Dogen's Life

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hi to changes to truth about to targeters orange

i'm running
one those really rare but wonderful entrances of serendipity i found that when we came in for service this morning and we're celebrating duncan's
this mixture and get it right seven hundred and ninety seventh birthday
and so on the ultra we had tea as an offering and rice and other on the side we have a a birthday cake of chocolate which didn't didn't know that
there's another way of saying happy birthday to duncan
and on the suspension using a different view on the altar
so i'm actually i didn't know this
when i started to work on this lecture but in fact the selection also is about dorgan
and how he came to practice
so i'm giving a kind of way seeking mind works your on dorgan
not exactly for him because i don't think i can do that for more about him
darwin's i'm sure most of your name was the founder of the settles and sent in japan
and i'm on approach to this past was taught to us by suzuki roshi there's one which always incorporate the freshness of beginning mind but his teachings in turn were based on his training at dobyns monastery agent and his understanding of dogan spiritual path
re reading or listening to organs mature works today might have some difficulty remembering the duncan started as a novice just as we did his introduction to the religious just sites was somewhat dramatic but in keeping with that of many other great teachers no matter of what religious persuasion

way
oh their village to be them

okay now if i turned my head can you do
david was the son of a political marriage his mother each study film at the time of marriage was joined to a much shorter husband were resin fat and his middle sixties in an attempt by her father to regain political prominence
dobyns father survived open space by only three years and his grandfather's and attempted to adopt him however his mother who had seen in her own lives the results of political manipulation took him back to her family and it was there that he spent his early childhood
they're both his mother in his father where the aristocracy and connected to the emperor's family was significant in his early life david was raised as a member of the japanese court and had the educational of advantages and connections that when was this social class the family trained him to assume political power
in fact he had an uncle also reached thirteen who rose or minister of the right so there wasn't so much the age as it was the position that was important and over will certainly expect to do so high for the composition
in fact he was well aware of his grandfather's ambitions through and for him politically and found them distasteful
in addition japan itself was going through major changes during dogan size power was shifting back and forth between code factions in his family's fortunes rose and fell the changes of his eyes and his cultural context most have influenced his decision to leave the world
his mother died when he was eight years old
now he was a double orphan
our protection and even more subject to family demands his mother to whom he was close had encouraged as a religious leanings from the beginning and apparently only pointed him toward some monastic life was the story that sitting by her body watching the incident small cries and disappear
here he realized the impermanence of life and found to enter the pass
there were also reports that he was studying advanced buddhist philosophies by his nine two how truly stories are we cannot know in some ways that is not surprising that he is so many others have done turn to religion to find a home even in his earliest years on the other hand they are those for whom the religious
scientists have compelling call circumstances notwithstanding
following his mother's tells broken became a foster child
the practice and our terms so we can understand the emotional and social consequences he was dealing with after his mother died having toronto's more people who pass through our system will foster care i can testify that no matter how good and kind of care for i mentioned a feeling of deep loneliness grief for separation from their families
and the sense of life's uncertainty which prominently colors their perceptions afterwards don't was eight years old it happened actually during the weeks and i education to see an eight year old
and she ran up and down the stairs twittering talking like crazy dragging her little moose bear behind her and i thought this is how old open was when this happened to him how offered to lose your mother in your father
and feel that there's no one there for you

