is on the climb, second plan. When tea is served, drink the tea. When meals are served, eat the meal. So, in other words, awakening or enlightenment, if you want to use that word, can be seen in our daily life, in our daily practices. It's nothing special. It's the practical Dharma teaching that can be practiced in our daily lives. Just doing what we have to do, attending to what we have to do. when we have to do it. So showing up and needing things as it is. Keizan actually never became the abbot of Eiji, like oftentimes successors would become. But his major accomplishments, and the one that we did rise to him being regarded as the second ancestor of Soto Zen, was the founding of two significant Chumung temples. One was Jokoji, and the other was Sujiji. And Sujiji, in a very quick time, began to overshadow Dogen's Eiji.

[01:06]

And Eiji started to not be as well regarded, and Sujiji started rising up in recognition and in importance. And it really wasn't until the late 1800s when the two temples, Eiji and Sujiji, were kind of like conflicting for a long time. they decided to put down the difference and recognize each other's equals and become partners in the leadership of Soto Zen. And that relationship still continues to the same. They actually take turns, Eheji and Sajiji, dedicating an avid to Eheji, or to the main Soto Shu. And so it's wonderful to have that continue. Kezan's influence on the Sutta sect is often described as a counterpoint to Dogen. So Kezan is remembered as a warm-hearted fellow whose dharma presentations were a lot less mystical and more down-to-earth than Dogen.

[02:13]

I don't know how many of you have ever read Dogen, but sometimes you're like, what is going on here? And I'm going to share some Kezan with you later. You might have the same thought, but that's the general take. Kezan was more accessible. And where Dogen is described as strict and fatherly-like, Kezan was described as compassionate and motherly. And also where as much of Dogen's energy was, you could say, internally focused, you know, he was writing, going into writing and teaching on behalf of the monastic community, the community in residence. Kezon was primarily concerned with widening the reach of Zen practice. And so many consider him a visionary and aesthetic. He was very active his whole life, kind of made the tradition more accessible to everyone, not just to the monastics. And so he very much was connecting to the lay community.

[03:15]

And it's said that Kezon did the precepts of over 78 lay people, which was amazing. extremely unusual in this flyer. And one of the ways he was able to make such descent more accessible was by synthesizing much of what was being done previously, like the ceremonies that we chanted and the way that merit was being offered into a ceremonial form that could be more widely participated in. So, for example, today, he just did a service together. And in the past, lay people couldn't participate as well. Kezon changed that and made the ceremonies much more accessible and resonant. He also championed women practitioners, having always been very vocal about the gratitude that he felt to his mother and his grandmother for his own spiritual development. In fact, he was the first to give Seltar Dharma transmission to a woman, to then Bekyu.

[04:19]

So I don't know many of you, sometimes we chant the women ancestors here at Zen Center, and Ekyu's included in that list. And he later went on to ordain at least 30 female students and to establish a convent. That's pretty significant for each time. And it was because of several of Keizan's dormant heirs, including Gassan Joseki and Haigen Soshin, that Soto Zen's influence and presence in Japan was extended and expanded and was able to actually thrive for a number of centuries. There are many scholars who, perhaps nearly all, believe that without Kezon and his particular impact, Soto Zen would never achieve the prominence that it holds within Japanese Buddhism today. So we have a lot to thank Kezon for and Since this tour, I've been wanting to study Keeson much more and get a better sense of him and his teachings.

[05:22]

Now, Keeson wasn't as prolific as Dogen in his writing, but he did write several things of major importance. His masterpiece, some of you may have heard of, the Deokuroku, which is the Record of Transmission of the Lights, and that's a series of 53 sermons that are detailing Sayada Soto sent the image from Shakyamuni Buddha all the way to Dogen and his immediate successor, Ejo. And there's another significant text, what's called the Keizan Shingi, which was his set of monastic standards that he established. And he did this just a year before he died. And he died at the age of 62. But what I understand is this Shingi was so... so important that actually to go to Japan and practice today and go to a temple, you will basically be participating in Keizan Shin'i rather than Dogen Shin'i guidelines. And the third text like Keizan is the Zazen Yojinki.

