This podcast is offered by the San Francisco Zen Center on the web at www.sfcc.org. Our public programs are made possible by donations from people like you. It's such an honor for me to be here at San Francisco Zen Center where I started my Zen practice after living in New York. It really changed my life. And then, you know, without, you know, each meeting, you know, I won't be here. And especially with Kaz's inspiration and guidance over years, you know, I'm very stunned that I'm here with this beautiful, dumb book and with this photographs on the wall at the city center with, you know, friends and teachers, you know, just looking at me and speaking. So, yeah, thank you so much. With those, all the circumstances brought me here.

[01:02]

So, yeah. So, thank you. So, I'm here to talk a little bit, you know, before Kaz talks about, you know, Zen aesthetics through the Zen garden, I wanted to talk about my personal experience about, you know, taking photographs of this wonderful Zen gardens. So for me it was very much of a challenge because for me it is difficult to sit one place or just take time to calm my mind and then I think that's why I like to take photographs because you know I know each moment is very very precious but also some places, so photographed so many times, you know, I have my idea about, you know, how it should look. So it was particularly challenging for me to have a personal connection to the stones and to the leaves and then what was going on.

[02:08]

And actually, my husband, Ben, you know, who is standing right here, really encouraged me to take time because During the time that I was photographing these images appear in this book and then appear on the wall today, it took two years, but it happened to be during the pandemic. So I was very lucky to have the temple gardens just for ourselves and to really take in a quiet environment. But I still find myself in a very agitated mindset, that I will look at things and I think, oh, okay, so that's enough, and then move on, and so on and so forth. But he would encourage me to sit at one place and then just take time, sit for 20 minutes, half an hour, or even longer.

[03:10]

And then... After the maybe second visit or so, at the same temple, I realized that I cultivated some kind of intimacy to the place, and then I also noticed subtle difference of the light. Maybe it was the light or season, but also it was reflection of myself. So it was almost like a very good practice for me to really face the Zen gardens. And then we would visit the same temples, you know, many times. And at that time, you know, we were living in Kyoto, and we would bicycle to the temples and, you know, go in. Nobody was there, but the temple gate was open, so we would go and then take some time, and then sometime, take photographs, but, you know, intentionally I wouldn't, I didn't pick up my camera and just stay there.

[04:13]

And something will kind of come and then when I saw there was something happening, I would take pictures. So there are pictures from my personal experience in this book, and, you know, some you see it on the walls. So I hope you enjoy looking at each images, and then I hope that it conveys the rich experience that I had at that moment, in that particular day, at that particular stage of my mind, and then feel a connection. And then among those photographs, there's one photograph that I put and selected. It's by the father and on the right-hand side over there. There's a picture of kind of destruction, many broken pieces of those roof tiles or piece of wood from the house.

[05:21]

But yet there is a branch of plum. flower, and the light is just hitting there. So that was taken where we live now, in Noto Peninsula, which the massive earthquake hit on January 1st. But I think that experience from taking these Zen gardens kind of prepared me to really face what was in front of me, to quiet my mind and really take in. Sometimes it's a beauty, and sometimes it's a kind of distraction, but to each moment to have a very intimate, strong connection to each moment. And then I wanted to say a heartfelt gratitude to Frank, who is here, for him to embark a project to support us, both of us, Bernd and I, to come here.

[06:27]

We have been dealing with many obstacles since January 1st, and we were not able to make our decision whether we can be here today or not until the end of March, and Kaz was very patient to just wait. But I'm very happy to be here, and then shared our experience, or my experience, and then, you know, experience of working with Kaz, and then present this book just released, and then this is my first book published, and then so much joy and enriching moment, and I hope that this will be passed on to you through this book. So, thank you so much. Thank you, Michie. It's nice to come back to Zen Center. I moved to San Francisco from Japan.

[07:35]

in 1977 to serve as a scholar in residence, which I did for seven years. And we started translating Zen Master Dogen's work with some of the advanced practitioners here. So altogether I have like 33 partners. And then I worked for seven years here, met Linda here, and then my kind of life again changed too. And then everything changed. And then, so I moved when I was 44 years old. So I've been working. here in the United States since then, so more than half of the year in the United States.

