This podcast is offered by the San Francisco Zen Center on the web at sfzc.org. Our public programs are made possible by donations from people like you. This morning what I'd like to speak about is a passage from a work of Dogen's. Dogen is the founder of... Soto Zen in Japan. He lived in the first half of the 13th century and he is the lineage forefather of Suzuki Roshi and all of the teachers here at San Francisco Zen Center. And the work that I'm quoting from is a work whose title is in Japanese, the title Dogen gave it, is Imo, I-M-M-O.

[01:09]

Imo means something like as it is, as things are. Or Suzuki Rishi used to say things as it is. I think he was referring to Imo But then, perhaps to enhance our confusion, the title is sometimes, emo is sometimes translated as such. Which, there ain't much to do with such. You know, what are you going to do with such? What is such? Suchness. So, It may be not so easy to understand what suchness is or what emo is. But there's a passage in emo that I think is that I want to work with you this morning about that's very straightforward and I think very helpful and relevant for us.

[02:25]

So this is how it goes. This is Dogen in Imo. There is a statement that has been made from antiquity, that has been made from India, that has been made from heaven. One who falls on the ground must rise from the ground. There is no way to rise except by the ground. What this is saying is that one who falls on the ground must get up by the ground. And there is no hope of rising except from, except by the ground, apart from the ground. It is considered a wonderful opportunity to become greatly enlightened when this is brought up.

[03:57]

And it is also considered a path to liberate body and mind as well. Therefore, if one asks what the principle of enlightenment of the Buddha is, it is said to be like, one fallen on the ground, rising from the ground. That's what Dogen says in Imo. And Suzuki Roshi spoke about this, spoke about Imo in the compilation of his talks called Not Always So, the 32nd talk. which is entitled Stand Up by the Ground, is about this. About emo and about what it means to stand up by the ground. Excuse me.

[04:59]

So Suzuki Rishi says we have to stand up by the ground and we stand up by emptiness. Those two sides. And that's what I'd like to speak about this morning is what it means to stand up by the ground. For our practice, what the implications for our practice is, are. Stand up by the ground. Stand up by emptiness. The implications for our practice, and in turn, what this means for our life. Our everyday life. Zazen and everyday life. Our everyday life which sometimes is dramatic and heightened and sometimes quite, feeling quite ordinary and uneventful. So I've been thinking about and involved in and concerned about the

[06:14]

some of the more dramatic and high profile and heightened events of our collective, of our group. Not this group, I mean of our group called the United States of America, called human beings. So not too long ago was Hurricane Sandy, as you all know. And though people living on this coast were not directly affected, we certainly know that many, many, many, many, many people had the ground taken out from under them, had their house collapsed from under them or over them.

[07:16]

how do you stand up by the ground and stand up by emptiness in such intense circumstances? And also recently, as you also know, there was a big election here in the United States and we elected President Obama for a second term and many other people and many Propositions passed and failed and so on. That's part of the ground that we're, as a culture, as a society, as our country, we've fallen onto, into. And more recently, in our world of human beings full of conflict and difficulty, the tragedy of the fight, the feud, the sore point for the whole world, actually, of Israel and the Palestinians, the Gaza Strip, which was almost, there was an invasion

[08:47]

There have already been invasions, but a formal invasion, which was prevented, thank goodness. So these are some of the dramatic circumstances of our public life. And then here at Green Gulch, here at Zen Center, we have a dramatic and heightened event this afternoon. three people are going to, I think the word is receive, experience, Shukai Tokudo, which is a priest ordination. Sonia Gardensworts and Stephen Hale and Ioann Asland are going to... They've already shaved their head mostly, and then their teacher shaves the last little bit off, and they receive precepts and a new name and robes like this, except black rather than brown.

[10:05]

Anyway, it's a big deal. It's a big deal for them. It's a really big deal for them. After practicing many, many, many years, it's a marker, an event, and it's a big deal for us as a community also. An event bringing forth their commitment and intention. So there is a statement that has been made from antiquity, from India, from the heavens. I think Dogen is telling us this is not just his idea.

