For more information on Ancient Dragon Zen Gate, please visit our website at www.ancientdragon.org. Our teachings are offered to the community through the generosity of our supporters. To make a donation online, please visit our website. It is a great pleasure to have Tygen in the house, ready to talk. And Tygen is, of course, our guiding emeritus teacher of, I don't know, 20 plus years. I think this next week or this week coming up, a week from now about, is the anniversary of the first meeting of Ancient Dragon. 23rd, maybe, anniversary when we met in a living room. Now we're back in a living room. So, a little different. See, we don't have a dog here. And Tygen was living in California at that time. So, without further ado, I think everyone knows that Tygen is... not only a wonderful Dharma teacher, but a great scholar of Chinese and Japanese Buddhism, in particular Dogen, but could put, I say, he's a Dharma jukebox.

[01:10]

You can talk about anything, ah, related to the Dharma. So, here you go. Thank you, Dogen. Did I clip the scene? Yeah. Okay. Welcome. Can you all hear me? Good. So I want to talk this morning about Shanti Paramita, the Bodhisattva transcendent practice of patience, or could be translated as tolerance and forebearance. So maybe some of you do not know about the Paramitas. Is there anyone here who does not know six or ten Paramitas? Okay, good. So I will go over them. There are six traditionally in Zen. Generosity, ethical conduct, patience, which I want to talk about today.

[02:11]

Enthusiasm or energy, effort, meditation, and insight or wisdom. Most of those are six. And then in the Flower Ornament Sutra, there are four more in Huayin. Buddhism and flower ornament sutra, which is very important in siltos. And there are skillful means, vow, powers, and knowledge. So there will not be a test. But just to repeat, generosity, ethical conduct, patience, effort or enthusiasm, meditation, wisdom or insight, skillful means, vow, powers, and knowledge. Part of the point of, these are Bodhisattva practices, transcendent Bodhisattva practices. Part of the point of them is that they work together. So patience is very important for effort or enthusiasm. It's also very important for meditation and your ethical conduct and your skillful means and vow and so forth, all of them.

[03:20]

So they interact. But I want to, again, focus today on shanti, patience. And some of you have heard me speak about this before. But I feel like patience is very, very important. So I will talk about that today. And all of these practices, these paramitas, these transcendent practices, are about helping to relieve suffering and promote awakening. So patience. How do we feel patience? So, patience in some ways is about waiting. And in our everyday activities, you know, waiting in the grocery aisle, waiting for the CTA, for a bus, for the CTA, waiting in Zazen, for the Belchere. So, patience is very important in Zazen.

[04:20]

How do we sit upright, attentive, eyes open, paying attention, and with patience. Patience is required. When is the gargling in? Some periods go by very quickly. Some periods seem to take forever. But in all of them, you know, patience. Waiting for the Doha, hoping that he has not fallen asleep. Waiting. So the practice of patience is about waiting. Waiting for things to change. Waiting for situation in our life, in the world, to shift. Sometimes we don't want things to shift, but still we are waiting. So how do we practice patience of waiting? Shantideva, who was a great Indian master,

[05:20]

and whose work is studied in all the Bodhisattva traditions, focuses on the six paramitas. And he speaks of Kishanti as forbearance or tolerance, even tolerating being tortured, tolerating horrible situations. But also Shantideva says the enemy of patience is anger or hatred. So when we're angry, it's hard to be patient. When we feel hatred, it's difficult to be patient. And yet, patience is, in some ways, how we overcome anger, how we overcome hatred. Just to be patient with the situation we're in. And then again, patience. And the practice of patience is

[06:21]

when we notice impatience. So, you know, we're driving on the runway and somebody cuts us off and get upset and angry and, you know, impatient. Or when we're waiting in the grocery line and someone's taking a long time and we can feel impatient. So everyday things are produced in patients. And how we... And again, practicing patience is to notice when we're getting impatient. When's the spirit going in? When's the bell going in? So various levels of impatience we can notice. We can notice being upset with some situation and being angry at somebody cutting us off from traveling. But, you know, if we're noticing impatience, we can also practice patience.