[08:44]

And our daughter was born nearby. And so I'd like to be back here. And also, San Francisco Center supported this dogging project for 33 years for just one project. one big book, but I deeply appreciate that. Now Dogen is being appreciated and read and studied all over the world. So that was a vision of officers, adults, everybody. from the Zen Center, and I really appreciate that. So this book is an inside view of Zen gardens.

[09:46]

So I think most other books kind of focus on the outside beauties of the gardens, but here we start from the state of meditation, so you all experience, you're familiar with, and then evolution of Zen gardens in Japan, and also the unique aesthetics of Zen art. So that is maybe a unique way of doing that. In terms of History, I think the most important garden architect is 13th to 14th century Wenzai school master.

[10:53]

Can you hear me? Yes. Yes? OK. Okay. So, he was probably a mass in Poland to Inzai school master. He was the first master who was given the title of national teacher when he was alive. Two other emperors gave him the titles, and then four other emperors after his death gave him, so he had seven national teacher titles, regarded as the teacher of seven emperors. But his garden, the history of Zen gardens is most important. He was designing the garden of Sai Hoji,

[12:01]

It's here. So it's now covered by mosques all over. So it's called a mosque garden, mosque temple. But that time, his time, there was no mosque, actually. In the 18th century, kind of someone planted most of all types. But anyway, in the Zen gardens, waterfalls is very important because a legend says that carp goes up on the waterfall and then becomes a dragon. So that's a metaphor for an ordinary meditation practitioner to become an outstanding one.

[13:02]

So dry room means an outstanding practitioner. But there was no high hill nearby, so it was impossible to build a waterfall. Then he had a breakthrough idea of building a dry waterfall, dry, with white sand, the water stream, the stones. So actually here is the maybe historical place actually. There are some stones and then there used to be white sand. And that really inspired other rock gardens like gardens in Ryoanji Temple, the most important, very abstract, kind of empty garden.

[14:08]

There's no flowers, no streams, no stepping stones, nobody's walking. So real minimalist, abstract garden, Ryoanji. In terms of aesthetics, often, well, before that, about 55 years ago, I kind of thought about certain qualities of Zen art, not only gardens, but Zen art.

[15:11]

And before that, there was Shinichi Shumatsu's book, Zen and the Fine Art. It talks about the certain qualities, including asymmetric, naturalness, unwellliness, serenity, I think. I wanted to find terms that are often used in Zen literature and then, in a way, from inside Zen terms, find these certain characteristics. So these are the seven characters. The first one is direct, then ordinary, vigorous, gleaning, pivotal, non-dual, inexhaustible.

[16:21]

So I'd like to talk a little bit about this from this book. The first one is direct. So in Zen, I think English terms are limited because it has its own kind of range of meanings and associations. But it came from maybe Chinese and Japanese Zen terms. I need to explain it more. And to do that, photographs are very instrumental. And also some words from ancient Zen masters or Zen artists. So I like to read something.

[17:21]

So direct in Zen means there is nothing in between. Intermediary things like intellect or thinking explanations, words. Just you look at the stone and you experience directly. So... Dogen says, when you paint spring, do not paint willows, plants... Teaches were apricots. Just paint spring. So you can see that how can you paint spring? You like to struggle. We have to find our own way to kind of express something direct, maybe from our own experience, state of mind.

[18:23]

So that's... first quality. So maybe you can say there's something very direct about, you know, look at the storm and then there's some experience with maybe beyond the worse in a way. And I think every maybe photograph or Whatever you see in the gardens, actually, you see seven qualities. But some of them maybe it's a little more distinct. So that is why we did seven paintings, right? For each quality. So that maybe people will get some ideas. Especially I think we use the details, right? And then also on the facing page we show the more like environment.

[19:39]

The second quality is ordinary. Again, kind of ordinary has its own meaning in English, but not kind of trying to stand out. It's just kind of be there. So that's maybe ordinary. Su Dunpo, the Song Dynasty poet says, plainness, to be plain. is the extreme end of breeding. Like, you know, rice is plain, like tofu is plain. But I say Japanese people like plain taste. So rice, so you can have it every day, in a way.

[20:45]

So that's kind of... That's from quality, and then vigorous. Again, so there's evenness, strong. It's sort of, you can see something, experience dynamism, right? Something, I mean, in terms of the environment, the relationship, you can see. Lumen said, the east mountain travels on water. So the mountain is moving. Actually, this character is on the sign, wooden sign, horizontal sign in the Buddha Hall of the Ginkabuji Temple.

