Talk at San Francisco Zen Center: A Sermon for Buddhists in the Climate Crisis
Watch or listen to my Dharma Talk given at San Francisco Zen Center. Thanks to SFZC for the opportunity!
112 – Dogen’s “Four Ways Bodhisattvas Embrace Living Beings” – Part 3 – Loving Words
In this episode I continue our study of 12th-century Zen master Dogen’s essay, Bodaisatta Shishobo, or what I’m calling the “Four Ways Bodhisattvas Embrace Living Beings.” In Episode 105 I gave you an overview of the essay and briefly defined the bodhisattva’s four “embracing actions,” which are practicing nongreed, loving words, beneficial action, and “being in the same boat” as other beings. In Episode 106 I took us line by line through the part of Dogen’s essay about nongreed, or giving. Today I’ll pick up where we left off, and cover the section of the essay on loving words, or kind speech.
111 – You Can’t Hold on to Stillness: Practice in Activity
If we’re lucky, our practices of meditation and mindfulness give us some sense of spaciousness, stillness, and silence. But what about when we get up from the meditation seat? What about when we engage in activities more complicated and demanding than potentially calming manual tasks like weeding the garden, sweeping, or washing the dishes? Zen master Dogen teaches us a better way to practice in the midst of activity: maintaining joyful mind, nurturing mind, and magnanimous mind. These qualities have the potential to grow even stronger as we get busier.
110 – How Understanding Impermanence Can Lead to Great Appreciation
We do not have retreat from appreciation of conditional or material things in order to live an enlightened life. However, we must diligently turn the lens of practice onto all of our relationships to things and to beings. Learning to see and accept the impermanence of all things and yet to “enjoy them incredibly” is a wonderful practice opportunity.
109 – What Does Buddhism Have to Say About Mass Shootings?
What does Buddhism have to say about mass shootings? Of course, traditional Buddhism doesn’t say anything about mass shootings per se, but it does present teachings on human nature, behavior, and choices. In this episode I discuss the Buddhist of view of how and why people do horrible things, pointing out how Buddhism is realistic but also optimistic, and how a Buddhist view can help relieve some of our fear and despair.
108 – Buddha’s Teachings 14: The Five Skandhas as Focus for the Practice of Not-Self (Anatta)
There are many places in the Pali Canon where the Buddha mentions the “Five Skandhas,” or aggregates, which are basically the five aspects of a human being: Form, or the body; Feelings, or our basic positive, negative, or neutral reactions to stimuli; Perception, the basic process of labeling or identifying things; Consciousness, our awareness of sights, sounds, smells, tastes, touch, and thoughts; and Mental Fabrications, all of our active processes of mind. The Five Skandhas, as I’ll explain, aren’t so much a teaching in and of themselves as they are a tool for exploring the teaching of Anatta, or not-self.
107 – Active Hope 1: Finding and Enacting Our Best Response to the World’s Suffering
Buddhism includes values of Right Action and Right Livelihood, generosity, goodwill, and compassion, and Mahayana Buddhists vow to free all beings from suffering. It’s not easy to enact these values and aspirations in the modern world, which is so complex we find ourselves complicit in causes of suffering simply by participating in society, or by neglecting to stand up for change. How do we find and enact our best response to the world’s suffering?
106 – Dogen’s “Four Ways Bodhisattvas Embrace Living Beings” – Part 2 – Giving
In the last episode I introduced an essay by Zen master Dogen called Bodaisatta-Shishobo, or the Four Ways Bodhisattvas Embrace Living Beings. I briefly defined the bodhisattva’s four embracing actions: Giving, kind speech, beneficial action, and “sharing the same aim.” Then I started working through Dogen’s essay line by line. In this episode I finish the section of the Shishobo on giving.
105 – Dogen’s Shishobo: The Four Ways Bodhisattvas Embrace Living Beings – Part 1
Given the many stressful and sad things happening in the world right now, I thought it would be nice to spend a couple episodes on a beautiful and inspiring essay by 13th century Zen master Dogen called “Bodaisatta-Shishobo,” or the “Four Ways Bodhisattvas Embrace Living Beings.” (I briefly mentioned this Dogen essay in my Nine Fields episode on Opening the Heart, Episode 99).The bodhisattva’s four embracing actions are giving, kind speech, beneficial action, and sharing the same aim. In this episode I’ll briefly introduce the text and define the four actions, and start delving more deeply into Dogen’s essay, section by section.
104 – Buddhists: It’s Time to Address the Climate Emergency
Most western convert Buddhist communities have had the luxury of regarding “activism” for social or environmental justice as an optional or supplemental activity some people take up because they have the time, kind of like a hobby. The truth is, many of us are so busy it’s difficult to imagine finding time for activism regarding the climate emergency. However, we may not have a choice – at least not if we hope to avoid extinction. And if there are no sentient beings, there are no buddhas.
