Good evening, looks like you're muted, just throwing that out there. I was. Okay, so let's, I'm going to hit the bell, and we'll sit for a few minutes, and then go forward with our study of Dogenzenji. evening well I've just come back from a few wonderful relaxing days walking on the snow which I really highly recommend we found some snow still lots of snow up in the Sierras and had a really wonderful time and snowshoeing which is you know seems to be the right thing at this age I think

[07:01]

Walking on the snow is just perfect. I have no urge to slide on the snow or jump off cliffs or whatever. This is just a wonderful way to be out in the country. So I'm back. I noticed when I was sitting quietly that the snow imagery is still quite strong running around in my mind. I wanted to I was Oh, and I was reading my notes from last week. And as I did that, I thought I think I should tell you some of this again. Because studying Dogen is, it's, it's very, well, it's challenging, of course, but it's also it's so profound. I mean, his insight and his use of language and all of the things that he devoted his life to are there's a good reason why he's the founder of of our school and so the more i read you know some of the works of some of the scholars of dogan and dogan's work again you know go back into it again i'm like just kind of uh really re-inspired to spend more and more time uh endeavoring to understand

[08:20]

Dogen and what he's doing and trying to help us understand what it means to be awake. That was his whole purpose as a teacher, was to help us awaken from our delusional thinking, and especially about the nature of delusional thinking itself. He has a very, very unique take on that. As he says, Dogen says in the next fascicle that we'll be looking at, after the Fukanza Zengi, which is the fascicle I wanted to start with, his instructions for seated meditation. In the Genjo Kaan, he says that those who have great realization of delusion are Buddhas. Those who have great realization of delusion are Buddhas. Those who are greatly deluded about realization are sentient beings. This is a pretty good summary of what he does over and over and over again. You know, he is... just so masterful in helping to upright and then turn again all of these ways that we tend to get stuck in how we view things, like realization and like delusion.

[09:30]

So throughout his teaching, Dogen is using words, of course, using words as tools for undermining this delusional thinking that's made from words. So using a thorn to take out a thorn is one of the Zen sayings. And yet what happened in doing that, in being such a master of using words to undermine words, he actually gave even greater value to language and to the use of words as a means of expressing enlightenment. And he declared that words and letters cannot be separated from the ultimate truth. So nothing can be separated from the ultimate truth, from ultimate reality. So he's bringing everything back in. Everything's back in. We're not trying to get rid of anything in Dogen's teaching. So even though he gave his teachings in ways that are kind of mysterious and somewhat challenging for us, what he was doing was turning words, using words, kind of like a magician,

[10:41]

in order to make a visceral impact on both the body and the mind of the listener. And I think that's somewhat what I've been experiencing in going back into Dogen again. It's like, oh, you know, there's no handholds, there's very slippery slopes. Anywhere you go, there's something like the snow, you know, a little bit of a slide going on there with each step. So although Dogen gave his teachings to all levels of society, not just to monastics, he really expected that his listeners were devoted to the practice of upright sitting, zazen. And so through his intellectual teachings, he basically is turning the mind of the listener. And through this wholehearted upright sitting practice, then we are turning the body of the listener. So body and mind are both being turned. One whole body, one whole mind, forever turning as the universe itself.

[11:43]

So Dogen was not teaching that meditation leads to enlightenment, but rather that meditation itself, or Zazen itself, is enlightenment. As I read to you last week from the Bendo Wa. meaning on endeavor of the way, endeavoring the way, another fascicle that we'll look at sometime in the future. So endeavor of the way, sit zazen wholeheartedly, conform to the Buddha form and let go of all things. Sit zazen wholeheartedly, conform to the Buddha form and let go of all things. Then leaping beyond the boundary of delusion and enlightenment, free from the paths of ordinary and sacred, unconstrained by ordinary thinking immediately wander at ease enriched with great enlightenment when you practice in this way how can those who are concerned with traps and snares of words and letters be compared to you so he's really going around

[12:52]

opening up these traps and snares and letting all the little creatures loose who've gotten caught in them. That's his gift to us. So Dogen's understanding is that at all moments we are whole and lack nothing despite however we are feeling or whatever we're thinking in any given moment. At all times we are whole and we lack nothing. That's his primary understanding. So for Dogen, this word intimacy shows up over and over again. And I would say that if you were gonna put up a banner about Dogen's teaching, it would be the word intimacy. You know, intimacy. It's this primary antidote to this delusional feeling we have of not being whole or of being complete. You know, that feeling we all have? That we're not whole, we're not complete, we're not good enough, we're not this, we're not whatever. Intimacy is the antidote to that delusional feeling or that delusional idea of not being whole.

[13:54]

Dogen says intimacy means close and inseparable. There is no gap. Intimacy embraces Buddha ancestors. Intimacy embraces you. Intimacy embraces self. It embraces action. It embraces generations. It embraces merit. And it embraces intimacy. Full circle. So this moment and whatever we are doing in this moment are one and a complete and intimate expression of life itself. Whatever you're doing right now is a complete expression of life itself, of course. Dogen goes on to say that between aspiration, practice, enlightenment and nirvana, There is not a moment's gap. And so we do not sit in order to become enlightened. We sit because that's what Buddhas do.

[14:57]

We sit because that's what Buddhas do. I think that's amazing. Let's make a good bumper sticker. And yet because we do not yet know who or what we are because of our delusional thinking, a gap appears. It's an illusion. But there it is. There's a gap. between me and the objects of the world. What Dogen calls a hair-breadth deviation. And our thoughts run around like a wild horse. Our feelings jump about like a monkey in the forest. Familiar feelings. As a result of this mind-made suffering, there's a longing. We have a longing that appears. This aspiration to close the gap. The gap that is no gap. Where there is no gap, but still. Please close the gap. So that aspiration is what led most of us, I think, to undertake the practice of Zen in the first place, or any spiritual tradition, that longing for connection, for completion.

