I vow to taste the truth of the Tathagata's words. Good morning, this looks like a buddhist sardine can. One of the qualities that we hope to cultivate in doing various practices in the buddhist tradition is that of being aware of things as they are. So I want to make a plea to each of you that when you come to Green Gulch, especially on

[01:05]

Sunday morning, and you park your car, look at where you're parking with an eye to can an emergency vehicle get through here. I think it would not be possible this morning in several places and it concerns me that if we needed to have a fire truck or an ambulance come in, we'd have a hard time. So one of the themes for me this morning has to do with this business of universal responsibility. I recently listened again to Thich Nhat Hanh's lecture on the Heart Sutra, which he gave here a few years ago, where he held up a piece of paper and said, do you see a cloud in this piece of paper? And then proceeded to do a very clear and deep teaching on the nature of the wisdom

[02:06]

understanding emptiness as it's articulated and presented in the Heart Sutra. And I think when one considers the wisdom understanding emptiness, what one begins to also understand is that we are all interconnected with all beings. So we all have to look out for each other, or at least it goes better when we do. And we can't leave it to the administration of Green Gulch to solve the parking problem. It's bigger than all of us. So I'd like to begin with suggesting that we might make a practice of mindful parking. Some of you may not know it, but you're actually eavesdropping on a weekend retreat on spiritual

[03:09]

practice at home and at work. And there are really only 30 of us, and the rest of you are eavesdropping. I tried to warn the members of our weekend retreat that we would be a slightly expanded group for a little while. As you probably know, those of you who have been coming on Sunday for the last week or two, this month and next month the focus for practice here at Green Gulch is on the precepts, sort of in Buddhism what the Ten Commandments are in the Judeo-Christian traditions, but different in some interesting and crucial ways. So, my talk this morning is about the precepts, and I would like to begin by first dedicating

[04:16]

our being together this morning and our practice of considering the teachings to the memory of my mother-in-law who passed over yesterday at noon. She was ready. She had been ready for some while, but she was a little late in knowing it. And so I hope for her sake and for ours that her passing over goes smoothly and without fear or obstacles. I would like this morning to invite you to consider with me the possibility that virtue can be cultivated on the activities that we already do in our lives. I think one of the qualities of modern life—by that I mean American life and Western industrialized

[05:26]

nation's lives, what we've conjured up here in the 1990s, life in the fast lane—and particularly in the United States, an emphasis on doing. We're great doers, and in fact most of us are doing so much we may be a bit overwhelmed. So, when we allow ourselves to think for a moment about an inner life, cultivating an inner life, having a spiritual life, we may feel like, how can I possibly do one more thing? So, the theme that I'm proposing for our retreat and for all of us this morning is that we may be able to cultivate wholesome states of mind and degrees of realization by attending perhaps in a different way to what is so in our lives, and when the opportunity

[06:36]

arises to the cultivation of antidotes to negative states of mind, but that we can do those practices on or in the midst of the activities that we all do every day, so that we can begin to have some experience of a kind of seamlessness, so that we can begin to have some sense that our inner life does not get put in a little box on a shelf that we bring out at five or six in the morning, occasionally, or on Sunday, and then it goes back on the shelf, and then we lead our life. My experience is that it is possible to lead our lives as Americans alive here in the Bay Area in 1991, August 11th, in such a way that our inner and our outer lives are of a peace

[07:40]

with one another, so that we have a sense of doing what Suzuki Roshi used to talk about as our heart's inmost request in each moment on whatever we do, and that if we take on this possibility, we may surprise ourselves. Let me go back for a moment to this proposal, if you will, that virtue can be cultivated on that which we already are doing. The first question that arises for me is, what do we mean by virtue? For some of us, it's a word which leaves us with the hairs on the backs of our necks standing up. Some big no comes up. What is this virtue business? I asked my husband, who loves dictionaries and language and specifically words, if he

[08:49]

could tell me a little bit about the etymology of virtue, and he said, the etymology references military meaning, having to do with certain positive qualities associated with a warrior, and so associated with the positive attributes of maleness, having to do with strength, forthrightness, integrity, and power. So I've been thinking about virtue with that spin on the word, and maybe what is closer to what I want to say is virtue and the cultivation of a pure heart. When I first began practicing with the precepts, which I did in a conscious and active way

[09:57]

as a consequence of taking refuge and receiving the precepts initially as a layperson, as a householder from Suzuki Roshi, I was struck by how much practicing with the precepts meant attending to the cultivation of a calm mind, because what I very quickly realized was that I am not calm when there is a big disparity between what I say about who I am and what I'm doing and what is actually going on. When there is some gap between what I say I'm doing and what I'm doing, my mind is actually quite disturbed. So one of the consequences of working with the precepts, attending to the issue of ethical conduct, is beginning to notice the gap wherever it may occur. So, of course, one of the things that one runs into immediately is one's willingness to pay attention

