Kanho Chris Burkhart explores how the Japanese manufacturing modality called "kaizen" translates into a valuable aspect of our path of practice.
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Talk Notes
Good morning and welcome to Zen alive. I understan that by now a poem must open my talks. Today I will read Mary Olver's Dogfish.
Some kind of relaxed and beautiful thing
kept flickering in with the tide
and looking around.
Black as a fisherman's boot,
with a white belly.
If you asked for a picture I would have to draw a smile
under the perfectly round eyes and above the chin,
which was rough
as a thousand sharpened nails.
And you know
what a smile means,
don't you?
I wanted the past to go away, I wanted
to leave it, like another country; I wanted
my life to close, and open
like a hinge, like a wing, like the part of the song
where it falls
down over the rocks: an explosion, a discovery;
I wanted
to hurry into the work of my life; I wanted to know,
whoever I was, I was
alive
for a little while.
It was evening, and no longer summer.
Three small fish, I don't know what they were,
huddled in the highest ripples
as it came swimming in again, effortless, the whole body
one gesture, one black sleeve
that could fit easily around
the bodies of three small fish.
Also I wanted
to be able to love. And we all know
how that one goes,
don't we?
Slowly
the dogfish tore open the soft basins of water.
You don't want to hear the story
of my life, and anyway
I don't want to tell it, I want to listen
to the enormous waterfalls of the sun.
And anyway it's the same old story - - -
a few people just trying,
one way or another,
to survive.
Mostly, I want to be kind.
And nobody, of course, is kind,
or mean,
for a simple reason.
And nobody gets out of it, having to
swim through the fires to stay in
this world.
And look! look! look! I think those little fish
better wake up and dash themselves away
from the hopeless future that is
bulging toward them.
And probably,
if they don't waste time
looking for an easier world,
they can do it.
How are you doing today my friends on this beautiful day? I hope that you are well and that your life is good. What, you might ask, makes this day beautiful? We woke up. Though rain is in the forecast, when the sun rose behind the mountains, it was a dark orange and the sky was flecked with clouds of so many colors and shapes. Wind from the west rippled the water. In the backyard, the apples are ripe. And wild blackberries are juicy and sweet. My chickens seem to be content, they are off to explore te neighborhood. A beautiful day, perfectly perfect in its imperfection. I am glad to be alive. To be here. To explore ideas in a talk.
I hope that you are willing to go on the exploration together with me. Before I practiced zen, I only had intellectual knowledge of it. I fell in love with the idea of the sudden explosive insight demonstrated in koans. I did not think too deeply about it. I thought that a monk would ask a question and the master would reply with a phrase or action that instantly burned away all uncertainty and clarified the great matter. Satori!
What a fool I was. I did not realize the 1000 times the gateless gate had been opened for the monk before the great awakening. I did not consider that life in a zen monastery in 8th century China was one of the most restricted, minutely regulated environments imaginable. And yet, great freedom came from exactly the same source. The moment of understanding that moving from conditioning to freedom is a tremendous change, to be willing to step into the unknown, to be vulnerable and open to a new territory.
Well, I was a fool in many ways and I guess, I still am. I joined the Bellingham Zen Practice Group in 2001. Fortunately or unfortunately, it took me several months to figure out that there are 2 Zens, Soto and Rinzai, and that this group was Soto Zen. Hint: Soto Zen does not work with koans in the way I had expected. By then it was too late and I was hooked.
I trust that I was fortunate. I my many years of practice, this explosive understanding that many people experience once or often, I see that it is not my path. Mine is sitting for many years to discover that I have become kinder to the world and to myself. That opposing facts can be true. That having the upper hand does not mean winning. That life is rich with love. That I can see Buddha in everyone.
Shunryu Suzuki said "After you have practiced for awhile, you will realize that it is not possible to make rapid, extraordinary progress. Even though you may try very hard, the progress you make is always little by little. It is not like going out in a shower in which you know when you get wet. In a fog, you do not know you are getting wet, but as you keep walking you get wet little by little. If you mind has ideas of progress, you may say, "Oh, this pace is terrible!" But actually, it is not. When you get wet in a fog it is very difficult to dry yourself. So there is no need to worry about progress."