[16:00]

Wisdom is seeking wisdom, wholeness is seeking wholeness, life is seeking life, and self is seeking self. So last week I shared with you the Zen ancestry that inspired Dogen's view of practice and realization, which he treats as though it's one word. Practice realization. One word. Practice is realization. Realization is practice. So this Zen ancestry is what we've been tracing through the stories from the transmission of light. You know, we began as Shakyamuni Buddha, and then we passed to a number of the Indian ancestors, so Nagarjuna, the second Buddha, Vasubandhu, the mind-only teachings, and Bodhidharma. the Indian ancestor who traveled to China. And then we went through some of the early Chinese ancestors, in particular, the sixth Chinese ancestor, Hui Nong, who's the author of the Platform Sutra. So that text, the Platform Sutra, is foundational to what became known as the Southern School of Mahayana Buddhism, from which Dongshan,

[17:11]

our Soto Zen founder, Ru Jing, Dogen's teacher, Dogen, and Suzuki Roshi, and all of us, have descended. So, Platform Sutra. Again, this is a repeat from last week. So, Wei Ning's teaching promotes the notion of sudden enlightenment, in which the goal and the method are the same. So, very much echoing what Dogen says in centuries... ahead that practice realization. So goal and method are the same. Which is kind of an opposite of the traditional teaching of the classical Buddhist teaching of gradual enlightenment in which the method and the goal are distinct and they're at quite some distance. You practice for a long time and maybe you'll get enlightened. So there's that kind of idea that I'm not enlightened now and so there's something I need to do. I'm going to practice and then that'll happen. So that's this and that causality, which for the sudden enlightenment school, there's no such thing.

[18:17]

There's no future time. Everything, the whole universe is happening now, all together now. So the goal and the practice are always the same. They're at the same time. So in the southern school, the sole object of meditation is ultimate reality itself. you know, the whole works, the universe itself, the entirety of what we are, you know, outside the boundaries of our idea of a self, you know, a small notion, what Suzugiroshi calls our small mind. You know, the big mind is the object of meditation in the Zen school, in our particular branch. So here again is that sample from Huan Nong's teaching in the Platform Sutra in which he makes this radical turn away from the practice of gradual awakening toward a realization of sudden awakening, like right now. Just this is it. This is all familiar to you. Just this is it. That's sudden awakening.

[19:17]

In the traditional understanding of Buddha's three teachings from the Pali Canon, so this is classical Buddhism, there are three sections. There's ethics, begins with ethics, deportment, precepts. The second section is meditation, so concentration practices, practices to bring about the third section, which is wisdom. So you have ethics, meditation, and wisdom. And then ethics and meditation were taught as the methods that would lead to wisdom. So that's the means and the end. Wisdom is at the end, and ethics and meditation are the means to the end. So in other words, the gradual approach to awakening. And in the Platform Sutra, Huai Nong turns this understanding completely on its head. Huai Nong's approach, and therefore the approach of all the ancestors to follow, begins with wisdom. In other words, it's wisdom about the fundamental nature of the mind and of reality that leads to ethical behavior and to meditation practice rather than the other way around.

[20:26]

So the wisdom of the non-dual nature of reality that you are indeed myself is what leads me to treat you well and to be careful with you and to care for you and to wish you only the best and so on and so forth as, you know, world as self. as Jonah may see, world as lover, world as self. So when you see that, you have the wisdom of the non-dual nature of life, of reality, then that leads to ethics. That leads to meditation, to the enjoyment body of sitting quietly and just appreciating the nature of the mind and all of its fuzzy and blurry and messy performances that are going on all the time. It's like, what a marvel. Like, sometimes I think of my mind as a little flea circus, and they're very clever, those little fleas, what they're up to. So here's this Hui Nong's Platform Sutra. The fact that the basis of the mind is without any wrong, the basis of the mind is without any wrong, is the ethics of one's own nature.

[21:35]

Your own nature has no wrong to it. There's nothing wrong with you, you know. So the mind is without any wrong and ethics is the ethics of one's own nature. The fact that the basis of the mind is without disturbance is the meditation of one's own nature. The fact that the basis of the mind is without ignorance is the wisdom of one's own nature. When we understand our own nature we do not set up ethics and meditation and wisdom since our own nature is without wrong disturbance or ignorance. And in every moment of thought, prajna, wisdom, illuminates, always free from the attributes of things. What is there to set up? So this is Sui Nong. So in the perfect sudden practice of the southern school, which you just heard, every sight, every smell and taste is the ultimate middle way in which ignorance is identical with enlightenment.

[22:41]

Samsara is identical with nirvana, and there is no path leading from one to the other. So samsara, shamatha, which is tranquility practice, traditional practice that would be taught in a kind of normal Buddhist teaching school, you would learn shamatha, tranquility practice, and techniques for calming your mind. according to Huynong, is nothing other than the quiescence of ultimate reality itself. Ultimate reality is calm, is tranquil, is at peace. And vipassana, which is the insight, is constant luminosity. So, tranquility practice, shamatha, is nothing other than the quiescence of ultimate reality itself. And vipassana, it's constant luminosity. So there's, you know, this is, all of this stuff is starting at a very high level of attribution of what we really are.

[23:51]

You know, beginning with ourselves as Buddha. I mean, you've heard that before. You are Buddha. You have, this is Buddha nature. This is awakening. What's happening right now? This is it, you know. And, but yet we all know about the gap, right? So, you know, Dogen's teachings. In fact, when we get to the fukansa zengi we're going to hear exactly this this statement of perfection of You know we are already enlightened the way is basically perfect and all-pervading as the fukansa zengi begins How could it be contingent upon practice and realization? The Dharma vehicle is free and untrammeled What need is there for concentrated effort? indeed the whole body is far beyond the world's dust. Who could believe in a means to brush it clean? It is never apart from one, right where one is. What is the use of going off, here and there, to practice?