[21:53]

silver pavilion temple. And then that's very appropriate because Agincabuzi is in the East Mountain. And then the culture that developed is called East Mountain culture. So tea ceremony and then some paintings and no play. some very subtle, before that it was more like a golden pavilion, yes. So it's very brilliant, kind of gorgeous, large-scale, yeah, that's North Mountain, North Mountain culture. It was Maybe the beginning of this, maybe then art and culture developed that time.

[23:08]

The next one is Glimmi. So that's, well, these translations actually, my wife Linda, who is here, She helped me. Before that, it was more closer to the original Chinese or Japanese, but maybe it didn't really convey the meaning more fully. So Linda helped me. Thank you, Linda. So it's like maybe not bright, like maybe zendo is a bit dark. so we can see ourselves better. So tea room is also not to be dark, so that's very important, to really enjoy the beauty of the utensils, tea bowls and everything, and then the horse movement and conversations, kind of more serene.

[24:24]

subdued environment. So, that's it. Like Zoyami, the new play, master and dramaturgist says, Those who have mastered blossoming in all performance know about wilting. Thus wilting is above blossoming. So blossoming is beautiful for everybody. You can see the beauty, dance and everything. But kind of wilting, there is some beauty. and pivotal.

[25:38]

So I signed the books. Actually, it means great function. But that great function means when we see some scrolls in the tea room. Oh, there's some writing. and we appreciate, but maybe we just don't think about it, or some people with some cracks, or some small amount of flowers, a few flowers, kind of, in the tea room and so forth. Anything, anything you see, maybe that can change our consciousness, or aesthetics or our life. So that's a great function. You know, like maybe in Zen there's turning word, changing, you know, people's life.

[26:48]

So that is a great function. That is tributal. And you want to do it. Mitsuye was talking about non-dual. Of course, experience of non-duality is wisdom beyond wisdom. So in Mahayana Buddhism, Prajna Paramita. So Prajna is wisdom beyond wisdom to see... all things as one. Paramita can be realizing. So the Heart Sutra can be translated as the heart of realizing wisdom beyond wisdom.

[27:54]

So to see and to go beyond maybe opposition of maybe stone and sand or movement and not movement. So that is that is non-duality. Chito says, in darkness all words are one, in brightness This is Sandoukai, right? This is actually the place where Musou Sasaki lived in his final time.

[28:59]

He passed away and actually he is buried underneath in this particular building. And then this is a very powerful stone garden glass and then only sand and the stones. And then actually it was created by a female Sumie painter, contemporary, 20th century. So, very nice. Finally, inexhaustible. So, there is no limit. Even small tree garden. You see mountains, and then oceans, and then immeasurable.

[30:07]

So the third ancestor, Sanchang, said, extremely small is extremely large. Extremely large is extremely small. So long. So, not only Zen, but in Buddhism, it is very rich in symbolism. And then, for example, maybe the moon, when we say moon, that is for moon, and that is enlightenment. Then lotus is... kind of purity and then beauty and wholeness. And then dildrop is like a transcendency of life.

[31:10]

And so many kind of symbolism. And then the temple names have so much poetry and then symbolism. Names of gardens, the gate, streams, bridges, pond. These all have very poetic and symbolic names. So that's kind of Zen symbolism. And also maybe I'd like to finally talk about the uniqueness of Zen school compared with other schools of Buddhism, that is kind of real, maybe, we can say, maybe daily use of paradoxes.

[32:19]

So, like someone said, what is the meaning of Bodhi Dharma coming from India? Zhao Zhao said, cypress tree in the garden doesn't make sense, right? So people try to kind of meditate and try to figure out going beyond the intellectual, dualistic understanding and then try to experience his essential teaching. So that became koan and then studying koan and then sort of experiencing became often more important than studying scriptures in Zen. So often, like, okay, followings are very formatted, you know, rigorous practice, daily schedules, everything.

[33:28]

try to experience ultimate freedom so that's kind of not just kind of doing whatever we want to do but do something completely in following forms and then also you can see in the small place you can see something large so everything is paradoxical but it's maybe our life too. Thank you so much. 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, please visit sfcc.org. and click giving. May we all fully enjoy the Dharma.

[34:31]

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