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. So I'm always curious to see how many people are here for the first time. If you'd be willing to raise your hand and let me know how many first-timers we have. One, two, three. Welcome. Welcome to Beginner's Mind Temple. As you can see, being a beginner is a good thing here at this temple. I'm also curious how many people are attending the one day... Well, I think most of you are. How many are not attending the one day sitting today? Okay, a good number of you. So we have a kind of a mixed crowd. Traditionally, about once a month here at the temple, we sit from... 5.30 in the morning till 6 o'clock at night, obviously having meals and a short break and some work practice in the afternoon, but it's a chance to settle into our zazen in a way that's hard to do unless you set aside that amount of time.

[01:15]

This morning I'm going to talk a little bit about Dogen and a little bit about the Genjo Koan, and I just also am obviously doing surveys this morning. How many people are familiar with Dogen and some of his life? And how many aren't? It's interesting to see how many even some of the newcomers are. And how many aren't familiar with the Genjo Hoan? Okay. So this will be a repetition for quite a few of you, but maybe that's okay. So Dogen Zenji was born in 1200 in Kyoto. which was then the capital of Japan. He was born into high society. I think he was the illegitimate son of one of the highest-ranking nobles in that society. And according to Hee Jim Kim and his essay on Dogen, perhaps no society in human history emphasized aesthetic refinement and sensibility more than the Japanese court nobility in those days.

[02:24]

That was early 13th century Japan. And that was where he was born into that. And because his father was such a powerful member of the court nobility, he was trained in poetry and the refined arts of that time. His mother died when he was eight. And according to the stories, at his mother's funeral, as he was watching the smoke from the incense, he resolved to become a monk. And he did. He went at age 13 to the Tendai tradition, which was a major school of Buddhism at that time. I was in Japan in June, and I went up to Tendai. It still occupies most of Madhie, which is just outside of Kyoto. And they have a large hall where they have the great teachers from their tradition, and Dogen's picture is there. even though Dogen left Tendai after a few years and studied Rinzai before he went off to Japan to actually find the type of practice he felt would make the most sense for him.

[03:34]

But everybody claims a winner, so to speak. So he left the Tendai Monastery and just at that time Rinzai was beginning in Kyoto and he studied for seven years in the Rinzai tradition and then left for China at age 23. where he studied for five years under Ru Jing, from whom he received Dharma transmission. And then he returned to Japan in 1227 at the age of 27. He lived in a hermitage until 1233 when he founded his own monastery. And during that summer practice period of his own monastery, he composed the Maha Anya Haramita, which was a short commentary on the Heart Sutra. and that fall he wrote the Genjo Koan for a lay practitioner. The Genjo Koan was one of his earliest writings. Dogen is an unusual Zen master in that he wrote extensively.

[04:38]

When we study most of the teachings of Zen teachers from China, Zen was founded in China, They're usually just short stories about interactions between the teachers and their students. They're called koans, and they usually hold an essential aspect of Zen teaching in them. But hardly any of those Zen masters wrote extensively. We just have these short stories that are collected in volumes like the Blue Cliff Records or the Shogo Gen... book of serenity. And even that was the case for Suzuki Roshi. He didn't write extensively. There's a little book called Zen is Right Here, and it has a lot of stories about interactions between Suzuki Roshi and his students. And of course, we have translated because we had modern technology and recorded his lectures, have translated many of his lectures into English, but he never wrote much. But Dogen was well-trained in the art of writing.

[05:40]

In fact, he not only wrote in Chinese, but certainly invented the Japanese religious writing. And he wrote 95 fascicles. These are short essays, 95 four- or five-page essays on what he understood Zen to be. And in one of the collections, the one most people think was the one he ordered. himself, the Genjo Koan, was the first essay placed in that collection. Okamura, in his book on Dogen, states that through these two essays, the one about the Heart Sutra and the Genjo Koan, Dogen expressed his basic understanding of Buddhist teaching. For him, the practice of zazen is the practice of perfection of wisdom and And the philosophy of perfection of wisdom is expressed poetically in the Genjo Koan. And Nishiyari Boku-san says in his introduction to the Genjo Koan, this essay is the skin, flesh, bones, and marrow of Dogen.

