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. Paz is a mini thing, you know, a SUNY painter, that's what it's called, which is what the workshop got, right? and also a very active peace activist and translator of Dobin. He just finished wonderful for Buddhism in the West, a major translation of the show Yoroku of Dobin. And my memory of Paz is that back when I wasn't really in the political aspect of Zen Center, there was some feeling that Paz was whenever something strange would happen for us.

[01:00]

We'd call a clause and say, what do you think this means? What do you think? Because somehow he seems to have the capacity to understand both Japan and the West, the Japanese people and Western people, and we have, I think, really benefited from that understanding over the years. So welcome, and I'm looking forward to hearing what you like to say tonight. Thank you. Very nice to see you and it's wonderful to join your practice and all the activities in Pasarala. This is where all of us and nurture our spirituality, relax, enjoy the beautiful environment created by so many people, so many years of practice and work.

[02:16]

I think about nine days ago, I was at San Francisco Vincent celebrating 50th University. So I saw some people who were from the time when Gen Center worked in Koppel. It's just amazing that Suzuki Oshii is teaching the effort. He's bringing so much joy in, with compassion. Of course, it was a while in San Francisco early.

[03:22]

It was the... Nitsutsuk Sensei's wife, and he's practicing community at Sopoji Temple in 1964 and 1965. And then, after I went back to Japan, we were in the community. Not the email at times, by letters, yeah. I was told about the construction of Japan town and also the development of Passara and so forth. This evening I'd like to talk about the life and poetry of Zen Master Ryokan.

[04:29]

18th to 19th century Japanese mother, who lived in a very humble way, always liked by himself. He was a tennis student first, and then he did pilgrimage in the western part of Japan. and then pick up several things in his own province, Hetsiko, which is one of the Japanese sister. He was born on the fourth town of Hesinosachi in the province, Hetsiko province, known for very heavy snuff. Echi-go, neighborless Echi-zen, where the Eheji Monastery is also on the Japan Sea side, but Eheji had temple or the sort of school, founded by Ten Master Dori in the 13th century.

[05:59]

So they were in neighboring provinces. I've had the privilege of transferring great semester doing work. And then the most recent, I mean, it's like two volumes, maybe 200 pages or so, is the light work called, well, which we translate as so the eye is not only... physical art, but also insight, but also it's not only insight, but it's experience.

[07:16]

And then also I wrote a book called Penetrating Laughter. Hakuin Zen and Art. Hakuin was the 18th century great Zen master who is regarded as a restorer of Winsai school, Zen, the other major school in Japan, Soto. And then I So I happened to put together a book from Ryokan. And the title of the book is Sky Above Great Wind.

[08:20]

Typhan Poetry of the North Sky Ryokan. We have my co-author of the German version of the book, Dr. Freireke Vosema. Freireke, would you like to start out? Oh, yeah. So, the German version came out earlier. We had a wonderful reading in Berlin. Here in the screen. We worked together on a kind of translation of Lyokan's poems, because Sangha started the word in the lineage of Lyokan. So they channeled Lyokan's poems. So it was helping, and then I helped translate some more poems.

[09:31]

And then I realised that I really loved New York, and I never thought of writing a book about it yet, but I thought I was just one step away from the book to get it. I went to our Etsy-lo province. I went to New York. and went to his materials and collected some of the photographs and studied about his place. His book is coming out from the Chandler publication in October. I'd like to read some of the poems. He worked in three styles. Well, 431 is haiku, which is a 17th syllable.

[10:39]

Another is waka, which is older, maybe oldest Japanese. 5, 7, probably 7 and 7, still 51. Simply speaking, Haiku came much later in the 17th century. For a spot, it can move in. And also, if you wrote Chinese, or . was trained as a monk in a place called the Ensu Monastery in Hisen province, which is present there, Okayama Prefecture, somewhere between Kyoto and Hiroshima.

[11:55]

It's a small monastery, but his teacher, Kokusen, really tried to restore Dogen's guidelines of practice in his small ministry, literally. So it was a very strict practice. So within a short period, Nsumai Street became one of the highest-ranking training. monastery in the sort of school. So he had a very serious training. And then his teacher, Kok Sen, was teaching Nguyen, so what can you do?

