. I don't know. I've even heard there's supposed to be more rain today so we can check out what's beneath our feet and around us.
And I think it's wonderful that our spring rain resonates with this early, early Buddhist practice and that these communities, like us, to some extent here at Ancient Dragon, I would say, have kind of attunement or in tune with the natural world. The seasonal rhythms, you know, our schedule ceremonies, they have this rhythmic flow that's seasonal.
And this kind of caring attunement is our family style in Soto Zen. In particular, some of you who may have been at practice places, monastic practice places like San Francisco Zen center, you know, the pathways where people are walking between buildings are kind of designed intentionally so that you make a little noise when you're walking on the ground.
Usually they're gravel or wood chips or something, but you can hear the footsteps even if you're quiet.
And in some ways, that's attuning the community to what people are up to. And it's also kind of warning critters and allows you to see plants.
They're illuminated.
Some of you maybe have been in the springtime at Green Gulch Farm, where there's lots of newts, you know, invariably there'll be a squished newt near the walkway.
Honor that.
But our caring becomes a felt, embodied experience through how we contact the world through our eyes, through our ears, through our nose, through our skin, through our feet.
We notice the true nature of this. Contact our ears with the bird song or with the L train song.
Like, I don't want that L train song. You know, Here it is, it appears. And in a practice period when you're focused, you you start to soften to these things, to reality.
Even at home, we can notice with awareness how we pour a glass of water, how we wash our hands, how we step over a threshold from room to room, or how we step onto the sidewalk.
You can pause and tune into bodhisattva body awareness can return to our deepest intention and remember the preciousness of each moment, each breath, each appearance on the screen.
So even when we're interacting with the screens, you know, like on your phone, versus do I, do I want to touch that? Do I want to open that?
What is. What mind is arising there?
So this, this practice period time, monks and lay people and early Buddhism would take up residence and meditate together and chant and read sutras and study the dharma that protects life, protects the world.
This really beautiful tradition of intensive community practice periods has carried over, right? China, Korea, Japan, coming in 1959 in the suitcase of Suzuki Roshi when he came to San Francisco and eventually formed San Francisco Zen Center.
So in our tradition in Soto Zen, practice period is known as ango, which is sometimes translated as peaceful or calm, abiding or dwelling.
And just I want to point out from Buddha's time, lay people would join the monks.
They were, could join them. They could, like, come and go live with them.
But we do something radically different here. In some ways. It appears this way that these practice periods that we have typically now that are not monastic, that don't take place within monasteries, last for, you know, one to three months.
They occur in our households centered around a temple, and they still occur. There are places you can go for one, two, three months and live in monastic community, and that has its own thing.
But I think what we're doing here is quite interesting and helpful and somewhat accessible, if you're up for it. At Ancient Dragon, we've kind of creatively developed this residential form to create a monastery that encompasses each of our homes and kind of centered around are zendo and temple.
So dragons who signed up for this practice period are about to become urban bodhisattva monks for eight weeks, and next Sunday, the temple gate gets closed.
That's what they do at a temple. You're supposed to, like, be in that space, confine yourself to that space for the time of the practice period. So we close the gate. How to close this ancient dragon Zen gate for this practice period, that's all over the place. You know, people from all over the place, including, I believe, New Mexico, are joining us still.
This temple gate includes, this temple boundary, includes the ground and cloud dragons, the dwellings.
So we really can use our beautiful capacity to imagine beyond what we think things should be and manifest our practice period.
Little other bit of history.
The first Zen ongo that I know of in America, maybe in the Western world, at least, occurred at Tassahara Zen Mountain center in the fall of 1967.
So it hasn't been around that long here.
And led by Suzuki Roshi.
And David Chadwick, a great early Zen student and writer, has written an entire book about 1967 at Tassajara. So this is a tradition that we're sort of carrying along.
And David sadly passed away on February 23 in Bali at the age of 81.
Tomorrow evening, we'll offer a memorial service for him after Zazen. We'll honor his life energy and his incredible, boundless devotion to Suzuki Roshi.
That this whole series of writings about his experience and interactions and history of Suzuki Roshi and of Tassahara, which David was one of the early folks. And, you know, in those days at least, people have said it's kind of a wild place, you know, so if people say, oh, well, at Ancient Dragon, you're not behaving like they do at Tassajara these days. Well, in the old days, Tassajara was a little wild, like we are.