[24:53]

So that's the first paragraph of the Fukanzazengi, of his instructions for meditation. Everything's perfect. The way is basically perfect and all-pervading. What's the problem? This is Dogen's question. This is the question that led him to go to China. I was like, what's the problem? If my primary nature, my nature is Buddha nature, why do I have to practice? This is the big challenge of this sudden school. So we're going to be... delving deeply into this challenge, along with Dogen's response and his effort to help us, you know, to be able to swim down in those depths, you know, that's okay, just relax, you'll be fine. Nothing's changed, just some shift of your attitude, you know, about how you see things. So this radical non-dualism of the Southern School undermined the rationale for cultivating. or any kind of concrete discussion of techniques for practice.

[25:58]

And this is the problem that Dogen himself is saying in the very beginnings of his essay. Why practice if we're already fundamentally enlightened? There's another saying of gouging wounds into healthy flesh. Why are you doing that? Why would you be gouging wounds in an already healed and already awakened being, going to all this trouble? And yet, as I also said to you last week, there remains a very small opening for instruction in the face of basically this radical deconstruction of the wisdom teachings. As we know from the Heart Sutra, which is among the most radical of the deconstruction teachings of Buddhism, there are no eyes or ears, no nose, no tongue, no body, no mind, no suffering, no cause of suffering, no cessation of suffering, No path to the cessation of suffering. No knowledge, no attainment with nothing to attain.

[26:59]

So this is the way is basically perfect and all-pervading. There's no need to divide anything up into parts. Everything's whole. The universe is whole. Why are you chopping things up into little bits and pieces? So the small opening you know, that allows us to consider that we might do something, we might engage in practice, as I understand it, goes like this. If wisdom is the natural experience of our six senses, our natural experience of the world through our senses, like when light hits your eyes and sound hits your ears and odors hit your nose, without delusional thinking happening, there's no problem there. It's just a very, there's just this amazing truth of sight and sound and taste and touch. It's just how it is. Just what's happening. There's no commentary needed.

[28:02]

Including whatever you're thinking. There's no commentary. You don't have to comment on what you're thinking. Your thinking is a comment and that's already passed. You know, they go by pretty quick. So there's nothing wrong with that either. There's nothing wrong with the thinking. It's this other kind of thinking that we do called delusional thinking. You know, thinking about thinking. Thinking about smelling and hearing. Like, I don't like that sound very much. Or that smell. Or, and I don't like what I'm looking at. You know, we really get into it, right? We have all these gaps that we have created from language, out of words and so on. So the small opening for us in practice is the cultivation of no thought. of no thought. So Dogen talks about this in this instruction we're going to be looking at in the Fukanza Zengi. He says his core teaching of this Fukanza Zengi is that, okay, so how do you practice?

[29:05]

He says, think of not thinking. Think of not thinking. Have you tried that yet? Think of not thinking. Think of not thinking. How do you think of not thinking? The monk says. Teacher, how do you think of not thinking? And Dogen says, non-thinking. This in itself is the essential art of zazen. So this is a big deal. The essential art of zazen is learning to balance these dualistic notions we have. and also at some level kind of experiences as well. You know, we do have an experience at times of the space between the words or that pause when you can't remember what you were about to say. That's becoming a lot more common for me. Like, what was I saying? You know, it just vanishes. There's this gap in my thinking that is becoming more and more common. And I'm like, I kind of like it, you know, it's sort of like, wow, whatever that filler was that I was running along on has just stopped.

[30:11]

And there's just this kind of blank spaciousness that's opened up. So there's kind of like not thinking. And then I go, oh, thank you. You reminded me what I was talking about. And then I go on thinking again. I get back on my little train of thought, you know, and on we go. So think of not thinking. So this instruction, this very brief instruction, is classic instruction of Zen in the Zen school. You know, the meditator basically is being given a dual focus, a dualistic focus. You're being given the instruction to do two what seem to be opposite things at the same time. Think and not think. It's like trying to focus on both of those at the same time. It's very hard for us to do that, to allow this. I think there's a term called dialethism, which is that you can have two things can be true at the same time. You know, opposite things can be true at the same time.

[31:13]

Yes and no. So this is think and not think. Think and not think. You know, there's such an exciting tension there. There's like electrical, you know, like those two ends of a magnet. You know, you try to put the poles of two magnets together. They just, you can't do it. They won't touch. No, you can really try to put them together. So that's a little bit like this assignment. this instruction from Dogen to think of not thinking. And so there's a wonderful book that I have a couple of really nice books by scholars that I'm totally enjoying. I have to go read them really slowly because they use a lot of big words. Sometimes I think, you know, you don't need to use all those big words. You could use little smaller words and get the same point across. But I think that's their training is to use the biggest words they can think of. Anyway. Carl Bielfeld, who was a Zen student with Suzuki Roshi many years ago and went on to study Buddhism scholastically.

[32:15]

He was a Stanford professor of East Asian religions, and a wonderful human being. He's written a book on Dogen's meditation manual, Fuukanza Zengi. And he says basically the instruction boils down to you need to change your attitude. You need to change your attitude about zazen, about delusion, about enlightenment. And you need to shift from a focus on some kind of singular substance, like the object of your meditation. If any of you have ever thought about doing something like that, I certainly have. Like my breath, you know, that was, it is a good one. I'd rather like it, I still do it. So, however, you know, even with that focus, my breath is not a singularity. It's not a word. It's an amazement. You know, the inhalation and the exhalation are both unique and discreet, and each of them is quite different than the other, and there they are as experiences that we have.

[33:17]

So, basically, we kind of shift our focus from some kind of notion of a singular substance, like a sound or a sensation or a thought or an idea or a teaching, onto the functioning of the mind itself. you know, the flea circus. And as Carl says, it's this dizzy, fuzzy, woozy, giddy world of illusion. The magician is the master of illusion, and that's us. Each of us is a master of illusions. We're so good at creating illusions about the world. The problem is, you know, we've got the magic wand pointed at ourselves, you know, we're putting the spell on ourselves. about what's going on. And we totally forget that we just created that. We're the magician. It's our great gift. And it also can be a terrible burden for us when we don't realize that it's an illusion.

