This podcast is offered by San Francisco's Zen Center on the web at sfcc.org. Our public programs are made possible by donations from people like you. Good morning. And a warm welcome to each and every one of you. Welcome on this sunny California morning. And thank you to each of you for being here today, for taking care of your life in this way, in this way of coming to hear a Dharma talk.

[01:29]

And I want to also thank my teachers, Seke Harada and Shosam Victoria Austin, for their great generosity in sharing wisdom with me and their encouragement over the years. Thank you also to the head of practice here, Rosalie Curtis, for inviting me to speak. And Vicki and Paul suggested that I might say a few words about the Genjo Kohan today. So I'm going to do that, I'm going to make an effort to do that, and I hope that it's encouraging for your practice as well. So, Genjo Kohan, it's a fascicle, which is a fancy word for a chapter,

[02:40]

in a book written over a long period of time. So the book is called Shobogenzo in Japanese, or in English, The Treasury of the True Dharma Eye. And it was written by a Japanese monk named Eihei Dogen many centuries ago, a few years after he had returned from China. So hearing that bit of background, I want to pose the question of whether this is really relevant for us today. And I'd like you all to answer that for yourselves, whether this teaching really speaks to our lives, our modern lives, here in this place where we are, some of us here in California, some folks watching from far away.

[03:43]

So I'll start by saying a few words about the title of this piece. So we might try to uncover some meaning that gives a framework for the material itself, for the rest of it. So as I said before, it's called Genjo Ko-wan. And that, in Japanese, that's four characters. And the four characters each have their own meaning and then in combination they mean different things as well. So gen means to appear or to be in the present moment. The example that's used is someone who's already in the house who comes into the room that you're in. That kind of appearing. Not appearing out of nowhere. but to become present.

[04:53]

And jo means to accomplish or to complete. And interestingly, this combination together has the sense in Japanese of everyday activity. Or to use a phrase that might be familiar to some of the folks in this room, What's happening now? It's the what of what's happening now. And then the second half of the title is this word koan. So koans are used in Zen. It's a word that's fairly associated with Zen. originally it referred to a public proclamation that was made by the Chinese emperor. Like the decision, like a legal decision on a case kind of thing. So in English you might think of the word like a precedent.

[05:57]

That's what a koan is. And there are these old dialogues. that demonstrate in some way the true nature of things. So they're pointing at something. But to take the two parts separately, and interestingly in the title of this, so there are two ways of writing Koan in terms of the characters themselves. In the title of this particular piece, Dogen used the less common of the two ways. But I don't think that will make a big deal out of that. I don't think that that implies any particular special statement that he was making. But the two pieces of that word, koan, actually mean, ko means public.

[07:02]

Or as Dogen's jisha, Dogen's attendant, Senne, later said, it means equally applicable, like a proclamation might be, equally applicable to all the people in the land. And the an of koan means abiding in your positions. It has sort of the connotation of your social position, abiding in your social position. And in the Dharma realm, in the Zen realm, we might think of it as abiding in your Dharma position. This place, this moment, this body, this mind. So these two pieces of this word have the sense of the public or the equally, the universally applicable. and the uniqueness of each person in their place in the world.

[08:04]

So sort of poetically, the title, Ganjo Koan, has been translated as actualizing the fundamental point, or another translator calls it manifesting suchness. But I really appreciate this other layer of meaning of the detail. And so a phrase that might capture it would be completely present at the intersection of difference and equality. Or completely appearing at the intersection of difference and equality. What is it? What is it about everyday life? that is completely appearing in that place. So already this title is giving us a little bit of a hint, right? A little bit of a hint toward what the Zen view of everyday life is and how to take care of our everyday life.

[09:14]

Right, so you can view both sides of things. it can be helpful to have a view that holds both sides of things. And by that I don't mean like both sides of an argument, because both of those would be the relative, right? Both of those would be the subjective, but rather both sides, meaning the side of equality and the side of difference. The side of the universal and the side of the unique. Or the side of the absolute and the side of the relative. Or the side of the timeless and the side of the time bound or the particular. So it's important to remember these two aspects.