So we call our Ancient Dragon Ongo, this time of peaceful abiding, a practice commitment period.
So we kind of take practice through and we put commitment right in the middle.
And this is to emphasize commitment to wholehearted practice.
Everyone is invited, asked to complete a practice commitment sheet. I don't think I saw one in the Kaisando room over there, hanging out of a book called Shoes Without a Door.
So somebody's going to turn it. I'll just pass them around in case you're not familiar.
But some of you are like, yeah, I've seen that 12 times.
But this is just to remind us it's a little hard to feel the commitment when people are dispersed in their homes. But we make commitments from a menu of options to Zen meditation, dharma study and community sharing and volunteering.
And in many ways, this kind of practice period, this commitment period in a lay setting like ours, in a householder setting, is more challenging than a monastic ongo. You know, no one's running around the whole community waking people up with a bell, encouraging you to get out of bed. If you're lucky, maybe you have a spouse will do that, or a partner or a cat.
But, you know, every morning, you know, if you slack off a bit or cut a corner, no one knows. But you, you know, if you sleep in at a monastery, somebody knocks on the door, says, are you okay?
Please come to Zazen if you're not.
If you leave the zendo, you're asked to sign out.
So you might be like, I'm not going to be at the next three periods because I'm having a fight with my partner. You know that I've seen such things on this sheet. But here you're on your own.
I'm not hunting you down, asking you why you're not in the Zendo or did you fulfill your commitment.
So motivation can be difficult to sustain.
So I encourage you to think about what sustains motivation.
It can be very easy to forget you're practicing with others when we're not in community every single day in the world of appearances that we live in, and there are so many distractions, I think I'll scroll on my phone in bed instead of get up for Zazen, something like that.
So I encourage everyone during these eight weeks to try to simplify your daily activity as much as possible.
Minimize social media, minimize interacting with technology that's optimized to capture your attention.
Because once you get into it, it's hard to get out.
Sit a little more Zazen. Tune into the natural world. You know, spring is so wonderful. All the birds, they're building nests. I thought I heard some little babies chirping. I can't believe it, given how cold it is. But things like reciting the 16 great bodhisattva precepts every day can be helpful reminders.
But of course, how you engage in this practice period is up to you.
Isn't there like a song by the ska band the Specials? It's up to you. What you gonna do? You know, I can.
You can always ask, or I can ask myself, is my practice wholehearted or half hearted or even resentful? You know, everything is acceptable.
Just observe the conditions of your own heart and mind and observe the result.
Another term for a practice period is called calmly abiding within restraint.
So Japanese might refer to it.
We don't like that here, to have rules and things that confine us a little bit.
But this really means showing up wholeheartedly and giving oneself to practice, to the schedule, to the commitments you've made, to the precepts, to the sangha.
And in this is closing the gate, defining a boundary of practice and abiding within restraint. Abiding within. This is bowing when serving instead of like, I don't feel like bowing to that person. I don't feel like Serving that person, you know, I'll place myself in the line or I'm scared to serve this person, so I'll make sure I never have to do that, you know.
But just going along, needing everything and paying attention to the forms, you could say of practice in daily life. It could be something like making your bed carefully every day or thinking about, I could use a cloth napkin instead of paper.
But it's so easy just to like, you know, then have to wash it, take care of a cloth napkin. You know, the simplified circumstances of a practice period with some rules and details just really bring up our habits of grasping and of aversion, of opting for personal convenience at any expense, on demand. Right? Everything that'd be on demand in exactly the right shade of paint that I like.
It's not our fault. This is just how this world's constructed, especially now, at any expense.
I don't like you. I'll smash you.
I like you. I'll grab onto you. Get more and more and more.
So we can discover at this time of calm abiding what it's like to pause a little, to take the effort to see what's happening and then to set aside causes of our own suffering and those of others. And we need support and training to do this.
This is not.
This world is not meant. We're mammals, we're herd animals. We're not meant to do this alone.
Even if you think you're doing it alone, even if you're sitting Zazen alone in your room every day.
