This podcast is offered by the San Francisco Zen Center on the web at www.sfzc.org. Our public programs are made possible by donations from people like you. Good morning. Well, I said that today I would make some comment on Ehei Koso Hotsugo Mon. So we just chanted it. And here we are. Well, as you probably know, the meaning of this title is old Dogen's practice of faith in the Dharma. His statement about this practice of faith in the Dharma. And there are a number of translations. Each one

[01:00]

has something unique. But since we all know this one, I'll use this one. There are many aspects here, and there are a lot of key words that I think about. key words such as what is vow, what are countless lives, what is true dharma, what is no doubt, what is lack, what is renunciation, what are living beings. So all of these appear in the first paragraph. So when I think about this, I think about inspiration.

[02:08]

What is it that's so inspiring? Why was Dogen so inspired? If we don't have inspiration, there is some inspiration that we all have when we come to practice. Something brings us to practice. And the way I think about it, enlightenment brings us to practice. In Dogen's and Suzuki Roshi's teaching, enlightenment is not the end of practice, but the beginning of practice. But we don't have a realization about our enlightenment. So as we begin, we have some inspiration, some enlightened inspiration, and we begin to practice.

[03:13]

We dip our toe into the Dharma and see what happens, and we see what happens. And then we practice for a while, and then at some point... often we say, why am I doing this? What's going on here? And we kind of lose our inspiration. So our inspiration has to be renewed all the time. Even though we don't have inspiration, if we know how to continue practice in the dark, inspiration will appear again. I think this having to walk through the dark is important without just this to me this is like the body of faith the mind of faith is to be able to when your inspiration fades your faith keeps you going and then you come out the other side I think about

[04:28]

when we come to an impasse of some kind if we just let go for a while say if you like to play music and you're working real hard on something you just can't get it it just doesn't work and so you just put it down but it's working inside of you all the time And then at some point, when you pick up your instrument again, there it is. Real easy. Nothing to it. What's the problem? The problem is that we were trying too hard to do something. But this works on us all the time. The Dharma is continually working in our subconscious all the time. And so when Dogen talks about

[05:30]

the ancestors helping us and we turn to the ancestors for help. This Dharma that we are unfolding is How did the ancestors help us? How did that work? We study the ancestors and we come to a point where we really need to realize the ancestors' teaching, not just study it. Then we let it go. When we come to practice, we don't study. We just practice. Then at some point, we start studying because we get interested, oh, what are these guys talking about? And then we get a lot of knowledge.

[06:33]

But there comes an end to we get tired of the knowledge and we start practicing again. But that knowledge is always working inside of us subconsciously. And then suddenly we're interested in studying again and all these elements start coming together because our practice is deepening. And so we're always going to the ancestors for verification. We study the sutras not to learn Buddhism, but for verification of our practice. I always go to Suzuki Hiroshi for verification of my practice. And I go to Dogen. I go to Ang Jir, a practice I love, and for verification. What would Suzuki Roshi say? What would Dogen say?

[07:34]

So we're always going back for verification. And this is how the ancestors help us. There's also something called imperceptible mutual assistance. This is a phrase of Dogen's in Bendoa, I believe. There's always, if we're connected with the Dharma, connected with the ancestors, there's mutual, imperceptible mutual assistance. I love that phrase. Like, subconsciously, there's all this stuff going on. All this stuff is going on subconsciously. And we pick up on it. I was thinking about transmitting.

[08:35]

We are receptors. Each one of us is a receptor, like a kind of radio. And we tune in to various stations. And we're also MCs because we're also broadcasting. So we receive and we broadcasts. And when we tune into the Buddha station, we get the Buddha news. But this information is always there. It's like wavelengths, wavelets. And we pick them out of the air. And when we're totally tuned into the Dharma, that's our life, we pick this stuff out of the air. Oh, I get this, I get that.

