Subscribe
Share
Share
Embed
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.
Speaker 2:If you'd like to take refuge with me, you can sing along. I take refuge in the Buddha. I take refuge in the Dharma. I take refuge in the Sangha. And I'd just like to welcome some of the, a couple of newcomers that are here tonight.
Speaker 2:Thank you for coming. We are brand new in this particular location. We just moved here at the beginning of the month. And so we're working out the bugs, and that's kind of fun. I was not here last week.
Speaker 2:I was co leading a long retreat, a silent retreat for the week with another teacher from Heart of Wisdom Temple, Fuho. And quite a few people from here were in attendance at that retreat. So I thought I might just bring some of the content and teachings from that retreat to you tonight. We focused on a teaching called the Eight Realizations of Great Beings or the Eight Awakenings of a Great Being. And this teaching is said to have been the final teaching of the Buddha before he died, before his parinirvana, that he had distilled some of the most important things and really wanted to impart that to his community, this list of eight things.
Speaker 2:And then the founder of the Soto Zen school in Japan, Eihei Dogen, it is said that he took those teachings, had translations of them and wanted to make his own commentary on them. And that was part of a much larger body of work that he had written. And that was the last thing he did before he died. So it would seem that these are very important teachings. So it has some overlap with other lists and Buddhism is really great about lists, but I'll go, and there's also some variability in the translations too.
Speaker 2:So I'll just list them for you here now. That is, so these eight realizations are having few desires, knowing how to be satisfied, enjoying serenity and tranquility, exerting meticulous effort, not forgetting right thought or right aspiration or right intention, practicing meditation, cultivating wisdom and avoiding idle talk. And it said that all of these can be expressed in each other. So the good news is if you are having trouble with one of them, don't worry. You can just practice a different one and it'll work out just fine.
Speaker 2:You know, we used to practice at a kind of a busy intersection, which I miss because it was really kind of noisy there. But I'm finding that we have our own noises here. It's been fun to kind of get used to the noises that we have, the HVAC, the refrigerator. The other night I heard birds out that fire door. But it is just part of our experience.
Speaker 2:So having few desires, I just wanna clarify that it may be a better word other than desire, a better word might be craving or clinging, to not cling to too many things. Because there is such a thing as wholesome desire. There is something quite beneficial and quite life affirming to desire food for instance. You know, that's important or to desire water, that's important or connection or whatever. But we can also have these unwholesome desires, cravings.
Speaker 2:And in Sanskrit that word is tanha and it kind of means getting hooked, getting hooked on something. The word for wholesome desire is chanda, chanda. So tanha and chanda. Chanda is you can kind of tell when something's wholesome because it's beneficial not just to you but to everyone around you. It doesn't harm anybody.
Speaker 2:So just the clarity about this is about what's really important. What is it that I can let go? So, so much of our practice is paying attention. And of course, meditation is on this list. When we start to pay attention, when we start to settle down, we start to see how things, the things that we think actually make us happy or the things that we think we can't live without, how do they really make us feel?
Speaker 2:How do they impact our lives? Couple of beers every night or doom scrolling in bed until one in the morning. What's the result of that? How's that going? What's the effect?
Speaker 2:So if we're letting go of something like this that we've been hooked by, curtailing a habit like this has its own arc. And if you've ever quit something that you were hooked on like smoking or tried to stop a habit, like complaining, soon you will run into whatever it was that it was doing for you all that time. The circumstances when you would reach for something like that. So a long time ago I smoked cigarettes. Was in you know still in that generation when that was a thing until college.
Speaker 2:And I did quit in college and it was hard. And I realized that it did so many things for me. It gave me something to do with my hands, kind of got all that nervous energy kind of went into the activity of the hands. One of the more addictive things of smoking cigarettes is that it actually does calm you down but only because you're deep breathing, not because there's anything particularly relaxing about smoke inhalation. And to like see how the feedback of the puff of smoke going out really allows you to exhale fully like we do here.
Speaker 2:That's what's relaxing about it. So you're doing that for like five minutes. No wonder you're relaxed. But it also is a stimulant because that is the chemical part. There's the nicotine part that is a definite stimulant where you're like, gosh I'm tired, I'm writing this paper, I need a break, let me just have a cigarette and sure enough you focus again.
Speaker 2:Or if I was you know sometimes the cigarette smoking was relegated to outdoors so you'd go out there and there'd be other people you could talk to, take a break, go outside, you could just take a cigarette break at work and that was a thing too. The non smokers didn't get that, they just kept working. What was that all about? So without it then we have this withdrawal experience where like, oh my gosh, have to encounter my own tiredness, I have to encounter my own unfocusedness, I have to encounter my own discomfort. Yeah, that's the withdrawal part.