I remember when Ancient Dragon first started and Teigen was interacting. He'd get reports over the phone, like how many people came into Zazen, you know, maybe we'd have five, six, seven, something, you know, or small group early on.
And he said, well, did you count all the. All the other beings in the room that you can't see? I was like, oh yeah, it's easy to forget.
Easy to forget.
So it's especially easy when you appear to be alone in a room, to think no one else is there.
There is this genius to practicing with others in the context of a practice period with a schedule, forms and commitments. And while it might be uncomfortable to have sort of, let's say, our flaws or afflictive habits and emotions illuminated, ironically, seeing it helps us get on track. Doing this with other people supports us to return to being with just this, just this moment.
I was thinking about this talk and I happened upon this little booklet. We don't have such a booklet.
Can people see this?
Does it look backwards? It looks backwards to me, but it says Zen Shinji Tassahara Zen Mountain Center, Zen Mine Temple Pure standards in parentheses, Guidelines for practice periods.
And it was edited last January 7, 2005.
So I picked that up as a member of that assembly.
So when you. You get issued the little manual of how to the rules of the practice period and the spirit of how to engage it.
And we don't have that rule book here, we don't have an ancient dragon Shingi rules.
But it's okay.
We have some commitments we made, we have the precepts. But I'll just share a little bit from this because I think it's supportive in daily life.
Believe it or not, I still take this out and contemplate it, especially if I feel my practice is lax or getting a little shabby or resistant.
I think about oh yeah, this reminds me.
And it says Bodhisattva's right on the COVID quoting Dogenzenji, who by the way Taigen, our great emeritus teacher, translated with Shohaku Okamura e Hei Shingi, which were guidelines for temple practice, which included daily life in a temple which is integrated into a practice period. Dogen also wrote a whole fascical called one of the longest ones called Ango in the Shobo Genzo, his great collection of essays. And it's almost mind numbing the detail.
So and so among sits so and so here and bows here to this one. And this is, you know, these signs go up and this is where the order of business and you're like, what? But there's some gems in there anyway. And it's also good to look at how we resist being told what to do or protocol.
I'll confess, I sometimes think, ah, that's ridiculous, all that protocol. But then look what happens when somebody is like, yeah, let's throw it all out.
Let's not have decorum and respect.
But anyway, right on the COVID of this it says Buddhas and ancestors, endeavor in the way without veering off.
Where there are guidelines, endeavor in the way arises.
Where there are no guidelines, endeavor in the way does not arise.
Be one with everyone in stillness and in motion.
You don't even need to read the whole Showbo Genzo, this giant collection. That's probably enough.
Be one with everyone in stillness and motion. Great guideline.
Some more stuff.
Didn't even remember this decorum.
The respectful and sensitive manner in which we conduct ourselves is the Buddha Dharma. Another quote from Dogen, Suzuki Roshi. Here's a quote from Suzuki Roshi.
Just sit and See what happens.
Following the rules lets you find yourself.
The rules are not something to restrict you, but support your practice.
What rules?
It says at the beginning. These pure standards, monastic practices, along with the precepts, the practice period schedule, and other monastic. In parentheses, forms of behavior create a container of support and nurturance, which is the body and mind of Zen training and practice.
Please follow them completely and wholeheartedly.
Ah, practice period schedule.
3:50am Wake up.
Lisa's gonna go spend some time at Creek Gulch. And she's like, I think they wake up a little later, maybe 4:50. I can't remember.
And all you do is do zazen service, breakfast, study or dharma talk or zazen. It was great. I received something from Japan recently, and it. It had some, like, cartoons with monks, and it showed a monk snoozing at their desk. You know, it's called study period and zazen sometimes. But you'd see people in study hall.
So, you know, and I'm like, what is that?
Like? The minute I start to read the Dharma, I fall asleep, you know, Interesting.
Then there's service and lunch and work and bathing and service and supper and zazen.
Pretty simple.
You actually can almost live that way in your daily life.
Even if. And don't tell your family you're doing this, you know, just, just. They'll be like, oh, you're so present for everything.
Well, I'm just eating with you, my dear.
Just preparing dinner. I'm just going to read a little bit right now.
So it goes on and on with all this. How you enter the zendo.