[11:09]

This has been around a long time, this idea that he's about to tell us. Namely, if one falls on the ground, one rises from the ground. There is no way to rise except by way of the ground. This sounds pretty obvious. I was noticing this morning, actually, you know, when we do the full prostration, the full bow to the ground, I used to, for many, many, many years, I used to be able to do it, you know, like this, and then keep my hands like this and lower down to my knees and then bow. But for the last 15 years or so, I can't do that. I have to kind of lunk forward and, you know, hit the ground with my, hopefully not hit it too hard, but anyway, land on my hands.

[12:14]

And then after the bow, I, just like Dogen says, on the ground, I push against the ground to stand up. If one falls on the ground, one must rise by the ground. There is no way to rise other than that. And then he kind of amplifies it or credits it by saying that this is an opportunity for enlightenment to receive to how does he say it when this is brought up to become greatly enlightened this is a path to liberate body and mind

[13:18]

So this is no small thing. If one asks what the principle of enlightenment of the Buddha is, this is the principle of enlightenment of the Buddha. It is said to be like one fallen on the ground, rising from the ground. In Suzuki Roshi's language, one very strong correlate of this or implication of this is don't seek elsewhere. And it's, you know, the metaphor of when one falls on the ground, one rises from the ground, you need the very place that you fall down on to get up. You can't get up someplace else if you fall down over here. This is called don't seek elsewhere. It means that the resolution the solution, the answer that one is seeking to whatever the situation is that one is in now, whatever the difficulty is, whatever the problem is, is not someplace called elsewhere.

[14:41]

The encouragement from our practice is to find the resolution here. on the ground that we have fallen on, where we are now. In another work of Dogen's, he says, why leave the seat that exists in your own home and go off to the dusty realms of other lands? He's saying the same thing. That's in, as many of you know, in the Fukan Zazengi about how to do Zazen Don't go off to the dusty realms of other lands. Don't go off to other places. The seat that exists in your own home is plenty good to do whatever you need to do. There's a plenty good place to practice and realize. That way of saying it has a somewhat more benign, caste...

[15:49]

than falling down on the ground. But it's the same feeling. Stay here. Wherever here is, whatever the here is that is my life, that is your life, that is our life, that has brought us to this point. Whatever happened a minute ago and an hour ago and 10,000 years ago, that brought us right here to right now. That's the place. Not elsewhere. And similarly, also in Suzuki Hiroshi's language, I think if one falls to the ground, one rises from the ground is also no gaining mind.

[16:56]

Not having a gaining mind cultivating no gaining mind. Cultivating no gaining mind means that the point of practice is not to not fall down. The point of practice is not to somehow avoid or figure out how to prevent falling down. There is no back door. This is a common misunderstanding of what our practice is. We think we're going to find, if we look in just the right place and do it just the right way, oh yeah, there's a back door. Out the back door, Jack. What is that, out the back, Jack? This is a common misunderstanding that if we attain something, if we gain some attainment, then at that point, we're not going to fall down anymore.

[18:06]

Or if we do fall down, it doesn't matter anyway. Because we're beyond falling down. We're beyond that. Beyond Ananda. We're beyond that. And after all, everything is empty and it's all one, so it doesn't really matter. It's not that. That's the idea of what's called spiritual bypass. Here's our life. Here's the problem. And so we think... I'm going to go right around it, and then we're going to get to the place where there is no problem bypassing this thing called my problematic life. Beyond Ananda is an advice column, and you write to Mr. Beyond Ananda and ask him for advice.

[19:15]

And he tells you how to bypass the difficulties and get to enlightenment. So standing up by the ground is not that way. So there's an important passage in the Heart Sutra. This is the sutra we chant every day in English or in Japanese. The Heart of Great Perfect Wisdom Sutra. This is the one, for those of you not so familiar with it, that has all of the nose in it. No this, no that, no eyes, no ears, no nose, no tongue, no body, et cetera, et cetera. No nothing. No... No 12-fold chain of conditioned co-production.

[20:16]

No extinction of that. No four noble truths. No knowledge. And then the very last of the no's is no attainment. No attainment. No attainment. How does it go? With reliance. Can somebody help me? Thank you. With nothing to attain, a bodhisattva relies on Prajnaparamita. Thus, there is no hindrance. Without any hindrance, there is no fear. This is a very important sequence. And the sequence starts with no gaining mind. based on no gaining mind, with the foundation of no gaining mind.

