Good evening. This is it for a few minutes. People are still coming on so I'll ring the bell and in a few minutes I'll ring it again. Hello again.

[06:17]

I was just sitting here and I was remembering the experience the first time I heard John Cage's composition called four minutes and 33 seconds, which is just about how long we were sitting. And that's a very long time. It's a very long time. And for those of you who don't know that composition, basically, the pianist comes out the concert I saw penis comes out and And he sits at the piano and opens the keyboard, puts the piece of music in front of himself, sets the timer, closes the keyboard, and waits for 4 minutes and 33 seconds. And you can hear the audience starting to rustle after a few minutes. It's like, what's happening? Anyway, John Cage said, I study sound. No, he said, I don't study sound. I study noise. So here we are. So, today, this evening, I'm continuing in my study of Dogen Senji.

[07:22]

And it's so, the language is so, it's kind of like a, I don't know, a roller coaster comes to mind, especially those really elaborate ones, you know, Great America, or you don't know what side is up or what side is down, and you're moving very fast, and it's kind of familiar, you know. But it's very, it's ungraspable, absolutely ungraspable. So Dogen has this magic, he's a magic magician with language. So this week I want to continue with his study of Dogen's most masterful of all works, his great composition. And I have found it so helpful to refer to the teachings of Dr. Hee Jin Kim, K-I-M, who has offered us this idea of these two foci, these two points of view, like two eyes with which we can view Dogen's teaching on the one true Dharma eye, the Shobo Genzo, the true Dharma eye.

[08:29]

So Dr. Kim says to us that for Dogen, the authenticity of practice has to do with the manner, how you behave, and the quality of how you negotiate the way through this dynamic dialectic, you know, this relationship between practice and enlightenment, you know, the two foci, which are dancing and alive in this context, this liberative context of realization. Nice sentence, huh? The dynamic dialectic relationship of practice and enlightenment has two foci which are dancing and alive in the liberative context of realization. So in Japanese, this relationship is what's meant by genjo koan. Gen meaning to fully show up in the present moment as you all are doing right now and always right now. And jo means to become complete or to accomplish. So fully, fully engaging body and mind.

[09:33]

That's a phrase from Dogen. Fully engaging body and mind is our practice, kind of our motto of practice. So taken together, gen and zho, mean to manifest or to actualize. Actualize the fundamental point. So that's the very time or the very being, time and being, not being different, in which the self and all things in the universe are none other than the true Buddha Dharma itself. All of this is like gathering. All things in the universe are nothing other than the true Buddha Dharma itself. All-inclusive. So this word koan, which is familiar to us in the Zen tradition, originally it meant, had a meaning of a legal matter. It had to do with a table where the judge would sit and make declarations, make judgments. So koan refers to a legal matter or a case in which a verdict is settled or is immediately apparent.

[10:37]

Genjo, apparent, immediately apparent. The case is settled. right now this is kind of pointing to this same idea of right now here is the place here the way unfolds so the use of the term koan in zen or chan as it's pronounced in in china chan and zen are the same mean the same thing coming from the sanskrit word jhana for meditation is thought to, this word koan is thought to have derived from a saying attributed to an ancient Zen teacher, Tang Dynasty teacher by the name of Qin Zhenshu. And when he saw a monk approaching, he said to the monk, yours is a settled case, but I spare you 30 blows. Yours is a settled case, but I spare you 30 blows. Some feeling about that, a little bit like that Koan, I told you, I think, last week about the hermit who the teacher says, you know, who's here?

[11:40]

And the hermit raises one fist, which means a settled case. The matter is settled. And then the teacher says, oh, you couldn't even dock a boat in this shallow water. So he insults the monk, the hermit. And then he goes back again and says to the hermit, who's there? Who's here? And the hermit raises one fist. Settled case. And the master does a full prostration. so you know these two foci here they are again the right way wrong way well answered not well answered do which ones do we fall for do we fall for the insult or do we fall for the praise so uh this is the koan so and carl bielfeld who was a student of suzuki roshi's and someone that we feel close to because he was part of our zen center community in those very early days and then went on to become a professor at Stanford University in Buddhist studies. He wrote a book on the Genjo Koan, or rather on the Fukanza Zengi, which I talked to you about.

[12:40]

He also comments on the Genjo Koan, and he says that this essay is a highly celebrated statement on Buddhist religious practice, which Dogen describes as the study of the self, in which one forgets the self, drops off body and mind, Dogen's awakened experience, and is actualized by all things. It's kind of that simple. Study the self, forget the self, drop off body and mind and be actualized by all things. Easy to say. So such a practice, we are told, has no end and no trace. It is the practitioner's natural environment. Just like water for a fish or the sky for a bird or like the wind that is always blowing. whether we fan ourselves or not. So these are all images that appear in the Genjo koan, toward the end of the Genjo koan. So Dogen's intention throughout his teaching is to tell us how. And I think I mentioned that last time, or a couple times.

[13:43]

That Dogen's about how, not why. How do I do that? How do I practice the Buddha way? How do I engage in authentic practice realization of the Buddha Dharma itself? And how do I meet each moment? with curiosity, flexibility, kindness, and understanding. How do I do that? Do I wish to do that? Maybe that's the first question we ask ourselves. So for Dogen, such moments depend entirely on the strength of Zazen. As he expressed in the Fukan Zazengi that we studied a few weeks back, the universal recommendation for seated meditation And then there's another essay Dogen wrote called The Principles of Zazen, Zazen Yi, which he wrote in 1243, some time after he'd returned from China, in which Dogen says in the very first sentence of that fascicle, studying Zen is Zazen. Studying Zen is Zazen.

[14:46]

So Dogen taught Zazen to everybody who came anywhere near him. He taught laity, men and women, he taught monks, he taught all social classes. So in referring to Zazen, Dogen is mostly referring to this practice called Shikantaza, which I'm sure most of you have heard, Shikantaza, which is translated as nothing but precise sitting, hitting the seat, hitting Zazen. So nothing but precise sitting. Also, we often just say, just sitting. Just sitting. That's it. So in the kind of sitting meditation Dogen teaches, the meditator sits in a state of brightly alert attention that is freed from thoughts directed to objects and is not attached to any particular content. So basically the mind is kind of let off the leash.

