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New podcasts every Tues, Thurs and Sat. Here you can find talks from various teachers involved with the Zen Community of Oregon. We share talks from our retreats, as well as our different weekly offerings between Great Vow Zen Monastery and Heart of Wisdom Zen Temple.
Zen Community of Oregon's purpose is to express and make accessible the wisdom and compassion of the Buddha’s teachings, as transmitted through an authentic, historical lineage. To support and maintain Zen Buddhist practice in order to realize and actualize our Buddha nature in everyday life.
For more information, please visit zendust.org.
Hello and welcome. This is the Zen Community of Oregon, making the teachings of the Buddhadharma accessible to support your practice. New episodes air every week.
Hogen:Nice to see you all. We've been doing a series of, I've been talking about transforming problems into wisdom and working at it from different aspects and different dimensions. The foundation for that, of course, is we have to have a grounding in our own experience right here. The grounding in our own experience right here, it's called the first foundation of mindfulness in Buddhism, is the anchor that allows, you know, the world to swirl as it is, allows us to function, allows us to to be engaged and to participate. When we lose our center, when we lose the ability to actually be present in our own skin, then we are just thrown around by the media and by propaganda, we're thrown around by the vicissitudes and challenge of life.
Hogen:So the foundation of meditation is we learn how to sit down, learn how to still the still the body. Body is fairly easy to still. Sit comfortably. It's important that we are embodied, so it's important that we are sitting erect, that we have the chest open, the head direct, so that we're in a line with ourselves, that we're not kind of tippy to the side, that we're not slumped over, but that we're sitting erect so we can breathe fully and be in this body. The whole body moves as it breathes.
Hogen:Normally think of the breath as the huffing and puffing, but there are no nerve endings in the air. You're never feeling the air. You're only feeling your own body. So you're feeling the sensation of your body in the nose, sensation of your body in the chest, the sensation of your body in the back and the neck as it moves. So the anchor for practice of all sorts in every different level is are we anchored in the experience of what we call the body and it's always moving.
Hogen:We're only aware of motion. We're not aware of non motion. So we anchor in the direct experience of our body, our life, this particular shaped container that we have, as it moves, as we breathe. That's the anchor. Now, we have, of course, so many projections and so many ideas about this body and what it is that one of the levels of practice is that we we settle into the is ness of the body without all of our judgment should be fatter, should be thinner, should be older, should be younger, should be more versatile, should be more agile, should be less sex, should be all the shoulds and nots.
Hogen:And we settle in to the direct experience of our particular bundle of karma, our particular body as it is without without judgment. When we are able to rest in our body appreciating it as it is without judgment, that it's not neutral, it's warm, then that feeling of gratitude, that feeling of kindness, of generosity that starts right here begins to radiate out. If we have some people say, oh, I can love others. I can't love myself. It doesn't happen like that.
Hogen:If you hate yourself, you're going to be hating others. You just may disguise it as much nicer nicer picture. But when you really truly have this deep acceptance of this is the way things are, this is the way I am right now, then we have the foundation for accepting other people as they are. And we have the foundation for accepting the world as it is. And when we can accept other people as they are and the world as it is, we can respond.
Hogen:It's not a neutral flat, oh yeah, nothing matters state. It's a responsive state, but instead of responding to all of our ideas, coulda, shoulda, woulda, we're responding to people as they are. Each person a sacred life. Each thing that happens, something sacred has come come into being. And, sometimes we respond to those things by moving towards them, by moving away from them.
Hogen:There's lots of different ways of as we know how to respond. But the skillful response always begins with, are we anchored in the experience of this this moment? Now, so in talking about transforming problems into wisdom, talking about that, it is not a mental process. Some of it is a mental process. It is a mental process.
Hogen:But it mostly has to do with an attitude of respecting that things are sacred. If we see things as sacred, if what's coming towards us is information, is a blessing, is something to be received, something to be learned from, something that we can breathe in and respond to, then that response to whatever comes towards us is the way, the fundamental way of transforming problems into wisdom. How do we respond skillfully? So, someone calls us names, they go in, and you know, what label could not fit you at some point or other? They call us names, But our skillful response to that is where the wisdom is.
Hogen:So wisdom is not some abstract thing that we have, but it's learning to skillfully respond to the challenges, learning to skillfully respond to the things that come to our life. So when we have, people in the Sangha who've been very involved with addictive behaviors, Suffering, suffering, suffering, suffering, suffering, suffering, suffering, suffering. The wisdom part is how we respond and learn from that. The wisdom part is, oh, here's a whole bunch of a big mess that I've made. How do I respond to that mess?
