This podcast is offered by the San Francisco Zen Center on the web at www.sfcc.org. Our public programs are made possible by donations from people like you. It's wonderful to hear the sound of the bell. And welcome to all of you. to the first talk, as Kosho says, of our three-week intensive on Dogen's text, Zui Mon Ki. Now, this is a public talk, so I guess that means that some of you are enrolled in the intensive and some of you are not. Anyway, whether you are enrolled in it or not, we are all here concerned with Dharma how to practice dharma, how to live dharma, and my talk, I'm hoping, will encourage you in that.

[01:05]

I think we all know how important dharma is, how much we need it for ourselves, how much the world needs it, and knowing that is really the most important thing. And that you are here listening to a Dharma talk on Wednesday evening when there are plenty of other things you could be doing is already evidence that you're more than halfway there. So what I want to do tonight is say a few introductory words to the text to give you a sort of orientation to it. And then I've chosen one passage that I'd like to comment on a little bit. So the word Zuimoki means more or less simple or easy to understand. And the first translation of this text into English, which I think was done in the 60s by Reho Masanaga, a Soto Zen priest, was called Primer of Soto Zen.

[02:22]

which is a pretty good translation. So just very briefly, for those of you who may not be entirely oriented to Dogen's works, there are four main sets of texts that Dogen composed, and this already is a very unusual thing. A Zen teacher who writes a lot, you know, is pretty unusual. And it's usually considered a kind of embarrassment, you know, to be a writer and a Zen teacher. And it's something to be avoided, if possible. With the exception of Dogen. Dogen writes brilliant spiritual texts. Three of the sets of Dogen's texts are all called Shabogenzo, Treasury of the True Dharma Eye. which is a translation of the Japanese phrase shobogenzo.

[03:25]

And this phrase shobogenzo is, according to the Zen tradition, the phrase that Buddha spoke to Mahakashapa when Buddha held up a flower and Mahakashapa smiled. And of course in Zen, this is the story of the first transmission of Dharma. the first time the teaching was transmitted person to person. And since in Zen, when you think about it, transmission is the teaching, this is a very, very important story. So naturally, Dogen would want to use that phrase as the title for all his writings, because the only thing he's trying to do in all of his writing and speaking and the only thing that I'm trying to do tonight in giving my Dharma talk and the only thing that any of us who would propose to give Dharma talks are trying to do is to express and transmit the teachings because the teachings must be alive.

[04:43]

They have to be expressed, understood and heard Otherwise, they literally don't exist if they're not brought to life. Because there are no static or eternal Dharma teachings. There are only living Dharma teachings that are alive right now. And that's our job, right? All of us, together, to bring the Dharma to life and make sure it stays alive. So as I'm saying, there are four sets of texts. The foremost in the first... to mention is the one that's called simply Shobo Genzo which is Dogen's greatest written work there are many many versions of Shobo Genzo there's a 95 fascicle version and a 75 I think fascicle version and all kinds of versions but whichever one you pick anyway Shobo Genzo is Dogen's great masterwork one of the great religious and philosophical texts ever written I think by a human being

[05:50]

and certainly considered Dogen's masterwork and Dogen's great fame as a spiritual teacher comes mostly from this text. The other three main collections of his writings are a text called Mana Shobo Genzo, which is his collection of 300 koan, and it's just the stories themselves, 300 stories without any commentary or anything. And these have been translated by Kaz Tanahashi and Daido Luri in English as the True Dharma Eye Dogen's 300 Koans. Then there is the Ehei Kōroku, which is translated by Shohaku Okamura and Tagia Leighton under the title in English Dogen's Extensive Record, a big thick book, a collection of Dogen's poems and brief poetic talks. given over a number of years on formal occasions, mostly at Eheji.