[06:32]

And that translates as notes on what to be aware of in Zazen. And Zazen Yojinki, it's very short. It's about eight to nine pages. And as you can guess from the title, centers on the practice of zazen or seated meditation. So literally the word, you jen, means be cautious or careful. And ki means record of notes. So notes of what to be aware of. And then zazen, of course, of zazen. And... In many ways, it's very similar to Dogen's Kukhan Zazenki. Anyone familiar with Kukhan Zazenki? His kind of instructions on Zazen. But in Keizan's text, he offers meditation and practice advice that's both immediate and practical, as well as more general and globally. For example, he writes, To practice sitting, find a quiet place, and lay down a thick mat. I keep kind of that.

[07:34]

Don't let rain, smoke, rain, or dew come in. We're doing our best to lord that. Keep a clear space with enough room for your knees. How's that doing, folks? There's also a lot of instructions in his text about how to conduct for months to conduct their daily lives in a way that's conducive to practice, such as what to wear, frivolous activities to avoid, and what to eat and how to deal with various unusual experiences in meditation. And as you read through his text, you might find some of his advice kind of quirky and maybe even amusing, such as, don't wear luxurious clothing nor dirty racks. Do not sit where there are fires, floods, high winds, or thieves, nor by the ocean, near bars or brothels, whether there are widows or virgins or kings or ministers or people who have many desires or would like to argue meaninglessly.

[08:41]

Well, I guess that leaves out San Francisco, right? Well, many parts of this essay are kind of fairly straightforward advice, you know, and again, instructions related to supporting practice and meditation. There are other parts that are more difficult to understand. You could say a bit dense. particularly the sections where Kazon is trying to convey the deepest meaning and purpose of Zazen. And given that this day for many of us is dedicated to the city of Zazen, I thought I would take the rest of my talk and share with you a few points of guidance from Kazon's text I want to keep in mind when I'm practicing. I'll let you know now that the section I'm choosing Because it's on zazen, it's a little denser, so just bear with it. Keep an open mind. Just allow it to kind of wash over you if it gets too dense. And you can spend a whole sushi on this particular text, the whole week-long series of talks.

[09:46]

But today, we'll just do just the first couple paragraphs. So he starts off, zazen means to clarify the mind ground and dwell comfortably in your actual nature. This is called revealing yourself and manifesting the original ground. In Zazen, both body and mind drop off. Zazen is far beyond the form of sitting or lying down. Free from considerations of good and evil, Zazen transcends distinctions between ordinary people and sages. It goes far beyond judgments of deluded or enlightened. Zazen includes no boundary between sentient beings and Buddha. Therefore, put aside all affairs and let go of all associations. Do nothing at all. Do not fabricate anything with the six senses.

[10:51]

What is this? Its name is unknown. It cannot be called body. It cannot be called mind. Trying to think of it, the world vanishes. Trying to speak of it, words die. It's like a fool, an idiot. It is as high as a mountain, deep as the ocean. Without peak or depths, its brilliance is unthinkable. It shows itself silently. Between sky and earth, only this whole body So, now, it might not be immediately apparent what Keizan is trying to convey throughout all of Zazen, Yujingqi. What he's trying to convey in this case is the taste of the non-dual experience that both Zazen and Zazen unabashedly celebrate.

[11:56]

So right from the start, Kezan, like Dogen, emphasizes that the Soto Zen view, the Zazen is neither a meditative technique nor some volitional practice that we can do from that. In his Fukan Zazengi, Dogen tells us, Zazen is not step-by-step learning meditation. It is the culmination of fully realized enlightenment. And then later on, Dogen says, Zazen is the Darma Gate of Joyful Ease. How many of you have experienced the Darma Gate of Joyful Ease of Zazen? Have you? Right. How many have not? Yes. Chazan puts it another way here in his, and the first two openings into the Zazen. I'm gonna offer a slightly different translation. So Zazen is the way to clarify the ground of experiences, and to rest at ease in your actual nature. And then he asks, this is called revealing yourself and manifesting the original ground.

[13:03]

Another translation puts it like this, revealing your original face and then asking the basic ground. You hear this often, what is your original face? What was the face before you were blind? Much like Dogen Kezan doesn't A spouse zazen is a kind of perfected practice. If you do it enough, you get it just right. So that's not it. Not some practice to be accomplished. And it's also not some technique by which you're going to achieve enlightenment. I'm sorry to tell you, if you came here thinking, if I just do enough zazen, I will become enlightened. That's not what they're advocating here. In fact, according to both these instincts and ancestors, zazen is not a meditative technique. meditative technique at all, but rather a process of revealing and resting in our true nature. Or as Keeson puts it later in Zazen Yujinghi, dwelling content within your own Buddha nature.

