Good morning people. Last week at this time I was at the Nevada Nuclear Test Site doing a ceremony to celebrate the birth of Shakyamuni Buddha, and also as part of that ceremony to remember the harm that has resulted from that testing. So, today’s talk I feel is dedicated to the possibility of peace in this world and to a life of peace.
For me one of the most helpful stories about the path of peace is about a monk coming to one of our ancestors and asking, “What is the essential meaning of the Buddha’s teaching?” or, “What is the essential meaning of the Buddha’s truth?” And the Zen teacher Seigen answered, “What is the price of rice in Luling?”
In China in those days, and maybe even today, rice means food, but it’s kind of a basic economic unit. Today the equivalent might be oil. One way to update that story would be if you asked a Zen teacher today “What is the essential import of the Buddha’s teaching?” she might say “What is the price of gasoline in San Francisco?” What is the price of energy in this world? The United States has a tremendous amount of energy resources, and the meaning of Buddha’s teaching will come to us as we meditate on the question “What is the price of all this energy we have in this country?  How does all this food, how does all this electricity and oil come to us?  Does our virtue and wisdom and compassion deserve this much energy? Do we know how it comes to us? Do we know the price of it and do we know how to use it all? Are we using it well? In looking into this question the meaning of Buddha’s teaching may appear.
Looking into this question we want to look with eyes of compassion.  Watching how living beings are behaving, looking at them with sympathy, one by one. This will help to open our eyes to understand all the relationships that are involved with what comes to us. To start out on the path of opening the eyes that can see, we begin with a vow, or I have a vow, to enter into every refuge of misery, carefully, steadfastly enter every realm of misery. To sit in meditation and enter into the pain of my own heart. To listen to the cries of suffering of those I know face to face. To walk into the slums and depressed areas of our cities; to visit nuclear test sites; to witness all the different realms of misery; to have that vow and to not rush into it, and thereby perhaps rush away from it; but carefully, steadfastly, in an organized orderly way, little by little, enter all realms. We have this vow. And once we enter these realms, we then, first of all, sit. Visible and invisible Buddhas are all sitting right now in the middle, in the living center of all these realms of suffering. When we enter one and sit still there, we are sitting with all Buddhas. And as we sit there, and find our place there, and subtly attune our body and our heart to itself, to bring our body into alignment with itself, to bring our heart right on to itself, to give up the restless diversions from this body and mind, as we settle there into our own fluctuations and uneasiness, the will, the willingness, the desire to drop off everything will be born. All beings with fully open eyes of compassion not only have the vow to enter all realms, but they also have the vow to drop off everything.
We vow, or we may enter in to the vow of entering all realms, and then also once entering them, to bestow blessings on every single thing. In order to bestow the blessings we must abandon everything. In order to benefit all things we must let go of our attachment to them. Benefiting all things is also spoken of as balancing, or harmonizing all things.  Again in order to harmonize all things we need to let go of the mind that creates things, that creates dualities. If we can sit still in the midst of our personal bodily uneasiness, unrestfulness, if we can rest in our own unrest, the willingness to drop all dualities is born. Once we let go of all dualities, we can harmonize them. But we can’t harmonize them while we’re holding on to them. Our holding interferes with finding the balance.  But again, letting go of these things of self and other, letting go of the mind that judges good and evil, is not something that you have to do.  There is a mind which thinks in terms of heaven and earth, moving and stillness, good and bad, self and others. That mind does not need to be smothered, rejected, strangled, even judged against. That mind is naturally, moment by moment, really dropped off. And at the moment that mind is dropped off, all the dualities which it creates, all the disharmonies which it imagines are dropped too. The difficult work is to just be willing to let that happen. And again the willingness to let that happen is born of our sitting in the midst of, and listening in the midst of all the cries of the world.
Once body and mind are dropped off, once this mind that makes separation is forgotten, then, all we need to do is breathe. Which we’ve been doing all along, but now we will see that our breath, by its very nature, unites all these different realms of creation. I don’t know if this sounds simple, but in a way it is simple, but it’s not easy. It’s not easy to give up everything. Or to say it differently, its not easy to be willing to give up everything, because again, everything is constantly being given up. Actually you’re giving up everything all the time. It’s just a question of whether you’re willing to be that way. And again, the willingness to be that way is born from the willingness to be this way, and this way is painful. This way, which is not that way, is always painful. That way, which is not this way, is always painful. Heaven is painful, earth is painful. If we sit still and accept that, the body and mind, the self and other, the thought which separates heaven from earth, is let go of. Then, the bestowal of blessing is spontaneous.