[06:54]

And then there's another talk called Ehe Shingi. Shingi is rules for the monastery, the Ehe Monastery. And this text is less read or paid attention to, but it does include the very important essay by Dogen, Tenzo Kyokin. instructions for the cook that's often lifted from the Ehe Shingi and considered as a separate text. There is also, in addition to these important writings, a short stand-alone text of Dogen that is now hard to find in the English translation, or you can find it, but it costs you a lot of money. Ho Kyoki, which is Dogen's written diary of his time in China with his teacher Ru Jing. And then, finally, our text for the intensive Shobogenzozuimoki, which is actually not a written text, but notes and writings by Eijo, Dogen's disciple, who was writing down things that Dogen was saying during the first years that Eijo had come to study with Dogen.

[08:11]

At the time, Dogen was about 35. And Ajo was a couple of years older. And this was when Dogen had come back from China. He had lived in the monastery where he had lived before going to China. He came back to that monastery. He lived for a while in a hermitage. And now he was about to start his own monastery. And this is when Ajo came to him. And he was just beginning. Now, Ajo... was not a green, young student. He was very experienced, very wise and learned monastic when he sought Dogen out because he had heard that Dogen went to China and had learned important things in China. Eijo had never been to China. So Eijo appeared and at first Dogen and he spent days together talking friend to friend. and they got along really well.

[09:15]

It seemed like they had the same understanding. They were both very well-educated, very committed, and also very high-born people. And they probably had a lot in common. But after a while, without Dogen saying anything special, Ajo could see that Dogen had some way of understanding Dharma that was different. that somehow went beyond the view that Eijo had, the view that most people have, right? There's ignorance, there's practice, there's enlightenment, there's overcoming in a linear time frame. But as they talked, it became clear to him that Dogen actually saw it another way. So he joined Dogen and became Dogen's disciple. And later on, when Dogen left the monastery that he and Eijo were together at during this time of Zuimanki and moved further out to Echizen province where he founded Eheiji, Dogen more or less put Eijo in charge of Eheiji because he knew that he would not live very long and that Eijo, he felt, would live much longer.

[10:39]

And it turned out to be exactly so. Dogen died in 1253 at about 53 years old or 54, and Eijo lived well into his 80s. And the two of them in those days became not so much like teacher and disciple, but like each other's teacher and each other's disciple, which is a beautiful thing. One more little point of background. Both Eijo and Dogen were part of a movement in the late Heian, early Kamakura period of dropout monks. During this period, Buddhism in Japan had reached a very high point. It was very strong and very developed, very powerful, and very well connected to the secular powers.

[11:45]

And the main school at that time, the school that both Ejo and Dogen had been ordained in, was the Tendai school, which proposed a richly complex and various form of Buddhism. It's funny, you know, nowadays I think we are coming to a kind of general consensus that we want Buddhism to be relevant and helpful in the world. And maybe we feel that our commitment to compassion requires us to be involved in the world for the good. And probably the monks in those days felt that way too, and they were very involved in the world. But their involvement, it seems, was corrupting. And the practice became... worldly in a way that eroded Buddha's actual intention.

[12:53]

Or, at least many monastics of the time, including both Dogen and Ajo, and many, many other serious and talented people felt that way. They felt that strong as it was, and complex as it was, and wealthy as it was, Buddhism had lost its way. And so they dropped out in great numbers, really, from the monastic establishment, and they sought their own path. That's why Dogen went to China in the first place. Interestingly, at least I find it interesting, Eijo and Dogen were encouraged in this by their mothers. It was their mothers who really... set them on their path. Egil's mother urged him to drop out when he was in his twenties. He was already a monk living in a big monastery, but she said, no, go your own way.

[14:00]

Dogen's mother died when he was only eight, but before she died, she told him that her great hope was that he would become a sincere, serious monk. and not, as he might otherwise have been, a courtier. Anyway, all of this is worth keeping in mind as you read Zui Malki because it was compiled at a time when Dogen and Eija were still pretty young and still new to this new way, a new spirit of practice. And because Zuimoki is a very, I think, idealistic and uncompromising text, and you have to really understand it better when you realize that Dogen was, in a way, pushing against Buddhism that he had been brought up in. In Zuimoki, Dogen is trying to help his monks to effect an attitude adjustment.

