February 22nd, 2000, Serial No. 01113

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literature
reading
this is what yeah you cannot hear me good
so this is my first lecture as a priest after having been ordained so i'm still a little bit
there's there's a lot of me i'm still trying to figure out what to do with it oh well
so bear with me while i fidget
so as many if not most of you know during this practice period this nine week sort of intensive the text were studying is the game joe cohen
the gun show go on to enter cohen

said better
better yes anyhow the ganges cohen
okay the ganges cohen is an essay a religious essay by the founder of the soto school in japan a dobyns mg who lived from twelve hundred to twelve fifty three
the
translation of the text that we're using translate schedule co-owner something like actualizing the fundamental point the
the commentary that i've been reading
which was written by focus on new sure is angie and eighteen central nineteenth century excuse me zen master translates it as right to the point
since i am completely innocent of languages i get to translated anyway i want without having to worry too much about accuracy so i thought some other translations might be doing and being done by it
enacting or embodying enlightenment
are living the mind of faith
so tokens mg
was a monk his and teacher
one of probably the most brilliant religious thinkers that japan has produced a poet a very gifted writer
and the product of a tremendously sophisticated culture
as a young man as a young monk he went to china to study john send there and came back and of course you know at this time china had know an ancient culture very sophisticated and
so here's the product both of the japanese culture and of this chinese
culture which is sort of the matrix of japanese buddhism in many ways
and he also spoke a language of which i know not a word
so
he's just about as different for me as can be
a different part of the world different culture different language different
thoughts everything that went into this man
almost was different from all the things that went into this you know late twentieth early twenty-first century individual who's sitting up here tonight so how can i begin to speak about what he wrote with any knowledge or intelligence are accuracy
what on earth could we possibly have in common
dobyns mg says
eyes horizontal knows vertical so we have that in common at any rate
when i think of talking about the ganges call on the way i think about it is is like this sort of like a story so imagine you're traveling a distant land and you're walking through the marketplace or something and it's crowded and there's all sorts of wonderful and exotic sights and people and
things and smells and and you're completely far away from home and over in the corner of the marketplace you hear somebody playing a tune on a flute
and it's a beautiful and haunting melody something like you've never heard before
and maybe you're even a musician yourself and your so taken with this melody that it goes over and over in your mind until many days are many weeks or months even later you come home and maybe you pick up your own flute
are you sit at your piano and you try to remember as much as the melody and to created as is nearly as you can
you know it may be that you'll produce something quite beautiful
and it may be that you'll produce something with the phrase or to that is reminiscent of the music you heard far away
is it the same
it's a recreation a loving recreation but still a recreation
so that's sort of the car they out
that i would like to offer you when i talk about dogan centuries
work
so bearing this in mind i would like to consider the portion the following portion of the ganges call on this evening

it begins
enlightenment is like the moon reflected on the water the moon does not get wet nor as the water broken although it's light is wide and great the moon is reflected even in a puddle and inch wide the whole moon and the entire sky are reflected in dewdrops on the grass or even in one drop of water
or
enlightenment does not divide you just as the moon does not break the water you cannot hinder enlightenment just as a drop of water does not hinder the moon in the sky
the depths of the drop is the height of the moon each reflection however long or short it's duration manifests the vastness of the dewdrop and realizes the limitlessness of the moonlight in the sky
nothing else it's very pretty listening
so
a couple of weeks ago i was talking to my father
and i think possibly inspired by my ordination my father's decided to pick up a book or two on zen
which has never done in all of the twenty plus years that i've done here so we were talking and he wanted to know he said well when you're sitting there what do you think about when you meditate what do you meditate about and oh by the way have you had settore yet
i a kind of dodge that question and said well let's talk about meditation and i talked about breath and posture and stuff like that
and then it and then the we had to get back to suntory are enlightenment
i told him the story that i heard about suzuki roshi and i don't think i've ever seen this written down and sort of the oral tradition so who knows if it's true whether it is or not it serves my purposes this evening
supposedly suzuki roshi said once a tassajara
everybody wants enlightenment you all want enlightenment well some of you were going to get it and find out you don't like it