[34:19]

And in which case it can be, it can evaporate. The bubbles can pop. So there's a shift from the cultivation of a kind of calm and radiant Buddha nature that's latent in every mind, so that's maybe the older idea about something maybe all of you may have longed for, I certainly longed for, the kind of mirror wisdom, where the mirror is static and clear and shiny and clean, and it's just reflecting whatever comes in it, you know, very peaceful, like, you know, silent and still. And that That would be the perfect meditation moment. And not being bothered by anything. So there's a shift happening here with Dogen. From cultivating that kind of a calm abiding, like a radiance, that kind of radiance, to the celebration of the natural wisdom that is active in every single thought. All that dizzy, woozy, fuzzy stuff, the world of illusion becomes the focus.

[35:27]

of your meditation. Instead of the mirror itself, you're focusing on what's being reflected in the mirror. The dancing boys and dancing girls, the butterflies and the hawks and the eagles and the trees, which right now are blowing wildly outside my window here. So, what a joy, what an invitation to enjoy the beauty of this world. yeah from a from without losing the mirror without losing that the base from which our wisdom is being you know received the world comes forth and realizes itself in us rather than we're going out there and telling the world what it is the world's coming forward and greeting us one by one turning somersaults and So as a result of the shift from a single focus to a dual or a multiple focus, in Zen discourse, as I mentioned last week, talk of calming in meditation or quieting the mind in meditation came to be considered in poor taste.

[36:41]

That was not something that the Zen guys were doing anymore. And they shifted toward meditation instruction in which you were to be basically on your toes, and vitally and spontaneously engaging in phenomena as they arise. Like you're there with it. You're there to meet it. You know, like a fast game at the net and with enthusiasm. You want to be at the net and you want to be, you know, doing what you can to hit the pickleball back. And it's great fun when you don't and it's great fun when you do. So either way, you're in the game, so to speak. So, in other words, taking the appearance of conventional realities seriously as they arise and cease. Quite a different approach from the classical Buddhist understanding. So, again, from last week, following this radical teachings of the sixth ancestor, the Platform Sutra, which I highly recommend you read, by the way.

[37:43]

It's a pretty easy read. platform sutra it's not terribly long and it is foundational to all that follows in this end school particularly our school um so if you haven't read the platform sutra yet i think that would be a very very good step in in coming to understand dogan what he's doing so You know, because of this radical teaching, many new techniques developed among the ancestors in what was called the Golden Age of Zen, the Tang Dynasty in China, who then turned this amazing insight, this gift from Huynong, into a new understanding and a new way of expressing how to practice and how to wake up. So they began to draw the students out of their trances So a lot of meditators, if you all are meditators, have done much meditation, you know, being in a trance is considered the highest bliss, the highest pleasure for humans.

[38:45]

And I think that's why certain drug addictions are so compelling and so hard to break because when you're kind of in that zone where there's no pain and there's just kind of, you know, absorption in the light or in whatever you're staring at at the moment. That kind of trance is not uncommon, certainly not at Zen Center, and it certainly wasn't uncommon throughout the history of Zen or of Buddhism. And in some ways, you know, it's not harmful. I mean, when people are in a trance, they're not doing much bad stuff. They're just kind of sitting there staring. So that's okay. There's not much to object to there. But for the person, they're really kind of, in a sense, you know, as we say on the Han, don't waste your life. You know, it's like sleeping or dreaming. You're in some kind of altered state. And enlightenment is not a special state of mind.

[39:46]

It's what's happening right now. Just this is it. So these teachers were then, from this point on, they were working to bring their students out of their trances, which helps to explain a lot of their behavior. Like they were screaming at them and they were, you know, we read a lot about the whisk in the face. That was pretty common. You know, the student would kind of be in a kind of a frozen understanding of the teaching. And then the teacher would like give him a little whack in the face with the whisk and they'd wake up. Something would happen. Something really, really amazing. And then there's the teacher holding the whisk. It's like, wow, where'd you come from? All of a sudden, everything becomes very vivid and very alive, very alive. So they used all these kind of outlandish means. And the dialogues, the Zen koans, the poetry, all these mysterious sayings, all of that was a way of expressing the great mystery of things, the great mystery of life.

[40:50]

which it, which it truly is. You'll never know. And yet, and yet, so again, whenever you go to one side, like, okay, now I get it, and then, you know, there's the, and yet, while you're kind of fooling around with the fuzzy, you know, woozy nature of, of things and the appearance of things and, you know, the excitement of, of, of, being alive and meeting what's coming. So these meditation masters in some way were verbally making light of the practice itself, of meditation itself, of ritual devotion, you know, if you see the Buddha, burn the Buddha, or burn the statues and all that kind of stuff, you know, and study, you know, that was being not that important. All of those things were kind of being you know, minimized in a sense.

[41:52]

And at the same time, these very same Zen masters were sitting meditation for many long hours a day and were offering incense daily to the Buddhas and ancestors and were studying, very much studying, the teachings of all of the ancestors. So this indicated by their own practice, their own actions, that those activities were already deeply embedded in the life of any serious Zen practitioner. You do want to offer your devotional practices, and you do want to study the teaching, and you do want to sit in meditation. All of those things together are the core or the heart of this wonderful gift that we've been given. So Dogen says, it's not that Zen monks had no practice, but they refused to defile it. They refuse to defile it, refuse to call it names or turn it into some kind of method. To relegate the great mystery to steps and stages.

[42:54]

First you do this, and then you do that, and then you do that, and then you'll wake up. So that would be relegating the great mystery to steps and stages. Or to separate the method and the goal from one another, which is clearly a dualistic proposition. To separate method and goal. You'll never get there. It's like the vanishing point on the horizon. No matter how hard you paddle, you will never get to the horizon. It will always elude you. So it has to be now. It has to be here. So at this point, I'm going to start on a few of the teachings I didn't mention to you last week about Zen. So one of the regrettable outcomes that classical Zen, the style of classical Zen had, by keeping the instructions for meditation kind of like a secret.