[09:38]

Things start coming together for us. And then we start broadcasting. You know, such and such. Those are just some thoughts that I wanted to get out there. So Dogen says, We vow with all beings from this life on throughout countless lives to hear the true Dharma. Well, you can think whatever you want about what that means. What is past lives? I remember my close associates and I always thought of ourselves as old souls. And then there were the new souls. I can't tell you, I don't want to explain what old souls and new souls are, but just the feeling of being an old soul and seeing people who don't have the quality of old souls, and they're kind of like new souls, and they're, you know, this old musician,

[10:54]

who was a street guy, he was always going around saying, you've got a better soul than a shoe soul. So, you know, it just feels like you've had past lives. It's just a feeling that we have, you know, a feeling of past lives. You can think about it any way you like. I don't know that I believe in past lives or disbelieve in past lives. It's just like, okay, I'll accept this without verification. We vow with all beings from this life on throughout countless lives to hear the true Dharma so that upon hearing it, no doubt will arise in us. there will be lack in faith that upon meeting it we shall renounce worldly affairs and maintain the Buddha Dharma and that in so doing doing so the great earth and all living beings together will attain the Buddha way well you know this is a statement for monks Dogen when he came back from as you know when he came back from China

[12:24]

originally he included lay people in his wanderings but at some point he decided that he just wanted to have a sangha of monks because for him that was the most complete way of practice so he's talking about the most complete way of practice but this language I don't think that the translation has to be in such extreme language. There are other translations that kind of soften and give more space to what renunciation is or to letting go of attachments and so forth. This is a big, I don't want to say problem, but... There's a lot to this question of what is renunciation?

[13:28]

Basically, I would say renunciation is letting go of self-centeredness. So any way that you do that would be renunciation. Some people take all their worldly goods and throw them into the ocean, right? And the poor ocean has to receive them. As a matter of fact, Dogen talks about that, about the ocean throwing up, all that stuff that we dump into the ocean. But what is true renunciation? That's really a big question and a good one. Do you have to be a monk to find renunciation? And how far does renunciation go? What Dogen is talking about here all along is hindrances. He doesn't really talk about good and bad.

[14:32]

He doesn't talk about right and wrong. He's talking about what hinders our ability to practice. That's what this is all about, to me. What is it that hinders our ability to practice? What are our stumbling blocks? Not what are we doing right or wrong, or good or bad. And when we have the... which is means abbreviated repentance ceremony. You notice that we talk about that we all may entangle tristed karma from beginning with greed, hate, and delusion, right? And then the rest is the vow to renew our practice. So we vow our karma And then we renew our practice by reciting the names and buddhas and ancestors and so forth and the precepts.

[15:35]

But that Ryaku Vasats does not talk about good and bad and right and wrong. Kartagiri Roshi used to say, Ryaku Vasats is non-dualistic. repentance ceremony. It's not about what you did right or wrong or good or bad. Simply acknowledging your twisted karma not for the sake of being good or writing what's wrong, but acknowledging the stumbling blocks that you keep putting in your way from beginning with green hate and delusion. So it's all about stumbling blocks and how you obstruct the way through your karma. So we're always putting something... We want to go somewhere, but we're always putting something in our way. So how do we deal with...

[16:51]

our stumbling blocks, or our problems. And Suzuki Roshi's teaching, you know, one of his main teachings was face the problems that you have. Just face the problem that you have. Deal with the problem that you have. And that is practice. Practice is to acknowledge the stumbling blocks that are in your way and deal with them. And I remember, as you know, he would say, the problem you have now is the problem you will always have. And we would say, oh, no. He would say, you should be grateful for the problem you have, because when you change your problem, it may be even worse. And he never did talk about us being good or bad or right or wrong.

[17:55]

He would just say, your problem is your treasure. If you didn't have a problem, you couldn't practice. So what is it that's standing in the way of practice? And he didn't say your family. He didn't say your attachments, although, of course, He meant within your attachments to be free within your attachments. How do you find your freedom within your attachments? Because you may clear the whole earth and sky of problems, but you still have a problem. No matter how much you clear away the stuff, you will always have a problem. And we think, well, as soon as We have a tendency to think that as soon as we get rid of our problems, everything will be okay. Like, just get rid of this problem.