Hogen:How do I respond? So it's in the response is how we transform wisdom into problems into wisdom. Response can also turn wisdom into problems, soon as you know. If we are responding out of my small minded, I am right and the world is wrong, I am right, I am the one who knows that I am right, and you better agree with me, or else, then that will quickly turn blessings into suffering. So, as we mentioned right from the beginning of this series, first place, come in, sit down, learn to be in your own skin.
Hogen:Learn to be in your own skin with appreciation, not neutrally, with appreciation. And then one of the things that you learn when you are in your own skin with appreciation is this particular container is the culmination of your whole life. Every single thing, every single mistake, every single blind alley, every single horrible thing or good thing that's happened to you has resulted in this. This. Whatever this is for you resulted in this.
Hogen:And so when we see the this as a sacred, as a a blessing, as a a miracle, then suddenly all the things that led up to that miracle are also important, are also blessings. The probability of any of us being in this place at this time is practically zero. I would say it was completely zero except here we are. If you think about all the factors that had to be come together for your ancestors and for you and for all of us to to be here right now tonight, the probability of us being in this place is so small, And yet here we are. That's why I say it's a miracle.
Hogen:It's just a miracle. So learning to to sit in the anchor in our being, learning to have respect, appreciation for our whole life, because our whole life led to the miracle of us being right here, is the foundation for our responsiveness to the challenges and learnings that happen in the world. Do you seem pretty clear? No. I always feel like when we say something like that, well, we should just end right there.
Hogen:You know? That's all we need to do is just just pay attention and and begin to do that. Go through the body, depending upon your experience, who you are. Sometimes people, it's really important to do a moral inventory to really write down all the things that we have, all the scaly things that we have done, all the things just for our own benefit, nothing else, to share them with one person if that's appropriate, but to truly acknowledge, and to truly acknowledge ourself. The sutra I think we chanted this evening, may I have a sutra?
Hogen:Oh, Jisang. Was the Mangala Sutta. And the Mangala Sutta is the sutra of the highest blessings. Well, what if you don't get the highest blessings? You know?
Hogen:What if if What if the highest blessings? Well, that's the whole point here. Not getting the highest blessings is the highest blessings. Although, it's a little backward. Devers are concerned for happiness.
Hogen:What are the highest blessings? So avoiding those foolish ways associated with the wise. Now, of course, what we call foolish, I think is the unskillful mind, the mind that is fighting and at war with its environment, the the mind that is filled with greed and anger and ignorance, the mind that it says, okay, I'm Myanmar, I'm separate, I'm alone, I'm afraid, I'm gonna fight for my own survival, is a foolish mind because it it denies the interconnectedness that we all have, denies the interplay of life energies. But, avoiding the way we can avoid those foolish ways, that's actually most of us, you know, Our ways are pretty foolish. We've done unskillful things.
Hogen:We're surrounded by unskillful people, you know, including ourselves. They're surrounded by us. So, what do we do when we're surrounded by unskillful people? You know, he says it's a blessing not to be surrounded by them, but frankly the reality is that mostly we are surrounded by unskillful people, including us. It's really important not to think, oh, I'm skillful and they are not.
Hogen:I know what's on and they don't. That's really insidious attitude. But we're in the throes of the ocean of unskillfulness. We're in the throes of an ocean of stupid mistakes that cause suffering. We just look at the news.
Hogen:Stupid mistakes that cause suffering, even though they are trying in some way, people are trying to get out of suffering and yet, over and over throughout the millennia. I hope all of you have read history. You have tried all kinds of things to get out of suffering and they cause enormous pain. The worst is religious. If you feel like God is on your side, then you are justified in doing anything.
Hogen:And that's where the most heinous crimes are, frankly, from my vantage point. So we are surrounded by foolish people. Surrounded by foolish thoughts. How can we use our practice to anchor ourselves in wisdom so that we are not ever more, deluded? So in Dharma we say there are a few anchors.
Hogen:First anchor is I was talking about being present and paying attention. The second anchor is ethical living. So, when we are surrounded by people who are greedy, who are out looking for their own benefit to the exclusion or to the, detriment of others, the anchor of having an ethical foundation, in our case we talk about the precepts, the skillfulness of not killing, cherishing life, etc. That the anchor of having an internal compass that is ethical is one of the ways of finding wisdom in the midst of a sea of foolishness. The precepts can all be looked at at many different levels, of course, but we have to start off at any level we can thinking it is important to me to have integrity.