so i told my father that story and it reminds me of the some of you were here last week for jordan's lecture and it reminds me a little bit of the co on that he spoke about last week and i'll just briefly tell you what that was so there's these two monks they're walking along
and
they stop in the middle of the path or whatever in one of the monks who i guess is feeling very grand are enlightened or something takes his staff and you know pounds down on them
on the ground and says look just here is the summit of the mystic peak
and the other lung stands there for a while and finally at seminars and says yes what a pity the
so it's kind of like that you know what a pity but this is it the only game in town
you know we seem to and when i say we of course i'm talking about myself
we seem to want or think we want enlightenment because we maybe have some idea that it's going to be grand or exciting her solve our problems or let us solve everybody else's problems are are whatever and like david copperfield we want to
be the hero her own story
but what if
we're only a puddle and inch wide or a drop on the grass that reflects the bright light of them is that enough that okay
so what is enlightenment by the way or any other name we choose to give it you know the absolute to practice realization as token century says
well let's hear what the experts say
this is a quotation from one of the early buddhist sutras to buddha here is speaking an excuse me
there is monks an unborn a not become a not made a not compounded yes monks there were not this unborn not become not made not compounded there would not hear be an escape from the born to become the made the compounded
but because there is an unborn on not become a not made a not compounded therefore there is an escape from the born to become the made the compounded so those are the words as a buddhist they were
recorded in the early
pali canon the earliest buddhist scriptures that we have and what i will note here of course is that
in this particular passage the buddha is speaking of the absolute from in terms of the relative
to get that yeah ok or something like that so he's speaking about it as else as other as that which allows our escape from the world of suffering and that is one way of speaking about it and its course it's a very good way of speaking about it because that's what we all want
it's the a you know in the lotus sutra there's a story about the children who were in the burning house and their father lures them out with promises of toys and things
and of course what he actually has waiting for them as much much more wonderful so when the buddha speaks about the escaped from the made to becoming the complicated compounded actually
you know he's speaking from the relative point of view appealing to our relative
point or relative minds and our desire to escape suffering
no not a bad idea
yeah
you want me to read it again show no sign it's a little complicated so i'll try it again nokia joke there is monks an unborn are not become a not made or not compounded if monks there were not this unborn
not become not made not compounded there would not hear be an escape from the born the made to become the compounded but because there is an unborn a not become a not made or not compounded therefore there is an escape from the born the made to become the compounded
okay
the early scriptures by the way tend to be very repetitive because they were originally transmitted orally so the prose style is not exactly zippy
so here we have suzuki roshi
who will also speak on this matter
but actually listened more from the point of view of the absolute
i discovered that it is necessary absolutely necessary to believe in nothing that is we have to believe in something which has no form and no color something which exists before all current forms and colors appear this is a very important point
and further down if you are always prepared for accepting everything we see as something appearing from nothing knowing that there is some reason why a phenomenal existence of such and such form color appears that at that moment you will have perfect composure
and further on at the end of this section
by enlightenment i mean believing in nothing believing in something which has no form and no color which is all we which is ready to take form and color this isn't this enlightenment is the immutable truth it is on this original truth that are activity or
thinking in our practice should be based
so there are a couple of versions of enlightenment or the absolute or the uncounted and unborn
on
i don't know how to make a graceful transition so i'll just transit
as i said you know a couple of months ago not quite a couple of months ago i was ordained a priest and you know my friends particularly those friends who are not
familiar with zen practice or buddhist practice you know asked me what are you doing what does this mean why why what how where you know and
you know it's not something that it's immediately obvious to people who don't understand our tradition and not necessarily have an obvious to people who do so when i tried to think about it what ice but the way i talked about it was
the
for me you know doing the ceremony and becoming ordained was picking up a key of willingness
yeah that would open a door just enough just a little that allowed me to step through
ah
and what did i stepped through into
ah basically into not knowing
into a face
that
