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. Good morning. Welcome to Beginner's Mind Temple. Are there any people who are here for the first time today? Okay, special welcome to you. You've arrived on a special day for us here at Zen Center. This morning we celebrated Buddha's birthday. No, Buddha's enlightenment. Well, it is his birth into a new world, I guess. Buddha's enlightenment this morning. And I'm amazed the Buddha hall looks so good. We threw flower petals all over the place as we chanted.

[01:02]

It's a marvelous ceremony. Traditionally, Buddha's enlightenment is December 8th, and that's when it's usually celebrated in Japan. But we're more practical in America, and so we needed it to go from Saturday to Saturday. There's a seven-day sashin that's traditionally sat prior to the actual day of his enlightenment. It's kind of a reenactment of the days he sat under the bow tree before he achieved his awakening. So we've been doing that. We've been sitting here for seven days. So about half of the people here are, well, if you look at them and they look kind of blissed out, it's either because they're really enlightened or they're so happy to be out of it because it's literally ending in a few hours. And we sit from five o'clock in the morning till nine o'clock at night, basically.

[02:06]

So it's called rohatsu, which actually means the eighth day of December. So the rohatsu sesshin is a very traditional sesshin to sit. So when Buddha attained enlightenment under the bow tree, this is what the commentary said he said. It is wonderful to see Buddha nature in everything and each individual. It is wonderful to see Buddha nature in everything and each individual. That was sort of Suzuki Roshi's translation of it. This is the version that's more traditionally thought of. Buddha said, I and all beings on earth together attain enlightenment at the same time. I and all beings on earth attain enlightenment at the same time. So what do we do with such a statement? It means that Buddha and all beings, all beings would include you, are enlightened.

[03:14]

It's a kind of interesting concept. It's held together for 2,500 years that we're all enlightened. So what do we do about that? So of course, As I just said, the first thing we did is we sat for seven days, zazen, which is our style of meditation practice, sitting in this posture. And that is a very traditional thing to do because that's what Buddha did. He sat for seven days before he became enlightened and he taught the practice of sitting and that this practice of sitting was conveyed to China and from China to Japan and on to us here. So, but of course you can't sit all day long. Well, I mean, in a sashin you can sit all day long, but normally after seven days you have to go to work. So this, and traditionally a seven day practice period ends, a seven day sashin ends a practice period.

[04:22]

So we've had a 10 week period of time where we've been intensifying our practice in various ways. And one of the ways is we have had a class on, various subjects, and this fall practice period we were studying the Genjo Koan, which was an essay written by Dogen, who is the founder of Soto Zen, the sect of Zen Buddhism that we're in, in Japan. And so the title Genjo Koan is translated into actualizing the fundamental point or the koan of everyday life or the question of everyday life so the title gives away the idea which is okay so you're enlightened what does that mean for you every moment of your everyday life does this affect how you how should you act what should you do what's the meaning of this for your life

[05:29]

And this four-page essay was his answer to that question. Another translation of the title that I like that we worked with during this 10-week period was to answer the question from true reality through the practice of our everyday activity. To answer from true reality through the practice of our everyday activity. Well, that If we could answer that question, we would have a good answer to what we're doing with our enlightened life, our enlightenment. In the Genjo Koan, the essay ends with a koan, a particular story. This is very typical of what Dogen would do in his essays.

[06:30]

He'd pick out a traditional famous Zen story, usually from the collections or some obscure place, because he was sort of a traditionalist in some ways. He would put that at the end of the essay, and then the whole rest of the essay from the beginning on would be a commentary on that koan. So in some sense, the koan that's at the end of the essay is the essential teaching for the essay, and the rest is just elaboration. So today, since we've been studying the Genjo Koan all for 10 weeks, and I've given a couple of lectures on the Genjo Koan here on Saturdays during this 10-week period, today we're going to talk about the final koan of the Genjo Koan. I hope you're all following the logic of this. I barely am. We don't sleep much when we do a seven-day sashimi. especially since I give a lecture every day. So this one was put together at about 10.30 last night.

[07:33]

Okay. Zen master Bao Che of Mount Mayu was fanning himself. It's a very famous Zen master is fanning himself. I didn't bring a fan with me, but you get the idea. You get a fan, it's hot, you're fanning yourself. If you're ever down at Tassar in the summertime, you need a fan. It's very odd. A monk approached and said, Master, the nature of wind is permanent, and there is no place that it does not reach. Why then do you fan yourself? A monk approached and said, Master, the nature of wind is permanent, and there is no place that it does not reach. Why then do you fan yourself? And he said, Although you understand that the nature of wind is permanent, you do not understand the meaning of its reaching everywhere. And the monk said, what is the meaning of it reaching everywhere? And the master just kept fanning himself.

[08:34]

So this does qualify as one of those obscure Zen koans, right? I mean, it fits right in the category that, well, on the one hand, immediately clear, and on the other hand, not so clear. And then after stating the koan, he has a beautiful... summary paragraph, which I'm going to read to you. The actualization of the Buddha Dharma, the vital path of its correct transmission, is like this. If you say that you do not need to fan yourself because the nature of wind is permanent and you can have wind without fanning, you will understand neither permanence nor the nature of wind. The nature of wind is permanent because of that The wind of the Buddha's house springs forth the gold of the earth and makes fragrant the cream of the long river. So, beautiful. Dogen was quite a poet in addition to being a deep mystic spiritual leader and a philosopher.

