I got myself in something of a predicament yesterday by finishing—can you hear me in the back? Anyway, finishing yesterday's lecture, I started to say, I got myself in something of a predicament by saying I would continue today what I was talking about. And I went over some of the things we talked about here in the week sashim. And, you know, yesterday I talked about

[01:13]

But to make it simple, I talked about, this is a stick, you know. And that's the first level of truth or observation, mundane truth. Second level is, this is not a stick. And third is, it's the ability, and now we're talking about practice, not philosophy. the ability to act and observe this, act on and observe this, as simultaneously a stick and not a stick. And the fourth is beyond either of those two. So that's what I'm supposed to talk about today. It's like trying to talk about the light in someone's eyes for an hour. I don't know, particularly without giving you some background. There's a beautiful painting which I've always liked, which has been

[02:39]

a favorite of Zen people, and many of you must have seen it. Can you hear me now in the back okay? I've always seen reproductions until a year or two ago when I saw the original, and the original is only about as big as the reproductions, only a little tiny picture. But it's a picture of, it has a feeling of vastness, you know, there's just some real sharp peak sticking up in the background, way back. You don't know how far back. And in the foreground, there's nothing in the foreground, then there's a little patch of land,

[03:47]

and a couple more little patches of land, and a stream, looking like the mist between the mountain and the foreground. A stream kind of comes from nowhere and goes nowhere, but there it is. And a man, rather roughly dressed man, is standing on the embankment. And he's holding a gourd, you know, in his hand. And roughly the same size as the gourd, there's an eel in the water. And I don't know what the title of the picture is, a man trying to catch an eel with a gourd or something. The feeling of that picture is quite amazing. These vast mountains, the stream of no origin, and this person, solitary person, standing in his own place. And the gourd makes you feel

[05:17]

How to put it all together? How's he going to get the eel in the gorge? But more than that, where does it all fit together? The picture has a profound feeling of, how does it go together? Or it also has the feeling of, it doesn't go together. The mountains are way off. And I told you, I've told you two or three times now, that story which I find fascinating about the whales gathering each year, and all of them knowing a song which takes fifteen or twenty minutes to sing, and they repeat it. And each year they come back at exactly the same time and sing another song, not last year's song, and they all know the new song.

[06:23]

And there you have the same, more particular to us, actually, problem of how do you... how do the whales put it together? What I mean is, they themselves decide to come at a particular time, not out of necessarily some spontaneous desire to sing at that particular moment, but there's some other level of organisation or desire there. So what I'm backtracking, for those of you who are here for the first time, is the idea in Buddhism that everything is a constructed reality. Not just Buddhism, by our practice we observe how everything is a constructed reality. The whales singing. And so there is the question of how do you decide what is real? How with your own desires do you decide which is real, which do you most want to do? And if it's all a constructed reality, where is meaning for you? And this picture of the gourd and the man has the same kind of feeling.

[07:58]

Is it all apart or is it together? How do we put reality in a gourd? How do we put reality together in this gourd? This question is a fundamental question that appears over and over again in Buddhism. the story I told yesterday, which I did not tell during lecture, during sasheen, about Oshan is famous for saying, cultivating study. I can't remember the story so well. Anyway, cultivating study is called learning. Cutting off study is called nearness, and going beyond both is

[09:32]

going beyond, or reality, something like that. So a monk comes to—this is the same question as how do you put it in the gourd, you know? A monk comes to Hoshan and says, what is going beyond both, or going beyond going beyond? Oshan says, beating the drum. And the monk asks again, what is the real? And here again we have the idea of real in Buddhism is something in which nothing is set up. It means something beyond constructed reality. So he says, what is the real? And Hoshan says, beating the drum. So, he asks again, what is... I'm not asking about what's mind is Buddha, or is mind a Buddha, or mind is Buddha. I'm asking, what is neither mind nor Buddha?