[11:06]

to gaps which leave us, when we notice them, feeling a bit uncomfortable. So this process takes a kind of courage, a kind of willingness to look into things, even that which leaves us feeling a bit uncomfortable or maybe very uncomfortable. Depends. I'd like to read a section which some of you have heard before from a collection of essays written by Lama Anagarika Govinda in the years just before he died called The Living Buddhism for the West. I hope it's for sale in our office. It's a great book. By that I mean the essays are extremely clear and inspiring and, I find, useful. In his essay on the role of morality, he talks about what happens with a Buddha,

[12:12]

that is, one who is fully enlightened, fully awake, one who is in that condition of realization where light is shining, where previously there may have been darkness, such a person who is free or liberated from desire and aversion, someone who has taken up and cultivated non-desire and non-aversion. We could say non-desire, positively stated, is the practice of generosity and non-aversion is the cultivation of love. And so such a person he describes in this way, and I would like to ask your indulgence as I read this description. If a person has once realized this deep within, in heart and mind, and if that person has only the one wish remaining,

[13:15]

to gain enlightenment for the sake of all beings, then what is wholesome and unwholesome will become obvious of its own accord. A truth seeker will not lie, and one who has the well-being of all beings at heart will avoid slander and harsh speech as well as all vain and foolish chatter. So what we have in the Buddhist tradition is a description of the precepts as a description of what a Buddha's life looks like. So the precepts can be related to both as description as well as prescription. And I don't know how it is for any of you, but I know for myself that was a very useful distinction. If I have some yearning, I have some intention to seek enlightenment

[14:18]

for the benefit of all beings, then I have some very specific picture of what my mind and life might look like if I look at the precepts. And I find that accessible, that the precepts become accessible in a way that the big, stern, you-better-or-else isn't quite as inviting to someone of my nature, history, and culture. So to return to Lama Govinda, this rejection of negative forms of behavior has a positively helpful effect for him and for all beings. I'm assuming that this hymn includes her. Thus, according to the Nikaya Sutra, quote, he speaks the truth, is devoted to the truth,

[15:18]

trustworthy, dependable. He never consciously speaks a lie, either to his own advantage or to the advantage of another or to any advantage, whatever this may be. What he has heard here, he does not repeat elsewhere to cause dissension. But he reconciles those who are at variance and encourages those who are united. Rejoicing in peace, he delights in peace and uses words to bring about peace. Abandoning harsh speech, he refrains from it. He speaks words that are gentle and pleasing to the ear, calming, loving, reaching the heart, urbane. Isn't that a surprise?

[16:21]

Pleasing and attractive to the multitude. Avoiding idle chatter, he speaks at the right time what is correct and to the point of dharma and discipline. He is a speaker whose words are to be treasured, seasonable, reasoned, well-defined and connected with the goal. This is what is called perfect speech. I would like to have a friend like that and I would very much like to become a person with those qualities. It's interesting to me that in his essay, Standing by Words by Wendell Berry, where he talks about language which is accountable, he ends up with a description that is very similar to the one that I just read. So let's go back to the precepts.

[17:25]

There are five precepts that are included on all the lists and they have to do with the first one which most of us know as not killing but in the original language, probably more accurately translated as a disciple of the Buddha, does not harm. So not killing in the bigger sense of not harming. Not lying, not taking what is not given, not engaging in sexual misconduct, not intoxicating mind or body of self or others. Then there are five more precepts that have to do with not being possessive of anything, not even the truth, not slandering others or speaking harsh words or idle words,

[18:34]

not harboring ill will, not abusing the three treasures of Buddha, Dharma and Sangha. And then there are, these are in the Zen tradition called the ten grave precepts and the ten pure precepts have to do with non-violence and non-possessiveness and a vow to live awake and in the truth to benefit all beings. I'm always very interested in those precepts which are mentioned twice. I suppose there's some reason for mentioning them twice. So we have non-harming showing up on both lists, both positive pure precepts and the ten grave precepts. We also have non-possessiveness showing up twice, probably for some good reason. So in working with the precepts, what I mean by working with them

[19:49]

is inviting a precept into my life so it can work me, work in me. And my suggestion is that you look at the list of the precepts and just see which one jumps off the page at you. One of them, or maybe two or three, but often one will have a kind of vibrating energy in its atmosphere. The type will seem to be a little bigger. And so what I've learned is to trust when that is so, to just let the precept choose me and just take it up and keep reminding myself when I first wake up in the morning before I leave my cozy bed and as many times during the day as I can remind myself this is the precept that I want to use as a kind of sieve through which I will pass everything I say, everything I think, everything I do.