[43:55]

So they didn't teach meditation. They don't teach meditation. Just sit. Just sit. That's it. That's kind of what we got. You know, I went to meditation instruction. I remember that. I remember going to the Buddha Hall in San Francisco Zen Center and sitting there being completely uncomfortable and thinking how weird it all was and like oh my gosh and this very sweet young woman with a shaved head linda ruth cuts sat there and and gave us this instruction which was sort of like well sit there and sit up straight and um uh you know pay attention to your breathing if you like even that wasn't required um and then i'll ring a bell and then later on I'll ring it again. That was kind of it. And I was like, that's it? What do you do? I mean, what are you supposed to be doing while you're just sitting there? I still haven't figured that out. But it was really an intriguing invitation to the secret of Zen practice.

[45:04]

But unfortunately, what happened for Zen as a result of this kind of secret meditation, it seems to have led to it becoming more elitist and mystical and esoteric, rather than an opening to everyone, a spiritual opportunity for everyone, every person's practice. And this is not the intention of the Buddhist teachers who formulated the Zen tradition initially. They really were wanting this to be available. to everyone, you know, that was the point of it, was that it would be something that anyone could engage in, right? And in fact, it was a turning away from the really elaborate monastic, monastics in the Tendai school and the Hwayan school that kind of led up to the founding of Zen.

[46:04]

they spent a lot of time studying and memorizing and, you know, a little less time sitting. So Zen was really kind of cutting through, like anyone can sit, and the farmers can sit, and young people can sit, and old people can sit. So it was sort of like this idea of a universal approach to awakening. But then the story or the wrapper around that seemed to be like this mystery. or this secret, or like, whoa, you know, I don't want to get near that, that seems too hard, or too, I'll never understand it. So that was not what was intended, but there was some of that. I think maybe many of you have felt that, I certainly have felt that. You know, in the initial time I was at Zen Center, quite a lot of the time, actually, that it was something that, I remember there was a saying around Zen Center when I arrived, that those who say don't know, and those who know don't say. I was like, oh, so I think I better be quiet.

[47:09]

So there was some of that kind of setting it up as something that really very hard and very inaccessible. And as I'm reading Dogen, even though it's hard in a way that I think good things are hard, things that are worth it are hard, there's something really so true about what Dogen is is saying and what he came to know and what what all of these others these transmission of light exchanges there's something so profoundly true about what they understand that it you know it's like well we know that you know it it's just that we don't think we know it you know we do know it we do know the truth and that but we kind of veer off you know into the gap into that feeling of not knowing. So I was remembering this kind of funny modern example of where Zen went compared to the other northern Mahayana Buddhist traditions.

[48:14]

So in northern India there was a whole lot of Buddhist there was a Buddhist empire. You know, the Silk Route was a Buddhist empire for many centuries. And that's why all those amazing texts were hidden in the caves. The Dolan caves are full of Buddhist texts. And each of the little oasis towns, if you have a chance to read Devils on the Silk Route, it's a wonderful book about how these Westerners went into these old oasis towns and found these libraries buried in the sand full of beautiful texts and a lot of Mahayana. teaching, northern Indian Buddhist teachings. So, these teachings went along the Silk Route into China, and others of them went into Tibet. And so into Tibet, at the time that they were moving towards becoming Buddhist, there was a conversion that went on there, the Tibetan king held a debate in Lhasa, the capital of Tibet, and he invited a Zen

[49:18]

Master, Mohoyan I think was his name, and he invited a Vipassana, or Northern, sorry, not Vipassana, he invited a Northern Mahayana teacher, I forget the name of that person, but anyway, to have a debate. The king was going to listen. He was going to decide whether they were going to go with the Chinese Zen guys or with Northern Indian. teachings, which were much more about commentaries, and texts, and sutras, and study, and that kind of stuff. So he listens to these two for a while, asks him lots of questions. And the Zen master is just so Zen that the Tibetan king says, I think we're going with the northern Mahayana, which I can understand. It's in actual language, and paragraphs, and sentences, and not just these kind of enigmatic phrases So he chooses the Northern Mahayana. And so Tibetan Buddhism is a very elaborate, you know, lots of, if you've ever studied or gotten near the Tibetan teachings, they're just amazing scholars.

[50:30]

I really trust them when it comes to Mahayana teaching. I really read the Tibetans and Dalai Lama and so on, if I want to get the whole story, the big picture. Anyway, so here's the story about the two Koch machines. So there are these two Coke machines and one of them is the Zen Coke machine and one of them is the Tibetan Coke machine. And the Tibetan Coke machine has a clear glass front. So when you put your quarter in at the top, you can watch the quarter moving down and see all the wheels turning and all these little levers flipping and, you know, little by little the quarter gets down there and then you put your hand out and out comes the Coke. In the Zen Coke machine, It has an opaque front. So you put your quarter into the top and you wait. So that's us. That's our kind of reputation as being kind of opaque.

[51:32]

And then, do you get a Coke? I'm not sure. I can't promise you anything. Just put your quarter in and then you wait. Wait for the bell. Anyway, so that's one way to remember a little bit of the difference between Northern Mahayana Buddhism as it was taught and transmitted in Tibet and how it was transmitted in China and on to Japan. So Zen took its authority from an understanding in the Lotus Sutra that the ultimate teaching cannot be understood by ordinary mind, by ordinary mind. It can only be communicated, as it says in the Lotus Sutra, from one Buddha to another, from mind to mind transmission. So one person by themselves, like you having a great understanding of things, that's okay. But what's really important is that you get included. So if you're going to be included, someone else has to be including you, the Buddha, other Buddha.

[52:35]

So your Buddha and that Buddha are face-to-face, so we also call it face-to-face transmission, or mind-to-mind transmission. This is very enigmatic, emblematic, sorry, not enigmatic, it is enigmatic, but it's emblematic of the Zen tradition. So this historical claim of mind-to-mind transmission became one of the hallmarks of the Zen school, and they actually kind of called it the cult of the Zen master. So the most striking feature of what came to be celebrated by the term patriarchal Zen, patriarchs, the Zen of the patriarchs, of the great masters of many centuries. So in patriarchal, which we have now changed it to a gender neutral ancestral Zen, the focus shifted from the simple instructions for meditation and for monastic deportment of classical Buddhism, of the early Buddhism, to the transcendent techniques of the Zen masters.

