This podcast is offered by the San Francisco Zen Center on the web at www.sfzc.org. Our public programs are made possible by donations from people like you. Good evening. Very happy to be here. My name is Greg Fane. I'm the Tanto, or Head of Practice, at Tassahara. I'd like to begin by saying that, first, I want to thank and acknowledge my teacher, Sozin Mel Weitzman Roshi, the abbot of Berkeley Zen Center, and to say that my talk is just to encourage you in your practice. I'm very happy to be here right now co-leading this retreat with yoga teacher Purusha Hickson.

[01:11]

I haven't had the pleasure before and I'm really enjoying working in this retreat with Purusha and working with the people in the retreat. It's a wonderful group. We're having so much fun. Even in the part in the morning, while student breakfast and, you know, through work circle, we're in here in the zendo. And we're sitting zazen and talking about Buddhadharma. And the people in the retreat are just like, yeah, zazen. And they're just sitting zazen. And everyone's sitting really good, you know, that great posture. And just like, hmmm. This is cool. We're sitting Zazen now. It's great. We're having a blast. Tonight, I would like to talk about a famous Zen story and a verse that goes with it.

[02:19]

The story and the verse were my case. for when I was head monk at Tassajara in 2005, in the Shuso ceremony. Head monk is called Shuso. And at the end of the practice period, there's a ceremony where the Shuso... Well, a few things happen. The main thing that happens is everybody in the practice period and a bunch of former Shusos get to ask the Shuso a question, one after another, rapid fire. It's very intense. And... Kind of fun, you know, especially if you're not the Shuzhou. And part of the ceremony is the Shuzhou presents a case. Usually in Zen Center, the case is case one of the Blue Cliff Record. Many people know this one. A lot of people know it by heart because they've been to so many Shuzhou ceremonies.

[03:24]

Emperor Wu of Liang. Anyway... can probably recite it. But my teacher, Sotin Roshi, who was leading that practice period, the 75th practice period at Tassahara, he doesn't do that. He finds it boring that they do the same case over and over again. So he chooses different things, different koans. This is not even in any koan collection. It's from the record of Dungshan. Dungshan being... the great Chinese Zen master, Tang Dynasty Chinese Zen master, who is actually, from his name is derived the origin of this school, Soto Zen. Actually, his name and another person's name, Zhaoshan. Dungshan and Zhaoshan put their names together, Dung and Zhao, but actually they switched them around Zhao and Dung. And the Sozan and Tozan in...

[04:25]

Japanese, and that's how you get Soto Zen. So, true story. Dungshan, you know, a lot of these masters are named after mountains, and they were mountains. They were giants. Dungshan, he wasn't like, I know, I'll start the Soto School of Zen. He didn't have any such idea. But it came much later. He was such a great teacher and his lineage prospered and eventually became Soto School. So, in the Record of Doshan is a famous story where Doshan has an enlightenment experience or you could say he becomes enlightened. Or it depends on how you want to talk about it and how you want to understand it.

[05:26]

You could say he just had a big opening or he had a very unusual major, major insight. Depends on how you want to talk about it. Feel free to interpret it any way you want, actually. Classically, the verse is known as Dung Shan's Enlightenment Verse. And it's a poem that he composed after he had this experience. He had this, here's the record of Dengshan. I don't think you can see, but on the cover of this paperback is reproduction of this famous painting of Dengshan crossing a stream. And he's crossing a stream and he looks down in the water and sees his reflection and pow! Something happened. Something opened. Something was unlocked. He had a big insight, big enlightenment experience.

[06:28]

So that's in the record, and there's a whole story about it. So this story is brief, so I can read you the whole thing. This happened right after Dong Shan basically had finished training with his teacher, Yunyan. So he was leaving the monastery. Yunyan had given him his seal of approval, and sent him off to teach on his own. So the story goes, just before leaving Yunyan, Dongshan asked him, if after many years, someone should ask if I am able to portray the master's likeness, how should I respond? After remaining quiet for a while, Yunyan said, just this person. Dungshan was lost in thought. Yunyan said, Chö Acharya, having assumed the burden of this great matter, you must be very cautious.

[07:33]

Dungshan remained dubious about what Yunyan had said. Later, as he was crossing a river, he saw his reflected image and experienced a great awakening to the meaning of the previous exchange. He composed the following gatha. Earnestly avoid seeking without, lest it recede far from you. Today I am walking alone, yet everywhere I meet him. He is now no other than myself, but I am not now him. It must be understood in this way in order to merge with suchness. So that's the gatha. Agatha is a Sanskrit word meaning religious verse. And it's eight lines, five characters per line. And I assume in the archaic Chinese rhyming couplets, I assume that it rhymed.