Sometimes sentimental thoughts come up about satori; however, that is being like a greedy child who cries for more sweets when both cheeks are already stuffed with candy. Zazen, having a good teacher, being in sangha, studying the dharma has changed my life and has made it so much sweeter.
Now, this will sound like a change of subject but I promise, or maybe I sould say I hope that it will all come together. So, some time ago, I ran into the concept Kaizen. It sounds very Zen and it has not much to do with Zen practice or ritual. Kaizen is a concept from post-WW II and it was developed for industry and commerce; it means continuous improvement
Using kaizen, great and lasting success is achieved through small, consistent steps. It turns out that slow and steady is the best way to overcome your resistance to change. You can't do kaizen just once or twice and expect immediate results. You have to be in it for the long haul. Small actions are at the heart of kaizen. By taking steps so tiny that they seem trivial or even laughable, you'll sail calmly past obstacles that have defeated you before. In absence of clearly defined goals, we become strangely loyal to performing daily acts of trivia. If you don't know where you are going, you might wind up someplace else. In business it investigates the 5Ws: What, why, when, where, and who. And fixes and improvements will be applied in a dynamic way.
That dynamic is what fascinated me. It challenges us to go from naive, just showing up and doing my thing, to deliberate. That means getting out of the comfort zone, stretching the current skill set, and then improving on it in a consistent manner. It is the opposite of complacency. More importantly, what can Kaizen look like when we are not the auto manufacturer Toyota? What can it look like as a personal practice? What small step can I take today, right now to improve? To move toward a life goal?
You may want to live at Tassajara for a practice period. You want to write a book. You want to get back to riding 100 k on your bike (ahem, that one is mine!) You want to become a master chef or gardener. Run a marathon. Pick whatever you like and then, today! Today do something, even if it is laughably small towards that goal. 5 minutes of zazen on a chair, write 2000 words, get the bike and ride around the block, put on your shoes and jog for 2 minutes. Kaizen means also introspection to see what happened while you engage in the acticity. Most importantly, do something working towards the goal on the next day. Kaizen is continued improvement, a gradual continuous change. The microstep of riding my bike around the block is fun a 100 k right now sounds scary. By the way, Stephen King is a prolific writer. His goal is 2000 words a day. Every day. Don't break the chain!
Measuring results is impartant. When it comes down to it, even our loftiest goals consist of many many small managable tasks. Small daily actions, like sitting zazen, can lead to great changes. This talk is a starting point for our conversation. If you are curious, there is a lot of information about Kaizen available. This talk doesn't even scratch the surface.
Even Dogen spoke about it in his fascicle gyoji, “Continuous practice,” the continuous practice of discovering one’s original face. I will end the talk with the beginning of the fascicle. Beginning, ending. Ending and beginning, always within the circle af the way.
ON THE GREAT road of buddha ancestors there is always unsurpassable practice, continuous and sustained. It forms the circle of the way and is never cut off. Between aspiration, practice, enlightenment, and nirvana, there is not a moment’s gap; continuous practice is the circle of the way. This being so, continuous practice is undivided, not forced by you or others. The power of this continuous practice confirms you as well as others. It means your practice affects the entire earth and the entire sky in the ten directions.
Although not noticed by others or by yourself, it is so. Accordingly, by the continuous practice of all buddhas and ancestors, your practice is actualized and your great road opens up. By your continuous practice, the continuous practice of all buddhas is actualized and the great road of all buddhas opens up. Your continuous practice creates the circle of the way. By this practice, buddha ancestors abide as buddha, not-abide as buddha, have buddha mind, and attain buddha without cutting off.
Because of this practice, there are the sun, the moon, and stars.
Because of this practice, there are the great earth and the open sky.
Because of this practice, there are body, mind, and their environs.
Because of this practice, there are the four great elements and the five skandhas.
Continuous practice is not necessarily something people in the world love, but it should be the true place of return for everyone. Because of the continuous practice of all buddhas of the past, present, and future, all buddhas of the past, present, and future are actualized.