[15:49]

I think we keep our minds on a leash a lot, like, what was I saying, or where was I going, or where's my list, or what am I supposed to do today? Sometimes it's kind of tricky to have a day off. What am I supposed to do today with all this spaciousness, all this time? Well, Zanthan is that spaciousness and time where you aren't directed to do anything. You're given no instruction, which for a lot of people is very frustrating, because they start assuming they're doing it wrong. But it's impossible. According to these teachings, there's no way to do things wrong. There's no wrong. There's no right. Just sit. Just sitting. So the correct mental attitude for zazen, according to Dogen, is one of an effortless non-striving. Effortless non-striving. Sounds like it should be kind of comfortable, you know? Sort of resting in open space. White ox on an open field. And this is because for Dōgen, as for Shakyamuni Buddha, enlightenment is already and is always present.

[16:55]

It's not missing. It's not somewhere else. It's right here. And it's always there. It's always here. It is Genjo Koan. Present moments. The Genjo Koan, this fascicle, was composed in the autumn of 1233. which was five years after Dogen had returned from China. And it probably was written, had his newly opened monastery, Ko Shoji, in Fukakusa, which is just south of the imperial capital of what was called at that time Heiankyo. It's now called Kyoto. And as I said to you, I think, last week, Mea Wender and I went to Ko Shoji in Fukakusa, And I didn't have that much information about it at the time. It was almost 10 years ago now. And so I just thought, ah, another nice temple. You know, it wasn't really connecting to this was the place where Dogen wrote the Genjo Goan.

[17:59]

You know, I might have had a different sense or kind of a thrill had I known that, you know, where was he sitting? You know, when he did the, probably not the same building at all. But anyway, at least that spot of ground, you know, where he wrote this amazing uh essay so that for a very long time i've been very very fond of a poem that dogen wrote i don't know if he also probably also wrote it there at uh koshoji later on this is the temple he founded before he left kyoto he was getting harassed by the the tendai monks they don't like this new guy coming into town and offering some different approach to practice you know bringing this soto zen into japan He had been a Tendai monk in his early years, and now he had taken a different course. He was transmitted into Soto Zen by Ru Jing in China. I think they actually went after him, and I think he left town, finally, and established a Heiji monastery far, far away, up in the mountains, which we also visited, and is an extraordinary place.

[19:06]

If you ever have a chance to go there, it's quite amazing, quite beautiful. Also not the same buildings that were there when Dogen was alive. So there's a poem that he wrote while he was at this first temple, Koshoji, which I just realized this morning refers to the sound of rain on that very temple's roof. You know, the poem is, this slowly drifting cloud is pitiful. What dream walkers we humans have become. Awakened, I hear the one true thing. black rain on the roof of Fukakusa Temple. So he was sitting right there in that temple listening to the rain when he had this lovely thought and wrote this poem. So I have often found, you know, like with this poem, a lot of pleasure in putting puzzle pieces together. There are so many puzzle pieces to the Buddha Dharma. And there's so many different turnings of the wheel and different fascicles and commentaries and sutras and so on.

[20:09]

I mean, it's quite dizzying for all of you who spend any time in a library lately with all the new translations into English. When I was a new student at Zen Center, there was very little of that. You actually, many of the early students were trying to learn Chinese or Sanskrit. so they could read some of these texts, which were just not available. And now for all of us, it's all available. There's very much. In fact, there's a new edition of the Shobo Genzo that's just been published by the Sotoshu. And I hear it's wonderful. And so eight volumes of the Shobo Genzo. So it might be something you might like to find out about. I'm very much looking forward to getting my hands on a set. So anyway, it's really a wonderful thing when you can put some of these puzzle pieces together and start making kind of your own little timeline of who, what, when and where things were happening. Because oftentimes, I think when we're exposed to the Buddhist teaching, it comes in kind of these random splatterings of one teacher teaches that and someone else teaches that and you're not quite sure where in all of that are the connectors.

[21:17]

So I really enjoyed finding this connection between the roof of Fukakusa Temple, and Dogen Zenji's writing of the Genzo Kon. So, for Dogen, as we hear throughout the many essays of the Shogo Genzo, Buddha nature is the entirety of reality. All beings, whole being, Buddha nature. All beings, whole being, Buddha nature. He also says that as all things are Buddha nature, The Tathakatha, Tathakatha is a word that means thus come, thus gone. So the Tathakatha is an epithet for the Buddha. Thus come, thus gone. You know, right here. And the Tathakatha abides constantly, is non-existent, yet existent, and is changed. As all things are Buddha nature, the Tathakatha abides constantly, is non-existent, yet existent, and is changed.

[22:20]

So in other words, Buddha-nature is the endless arising and ceasing of all things in the world. You know, the grasses, the oceans and the rivers, the mountains, and me, as me, and you, as you. As all things are Buddha-nature, the first sentence of the Genjo Koan, there is delusion and there is realization. There's practice, there's birth and death, and there are Buddhas and ascension beings. So these elements, Dogen names, in the very first sentence of the Genjo Koan are the primary elements of an all-inclusive Buddhist worldview. So last week we looked at this first sentence, and this week I'm going to start looking some more at that sentence, but also at the next sentence, which is... As the myriad things, all things, as the myriad things are without an abiding self, there is no delusion, there is no realization, there's no Buddha, there's no sentient being, there's no birth, there's no death.

[23:26]

So, and as I said to you last week, in this next sentence, Dogen has turned that Buddhist worldview upside down to a worldview from the side of emptiness. in which the myriad things are without an abiding self. This is familiar to all of you, I know that. The no self teaching of the Buddha Dharma is one of the harder ones for us, because it's about us, it's very personal. No self self, a self, no self that is separate from the whole. So from that point of view, there is no delusion, there is no realization, there is no Buddha, no sentient being, no birth and death, no me, and no you. So as I also mentioned to you last week, there's this very helpful book on the Genjo Koan called Dogen's Genjo Koan with three commentaries. And these commentaries are done by major contemporary Zen roshis, Nishiar Bokusan, who preceded Kishizawa Ion, who was a teacher of Suzuki Roshi.