[08:39]

So in the brief time I have left, I want to just... comment on it a little bit and hopefully say something about how this could apply to anyone's life. Because there's some advice in there. Doshan is giving us some advice. So when I was thinking about doing this and certainly the The biggest fun of preparing for talks or classes is my research and study and finding things out. I wondered if there were any other translations available. This is the only English translation of the Record of Dongshan available. It was translated by a wonderful guy named William F. Powell. And that was his translation of the verse that I just read you.

[09:43]

So I asked my friend Lucy Zhao who was most recently Shuso here at the last practice period. And she's quite the scholar. I said, are there any other English translations? And would you be interested in trying a translation? And she pointed out to me that Andy Ferguson had translated it in Zen's Chinese ancestors in that book. And she said, yes, I would be interested in trying a translation. So I have two more. Here's Andy Ferguson's translation. Avoid seeking elsewhere, for that's far from the self. Now I travel alone. Everywhere I meet it. Now it's exactly me. Now I'm not it. It must thus be understood to merge with thusness. And here's Lucy's translation.

[10:44]

Avoid seeking somewhere else. for that's far away from myself. I now go alone and see it everywhere. Now it is me. Now I'm not it. It must be understood like this to be in accord with suchness. So, I'd like to talk about this couplet by couplet, briefly. Earnestly avoid seeking without, lest it recede far from you, is Mr. Powell's kind of Englishy, it's kind of poetic English, you know. Seeking without. I actually had to explain, I explained this to someone whose English was not their first language, who was reading the bath gatha, it says within and without, and they said, without, that means not having something, right?

[11:46]

I said, well, yeah, that's true. but it also means outside. So it's a fancy way of saying outside, and then he says lest, lest it recede far from you, or else it will recede far from you. Lucy simply says, avoid seeking somewhere else, for that's far away from myself. So, don't seek outside. Don't look elsewhere. What you're looking for is right here. What you've always been looking for is right here. It's right here behind the breastbone. But that's hard to take in. That's hard for a lot of people to have trust in. So this is the strong piece of advice for us. And what does he mean by looking outside? That's interesting. Maybe

[12:49]

in a very simple way. Once I have the perfect relationship, once I have the perfect job, once I have this house that I've got to buy, or this career that I'm going to establish, or something in the future, some idea about something that's going to make me happy, that's a pretty obvious case of seeking outside. I would say, seeking elsewhere. But it works subtly, too. It works in very subtle ways. I do appreciate, even though I think that Lucy's translation is probably more in accord with the letter of what Donshan was trying to say, It's obvious that Mr. Powell took some liberties, but he says, lest it recede far from you.

[13:56]

I do kind of like that, because that's kind of the experience. You go after something, the more you go after it, the more it goes away from you. And it reminds me of a famous exchange from a couple of other mountains, a couple of other giants from the same period of time in Tang Dynasty, China, Zhao Zhou and Nanquan, very famous story. Zhao Zhou asked Nanquan, what is the way? Nanquan says, ordinary mind is the way. Zhao Zhou says, should I turn toward it or not? Should I go for it? Should I pursue it? Nanquan says, if you turn toward it, you turn away from it. If you go for it, It goes away from you is another translation. If you pursue it, it runs away from you. That's true.

[14:57]

As long as there's an it to pursue, as long as there's something outside, as long as there's something you don't have that you got to have, you set up this separation in the act of pursuing it. That's making the separation. That's the separation that's going to keep you from ever having it. In the very act of doing it. So. You're out of luck. Lucy. Lucy. She was so nice to me. She even. She wrote some footnotes. She says in line one. Six strokes. Yeah. It's a kanji. I don't know. It's a word. In line one, that kanji can either mean somewhere else or someone else.

[16:02]

So it can also be understood as avoid seeking from someone else. Someone other than yourself. Avoid seeking from someone else. But what is somewhere else and someone else? What is that? We create it. We create that. All the time. All the time we're creating a somewhere else or a someone else. We might have participation. We might have some help. You might collude with other people to create. They might be helping you create a someone else or a somewhere else, but ultimately you have to take responsibility for it. You have to take responsibility for the fact that you're creating a somewhere else or a someone else to seek. Master Dogen in the Genjo Koan said, to carry yourself forward and experience myriad things is delusion.

[17:11]

I'm going to go forward. I'm going to figure this out. I can do this. I got this. I'm going to figure this out. We use expressions like get a handle on it or wrap my brain around it. I can figure this out. Carry yourself forward. Do you carry your thinking mind, your concepts, your beliefs, your whole conceptual overlay? I can do this. That's delusion. That myriad things come forth and experience themselves, he says. That myriad things come forth and experience themselves. is awakening can you let that can you let that happen can you have enough trust enough courage to like not not be scared not be not be anxious to have to figure everything out to have to have a handle on it just let it

[18:17]

That myriad things come forth and experience themselves. Just let them experience themselves. That's awakening. Dungshan says, today I am walking alone, yet everywhere I meet him, or it. Lucy's translation, I now go alone and see it everywhere. See what? Remember, Dung San was leaving his teacher. Now he's alone. He's on his own. He's striking out on his own. He's alone. But is he really alone? Are we really alone? Well, yeah. Yeah, we are. That's the experience. That's the conventional reality. We're alone. We do experience...