[10:28]

And yet, Zen teaching says even holding those two views is not complete. That's not the full picture. Why? Because if you have the two views, then you will always be bouncing back and forth, right? And you're always on one side, falling to one side or the other. So Zen asks us, how can both sides be expressed at once? How can both of those aspects come forth in one action, in one place? This is what the koans are pointing at. This is what is used, the phrase, leaping clear of the many and the one.

[11:40]

So Dogen in Genjo Koan gives us a number of examples. He's very good at that. He's very good at giving Lots and lots of examples. So many examples that it's sometimes a little hard to take it in. So we'll just work with one today. One paragraph out of the Genjo Koan. And I'm reading the translation by Shohaka Okamura. And I want to talk about, or I was asked actually to speak about this paragraph. Pardon the noise of my glasses here. speak about this paragraph about the fish and the bird. So this is very classic Dogen, right? Dogen lived in the pre-modern times. So his examples, his illustrations come from nature. They come from the natural world because that was what was around him at those moments.

[12:53]

So I'll read you the paragraph and then step through it a little bit more slowly. When a fish swims, no matter how far it swims, it doesn't reach the end of the water. When a bird flies, no matter how high it flies, it cannot reach the end of the sky. When the bird's need or the fish's need is great, the range is large. When the need is small, the range is small. In this way, each fish and each bird uses the whole of space and vigorously acts in every place. However, if a bird departs from the sky or a fish leaves the water, it immediately dies. We should know that... Shohaku inserts here, for a fish, we should know that for a fish, water is life.

[13:58]

For a bird, sky is life. A bird is life, a fish is life. Life is a bird, life is a fish. So we have these beautiful images. from nature. So this very first couple of sentences, when a fish swims, no matter how far it swims, it doesn't reach the end of the water. When a bird flies, no matter how high it flies, it cannot reach the end of the sky. So what is Dogen saying? He's saying that all beings are interacting with their environment.

[15:04]

Right? The fish is interacting with the water. That's part of its life. That's its natural state of being. The bird is interacting with the sky. That's its natural state of being. That's what it does. That's its activity at all times. Yeah? So there are two things, right? There are beings and there's environment. And that activity goes on to create a field. So his next line is, when the bird's need or the fish's need is great, the range is large. When the need is small, the range is small. So that activity... is creating some effect in the environment itself, right? Whether it's a very small effect or a very large effect.

[16:13]

So for example, it might be a very intimate moment. If we use this Let me extend this metaphor to people. Right? So people are always interacting with their environment. Yeah? And when we interact with our environment, we have an effect on that. The people around us, the things around us, the places around us. Yeah? So... It could be a very intimate moment like kissing your kid goodnight or your partner goodnight. Or it could be a very public moment like posting a video that goes viral and 10 million people see it. Right? So each of our activities has an influence on the world and the range of that

[17:25]

depends from moment to moment. Okay. But then this next sentence, in this way, let me just switch it to my, in this way, each fish and each bird uses the whole of space and vigorously acts in every place. So this is really taking it a step further, right? So each activity has its effect on the environment and that has an effect on the things that that affects and so on, right? When you do one thing, it interacts with one person and that person and all the people they interact with and all the people they interact with and so on. Right?

[18:26]

So a universe infinitely extending in all the directions. Expressing the perfection of wisdom. Expressing the great function of creation. The vital activity happening everywhere. So really taking this another to another way of thinking. And then he says, however, if a bird departs from the sky or a fish leaves the water, it immediately dies. So this is saying something about function.

[19:27]

This is saying something about the way that each being is actually a function of its activity. You know, I like to often say there's not a person or a thing or a world that is changing over time. It's that In each moment, you are the change itself. The world is the change itself. So if you don't do, if your functions don't happen, then there isn't a you anymore. So in the example of the fish, the fish, if the fish doesn't swim, then it dies, because that's its function, and it's transformed into something else. Can't be fish anymore. Right?

[20:31]

For humans, if we stop breathing, that's part of our function. If we stop breathing, then we die. So again, going one more step, Dogen says, we should know that water is life and sky is life. And Shohaku inserts in here, you can tell by the little brackets, for a fish, water is life, for a bird, sky is life. Although actually that's literally true for fish and bird, it's also literally true for human beings. Water is life and sky is life. That's why climate change is such a big deal. So that's literally true, but it also means these two sentences together, so this part about it is life is saying our experience is here right now.