[18:58]

Like, just get rid of that problem. But actually, it's like... Do you remember The Woman in the Dunes? It was a movie, Japanese movie, The Woman in the Dunes. What? Yeah, go read it. No, thank you. But for some reason, these people have... They're in this pit of sand. You can't get out because no matter how much you shovel, it just keeps coming in. So that's our life. No matter how much we shovel, it still keeps coming in. So what do you do? How do you deal with that? That's our practice. You just deal with one thing at a time. without being egotistical. Suzuki Roshi's teaching was, don't be egotistical.

[19:59]

That's the bottom line. That's the bottom line. And if you want to check on how is your practice, well, let's see, am I being egotistical? It's not that ego is wrong or bad. It's just that it uses us. we let it use us. And when we let it use us, we call it ego. And when we use it, we call it practice. So not to let ourselves be used by anything, or except we can be used by practice. Dogen talks about turning and being turned. The essence of practice is to be turned and in turn to turn. When we are being turned by the Dharma, the Dharma is in the strong position and we are in the lesser position, in the flexible position.

[21:09]

I don't want to say the weak position. I don't like the term weak. It's not that you're weak. It's simply that you're yielding. In the dominant position, we're yielding. When the Dharma is strong, we yield. And when we're strong, the Dharma yields. So we're always being turned by the Dharma, and the Dharma is turning us. And where you find that balance is where there's selflessness. Always looking for that balance. If you say, I'm an ego-less person, so, you know... You really don't know what ego is, because without a sense of self, we can't do anything. You're just a limp dishrag. So there's the positive side and the negative side. We're always working with the positive side and the negative side. You could call it the masculine side and the feminine side, but I'd rather not use those terms.

[22:16]

They're too tricky. So... the dominant side and the yielding side. And if we're only dominant, then we're just pushing everything out of our way and we become insensitive. And if we're only yielding, we become too sensitive and self-pitying. So where's the balance that we're always maintaining between the dominant side and the yielding side, knowing how to step back and how to step forward without being self-centered. So we get off our self-centeredness and get onto our Buddha-centeredness. Buddha-centered and self-centered.

[23:20]

And when Buddha center and self center come together as one center, then we're in perfect balance. I don't know whether I'm Buddha or self. Buddha is self and self is Buddha. But if self is only self and Buddha is only Buddha, it doesn't work. Sashin, zazen, is we say Buddha's practice, not self's practice. There is self there, but it's not the self's practice. It's Buddha's practice. So we let go of our self-centeredness and offer our self-centeredness up to Buddha. So, okay, you go ahead and sit, Sesheen. I'll sit with you. So what does it mean to renounce worldly affairs?

[24:39]

If you are a monk and you are in the world of monks, you can renounce worldly affairs. But if you're a layperson, it's pretty hard to renounce worldly affairs. And especially in this day and age, even if you are a monk or a priest, it's pretty hard not to be aware of worldly affairs. You can do it. But there's a lot at stake in the existence of the world. We think, well, the world will just keep going on, you know, and people will have wars and they'll do all these things, you know, out there in... the undulation of life called samsara. But there will also be a time, if we're not careful, when tasahara won't even be in existence for us.

[25:43]

The world is no longer a local problem, as you know. course, as we all know, it's no longer a local problem. We have to be aware of what's going on in the world, whether we participate in it or not. In Dogen's time, Dogen said, don't associate with world leaders or with the aristocracy, don't associate with politicians, don't associate, which makes a lot of sense. because he was creating a world that was kind of like a bubble, a pure world. So this is a tendency of Buddhism, is to create a pure world inside the impure world, or aside from the impure world. That's Tassahara. A pure world...

[26:49]

aside from the impure world. But it's really good that we invite the guests in the summertime in order to make us aware of that other world. So we have to be very careful, I think. But, you know, in Dogen's time, people didn't vote. There was no way you could influence very little way to influence the policies of the country in which you live. It was all rulers. And if you had their ear, you might be able to help them, but in very little way to help. And people were at the mercy of the situations of the world. So yes, make a pure world somewhere.