If I may in a sense assume that you understand what I’m saying, whether you’re willing to let everything go or not, and even whether I’m willing to let everything go or not, I will go on from that point, and talk about how dualities might be harmonized. The basic way of harmonizing them is just to clearly observe them. When I was with people last week at the test site I was talking to one person and she observed, “I’m part of it all.” She was there to witness this use of energy, this use of atomic energy.  She is horrified and frightened about it, but she also observed that she’s part of it. She works for companies which are part of it. She just bought a new car which is produced by a company which is part of it. Which uses this energy which some people have received and used without contemplating the price of it. She’s part of it all. And she’s ashamed to be part of it all. While she was talking I noticed in my own mind, a plan. A possibility for me to escape, to not be part of it all. I thought, well maybe I would sell my car, and then I could ride a bicycle to San Francisco. But then I realized that if I had a bicycle I would be part of it all too. And if I used the Golden Gate Bridge I would be part of it all too. Even if I walk to San Francisco over the bridge I’ll be part of it all, so maybe I could swim to San Francisco. But if I wear a bathing suit I’ll be part of it all. (laughter) If I walk on paved surfaces I’ll be part of it all.  There’s an impulse in me to separate myself from the corruption of the society, to the defilement and greed of the society, and to be pure. If we were to follow that we should also probably close this place down because this place also uses electricity. After setting up this big meditation hall we have to have a government here at Green Gulch. We have to have skillful ministers, and fund raisers, and computers. Even here, people want to purify the situation. I’m not saying I shouldn’t sell my car, maybe I can, but if I sell my car to separate myself from people who drive cars, to separate myself from those who are stealing the oil, it’s a mistake. It’s still living in the realm of the mind which thinks in terms of good and bad, and it’s still trying to separate, its still thinking in terms of self and other, and acting from there, rather than feeling the pain of being caught up in all this corruption and just sitting with that pain, until the source of the pain is dropped off, and then decide if I want to sell my car. Maybe I will. Maybe you will. Maybe you’ll buy my car. (laughter) Maybe I’ll give you a good price. (laughter)
Before the mind is dropped off, the mind which thinks in terms of good and bad, of better and worse, of me and you, I think of various ways to practice peace. After the mind is dropped off, I still think the same way of this way or that way to practice peacefulness. Dropping the mind off does not mean that it stops functioning. The judging mind just keeps chugging along. Good, bad, bad, bad, bad, good, good, bad, bad, good, good, bad, pain, pain, pleasure, pleasure, pleasure, pain, pain, pleasure, pleasure, pain, pain, pleasure, her, me, her, me, her me, me, her, me, her...it keeps doing that. Before and after being dropped off it still keeps functioning. What’s the difference?
The difference is that after it’s dropped off you understand that although the mind’s still calculating right and wrong, still thinking in terms of this is the path of peace, this is not the path of peace, there is an understanding that the path of peace has no sign. That although I may think it looks this way or looks that way, the path of peace is really not what I think. It’s also not what I think. It has no sign. It is completely ungraspable and unattainable. Even though it’s unattainable, it can be attained. The unattainable can be realized in this world.