Speaker 2:We encounter our life unadulterated and it's uncomfortable, just feeling tired or unfocused or bored or nervous. Just having this emotional roller coaster of physiological withdrawal from the nicotine part. So it doesn't actually require a chemical to have that same physiological addiction. Also process addictions can do this like gambling. But if we are really willing to experience our life on life's terms in this way, these feelings do subside.
Speaker 2:That arc of quitting something that we're hooked on settles down eventually if we're willing to just feel how it is or maybe offer ourselves some alternatives that are more wholesome. I used to carry around a little straw like half of a straw and just to kind of do the ritual of smoking or some people use a cinnamon stick something like that. The cravings do return but perhaps less powerfully. And we do learn to ride these waves to replace the behavior with these other more wholesome things. And eventually the urgency fades, the habit is broken, there's a choice in the matter.
Speaker 2:Even the identity has changed. I am no longer a smoker. Now I'm kind of incredulous that I did that for so long, but it's addictive, it's understandable. So that's few desires or few unwholesome desires. Let me see about the wording here.
Speaker 2:Here's what Dogen says about the Buddhist teachings. The first is having few desires. What he called having few desires means not chasing far and wide among those objects of the five senses which one has not yet experienced. So also seeking novelty and whatever. OU monks recognize the person who has many cravings.
Speaker 2:His misery and troubles are many because he seeks for many benefits, gains and advantages. The person of few cravings is free from seeking after things or yearning for them. Hence, he is free of such sufferings. He desires little, only esteeming that with what is fitting for his spiritual training and practice. By desiring little, so much more is he able to bring forth fine merits and virtues.
Speaker 2:The person of few desires is free of flattery and fawning when searching out the intentions of others. The heart of someone who behaves with few desires is as a consequence even tempered and free from gloom. That's cool. Free from gloom, anxiety, sorrow, or fear. When coming in contact with things, he finds a surplus for he knows no insufficiency.
Speaker 2:The one who has few desires experiences nirvana for this is the name of having few desires. So we're not trying to get something all the time. We're not just like what's in it for me? That's just not the posture. And that includes whenever we're connecting with someone else.
Speaker 2:The next one is satisfaction or contentment. And this too is a habit. This is a habit that we can cultivate when we have enough. So right now in this moment sitting here, can you access the experience of contentment just right now? Maybe so.
Speaker 2:Comfortable room, climate controlled, sheltered from the elements, nice people. We have what we need. What is this like and how do you know? Where do you find that? How do you experience contentment or satisfaction?
Speaker 2:One of the things we did on the retreat was check-in with that right after we were eating our eating practice, having had a meal. Can I experience contentment? And so the way our minds work is that the more you do a thing, the more you can do that thing. That's how a smoking habit develops, and that's how a contentment habit develops. That includes things like doing the shot put, right?
Speaker 2:Like probably my first try at that would be pretty hilarious. But if I kept doing it, it would might still be hilarious but I'd get better at it. Talking in public, being the doan, being the ino, the bell ringer and the person announcing things. The more you do a thing, more you can do that thing. Noticing satisfaction, that is included.
Speaker 2:So I have all eight of these. I'm not sure how far I'm gonna get tonight. I might get into all of them, but I might not. And I'd like to hear from some of the folks who actually were on the retreat to see what you learned. So the third one, enjoying serenity or tranquility.
Speaker 2:What I wanna say about being content. Oh, the cool thing in the teaching of what the Buddha said about being content, the part I liked is basically that even if you sleep on the ground, you're content. You could sleep on the ground and be content. And someone who has a mansion has everything they want could be totally miserable. Isn't that true?
Speaker 2:Do we not just witness the heck out of that these days? Now, and that's not to say the people who do not have enough because it is possible to not have your needs met. It is not okay. That is not what we're saying that you should be content. That's not the teaching here.
Speaker 2:It is that it is our freedom of our own practice that could allow us to be content sleeping on the ground. And that is true. We do a firefighter retreat and the wildland firefighters who go out into the forest and they carry a 40 pound pack and they sleep on the ground. And they're some of the happiest, contented people. I mean, there's problems with the work.
Speaker 2:It's difficult, but there's something in that. So that's another piece of this. So the next one is enjoying serenity and tranquility and that's about stepping out of our social reality for a little bit. In the teachings it says, this is again, this is a particular translation of Dogen. The third is enjoying the tranquility of nirvana, which is right here, it's not elsewhere.