[53:35]

So they were kind of let loose. These Zen teachers, they each had their own temples. So there was every mountain, you know, the Zen teachers took on the name of the local mountains. So, you know, one of our Zen teachers, Jiryu, could take on the name Tamil Pius, Roshi, I suppose. So they would often name themselves for the mountain where they taught. And so their location was, then the students would find their way. to those mountains and to those teachers. And those teachers had a lot of free reign. They were independent. They had dharma transmission. So they were able to basically act out in any way they thought was fitting in order to help these students. So they could shout, they could give riddles, they could dharma combat face-to-face. But this face-to-face meeting was a key. Going to meet the teacher was a very important aspect, and still is, of Zen training. You go to meet the teacher privately. And so this basically was a way of kind of celebrating the school's distance from any kind of conventional religion and also to exemplify the mystery of its practice, you know, these private meetings with the teacher and so on.

[54:48]

So one scholar calls this, I really like this, he calls it the anthropocosmic, rather than anthropomorphic, anthropocosmic liberation. event, you know. Doctrines regarding salvation as cosmic in nature, you know, this grand expanse of the mind, you know, this very mind is Buddha and the mind, the true mind of the human is the universe itself. So this anthropocosmic soteriological meaning for salvation event, you know, this is the Zen thing, just getting more and more into the outer reaches of what people think of as normal. So therein the tension continued to play out between the ancient Buddhist cultivation practices of shamatha, mipassana, and trance, jianic trances are well laid out in the Pali canon. You can go from one to eight, and after that you can kind of get off the chart into something called nirvana.

[55:54]

And then in Zen, these practices, Samatha Vipassana, turned into a mind that had basically entered into what they called dead wood and cold ashes. That static, the mirror, the surface of the mirror. Rather than this kind of spontaneous Buddhist activity that's based on the original enlightenment. So this kind of debate is still going on, it's still set up in our various schools. between the theory and the practice. You know, we have this in the Zen schools, between the Rinzai and the Soto Zen, between what our school is basically viewed as, I think you've all heard the term silent illumination, as Hongzhi calls our practice silent illumination. You know, you're quiet, like Linda Ruth taught me, just sit there, be quiet, and Be awake. Don't go into a trance.

[56:56]

Stay awake and quiet. And then the Rinzai folks are koan Zen. You do a lot of talking. You go in and you talk about your koan and you present your koan and you get a response, which is mostly not yet. And then you leave and you come back later and so on. A lot of excitement. I'd say we're on the not so exciting end of the scale here. So it was at the height of this debate that was going on in these various kinds of Buddhism, the technique and practice and understanding the nature of enlightenment and all of that. And there was this whole, you know, different scholars and teachers and Zen masters were all throwing out their own theories and practices of meditation. And it was at that time in China when this young pilgrim, Dogenzenji, arrived. You know, he arrived at a very exciting time. in the formation of Zen. So this took him right back to this original question when he arrived, that he left Japan with, if the way is perfect and all-pervading, how could it be contingent upon practice and realization?

[58:08]

This is the next paragraph in the Fukanzazengi, to which he gives this famous answer, the no answer answer, regarding both the method and the goal, you know, think not thinking. How do you think not thinking? Non-thinking. This is the essential art of Zazen. So, I now have written in my notes, Fukan Zazengi, and I want to spend the next few weeks, probably, I would guess maybe more, just going through that text. I think I gave it to you. Did I give it to you last week? Did I put it in the chat? Yeah. Did you? Yeah, I could see your head, didn't I? I did, okay, great. Good. So if you would just read through it, and particularly reflecting on this first paragraph about how this theory that everything's fine, just this is it. There's no need to practice it. He's presenting that right off the bat.

[59:10]

And then the second paragraph. And yet, if there's the slightest discrepancy, this gap, the slightest discrepancy in how you see things, the way is as distant as heaven from earth. If the least like or dislike arises, the mind is lost in confusion. Suppose one gains pride of understanding and inflates one's own enlightenment, glimpsing the wisdom that runs through all things, attaining the way and clarifying the mind, raising an aspiration to escalate the very sky. One is making the initial partial excursions about the frontiers, but is still somewhat deficient in the vital way of total emancipation. Dogen is a very strict master. He's going to really take us on a very narrow road in terms of our language and words and meaning and so on. But the very narrow road is in this huge context.

[60:12]

You know, it's just basically a contrast for us to help us to basically move in and out of this relationship between Ji and Ri, between ultimate truth, the universe itself, and our lives within that. You know, our confused and delusional and... gappy sense of who we are what we are and so on this kind of buzzy fuzzy thing that's my life and then there's this universe here and they are in intimate communion that's dogen's main gift that i've been feeling is like there's no separation here the whole purpose of enlightenment is to illuminate delusion you know the light on your delusions is what helps you wake up it's like oh my god was i doing that was i thinking that yeah you were okay wow so then you have choices then you have a way of understanding you have a way of engaging with yourself you know so that light it's not like get out i want to get out of here let's get rid of this and then i can just be this that's not where we're going we're going to making this making the relative

[61:23]

taking it seriously and seeing it and all of its beauty and confusion and and upset and all of that stuff is just like that's this that's the opera that we are going to be studying and and each one of us is our own which is kind of great okay um oops my computer just said it's out of out of it's going to shut off any minute okay here we go okay well that's it for This evening, I'll be very happy to hear from all of you. Please share again. Oh, I think that may be the Fu Kanzo Zengi you want to share. Okay, I'll do that. So if any of you have something you'd like to say or would like to help, any help you have to give, I would be very grateful to hear. So, hi. Thank you so much, Fu. You're welcome. Everybody. I'm sorry. I just washed my hair.