[24:32]

So there's a very, very nice connection between Bokusan, Ion, and Suzuki. They were in the same neighborhood, and Suzuki Roshi, as a young priest, studied with Kishizawa Ion, who was a student of Bokusan. I think he was his jisha, as a matter of fact. There was some real intimate connection there between Kishizawa Ion and Nishiyara Bokusan. And then there's also the third commentary is by Kousha Uchiyama, who is a teacher of Okamura Roshi, who some of you may have had privilege of listening to him teach on the Genjo Koan or some of the other essays. He's a Shobo Genzo. That's mostly what he teaches, our fascicles of the Shobo Genzo, and it's quite wonderful to experience Okumar Roshi doing that, because he's very thorough. He goes through each word, and little by little, he's like peeling very thin layers of onion paper off an onion. It's just like, little by little, layer by layer, you begin to get this feeling for

[25:34]

each of these teachings. So I highly recommend you look at some of Okamura Roshi's lectures, teachings. So I told you last week a little bit about each of these teachers and how they are connected to Suzuki Roshi and also to Okamura Roshi and how all of them together were collected into this one book by, with the help of Mel Weitzman and Abbott, our former abbot, and Michael Wenger from the Zen Center. So there's a lot of family connection there with Zen Center, Zen Center teachers. So this evening I'm going to be mostly using the commentary by Nishira Bokusan as a resource for both the first and second sentences of the Genjo Koan. So Bokusan offers a very helpful introduction to this fascicle, some of which I shared with you in the last class. And then he also has this to say, in the introduction. Those who are deluded are deluded, and those who are enlightened are enlightened.

[26:41]

This is a koan. To turn delusion into enlightenment is not a koan. If we go along the road of delusion, we will certainly be deluded. This is genjo koan. If we go along the road of enlightenment, we will certainly be enlightened. This is genjo koan. He then says, there are ways for us to be deluded today. Certainly that's so. We cannot say it isn't so. And for that reason, delusion and enlightenment are very natural things that we cannot change. And that's because all dharmas themselves are ultimate reality. And therefore, he goes on, priest Honko says about the Genjo Koan, Study the genjo koan with your hands in shashu on your chest, which he then summarizes in this way. Genjo koan is not something speech can reach. It's just shashu upon your chest, just this total activity.

[27:45]

There is not another way. but to understand it as it is and to accept it as it is. So some of you know what shashu with hands on the chest refers to and some of you don't. But if you've ever done seshin or practice it at the Zen center, any soto Zen or any Zen center, you will have been taught kenhin. Also, when you've been taught how to enter the zendo, you've been taught shashu. So shashu is a mudra. Mudra means an imprint. like a seal. So we have the cosmic mudra, the one that we use for seated meditation, which is held down low with the thumb tips at the abdomen, at the belly button. And then there's the gaso mudra, it's another mudra that we do. And then there's the mudra, the shashu mudra, which is done by placing the thumb, so my left hand here. of my left hand, wrapping my fingers around my thumb, and putting my left hand just below my heart, and then I'm going to stand up a little bit, you can see that, and then putting my right hand, maybe not so blurry, anyway, putting my right hand over the top of my left hand, so the arms are

[29:03]

somewhat parallel to the ground not too high not held up too high should be relaxed everything about zen should be relaxed but but nicely shaped you know get the shape first and then let go of the tension so shashu is done with the hands upon the chest so what this teacher hanko is saying is it it's actualized by your behavior by your deportment and in this case by your deportment in the Zen Training Temple, which is where all of these folks were living and practicing, you know, we're listening to monastics. I think it's good to remember that, that these teachers are monastics. Dogen was a monastic, Priest Honko was a monastic, Okomura Roshi, Suzuki Roshi, you know, me. I'm not such a monastic in the sense that I live in a monastery. I don't. In fact, I say to people, when I'm in the monastery, I'm a monk. When I'm at Green Gulch, I'm a priest. And I feel the function is somewhat different. I feel that. So most of these teachers were practicing in monasteries.

[30:06]

So their references are often to things that monks would be very familiar with. So you're studying with your hands in shashu over your chest is something all of the monks would be doing between every period of zazen. When there's walking meditation, you put your hands in shashu over your chest. So this is actualizing the fundamental. It's the doing of it, the how. How do you do that? Put your thumb and your fingers, put your right hand over the top. That's how. What does it mean? No one can say. Just do it. You just do it. These are the forms of practice. So then he says, Ganjo Koan is not something speech can reach. it's just shashu upon your chest just this total activity there is not another way but to understand it as it is and to accept it as it is okay this is true of all things so i found this citation by boksan of priest uncle to be really encouraging for seeing our practice within the activities of our daily life you know washing dishes driving to the store visiting with friends

[31:14]

reading the news and weeping, as you do, as I often do. So when these are understood by us as total activity along the road of awakening, then there is awakening. That's Genjo Kon. When you are traveling on the road of awakening, there is awakening. When you're traveling on the road of delusion, there is delusion. That's Genjo Kon. And Bokasan goes on to say that talking and reasoning promote discrimination, dualistic thinking. What is confined by dualistic thinking is in the realm of construction, of making things up. We make things up with language, with words. It is not koan. Non-construction is koan. In order to accept things as they are, within the realm of non-construction, of not making things up, there is no other way than shashu with your hands over your chest.

[32:17]

The doing of it, the how of it, the enactment of your life. So no other way than this, without asking for any explanations, without wondering why? Why? Why shashu with my hands on my chest? Why? People ask, why do we do that? Why do you walk into the zendo with your left foot? at the hinge and not your right foot and so on. There are all of these wonderful things you could ask why, but mostly we encourage the folks who come new to this funny thing that we're doing together to try just to do it. Just try it out. Try bowing, you know, not why. Why do you bow? Why are you bowing to that figure up there? People often ask this question. And they're fine questions. There's nothing wrong with the questions. But the answer is not going to be in an answer. It's not going to be in words. It's going to be what they discover when they do it. You tell me what it's like to bow.

