Good evening. Good evening. Wow, it's so great to see so many people in this beloved Tassahara Zendo. So as I said, I'm not mic'd. If you're having a problem, you're in need, just shoot your hand up, please, and I think we'll be okay. My name is Greg Fane, and I've been living in practicing at Tassahara for a significant chunk of my adult life. I like it here. I want to start by, well, the way I always start, acknowledge and thank my late teacher, Sojin Mel Weitzman Roshi, the old Buddha. Thank you, Sojin. and to say that this talk is just to encourage you in your practice.

[01:02]

I would also like to thank Artanto, Linda Gallion. Thank you, Linda, for inviting me to give this talk, and in particular, allowing me to do a series of three talks on the same theme. This is talk number three. If you didn't hear the first two talks, Don't even worry about it. It doesn't apply at all, I assure you. Once upon a time, maybe in 1967 or 1968, There was a policeman patrolling in his squad car in a residential neighborhood in Berkeley, California, on Dwight Way to be precise.

[02:09]

And he saw in the pre-dawn dark some suspicious activity around the house on Dwight Way. And he thought he'd better investigate. He got out and he approached the house. And Mel Weitzman came to the door. He said something like, I noticed some people coming and going. It's an unusual time. It's dark out. What's going on here anyway? And Mel explained. what they were doing, some like-minded people gathering together to practice Zen meditation. The cop took a second or two to let that sink in. And then the cop said, won't drugs get you there quicker?

[03:16]

And Mel said, We're not going anywhere. We're not going anywhere. Just this is it. There is nothing to seek. There is no enlightenment or special states of mind elsewhere. Nothing outside of this moment. right now. So, as I said, this is a continuation of two other talks, which I've been pleased to call the Taproot of Soto Zen. Taproot being the great ancestor Dungshan, his teaching,

[04:22]

and in particular, the great Zen poem, The Song of the Jewel Mirror Samadhi. Dengshan lived from 807 to 869 of the Common Era in Tang Dynasty China, so-called Golden Age of Zen. Last talk, I brought the record of Dengshan, the only complete English translation by William Powell. It's a classic. It's in the library. It's quite old, but it still continues to be the only complete English translation. Tonight, I also wanted to share, it's basically show and tell. I'm sorry, Kika, I made you carry these. Just to show you. Very much have been inspired by my friend Charlie McCorney's Jewel Mirror Samadhi Study Guide, which Leila Roshi, who was just here a little while ago, keeps threatening to publish as a bona fide book.

[05:33]

This is the format it exists in. It is a real treasure. It's in the library. And then, 2015, great Zen teacher Taigen Dan Layton published... this book about Dungshan and the practice of suchness called Justice Is It. So if you want to learn more about Dungshan, if I'm inspiring you at all, check out this book. It's amazing. So tonight I would like to continue talking a little bit about, well, I want to hone in on one part from the record of Dengshan that is basically pivotal, the most important part, which is the story of Dengshan's enlightenment and his enlightenment gatha.

[06:47]

that he composed. The song of the Jewel Mirror Samadhi would come much later, but if you're familiar, you will maybe hear some of that in what I'm going to present. Doshan also, I mentioned before, In Japanese, it's called tozan. So Dongshan is Chinese, in Japanese it's tozan, and that's where we get the to in soto. So another reason why I call this the taproot of sotozen. Dongshan didn't say, hey, I'm going to found a school called sotozen. No, there were no schools of Zen at the time Dongshan was teaching, but eventually his lineage became

[07:49]

Soto school. So I will just read you this passage. This is Taigen Roshi's translation. Although the Gata is the late Tom Cleary's translation. I guess Taigen Roshi decided he couldn't improve on that. So he just... used Tom Cleary's translation. So this story comes after Dongshan had been practicing for a while with his teacher, Yunyang. And in Taigen's book, he talks a lot about Yunyang and his brother, Dao Wu. There's a lot of great stories. I don't know about a lot, but some Really, the amazing thing about so many of these stories and koans from Tang Dynasty China is that they're really sparse, but they're so vivid.