[06:54]

The fundamental teaching of Dogen's lifetime is expounded in this fascicle. The 95 fascicles of the Shobo Genzo are the offshoot of this philosophy. fascicle, fascicle is essay. So this four-page essay, according to Nishiari, contains it all. So if we could just figure out what this four-page essay told us about what Zen practice was, we'd really be done. And it's interesting that... this four-page essay, there's been commentaries on this essay by many, many famous Japanese teachers, and it's only been recently, in the last 50 years, that the essay was even translated into English. I think the first time was in, I don't know, maybe 1953 by Kaz Tanahashi and Robert Aiken. I may have that date wrong. But now we have not only the essay translated by quite a few good translators, but we have... the commentaries of famous teachers translated in English.

[07:58]

We have a great commentary by Shohako Okamura that he wrote in English, and then this book, Dogen's Genjo Koan, three commentaries, has commentaries by Nishiari, Suzuki Roshi, and Kosho Uchiyama. So we have some hope of penetrating the essence of this... essay. I mean, of course, from another point of view, you would say it's hopeless because it was written in 13th century by a person living in 13th century Japan in a language which is so far from modern Japanese that most Japanese people can't understand it. How can we possibly penetrate to what's going on there? Well, we can't unless we were to replicate the 13th century Japan and speak in that language. But on the other hand, since we all sit zazen and are all asking the fundamental questions that Dogen was asking, which is what is the meaning of life and how should I behave myself, we have some sense of what he was trying to do.

[09:11]

One of the... Students at dinner the other night in the dining room here said, well, what are you going to talk about? I said, I was going to talk about Dogen. And she said, well, that sounds very serious. I don't know if I can deal with Dogen. And it is true. Dogen is kind of serious. But I don't know, it's fall. Maybe it's time for us to, summer's over, it's time for us to get a little bit serious. Maybe Dogen is not so much serious, but fundamental. It's a fundamental teaching. But I think more of the reason why I'm interested in Dogen and why we tend to be interested in Dogen at Zen Center is Suzuki Roshi, the founder of this temple, was interested in Dogen. In fact, he studied Dogen early on from one of the most famous Dogen scholars in Japan. And when he came to America, he lectured Dogen on Dogen all the time, and he lectured on the Genjo Koan almost every year he was here in America.

[10:17]

And Kaz Tanahashi, who translated all 95 essays by Dogen, said that Zen mind, beginner's mind, is pure Dogen. So Dogen is kind of like a blood vein of our way of practice, and every once in a while it's worthwhile to try to get some sense for what it's about. So one of the things about Dogen that's unique in world religions is his approach to Zen is unique in that his focus is not on getting enlightenment. When I first came to Zen Center, which was quite a few years ago, we were all into getting enlightenment that would solve our problems. Basically, I'm suffering. The world is a mess. If I get this enlightenment thing, then I'll know what to do. And Suzuki Roshi never talked much about enlightenment.

[11:21]

And that's because Dogen didn't talk so much about enlightenment in the sense of having some experience that would all of a sudden get your life organized. Maybe you guys aren't interested in that anymore. You've probably given up that whole idea that you'd have one big experience and it would organize your life and solve all your problems. At least I hope you... aren't living in that world. So Dogen's focus is entirely on honoring the depth and poignancy of our ordinary human life. That was the point of his practice, our ordinary moment-by-moment human life and the depth and poignancy of that. In fact, he says that is what enlightenment is. the depth and poignancy of this moment in your life. So I guess we should talk a little bit about what Genjo Koan means, since that was the title of this essay.