[33:19]

I don't know what it's like for you. I don't know what it is for you to walk or to put your hands upon your chest in shashu. Only you know. Without asking these questions, without wondering why, you know, why me, or why now, or why here, and so on, just this, you know, just this. Why? Because the Dharma is wondrous and cannot be explained or thought about. Feet on the ground, hands on the wheel, and eyes on the road ahead. Just this. Buddha, or Lord Yama, who's the king, the lord of death, did not make up the world. of hell realms, of fighting gods and of hungry ghosts. We do that. We've done that. And if we take the path of hate or of lust, it's we who put ourselves on trial, koan, and send ourselves where we need to go, judgment. So Boksan says, water goes down and fire goes up.

[34:23]

It's the nature of things. When you're deluded, you become an ordinary person. And when you are awake, you become a Buddha. It's a natural thing. It's the order of things. So Genjo Koan cannot be constructed, it cannot be made. When conditions are right, there is birth. When conditions are spent, there is death. And a wholesome cause brings forth a wholesome effect. An unwholesome cause brings forth an unwholesome effect. This is Genjo Koan. It's the nature of things. How? How? Well, this is a good question. So be more, he says, Bokshan says, be more expansive. Open your mind, you know. Open your mind. Be like a roof. Be like the roof that's covering the monk's hall. He says to the monk, be like the roof that's covering this monk's hall. You know, look up there. It doesn't concern itself about whether you are a deluded person, an enlightened person,

[35:27]

a sleeping monk or a great priest, it glares at you with baggy eyes. Your everyday activity should be like the state of that roof." There's another saying that I think is in Dogen as well. The mind in Zazen is a mind like a wall. You know, we sit facing the wall. Mind like the wall. Mind like the wall. So Bokasan then turns to the Genjo Koan itself, saying that the first three segments, which are these first three sentences, are the Dharma gate of three steps. The first segment, when all dharmas, all things, are Buddha Dharma. The second segment, when the myriad dharmas, the myriad things, are without an abiding self. And the third segment, the Buddha way is basically leaping clear of the many and the one, or of abundance and lack. Dogen, he tells us, is presenting each of these three segments, one, two, and three, as the Genjo Koan.

[36:29]

There's no hierarchy thing in this. You know, we often think of the first segment as descriptive of existence, as all things are Buddha Dharma, the existence of all things. And the second segment as descriptive of non-existence, meaning all things as empty of inherent existence, when the myriad dharmas are without an abiding self. empty of inherent existence so that's first one is existence per sentence second one is non-existence emptiness and then the third segment as transcendence of existence and non-existence of leaping clear of abundance or lack of the many and the one of the relative and ultimate and so on the existence of the many things and the lack of existence of the many things you leap clear of being caught on either side and yet Boksan says, Dogen is not giving any of these three segments greater value over any other. Existence itself is genjo-kwan.

[37:31]

Non-existence itself is genjo-kwan. Leaping clear of existence and non-existence is genjo-kwan. There is no existence that's separate from non-existence. That would be dualistic. No leaping clear that transcends the many and the one. Transcends existence. Being, which is being. You could say being and non-being. Existence and non-existence. Transcends existence and non-existence. The whole universe is leaping clear of itself. Do we see it? Right now. Leaping clear of itself. Nothing is in the way. Nothing is hidden. Everything is revealed. Within the entire universe, there are these aspects to be seen. like the facets on a jewel. The one, and again, I'm talking about these three first sentences, existence, non-existence, and leading clear of the many and the one. So these are the three facets on a jewel, if you can imagine that, like a jewel that has these different flat surfaces that we're gonna look through.

[38:39]

One is in front, one is in back, and then one sees both together, okay? So, like the third eye, you've got these two eyes, One sees front, one sees back, and one sees them both together. In order to illuminate the three aspects, Dogen divides them into segments without making some distinction between them as being one being shallow and another being deep, which is a tendency, I think, many of us have. I certainly had in reading the Genjo Koan. I assumed the third one, Leaping Clear, was the one that you want to arrive at. That's the final turning. You know, leap clear, get out of there, don't get stuck, don't get caught. So Bokasana's interpretation, and I think this is really probably true of all of Dogen scholars, no, that's not it. That's too easy. Every one of these is Genjo Kwan. Each sentence is Genjo Kwan. Complete reality. Existence, Genjo Kwan.

[39:41]

Non-existence, Genjo Kwan. Leaping clear, Genjo Kwan. And again, Bhoksan encourages us to take this teaching into our bodies, you know, into our hara, that space right where you hold the cosmic mudra. And he says, you may find that there's something kind of funny in there, blocking your practice, some old conditioning, some old kind of gristle left over from earlier meals, and that we should clean that funny thing up. He says to make ourselves empty and receptive. He says, you don't think you can brew sake without squeezing the water out of the steamed rice so there's something that needs to be done to clear the way some some kind of effortless effort to really challenge those old conditioned habits of ours those old habits that are hanging around there and blocking us that resistance to learning new things that certainly as we get older gets somewhat stronger so at the time of buddhadharma all things are there all things are included

[40:42]

the whole of reality is included. And this is what Suzuki Roshi calls our big mind. Bokusan then says that where there is delusion, there is practice. Where there are sentient beings, there are Buddhas. Where there is birth, there is death. This is the place where there is no I, no me. This is the place where you see each and everything as Buddha Dharma. So This is the end of his comment on Segment 1, where all things are Buddhadharma, and then he says about Segment 2, when all things are without an abiding self, that when we talk about things like rivers and mountains and people, we are talking about the relative truth, G, using language to assign arbitrary names to things. I think you probably remember The koan about the monk who points to the ball of fur in the corner of the room and says to the teacher, I call that a cat.

