So tonight.
.
.
I'd like to talk about a practice that I've come to take so for granted that that I almost don't notice it.
It's so much a part of what I do.
This practice of bowing.
Because Last week.
During Doksan,
One of our Sangha mates,
Mentioned that they really weren't so comfortable with ballet and wondered about what it is,
Why,
Why do we do it?
And And it brought me back.
To my own introduction to Zen.
When I too was not comfortable,
I remember going along one Monday night to Hank not knowing what to expect.
And seeing all these perfectly rational people.
Bowing to each other,
Bowing to their cushions,
Bowing when they walked into the zendo,
The meditation hall,
And then doing these full prostrations where they would touch their heads to the floor?
And I will.
And I thought,
What am I getting myself into here?
What is this?
And so it brought me back to my own strong reactions.
Too.
Bowing to one of the great practices.
Of our way.
And I realized that it's particularly jarred.
In America,
That we Americans,
We don't bow.
We pride ourselves on not bowing to anybody.
If we can help it.
Um.
.
.
And I think.
You know,
For many of us,
It feels like some kind of submission.
It feels like submission to a deity that we may or may not believe in,
It feels like submission to a tyrant,
To an oppressor.
Maybe to a Zen teacher.
Who's it tiring?
Because bowing typically implies that somebody else has the power and we don't.
So we need to submit.
But,
As I think many of you know,
That is not.
What the practice of bowing is.
In Zen.
Far from it.
But even then it comes up because we bow to an altar and that altar usually has a statue of the Buddha.
Or Manjushri or some other revered beings.
Aren't we bowing down to the Buddha?
Is that what this is about?
But in fact.
The Buddha taught right to the very end of his life that he was not to be revered.
He was not a deity.
He was not to be put up on a pedestal.
So then what are we doing?
What is this battling that I've come to take?
So for granted.
As part of my practice.
Well,
Really the teaching is that we are bowing.
To the Dharma.
And as you know,
The Dharma.
.
.
Means the teachings of Buddhism,
But it also means the way things are.
The truth of life.
And when we bow to each other,
We bow with humility.
To the Buddha nature that is each one of us.
Or what exactly?
Does this mean?
I mean,
This bowing.
Is an antidote to a property of our minds that we are constantly working within Zen.
The minds that spin stories about knowing for certain.
Knowing this and knowing that.
And being in control.
Of course,
The other thing that happened the first evening that I visited Hank was we chanted the five remembrances,
Which of course we chanted tonight.
And talk about a jarring truth of life.
I love the nature to grow old.
To have it all help to die.
Everyone I love will be separated from me.
This is not being in control.
So what about.
.
.
The antidote to knowing.
What about not knowing?
And bowing is,
If anything,
Bowing to how much we don't know.
About this mysterious life.
Well,
There's a wonderful koan about this.
It's in the Book of Serenity.
Case number 20.
Where the teacher asked the student where are you going and the student replied.
I'm wandering about aimlessly.
And the teacher asked.
What do you think of this wondering about?
And the student said,
I don't know.
And the teacher replied.
Not knowing.
Is most intimate.
And of course it's a colon because Most of our lives we pride ourselves on what we know.
On what we're sure of and so to have the teacher Essentially,
Praise.
The students.
By saying,
Oh yeah,
Not knowing is most intimate.
Because that is what we seek in this practice,
An intimacy with life,
With the way things are.
And that full appreciation.
Of being alive means we come to appreciate how much we don't know and how little we're in control.
We come to appreciate that life.
.
.
Is wild and unpredictable.
So.
.
.
All day long I watch my mind create stories of knowing,
Of certainty.
And then When I can,
I open to not knowing,
To letting go of my precious certainty.
To letting go of control.
Because this letting go.
Turns out to be one of the deepest parts of our spiritual practice.
So for our reading tonight,
I chose A text that's the ultimate in balance.
The text by Hogan Biggs.
Who says,
I vow to affirm what is.
If there's cost i choose to pay if there's need i choose to give.
If there's pain,
I choose to feel.
If there's sorrow,
I choose to grieve.
Be serious.
A profound encouragement to turn towards.
Whatever comes to us.
Rather than clothing ourselves in false certainties.
In platitudes.
And so.
We get to the saying that actually is in a country western song.
The lyrics go,
When I fight reality,
Reality always wins.
And what this practice teaches us is that when we bow,
To the way things are.
It opens up.
Vast avenues.
Of understanding and wisdom.
And it helps us let go.
Of so much suffering.
This acceptance of what is and letting go of what we can't control.
Now this is not to say.
.
.
That we simply bow down to whoever asks us to.
There really are oppressors in the world there really are.
People who will grab power.
And try to wield it over us.
There are people who will ask us to accept.
Lives rather than the way things are.
And so,
There is also a constant discerning that we're called upon to do.
Discerning where we bow to reality.
And where we don't bow.
This gets us to the famous prayer by Reinhold Niebuhr.
Where he prays that we find acceptance of the things we cannot change the courage to change the things we can.
And the wisdom to know the difference.
What we are talking about here is is not some blind ballet.
But a bowing that comes with discernment,
Discernment of what's true,
Of what's real.
Of what we can face toward.
That opens us up.
To such a richness.
And keeps us from closing down the heart.
Through turning away,
Through telling ourselves stories.
That turn us away from what is.
When we think about it,
How different the world would be.
If we bowed to each other.
To the mysterious Buddha nature in each one of us.
If we bowed to the uncontrollable realities that shape our lives.
If we bowed to the truth of not knowing so much.
Back to.
Hogan Bayes.
He says,
Where this takes me,
I choose to go.
Being with what is,
I respond to what is.
This life is as real as a dream,
The one who knows it cannot be found,
And truth is not a thing.
So the next time.
.
.
Start to bow automatically.
To your cushion,
To the sangha.
Take a moment.
And let that bow.
Being refused.
With that spirit of openness and mystery.
Which is really the richness.
Of our practice of Zen.
Thank you.