[15:08]

When you think about it, I mean, isn't that what practice is in the end? A very serious, radical, really, attitude adjustment. An alteration of the way we look at our lives, feel about our lives, and live our lives. We all have a point of view that has been conditioned in us by our family background, our education, and everything that's happened to us in our lives. Mostly, you know, we're not aware so much of our point of view. We just think the world is like that. The world is as we see it. But Dharma is a different point of view. In Zuri Monkey, Dogen is trying in a very straightforward and simple way to say to the monastics, here's the way you should look at things.

[16:12]

Here's the way you should understand things. Here's the way you should live. So, in a way, it's great for us, right? Because although we have to adjust the text as we read to take into account that we're not in the 13th century and we're not Japanese monastics, still, it's great that Dogen is so straightforward and so clear in his prescriptions. That's my introductory part, and tonight I want to bring up an instruction that appears in the second book. The Zui Monkey is divided into six books. This is a short piece that appears in the second book. It is the twentieth excerpt in the second book. And again, there are lots of different versions of But I'm referencing the latest version of the text as published by the Soto School in Japan and translated by Shohaku Okamura and Tom Wright. It is available, if you're interested, as a free PDF online.

[17:18]

And everybody in the intensive, I think, has already received this with your materials. So this is the text I'm talking about. And it appears, I have it on my iPad, and it looks like page 99 of that text. And I was giving a Dharma talk about Zui Moki the other day, at the every day's end, all day sit, saying a lot of the same stuff I'm saying now. And at that Dharma talk I was saying to people, you know, I think for Dogen, aspiration for the way, the clear intention to practice, is not just the starting point for practice, it is the whole of the practice. And so the passage I'm bringing up is a passage about aspiration for the Way. And I'll read a bit of it and say a little bit and read a little bit and say a little bit. So the first paragraph.

[18:19]

The distinction between being brilliant or dull applies only when sorrow aspiration has not yet been aroused. When a person falls from a horse Various thoughts arise before he hits the ground. When something occurs that is so serious that one's body may be damaged or one's life may be lost, no one will fail to put all his intellect to work. On such occasions, whether brilliant or dull, anyone will think and try to figure out what is best to do. That's the beginning of this short teaching. So Dogen is saying, first of all, that yes, as we all know, it's very important in the world how energetic you are, how smart you are, how well-connected you are, and you get a lot of credit in the world for these characteristics.

[19:28]

And so when we start to practice, we may think that these same characteristics are important. how smart, how diligent, how well connected, how quickly we are able to pick things up and so on. But I think we quickly find that that is an illusion. Once we really awaken our aspiration for the practice and see what we're doing, we realize that it actually makes no difference at all how energetic or smart or skillful we are It is really not important at all whether we're young, strong, brilliant, or not. I guess the example of falling off a horse is maybe the medieval Japanese equivalent of that moment that maybe some of you can appreciate because you've experienced it, when suddenly everything you previously knew falls apart.

[20:34]

Something happens. And all of a sudden your entire life is called into question. An emergency of one sort or another. When you are in an emergency, you try very hard to figure out what to do. You use your maximum intelligence and your maximum energy. In a way, when an emergency comes along, it makes no difference how smart or knowledgeable you are. Yes, if you have some skills, great. But the main thing is that you're the one in the emergency, not somebody else. So the only skills that make any difference at all are the skills that you have right now and the intelligence that you have right now. And so you make a big effort to save yourself because there's not much time.

[21:38]

You're in midair. You just fell off your horse and you haven't landed yet. So this is aspiration for the way. We are always in an emergency situation. We are always in free fall. Actually, We're falling off our horse every single moment. And as we're falling to the ground, our whole life passes before our eyes and we better have good instincts and lots of energy and a very strong will to live. That's the spirit of aspiration for practice. Our good spirit to make our best effort to the best of our ability for this lifetime. He then says, therefore, if you think you will die tonight or tomorrow, or that you are confronting a dreadful situation, encourage your aspiration and you will not fail to attain enlightenment.