[19:18]

ourselves as this tiny self, as this little drop of water. That's the small self that we all experience. No help in trying to pretend that isn't so. He says, yet, everywhere. Actually, Lucy said Mr. Powell added the yet, and she doesn't understand why. But I think it's just poetry, you know. She says, and see it everywhere. See what? Meet what? You didn't think I was going to answer you, did you? Well, I am. Meet dependent origination. Dependent origination. What do you see? You see dependent origination. You see that nothing exists on its own. Nothing exists separately.

[20:20]

Nothing exists separately. So I go alone and I see it everywhere. See what? Dependent origination. You see that you're not alone. Thich Nhat Hanh says, we need to learn to see with the eyes of interbeing. We train ourselves to do that. You can train yourself in trust. You can learn to see with the eyes of interbeing. You're not alone. You're alone, yes. Yes, you're alone. And existing as this wave on the ocean, you also exist as the ocean. That's also true. He is now no other than myself, but I am not now him, says Mr. Powell.

[21:22]

And actually, those masculine pronouns are totally extra, because Andy Ferguson and Lucy both, Lucy just says, now it is me, now I'm not it. Does that remind you of anything, Zen students? We chanted it yesterday morning. That's a clue. You are not it. In truth, it is you. That's from the Song of the Jewel Mirror Samadhi. Dungshan, same guy. Same guy. Wrote what we chanted yesterday morning. This is obviously important to him. Now it is me. now i'm not it in other words now having had this opening having seen his reflection in the water and the curtains parted he got a glimpse of how it is you know now it is me it is me i.e dependent origination the reality of things how

[22:44]

how things exist, how we exist, how we exist interdependently. Now I'm not it. I'm not going to carry myself forward and put this personality on that. Especially if you're talking about going around saying, well, I'm enlightened now. Aren't you happy for me? People might accuse you of having delusions of grandeur. And if you see that you are not it, in truth it is you, that's the last thing you're going to say. You exist. Tiny you exists as an expression of everything that exists. This can happen in big steps and it can happen in small steps.

[23:45]

Is the Soto Zen that we're practicing in San Francisco Zen Center the sudden enlightenment school or the gradual enlightenment school? My answer would be yes. Yes. Yes it is. So the other day somebody told me I'm letting go of stuff I didn't even know I was holding on to. Yeah. I'm letting go of stuff I didn't even know I was holding on to. In the process of letting go, you realize how much you've been holding on to. It's amazing. It's amazing. It's the unfolding of enlightenment. It's an unfolding. Unfolding like a lotus blossoming. And then, you know, it can happen in big steps too, like Dongshan looking down and seeing his reflection. I had a little... I had a little experience of my own. Last Friday, when I was driving the town trip, and I was, you know, if you're driving the town trip, you go all over various stores, you pick up supplies for Tassajara, and they let me do it every once in a while, just for fun.

[25:05]

And I'm good at it. You know, you drive this truck to all these different stops all over Monterey and Pacific Grove and Seaside. There's this one store we almost always go to called Smart and Final in Seaside. And the place is a zoo. And the shelves are just packed. And it's just, ugh. You know, it's cheap stuff in there. It's a wholesale place. I had, I think, five purchase orders from I believe the kitchen, of course. We get stuff like artichoke hearts and mustard and the work leader and the dining room and cabin crew and the bathhouse. They all have purchase orders. They all wanted stuff from Smart and Final, multiple things. So I've got this giant cart, and I'm just putting all this stuff in it, and I'm going around all these aisles just like, you know, it must be here.

[26:06]

tea lights, little candles for the dining room. They've got to be here. This is where all this stuff is. I'm just looking, looking, looking, really concentrated and kind of a little frazzled. I want to be out of there so bad. That's called suffering. And I'm like concentrating on that and I back up and I almost hit this woman, almost hit her, and I notice I'm like, oh my gosh, I'm so sorry. Probably with some energy like that. I wasn't totally stressed out, but I was like, oh, I'm so sorry. It was this middle-aged African-American woman, probably about my age, and she just looks at me and she goes, you're okay. It went right in. I'm okay. Could you say that again, please?

[27:09]

I'm okay. Just the way she said it, you know, just like, just completely brought me right back to Earth, back to reality. I'm okay. You're okay. Okay. It must be understood in this way. in order to merge with suchness. What is suchness and why would anyone want to merge with it? Suchness is the nature of reality free of conceptual overlay, free of conceptual elaboration. What Suzuki Roshi called things as it is, intentionally confusing the plural and the singular.