[62:24]

My hair's a mess. Is non-thinking the middle way between thinking and not thinking? Well, I would say as long as you keep it alive and you don't try to make it a thing, like make the middle way a thing. So make thinking a thing, that's not it. Make not thinking a thing, that's not it. Make non-thinking a thing, that's not it. So it's more like that boat. You're on that little sailboat out in the open ocean. You've got a mast that does not stand up straight. You can't sail if it's like that, right? So it's about discovery and movement and curiosity. It's like alive. So I would say... We're basically here to study these things, because we've got both of them. You've got the times when you're not thinking, just before the next sentence starts or whatever.

[63:29]

And then you've got the massive thinking that's filling in the gaps. So we're really going to study those. And that's the non-thinking. Let's put them all together here. Bring both of those things into focus. We're kind of like the holders of what's happening. So you're the non-thinker who thinks and doesn't think. Okay. Okay, good. I can relax with that. No problem. Great. One down. Another thing I wanted to ask is why isn't just sitting enough? Why isn't just sitting enough? Yeah, because there is thought of enlightenment. You know, you seem to have to have that motivation to make sitting a thing.

[64:34]

And it seemed to me that when I came to Zen in my untarnished state, after reading Siddhartha and going crazy. You know, all I wanted to do was be in the Zendo and sit. That was like my only I didn't really have a feeling that that I myself could become enlightened because I didn't I didn't have that kind of feeling about myself. I mean, I was not very mystical. or anything. And so I just sat for a long time just really loving the Zendo and the physicality of the teaching and the aesthetics of the practice.

[65:41]

And I just wonder why like that we have to have the goal of enlightenment to motivate our sitting. You don't. You don't. Was it enough? Was sitting enough? I think that now that I'm working with you, that sitting was not really enough. Yeah, so that's what happens to us. I mean, I think for some period of time, certainly I would agree with you that just the comfort of being with other people who were quiet, who were just sitting there, not messing with me, they were just sitting there, very close, and sneezing and coughing. and breathing and and then walking quietly it was it was magic it was just magic to have such place like a really a sacred space a sanctuary it's still a sanctuary and i would say you know i wish it was enough i wish i wasn't so greedy that i wanted to understand a little bit more you know like

[67:04]

I like that question. She's come to mind. The baby fish says to the mommy fish, mommy, what's an ocean? You know, she said, well, I don't know. I don't know what you're talking about. So, you know, we kind of have this thing like we kind of want to know what's an ocean. Where are we? What am I? You know, we do seem to have this curiosity to look up, look over the next. rise, what's on the valley on the other side of the hills and so on. What about death? What happens after that? So we do have some drive to try to understand. And if we don't, probably, maybe you don't even have to sit. You know, whatever you're doing is enough. You've got a life that's giving you enough of what you want. I think we're the people who are like, I'm not quite satisfied. Well, yeah, you know, I was in a lot of pain. Yeah. And found, you know, it was just like... Yeah. Yeah, so it is certainly a wonderful gift.

[68:09]

It's medicine. It's great medicine. And I also find these teachings to be medicine, too, of a different sort. I remember feeling like I wasn't that interested in pursuing intellectual... You know, I did a little bit of college, and I didn't want to be... in a profession. I didn't want to profess something and have to study it all the time. And I just really wanted a lot simpler, just like what's going on here kind of thing. And Zen, I think is talking about that. That's what it's talking about. What's going on here? What, what are you, you know? So I think, yeah, it nitty gritty. Yeah, it's really basic. You know, we're not, we don't have another product other than self awareness. So um yeah and and then there's a feeling of um effort you know if of applying some of your energy to that and if it's nourishing you'll do some more the more you'll you'll apply more of your energy to it if it's nourishing to you and i think that's a kind of how it works i always used to kind of enjoy

[69:26]

that I really didn't understand the Dharma talks. It was kind of like, that's where I want to be. Yeah. You know, I, the mystery of it was, was just, is a very nice experience. And when I worked with Robert Aiken on the, the koan about, Um, are you, what, what happens after you die? I became really comfortable with the idea of not knowing. So I'm like, I don't know. You're good. You're good. I'm like, I don't know nothing. Yeah. Well, it is simple. It's not so complicated. You don't have to memorize anything. Just not knowing is nearest. Nice to see you.

[70:28]

It's great to see you, too. Hello, Millicent. Good morning. Good morning, Fu. Morning, everybody. Fu, I'd like to talk to you a little bit about progress, because You teach us that there's no such thing in a way that because we belong to the sudden school, that with the blow or the whisk or whatever, delusions drop away for a second and reality emerges. I think that's what you're saying, sort of. And you were describing this morning, sorry, afternoon, to the Northern School, which is a gradual process.

[71:47]

When you're talking, I'm always trying to apply your teaching to my experience in my life. And I do have to say that I hesitate to say this, but I think I can see minute progress. Oh, Millicent. Shameful. Okay. Well, if you're going to be like that, we'll let you stay. You can be in the club. You don't have to go anywhere else. We appreciate that. And some of us go forward, some of us go backward. So, you know, progress works in all directions. And I think there's no problem with that. I think it really is an inner sense of, I sure feel better. And I don't know about progress, but I sure feel a lot better than I remember feeling.

[72:50]

And that's, you know, things, you know, it's that circle of water, right? So Dogen talks about the circle of water. It's as far as your eye practice can see. But it doesn't mean you're going to see the whole ocean. It just means within your circle of water, you're able to understand quite a bit. and then maybe your circle gets a little wider and then you understand a little bit more and so on and so forth but it's still just a circle of water of your own limited views and so to not to not get caught up in something like I want I want the biggest circle of water I want a bigger circle of water whatever I just I'm in the circle of water I'm grateful for my my whatever has come to me and by way of understanding by way of friendships by way of all of this. It's more like contentment, you know, that would be progress. I'm content.