in giving myself over to something bigger than i am ah to allow myself to be changed in ways that i can't predict a determined beforehand and
in ways of which i am unsure of the outcome
and this is a faith that is not so much a leap of faith but it's the kind of step one step at a time of faith that i think the practices about
and how does that relate to enlightenment you might well ask
you know in this in the soto and school which we practice dobyns mg ah who wrote this speaks of practice realization not practice and realization of practice for realization but practice realization is so we're one word one term one
basic reality so we practice
from and because of our enlightenment
not to get it
each of us here tonight on each person who comes here
whether they come for a day or for the rest of their lives comes here because each one of you has come here because at some moment you've had a vision of your own enlightenment whatever that means to you
and it is our enlightenment
which we manifest in practice this is tobin said she's understanding and this is my understanding of what it means to practice either as a priest or zone lay person but to practice with that faith that practice and realization or one in the same you know the beginning of the
that i think the first line is
imperfect faith that we are buddha so there you go
he'd over the faith that i'm talking about here
and then i'm speaking about is that enlightenment the absolute practice whatever you want to call it actually occurs beyond our ability to see or guess or cognize on what that actually is or means
don't consent she also says do not suppose that what you retain becomes your knowledge and is grasped by your consciousness although actualized immediately the inconceivable may not be apparent it's appearances beyond your knowledge
so practice and enlightenment
the absolute what have you
is not about
the jigsaw puzzle pieces of our thoughts and our emotions it's not about lining them all upright it's not about putting everything in perfect order in our minds in our hearts and our lives
on some level it's not even about what we feel or think
because the pieces always fall apart again
inevitably
so no matter how we lined them up her how hard we work on perfecting ourselves and our emotions and our responses and are or on dealings vis-a-vis the world and ourselves it always falls apart again
and so
our faith and enlightenment can't be contingent our faith in the absolute our faith and practice cannot be contingent upon these things
so what is it about
as far as i can tell
it's about living the vow living in faith living the vow so what vow right
you know there any numbers of ways to talk about it at the end of this lecture for example we recite the for bodhisattva vows
you know beans are numberless i've ah to save some delusions are inexhaustible i out in them dharma gates are endless i vowed to enter them buddhists way is unsurpassable i vow to become it
so that's one way of expressing the vow of our life in our practice you know another one that we say sometimes in another ceremony is i vow to make every effort to live in enlightenment
and you know we have the bodhisattva precepts i vow not to kill i know vow not to take that what does not given etc etc and each one of these is the entire choose me
each one of these bows is the entire vow each one of these bows can sum up our entire life
each you know when we say dharma gates are endless
each bow is a dharma gate each moment of our life as the dharma gate
and we can enter the dharma gate
at any moment through any gate
and so our vow
manifests itself in many ways to us
and you know we don't really understand about who we make whether we make it you know at the end of this lecture whether we make it when we take god
to chi will we take make it when we take ordination we don't really understand the vow and you know if we really did understand about that we take and what it means and what it leads to we probably wouldn't do it anymore than we would really want enlightenment if we understood but that was
it's okay though you know just to say the words is enough because by saying the words
i think it was
there are some zen master who once said five percent sincerity is enough so just just to say the words is enough
because thereby we turn ourselves over to it to the life of the vow to the life of faith to the practice realization that will carry us onward
and you know enlightenment i mean
is i misunderstand it enlightenment isn't like really very complicated and mysterious it's actually very simple it's just letting go of everything
you know that's pretty simple and it's really scary to you know
actually
we were talking about this a tea this afternoon
and it's it it was interesting because i i thought about this earlier and it's already it's already in the lecture of so
but the question is you know if all of this stuff drops away you know if all of my scared us and all of my neurosis and all of my you know if i let go of everything what's left you know who am i you know
you know i'll look like the whole in the donut so to speak
so this the simple letting go is actually pretty scary and the most difficult thing to give up you know i mean sometimes when we think of letting go we think of some sort of aesthetic lifestyle you know i know giving up going to movies are given up sex are giving up good food or something like that and all of that as you know pretty hard to do you know but