103 – Twelve Pali Canon Suttas Every Buddhist Should Know – Part 3
This is the third episode of three covering my “Twelve Pali Canon Suttas Every Buddhist Should Know,” and I cover the Kalama, Sallatha, Metta, and Maha Parinibbana Suttas. The Pali Canon is a vast collection of the oldest Buddhist texts and teachings, and is a valuable resource for any Buddhist. However, the canon is so large it can be a little overwhelming to approach, and it can be difficult to know where to begin if you want to study it. I worked hard to create a short list of Pali Canon suttas – or discourses – that I recommend you study in order to get a sense of the canon, and exposure to its central teachings.
102 – Nine Fields of Zen Practice 3: Nyoho, Karma Work, and Bodhisattva Activity
Buddhist practice can permeate every aspect of our lives. To help practitioners appreciate this outside the full-immersion experience of residential training, I’ve defined Nine Fields of Zen Practice: Zazen, Dharma Study, Cultivating Insight, Precepts, Opening the Heart, Connecting with the Ineffable, Nyoho, Karma Work, and Bodhisattva Activity. In this episode I cover Nyoho, Karma Work, and Bodhisattva Activity.
101 – The Koan of Awakening: Do You Know the Essential Truth Yet, Or Not?
From the beginning, it’s been clear that the highest rewards of Buddhism are experienced through a fundamental and radical shift in the way you understand the world and your place in it. Throughout time, and among different forms of Buddhism, this shift in understanding has been called different things, including awakening, enlightenment, Right View or Right Understanding, realization, satori, or kensho (a Japanese term which means “seeing one’s true nature”). In this episode I explore “awakening” in Buddhism: What’s meant by the term, attitudes we take toward awakening, why it’s so elusive, and how we can make the process of seeking less painful.
100 – Twelve Pali Canon Suttas Every Buddhist Should Know – Part 2
Theravadin and Vipassana Buddhists tend to be familiar with the Pali Canon, particularly the suttas, or discourses of the Buddha. Other Buddhists don’t tend to spend as much time exploring Pali texts. When we aim to do so, it can be a difficult to know where to start – given the printed versions of the suttas end up being about five times the size of the Christian bible! In the interest of encouraging study of the Pali Canon suttas, I’ve come up with a list of twelve I think every Buddhist should know.
99 – Nine Fields of Zen Practice: A Framework for Letting Practice Permeate Your Life – Part 2
Zen practice can permeate every aspect of our lives. To help lay practitioners appreciate this outside the full-immersion experience of residential training, I’ve defined Nine Fields of Zen Practice: Zazen, Dharma Study, Cultivating Insight, Precepts, Opening the Heart, Connecting with the Ineffable, Nyoho, Karma Work, and Bodhisattva Activity. In this episode I cover Precepts, Opening the Heart, and Connecting with the Ineffable.
98 – Nine Fields of Zen Practice: A Framework for Letting Practice Permeate Your Life – Part 1
Zen practice can permeate every aspect of our lives. To help lay practitioners appreciate this outside the full-immersion experience of residential training, I’ve defined Nine Fields of Zen Practice: Zazen, Dharma Study, Cultivating Insight, Precepts, Opening the Heart, Connecting with the Ineffable, Nyoho (according with the Dharma in everyday activities), Karma Work, and Bodhisattva Activity.
97 – Twelve Pali Canon Suttas Every Buddhist Should Know – Part 1
Theravadin and Vipassana Buddhists tend to be familiar with the Pali Canon, particularly the suttas, or discourses of the Buddha. Other Buddhists don’t tend to spend as much time exploring Pali texts. When we aim to do so, it can be a difficult to know where to start – given the printed versions of the suttas end up being about five times the size of the Christian bible! In the interest of encouraging study of the Pali Canon suttas, I’ve come up with a list of twelve I think every Buddhist should know.
Off-Week Editorial – It’s Not Enough to Respond to What’s Right in Front of You
It’s not enough to respond to what’s right in front of you. The core of Buddhist practice is cultivating mindfulness of this moment and responding as best we can to whatever we encounter in the course of our personal, daily lives, but if we aspire to cease from harm and benefit other beings, this is not enough. We also need to cultivate awareness of, and take responsibility for, the repercussions of our actions throughout space and time – far, far beyond the limits of what’s right in front of us.
96 – A Zazen Pamphlet: Essential (and Brief) Instructions for the Practice of Zazen
I challenged myself to write instructions for the practice of zazen that would fit on letter-sized, tri-fold brochure – 8 ½ by 11 inches, two sided. I figured I’d share it here on the podcast – and if this episode is too short for you, I recommend listening to it twice, because this “pamphlet” really does, to my mind, capture the essence of shikantaza! (At least as I think of it right now).
95 – Lineage in Buddhism: The Intersection Between the Individual and the Collective Tradition
In many forms of Buddhism, particularly in Zen, we have the concept of “lineage:” the essential aspects of our collective religious tradition have been passed down through the generations from one real, live person to another, teacher to a student. However, lineage isn’t just about preserving a collective tradition, it’s a valuable part of our practice – self-attachment and pre-conceived notions get challenged as the individual aligns her/himself with the collective tradition.
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