Speaker 2:What the Buddha called enjoying the tranquility of nirvana means leaving behind all the noise and hubbub, leaving behind noise and hubbub for the solitude of the open country. It says you should part company with confusion and bustle and dwell at your ease in some solitary place. And also you should, even if you are one who enjoys the company of others, should kind of set that aside for a moment. That when we're just constantly with others or we're constantly, when he said, when the world binds itself around us, we drown in the suffering of such company. So it's not like never be with people, obviously you should, you know, be with people, but this is just recommending like take some time, sometimes you could do that.
Speaker 2:This is our meditation. Again, like these things are embedded in each other. Just step aside, take twenty minutes to just allow yourself a moment to settle or do retreat practice, take a lot more time to do that. Explore your own heart for a moment. Of course you love your family, you love your friends, you love your coworkers maybe if you're lucky.
Speaker 2:I did, they were like my coworkers are really good. It doesn't change how important they are to you and you to them. But if you're never able to find some quiet time for yourself to explore what's here, you know, you might get a little worn out. This is kind of a warning and a recommendation to make some time for that. And it's also important to stay aware of what's happening in the world, of course, to respond also in ways that are possible for you wherever your life is.
Speaker 2:It's not saying don't ever do that. And it's saying it's important to get away from the fire hose of news from time to time. One question I have around the sort of social media, phone, computer, etcetera. If you've adjusted the notifications on your phone, like specifically, yeah, so that the news sources can't just tell you when it's time to find out about the world, that you have to actually make that decision yourself. That's an important piece.
Speaker 2:If you don't know how to do that, find a 12 year old and they can help you. I'm not really able to help you, but someone can or Shinku can help you.
Speaker 1:Make it more fun for Esso.
Speaker 2:Esso could help you. So yeah, retreat practice is kind of the ultimate way to practice this, to even just relinquish our phones for a week. What a blessing. What a gift. So the fourth one is exerting meticulous effort.
Speaker 2:I like the word diligence. But even that can be a little triggering for people. Like, oh, I have to max out my effort for the entirety. That's not exactly it. The Buddha compared this to a small stream ever flowing that can bore holes in rocks.
Speaker 2:It's not like the force of the effort. It's just the continuity. It's that just almost relaxed, keep going day after day ultimately bore a hole in the rock. Or like making a fire with friction that if you stop, you're not gonna make a fire. You have to keep going.
Speaker 2:So there's a lot of teachings on diligence. This is often in others of those lists. Some people translate it as joyful effort or enthusiasm. That's another nice word for this. So I shared a poem in this retreat and I'll share it in here too.
Speaker 2:It's a Mary Oliver poem, a lesser known Mary Oliver poem called Song of the Builders, Song of the Builders. On a summer morning, I sat down on a hillside to think about God, a worthy pastime. Near me, I saw a single cricket. It was moving the grains of the hillside this way and that way. How great was its energy?
Speaker 2:How humble its effort. Let us hope it will always be like this, each of us going on in our inexplicable ways, building the universe. On a summer morning, I sat down on a hillside to think about God, a worthy pastime. Near me, I saw a single cricket. It was moving the grains of the hillside this way and that way.
Speaker 2:How great was its energy? How humble its effort. Let us hope it will always be like this, each of us going on in our inexplicable ways building the universe. It just, I keep thinking of that parable or the story, the tale of the tortoise and the hare. That's just a nice one to think about this diligence, slow and steady wins the race.
Speaker 2:So the fifth one is not neglecting mindfulness is one way to talk about it or keeping to the dharma without losing sight of it. Now the dharma is another word or the word can be translated as truth. And sometimes when we talk about the 10,000 dharmas or the many dharmas, it's really just all the things, the people, the dogs, the cars, the manhole covers, all the myriad of things that arise and disappear in the world. But then there's also dharma, which means these teachings, that's like capital D dharma or Buddha dharma, specifically the Buddha's teachings. So keeping to the dharma without losing sight of it.
Speaker 2:One way to interpret or practice this one is to notice how all of these objects or beliefs that we have are really just concepts that we hold in our minds. But we think that they're fixed reality. And our minds produce this paltry kind of two dimensional fabricated version of reality. But we believe it as if it were reality. Everything is constantly changing.