[20:54]

All the activities of body, speech and mind. So that the precept begins to be present in my life as a kind of reflector against which whatever I am doing or saying or thinking can be considered. The practice of noticing in the particular way that is so central in Buddhist practice called bear noting is crucial to this process. Because of course to allow a precept to work in me I have to be willing to notice the areas in my life where what the precept describes is not happening. I have to be willing to bear noticing my lies if I am going to after a while be able to shift my capacity to not lying. So my attitude, my view about making mistakes is crucial.

[22:00]

And if I can cultivate the attitude of seeing a mistake as an opportunity for seeing what doesn't work as the first step towards discovering what leads to wholesomeness, then things go quite nicely. Not without discomfort perhaps, but it doesn't last forever. It's the path towards liberation. I find when I work with the precepts in this way, particularly the first round of working or letting the precepts, allowing the precepts to work in me in this way, a lot of what I needed to do was to ask myself, well, what does this precept mean? For example, the one about not stealing, which we usually translate as not taking what is not given. One of the first insights that arose for me in working with that precept

[23:07]

was to ask myself after a while, paying attention to what this precept brought up in my field of attention, is it possible actually to take what is not given? Is it not perhaps just a delusion or an illusion that leads to suffering? When I try to talk someone into loving me who isn't up for loving me today and I finally get full force the truth of that fact, when they say, sayonara, you see what I mean. The precepts include precepts that have to do with the mind, the body and speech. But actually I think that a number of the precepts can reverberate in all three spheres. So for example, the precept about not harming,

[24:11]

which is thought of as a precept that has to do with the body, can also influence what I attend to and the way I speak because there is of course that way of speaking that can cause harm, that can be a kind of killing of someone's enthusiasm or spontaneity or joy. So if I want to allow a precept to work in me, first I must cultivate some stability, some strength, some ability to be still enough to begin to see what is so and understand that my ability to notice what is so may sometimes bring up on the computer screen of my life that which does not thrill me. So all of the categories about I like and I don't like become hindrances.

[25:17]

Here we are with desire and aversion again, right? Walking around noting what is pleasant, what is unpleasant and what is neutral can be very interesting because after a while the categories of pleasant and unpleasant begin to blur. What was unpleasant begins to look maybe a little more like neutral, might even skid into slightly pleasant if we're not careful. The bear noting practice is very specific and very important, penetrating. It has to do with noticing, for example, instances of lying, if that's the precept that is working in me. I note lying and immediately bring my attention to some specific detail

[26:20]

of the physical body and then the breath, thereby interrupting my habit of obsessing about my lying and beating up on myself about it called judging the judge, a major obstacle and a waste of time. So what I do is I cultivate a more neutral home base which allows me then to extend or expand that which I can bear to notice. And I don't have to do anything to fix the habit of lying. If I'm willing to stay present and see what the consequences are of lying, in time I will allow the lying to subside because I can see that not lying is what leads to a wholesome state of mind, to happiness and joy in a way that lying leads to dis-ease and suffering.

[27:24]

I have this year been doing a lot of attending to languages having to do with speech. I've done two extended classes on what is called right speech, which is the area that the precepts attend to. There are more precepts that have to do with language than anything else. One of the reasons I enjoy practices having to do with language is because the payoff is so immediate, so we can be a little inspired and encouraged, which is useful. So, for example, one of the ways of practicing the extension of not harming into my language is to take the practice of not engaging in any third-party information. And recently in a class that I just finished doing on right speech,

[28:29]

the week that we all took on the practice of no third-party information, one woman came back and said, I can't do it. I would have to lock myself up in a room all by myself and never say anything to anybody including myself. It's too much. Can't we start with something easier? And as I said to our retreat group earlier this morning, if I had to be on a desert island and could only take one precept with me, it would be the precept about not lying. And the particular formulation of it that has worked in me very deeply and sometimes disturbingly, usefully so, is the version of I promise not to lie that goes, I promise to tell the truth, to admit every mistake, and to do what I say I'll do.

[29:31]

Take that on as your practice of choice for a month or two or a year and see what happens. You may be quite surprised. But remember, be patient, be willing to notice when you don't tell the truth, when you make a mistake and try to hide it, when you say you'll do something and then don't do it. Because your willingness to attend there is what will eventually allow you to move to the point where you can tell the truth or at least not lie, where you can increasingly more skillfully admit your mistakes and see the benefit in doing that. And say what you will do so that there is a little better match between the two. No harsh words, no idle talk, no ill will.