[12:43]

in the book that Shohakamara wrote called Realizing the Genjokoni, defined it this way. As a verb, genjo, the first part of genjokon, means to manifest, to actualize, or to appear and become. As a noun, it refers to reality as it is actually happening in the present moment. Genjo, reality as it's actually happening right now. That's the term you use to describe that. I mean, we could just say reality or other common terms we use for that in Zen is suchness. The experience of reality as it's happening right now. So we add to reality as it's happening right now the word koan. Koans become such a common word in the American language that

[13:44]

Does everybody know what koan means? Pretty much. It's a term for those paradoxical Zen stories that people throw around. Or the American Heritage Dictionary said, a riddle in the form of a paradox used in Zen Buddhism as an aid to meditation and a means of gaining intuitive knowledge. You know, we're all familiar with those famous koans, like, you know, Zhao Zhou, my favorite teacher from the Tang Dynasty, probably the greatest teacher during that period of time, or one of the greatest ones. We have many koans from him, like a monk comes up and says, what is Zhao Zhou? Zhao Zhou being his name. And he says, East Gate, West Gate, North Gate, South Gate. Like, who can understand that?

[14:45]

Really, I mean. Or another monk comes up and says, what's the meaning of Bodhidharma coming from the West? And Bodhidharma brings Zen to China. And Zhao Zhao says, the cypress tree in the courtyard. Of course, one can spend a lot of time deconstructing these things and One can go back and say, well, that guy said, what is Jiaojou? It's a good question. What are you? Jiaojou, teacher. And the teacher says, east gate, west gate, north gate, south gate. Of course, you'd have to know that back at that time, Jiaojou was the name of the city that Jiaojou lived in. He took the name of the city as his name. So the student is asking, are you you or are you the city? Or what's the difference between you and the environment you live in? Are you the same as your environment? And on and on it goes, because you could also look at the four gates as the sort of four windows of wisdom, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.

[15:59]

And after about 45 minutes, which I was almost tempted to do this morning, we would think, well, I really do understand that, and I'm going to wander around saying, Am I East Gate, West Gate, North Gate, South Gate? Am I open to my environment? But no, we're not going to do that this morning. We're going to save that for the fall, when we have more time to explore those things. So, on the one hand, we know what koan is. Koan is like that question, what's going on here? But... If you actually deconstruct the characters of koan, it's ko, which is the equality of all things, and an, which is the uniqueness or particularity of each and every being. And this is true of us, too. We're both connected to everything. That is meaning we're part of the oneness of everything and equal to everything. And at the same time, we're a totally unique person. So you could say you are a koan.

[17:01]

In fact, we would say this. So genjo koan means in this way, how do we manifest both this connection to everything and our individual separateness in the reality of the present moment as it's actually happening? That is, how do we actually act and express ourselves in any given moment, recognizing that we're both completely a separate thing, and actually connected to everything. So, of course, I mean, I could just state the question more obviously. How do we act in the midst of this incredible mystery of being a human being? A human being that is both way bigger than we think of ourselves. We usually think of ourselves, well, I'm just this person here viewing the all of that out there. But there's the question raised, is all of that out there really all of that out there?

[18:09]

Or is all of that out there actually part of you? Or actually also you? We would say it is. And that's a much better place to view the world from, because if you sit here and say, well, there's me, and I'm trying to figure out how to get along in the world, and there's all of that out there, I'm outnumbered. Looks pretty difficult. I better really figure out how I'm going to get what I need from the world out there before it, you know, takes me out. Another sort of translation of the terms I've thrown out there is Genja Cohen is to answer the question from true reality. through the practice of our everyday activity. That's sort of using that idea that koan is a question, that is true reality, what's going on right now actually presents you a question that you have to answer with your life, with your action.

[19:20]

That's pretty much the way it is most of the time, don't you think? I was talking to a friend who was out hiking the other day, and he was using his Google Maps or some kind of mapping software on his iPhone on a long hike. And he was able to get all the right trail connections because of his Google Map thing. And then he said, oh, I'm so busy looking at my Google Map, following the map of my life, that I don't even see anything that's going on. And so he turned off his Google Maps and was happily walking and looking at the trees and really getting one with nature. And then about an hour later, he realized, I'm totally lost. I have no idea where I am. Turned on his Google Maps again and realized he was four miles, added an extra four miles to his hike to find his way back. So we need both things. We need both some kind of ability to pay attention to a map of our life. We're going to go to the grocery store to get some food. We need to know which streets to walk on, assuming we're walking to.