[73:52]

I'm really content with growing my circle of water, you know. Okay. In that case, I think I can take away my foolish assertion. We heard it. I don't know. That's the practice of wiping clean, right? And what Six Ancestors says is, there's nothing to wipe. There's no mirror. There's no mirror stand. There's no dust. Where's the dust going to land, you know? You're fine. Everything's fine. So if you get a chance to read the Platform Sutra, I don't know if you've read it already. That's really good. Yeah. I belong to a little study group, and we're actually studying the Platform Sutra right now. Great. We meet once a fortnight, and we study two or three of the chapters in the Platform Sutra, and...

[75:01]

discuss it together and the impact in our practice and so forth. But this is an aside. If you've got at the top of your mind something you can recommend because it's for people like us, it's very esoteric. And to try and relate the teachings of winning into our everyday life. But that's sorry, that's a diversion. When I take away my assertion towards progress, I certainly don't experience a development towards contentment. I think what I am experiencing and only looking backwards, not as an aspiration, it's only looking backwards, that I think I'm a little bit braver at watching the thoughts and feelings and general shit arising. And I don't like it.

[76:04]

Oh, well. Well, that's a stage. That is a stage. That's actually to be celebrated. You know, it's like you turn your garbage, I use the image, I tell the students sometimes, you know, it can go on for a couple of years where you, basically it's like you've turned your garbage disposal on backwards and all the stuff that you've stuffed comes shooting out into your awareness. Like, oh my God, did I do that? Oh, I did. And all of these things from your storage area, your alaya vijnana, begin to come forward. So there's quite a process of kind of, it's not exactly purification, but it's a little bit like emptying the trash. Getting some of that stuff out and having more space for new stuff to come in. So the old stuff definitely comes from a delusional period of time. when you really didn't have any other knowledge or any other choices. And of course, so human first. So we did all that, we stuffed all that.

[77:06]

And now we go through this process of kind of like freeing ourselves of the old karma, old karmic actions. And that's a very good stage. It's not pleasant, but it's really important. And then at some point, there's less of it. You know, it's like, and then the idea is to try to keep up with your karmic behaviors so that you don't go a day or two days having set up something that feels off. You try to keep things, you know, aligned as best you can. And, yeah, there's no such thing as success. It's never done, never done, just an ongoing relationship with, you know. what you've made and then what you get to unmake. Thank you, Fu. Sure. Thank you. Hello. I almost called you Master.

[78:11]

That's a little premature, but hello, Master Gi. Hello, hello, Fu. Hello, Sangha. Thank you so much for the talk. I really enjoyed your response to Helena's question. It was really, I just heard it. There is no middle way. Don't make middle way a thing, right? I really appreciated that. Yes, as long as we don't make it the middle way, right? It's that wayfaring. I thought that was wonderful. Wavefaring, good. That's nice. Yeah. Millicent, I wanted to say, I love hearing this, the conversation. It reminded me a lot of what I've read in beginner's mind of mind weeds, right? How we pull the weeds and there's so many weeds, but we bury them next to the plant that we want to grow, right? And the more weeds that we pull, the more food, but it takes long, right?

[79:13]

We're just like, oh man, so many weeds to pull, but if we keep burying them and... in doing our work, right? It reminded me that and of the horses, right? Sometimes the slowest horse, the one that only moves when it feels the pain in the marrow of their bones, right? Sometimes we take things in even deeper, even though it's harder to do it that way, right? Potentially, you have to feel more pain to get the horse galloping. But I wanted to share that and one thing that I had remembered or that came up to me when reading Dogen recently was I think I watched a documentary I think it was called Zen in America or something like that about Tassajara and one of the commentaries was that Suzuki Roshi had said in the Sashin that one of his students had become enlightened but they just don't know it yet and I was like wow that's a

[80:16]

know it was one of those and then i remember reading dogan um recently and and he was like just just because you've um you've awakened doesn't mean don't expect yourself to realize it right that doesn't mean you'll know that doesn't mean you'll you'll realize it so i just i wanted to share that i thought that was it's it's amazing how uh the teaching passes on and and uh and grows and isn't spreads through these multiple streams but always from the same roots so it's just something something wonderful how fits and fits in the pieces so yeah yeah lovely thank you oh thank you thank you all so much sharing all of that wonderful okay nice to see everyone and next week we'll continue with fukanza zingi i have a few things to say about that text it's a wonderful text as i was in instruction Um, and Karina, would you hand me those two books there?

[81:20]

I want to mention the titles of these two books because I am so enjoying the two books that are sitting by the chair. One of them is by Carl Bielfeld, who I mentioned, who is this Stanford scholar, wonderful Suzuki Roshi. No, there's another one on, there's another one like that. So the Carl Bielfeld book is, and Carl's, Last name is pronounced B-I-E spelled B-I-E-L-E-F-E-L-D-T. And it's Dogen's Manuals of Zen Meditation. It's about his various versions of Zen instruction. And the Fukanza Zengi is kind of the core of this study that Carl did. It's quite interesting. It's scholarly, so you have to kind of wade through it a bit. The other one that I'm really, really enjoying is Dogen on Meditation and Thinking. A Reflection on His View of Zen by Hee Jin Kim, K-I-M. And this one is, I don't think I can make it.

[82:22]

Anyway, if you can read Chinese characters, probably can't. Okay. I think if you try to put it right in front of your face, sometimes it works a little bit. Nope, no. Not this time. Anyway, look up Kim, K-I-M, Hee Jin Kim. And he's quite the Dogen Scholar. It's State University of New York Press, SUNY Press. He's a professor of religious study at the University of Oregon and author of Dogen Keegan, Mystical Realist. So they're both wonderful. If you want to just kind of dig in and get a little more perspective, I'm particularly enjoying Dr. Kim right now. So you'll be hearing me steal his material. quite a lot because it's really good. Okay. Well, I wish you all a good evening and a good morning to you and the other time zone. And I hope you have a good week and where you are and enjoy the spring and we'll see you next week.

[83:25]

Bye-bye. Thank you, Fu. Thank you, Fu. Thank you, Fu. Thank you, Sangha. Thank you, Sangha. I'll see you all next week. Bye. Bye. Have a good week. Have a good week. Bye. Bye. Bye.

[83:45]

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