in a year-round to was left around night this my well feel that there was nothing permanent to take her depend on
toga has fostered to his older half brother and remained with him for five years he was fond of his brother that a relationship did not differ parental protection
as he approached his teenage years remembering a thirteen year old uncle who was minister of the right his maternal family must have become more insistent about their political aims because of age thirteen he ran away from his foster family ventura's uncles monastery where he bade his uncle to let him more dane
in in connection with this i want to say that it was not uncommon for children not only to grow the monastery in the shown that in some instances to actually be given to the monasteries infants and they were raised on a monastic context so they never actually had a lay life
well has and his uncle was understand we take taken a aback bergen's request
mostly because dog and other expectation drink but he heroes persuasive because open entered the novice ranks at the monastery where his uncle taught he would not several urbane until he was twenty but he felt that he had entered the way
although it was commonplace for aristocrats who have misfortunes to become monks don't even had not waited for him misfortune beyond that if his mother's cells that had his own inclination brought him to the way
during the next ten years dog and studied first ten buddhism which at that time was finishing as a philosophy in japan the languishing as a practice there were two major monasteries which were ten die than there are so hostile to each other that a remote surgery so we're fighting battles one of these was the one that monastery the
dorgan was out this was far from desirable situation to culture bogans aspiration towards enlightenment and his abbott uncle was equally unhappy with the situation his uncle who have to settle at another temple taking durbin with him bourbons immersion in both state in temperate politics rarely taught him the instability
if human affairs the angry hostile atmosphere just first temperature and probably joined with other experience and his mind to produce intense doubt about buddha nature are things were described him as having and the mild kind of and etc
if we're opposites this nature why removed to develop the aspiration for enlightenment and from ascetic practices to become enlightened
and i'm really putting this might be why we supposedly enlightened beings roaring months to each other creatively the reaching for position and ignoring the spiritual nature which they possess this was the question he asked repeatedly first of the ten day teachers and then of the japanese rinzai teachers for rather different
receive an answer which status find him
it must have seemed to him that there was no one in japan who could teach him
turning from ten day buddhism after his uncle stairs he left his temper at the age of nineteen i went to ruins a teacher meals and during the next two years he started with meals and san diego of traveling to try to seek out of true teacher
his wall to follow the way have been searched hard in an unstable robbed her old teacher asked him to wait for his death to open advised meals and to leave anyway placing the dharma above attachment
nelson bergen and to rather monks left for china india was twenty third year this was incidentally not an easy trip the strait of japan between japan and china there's a notorious to me seeing and ships were lost all the time so it was really you know interesting his wife to the way
and to the his life to the waves for she came inside a couple of times in know
i'm some of his shorter lectures
okay well anyway they've got on the ship and david web that he suffered diarrhea which isn't too surprising but then who also said when the really bad storm came up he forgot about it
which i have been gives you some idea about the same pan as line
the durban's lot of time there isn't a bit of lieutenant a religion and china for over a thousand years to spare approaches in times of persecution chinese buddhism was going strong
china monasteries recent interview by thirteenth century japanese buddhist as a source of true teaching and true teachers in this instance it helps to remember the japanese scholars are studied and new chinese characters in this could communicate and script even though they might not share a common language or durban actually i believe did
have some chinese
at the time david neff for china can have been studying buddhism for ten years he had a lot of intellectual knowledge but was aware of that something was lacking he's hurting your not yet met an authentic teacher or a diamond companion and then when he had the kind of superiority which is endemic to advance
graduate students in her marriage has not yet been mixed buying in temperate boots experience he was on of as his own jungle shows when he first entered into chinese monastery he was angry to being ranked was the beginning novices and you want to consider a turtle to try and changes you been going up as far as the emperor of china conditions to
do anything about it
on the hand his search for and understanding with sincere and in fact circumstance as we sing constantly pointing and torrents the answer to questions
ben doing already some advance head advance questions
his biggest question was if we were already actually in possession and buddha nature and we were already enlightened why do we need to practice their and buddha nature simply and automatically manifest if a a line running after to mexico
maybe a menu here today reported exactly this question who meditated for those and seemingly the no closer now than you wrote ten years ago perhaps you will how to books to find the way perhaps she went to teach to get a hand to found a proceed never went to the sender determined to concentrated until something
the anything happened
the things that like this where had some intensity of despair because you couldn't seem to get inside to happen we have some idea of how broken sell at age twenty three years he approached the source of china
there's a story which shows away this is a really especially brews story but it's one that illustrates what's needed
there was once a boy was father taught him archery
kim in some other boys
every day they went out to the woods to practice or archery over the course of time the boys going to be fairly good and the sun was the best of all the trials he might he could not to his father that either target shooting or hunting
the family rooms or the boroughs and patiently corrected their aim their stance to draw at the end of every session he would point towards the target and say do to see
the summer look around
he saw the woods the grass the sky the birds the target for literature's his father
he suggested all these things to his father course shook his head
the thing that very patient with the father would start off buttering and saying to himself
time went on
remembering when the sun was not far from adulthood his village was attacked without hesitation he took her spell and began to sign
yes he did his concentration was totally one was the target
suddenly he realized what his father was asking he saw nothing but one thing
and seeing that became one with it
after that he never missed
tobin was in the same situation have been asked constantly rather it was seeing for what he saw was books those levels of seniority than these occupied his mind it has intuition than his instinct told him there was more
that was she was seeking was driving him to seek
circumstances respond to the sincere seeker so not always as he has in mind sometimes when we expect and hope to the angels and visions will come down and tell us away but you know often than some ordinary thing
dog's journey was interrupted that his point of arrival because he had not yet taken the seller nation which chinese buddhists required travel on to the monasteries he voted for a further three months on the ship their meals and and the other two monks went on ahead of him naturally he occupied this time spending sutras
the unaware of the merchant activities which were going on board the ship
the ship korean japanese mushrooms as part of its cargo and day davidson over the chinese monk on board buying mushrooms
don't approach the monk and mentioned and asked him where he was from the monk named his monastery and mentioned that he was the chief cook was tensile and japanese and he comes and thirteen miles to the ship that day to buy mushrooms as a treat for the other monks
the man was quite elderly and he evades this trip so far in one day and still have thirteen miles to go back
durban asked him to stay overnight he refused term that he moved to return to the monastery so that the schedule would not be interrupted