[28:13]

That was on purpose. His English was not so good, but he knew what he was doing when he said, multiple times he would say, things as it is. This is suchness, just the way it is, the way things are, free of our thoughts about it, free of our conceptual elaboration. Why merge with suchness? Why would anyone want to do that? To be happy. I think that's what's on offer. I'll make this radical statement about my religion. I think what's on offer is happiness. To be happy. Last summer, David Zimmerman gave a talk here. He talked about Having no argument with life. Don't have an argument with life.

[29:15]

Stop struggling. Stop struggling. To merge with suchness is to stop struggling. To stop struggling, in my humble opinion, is to be happy. Anyway, that's my provisional definition tonight. how to merge with suchness. This is called receptive samadhi. The practice of upright sitting is the practice of receptive samadhi. For those of you who were in the practice period, the last practice period, this is what we were studying with Paul Haller. In Japanese, they say Jijiu Zamai. And Zen Center gives it this kind of clunky translation of self-receiving and employing samadhi.

[30:17]

But in the new Shobha Genzo translation, Kaz Tanahashi and Lou Richman in the Bendawa, it's the first fascicle in the Shobha Genzo, they just say receptive samadhi. I think that's very skillful. Just allowing things to be as they are. Dogen says, sitting upright in the midst of self, in the midst of receptive samadhi. Yeah. I've been talking about in the retreat that this is a body practice over and over. I've said it's a body practice. And I often say zazen is a balance pose and It's a heart-opening pose. When you sit upright in the midst of receptive samadhi, your arms are open, the mudra is open, you lift up in your sternum, you're exposed.

[31:27]

Yunnan says, I mean Yunmen, body exposed to the golden wind. You're exposed and you're vulnerable. But you know, practicing you in tasahara, you're safe. And your body might tell you, this is okay. Even though it's a little scary to be this vulnerable, it's okay. We can do this. And I was thinking, this afternoon, we were doing all these restorative poses. And Purusha was saying, soften, open. Breathe. I was like, yeah. Those are good instructions for receptive samadhi. Soften. Open. Breathe. So maybe in addition to being a balanced pose and a hard opening pose, you could also think of zazen as a restorative pose.

[32:31]

What's being restored? merging with suchness, according with things as it is, ordinary mind. Well, I talked a lot I did manage to say everything I wanted to say. I thank you for your attention. Does anyone, have I just like confused everyone completely? No? Okay. Has anyone got a question? It is about quitting time, so I'm okay with that too. Yes, Walker.

[33:36]

Yes, Walker. Yes. It's not the kind of happiness I'm talking about. I'm talking about having no argument with life. If it's sadness and grief, let it be sadness and grief. If it's time to grieve, you grieve completely. Because that's what's happening. I'm not talking about happiness as opposed to sadness. Loss, grief, sorrow are part of life. That will all happen.

[34:37]

The Buddha pointed this out. The Buddha's message was not We should try to avoid those things. But we can learn to live the way that... Well, the way I put it, meet them completely. Meet whatever comes up in life completely. You know? My zazen instruction in five words, stay present for what arises. That's all. This is practice in staying present for what arises. whether it's pleasant, whether it's unpleasant, whether it's neutral, this is what's happening. Yes, Sean. Thank you for the wonderful topic. I'm sure it's not exactly a part of the topic that you're addressing now, but it seems like this receptive integration, samadhi as you call it,

[35:45]

Samadhi, translation of samadhi is integration. The etymology of the word samadhi means to integrate. As you were putting it, it's a merging with suchness as the disillusion of the small me to merge with a large suchness. And it's a very accepting, very encompassing, very freeing sort of a concept. But it seems a little... I'm trying to maybe that's not a good word it seems I'm wondering how do you translate that acceptance while you're to doing compassionate work in an earthquake belief in an active way to help the rest of the world yeah well thank you Yeah, one thing about the old clunky translation of Jijiu Zamai is it's self-receiving and employing samadhi.

[36:54]

So it is dynamic, actually. It is dynamic. It's dynamic engagement. It's receptivity, but it's also engagement. And to engage with and to merge with The reality of what's happening is to respond to with an open heart. When you do this heart-opening pose, you open your heart. We say the wisdom and compassion arise together. It becomes just obvious. When you cut your right finger, the finger on your right hand is cut. your left hand just goes like that. You don't think about it. It just, boom, like that. It's like that when you understand that you're just a small part of everything that's happening.

[38:01]

It's like that when you learn to see with the eyes of interbeing. The eyes of interbeing is the eyes of compassion. And that will inform. your responses that will inform your choices and how you respond to a suffering world, in my opinion. Thank you. Well, we're out of time. So, thank you very much for your attention. Good night. 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, visit SSCC.org and click Giving.

[38:55]

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