[14:06]

And then elsewhere, Keeson also says it this way. He says that Zazen is entering directly into the ocean of Buddha nature and manifesting the body-mind of the Buddha. Sounds pretty amazing. Now, of course, the minute we take our seat and attempt this dwelling comfortably or contently in our particular manifestation of our body-mind, this body-mind of Buddha, we realize it's not so easy. Almost immediately, all kinds of thoughts and emotions and sensations kind of just flood in. And they leaving us feeling anything but content or at ease. Not only is Zazen not easy, but as our Septuagint tradition tells us, only a Buddha can do Zazen. That's to say that Zazen is not a path to becoming a Buddha.

[15:11]

We can't make ourselves into Buddhas by sitting Zazen anymore and one can make a mirror by polishing a tile. So we need to disabuse ourselves of any notion that zazen is a technique or a means or a tool for becoming a Buddha, much less for achieving something called enlightenment. So what, then, is zazen? Well, as Keizan and others have repeatedly put forth, zazen is a gesture It's a profound expression and a verification of who you already are. In fact, what each of us already is. And what everything and all phenomena already is. A verification of that. So as such, zazen is an act of concurrently revealing the

[16:17]

manifesting and resting in ease in and as our basic ground of being, our fundamental nature, our Buddha nature. So again, the opening sentences of Zazen Vyotini. Zazen means to clarify the mind ground and dwell comfortably in your actual nature. This is called revealing yourself and manifesting the original ground. And when I reviewed a number of different translations of these two sentences, each of them more or less kind of say a similar thing, that Zazen allows something to be revealed, to be illuminated, to be clarified, or realized. And what is it that's illuminated or clarified? Well, again, depending on the translation you're looking at, it's called the mind.

[17:19]

So the mind is clarified. The primordial mind. Another translation says it's the ground of experiences or the foundation of our minds. Jacques Okamura identifies it as the mind ground. But you want to ask them, what exactly is this primordial mind or mind ground? And how is it that solidly clarifies it or reveals it? Another name for it that I tend to gravitate to, even if it's not perfect, is simply the word awareness. And all of a sudden, we want to be careful about fixing any kind of a definitive label to our ground of experience, right? Because as what comes to mind and then, it cannot be fixed. We can't capture or fix or sum up in any way, you know, your ground of experience, fundamental nature.

[18:20]

Nor is it an object that we can somehow experience or identify as separate from ourselves. So our mind ground, our fundamental nature of awareness can just be experienced. It's impossible to definitely name a grasp. He points this out a little further down in this text, which I read. He says, what is this? Its name is unknown. It cannot be called body. It cannot be called mind. Trying to think of it, the thought vanishes. Trying to speak it, the words die. So whatever this mind ground is, there isn't a living word for it. And thinking about it or using thought to get to it only actually makes it disappear. If you notice this, when you try to actually look at your thoughts, they can't go away. It just kind of evaporates when you turn the light of awareness onto them.

[19:25]

And yet, while the same, we need to use words and language as supportive pointers to the Dharma. This is how we share the Dharma with each other, right? Help us in our practice, our path of practice. That's why we have all these wonderful words and teachings from various Zen ancestors. Dogen himself goes on later in the open section to call this unnameable, unaggressable, a body. So he says, between the sky and earth, only this whole body is seen. And he also calls it mind, saying that it is this mind which is enlightenment itself. So I think by using these terms, Kaesan's pointing to the relationship between body and mind and the place in our experience of being. Body and mind together give rise to our experience of being.

[20:26]

As one commentator noted, mind points to the role of our awareness in our experience of Lenarando. Body points to the reality of our life. that's beyond words and concepts, but is always pervasive and present. Yet no single word or concept captures the whole deal. So all we can do to truly experience and manifest this body-mind ground of Buddha is to take up the activity of Zaza and to allow it to be revealed. is an act of revelation. Now, we want to be careful about not making this mind ground into some kind of mind that is separate, but that's somehow maybe buried below our everyday mind, and which can finally be revealed if we get the everyday mind out of the way, right?