[41:44]

What do you call it? And the teacher replies, you call it a cat. So all names are arbitrary, as are all phenomena, are all things. They are just made up of other things. They're constructions. They've been constructed. They're constructed from parts, by causes and conditions. and then they're given names. It's those three reasons, as you might recall, that things are empty of own being, empty of any separate existence. So you only make sense in relation to me. You is me, is all things, is Buddha Dharma, is ultimate reality, ungraspable, inconceivable, and utterly content. Nirvana. Bokhasana says that all things exist, but they exist completely. There is not one thing that is not nirvana. So if we look at the jewel of reality from the front side, it appears as substantial form, things, stuff, appearances, the one true thing.

[42:57]

If we look at the jewel of reality from the front side, it appears as substantial forms. If we look at the jewel from the backside, it appears as silence and stillness, form and emptiness. So front side form, back side emptiness, ri and ji. Viewing the jewel from the side of being and non-being is not genjo kohan. The viewing of the jewel from the side of being and non-being is viewing the jewel from the side of the Buddha Dharma. of the Buddha teaching, Buddha's teaching. Dharma means teaching or truth. The Buddha's truth, there is being and non-being, existence and non-existence. All things, as all things are in Buddha Dharma, is in the context of the Genjo-Kohan. Being is Genjo-Kohan. Non-being is Genjo-Kohan. Delusion is Genjo-Kohan. Awakening is Genjo-Kohan.

[44:00]

These teachings are in the context of the Buddha Dharma. Again, layers of the onion. So that's what I have for today. And I am really enjoying looking at this text again, which is so familiar and not at all. I'm like, whoa, there is an awful lot going in here that I have not been exposed to. by these wonderful teachers. I haven't had that time or taken that time until now and I'm so grateful to all of you for giving me this opportunity to spend this time with the Genjo Koan and with Dogan. It's been a real gift to me. So I would like to invite you and all of you to offer your own thoughts and questions and I hope you have a copy of the Genjo Koan for yourselves to refer to. And it's easy to find online. I did that. So I just get a copy online.

[45:03]

And then these texts I mentioned are also extremely helpful. Dr. Kim's is amazing, wonderful. And this three commentaries, Dogen's Gencho Kwan, is also quite wonderful. So you can do all the studying you like with whatever time you have. So please, you're welcome to. Raise a hand or raise a flag. Thank you, Marianne. Hi. Good evening, Sangha. Good to see everybody. I'm going to ask a question of why, and maybe I shouldn't ask the question of why. Maybe I should just do it. And it occurred with Linda Cutts' talk today when she talked about bowing 108 times.

[46:10]

And excuse, you know, I want to know why 108, and maybe I shouldn't ask that question. Maybe I should just do it. And that's, I mean... Follow Dogen Sensei's practice. But I was just wondering if you had any insight. And if you don't want to answer that, I'm just going to do it and see if the answer emerges from there. Yeah. Well, 108 is the number of beads on a mala. Oh, okay. Yeah. And the reason for that is there's 108 defilements. In fact, it's really interesting to look up the 108. I did that for the practice period I led last winter at Tassajara. And there's interesting stories about the 108 defilements. And there's also, Dogen wrote a fascicle about the 108 antidotes to the defilements. I think his fascicle you could probably find as well online. The 108, I think they're...

[47:15]

I don't know if you use the word antidote. It's really a list of all the ways we're confused by hearing and seeing and are delusional. The way we interpret reality through this kind of lens of confusion, of dualistic assumptions of it's me over here and that stuff over there and I don't like that stuff and I like that stuff and I'm being driven mad by my ignorance of non-duality and my desire to close the gap. between myself and the other. So it's basically helping us get a little bit more of a paint-by-numbers sense of, well, what are all those gaps? Well, there's 108 gaps. And you can basically get all the names of them, their names, for the basic division of our thought of self from other. Thank you so much. Yeah, you're welcome, and good luck with that. That's a lot of vows. Thank you.

[48:16]

Thank you, Sangha. Thank you. You're welcome. Amir. Thank you for your talk and good evening. And my question or comment. So you mentioned our constructed reality and language is not Kenjo Koan, if I may be misquoting you, but I mean, I'm a. little bit of an intellectual and i spent most of the day reading and thinking about stuff including reading about genjo koan and i don't know how do you navigate that yes we live in this reality if you walk into a bookstore you've got you know the bookstore at green gold you've got all these books about zen that's not genjo koan but we live in that world and yet Hopefully that makes some sort of sense. Yeah, yeah, of course it does. This is the big pivot between ultimate reality and conventional or relative reality, relative truth and ultimate truth.

[49:23]

So words are the relative truth. They're relationships. They're based on the rules of grammar. They're based on wherever heritage you've come from, that you happen to be speaking this particular language. And it's all very conditional. It's all made up. We made it up 70,000 years ago or something, and we're still working on it. We're adding words all the time. So that's kind of our specialty, is creating words and putting them together. And we've got AIs going to do that for us now. We won't have to worry about it anymore. But anyway, so we are the masters of the creation or the construction of meaning. And so this is kind of the antidote to that. Don't think you can express Genjo Kwan being with language. Language is fine, language is Genjo Koan, but it doesn't explain being. It doesn't explain who you are. There's no way that you could be explained in words, that any of us could be explained in words.

[50:25]

I mean, you'd run out of words so fast if you tried to explain, you know, any one of us are vast. The universe is vast. A tree is vast. So, you know, we've reduced. Language has reduced. It's reductionistic. It's reduced so much of what's right before our eyes to, you know, oh, that's a tree, that's a bird, that's a store. You know, we teach our children to do that very early. And so we want to return to this state of awe where we can actually stand there without naming. know Zazen is a lot about you know what are you going to name this 40 minute period of time you're sitting there you got a name for it okay we'll call it Zazen or just this yeah and then and we'll call it 40 minutes but even the few minutes as I said that we sat together this evening is I don't know how much time has passed. I don't know if we're in the middle of it or the end of it or whatever. I'm always surprised that it's been only five minutes.