[21:22]

We rely, the bodhisattva, the practitioner, relies on prajnaparamita, relies on the perfection of wisdom, relies on stand up by the ground and stand up by emptiness. relying on that, there are no hindrances. That means that the thought coverings, the things that cover over our vision and our understanding are mitigated, are reduced, are removed. And when that happens, when we see how things are, when we are less obstructed in our vision and in our our understanding, then fear based on, not the fears that are based on or come from the obstructions, those are concomitantly also reduced.

[22:29]

It says there is no fear. I don't know about there is no fear. But the reduction of fear, the lessening, the amelioration of it, the alleviation of it, that I can imagine, that I can know. And that alleviation is based on... the lessening of the obstructions that prevent us from seeing. And that is based on stand up by the ground, stand up by emptiness. And stand up by the ground and stand up by emptiness is a concomitant of, is a correlate of no attainment with nothing to attain.

[23:40]

So I think this has some important implications for our sense of security and for fear that is such a powerful motivator, such a powerful troublemaker in our life. But I want to say one more thing about the ground itself before I get into that. So the ground, to fall down on the ground, is... In the widest way, to fall down on the ground means any particular circumstance, any specific circumstance that we find ourself in at any given moment. In the traditional teaching, this is called san, excuse me, which means many, the many, many, many, many, many, many, many particular circumstances that we find ourself in.

[24:48]

That's stand up by the ground, san. Stand up by emptiness is do. Stand up by emptiness is some other filter, some other way of understanding that experience. And those two ways of understanding that experience, called san and do, come together on each moment. Suzuki Roshi said they shake hands every moment. San, do, kai. They merge. They're actually the same thing, two aspects of the same reality. Stand up by the ground and stand up by emptiness are two aspects of the same thing. So it's sandokai, more generally, but more specifically, if one falls on the ground, one stands up on the ground, refers to some difficulty.

[26:04]

Again, it's carried in the metaphor itself. Some mistake has happened. There's been some problem. In other words, this is an arena, this is the area of dukkha, of suffering, of problem. How to end our problems is how to skillfully and wisely work with the difficulties in our life is to stand up by the ground and to stand up by emptiness. So the best thing is to find our security in falling down on the ground. To find our security in insecurity.

[27:09]

This is the most stable basis for security. This is the most stable way. This means to find our security in everything changes and everything is connected. Everything changes and everything is connected. If we can live with that, if we can live by that understanding, This is called nirvana. If we don't live by that understanding, if we find that it's impossible to live by that understanding in accord with that understanding, then we are in samsara.

[28:12]

It's the same place. But one has the benefit of clear seeing. the other is ignorance, ignoring the total reality. So the most stable and secure foundation for us is falling down on the ground, is insecurity, is anitya, anatman, change and interdependence.

[29:16]

If a prerequisite, so the opposite of that is that if we have have to prevent falling on the ground, avoid falling on the ground in order to be secure. If we have to have some security in order to be secure, some permanence in order to be secure, some separation in order to be secure, these are our usual motivations. If we're in that situation, then that's what drives our grasping mind. That's what drives our three poisons mind. That's what drives our attempts at controlling our life and our environment, which usually don't work out so well, those attempts.

[30:23]

And that's what drives our compulsive mind. The fear, so what drives it is the fear that's based on, oh, I have to have this in order to be okay. Or, you know, in the language that I'm using, I have to prevent falling down in order to be okay. No, this way is to accept, understand, expect that our life is endlessly falling down, breaking down even. A well-known, maybe not famous, but well-known psychoanalyst Donald Winnicott wrote an essay called Fear of Breakdown. And one has to be careful with such things. but he was basically talking about the defensive structure that we create because we're afraid to break down or fall down.

[31:35]

So this is some way, this is a different way than that. This is a way that accepts and understands the inevitability of falling down. This is the way of sho shaku jiu shaku, of one mistake after another, one continuous mistake. If we understand that our life is one continuous mistake, it's very relaxing. Calming and stable. We can really depend on that.

[33:01]

So I want to say just a little bit more about standing up by the ground and standing up by emptiness. So another part, another piece, another way of speaking about standing up by the ground, has to do with presence, to be present. If we fall on the ground, what's required is that we are there, not someplace else, not the dusty realms of other lands, not thinking about something else, but actually present in the situation. not avoiding the situation, not thinking about how we should have prevented it, and not blaming ourselves or others for being on the ground.