[30:39]

It's interesting to me that so much of what we call manners or courteous language is really in the spirit of no harsh words, no idle talk, no ill will. There is a way in which the practices of common courtesy have about them some of the spirit of cultivating harmony and happiness and joy. So greeting each other, saying, hello, good day, goodbye, good night, can be an opportunity for cultivating that speaking which is courteous but which is also authentic, which is alive, isn't just going through the motions. And of course there are sometimes when one wakes up and doesn't want to say good morning, one wants to say, get away from me, leave me alone, I hate everybody, I woke up a grump.

[31:44]

And that's of course where we can shift to seeing the precepts as prescriptive because there may be times when I'm so practiced in a negative state of mind that I don't have a taste for, I don't know what the positive state of mind feels like. I may be so practiced at being critical and judgmental that I see every tool at Green Gulch not put away, every heap of garbage that has not been attended to, and I do not see the beautifully cultivated fields, the care in attending to the meditation hall, the care that is present in the food that we are offered at every meal. So it may be for someone like me with an overly developed judgment muscle that what I need to do is to rehearse or practice the muscle called, what do I appreciate?

[32:48]

And maybe I begin with asking myself, what do I appreciate when I feel like there isn't anything I appreciate? But of course what I noticed when I began that practice was there's always at least one thing that I appreciate and I can place my energy on that which is possible or that I appreciate and suddenly the world is perfect and not imperfect. So I may wake up a grouch and be filled with all of the energy and mind that leads to harsh language and I may decide this morning what would benefit my state of mind is to attend to the use of kindly language. And there may be some as if in what I'm saying, but lo and behold, if I in fact consciously choose the language of kindness, my state of mind changes.

[33:51]

And I would much rather live with my state of mind positive and harmonious than dis-eased and unhappy. Of course these practices of working or allowing the precepts to work in us can be done anywhere, can be done in the context of the relationships I have with the people that I live with, with my family, with my neighbor, with my colleagues at work, with the other people that share the highway with me, with the person at the other end of the telephone. I can take any one of the precepts and let it ride on whatever actions, whatever language, whatever thoughts I'm engaged with in the course of the day.

[34:54]

The only thing I have to do is remember to do it. And we can drape signs around our lives, pictures. We can have a friend be a swim buddy and check in with each other once a week and say, well, how's it going? What are you doing? Oh, I forgot. One right speech group that I practice with in Berkeley, everyone decided to have a swim buddy because we only meet once a month. And they all reported that having someone they have to report to once a week for five minutes helps them remember what it is they're wanting to do because they have to tell someone else. My husband's best trick is to broadcast his practice so that the rest of us can help him remember what he said he wanted to do. So then he says, oh, I just forgot. Years ago, our friend David Barrett came a few winters and told us coyote stories.

[36:00]

And those of you who remember the coyote stories or know them in some other context know that coyote is always, you know, a rascal. And he gets himself into trouble and finally he goes to some wise old person, usually some old hag, female hag, wisdom type. Who tells him exactly what is so. And he stamps his foot and says, oh, I knew that. I just forgot. And in Buddhist psychology, one of the secondary lists of secondary obstacles, negativities, is forgetfulness. One of the forms of resistance. I don't want to, I don't have to, you can't make me, I'm too little. I forgot. You can say it at the top of your lungs and stamp your feet and then make some signs.

[37:02]

Put them on the refrigerator, the cupboard, the dashboard of the car, on your desk at work, in your notebook that you open and close 15 times a day, on the cradle of the telephone. As a friend of mine says, tattoo your promise on the inside of your eyelids. Imagine a banner strung across the main span of the Golden Gate Bridge. Yvonne promises too. I find it helps to advertise what my practice is. Sometimes I embarrass myself into doing what I actually want to do. So I would invite you all to consider the precepts to allow any one of them into your life. To imagine practicing with one precept.

[38:05]

Be a little imaginative in taking a practice that is specific to what is up for you. And hang out with that precept for a long time. Days, weeks, months, a year or more. As long as there's a little heat, it's still working. We're so used to doing things quickly. This is a kind of antidote to doing things quickly and fast. But the benefit is palpable, penetrating, and leads to the cultivation of a calm mind. A mind which is increasingly capable of joy, of generosity, of love. A pure heart. By the power and truth of this practice of sitting together,

[39:14]

considering the precepts, may all beings have happiness and the causes of happiness. May all beings be free from suffering and the causes of suffering. May all beings never be separated from that happiness which is devoid of suffering. May all beings live in equanimity without too much attachment or too much aversion. And live believing in the equality of all that lives. May our intention...

[39:56]

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