[07:23]

We can say, oh, maybe that person who's driving is tailgating or leaving in and out of traffic, maybe they're trying to get to the hospital. Somebody's in the hospital to get there. Or maybe, you know, they're rushing for some reason. So how do we practice this, actually practice patience in our lives, in our everyday activity? And not knowing what's going on. Not knowing is... Go on about not knowing being most intimate. So we don't know when the bell's going to... This is the intimacy of Zaza. We don't know when someone is going to take care of whatever situation. And then patience is... is about not knowing. It's about, okay, when is this situation going to change or end or be over?

[08:28]

Or when will I get to the front of the line? Or whatever. So not knowing is the story about that. There's a call on about that. The student goes to the teacher and is about to go out on pilgrimage. He's practiced for a while with this teacher and he's going to go out and check out other teachers or check out other shangas and whatever. And the teacher says, well, what is the purpose of your pilgrimage? And the student says, I don't know. And the teacher says, not knowing is nearest, not knowing is most intimate. But patience is active. It's not passive. It's not passable just waiting. Patience is an act of transcendent practice. It's waiting with attention. Pay attention. As we wait. This is difficult because, you know, when we're waiting, we can, I don't know, we can get sleepy or we can just get, you know, fall into pacific.

[09:37]

But waiting with attention, we are ready to respond. So patience, active patience. This active, active practice of patience is to be paying attention, to be seeing what is going on. Not necessarily doing anything, but when there is something to do, to respond. When you see some response, to act on it. So, patience is an active practice, not also. It's not just, you know, passively waiting, oh, okay, at some point or another. It's paying attention. What's going on in my heart mind as I sit facing the wall? Or as we stand in the grocery line? Or as we're looking at some situation in the world? How do we respond? And sometimes there's nothing to do. So this is the thing about patience. We're actively paying attention to what's going on in this patience paramita.

[10:45]

And yet, maybe most of the time, there's nothing to do. We're just paying attention. We're just watching. We're waiting. But sometimes there's an appropriate response. So the great teacher, a young man, was asked, what is the teaching of a Buddha's whole lifetime? He said, an appropriate response. So we respond. We respond appropriately. What is appropriate? Well, we don't know. This is where the practice of skillful means comes in. We are practicing patience. There's nothing to do, but maybe there's an appropriate response. Maybe there is something we can do. So if we're paying attention, how do we wait and yet be ready and willing and able to respond when there is an appropriate response? In our current situation in the world, patience is very important.

[11:48]

So we must see long term. Shakyamuni Buddha lived like 500 BC, more or less. Long time ago. Dongshan, who taught about suchness, lived in the 800s. So, a long time ago. Dogen, who we talk about a lot, lived in the 1200s. sent from China to Japan and wrote voluminously about it, even though there's nothing to say about Buddhism. But Buddhism is beyond words and letters, and yet, I think they've wrote a lot about it and how this works in our lives. So, even the current damage will pass. We're looking in a situation in this world where there's a lot of damage happening. Immigrants are being stolen off the street. Men in masks without any insignia.

[12:54]

And, you know, some of us here may be immigrants. This is Serena, who's an immigrant from Canada. So right now they're focusing on immigrants of color, people from South America, or Africa, or Haiti. But I think there was a Canadian who was recently taken to, deported, and not given deep muscles. So this is a terrible situation we're in. So how do we oppose the politics of cruelty? But how do we do it without hatred or anger for anyone? Hatred and anger is the opponent. patience. So, you know, this damaging situation will pass, but we need to be paying attention. We need to be responding. But without hating anybody, without anger, we may feel anger.

[13:58]

Yes, you do. So, I actually just want to hear about how patience is for all of you. And I'm almost done. But patience, again, is an active practice. It's waiting, watching, but not passively. Paying attention. When we see something to do, to do it. Sometimes there's nothing to do, but we're paying attention. So in the current situation, to see groups that are doing things that are positive, that you feel are positive, and to join with them. to support them? How do we oppose the politics of cruelty without falling into cruelty ourselves, without hating anyone, without anger, but staying upright, being present, paying attention? Zazen is a great teacher.