We also have to harmonize a wonderful reality called wisdom and compassion. Although I say “we have to,” and that’s a kind of conceited way to put it, still, wisdom and compassion need to be harmonized. The statement that “accomplishing the work of Great Peace,” of vast and all embracing peace, has no sign, is a statement of wisdom. It’s also a statement of compassion. It’s an expression of wisdom and an expression of compassion. In the situation of the very serious concerns that we have now, very serious concerns about the violence in our society, the very serious concerns about endangered species, we have to let go of even those concerns. We have to see that nothing matters. If we don’t see that nothing matters we can not harmonize the world of duality because we’re holding onto “Yes, I know some things don’t matter but this does and I’m not going to let go.” Holding that grip and not trusting reality interferes with seeing the path which has no sign. Disregarding these serious matters also interferes. Picking it up and throwing it away are both wrong. Wisdom sees that nothing matters. It’s a radiant light which can see that nothing matters. Because of that insight the compassion comes that realizes that everything matters -not just some things, but everything. Everything deserves our utmost respect, our utmost love, our utmost kindness. Everything. If you think that something matters and you hold onto that because you’re sure that that does, then that will mean that you will think some things some things don’t matter. But when you can see that nothing matters, then you can see that everything matters. When nothing matters you realize that you don’t need to move. As a matter of fact you realize that you do not move. When you realize immovability, you also can realize complete flexibility, and that you can change completely into whatever is helpful. To be adaptive to what people need. To be willing to serve in whatever form is necessary, sounds good. And many people want to be that way, and they do their best. But you will never be able to be completely flexible unless you harmonize that flexibility with not moving at all. Because of wisdom we see that there is no time. We have no time, and therefore we should not hurry. Because we have no time let’s sit still. And because there’s no time there is a tremendous urgency. But not rushing. Meantime, our poor little heart is pulsating. That heart is urgent and not moving. And the fullness of its urgency is felt in its immovability. If you think your heart’s jumping around you do not see how urgent it is. You think it’s moving. You think it’s rushing. You think it doesn’t trust itself. But in the full trusting of the heart, we feel the full urgency of the heart. And therefore we feel the urgency of all things. All things are still and urgently adjusting. Urgently flexible.  And our breath, our breath unites heaven and earth. Both heaven and earth breathe. Both wisdom and compassion breathe. If we sit and stop running away and breathe, that breath is the thread that unites these realities, that unites and drops off good and bad, that unites and drops off self and others, which unites and drops off stillness and urgency.
I don’t know exactly how you’re feeling, but by sitting here talking with you I have reached a feeling which fairly clearly, in three dimensions, has delineated the shape of a physical sensation, which is located near my heart. Except it’s not quite the same as my anatomical heart. What I’ve heard is that my anatomical heart is over on the left side of my body, whereas the thing I’m feeling is more centered. There’s some tendency for me to imagine it shaped like what I think the anatomical heart is shaped like. But talking to you about it I think I should be open to the possibility that it’s not shaped like that. Perhaps it’s perfectly round, perhaps it’s spherical. But I do have a vague sense of it being located somewhere in my torso. And it starts around my diaphragm and goes up just a little bit below my throat, and it doesn’t quite reach my armpits.  Although it may eventually do that. And it hurts, or aches. It’s not a shooting pain, it’s more like, ah, its more general spongy kind of aching.  I don’t know if you have that kind of thing happening with you. You look like you do.
In summary, my message is simple in that I’m suggesting that we sit in the middle of that heart, sit in the middle of that feeling, and watch the breath. And watch the breath as it touches and embraces good and bad, watch it as it unites all dualities that the heart feels. Opening to all the different refuges of misery in this heart is a reflection of doing that externally in the world, and visa versa. If I reflect on my own practice, I do not yet feel that I have completed this embrace. I do not yet feel I’ve completely embraced this heart. But it is my vow to do so.  This is what I’m willing to commit my voice to, my body to, my thoughts to, until maybe someday it’s complete. Until it’s complete, until my effort and all beings’ effort is complete, I will continue this dedication, this vow, not knowing, not grasping to the possibility that what has happened here this morning is the path of peace. I don’t know what the path of peace is. But I’m of the school which says it has no sign. It could be the way you, any one of you is living. I don’t know. But I will be watching and listening.
You know, I have a tendency to give talks that I think are kind of serious, so I like to end with a song, so that I will be forgiven. Today I have three songs, three possibilities, and I think the one that is most literally appropriate is from a Broadway play named “Damn Yankees.” It’s called, “You Got To Have Heart.”
(song)
    You gotta have heart,
    All you really need is heart,
    When the odds are saying you’ll never win,
    That’s when the grin should start,
    You’ve gotta have hope,
    Mustn’t sit around and mope,
    Nothing’s half as bad as it may appear,
    Wait til next year and hope,
    When you’re luck is batting zero,
    Get your chin up off the floor,
    Now’s you’re chance to be a hero,
    You can open any door.
    (There’s nothing to do it but to do it)
    You’ve gotta have heart,
    Miles and miles and miles of heart,
    Oh, its fine to be a genius of course,
    But keep that old horse before the cart,
    First you’ve gotta have heart,
    First you’ve gotta have hear,
    Oh you’ve gotta have heart.
    (end)

    Maybe somebody can teach me the melody to that!