ningbo concern to him i can't imagine how fortunate i feel that were able to meet unexpectedly like this if it's possible i wish you would stay a while longer and allow me to offer you something more
i'm sorry but is impossible just now is i not there tomorrow to prepare the meal that will not be made well
but surely there must be areas into place as large as iran are capable of preparing meals they will not be that inconvenienced if you are not they're willing
i haven't put in charge of this work and my old age it is so to speak to practice of another man how can i interest or about me to others however when i left the temple and did not ask for permission to stay out overnight
but rather you are so they do the hard work of a turns out why do we might spend your time patterson says and are working on the collins of fellow teachers there's there's something special that again for making it particularly as the thames
he burst out laughing every marked by a good friend from abroad do not really understand what practices out about nor do you know the meaning of characters
when i heard the same monk's robes i was taken back in felt greatly ashamed so i asked him new characters and let us practice
he replied if i do not deceive yourself as about this problem will be a man of the way
at the time i was unable to grasp the meaning of his words
first shock to bear get mine who a cook who could tell them that he didn't understand cooks for more on the totem pole and japanese society and monasteries in fact most monasteries hired people to cook for them
and that certainly seemed to he was talking about
more coffee invited over to meet again after dogan left the ship eventually don't and go through all the bureaucratic requirements for his passport and he left
first he want to mount tang tang
where he had yet another encounter was a cook

the local roof and creamy on food was struggling as ten xo
member after the lumia meal i was walking to another building us in the complex when i notice new dry mushrooms in the sun in front of the books wooden
he carried a bamboo stick that had no head on his head the sun been down so harshly that the details around the rock band one's feet long tired and was covered with swab i couldn't help but feel the work was too much of a strain for him his back was a bomb dropped on his long i
browse were craned white
i approached and asked his aged he replied that he was sixty eight
then i remind to ask him why he never used any assistance he answered over people who are not me
it right i said consumers should work to see activity of the buddha dharma the i'm working so hard in the scorching sun
he replied
if i do not do it now for that's can do it
once again burger was forcibly reminded that meditation and study he had learned were not the so practices of the contagious
he was beginning to understand that there are some other family practice for which embraced his whole life and all of his actions
then the first cook came back like a common into his life this time he came to the monastery to see dorgan

you said and sustainable practice period to send and i shall be retiring as tensile and plan to return home i heard that you were here and wanted very much to talk with you and see how you were doing i was indeed happy to see him and received him cordially my talked about various things in santa came to the
matter he touched on and boat ship concerning the practice and study of characters he said the person who studies characters must know just her characters are and was intending to practice the way must understand where practices i asked him again lot of characters
one two three four five he replied what is practice
there's nothing in the world that is hidden

now durbin had gotten to a very important things when used in connor
when the discipline was necessary
the firm's cope return to the mastery because he had a job and he had not asked for permission to be away overnight
the inner discipline is related to giving up the cells the coke was not going to follow his own inclinations to do fairly his job
the tens or mountian tongue very tired on the sun same other men are not mean if i do not do it now when can i do it
this practice goes on day at night every minute giving everything holding nothing back
the second thing for bogan was a new idea of practice this was a new five hundred thousand manticore on study he had been taught and rinzai zen but the fresh media dropping a body and mind to meet bhutto face to face
when characters stove and asked the cook replied one two three four five
let us practice
there is nothing in the world which is hidden
how do you understand this there was nothing in the world which is hidden
can you get there by counting one two three four five
david was working hard and beginning to get right
but it wasn't quite ripe yet
so circumstance that mysterious thing conspired again
he left not downtown to travel hoping to meet a teacher who could fully resolve his questions
he traveled china for around one and half years and had a run of experiences reserved tantalize i'm spiritually
but he and still not yet met his master
just as heroes on the verge of planning has returned to japan he was told that the santa teacher and on tongue had died and a zen master named drew cheng had taken his place
going back to the mountain he signed master and whom he could repost so confidence and began to train under him
you might ask her says kind of and are chain was a master
and the other men he met or not
this was what dug himself said
well as center teacher does not question the age of the degree of learning tool as realize you are sending dharma and has attained the seal of approval as we are sending teacher
he does not consider roads for the ability for comprehension to be the most important
he a man of extraordinary strength and unsurpassed to figure this out for occupation with his view of cells and without indulging in his emotion he devotes himself to training and enlightenment
such is the an authentic teacher
there was another level of recognition which doping doesn't discuss but which brings throughout his journal this is what the tibetans call knowing
the snowing is of hype and is immediate and clear not only did naga no touching the ching also new duncan
recognizing each other they entered the way together
more bourbons practice entered an interesting period he practices and intensively
thanks to chains monastery got up and began to set up to thirty three am after having center sitting at eleven pm the night before
oh pretty easy here to get up at five