[14:59]

How do we see the wholeness of even this situation? And there are lots of things to do, actually. There are lots of groups by email, inboxes. It's very full. I'm going to keep stopping some of the emails, but it's still very full. There are groups that are working to support patients, to support people who are being harassed, people who are being taken up by ICE and deported. For example, how do we support groups that are working for peace in the Middle East? That's a big one. How do we support the end of genocide in Gaza? How do we support everybody in the Middle East having some space where they can be present?

[16:01]

So patience is necessary, but it's active patience. It's responsive patience. We can respond. To all of this. So. I want to hear about. All of your practices of patience. Inpatience. And seeing how. This impatience. When we see our impatience. We notice. Oh. There's a place I can be patient. And again patience. You know combines with generosity. And medical conduct. How do we. C, how to be generous. How do we give gifts in a way that is patient? How do we express our effort or enthusiasm informed by patients? So, I'm going to stop there. Thank you very much. I'm interested in hearing about all of your practices of patience.

[17:08]

Before you speak, I'm going to hand you the mic. Okay. And that goes from what? Since I'm not here. Okay. I think people might hear me, but I'll kick us off. What are we waiting for? We're just waiting for the next thing. You know, it's like, okay, here we are. And something happens. Or it doesn't happen. But that's happening too. So how do we be present and just wait? But actively waiting. Paying attention is so important. Our practice of Zazen is about attention. Yes, attention to what? Exactly. I mean, I think in terms of grasping. Sometimes waiting can be a form of grasping, waiting for what we want. Yeah. It's interesting. I mean, I love this conversation. Yeah, waiting, waiting. Waiting for something and you want to grasp it.

[18:11]

You want to get a hold of it. You know, that's part of waiting too. Exactly. So how do we wait open-handedly? How do we wait paying attention but not expecting something but actually being present with all the things that are? So Serena has her hand up. Hi, Serena. Hi, Tygen. Thanks so much for your Dharma talk this morning. I'm sorry I'm not with you all today in person, but it's great to be present remotely. I found in the last few days that it was helpful for me to end all my subscriptions with these different entertainment centers like... Netflix and Apple TV and Amazon Prime, which was a big one, and then Amazon Video and all the channels in order to donate some more money to a better cause and commit to not distracting myself while I'm waiting for change because it feels like...

[19:32]

It just feels like when I've been watching films and television series that it's just not actually helping me. It's kind of just like anesthetizing when I'm in a feeling of like, yeah, I want to see things change. I feel impatient for change, but I'm not going to seek distractions during this time because I think it's actually... adding to my discomfort and it feels like that staying present in discomfort is more valuable to me right now. So I think that that is part of the active quality of patience for me, even though I feel very impatient with medical affairs right now and our country and, you know, the suffering. that is happening. So yeah, I'm hoping that it'll, I'm hoping that I'll be able to activate better when the time comes.

[20:40]

Thank you, Serena. Yes, so Serena's practicing patience by paying attention to what's happening and letting go of some of the distractions of various streaming services and I'll just put in a word for that, though, that one can pay attention to the things one's streaming, not as distractions, but as places to awaken. So, you know, culture, literature, film, whatever, can be a distraction, or it can be a place for patients, an active place where we... see something that we didn't see before. And yet, I appreciate very much your deciding to let go of subscription. So it's different. One of the things about patience and about Zen in general is that it's different for each person.

[21:46]

Nobody can tell you how to be Buddha. You have to find it yourself. This is part of patience. You have to see what works for you. And it's not some cookie-cutter thing. So anyway, thank you, Serena, for that. Other comments? Yes, Jake. Thank you for the talk, Tygen. Can people hear me online through Tygens, Mike? Great. Can you hear him online? So, I got some odds there. Okay. So, I find that teachings for me manifest... as compaction off them. Some of the examples, you know, when we're sitting, waiting, put it on, ring the bell, my leg's starting to hurt. You know, I have compaction with myself. I can adjust. Use a cushion to undermine me. You're in traffic and somebody's speeding potentially to the hospital having compaction because you don't know. Or, you know, for the massive cruelty that they see in the world right now.