[09:02]

They just really come to life. Yeah, so dynamic. The two brothers, Dawu and Yunyan, Yunyan was... kind of like the doofus. He wasn't the sharpest knife in the drawer. And yet, he's the one who happened to entrust the Dharma to Dungshan. After some period of practice with Yunyan, just before departing to visit other teachers, Dungshan asked Yunyan, Later on, if I am asked to describe your teaching, how should I respond? After some pause, Yunnan said, just this is it.

[10:05]

Dongchan was then lost in thought, and Yunnan said, you are now in charge of this great matter. you must be most thoroughgoing. Dungshan departed without further comment. Later, while wading across a stream, he looked down, saw his reflection, and awakened to the meaning of the previous exchange. He then wrote the following verse. Just don't seek from others or you'll be far estranged from self. I now go on alone. Everywhere I meet it. It now is me. I now am not it. One must understand in this way to merge with suchness.

[11:16]

will read his verse again. Just don't seek from others or you'll be far estranged from self. I now go on alone. Everywhere I meet it. It now is me. I now am not it. One must understand in this way to merge with suchness. If you're familiar with the Song of the Jewel Mirror Samadhi already, you might be picking up some resonance. For example, when Yunnan tells him, you are now in charge of this great matter. You must be most thoroughgoing. The second line of the Song of the Jewel Mirror Samadhi, Dengshan says, I'll just give you the first two lines. The teaching of suchness has been intimately transmitted. by Buddhas and ancestors. This teaching of suchness is what I'm calling the taproot of Soto Zen.

[12:26]

And then the next line is, now you have it, so keep it well. Just don't seek from others or you'll be far estranged from self. In teacher Dogen's Genjo Koan, which many of you are familiar with, he says, to carry yourself forward and experience myriad things is delusion. That myriad things come forward and experience themselves is awakening. We spend so much of our time figuring stuff out. How do I fit in here? What's the game? What's the advantage or the disadvantage? Or as Leslie James has said so many times, am I okay?

[13:31]

Am I okay here? Do that a lot. Don't seek outside, actually. Let the world Let reality come forth and experience itself. I now go on alone. Everywhere I meet it. So in my last talk, I spoke about walking by myself to the top of the Tony Trail after the fire to look at the burn scar. And The importance, I think it's really important, good for every human being if they at least get a chance or two to be in the wilderness by themselves.

[14:38]

Just to spend a little time in the wilderness alone and not being alone at all. Not at all. Here's Suzuki Roshi. This is kind of sequel to Zen Mind Beginner's Mind, maybe, called Not Always So. More talks by Suzuki Roshi. On page 108, Suzuki Roshi says, Tozan, the founder of the Chinese Soto Zen School, said, don't try to see yourself objectively. In other words, don't try to seek for information about yourself that is the objective truth. That is information. He says that the real you is quite different from any information you have.

[15:46]

The real you is not that kind of thing. I go my own way. Wherever I go, I meet myself. Tozan rejects your effort to cling to information about yourself and says to go on alone using your own legs. Whatever people may say, you should go your own way, and at the same time, you should practice with people. This is another point. It means that to meet yourself is to practice with people. I'm really glad he said it. I also think that's an important point. It now is me. I now am not it. This line, the third line of the gatha, is kind of considered the crux of the matter.

[16:56]

Probably, if you are familiar with the Song of the Jewel, Mir Samadhi, you will hear that, the line where Gamshan says in that poem, you are not it, in truth it is you. Same sentiment, worded slightly differently. He says, it now is me, I now am not it. How are we to understand this? Suzuki Roshi is advising us to reject the information and just let the reality of our life come forward. How do you do that? Well, practically, try maybe

[18:03]

Refraining from carrying yourself forward all the time. Maybe do less of that. Well, how do you do that? It's non-doing, right? Well, Soto Zen is nothing if not practical. Believe it or not. It's got a lot of Shall we say technology? Wow, that's a weird word. How to do it. Many opportunities where you can drop your own ideas and just do. You bring your palms together, what we call gasho, which is Japanese for palms together. Whether it's the first time or the 50,000th time you've put your hands in gashow, it doesn't matter.