john chiang was imperious and insistent instead births and deaths are vital matters the impermanent road passes swiftly away the time so sure i've finish is to fill out of the practice of bodhidharma and to waste your time and so this is what brings the decline of the buddha dharma for those who have the buying for the
ray and the determination to discipline the mangrove southern peru the greater the enjoyment they find in their training
because of abbott's and all corners of the world and lenient towards sitting for buddha dharma is declining the bar we must strike them harm
catchings emphasis on the importance of spaying for the attainment of enlightenment there's actually unique in his time over monasteries and in his opinion less rigorous training and sitting a generally this was true they on
the room they began to sit around four o'clock in the morning that would be the first watch with the night and perhaps they went to bed around eleven so it's change monastery they were getting an average probably have about three hours sleep a day
and working hard and addition to setting because i was a good practice
besides there's as and practice
david was funding for selling the cooks teaching here the mind for discipline and a mind for the way furthermore he had met a man who could decisively answer any question he asked and who do as questions many of them most of his chinese journal is about the questions he asked and to choose answer
that's the same time something else was happening durban tight was melting over and over again he records turban was different moved and the tears moistened his sleeved sometimes he served the tears ran down my face into my colleagues
case he spent a lot of time crime
that the beginning the original a decent interactions with judging will describe very matter-of-factly by the movement was a gentle judging as ours describe their speaking and teaching those compassion he would say judging compassionately said and then he would say what he said and many would say
durban humbly about bergen's tears what of slaves so i was clearly there's something going on
he was wearing was deep joy hearing the teaching
he was regaining the face he lost as a child and in the process the was a suitor and the intellect were coming down
but the by true story because i was focused on one thing only a true alternative knowledge of the diamond which judging by witness to in his own being
since we moved here to to change teaching as well as dobyns and suzuki roshi is that may give a are based on after seven judging fact that the dharma had decayed significantly in china during to the kind of philosophical position that dollars and confucianism buddhism or identical he's an asset identifying buddhism as he's ever school
is to reach the buddhist teachings he was also very critical of sectarian development within chan buddhism itself those particular so t belong to richard that point had split into two or three different scorers and there was ah squabbling to a certain extent going on between them
he believes that the data was undefined a and the child was based on wisdom and discipline as well as meditation
he turns some essential unity of the teachings and he deployed the craving for rank and fame which he felt other adults to spread
the height of his teaching was a visitors ventless insistence on single minded and ten sitting there does come down the rest of chicken taza
furthermore you practice what he preached data records and was saying since the age of nineteen there has not been a single day or night when i do not sit on the meditation cushion in my mind i almost got the buddhist sitting in meditation as a model there are times when i suffered from piles than aldermore did i exert myself to sitting and medal
station
don't customarily referred to chou ching as the old buddha and it's not hard to see why
my neighbor bergen was sitting next to a monk who was sleeping on this cushion
judging came up behind the stupid monk and shattered the study on their mastery room as dropped about in your mind so simple minded and ten something
at that moment dog and walk up
he drop on a in mind
awaking was decisive
some it from it slow the dimas dream which has come down to ross in great abundance
suzuki roshi said talking about us van
durbin said nobody no mind all of his being in that moment became a flashing into the vast phenomena road
a slashing which included everything which covered everything they returned immense quality in and on a phenomenal world was included ascendant an absolute independent existence
starting from the lonely feeling of the evanescence of life he maintained a powerful experience so the quality of his pain
ten years after leaving china durbin wrong to study the broader ways to study the south
to study herself is to forget the self
to forget yourself is to be actualized by the myriad things
an actual rise by the billion things in my body and mind as well as the bodies and minds of others drop away no trace of realization remains than this no trace continues and mostly
after this experience dogan became the dharma he had sought for so long
re the students of his skull have the same potential
the same bird and nature
what's the world to discipline and in mind for the way to control body and mind
let's give it your chain and duncan and suzuki roshi the thanks of a few moments of zazen as we said the walk among us lacking us with slippers and endowing us was to dharma

huh