[22:49]

I try to have compaction for the people that are orchestrating things because What must motivate them? What fears must they have? What are they so... Why would they have these feelings? I feel this vast compassion for, not for their actions, but for whatever must have happened to them and motivated them to take these sorts of actions. Yes. Good. Thank you. Yes. So, yeah, the cruelty that's happening now, eventually... It involves patience, too. But eventually, we'll shift. The pendulum swings. There'll be new elections. And yet, right now, how do we respond to the cruelty that's happening? Without blame or shame or anger or hatred. It's difficult. It's really difficult. Other comments? Yes, Paul?

[23:51]

Thanks. Thank you. As always. So as you know, one of the hardest, deepest kinds of kshanti, right, is called the patient acceptance of the non-arising of dharmas, right? Yes. And that condition doesn't end, right? That doesn't go away. And so I'm wondering how the, and I appreciate the talk about waiting and patience and compassion, but What about with situations that don't, you can't wait for them to go away, right? I mean, how does the wait, I mean, just could you talk about that? Yeah, yeah. Well, we act in those situations, you know. When there's some situation that you're waiting for that's not going to go away, how do we act? And there are ways to act, you know, even in terms of the ability that's happening. But Anupadaka Dharmakshanti, I thank you for reminding me.

[24:53]

That's the ultimate patience, is the patience with the ungraspability of anything. You can't get a hold of anything. Everything is shifting and changing. So, yeah, Anupadaka Dharmakshanti, the patience with the ungraspability of anything, of things, is actually considered all of awakening. It's... It's the ultimate patience. It's the patience that we can't know, we can't grasp, we can't get a hold of what to do. So this is why skillful means is so important and skillful means is slippery. How do we skillfully respond to all of the people who are being taken away. It's heart-lunching.

[25:56]

It's really where do we find compassion for all these people and for all the situations in our life and our world. So I don't have any answers, but I know that paying attention, trying to respond, working with groups that are doing something that seems helpful. And this applies in our personal life, too. You know, we can't, in some situation of waiting, when's the bell going to ring? You know, we can't get a hold of that. We can look at our watch or something, although you're not supposed to have watches. Except if you're the speaker and then you have to know. But, yeah. How about this? Yes. So let's look to Hakawun's, where Hakawun has this bridge, this log bridge, and it's above a chasm of one grasp of the feet.

[27:05]

And they're blind practitioners walking, tapping together. You see both of them now. And I think we do this together, not knowing. Yes. And knowing that the jig is up. No. But it is a big, big thing. Yeah. I find myself, like this morning, when Johnny and Caleb walked in, I was about to come into the Zendo to open the Zendo. It's a little ceremonial thing. Right. But then I saw these two people, and I was like, okay, let's go anyway and make them wait two minutes. I'm like, wait a minute, they're guests. And stopping in the middle of that and just trying to like, oh, okay, let me reorient. I could feel it in my body. You know, Apollo is with me carrying incense. You know, we're ready to roll. And, you know, the Han's about to start. But this ability to stop in the name of caring or just noticing that kind of energy that might roll over someone or off the cliff.

[28:15]

So I think this is such a wonderful... practice your opening up first time. It's very subtle. It is. It's very subtle. Paul, I think your comment about, you know, this, you know, we're getting a dose of that in the sense that there are many things going on that we can't stop in a way that's like immediate or feels immediate. Yet, to position ourselves with this kind of tapping, you know, see what can we do that just moves us along through this uncertain, crazy world, you know. Yeah. We're all going down with the ship eventually. Well, we're all going to pass away. Joanna Macy passed away yesterday. So I was awake for my work home this afternoon. Maybe tomorrow, last evening, maybe we'll do a memorial service for tomorrow.