Food, Receive all food as offering.
I like this.
Talks about kitchen practice, the back door, the snack area. There's this back door at Tassajara that, like, people can get snack in between regular meals. Is available until from after lunch until evening. Service was like, one of my favorite things to make food for the back door. Go and get leftovers and make something good. And all these, like, people who were working really hard, you know, kitchen to me wasn't such hard work, but can be.
But, like, they'd be like, sneaking in the back door, eating. Like, they'd make quesadillas sometimes with leftovers.
Illness, practice, let somebody know if you're sick, don't come to the zendo if you're sick.
There's even some notes in relationship practice.
Don't isolate yourself from the community.
Respect silent times. Be sensitive about public displays of affection. There's even a little bit on harassment and diversity.
Even in 2005, people were thinking about that they talk about safety, other things.
So if you want to look at the Shingi, I'll leave a couple copies out. That's Tassahara Shingi. We have our own.
We have our own that arise naturally and we know what they are.
And this ends maybe someplace in here.
The very last thing.
Very last thing Looks like another quote from Dogen.
There may well be differences between those who've been practicing over many years and those who've just begun, or those gifted with great intelligence and those not so gifted.
Even so, each person is a treasure to the community.
Treasure.
So that's really maybe all we'll explore in this practice period.
Living like this, as Uchiyama might say, has no market value.
Somebody recently was talking about, oh, I finally realized I'm really not getting anything from this Practice has no market value.
It's not based on profit and gain.
That's obvious from some perspective.
And living from Buddha nature can appear to be inconvenient.
And it asks us to be creative.
To not know, to explore such a way of being really frustrates algorithms, you know, they're trying to convince us to spend more money and acquire something, and we're sort of like, eh, maybe not.
I don't even know.
So already over 20 dragons have registered for the practice commitment period.
There's still time for last minute signups, but all of us signed up or not, we practice diligently together beginning next Sunday, hopefully always.
And we find our own place where we are so that we can realize that everyone and everything is a treasure in communality. So thank you all very much.
Any comments, questions from Tigen to everyone?
Nathan, it is a Shingi just for Tassahara, Shingi is a pure standard monastic. I can't. Let me see if I can get my chat to go.
So Tigen and Nathan are having a conversation.
I've translated one from Dogen, which includes many aspects, as I mentioned, Ehei Shingi, which we have in our library, which is great. And Nathan, I can also send you a copy of the Tasselhara Shingi I read from. I have a PDF, so I'll do that if that's okay. Thank you.
Did I scare you? A little.
Sandra, I just want to say that I'm scared.
I mean, you know, it took me a long time to realize how resistant I am to commitment.
So even though I get to choose what that commitment is, you know, it's creating anxiety.
Thank you.
Well, this is why I sort of offered this talk too, because I get nervous before this, you know, it should Be a little bit like, can I really do this? Do I really want to do this?
Yeah. Jake, what do you sattva?
[00:34:53] Speaker C: It just.
That makes me think of a conversation that we had at Queer Dharma on Thursday where one of the other participants asked me when I was talking about, oh, yeah, I make. I make a commitment to try to, like, make it to the zendo this many times and, like, to show up for the. These things.
And they. They asked me, well, why. Why is the commitment not a vow? And I said, oh, well, that's interesting. I don't know. And since then, I've kind of been sitting with, what is the difference between a commitment and a vow?
And I just wonder if you have any thoughts on that.
[00:35:29] Speaker B: Well, my first thought is a commitment is a vow of sorts.
Yeah.
Because even in the practice commitment sheet, I say something like, I vow to.
I commit to.
You know, maybe vow feels even, like, more holy or something. But a commitment, oh, I'm going to show up. I can blow that off.
Howard, did you have a.
[00:35:53] Speaker D: No, I didn't, but I had thoughts. But I will second being terrified. And second, like, oh, wow, I maybe do have commitment issues. And it took me this long to still figure it out.
[00:36:05] Speaker B: Did you even sign up for the practice commitment period?
[00:36:08] Speaker D: I'm going to.
[00:36:11] Speaker B: I remember seeing your name
[00:36:15] Speaker D: always terrified.
[00:36:16] Speaker B: It's good to know you have commitment issues if you have them, and we all do.