[21:34]

And so... As Mao Zedong reminds us, this very mind, this very mind is Buddha. This very mind is it. There's not another or a different or a better mind that's waiting to be exposed when you do Zaza. I'm sorry to tell you. So it's this mind, the mind which is experiencing itself, experiencing the moment, In its totality, that is the very mind-ground being. And just to clarify, we're not saying that the ever-changing content of our minds, our thoughts, our images, et cetera, is the object of reality of our minds. But rather, it's the very quality of luminous knowing that is Buddha. So when we take our seats with Asasa,

[22:38]

It's not a different or better mind that is waiting to be revealed. Rather, what is revealed of your life is this very mind, the one that you're sitting with right here and right now, the one that's illuminating all of your experience. Kind of like the sun. Everything is eliminated. Everything is, you could propose, made of that illumination. So rather than starting off his instruction for what to be aware of in zazen by talking about where to sit or what kind of posture to take in zazen, which is usually the kind of focus of zazen instruction. When you come to San Francisco Zenitra and other temples, they'll give you basic instruction, which is how to sit up, posture with your body, maybe comfortable with the posture of the mind. That's a traditional zazen structure, and that's important, and that's helpful. It has its place. But teza is saying something different here.

[23:42]

He begins by saying, first, realize your true nature. Know who you are and your place in the universe. Then do Zaza. So he's recommending that we begin by connecting to something that's more essential than our physical and mental posture, or even our breath, even though they're helpful touchstones. It's pointing to something else. And what is this? Even though its name is unknown, as Kazan said, we can nevertheless thank you one. You have to. We have to use language. As I suggested earlier, we might call it awareness. Now I'm going to venture to call it something else. I'm going to call it the direct, unmediated experience of being alive. The direct, unmediated experience of being alive. Can you taste that right now? Don't think about it.

[24:45]

Don't look for it. Just drop into this experience of being alive fully here. And sometimes also, if you drop into your heart, right down here to the center of your body and rest there, then you can feel this aliveness reverberating through you and beyond, if you will. The whole universe is permeating in this way, this aliveness. So Keizan is suggesting, even before we begin Zazam, to first connect with our sentimental feeling of aliveness, of I-N-ness. I-N. Touch that I-N-ness. The very fact of our being. The experience of being right here, right now. It's the fundamental ground of experience. Or you could say, the field in which everything arises is known and is known.

[25:47]

This fact of being is the field in which everything arises and is known. And it's also non-dual. It's not divisible. You can't divide into a self or another object of any type. And it can't be separated out of your experience whatsoever. And one's connecting to this feeling, feeling into this field of universal aliveness. It's then that we're invited by Keisak to engage in Zazen. He continues, he says, in Zazen, both body and mind drop off. Zazen is far beyond the form of sitting or lying down. For those of you who are familiar with Dogen will have heard before this description of body and mind dropping off as a key experience in Zazen. And he gave a short... Dharma Hall discourse in his age, Kuroku, and he says that body and mind dropped off is the beginning of our effort.

[26:49]

Dropping off body and mind is, it's a very important technical phrase for Dogen. In Japanese, Shinjin Datsuraku. And body and mind dropped away is what the name that Dogen uses for Zazen. So you're sitting here engaging Zazen, you're sitting here engaging, dropping off body and mind. And for him, Zazen is simply dropping off body and mind, but this dropping off is dropping off your concepts of and your identification with your bodies and minds. And it starts dwelling, again, in this non-dual awareness, which is beyond body-mind fabrications. And it's also Dogen's name for Anuttara, Sanyak, Samburi, which is complete, unsurpassed, Perfect enlightenment. Kezan next points out in his text that zazen transcends dichotomies or dualities.

[27:51]

He says that zazen is a matter of going beyond such forms of sitting or lying down. And so don't think that zazen is only taking a sitting posture or lying down posture. You can do zazen in many different ways. It's beyond any posture. He writes, free from considerations of good and evil, Zazen transcends distinctions between ordinary people and sages. It goes far beyond judgments of deluded or enlightened. Zazen includes no boundary between sentient beings and Buddha. Now, I don't know about you, but I think it's kind of second nature for human beings to create dualities and dichotomies, right? It's what our minds do. It's how we interpret and make sense of the world. It's a useful tool. It's not a problem in and of itself, but if we misuse the tool and believe in these separations, dichotomies, and dualities, then we're in trouble.

[28:57]

And again, we're not creating dualities and dichotomies in Zazen. We're not trying to make sense in Zazen. Zazen is not a sense-making activity. It's rather an activity of being at one with our senses, or directly sensing if you hold a body-mind, you know, what's going on. And sensing into, you could say, beyond any physical or mental posture. Sensing into space itself. Space within, space without, right? And I like to think of Zazen as liminal space, as an in-between realm. It's a non-dual realm that's without boundaries, without parameters, without anything here or there. And as such, it transcends or goes beyond evaluations or...

[30:00]

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