[51:26]

It seems like there's a whole lot of suspiciousness that I can't name or I wouldn't even try to name. So I think it's really trying to revive our sense of wonder about all of it rather than descriptive, which we're pretty good at. You've been trained for that. I've been trained for that. And Dogen certainly was trained for that, and he's very good at it. But he's using language to kind of untie language and meaning, leaving us kind of hanging there in space, you know. I think that's liberative language is a particular kind of language. And that's what he's doing. That's what he's up to. That's what Suzuki Roshi was up to. I think that's what we're trying to be up to in our best times, our best effort. in expressing Dharma is not to try to say, Oh, yeah, I get it. I know what it means. You know, I don't know. But it's certainly nice to see you.

[52:27]

I can say that, you know, and that that's enough, maybe. Thank you. Yeah, I think of, for example, poetry or koans, I mean, those are forms of language that are, in a sense, Well, they're getting at a different part of our brain, maybe, that we don't. Exactly. Exactly. Yeah, someone once said that the Vipassana tradition is for psychologists, and the Tibetan tradition is for visual artists, and the Zen tradition is for poets. It really reduces down to essential language, you know, one word, just one word or two words. Genjo Koan, you know, that's Dogen's iron words. And then you start to open it up, you know. But he can just, or the black rain on the temple roof. Those are words, but it evokes like poetry does.

[53:32]

It's evocative. Kind of brings you closer to experiential, you know, knowledge. Like, oh, I know that. I know that. You don't need to tell me about it when I'm hearing the rain on the roof. Don't talk. Don't see it. Thank you for your question. Michael, hello Michael. Can you hear me now? Yes. Okay. Well, regarding The Black Rain, I was reading the other day and I ran into that poem that you read earlier.

[54:40]

And it was a translation by Stephen Hine, slightly different. I was wondering if I could read it to you. Sure, please. Drifting pitifully... If I can read my own writing. Drifting pitifully in the whirlwind of birth and death. In the midst of illusion, I awaken to the true path. There is one more matter... I must not neglect, but I need not bother now. As I listen to the sound of the evening rain falling on the roof of my temple retreat in the deep grass of Fukakusa.

[55:46]

A few more words, but it sounds the same. You know, it is the same poem. No mention of the black rain. No. Maybe at evening, maybe it's evoked by the idea of evening time. The rain is dark. You can't see it at night. So, yes, I don't know actually who translated. That translation that I read, I'm familiar with, is from Moon and a Dew Drop, which was a ton of... Kazuaki Tanahashi, who's done a lot of our translations and some of the Zen Center priests who were helping him with the English. So... What do you think that one matter is that he needed not to neglect? Yeah. But didn't need to bother with it at the moment. I think, yeah.

[56:49]

Kaz says, the one true thing. So he just says that as the one true thing. The matter you should not neglect is the one true thing. The sound of rain, the sound of black rain on the temple roof. Look, Fort, you bring those pictures to the Sangha. Thank you. I just emailed Maya to help me identify which temple is which, because they kind of all look alike in a certain way. So I'm sure she will help me, and I will do that as soon as I have that information. Can I ask a question, kind of a follow-up to what Amir brought up? I was speaking to somebody today, and we were bouncing around the subject of reality. And he said to me, well, there is no reality.

[57:51]

Everybody has their own reality. And I said, that sounds real similar to something that I have heard called mind only. And the notion that we are projecting reality, we create it. We create our own reality. But certainly that is not within the framework of what we are considering ultimate reality. Is ultimate reality, would that be outside of mind? Nothing outside. Nothing outside. There's nothing outside of mind. Nothing outside of anything.

[58:56]

Whatever you call it. Mind's another word. Reality's a word. We're just teasing our imagination with images, you know. So we have this, we have this Imaginarium that we all carry around. It's like a big bubble. There's a saying in Latin, homo bulla est. Humans, man is a bubble. And I thought, that's pretty good. A bubble of awareness. You know, there's a 360 degree bubble of awareness that goes around with me wherever I go. And right now it looks like a computer screen and there's some stuff on the edges back here and back there. But our bubbles can merge. So right now our bubbles are all kind of like bubble bath. You know, we're kind of connecting to each other. Your bubbles creating mine is creating an image. for mine, and mine for you. So we have this ability, this amazing ability to merge, to conjoin with one another, and then to pop apart.

[59:59]

Off I go, off you go. In a few minutes I'm going to hit the bye-bye button, everyone's going to go off, the bubbles will pop. So, you know, reality is not, there's no things like reality, there's no, you can't point to it. You know, that first koan in the Book of Serenity, Manjushri says, and Buddha gets on the seat, the Dharma seat to give a talk. And Manjushri says, behold, the king, the king of the Dharma is thus. And he points to the Buddha. Buddha gets down off the seat. So, you know, don't point to Buddha. That's rude. You know, where are you going to point? Who are you going to point to? It's omnidirectional, omnipresent, Buddha nature, all things Buddha nature. whole being, Buddha nature. So without leaving anything out, what is reality? Thank you.

[61:02]

Sure. Thank you. Hi, Lisa. Thank you. Thank you for the talk. And thank you for Diving into Dogen. Oof. Yeah. My white suit on. Don't look at the life jacket. My scuba gear. Yeah. Yeah. So I'm having trouble with a word. Yeah. Excuse me. And that word is. I'll be right back. Yeah. Okay. That word is non-being. Non-being. Okay. Yeah. Okay. So I can see being. But what's non-being? Is it the idea that being is made up of parts?

[62:04]

Is it like the no eyes, no ears, no self, no being? Or is it somehow different? Well, I think that's fine. That works, but also being, non-being are also can be said existence and non-existence. So it's very personal. I also could say birth and death. Even more personal. Okay. So right now we're kind of being. We're being. I-N-G, it's a verb. We are being. And we are human being. And we don't know how that happened. I have no idea. Causes and conditions beyond measure, beyond imagining. have brought us here today to be together. And non-being is perhaps whatever was before that, before my birth, which I can't conceive of, and after my death, which I can't conceive of. So I think, you know, it's those two

[63:08]

And polarities that are called forth with being and non-being. And then third paragraph, leap clear of the many and the one, of the being and the non-being, of thinking and not thinking. How do you do that? Well, how about leaping? How about just get out of here? Forget about it. How about giving up and going to have a cup of tea? Exactly. Let's have a cup of tea. That's what the Zen teachers do. I like that thing that Suzuki Rashi said. Someone asked him, what do Zen teachers do when they get together? And he said, we laugh a lot. So I think it's really important for us to not forget that this is all really, there needs to be a release. There needs to be a release of the intense effort that we make at practice to try to understand these very challenging teachings. And then to close the book. Have a cup of tea. Go roller skating, whatever you get pleasure from. And then come back when you're rested, you come back into it.