[21:43]

Our experience is body and mind present, interacting in this environment. That is our life. That is the fish's life. That is the bird's life, right here, right now. Going back to the previous one, if the fish leaves the sky, if the fish leaves the water, it will die, meaning there's no escape, right? A being doesn't escape its function. There's no need to escape, actually. There's no place else that we need to go. And next, Dogen tells us the implication of that. He says the bird is life and the fish is life. So when I hear that, I hear actually pointing at

[22:52]

the true meaning of the teaching of impermanence. Bird and fish expressing the great creation of life, the great vital energy, what the ancients used to call the original function. They are an expression of that thing. just as we are an expression of that thing. So a bird is life and a fish is life and a person is life. All of life in one person. The full expression. So, To use another example, it's like we, in the Diamond Sutra, there's this dialectic.

[23:56]

Excuse me. In the Diamond Sutra, there is this language that says there is no and therefore that's why we call it a being, which can be very confusing language. But to use a river, for example, when water gathers between the banks, when water flows together in one direction, it has those characteristics and therefore we call it river. If it didn't have those characteristics, we wouldn't call it river. But those characteristics are just a manifestation from moment to moment of water gathering and water flowing. There is no such actual thing as a river.

[24:59]

Right? It's just that activity. And we give it a name so that we can talk about it and think about it. So the same is true for people, right? There's breathing. There's thinking. There's digesting food. Billions of chemical interactions happening in each instant. And that very activity, that very expression is Sue and Joe. This great activity. And if those activities stop happening, then we say, these five skandhas are transformed.

[26:15]

They don't hang together anymore. They're transformed into something else. So that's why Dogen's next statement is looking at it from the other side, right? Life is the bird and life is the fish. Life expresses itself in this way, as birds, as fish, as people. In Uji, in his classical on time, he calls it the world worlding the world. So here we are in the midst of all that. And really, why should we care? Right? Nice idea. Nice idea. And so what? You know?

[27:17]

I don't really like to think of Dogen as a philosopher. I believe that what Dogen was telling us was really about how to lead our lives in an awakening way. So really, what does this mean? So then the next sentence, after he says, life is a bird, life is a fish, he says, and we should go beyond this. There is practice enlightenment, and this is the way of living beings. Ah, so now he tells us what he's talking about, right? There is practice enlightenment, and this is the way of living beings. So to say a word about that, Dogen used, or the way that it's translated often is practice hyphen enlightenment.

[28:22]

Dogen used these two words together as one thing, as a noun. And his teaching was that enlightenment is the ground of all beings. Enlightenment is the essence of the universe. Enlightenment understood not as some special moment, but as absolute harmony with the way that things are, as absolute harmony with the teachings of impermanence and emptiness. That absolute harmony is already present. So that if that is the ground of all being, then it's not something that you can get from a teacher or from an experience. And it's not something that grows like a seed.

[29:23]

So if that's what enlightenment is, then what is practice and why do these two things go together to make one thing? In Tenzo Kyokun, in the instructions to the head of the kitchen, Dogen has, he tells about some encounters that he had in China. And the head of the kitchen at Mount Aiwong, this old monk, answers this question for Dogen. Dogen asks him, the second time actually, what is practice? And the Tenzo, as it's called in Japanese, the head of the kitchen, said, in the entire world, it is never hidden. In the entire world, practice is never hidden. So what does that mean? It means it's right here before us. It means that we are right in the midst of it.

[30:33]

Practice enlightenment. We are right in the midst of it. We are as much a part of it as the water and the fish and everything else. So whether we're talking about formal practice of sitting and chanting and bowing or whether we're talking about informal practice like being compassionate to your co-workers or trying to be present and have some awareness about the way you speak. All of this is as much an expression of this perfect, this absolute harmony. It's the way we bring it into our lives. It's the way that we actually get to see it by practicing it. So this is the great hope of Zen.