[13:00]

At that time, not so many essays from the Shogo Wingsho was available. Some monasteries, maybe a few copies of Do Wings, one went to work and another a little bit, so they had to borrow a pan of coffee and it started Ryokan was very influenced by, especially, Jogen said, those who studied the way should be poor, should renounce the idea of fame and fame, just stay poor. And most of Ryokan's contemporaries

[14:03]

They took it as some kind of symbolic message. But Ryokan took it literally. They just decided to stay poor. So he found a hut, which belonged to a temple, and then he lived in the mountainside. and lived there and then walked a long way to the village and then did Takahatsu which is the practice of Degin and go to people's place and do some champion and then wait until people say go away or just don't have some weights or some And that will be practiced for more.

[15:12]

The basic Buddhist practice, basic. And if you don't own so many things in this practice, you have one part, and then better you all, of course. And then we have the same. It's one of these haikuas. Let me read this first in Japanese, and then in English. All these things were sick left behind, moon in my window. So not so many people can write such a poem. There was an anecdote that when he was asleep, there was a broker.

[16:18]

You know, it was interesting. Someone breaks into his hut or a bathing bun, you know. So, he was getting even poorer. So... the thief didn't have anything to take. So Yocan just rolled over and then let the thief take the map she was sweeping on. Yocan was already known as a wonderful poet in his right time. also known as a great calligrapher. He didn't have ordinary size, medium size, large size brasses. He had a very thin brass.

[17:18]

So this calligraphy was the lines of very thin. So to compensate, and then your paper is paper, sometimes the screen. So he developed this kind of dancing, this kind of calligraphy. So there is so much movement. But sometimes he didn't have any drugs, or sometimes people don't like paper, but often he didn't have paper, so he practiced calligraphy in the air. You might like to try it. It's really wonderful. Everything you do is perfect.

[18:22]

No brass, how pathetic I am. This morning again, I woke with a cane And we knock on the temple door to borrow the rest. And often people kind of wanted to get open with calligraphy, because they can sell it. And one time, there was a wealthy man, and he really wanted to have Ryokan do some writings, but Ryokan always said, no, I'm not willing, I should do some practice.

[19:25]

But finally, he just grabbed Ryokan, when Ryokan was begging outside, and And then there is a golden screen. And then I will not let you go until you think you're coming. So Pyoken had no choice. He took the question. I don't want to. [...] But Rokan is known as playing with children all the time, watching balls and doing some wrestling with children of the zealots.

[20:34]

And the Japanese bouncing ball was not made of rubber, so it doesn't bounce so much. So you have to kneel down and maybe 10 pounds. It's made of strings. Something inside, maybe some cloth inside. So it doesn't bounce so much. They were doing so. Maybe a fool was. One day, a child came and he said, Reverend Ryokan, please do some calligraphy on this paper. And Ryokan said, what do you use it for? The child said, I want to make a kite. So I'd like you to write something that will kind of bring big wings. So he wrote Ten Onichiro Tai-Fu, Sky Above Great Wind.

[21:47]

I think he did maybe a few of the same things. He often does like the same poem to different people. So perhaps the one that will be used for a kite was broken and then disappeared, but somebody kept his calligraphy. So that's the title of our book, German person, English person. It's called it about a great thing. And then Iropano's copygraphy, he used a very special phonetics.

[22:48]

Early times in Japan, ideographs were imported from China and Korea. So we used the same ideographs Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese. But Japanese alone can use some idiographs for just sound only. And it's called . So it's a play. And then nowadays it's more simplified. It's more simplified. But Ryokan used an archaic old form of, in a way, etiographs, but used as phonetics. So it's very hard to read. Only educated people could use that writing.

[24:00]

So a pattern went to Ryokan and said, your writing is so difficult. Would you write something even I can understand? So, Ryokan wrote, Ichi, Ni, San. One, two, three. Ichi, Ni, San. One is one line, horizontal line. Two is two horizontal lines and three. Sweethood. Anyone can read. Oh, that's one. I like to do kind of one. Because I just do a long line. And if I used to my painting. Many months. Well, I do zeros, too.

[25:01]

There is slavery more expensive. One of Logan's poems. One of Logan's poems. One of Logan's poems. playing with children under a shrine forest. Let this spring day not turn to dust. So there is another story that Irokan was doing hide and seek with children. And then when it hit in dark, all children went home. But they were not telling Yogan what they were going on.