[20:24]

But we also... have to be able to be aware of what we're doing when we're walking on the street so that we don't get run over by a car or we're looking at our little map iPhone or we don't get mugged or we don't bump into somebody accidentally. So it's how to be present moment by moment in your life and solve the problems. In that case, that was a simple problem. That was not getting lost in the woods. We have more complex problems because we meet somebody and we have this strange thing called another human being, strange being, human. What's going on with them? How do I interact with them? And I'm going to hopefully, if I get there, we'll address that a little bit later. I might just throw out that there's a whole variety of other translations of Genjo Koan that are used in various different texts.

[21:27]

One is actualizing the fundamental point. Isn't that nice? In this moment, actualize the fundamental point. Or another one, manifesting suchness. Manifesting the suchness of reality. Or the issue at hand. How do you like that? What's up? The issue at hand. The question of everyday life. What's the question everyday life presents you? The koan of our human life. The koan of the present moment. I like that one. That's kind of short. The koan of the present moment. So Dogen is saying, living every moment of time is a koan. It is in the meaning of Genjo Kohan, the Kohan of everyday life. We just need to look at our life and see what it means to live every moment.

[22:31]

Every moment we are born and we die, every moment we are deluded and awakened, every moment is sacred and immense, we cannot see the end of it. Can we actually... the point that every moment is sacred and immense? I mean, first of all, in this moment, that is the only moment there is. If it's not immense, when will it get to be immense? I mean, there's the next moment, which is completely different than the last moment, and it's immense in both a completely different way and maybe exactly the same way. So to practice this koan is to fully enter the depth and breadth of the present moment. To fully enter the depth and breadth of the present moment.

[23:35]

And we do that by practicing zazen. That's for those who are fortunate to spend the day sitting down in the zendo. You will actually get to see if you can settle down enough to experience the depth and breadth of your life in this present moment? I mean, it's also true when you're out shopping at Whole Foods. Can you experience the depth and breadth of your moment as you're waiting in line while somebody tries to find coins in their purse? Because some people still pay with coins in their purse. Of course, sometimes, in the present moment of our life, we have a problem. Well, maybe most times we have a problem that we're trying to solve.

[24:43]

And how do we try to solve those problems? I think Dogen is saying, well, don't look at that problem just as well. As soon as I solve that problem, then I'll be able to practice then. soon as I solve that problem, then I'll be able to actually pay attention to my life. But to say, look at that problem and say, well, that is my life right now. That is, and what is the depth and breadth of that problem as part of my life? You know, I don't know, most problems that we have, you'll realize, come from a root, bigger problem deep inside of us that's causing us to be angry. So why are we angry? You know, what is it like to actually feel with your whole body? your anger. And if you're sitting zazen, you have the advantage of being able to do that without worrying about the fact you're going to hit anybody. So you can actually, oh, wow, the reason I'm angry is I'm afraid. That's what's underneath my anger, fear. That's an interesting thing to learn about.

[25:46]

Where did that fear come from? What's going on with that? So if you examine many cases the problems that you have in your life, you'll realize there's much more complexity there than you thought. And that your problem is actually a particular example of a very human problem that everybody else has, too. And if you can explore your own problem at enough depth, you'll have the capacity to meet another person when they're having that kind of problem. So I'm suggesting today you might take a central problem, maybe one that comes up in your sitting today, and reframe it as a koan, as a question, instead of, I'm just going to try to get through this.

[26:47]

What is this telling me about my life? And how deep can I understand this question? How do we understand our lives? Every moment is really a koan. Being and non-being are the same. Life is the same as death. This is the ultimate koan. Genjo koan is the koan of the arising of the present moment in its particularity and its universality. The Genjo koan is the koan of the arising of the present moment and its particularity and its universality. I'm having trouble with that. I should have a glass of water. Universality. It's particularity and universality. Ooh! This is why you have Jesus. I guess it's just warm enough to have a little sweat going.

[27:48]

Are we all right there, Jesus? Yes. Thank you. Getting back to particularity and universality. I wrote this. I don't know why I wrote it. How is it possible that I am simultaneously connected to everything and yet completely unique? How do you experience that? That's a kind of koan, isn't it? Like, what am I? Kind of this thing that, you know, I see a tree and all of a sudden I'm the tree. So this is not the kind of koan I was telling you about where the student comes up in 8th century China and says to the master, you know, what are you?