[29:16]

Maybe tomorrow. Okay. I think I'm going to be just on the docket. Good. There's so many. What about who Joanna Macy is? Joanna Macy is the great lady of deep ecology is one way that she is described by someone. She was a teacher of mine and talking about patients, great patients, she saw the nuclear waste, and how that was going to be deadly for tens of thousands of years and more. And she proposed nuclear guardianship, spiritual communities, discarding nuclear waste sites for many centuries. She talked about a lot of things, about deep time and about

[30:17]

Not about patience, but deep time is about patience. So she talked about the work that reconnects, even in this time, that we can reconnect with the great turning, the possibilities of turning, which seem now to be very limited, but the fact that things change and that there is a turning in the world. She talked about it in very specific ways. Anyway, she was a good teacher. So Dennis has had to stand up online for a while, so I want to thank you. Dennis. Thank you, Tegan, for the talk this morning. What struck me, one of the things you said was the connection between impatience and anger. And for me, that's always a good sign that I'm being impatient. The thing I've been working on is being patient with my inpatients.

[31:23]

Can everybody hear me? Yes, okay, go ahead. I'm trying to be patient with my inpatients. Right. And I'm aware that a lot of my anger at myself I project out on to others. And a lot of my inpatients I project out on to others. And so it's, you know, I've been working on that first step of trying to just see my humanness and then maybe seeing their humanness in that moment. I'm seeing their humanness, my humanness, and I can see their humanness in that moment. So, thank you. Yes, thank you, Dennis. So, yes, working with your impatience. There's no end to that. There's impatience with... the current situation, there's impatience of waiting in line, there's impatience of waiting for the dolan to hit the bell, whatever.

[32:25]

There's no end to that. The practice of patience, because of Anupadaka Dharmakshanti, and because things are changing, we will need to continue this practice of patience forever. This is not something that, oh, okay, then we're going to solve. It's being patient with things as they is. And so the practice of patience is to notice your anger and your hatred and your impatience, to notice when you feel that, and to pay attention to that, to feel what you feel. So Zen is a very passionate practice, actually. You walk into a Zendo and everybody's sitting upright and still, and it looks very, you know, stoical or something, but it's actually very passionate practice. So, yeah, Karen has something in New Mexico.

[33:27]

Good morning. Can you hear me okay? Yes, hi, Karen. Hi. I thank you, Tygen. You've reminded me about a set of audio CDs that I have... that's from Pema Chodron, and it is about Shantideva's book on the way of the Bodhisattva. Right. She talks about finding freedom from anger, resentment, and other destructive emotions, and she references different verses of the way of the Bodhisattva that Shantideva wrote, and I've pulled it out, and I'm going to listen to it again because I've always loved it, and I haven't listened for a while. So, So I just wanted to tell you that I'm appreciative that you reminded me about this, and it's been pulled out. I'm going to be listening to Woke Up Rep, so thank you. You're welcome, Karen. Yeah, Shantideva, there's several translations in the library here, is, yeah, a wonderful resource.

[34:33]

So I don't know if we have to pause it. I thought David Weiner-Marcus had a comment. Did you, David? Oh, David. It's okay. I was being patient with my impatience. It's my turn to talk. Yeah, I think this is more of a comment. The thing that I really got out of your talk today is about expectations and how we look for things to change, you know, and how that patience is not grasping. Patience is being attentive to what's happening now. And there are times where I'm impatient. I wish I could just go off and kill Trump. And there are times when I look at Trump and I say, my God, what is going on? What did this person suffer that he's acting this way, that he's acting out of cruelty? And so I get impatient with my impatience.

[35:35]

Sure. Yes, of course. And patient with your impatience. That's good. And so how do we practice patience when we're impatient with our impatience? Yeah. And it's not just Trump, you know, it's a whole... The whole cabal. Yeah, it's the whole, all the billionaires who are getting tax breaks at the expense of some of the other people. So yeah, it's... Of course, one might feel anger or hatred, but that's extra. That's not helpful. It's not helpful to feel anger or hatred. Of course, we feel it. So you have to feel what you feel. But patience is a great antidote to that. Just seeing that you can't get a hold of anything. Well, that's the thing. It's the grasping. That's what I got from the talk today, which I hadn't realized before, is that my impatience, It's really about my wanting something and grasping for it.