[26:09]

So in the morning, a farmer opened up a stock of straw. And then there, Yogan was hiding. And he said, shh, be quiet. I don't want children to find me. In the morning. There was a lot of stories. It was so easy to believe in other people's stories. One time, somebody said, oh, it's so much fun to find money on the street. And Ryokan kind of thought, well, it should be nice to try. So he threw down his coin and picked it up. And he didn't find it excited. So he got bored, and then he lost it, actually.

[27:18]

So he got kind of really panicked. And then someone kind of found his coin, and then he got so happy. All right, that's true. It's good to find money on it, too. This is a little bit longer point. Chinese style of poems in Japanese, it's written in the same way, but written in the Japanese way.

[28:26]

So, Today, while begging, I got caught in a shower. For some time, I found shelter in an old shrine. Laugh if you like, but one jar and one wall I own. Humble and cleansed, my life, a broken house. I think it's maybe part of this book, but... One row? Yes, I think we've done it still. Okay. Maybe kind of part of it at least. Another worker.

[29:46]

My dear begging boat, I left it behind, but no one took it. No one would take it. My poor begging boat is talking about himself. He was a really dedicated practitioner. He knew that he was not suited to live in a community or lead a community of practitioners. So he... He was always practicing by himself.

[30:49]

He had sometimes students. I think one student practiced with him. He's kind of a childhood friend. But it didn't work on this student, and they practiced together. Not all the time. Sometimes they would lead each other and then they'd serve them together. And he had some other students that were not really practicing together daily or evening. And then his long-term student died very young, so he didn't have any So in a way he was a failure as a teacher.

[31:54]

But I think in a way I would think of these three greatest teachers and practitioners from Japan. Dogen was very victorious. Whatever he does, he did it with thorough attention. He developed a guideline that really is so thorough and in a lot of forms. movement in general and various forms. Still, we do it in the United States. It's called a small sample in the country.

[33:02]

Also, he was a great thinker and poet. Hakuin was very powerful. His calligraphy was full of energy. He lived in the countryside, and then trained people. He created real subjects. Kōwan studies, very funny, very humorous, and very colloquial. Dōgen was so kind of refined, lofty, profound, happening with more colloquial, coarse in a way. Ryōkan is, in a way, very refined,

[34:11]

Poetry, calligraphy, very delicate, but very powerful. He was really, he could express human sentience on love, loneliness, And also, very sensitive to the changes of seasons, and being sad, children dying, and so forth. So it feels very emotional. And I think that may be a wonderful part. And I think I will do it first, maybe writing some feelings.

[35:20]

I like to... He was a great admirer of Dōgen. Probably many of you have read Dōgen's poem about Dōgen. I'd like to read it. It's also translated by Thayden Stanton and myself on a summer spring evening around midnight. Rain mixed with snow sprinkled on the bamboos in the garden. I wanted to ease my loneliness, but it was quite impossible. My hand reached behind me for the play called Ethe Doe book. Beneath the open window at my desk, I offer, for instance, litter land.

[36:38]

and quietly read. Body and mind dropping away is simply the upright truth. In 1,000 postures, 10,000 appearances, a dragon toys with a jewel. His understanding is beyond conditioned happiness. cleans out the current corruption. The ancient great master's style reflects the image of India. I remember the old days when I lived at M2 Monastery and my late teacher lectured on the true Dharma art. At that time, there was an occasion to turn myself around So I requested permission to read it and studied it intimately.

[37:43]

I keenly felt that until then I have depended daily on my own ability. After that, I left my teacher and wandered all over, between Doran and myself What relationship is rare? Everywhere I went, I devotedly practiced the two dharma arms, arriving at the depth and arriving at the vehicle many times. Inside this teaching, there is never any shortcoming. Thus, I thoroughly studied a master of all things. Now when I take the record of E.J.

[38:46]

Dogen and examine it, the tone does not harmonize well with its usual beliefs. Nobody has asked whether it is a jewel or a table. For 500 years, it's been covered with dust. Just because no one has had an eye for recognizing Darwin, for whom was all his eloquence expounded. Longing for ancient times and grieving for the feather, my heart is exhausted. One evening, sitting by the land, my tears wouldn't stop and soaked into the records. In the morning, the old man next door came to my such hut. He asked me why the book was done.