[34:17]

I'm very... I enjoy... I don't know if enjoy is exactly the right word, but I greatly appreciate the story of Job from the Bible, who was... we could say, knocked to the ground. By this crazy bet between God and Satan, Job got knocked way the hell down to the ground. And then his friends came along, so-called friends came along, and basically his friends said, well, you must have deserved it. You know, thanks a lot, you know, these... These are his friends. He's on the ground, you know, with boils and all kinds of problems. He's lost everything and feels terrible. So being present means not avoiding and not blaming. It means being there in a kind of bare way, like a golden body exposed to the wind, like that.

[35:28]

That's being present in falling down on the ground. That's how we stand up by the ground, is by being on the ground and knowing that we're there and not going someplace else. And to stand up by emptiness, Dogen, you know, Suzuki Roshi said, Dogen says, stand up by the ground and stand up by emptiness. And indeed later in Imo, Dogen speaks about standing up by emptiness. And he says it in a way that's, I think, quite beautiful and poetic, but maybe a little esoteric and mysterious. You know, when he was talking about standing up by the ground, he said, there is a statement that has been made from antiquity, that has been made from India, that has been made from heaven.

[36:42]

And then he talks about standing up by the ground. So later in Imo, he says, though it has not been said in India or in the heavens, there is a further principle to express. That is, if one falls on the ground, one must rise from the sky. It's so Dogen. If one falls on the ground, one must rise from the sky. And if you try to rise apart from the sky, there will never be a way. If one falls on the sky, one must rise from the sky. And if you try to rise apart from the ground, there will never be a way. That's the way Dogen talks about standing up by emptiness.

[37:45]

So my sense of it is different things at different times, but the way I would speak about it this morning is to stand up by emptiness the way I would express that is hopefully more approachable than rising by the sky. It's great. Thank you. And I would say simply to stand up by emptiness means simply to have a wider perspective, to widen our view, to see more, to ignore less.

[38:50]

This is a simple version of Enlightenment. Not the kind where, you know, like the lightning bolt, et cetera, you know, and the bucket falls, the bottom of the bucket falls out, and not that style of enlightenment. This is a more ordinary enlightenment that can be experienced many, many, many, many, many times to see bigger. So if we think of something like... you know, as I was saying earlier, the tragedy of the conflict in the Middle East between the Israelis and the Palestinians. I listened, I heard the beginning of a debate before the ceasefire on the radio. I heard a debate, you know, one person was defending the Palestinians,

[39:55]

right to shoot rockets into Israel and the other person was defending the Israelis' rights to invade Palestine, Gaza and take over. And it was so clear that each one was absolutely right. This happened and this happened and this happened and this happened and that's why we're doing it. And the other one said, this happened, and [...] that's why we have the right to do that. It's like this. They're called blinders, right? When you put them on a horse, blinders means you can't see around the other side. Or one of my favorite expressions from Suzuki Roshi, Bored Carrying Fellow. Don't be a board-carrying fellow. It means if you're carrying a board like this, you know, you can't see around it.

[40:59]

To stand up by emptiness means don't be a board-carrying fellow. It means take the blinders off. How much? As much as you can. When? whenever it seems like a good idea, whenever it occurs to you. Let's put it that way. Whenever it occurs to us. So you can see this is not, this is not, excuse me, this is not easy work. Those two people that I heard debating were feeling very, very, very strongly about about their respective positions that were in diametrical opposition. It's very hard to see around the board and around the blinders. That's that side of the equation.

[42:13]

That's the side of the equation called stand up by emptiness. Stand up by big view. Stand up by big mind. In small mind. In the ground. On the ground. Stand up by the ground. Stand up by emptiness. Going no place other than the ground that we are actually in. Right there. Open up your mind. Our mind. Our view. Our thought. and our feeling and our heart. So then we say, well, how do I do that?

[43:18]

That's often the question. It's a very good question. How do I do that? On the one hand, we say, well, there is no particular how. There is no particular method. It's kind of a stand up on the ground kind of a thing. We practice it. whenever we can. When we can, we practice it. We practice it, we realize it. We hear it, we think about it, we practice it, and we prove it. We prove it, realize it in our practice. Those are the four stages.

[44:21]

Thank you very much. May we fully enjoy the Dharma.

[44:57]

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