[27:57]

But it's harder these days, for one thing, because we do have power to change things. So that's the kind of problem. Renounce worldly affairs. I think we have to be involved in worldly affairs without being caught by worldly affairs. This is... the nature of attachment and non-attachment. You have to be attached to your spouse without being caught by attachment. There's this wonderful poem that Suzuki Roshi loved. which you know. The blue mountain is the parent of the white cloud. The white cloud is the child of the blue mountain.

[29:00]

All day long they depend on each other without being dependent on each other. The blue mountain is always the blue mountain. The white cloud is always the white cloud. So how do we realize our dependence without being dependent, without being caught by dependency? How do we find our freedom within our attachment? Greg asked me to talk about my experience of continuing my practice when I had various problems.

[30:20]

So I'm going to do that. Suzuki Roshi, 1967, asked me to find a place in Berkeley so that the people there could all sit. And so I did. And Suzuki Roshi would come over every Monday morning and give a talk and have breakfast and chat. And it was very intimate and very nice for a long time. But I was ordained in 69. He didn't know whether to ordain me here or in Berkeley, but he decided to do it in Berkeley. But we had the first sashin at Tassahara on the back porch of the dining room. And at that time, it was just an open porch.

[31:30]

It was in the middle of the summer in July. It was about 150 degrees. So that was the first sashim. But we also moved inside because it got kind of hot, and the flies were buzzing around. So then we all signed the scroll because this was the first sashim. Later, I... was talking to Richard Baker, who became Abbot after Suzuki Roshi died, as you know. And I said, you know, we sent this first sashin, you know, we all signed our names. And he brought the scroll out. He had it. He had all the Suzuki Roshi stuff. And he said, you know, I sent that sashin too. I said, you did? I don't remember you sitting there. He took out a brush and signed his name. So, this is an example of the

[32:33]

adversity that I experience. As I mentioned in my previous talk that Bill Kwong, Jack Cho, had begun the process of transmission with Suzuki Roshi, but Suzuki Roshi died before Bill before he could finish. And Richard would not complete it. That's why he had to go to Huizu to complete it. If Suzuki Roshi had lived, he would have eventually given his students Dharma transmission. When I received At that time, we weren't doing lay ordination, so I never did have lay ordination.

[33:41]

But after that first sashin, when that was over, he called me into his office, into his room, and he said he would like me to join our order. And so I was surprised and elated. And I said, well, when? And he said, when you're ready and when I'm ready. And that was all. So then two years later, he said, I'm ready. So I waited two years. That was not so bad. I usually make people wait longer. But we asked, Suzuki Roshi asked Richard to if Noiri Roshi could come over and show us how to do dharma transmission, teach us what dharma transmission, but of course he never did that.

[34:43]

And Noiri Roshi was his expert. So, 12 years later, I got, it was about 12 years, 10 years, something like that, I received... transmission from Huitzu. But in the meantime, I had Berkeley to take care of. But I was also always part of Zen Center because I would never let myself be kicked out. It's true. Zen Center does not belong to one person. So you can't kick me out. And I just stay there and practice but I did have Berkeley so mostly I was in Berkeley although I did come down to be director in 1972 and 3 so I didn't have authority I had my Zen center but I didn't have any authority so I couldn't ordain people and I you know I just had to be the de facto teacher

[35:57]

without portfolio, so to speak. And so I just said to myself, you know, I'm just going to practice. I'm not going to wish for anything. I'm not going to make a big stink. I'm just going to practice. And so Suzuki Roshi, even though he was dead, was still my teacher. So I was always... referring to Suzuki Roshi and what he taught me. And that was my practice. And people would say, well, would you be my teacher? And I would say, well, why don't you just stick around? If I'm teaching you something, then I'm your teacher. But if I'm not, I'm not. So I'm not going to promise you something or accept some kind of commitment. As long as you feel that you want to be here and practice with us, that's good.

[37:02]

So I never committed to being a teacher, even though that's what I was doing all that time. But I was training myself to just do my practice. And my understanding was, if I just do my practice sincerely, everything that I need will come. So... This is my faith in practice. I have total faith in practice that whatever I needed would come just through practice. And so instead of feeling resentful, I felt gratitude for being in this position. Because without being in this position, I don't know how that would have been, but I really learned how to rely on practice. as the staple of sustenance, the source of sustenance. And I can't tell you how that has worked.