the hardest thing to give up i think is are suffering you know to give up our suffering is the hardest thing you know
our victimhood you know to give up being a victim
to accept the world as it is you know without drama you know without the sort of suffering that we create for ourselves because it's kind of exciting or something you know it's actually it's a it's kind of f you know it's it's a rush a lot of are suffering is pretty exciting
you know in mostly we seem to find in once again i just remind all of us that when i say we i'm talking about myself you know we find serenity pretty hard to take
because i think we often confuse it with boredom you know if something's not if something's not happening on the big screen
you know we get bored pretty easily i think it was i think it was pascal who said that the great the greater part of human troubles can be traced to the fact that people find it impossible to sit quietly in their own rooms so we're always looking for something exciting going on
and you know i like one of the things that i'm that a nice your is mg says in this commentary to the ginger cohen that i really liked his enlightenment does not boil water delusion the delusion does not level mountains i really liked it so know
for you know before enlightenment mountains or mountains rivers rivers at the moment of enlightenment mountains are not mountains rivers are not rivers and then mountains or mountains and rivers rivers enlightenment does not boil water and i think it was somebody might know either robert frost or william carlos williams
who said poetry makes nothing happened if i never said that
yeah yeah so poetry makes nothing happened and neither does enlightenment oh well

so anyhow
because we make this far to live in enlightenment which is beyond our thoughts and beyond our motions
our day to day practice is also beyond thought and beyond emotion and beyond the small puddle of our neurotic thinking
you know for example
we make a decision to get up every morning go thousand
you know in some of this make agreements about that and some of us just make agreements with our self
so that's what we do you know if we have to ask each morning to i really feel like doing this
or not
most of the time i think we won't get up
and we also if we if we ask ourselves to a few like doing this or not we place our practice back within the realm of desire and backwards in the realm of like and dislike and back within the realm of suffering
we take our practice out of the realm of the bow out of the realm of faith out of the realm of that which carries us and brings it back to our small and at this point pretty muddy puddle to i like this to i don't like this to one into this store not want to do this you know
this doesn't particularly appeal to me at this moment
it's a lot of trouble and a lot of energy
at least i find it so i find it much easier just to get up you know all that wear and tear on my mind is spared and i need as much wear and tear on my mind spirit as possible
some of you know one of the titles of the buddha which of course means he awakened one which is a title itself is the to target her the to target her okay so you know it's translated in various ways this this this word
the one who is the one who goes does something like get the way i like to translated for myself is the guy who shows up you know
he just shows up whether he feels like it or not on that particular day because he's living the life of the bow he's living the life of practice realization he's living the life of faith and this is what tokens mg means i believe by dropping away body and mind
this is dropping away body and mind
this is dropping away our thoughts and emotions and this is finding our original face beyond personality and beyond the realm of like and dislike

in in the midst of this
we allow ourselves even though we are utterly and only us
to be reflections of the moon of enlightenment
i'd like to read this one more time
enlightenment is like the moon reflected on the water the moon does not get wet nor is the water broken although it's light is wide and great the moon is reflected even in a puddle and inch wide the whole moon and the entire sky
guy are reflected in dewdrops on the grass or even in one puddle of one drop of water
enlightenment is not divide you just as the moon does not break the water
you cannot hinder enlightenment just as a drop of water does not hinder the moon in the sky the depths of the drop is the height of the moon all the way down to the murky depths of our personal histories are traumas or likes and dislikes our joys and our sorrows
from birth to old age sickness and death the depth of the drop is the height of the moon each moment
is buddha nature okay each moment is permeated most enlightenment and with the absolute
each reflection however long or short it's duration manifests the vastness of the dewdrop our own vastness our own limitless mind and realizes the limitlessness of the moonlight in the sky
and there is no boundary between us and enlightenment there is no boundary between us and the buddha

so
i'd like to offer my apologies to a dog and century
for any misrepresent misrepresentation of him i might have i given and
to you all for my cracked and broken song
if i have said anything that confuses you are offends you
please forgive me and forget her to soon as you can if i said anything that is useful for you please take it as your own
keep which need and through the rest away
thank you