[31:37]

This is the great joy of Zen. Right? In the entire world, it's never hidden. That means nobody can give it to you, but nobody can take it from you. Nobody can keep it from you. Not even yourself. enlightenment is all of our legacy. And the realization of that has to come, however, from the activity itself. Has to come from the choices that we make when we act in the world. So this is really important because it's both sides again. It's our activity, our choices,

[32:38]

our way of being, our way of practicing, creates our environment. And at the same time, it's in complete interaction with our environment. We are not completely in control. This is not a self-driven activity or a self-improvement project. It doesn't work like that. So the classic example that's often used is the example of the hand. Oh my, the time is getting late. Okay. Well, I'll just show you the example of the hand briefly and then we'll jump to something else that I want to share with you. So, and pardon me to the students, especially Dharma and Espanol students have heard this numerous times, so... But the classic example is the example of a hand.

[33:43]

So if I'm the thumb and you're the finger, the pointer, right? I look at you and I say, we are completely different. We have completely different functions. You don't look like me. I don't look like you. We are completely separate. Right? But realization says... Oh, look at that. We are part of the hand. We are both part of the hand. So it would be inconceivable of me to do something harmful to you because we are part of the hand. Can you imagine what race relations would be like if this was understood correctly? or how interactions among nations would be if this was really truly understood.

[34:47]

So this is always present, and we are always actively engaged in it, and simply to say that is not enough, right? Harada Roshi used to say, When you say fire, it doesn't burn your lips. Right? Just to read the sutra, just to hear the talk, just to understand the idea, is not the same as living it. It's not the same as practicing it. Another example that I like to use is sutra copying. So this is Sutra copying is a devotional practice that is centuries and centuries old, right? This is a really low-tech way of copying, by the way, right? Brush and ink on paper, one stroke at a time, no matter what language you're in, one stroke at a time.

[35:58]

What are you doing? You're bringing a sutra into the world. that great activity, that great creation right there in that moment, bringing wisdom into the world by this very simple act. So can we see this in our lives? Can we actually live this offering? It's a big It's a big challenge that Dogen gives us. It's a big question for us. So to sum it up, essentially, what you do matters. Everything that you do actually matters. Right? Another way of understanding the teaching of karma. This is that expression.

[37:03]

Everything you do matters. Everything you do, everything around you, all the people, all the things, yourself included, are expressing the truth. The truth of harmony, absolute harmony, and the truth of harmony and disharmony in the subjective world. Or, to put it on the negative side, expressing the truth of suffering and expressing the truth of liberation from suffering. Or, to say it again, expressing the truth of the universal and the truth of the unique. The specific. world of delusion, the world of enlightenment.

[38:07]

So I had a few other things that I want to say, but let me just give you a quote by Suzuki Roshi, and then I'm going to read you a poem in Spanish that addresses this a little bit. So Suzuki Roshi says, speaking about Genjo Kawan, said, true practice should be established before we attain enlightenment, before we understand what enlightenment is. So true practice is about our activity. It's not about understanding everything. It's about the way that we live our lives. living our lives understanding, being in harmony with the ground of enlightenment. So I want to read you this poem by Pablo Neruda, which is kind of a whimsical way of saying something similar.

[39:22]

It's called Ode to the Cat. So I'll read it in Spanish first and then I'll try to translate it for you. Oda al gato. El hombre quiere ser pescado y pájaro. La serpiente quisiera tener alas. El perro es un león desorientado. El ingeniero quiere ser poeta. La mosca estudia para golondrina. El poeta trata de imitar la mosca. Pero el gato quiere ser solo gato. y todo gato es gato, desde bigote a cola, desde presentimiento a rata viva, desde la noche hasta sus ojos de oro. So the poem says, it's owed to the cat. The man, or perhaps he means people, the man, or the people, want to be

[40:30]

fish and bird. The snake would like to have wings. The dog is a lion, a disoriented lion. The engineer wants to be a poet. The fly is studying how to be a swallow, the bird, the kind of bird, a swallow. The poet wants to imitate the fly. But the cat is only the cat. And every cat is cat. From its whiskers to its tail. From the presence of a live rat. From the night until its eyes of gold. So the cat is being fully capped, hunting rats, flickering whiskers.

[41:44]

So be, I want to encourage us all to be this great original function to be the activity of wisdom and compassion in the world. Please live like what you do matters because it does. Thank you. Thank you for listening to this podcast offered by the San Francisco Zen Center. Our Dharma talks are offered free of charge And this is made possible by the donations we receive. Your financial support helps us to continue to offer the Dharma. For more information, please visit sfcc.org and click Giving. May we all fully enjoy the Dharma.

[42:48]

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