[64:14]

That's the same thing with zazen, shamatha vipassana. Tranquility practice is for recovery from intense effort to have for insight. Insight is full effort of your intellect to try to understand. Really bring your best effort to that. And then you take a rest. Shamatha practice is for tranquility. And when you learn to balance those two, where you can do inquiry without tension, you know, like effortless, as Dogen says, effortless inquiry, then that way you have, you know, whatever you want to know, whatever you're working on can be done in maybe more of a light way, a little less, you know, grasping, which is the cause of suffering. Wanting the answer. Wanting. Demanding. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

[65:16]

Yeah. We know this problem. Yes, we do. It's our dear friend. I got an A. Yeah, got an A in Dogen. No, A plus, please. Oh, yeah, right. Thank you, ma'am. You're welcome. You're welcome, you too. Hi, Jean. Long time. Nice to see you. Hi, Fu. Nice to be here. I have a lot of thoughts and questions. A whole half a page full of them, but those are things that have to roll around in my head for a while. Because I kind of know where they all lead, but I really want someone to tell me. And I think I have to just wait for it to get there. So I'm going to shift a little bit and ask you if you will talk a little bit about your Sangha week. Oh. I have not really been able to find any information about your Sangha week, and I'm interested.

[66:24]

I notice you have a class, and it's during the Sangha week, perhaps. I could certainly be confused. That's a pretty solid state of mind these days. Not a bad one, but... kind of exciting and a little confusing. So I'd like to hear more about that and what you, if you have a plan, what you might be teaching during that week. Do you have a request? You know, I really like the Dogen stuff, but I also have become very interested in Because at the moment, I'm engaging with a group about... I think it perhaps is a little bit of a dangerous topic, but I'm behaving with right speech and right action with regard to all the isms we're dealing with in the world and how I feel like

[67:36]

there's there's sometimes we've sort of lost the way with regard to sometimes things can just be a mistake and there's not a deeper um a deeper fault behind that uh however i feel like it's um you know our culture is sort of trying to figure out how to deal with the injustices and the discriminations of the world so we're all sort of getting lost and dragging dragging dragging so I mean I read something recently about right speech and right actions and whether or not they disturb the mind's essential peace which in turn affects whether they help or hinder And I was trying to figure out where that came from.

[68:37]

And someone had just mentioned Dogen when I heard it, but I'm not really sure. So I really like to figure out how in our practice, for example, the matter you should not neglect is the one true thing. And as we practice and we sit and we make ourselves open to, the one true thing which we can't really talk about because the words don't work and the words sometimes get us in a little bit of a spot so i i don't really know what i'm saying but i'm gonna really depend on you to interpret it yeah well you know it's a little bit in the vein of precepts or the path a full path right speech is part of the eightfold path it's also not lying, the precepts. So I'd be quite happy to talk about the precepts.

[69:40]

I think that's a wonderful topic. And, you know, it could be part of a conversation. I haven't really structured something, kind of waiting to see who's there, you know, and what people would like to do. I have an awful lot of stuff in my files. And I enjoy almost everything that is connected to Zen and Dharma, so talking about speech and conduct and so on would be a very comfortable thing to do. We could kind of, you know, start to put something together with the people who are there. You know, we'll be sitting, we'll be working, and then there'll be a time that we'll just get to be together as a subgroup that's there, like the Sangha groups that are there. can go for a hike i mean i think there's all kinds of things that one can do at tasahara that are quite quite lovely so um i'm not i'm not locked into anything yet i still have a few months of many other things that i'm taking care of got dharma transmission next month which is going to take a lot of my brain power and um

[70:54]

So Dean, why don't you think about what you're thinking about and see if you can put it into a few sentences maybe, or suggestions, and shoot me an email. Or any of you can do that. If you have some ideas, if you might be considering coming to Sangha Week, which I think is a lovely thing to do, go to Tassahara. Having been there for three months, Lisa, you can tell them. It's amazing. It's amazing. Yeah, two thumbs. So it's really worth a trip if you haven't been and if it's something you could do. And I will be very happy to see you there. Thank you. And I also want to say I've been sitting for a long time. And the thing that I so appreciate about these Sunday evenings, all the things I did not come into this practice. having any kind of a clue. And I didn't even understand what the concept of practice was.

[72:01]

And so there was so much in the first probably eight or 10 years, I just didn't know. And so all of these specifics that you share with us in your Monday evening class are things that I have been hearing over the last you know, few decades. But often they didn't settle with me because I'm not a scholarly kind of person. I'm a, oh my gosh, that feels good. Or, oh my gosh, something's wrong here. So I just want to say that we are really lucky that we have someone who will say, oh, Oh, yeah. When we use the word Dharma, this is what it means. When we use this word, this is what it means. Good. It's such a gloaty kind of practice. No one generally wants to say that. And for those of us who are pretty left brain driven.

[73:06]

It's it makes it's a little bit more difficult. So. I just really want to thank you. Every time I hear something, I think, oh, my gosh, I should have known that 20 years ago. So thank you very much for that. I greatly appreciate it. You're so welcome. You're so welcome. You're just following the traces of my own frustration and coming into Zen practice just sitting and like, what are they talking about? You know, I'm really wanting to understand and feeling very – someone – who I won't name, but is a good Dharma friend now. I was at one of my first seminars with a small group of people studying something, and I kept asking these really stupid questions because I didn't know anything. And the person said, would you like us to wait for you? And I just thought, how dare you? But anyway, it was so true. Would you like us to wait for you to catch up and do a little reading? So I took it as a challenge. And I think I'm very grateful to that person, as I said, who is now a dear friend.