[38:09]

I've always been supported without asking for a penny. And everything I ever needed has always come to me. So I feel nothing but gratitude for what we ordinarily might think of as adversity, which is actually opportunity. So this is also Suzuki Roshi's teaching. The other side of adversity is opportunity. So really, if you have the right attitude, you can't go wrong. And I think this is also what Dogen is talking about. So he says, We vow with all beings from this life on throughout countless lives to hear the true Dharma, and that upon hearing it, no doubt will arise. I never had any doubt. Nor will we lack in faith, that upon meeting it, we shall renounce worldly affairs and maintain the Buddha Dharma, and that in doing so, the great earth and all living beings together will attain the Buddha way.

[39:20]

Well, I think that's true. I don't know if you're familiar with The Tiger's Cave. Probably not. Some people are. This book just came out in 1964, the same year that I started practicing. And Abbot Omora was interviewed by Trevor Leggett about the Heart Sutra. And so he talks about the Heart Sutra in everyday language. He talks about... incidents in daily life that express the meaning of the Heart Sutra. And sometimes you wonder, God, oh yeah, we're studying the Heart Sutra. But it's my favorite commentary on Heart Sutra. But there's another in the back of this book. There's another one of the previous abbots, the A.G., who talks about how the whole earth is practicing zazen with us, the salvation of ourselves and the earth.

[40:51]

So he says, stillness in the midst of action is the fundamental principle of zazen. Some people think of zazen as a sort of monopoly of the Zen sect. But the sect certainly has no monopoly of it. Zazen is the basis of the universe. Heaven and earth sit in meditation and every object sits in meditation knowing nothing of the Zen sect. All things are performing zazen. What is called zazen means To live in peace in the true basis of the universe, which is stillness. Movement is a secondary attribution. Stillness is the real condition. Out of stillness comes all activity. For instance, the water of the ocean, when disturbance of wind ceases, at once goes back to the state of calm.

[41:56]

The grass and trees, when the cause of agitation dies away become as it were calm these things always mean these things always return to rest in the stillness which is their true nature and this is the principle of Zazen in nature there is day and night and when the sun sets gradually there is a hush until what is called the dead of night, when all is still as if a current of water had ceased to flow. This is zazen of nature. As with everything else, with people, working by day, we sleep at night. Falling in the deep sleep, we forget the existence of self and are absolutely at rest.

[42:58]

This is a state of what is called in Zazen, body and mind, loosed and dropped away. In nature, the counterpart of the restless actions of day is the absolute stillness of night. And to abide in that is the principle of Zazen. In this sense, everything naturally practices zazen. I may know nothing of zazen, yet if I know what it is to reside in body and mental relaxation, then all unconsciously the benefits of zazen reign upon me. The zazen of the Zen sect is to seek this way of stillness in the midst of activity. The method is to bring to stillness the mental activities based on illusion and conform to the stillness, which is the fundamental state of the mind.

[43:59]

When it is attained in zazen, the result is called satori, or realization. Zazen is practice of infinity, conforming to the infinity, which is the principle of the universe. I just bumped into my hearing aid. That was quite a buzz. He says, and that in doing so, the great earth and all living beings together will attain the Buddha way.

[45:08]

Well, of course. So that's the beginning of, I think I'll probably have to go through the rest of this. my knee has got a problem I'm trying to remember the name of this Henry knows the name of this thing called patella femoral joint So I have to walk down the stairs, you know, because I can't put any strain on that thing. So I'm managing to do all this zazen.

[46:10]

Okay. But I have this, I can't bow. I did those three bows and I will do the rest, the other three, but I can't do any more than that. So that's why I'm not doing that. Thank you for listening to this podcast offered by the San Francisco Zen Center. Our Dharma talks are offered free of charge, and this is made possible by the donations we receive. Your financial support helps us to continue to offer the Dharma. For more information, visit sfcc.org and click giving.

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