Hogen:It's important to me to be a person of integrity. So we're surrounded by people who are are putting on all kinds of faces, all kinds of masks, all kinds of things for all kinds of motivation, trying to manipulate us, trying to to get your attention, trying to to to have themselves thrive and other people fall by the wayside. But in the midst of that, we have, I'll be present, and I will, in my own heart, have integrity. And I will have integrity, in this case we use the precepts, as a way of, for ourselves, finding a stable, still place. Surrounded by foolish people, I'll have integrity.
Hogen:It's not easy. It requires discernment, requires clarification for us, and we're doing it for ourselves. It is true that when we have an ethical life and we are have integrity, everybody around us benefits. You know, there is there is nothing more challenging than being in a relationship with somebody with no integrity, you know, and you and who's, you know, either at the mercies of addiction or the mercies of greed or whatever. But when we have integrity, then that's one of the anchors.
Hogen:So, we can avoid those foolish ways, we can be present, we can have integrity. Next is we could go on. Living in places of suitable kind, with the fruits of past good deeds, guided by the rightful play, these are the highest blessings. Living in places of suitable kind, great, with the fruits of past good deeds, great, and guided by the rightful way, these are the highest blessings. Karma is real.
Hogen:Karma just means the law of cause and effect. Means that everything we do has some effect. Everything we do has some effect. You know? And the effects are sometimes very obvious, but also they're also subtle.
Hogen:They're also multi multi layered. Everything that we say has some effect. There's a a yes, a no, an agreement, a response, a shutting off, an indifference. There's something in our life. Everything we do.
Hogen:So and that's been the case ever since we were incarnated in this life. Everything that we have done has had an effect. The monster area this morning, we had three or four babies. You know, and you can watch the babies. They're just so so so wonderful and cute, but, you know, every tantrum they have shapes their parents.
Hogen:Every smile they have shapes their parents and shapes the people around them. Everything we do is shaping our environment. Everything we do. Karma is real. When we are acting with volitionally unethical, unskillful things, that has an effect.
Hogen:That has an effect. So we can say, if we begin looking at karma, that everything that is our life situation is the karmic result of things that we have set in motion, and our job is to turn it into wisdom. There are people in our Sangha who have got two PhDs in suffering. You know, they have created so many hells and they have learned from them. And the wisdom that comes when someone really confronts their own unskillful action, there's a wisdom there that just cannot be replicated.
Hogen:Wisdom is not cheap. And sometimes that kind of wisdom that has a PhD in suffering and the end of suffering, you pay dearly for, you have to pay your life to rectify that. But, I think it's an option. It's a worthwhile option. So we're surrounded with the fruits of our good, our deeds, good and bad.
Hogen:Every time that we are generous, every time we are kind, every time that we reach out, changes us. We become slightly less hard, slightly less removed, slightly less cold. In a way, one of the signs of awakening, somebody has a has a an experience of the inclusive nature of mind, the unbalanced nature of mind, the mind that is totally right here, the totally creative unfolding of mind that happens right here. One of the signs of that is people can relax and be generous. That generosity is a natural outcome of seeing the inclusive nature of mind.
Hogen:It's a natural outcome. So when we, As we confront our own histories, as we come to accept our histories, to meet our histories, to respond to our histories with kindness and appreciation. The outcome of that hard work is we become unafraid, generous people. Unafraid, generous people. You can't be a generous person if you're afraid, and if you're generous, you can't be afraid.
Hogen:You can have fake generosity. At the end of the year, you know, people are filling out their taxes and they're trying to say, okay, where do I give it to? What do I give it to? That can be given in all kinds of different levels. But true generosity can't be fake.
Hogen:True generosity comes out of a fearless state. Living in places of suitable kind with the fruits of past good deeds, turning all of our ungood deeds into wisdom, guided by the rightful way. The rightful way, in this case, means means our life in harmony with our aspiration, our deep vow. So we have a a vow to be, for example, it may not be your vow, a vow to be of service, a vow to have an open heart, a vow to see the crystalline nature of reality, a vow to see that all things are perfectly within their place, the vow to see the inherent perfection of all things, and how it bubbles up in all kinds of mysterious and interesting ways. It's part of my vow.
Hogen:When we're in When we have clarity about our vow and clarity about our role, then as we go through our day, we say, Am I in line with my deep aspiration? Am I in line with my behavior in line with that? So when we're in line with the rightful, when we're in line with our own deep vow, there is a definite reduction of suffering and an indefinite increase in confidence and a definite ability to to be generous. I just looked at the clock and realized time is about up. So practice, practice, practice, practice.
Hogen:Be present with respect, with appreciation. We can't do it alone. We You need community and friends.
Jomon:Thank you for listening to the Zen Community of Oregon podcast and thank you for your practice. New episodes air every week. Please consider making a donation at zendest.org. Your support supports us.