[36:38]

And that the practice of patience is letting go of the grasping. Yes. And that's hard. We do grasp at things. We do want things. We do reach for things. And we all want to be loved and to express love and to have a healthy, happy situation, and for all the people we love to be well, and all of those things. This is a common part of being human. And expectations, nothing ever happens according to your expectations. We have expectations. I mean, I took notes, so I was, you know... speak this morning, but this isn't the talk I thought I would give. If I thought I would give a talk, I mean, it's just, it's what it is.

[37:40]

What it is, is this active situation that we can't get a hold of, we can't grasp. So thank you, David. Howard just grabs the microphone, so maybe he can give us the last word yet. Hey, Howard. I originally just had a question, but now I have a comment, so this is not surprising. Good. You know, it's funny because, like, I'm sitting here throughout today, and I'm like, yeah, I'm feeling a lot of impatience. Feeling a lot of impatience. Impatience, yeah. And I don't know why. And I find myself not even, like, trying to fix it, just, like, trying to figure out, what am I impatient about? Like, am I just, do I just want to talk? Like, wait for my turn? Am I just waiting to get the hell out of here? Am I waiting for a retreat I'm going to on Wednesday? Am I waiting for, like, the next big change in my life that's going to fix everything? Like... And I keep having to scale back and go, OK, but there's pain there. That's what that is. Yes. And I'm so busy trying to get away from the pain to figure out something that I don't know how to be patient with my own pain, which is caught up in everybody else's pain, too.

[38:50]

And also what I realized, too, what I'm feeling a lot of recently anyway, and probably for reasons obvious and their reasons on obvious to me is I feel a lot of rage. feel a lot of anger. I'm like shaking a little bit just saying that out loud. And I'm wondering, the question I was originally going to ask was, you know, bodhisattvas can use anger too. Absolutely. So how does a bodhisattva use anger that is compassionate, that is skillful and not suffering? Thank you for that. Yes. So I want to speak for anger. Even though I was saying that anger is the enemy of patience. anger is kind of another paramita in a way. But how do we use our anger? How do we use our rage? You might be filled with rage. Well, okay, but maybe you can leaven that with patience. But still, there's anger about the situation. So anger about the way the world is now, anger about, I'm just so angry at the genocide in Palestine.

[40:01]

And I'm Jewish, so I separate anti-Semitism from the state of Israel, opposing the state of Israel and what it's doing is not anti-Semitism. Sorry, that's part of it. Anger. There's lots of things to be angry about. There's lots and lots of things to be angry about. Epstein, you know, and Trump's connection with him, whatever. And the way that ICE agents are moving around without identifying themselves. So I'm angry at ICE. I think ICE should be abolished. But okay, what can I do that's helpful? How can we use the... So the point of anger is to not be... To see it, to try and not be obsessed by it,

[41:01]

to leaven it with patients and not, and not, you know, but to see what it is that actually you're angry about, to see what you can do about it. There are lots of organizations that are doing great things. Doctors Without Borders, ACLU, you know, and to support them. And, yeah, go ahead. It's maybe a good job for us. And it's going to be time for announcements soon. So, my gosh, I'm not angry about the announcements. Before announcements, what happens is someone will set their table aside and we'll do the four vows. Yes. And then we'll have announcements and tea. So we won't have four periods right after our announcements. What we'll do is we'll have tea so people can...

[42:02]

and then those of you who have patience to hang out and do a little work practice will feed off. Good. Thank you very much. The reasons are inexhaustible. We love to cut through them. Darmagists are boundless. We vow to pointer them. The best way is unsurpassable. We vow to realize that beings are numberless. We vow to free them.

[43:04]

Collusions are inexhaustible. We vow to cut through them. Dharma days are now blessed. We vow to match them. Buddha's way is unsurpassable. We vow to realize it. Beings are numberless. He vowed to freedom. Delusions are exhaustible. He vowed to cut through Dharma gates of hell bliss. He vowed to them. Buddha's way is unstoppable. He vowed to realize it.

[43:59]

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