[00:36:23] Speaker D: I'm just reminded of, you know, I think the having the. The rules and the commitments and all that are.
You know, it's kind of funny. I took precepts in a different tradition first, like, maybe two years after I started practicing, and I was like, okay, I know what I'm doing. Yeah, this is why I'm doing this. This is very clear cut to me. I'm going to do these vows, and I'm going to commit to it, and da, da, da, da. And, like, I look back down, I'm like, I had no idea what the hell I was doing, and I still don't know what I'm doing, but I have a better idea that I don't know what I'm doing.
And having the background of the rules and the regulations and the commitments, it's like a container around where I, like, kind of bump into.
And it's helpful to have that to bump against. It's like, oh, oh, there's my. There's my anger, there's my doubt. There's my restlessness and worry. There's all my hindrances. Here's all my Poisons. Here's also all my awakening factors like joy and. And. And. And tranquility and equanimity, and I just kind of have to keep, like, bumping into the. Into the sides to figure out where it is.
So I will sign up.
[00:37:30] Speaker B: Is that. Is that a commitment I hear from you, Howard, as much as you're gonna get? Okay.
It's pretty. Pretty wonderful Asian.
[00:37:41] Speaker A: Thank you.
You know, when I think of vows and commitments, I think of vows as being more.
Less of a form demand. Like, you know, we make bodhisattva. Vows of, you know, beings are numberless. We vow to free them. Dharma gates are boundless. We vow to enter them. But, you know, we don't sit down and say, dharma gates are boundless. I commit to walking through three gates per day.
So we. We leave it to the universe, maybe to deliver where, you know, which. Which. Which Dharma gates we're going to.
[00:38:19] Speaker B: Are.
[00:38:19] Speaker A: We're going to encounter at any given time. But.
But, yeah, I just think of commitment as being a specific thing that we can do as part of fulfilling a vow.
[00:38:29] Speaker B: Mm.
Thank you for that elaboration.
I can pass this back.
I also want to thank Howard for pointing out that part of what is illuminated is also our own awakened hearts and minds.
So we actually see those in the mirror of the commitment period. We see everything, and then, if we're lucky, it's all together for not ripping it into this and that and good and bad and, you know, but there's an accountability. Actions have consequences.
[00:39:05] Speaker D: Blake has a question online.
[00:39:06] Speaker B: Blake, good to see you. Are you in Minnesota? Blake.
[00:39:09] Speaker D: It's written. It's written in. In case you want to read it out loud or unless Blake wants to just ask it, I think.
[00:39:15] Speaker B: Yeah, I can ask it. Yeah. I'm in Minnesota.
I see. I saw the general details online, and I'm just a little bit confused. I know that there's an online option.
Yeah. But can you. Yeah. Can you.
Can you just clarify how that would look online?
Mm.
Well, I don't participate mostly with the online option, although clearly, I'm online right now.
But, you know, most of the events are offered hybrid, if not all of them.
So that could mean doing a Sachin hybrid, committing to zazen, which many people are committing to, just doing it on their own every day and then dropping into our zazen offerings.
So basically, you follow the schedule and you pop in into the cloud Zendo. If you can't be present in person, does that make it clear enough? You can also download the commitment sheet from the website and look at how that works.
So, yeah, it's mostly clear. I just.
I don't see the schedule when the zazen would be.
That's on the website. Every. Every morning we have zazen.
Right. Okay. And, you know, so you can pop into. It's not like the practice commitment period has separate zazen.
We just. It's our community. The community zazen is either when we have it hybrid on site or in. Or online only or in person only, so. But we have zazen every day except Saturday, sometimes twice a day available.
Does that make sense? Okay.
Yeah. Thank you. Yeah.
Okay.
So I think that's probably good enough about this stuff for today, and thank you all very much. I think what we'll do is we'll chant the four vows in a second and then have some announcements from our Eno.
May our intention equally extend to every being and place.
With the true merit of Buddha's way.
Beings are numberless, we vow to free them.
Dharma gates are boundless, we enter them.
Buddhas with.
We vow to realize that beings are numberless, we vow to free them.
Now to realize that.
Now is freedom, collusion, star impossible.
To enter the.
Realize it.