[11:03]

And this is, again, answered by Osho, beating the drum. And I suppose if you're not practicing meditation, you're usually so caught in your interests or your storyline, thinking, or your anxiety which causes you to have interests, or depression and no interest, that it's very difficult to see the vitality of these kinds of questions. But if you practice, you know, you have to ask. You practice because you feel like it, but then after a while you have to ask, what am I doing sitting here? What should I do next? It brings philosophical practice, sasan practice, brings philosophical questions home to you in a very personal way. So you are asking these questions. But the expression of this fourth level, you know, fourth approach, going beyond the boat. Dogen says, �I met my teacher and his nose was vertical and his eyes

[12:36]

were horizontal and I attained enlightenment." Well, that's what we call Sonamama Zen. Sonamama means just as it is. So that's just as it is Zen. Or he says, and I returned, what did you bring back from China? I returned empty-handed. And he said, I don't do anything now but while away my time. Sun comes up in the east and sets in the west. Wind blows away the clouds and the bare bones of the mountain appear. The surrounding hills are low. And I just while away my time. While is, while away is quite a good expression, you know. While, it comes from, I think the Latins are tranquil. And it has the feeling of simultaneous, to do something simultaneous in the midst of while you're doing it and while something else is going along. It also means quiet and cozy. So that's pretty good. I just while away my time, you know, tranquilly, cozily.

[14:07]

So the question we're asking here is, what is the connection between, you know, this neither stick nor not stick and going beyond, and Dogen saying, nose is vertical and I just while away my time. Or I defined Zen yesterday as a mere concept which we don't review. There's no Buddhism or Zen, it's just a constructed reality. Or we can even say Zen is a mere concept. But, I add, which we don't review. And the secret is there, which we don't review, as the Prajnaparamita literature points out. The bodhisattva does not review the form in which he trains. I can try to give you some characteristics of this Sonamama, just as it is Zen. In one of the many lists of

[15:56]

attributes and aspects of the way our mind and desires work. It says, the ends of the eyes of the ordinary person are in the earth. And it means your eyes are attached to things. You're not satisfied with what you see. You're not satisfied with what you hear. So, sono mama zen means that you're actually satisfied with what you hear. You're actually satisfied with what you see. When you see something, you have no feeling of something missing or something unpleasant. Now, that is not the way most people, just to accept something just as it is, is understood. your eyes are satisfied with what they see, your hearing is satisfied with its hearing. This means the ends of your eyes are in your eyes. It means you have completely accepted that this is a constructed reality. So thoroughly that you know your own participation in it, that you're not

[17:28]

the subject of passive content. So, your eyes are satisfied with what they see, your hearing is satisfied with what it hears. In the Prajnaparamita literature it expresses it as, without unwholesome roots. you no longer perceive anything unpleasant. It doesn't mean that suddenly there is no suffering in the world. It just means, it's a little difficult to explain but give you a feeling for it, but this is what Dogen means when he says, nose is vertical and eyes horizontal. But it's also what he means when he talks about self joyous samadhi, which means, and he says, I love it, he says, to disport yourself in this self-joyous samadhi. But this means to see things from the point of view of samadhi or in samadhi. It means to see things, to see everything in its own time.

[18:54]

That means, first of all, you yourself have to be in your own time. To see things in their own time, you know, maybe it's difficult to express why everything is okay then, not unpleasant. Your eye is satisfied with its seeing. Here, the distinction of Withholding and granting. I have been talking too, for those of you who weren't here before, in session, that the way in Zen practice we distinguish between what sometimes is called the negative way and positive way, to see things, this is Buddha, this is Buddha, or this is not Buddha. Or in terms of yes or no, or right or wrong. We don't practice with it this way, but we practice with it in terms of granting or withholding. That you're always in the position of waiting to eat lunch, and then eating lunch. You don't snack all day long. This is the same as coming here to chant, or coming to lecture, or the whale chanting. And it's the problem of how to get to the eel and the gourd.

[20:28]

But at the stage I'm talking about, when you see things in your own time, there's not an experience of withholding or granting, because you know when the time is just right. And at that point you can completely trust your own inclination to do something or not do it. You know accurately. There's a great precision in practice, you know. you know accurately whether it's possible or not. And in fact, things which are not possible don't occur to you. You're always moving from the possible to the possible to the possible. This is what Dogon means by, to while away his time, sun comes up in the east, etc. Manzan, you know, a Buddhist priest and poet of the 17th century, said, one minute of sadhana, one minute of sitting, one inch of Buddha, one inch of Buddha. Like lightning, our thoughts come and go, come and fade.