[39:47]

He wanted to speak, but I didn't, as I was deeply embarrassed. My mind deeply distressed, it was impossible to give an explanation. I dropped my head. Well, do we have any talks or any questions? Yes. Leslie introduced you guys having And I noticed working in the diagram that you requested that we not put out reserve able signs for your retreat. And I had this thought that maybe that kind of shed blood on the philosophy of engaging people.

[40:56]

I don't know if you could speak a little bit about your retreat. Thank you. I thought it would be nice to kind of talk with guests and our participants themselves have been kind of forming a group. We formed a group here. We started together. We started together together. But I thought it would be nice to meet you. How is this work collected?

[42:00]

He didn't, it seems kind of like what you're saying, he didn't like, wasn't really in Christ collecting his own work. You know, with the people around him and villages, huge people. Rokhan was famous as an eccentric monk during his lifetime. So he was known as eccentric. And then soon after his death, a young kind of friend of his put together the anecdotes of Ten Master Goe, I mean, Ten Master Roka. So he became quite famous. There were some kind of supporters, were the wealthy people who would send or to Robin's hat when he wrote and requested.

[43:09]

So those people collected some works, poetry and calligraphic works. So they They survived. Also, when he was 17 years old, I think he lived until he was 73, a young man came to study with him then, but also poetry. And she collected a lot of his poems, and also helped They are exchanging. And it became a book called View on Lovers.

[44:12]

Her name is Teixing. So she was a widow when she was young, and then became a nun. And then when she was 29, He just revoked and was 70 years old. And then that time, you know, he was kind of quite sick and malnourished. And so he was pretty weak. But they became kind of teacher and student. I like to kind of... tell you a little bit about the lyrics exchange. When she was living a little bit far away, maybe half a day walk, crossing a big river, and then one time she just kind of

[45:28]

She went to Yogan's hut, but he was not there. So she left a poem. This poem is... You who pray in the Buddha way, One single ball endlessly. Must be the one. Is it your dharma? So Rokan sends his poem back. Try one single ball. One, two, three, four, five. Six, seven, eight, nine, ten. You end at ten and we start the game. I will not share it if it's a poem. In Japanese, it's so beautiful.

[46:32]

So simple. That doesn't sound like in Japanese. No, I don't have it at once. I'm sorry. And then finally they met, so she was very excited. And then she wrote, the joy of meeting you in this way, I wonder if it is a dream I have not awoken from. That excited. So Rokan was a little bit more and reserved, still more and abstract. In the dream world there is frozen further within So they tell you the teacher. And then...

[47:54]

They did not see each other so often. I mean, Lokum was visiting a castle town, not so far from her, in the shrine. She was living in a little hut in the shrine. And she heard about it, so she came. And then people were gathering and then... having some conversations, singing off next day for some pilgrimage. And then, tasting the teeth were broken. And we said, you have a black robe, and then your skin is black. I will call you a crow.

[48:57]

And then Elokan said, tomorrow I will fly away to who knows where, as someone has made me a crow. And then Tissing wrote, oh mountain crow, if you are going home, please bring back a young crow, even One with fragile wings. So, you know, I mean, this old sherry, you know, ghostly frappler thing. And what I did for Nani's kind of confession in the public. So he wrote back and said, I wish I could bring you along, but what would be colorless? if people are starting to talk, and you get anywhere in the world, you know, it's a monk and nun, you know, in the world, working together, especially in that conservative, you know, remote countryside, Japan, in the future of times, in European settings, calm down.

[50:20]

But this Japanese young nun wouldn't give up. It's pretty embarrassing. A kite is a kite. A sparrow is a sparrow. A heron is a heron. A crow is a crow. Who should suspect? Anyway, I don't know. It's very easy. Please stay away. And then they kind of grow their affection so much. And Yogan was sick. And then there was snow. And he sent a poem. A lethal weapon?

[51:23]

Has the past disappeared? These days, I have spent waiting and waiting, but you have not yet to fight. And then she finally came in the spring. More precious than jewels and gold spread under the sky. You will leave it at the beginning of spring. And then he became really sick. And then he became critical, so facing us. And then Yopan wrote, when, when, you whom I have been eagerly awaiting, finally here, what else is there to want? Then, soon he passed away, and this is one of the best ones.

[52:32]

I could sew in this trap and sew in this fall, a falling maple leaf. Thank you very 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, visit sfcc.org and click giving.

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