[19:13]

Just let gashow do gashow. That's all. Your whole body takes this form. It's nothing to do with your ideas about gashow, good gashow, or bad gashow, or... Forget it. You just do it similarly. When we sit down on our black cushion with upright spine and just do our best to stay present for whatever arises, you just let zazen sit zazen. You know? You really, you and the things you think you have to do and your agendas and all that stuff, let go of it completely. Suzuki Roshi said, It's a big mistake to think that you sit zazen. Zazen sit zazen.

[20:15]

You just let zazen sit zazen. That's all. We are all alive. We're all breathing. Something that all of us in this room right now have in common. We all have this life force or we are this life force. Katagiri Roshi said, when we sit zazen, just settle the self on the self and let your life force bloom. Let it bloom. Don't have to do so much. Our late Avis, Blanche Hartman, Roshi.

[21:33]

She used to love to sing this one song. I can hear her now. This little light of mine I'm gonna let it shine This little light of mine I'm gonna let it shine This little light of mine I'm gonna let it shine Let it shine, let it shine, let it shine. I'm not going to manufacture and install some light. I'm not going to assemble some Buddha nature that I can put up somewhere and say, hey, look, Buddha nature. No, it's already there. Each one of us, every body, each body has, is the light.

[22:50]

But we can choose to let it shine. I'm going to let it shine. Let it shine. I now am not it, but I'm going to let it shine. It comes from inside. One must understand in this way to merge with suchness. Merge with suchness. Whoa. I've been turning this over for a long time. How to talk about this? Recently, talking with a Dharma friend, I tried on

[24:01]

Maybe... Oh, I think in the last talk I gave, I said something like it's a quality of living, a quality of life. I'm like... I don't hate that. Then I tried... There's a foundational okayness in life. Not meaning like... kind of Pollyanna-ish, don't worry, everything's going to be okay, it'll all work out. Not like that. But here, in the body, behind the breastbone, in the gut, just this, is it? Just this is enough. It's reliable. I do thank Suzuki Roshi for saying, for emphasizing to his students, and you should practice with people.

[25:13]

For me, that's really how it gets enacted. My usual themes that I come back to over and over again, gratitude, appreciation, generosity, This is all in relationship. The practice of generosity. One of the greatest gifts you can give another person is the gift of your attention. Making eye contact, smiling, letting them know, you know, I'm here for you. This is how community is built, sangha. It's really the only thing that matters. And yes, love. I went there.

[26:17]

Somebody once asked Sojourner Roshi on a retreat, a Vipassana retreat. He says something like, well, you've been talking about zazen, but how and when do you practice metta, loving kindness, the sublime emotion, Buddhist virtue, and practice of extending loving kindness. How do you do that? And Soja was... quiet for a few seconds. And then he said, I think that's all I'm ever doing. Like we turn ourselves into little meta-generators. This is very real.

[27:24]

Tassajara is so important to so many people and i um by the way almost forgot to thank all our work period people for being here right now thank you so much when people leave in work circle they say beautiful words of gratitude it's been my great pleasure to listen to people expressing their gratitude and sharing their words since 2000. Recently, Lucy Lin was here visiting. When she left, she told me I could say this. She really wanted us to know that what we're doing here is so significant. that it means so much, whether we realize it or not, to a suffering world, not only for people who come here, who have the good fortune to come here and be here in person, but everyone, when they leave, they take tasahara with them, they extend that out into the world.

[28:52]

Lucy really wanted us to know that. And she said, it's like a tsunami of good feeling in the world. And I just thought, yes, yes. And I would say a tsunami of suchness in a suffering world. We're living in scary times. I feel like it's really important. maybe becoming more important day by day. It all comes back to gratitude.

[30:07]

Thank you all so much. Thank you, Tassahara. I'm so grateful just continuously to be able to do this practice, to share this practice in community. Such amazing people. Truly, we are blessed. Thank you all for listening, and I wish you pleasant and peaceful dreams tonight. Take good care.

[30:48]

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