[22:03]

Just once, look into your mind depth. Nothing has ever been before. This is a very simple poem, but as I pointed out, he equates time and space. One minute of sitting, one inch of Buddha, time and space. everything comes and goes like lightning, flashing. Just once look into your own mind depths, it also means your eyes end here. Nothing has ever been before. This is also that in this constructed reality. When you actually plunge into this over and over again, what is real? How does this construction occur? How do my five skandhas put it together? When you plunge into this over and over again,

[23:29]

you find out that the many, many past, present and future are completely on this one moment, just once. So here we have this fourth, which is beyond form and emptiness. And this, in the first one, in the third one there, where it says simultaneously both form and emptiness, The word I use to express this is, everything specifies the other. Man specifies woman, red corpuscles specify white corpuscles, tree and leaf specifies air, air specifies plant. But the fourth is, everything implies all other things. This is all time and space is contained in this past, present and future. So just once look into your mind depth means this. Or I can say you know everything in its own time, not only in your time, but in its own time.

[25:00]

And when you can do this with the confidence, like your own home, you feel very much at home in your own home. But it's clearly a constructed reality. Your favorite possession, some history attached to various objects. It's not a motel. It's a place you clearly have the experience of having constructed, and it makes you feel very at home. And so, as I've said, Buddhism too, we feel very at home in because it's an epiphany of constructed reality. The epiphany of constructed reality. It's clearly a constructed reality, and when I come in here to begin service, I offer incense, you know. I do something with the air, in other words. I take some powdered incense, you know, some nice smell, and there's a candle burning. And I do something with my body, you know, I bow. And we do something with sound.

[26:34]

It's clearly just a construction we make using the various elements of mind and matter and energy. And we are in the process now of constructing this discussion. I'm discussing it with you and you are discussing it with yourself. not different from the whales chanting, not different from putting reality in a gourd. So Zen asked, what is the ultimate nature of this construction that we just made, that we played with, a kind of playing with it, you know, offering incense, acting it out for a moment you know, just to point out to us all, this is a constructed reality. And you who doubt it, you know, hopefully with Sazen, explore, try to see if you can find something that's not a constructed reality. See if you can find something that's absolutely, unequivocally real.

[28:04]

So, this fourth level is called, where everything implies everything else, is called radiance also, or the gathering of light. Or, you know, that's why I said trying to talk about the shine in someone's eyes. the light in someone's eyes. And actually, everything does shine, and that shining is perceived when you are in the own space of that which you're looking at, when you share the time and space. Now, I should say, Dogen says, it is neither horizontal, another place, he says, it is is neither horizontal nor vertical. Remember he said, I came back empty handed, he said, letting loose of everything it fills your hands, fills your mouth. So this is

[29:29]

I'm bringing together various Buddhist elements to create for you a ... has been considered from all aspects of Buddhism throughout its history. The Prajnaparamita literature says again, see through the suchness of the dharmas. past, present and future. One sense of the meaning of dharma is that which is not further analyzable, you know, primary kind of elements, that which is not further analyzable. So see through the dharma's past, present and future, reaching to the non-production limit. It's so wonderfully technical, or reality limit. But reach to the non-production limit means that point, and non-production limit means nirvana. So non-production limit means that point at which you reach the edge of constructed reality,

[31:03]

or if the air is created by the leaf, and the leaf ... so the air is completely dependent on the leaf, and the leaf is completely dependent on the air, and yet, as I said, the air can, as wind, knock down the tree and blow off the leaf. But within this construction of leaf and air, mutually self-referencing, creating another technical term, a closure. This specifies everything else. But what about outside that constructed reality? Is there any outside of that constructed reality? Here, Dogen is trying to suggest that by saying, it is neither horizontal nor vertical. So this Sonamama, just as it is, you know, everyday Zen, means you are in the time and place of whatever you are, any situation you're in.