Speaker 2:Everything is constantly flowing, but we kind of freeze the world, everything in it in these concepts, who I am, who you are, what things are. So one of the ways that one of the teachers that we quoted a lot it's like opening the hand of thought. So our minds can close around a particular concept of who I think I am or I'm a smoker or I've always been this way or whatever. But we can open the hand of thought and actually just interact with things as they are in this moment however it is. So I'd like you to do another, an exercise that kind of illustrates this point too.
Speaker 2:If you feel comfortable to go ahead and close your eyes. And now see if you can remember and kind of paint a picture of everything in the room where you are, everything that you could see, everything that you could remember, where the cushions are, where the people are, where the walls and object, all of the 10,000 dharmas. See if you can just recreate this view in your mind as clearly as possible. Maybe some details in there, colors, shadows, lights, shapes, whatever. Get it really clear in your mind.
Speaker 2:And when you're ready, go ahead and open your eyes. What did you miss? Go ahead and shout it out. Hi shiki. This cushion.
Speaker 2:What? Her lectern. The lectern. The screens. The screens.
Speaker 2:Books. Chant books. The doors over there. The doors.
Speaker 1:Like four people walking
Speaker 2:through Four whole people, human beings. The piano, right? There's all this stuff in here that just our conceptual mind is not actually very powerful, not even a little bit accurate. Another way to do this exercise if you want to have fun, and I wish if I had a little whiteboard or something, I would invite someone up to draw a dollar bill from memory. Go ahead and That try is about as trustworthy as our thinking mind is compared to reality.
Speaker 2:The richness, the fullness, the detail, the aliveness of where we are, who we are, who other people are, we have no idea. There's no way we can possibly think our way through this life. So that's what we open to in our meditation. That's the next one, doing meditation, doing non doing, taking a moment to just be, not try to get anywhere. He says, monks, when your mind is kept alert, then you are in meditation.
Speaker 2:Because your mind is in meditation, you are able to know the world, birth and death, as well as the characteristics of all things. I mean, that's pointing to the impermanence. That's pointing to the flow and the constant change. When we sit still and allow ourselves to really just be in a receptive, open place, open practice, we can see and experience that continuous flow, that continuous change. The seventh is wisdom or wise discernment.
Speaker 2:And this is our freedom to see the oneness of all things, to see the generosity in this life. And this is again reminiscent of that seeing through concepts, seeing through our concepts, seeing through our fixed beliefs to the universal truths that we are completely infused with what we call Buddha nature. We have a chant or a dedication that says Buddha nature pervades the whole universe existing right here now. It allows us to see the perfection in all things. And I want to make sure to hear from other people, so I'll just add the last one, avoiding idle talk.
Speaker 2:This can be our inside talk and our outside talk. Another translation of it is not playing around with theories and opinions, letting go of dualities and judgmentalism that one may experience. He says if we abandon our theories and notions, if you want to enjoy the pleasure that comes from calmness and the extinction of confusion to eliminate the affliction of playing around in your head. So there's a few particular, maybe you'll notice for yourself what are the kinds of thoughts and habits, thought mind habits that are not so helpful. There's no shortage of theories and opinions.
Speaker 2:There's no shortage of hollow discussions or useless argument in our world today. No shortage. And this is now all amplified by technology, online arguing. I have done this. And it gets fueled by a sense of righteousness often.
Speaker 2:We are pretty convinced of our own view to be right, to be certain, to know. This is that two dimensional reality that we're interacting with. Oh, I know exactly what everybody should do. Just like I could draw a dollar bill from memory. Yeah.
Speaker 2:But it's comforting somehow to believe that, to believe that we know. So we have precepts. And it's important to note that next week, right here, will be a ceremony in which quite a few people from this community will step forward and take vows to align their behavior in accord with some of these ethical precepts, the first five being some pretty basic ones, know, not to kill but to cherish all life, not to steal but to respect the belongings of others, things of that nature. And they'll wear a little blue garment. And I know that Don is wearing one, it's called a wagesa.
Speaker 2:And it's just an indication that a person has taken the precepts. If you've taken 16 precepts, you get, you sew, each of the person has sewn their wagasa or sewn their rakassu. And it's a visual indicator like, hey, I've agreed to abide by these. For me, it's like, yes, and please hold me to them. Please help me if I'm veering off.
Speaker 2:Let's all do this together. Let's all establish the wisdom of these behaviors. It's important to note that there are 10 grave precepts, which include the first five that people will be taking here. And then at least half of those 10 are related to speech, are related to unskillful speech. So that suggests that idle talk, hollow talk, that this is really important in terms of how we wanna align ourselves to be peaceful humans, to be harmless.