[22:54]

A person who seems superficially dull but has a sincere aspiration will attain enlightenment more quickly than one who is clever in a worldly sense. Although he could not recite even a single verse, Kudapantaka, one of the disciples of the Buddha, gained enlightenment during one summer practice period because he had earnest aspiration. So here again, Dogen affirms what he says many times in Shobo Genzo, although we should not be idiots, you know, and ignore the teachings and goof off in the practice, of course we should try our best to study and understand and to make a good effort in practice, especially in Zazen. But in the end, the only thing that matters is our desire to practice, our aspiration to fully embody and embrace the practice because we know we have to.

[24:03]

because we understand that we're in a desperate situation. Now, in our practice, you might not think that we talk so much about aspiration, but actually, after I'm done talking in a few minutes, we're going to chant. We're going to recite the four vows, right? Which express our intense aspiration to practice all dharmas let go of all delusions, save all beings, and disappear and become nothing other than the Buddha way. You're going to say that in a few minutes. And you've said it before, many times. And even though, as we all know, to be honest with ourselves, at any point in our practice, even though we chant that all the time, we may not quite fully believe it, But we should want to believe it and keep on practicing until eventually we do.

[25:15]

Because as Dogen says, when you have strong aspiration, even if you're about to die very soon, for sure, he says, you will attain enlightenment no matter how smart or dull you are because aspiration is the most important thing. Aspiration for the way is the way. is enlightenment, is realization. As the footnote explains, Kudapantaka was a monk during Buddhist time who had a terrible memory, and he couldn't memorize any of the verses that the monks were all supposed to memorize. That was a big practice then, memorizing lots and lots of stuff, and he couldn't do it. So they assigned him to just clean everybody's sandals, which is how he spent his time. And with that as his practice, he was very quickly able to become awakened. Last paragraph. We are only alive now.

[26:18]

Only if we learn the Buddha Dharma, earnestly wishing to attain enlightenment, will we be able to do so before dying. The great and beautiful paradox of aspiration is that aspiration is a kind of longing for something we appear not to have. Aspiration for enlightenment, for awakening. And yet there is no state or condition called enlightenment, and as Dogen well understood with faith in Buddha Dharma and the great Mahayana Sutras that he knew well, We are already as we are Buddhas, awakened ones. To propose some attainment of awakening, some state of awakening, is to limit and corrupt the actual awakening.

[27:23]

And yet we aspire to awakening, we yearn for it, and we have confidence in it. And that strong aspiration itself, when it is finely honed and purified of selfish desire and small-mindedness by our long practice, illuminates every moment of our lives. Even though we keep on practicing, keep on aspiring throughout this lifetime, and as we say in our precepts ceremonies, in lifetimes to come. Dogen says, with that aspiration, we will be sure to attain enlightenment before we die. Maybe in that last moment, just before we die, which I think is the best moment, must be, the best moment to attain enlightenment.

[28:29]

So this is my short introduction to Zui Mon Ki and to our three-week intensive. And Kathy and I will both be giving lots of talks on Zui Mon Ki every Wednesday here for the next couple of weeks, Saturdays at the City Center and Sundays at Green Gulch, and then more talks in the session that concludes the intensive. and also in a Thursday night class that we have for those in the intensive. So we'll have lots of chances to appreciate many aspects of this great text, even though, of course, we won't be able to go through all of it and fully give it the attention it deserves. We'll do our best in these few weeks. So thanks very much, all of you, for listening. I really appreciate your attention. It's a great gift. And I'm done with my talk, and now I guess We're going to chant, right? We chant first, and then after we chant, there's probably just a few minutes for questions, dialogue.

[29:39]

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 sfzc.org and click giving. May we fully enjoy the Dharma.

[30:07]

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