[32:32]

But you're also free of that situation, no horizontal or vertical, simultaneously. Original faith, your original faith before your parents, sometimes means that kind of supple mind which is simultaneously one with something and separate. Separate? I don't know. Not exactly separate. When that's so, there's a great dignity, or solitary, or isolated quality to everything, and at the same time, a total relatedness. And these two facts don't interfere with each other. These two observations. And the way to practice this is, of course,

[33:34]

One of the main ways is patience. Patience is ... and to put yourself in situations where you would be impatient, like Zazen, where nothing ever happens. From one point of view, nothing ever happens. From another point of view, ten thousand things come up. And on the first two or three you decide to get up and go do some of them. But you need some patience. So you develop patience, the ability to just be there. As I expressed it before, the ability to put yourself in one basket, you know. One of the great problems, as I've expressed it with our capitalistic society, is the idea of reward and salary and etc. So if you do this you get a salary which will give you the freedom to disport yourself freely in the material world. But this is putting yourself in two baskets. And Zen is a radical putting

[35:01]

yourself in one basket only. But we play with it. For instance, this last Sashin, as you may know, Sugiyoshi had some resistance or hesitation about having his lectures taped and didn't tape them for a long time. And finally he gave in and we taped his lectures and we're grateful that he gave in because now we can listen to him. But at the same time, there's this other side where maybe we shouldn't tape. And I decided finally, first we decided not to tape every lecture. What the heck is anybody going to do with all this tape? And so we only taped Sashin lectures because sometimes they might appear in the wind bell

[36:03]

But this time I decided not to tape Sashi Mataji. But we're taping this one. I thought I shouldn't be too severe. So I'll tape this one. It's okay. Someone will lose the tape, so. Or no one will ever listen to it. But this is, you know, my feeling of to express, you know, one aspect of my feeling to express radically we're in one basket. Now Suzuki Rishi's book is great and, you know, I worked very hard on that book and people like it and they come here because they've read it and it's been of great use to many people. But still, my own feeling is I'm not interested in partial... Basically, my first priority is I'm not interested in partial understanding. And what we are trying to do here is our family affair.

[37:26]

And I feel you have to put yourself in this basket. It's not so good to be able to listen to the lecture later, or read it later. If you sleep through the lecture, I don't care. I mention this only because the degree to which Zen actually is, though we may allow lectures to be taped sometimes, And we may write books. But basically, Zen is radically in one basket. Moment after moment, you are completely out on a limb. Completely there, mountains and stream coming from nowhere, and you don't know where you are. It's already in the gourd. There's no need for any further review pierced through the suchness of the dharmas, past, present and future, to the non-production limit. Maybe radical confidence and radical patience

[39:03]

Patience until there's no need for withholding or granting, for exactly everything is always mutually identified. And finally, when you are really calm, everything implies everything else. But this can't be reached intellectually. It has to be reached by your actual mental and physical calmness. and a perception so radical that it's overturned your thinking. That you can exist in what you find out is constructed reality without a meaning, except that you give it by your own choice. You can exist in this interplay without fear, without being cowed or intimidated. Here you have radical confidence, confidence which is not based on proving anything or on any past record.

[40:26]

Confidence based on nothing except the emptiness which reaches out in all directions and penetrates in everything you could call a direction. This is black lacquered pot. One Zen teacher had a habit of calling his students, anything they said to him, he'd use black lacquer pot. Finally, they got the point, I hope. to self-joyous samadhi. Eyes are horizontal, nose is vertical, sun comes up from the east. We call it the

[42:02]

We completely make use of this point of view, which calls it the East. But we aren't encumbered by that point of view, threatened or pushed around by that point of view. Willow. The willow is not green, nor is the flower red. Maybe we can call Zen a kind of radical sanity, too. Ordinary sanity is you don't get your tracks mixed up. You have ordinary patience.

[43:25]

which allows you to try to find the time to do something where the various tracks work. The various double-binding perceptions can be handled without distorting your internal messages. But when you see these, through those tapes sometimes people go crazy, but then it's a practice to realize a kind of radical sanity on this point, beyond depression or elation. The marks of it are a kind of joyous, self-joyous samadhi. I'm satisfied with what it sees, you're satisfied with what you hear. You just while away your time. No resistance.

[44:45]

Your mind has no foreground or background. Just do Zazen. Find some opportunity to do Zazen. Find some opportunity to cut through your usual activity and sit down and find out what happens. Offering everything its own time and space.

[46:09]

you'll discover very quickly the taste of what Dogen calls Self-Joyous Samadhi. And you'll know what to do with everything. You can throw away your goads.

[46:37]

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