[28:53]

And he says, East gate, West gate, North gate, South gate. This is the koan that you're actually living with. Every day, every moment of every day, you are confronted with this issue of how to live your life. And who are you? And what are you? The koan of the present moment. So I thought I would share some comment that Sikiroshi made on Genjo koan because... He's the person that sort of brought it to us and I kind of love his way of doing this. So this is it. So this is his comment on the meaning of Genjo Koan. The secret of all the teachings of Buddha is how to live in each moment. How to obtain absolute freedom moment after moment. This is the theme of the Genjo Koan. Moment after moment we exist in interdependency with past and future and all existence.

[29:54]

In short, if you practice zazen, concentrating on your breathing moment after moment, you will be keeping the precepts, helping yourself and others, and attaining liberation. We do not aim for or emphasize some particular state of mind or some particular teaching. Even though it is a perfect and profound teaching, we do not emphasize the teaching only. Rather, we emphasize how we understand and how we bring the truth into practice. This practice does not mean some particular practice only. When we say Zen, Zen includes all the activities of our life. So I thought that was pretty nice. So this was Suzuki Roshi's practice. Suzuki Roshi was like both very kind of strict. I mean, he sat Zaha Zen every day. He came to America and brought 90-day practice periods, built Tassara to do that.

[30:58]

One morning when he was bowing, he said, well, I don't think three boughs is enough. We'll do nine boughs. So when we do morning service, we do nine boughs. I went to Japan, and I was at a Heiji, and they do three boughs. So he was tougher on us. He thought we should bow more. So what is he telling us in the Genja Koan? Sukiroshi is saying Dogen's writing is about an essentially open, flexible and responsible, responsive form of practice. This is what the dry technical word non-duality really amounts to in life. Non-duality means flexibility, openness and creativity. It is exactly beginner's mind. It is exactly not always so. Not having assumptions, not holding on to this or that, but being willing to meet every moment and see what happens.

[32:02]

That was really who Suzuki Roshi was, what he manifested. Those two terms, beginner's mind and not always so, were famous terms of his, and his first book was named after beginner's mind, and his second book was named after not always so. No rules, just how to respond appropriately to this question of this moment. I think you have a sense of the title of the essay, and I thought I would grab a couple of sentences from the essay and just sort of expand on it a little bit. I think in the second paragraph of the Genjo Kohan it says, these are sort of examples of how you think about this, how to answer that question in the present moment. To carry yourself forward and experience myriad things is delusion. That myriad things come forth and experience themselves is awakening.

[33:08]

To carry yourself forward and experience myriad things is delusion. I don't understand why that's delusion. That's what I do all the time. I go forward with my idea of what's going on in the world, implement it, and experience something. And he says that's delusion. He says that myriad things, the many things of the world, if they come forth and experience themselves in me, that's awakening. You understand the difference? One would be taking your view of the world and asserting it on the world in order to make something happen. Get some food. Get some love. Get some companionship. The other way is to open yourself to the world. Have the world flow into you and manifest itself in you.

[34:16]

There was a famous Dale Wright in a book he wrote on Wang Bo, who was a famous great teacher in China, and his description of that was, Wang Bo pictures enlightened teachers in real-life situations as effacing themselves so that the true contour of the situation comes to disclosure in them. Isn't that a complicated way of saying the same thing I said? Effacing themselves, that is you... Eliminate your self-interest and your view of the world so that the true contour of everything in the situation comes and discloses it in you. You feel everything that's going on in the situation. They encounter the world not through acts of will and mind primarily, but through relinquishment, renunciation, letting go. opening their minds and their hearts to the larger context of the situation.

[35:23]

And then it can be manifested through them. So you kind of get that sense that the situation expresses itself through you if you're open enough to it. And that's contrary to managing the situation from some idea you have about it. That's one interpretation of those two sentences. There's many other interpretations which we'll get into later, but I'll just sort of leave you with that one. Sikiroshi made a comment on that too, which is great. He says, when we have no particular concrete idea of good or bad, we expose ourselves and accept criticism. That is enlightenment. I just think that's fantastic. Instead of entering the situation with a whole bunch of ideas about what's right and wrong or good and bad, we just expose ourselves.