[74:11]

So, yeah, I'm happy to wait for you and for anyone because that's what I knew I had to do is to try to catch up. It's lovely stuff. It's just lovely stuff, right? Yeah, you're so welcome. Yeah, the catching up is pretty astounding. Don't worry about it. There's no end. There's no end to this. You know, they just keep publishing more books and more commentary. Right, when I heard about the Shobo Ginzo, the new... Yeah. Oh, my gosh. I thought, oh, my God, I don't even stand the first one. Please don't keep another one. I know. But having the books, that's all you really need. Just have the books. You can touch them, you know, kind of put them to your forehead, and something will come in. Thank you so much. You're welcome. Hi, Helene. Good to see you. There we go. Can you hear me now? It's all good.

[75:12]

Hi, everybody. It's good to see everyone. And thank you so much for your talk. And my question came to me because I got very involved in sitting. before I had any concept of realization or enlightenment. So for me, I really relate to the idea that the posture is enlightenment itself. Good. If I have a moment, of, you know, kind of body and mind dropped away. I begin to feel like, shouldn't I be doing something else? Like be concentrating on achieving realization.

[76:23]

I mean, I find it nice to just try to sit there in that moment as much as I can. I kind of imagine it like a frog on a lily pad. You know, like frogs are really aware of everything, but they're super still until, you know, for a long time maybe. Until a fly comes by. Yeah. Yeah. Well, yeah, I think these are great questions. You all are asking really wonderful questions, and it's, you know, it's It's like this great banquet table has been laid out there for us, you know, for centuries. They've been laying out this banquet table and we nibble. We all have been nibbling at it that have gotten close for whatever our own reasons are. We've all come close to the big table. And, you know, so it's sort of like how much can you put on your plate? How much can you ingest? How much can you pass through? How much can you then be ready for something else?

[77:23]

And what's a good combination of things that will help you to find your own, ordering. For me, I needed a timeline. I needed to know what happened first, and so on and so forth. That was a very helpful orientation. I started with Shakyamuni Buddha's first sermon. I ran to the library, and I thought, I'm going to read what he said first. I did, and it was incredibly valuable. you know, if that that was my thing, that's what I did. And then that led to something else. And I once asked Philip Whelan, who was used to live at Tossara when I was there, he's a poet, Zen poet, beat poet. Sadly, yes, beat Zen. Fabulous, crazy guys that used to live at Zen Center with us. So anyway, I said, well, how do you do that? How do you have so much information? He said, we just take one thing and then that thing will take you to something else. And then that thing will take you to something else. Kind of like that frog just going from one lily pad to another lily pad.

[78:25]

So you just keep linking. You know, you find puzzle pieces that fit together. And then, you know, that's very nice. And then maybe find another one, another little piece of blue sky. And then you make your own kind of assortment. that's what you like working with. And then ask for help, which you are doing. And it's wonderful. That's what the song is all about, yeah? Yeah. No, I get it. And thank you very much for that answer. That really helps me set the table because the Zen Center orientation, is it's different than my experience previously. And so I'm still acclimating, kind of picking up speed. And I appreciate what you say about not trying to catch up, because I feel like my whole life has been catching up.

[79:30]

And I agree. You know, it just goes on and on. So you never catch up. There is not really any catching up. There's no finish line. There's no contestants running against you or trying to do it. You know, we're just all friends on this big bus, the big bozo bus, and riding together, you know, doing what we can to be kind, really. I like what the Dalai Lama said. My religion is kindness. I think that's a lot. You know, if we can do that, I don't think we need to do anything else. Thank you. Okay, dear Sangha. See you next week. We'll paddle on upstream. So on the 25th, you are giving the Dharma talk in the morning as well.

[80:39]

You're going to do two Dharma talks that day. Yeah. Yeah, I do that sometimes. And, you know, it keeps me young. Keeps you in shape. Keeps me in shape, exactly. Okay. Well, good to see you all of you. Thank you. Great blessings. Thank you. Take care of yourselves. Thank you, Fu. Yeah, if you'd like to unmute and say goodbye, please, you will. Bye, and thank you. Have a good evening, everybody. Have a good evening. Fu, do you know the dates of Sangha Week yet? I can look them up. I can ask my amanuensis. Yeah. Karina, do you know the dates of Sangha Week? I do. She does. Such a good girl. It's August August 8th. August 8th through the 13th.

[81:39]

Thank you. But that information is not available yet on the website. Oh, it's not? I'm asking. I thought that's what Dean said. I think it might be. I should probably ask the authorities. I don't know how it's working. They're only doing Sangha Weeks. There's no guest season this year. It's a whole experiment and just Sangha Weeks. So... There's going to be quite different buffet meals, no waiting tables and that sort of thing. I think people, I don't know if you make your own bed, but maybe. So it's really going to be focusing on being together and studying Dharma, which I think is a good shift that may go on forever, hopefully. We're all very happy about that. Does this Sangha have a name? My Sangha Week? This Sangha? The Sangha that has the Sangha Week. My Sangha for Sangha Week? This Sangha for Sangha Week? Because they seem to have the Sangha Weeks by affiliate Sanghas, which have names.

[82:47]

I'm wondering if that's why I can't find it online. Well, maybe we have to have a name. My calendar says Fu at Five, but that's not all inclusive, so I think maybe we should say... I don't know. I'll think of something, and I'll check with the folks about the name, how to identify that particular Sangha Week. Is it the teacher's name sometimes that was there? Like, as group? As far as I can see, there's a directory of affiliates. Oh, see, we don't have a location. We're in the cloud. We don't live anywhere. We're just like floating in space. Who's cloud sangha? The cloud sangha. Yeah. That's not bad. I will do something about that. I'll make myself a note. Maybe we're a little too much in the cloud.

[83:51]

Oh, no. Find us. I've been accused of that a few times. Fu means wind, by the way. Wind is green. Wayseeking Heart is my name. That's pretty good. Like moving around, just searching, looking, trying to find some orientation. Well, thank you for pointing that out. I will do my best to get some clarification. I can let you know next week. Perfect. Okay. Thank you.

[84:22]

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