[36:30]

We just open ourselves up and accept the criticism that comes from the world. That isn't the way we normally do it, is it? Normally we're so busy, oh, I don't want to be criticized. I've got to be careful. I'm going to manage the situation so I don't get criticized. And to be willing to do that, to expose yourself to the situation and accept whatever criticism comes your way, that's enlightenment. That's what Siddhartha said. Kind of very reassuring, very courageous, isn't it? Take that risk. So... So you're sitting zazen today and whatever is coming up for you was meant to come up.

[37:33]

It didn't just happen out of the blue. So you can trust that what's come up for you is what you should pay attention to. And since I'm talking about exploring the depth and breadth of what you're experiencing in that moment, if that's what's up for you in zazen, then just pay attention to that. And pay attention to that by paying attention to your breathing and your posture. That is our most basic grounding of our practice. It's so interesting, breathing. You know, air. We don't think about air at all. It's one of those things that in the present moment is like, why think about it? It's always there and we always breathe it. Although we did think about it more this summer with all the fires in California. A lot of times the air quality wasn't so good. I was going to go hiking in the Sierras with some friends, and we canceled our trip because where we were going was so filled with smoke from fires that it wouldn't be safe to breathe it.

[38:37]

So it isn't always to be taken for granted, but typically we take our breathing for granted. And it's the most valuable thing we have, much more valuable than a lot of money in our wallet or diamonds, because if we're without air for just the shortest period of time we're in trouble. But we do forget that air is such an important thing for us. And at the same time we also forget that our practice is pretty important for us. Without our practice we go astray. I was having dinner last night with a friend of mine, Puran, from England. He's in town for the... He was founder of the One Planet Communities. He's in town for the Global Action Climate Summit, which is happening this week. So many things happening in San Francisco this week.

[39:39]

There's a huge visual thing down at the pavilion at Fort Mason called Coal and Ice, where they're exploring the results of all the coal we burned on the planet. And there's... Of course, this Global Action Climate Summit organized by Governor Brown happened Wednesday and Thursday. I think there's a climate march going on today, too. Lots to think about in the world. So anyway, Porin was mentioning that it can be discouraging to be an environmentalist and try to take care of the assault on the planet of what we're doing. But he says the only way he's able to do it is because he meditates, because of his practice. And I'm more convinced than ever that this is a good time for us to practice.

[40:40]

This is a good time for us to... And I think the world is open to it. I think more people are recognizing that practice is going to be needed because of all the suffering in the world. It would be better if we were able to work together toward the good, whether it's our families, whether it's the other different groups we work with or belong to. Whatever it is that we are doing that promotes friendship and caring for one another, we need this more than ever. So that is why this is just such a good time to practice. I was, I don't know, for some reason it came up recently. There was, during the Vietnam War era, which I was very, you know, much a young man and quite discouraged by what was going on in the world. Kind of reminds me a little bit about these times. And we were, there was a one day sitting with Suzuki Roshi and the students were saying, shouldn't we be out marching?

[41:46]

And he said, well, that would be okay. But, you know, I think he got a little frustrated. He said something like, did I actually pull that up? Oh, yes. How can you expect to do anything in the world when you can't even tie your own shoes? Well, we can tie our own shoes, but do we really have enough composure in our life to know how to take care of our life and be friendly and helpful to everybody? And we know that practice will help us with that. So I would encourage everybody to continue your daily sitting practice. And if you don't have a daily sitting practice, I would say maybe come here or go somewhere and take a 40-minute zazen instruction and try sitting 20 minutes a day. See if that makes a difference in your life and your ability to conduct your affairs.

[42:49]

And to sit with a group is good. It's encouraging to sit with other people. to sit with the Genjo Koan. And maybe a simple way to sit with a Genjo Koan is to sit with a question. What is it? What is this breath? What is this moment right now? What is it? What is going on here? So, I hope you sit today and see what happens. Thank you very much. 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.

[43:53]

@Transcribed_UNK
@Text_v005
@Score_95.83