[09:45]

And I'm gonna go into just a little story about Dogen because This koan sort of represented a life issue for Dogen. He was born in 1200, for those of you who are not familiar with him, in Kyoto, which was then the capital of Japan, born into high society. His father was one of the emperor's secretary, and he was a grandson of a prime minister, so born into great wealth and aristocracy in Japan. But his... father died young, and his mother died when he was eight, and apparently when looking at the incense coming up from the incense, he vowed to become a monk. And at 13, he was ordained in the Tendai tradition, and at 17, he left the Tendai Monastery, joined a recently founded Zen monastery because he was not happy with Tendai, and that Zen monastery was an early Rinzai Zen monastery, and he studied there for seven years. And then he left

[10:48]

for China at the age of 23, because the primary teaching going on in Japan at that time was that everything has Buddha nature, and he couldn't figure out, well, if everything has Buddha nature, why am I following all these rules, getting up at 4 o'clock in the morning, sitting zazen, doing all these services and these rituals, and since I've already got it, why do I need to do this? Does this make any sense? And he was not satisfied with the answers he was getting, so he decided to go to China, which was at that time where Zen was flourishing, and try to figure it out. And he did go to China and came back five years later and wrote two or three essays and then wrote the Genjo Koan, which is what we've been studying, which was his answer to this question. You know, and this question is not... far from our own lives either. I specifically remember when I first got interested in Zen, which was back a long time ago in the ancient history of American culture called the counterculture.

[11:58]

And there were a lot of people that had just discovered Buddhism through Alan Watts and various people. And so since they were Buddha, their understanding of that was they could do whatever they wanted. So that meant... taking drugs and running through the meadows without any clothes on, that was good. That was what it was all about. But somehow some of us ran into Zuzuki Roshi and he said, oh, that's good. You could run through the meadows. Or you could come down to Tassar with me and get up at 4.30 in the morning and sit zazen and then you could feed the guests and then you could work all day moving rocks around, digging holes and then you could sit some more zazen and then... and you could do some service, and you could do some bowing, and you could do that. And for some reason, because he was so compelling, we adopted that rigid approach. So I think it is a question.

[13:00]

It's a real question. So that's what we're going to explore today. We're going to explore the question of, if you have... Buddha nature, if you are already awakened, if you're an enlightened being, why do you need to do anything? Or more particularly, what should you do? So, assuming that this koan has some answer to that, let's go back and read the koan again. The master was fanning himself, and the monk says, Master, the nature of wind is permanent, and there is no place that it does not reach. Why then do you fan yourself? Well, of course, the nature of wind is Buddha nature. These kinds of similes are common all through Dogen's writing. So if Buddha nature is everywhere, why do you have to fan yourself?

[14:04]

And... Why do you have to make an effort in practice? Why do you have to do all this stuff? And in some sense, it's a relatively simple answer. Even though you have Buddha nature, part of being a human being and being awakened is that you have to do something. It's in your nature to do something. It's in your nature to enact your life. So even if you have Buddha nature, that is your life is sacred and perfect, just as it is. Still, part of being a human being is to do something, to act. It's part of being a human being. So you have to make an effort.

[15:05]

Effort actually is part of our nature. I mean, everything around us is making an effort. The trees are making an effort. The birds are making an effort. So it's part of our natural expression of our Buddha nature to make some effort. Life requires something of us. Buddha nature cannot be activated without our effort. So this is very much like fanning. Even though the wind is everywhere, air is everywhere, Wind is everywhere, but if you actually don't move it with a fan, you can't cool yourself. So this analogy makes some sense. You actually have to move the wind to cool yourself. You actually have to enact your enlightenment through your life to make something happen.

[16:08]

I mean, the wind is there, but you still have to move the fan to make it happening. So it doesn't change your life or help others unless you do something. Without your doing something from a human point of view, it is useless. Who cares if you have Buddha nature, if that original Buddha nature doesn't inspire and change lives? and won't inspire and change lives without activity. So this is not a philosophy or an idea. This is an action that has to be taken with your life. You have to enact embody this awakened nature that you have.

[17:17]

And so part of why this koan works in this way it does is when the monk continues, he says he doesn't get an answer like I've just given you. He just gets the master fanning some more. Meaning, do you get it? You have to be doing something. I'm doing something. I'm moving the fan back and forth. So I want you to do something in response to show me that you get the point that something needs to be done. And what does the monk do in response to him fanning himself some more? You have an answer, Susan? Exactly right. The monk bows. So that's an interesting, what does he mean by his bow? His bow was he was saying, oh, I understand now, so I bow.

[18:19]

And so to understand sort of the form of ritual nature of things that go on, and we don't do a lot of bowing in America, so that's not a traditional answer to a question. You go into the boss's office and you ask him, boss, how do I fix this subroutine that's blowing up? And he says, hmm. And you go, no, no. That's not usually how it's done, is it? I mean, if the boss is smart, he usually goes, why don't you go talk to Joe? He knows a lot about that subroutine. I have no idea what's going on with that subroutine. But anyway. But in our practice, in fact, this last seven days, we were silent unless there was some functional speech that had to happen.

[19:20]

So almost all of the communication that was going on for seven days was nonverbal. In fact, we don't even look at each other as we're passing the halls. We just bowed each other just to acknowledge that we're there. So this sense that there's a whole level of communication that's going on between us and amongst us that's at a nonverbal level is enacted when we do a sashin, even though it's also going on all the time in regular life. I mean, we think that all the important stuff that's going on when we're talking to somebody or enacting with them is the verbal messages back and forth, but that's just like the surface of what's going on. So when you take some time away from all of that verbal activity and all that thinking activity and be in your body and start to relate to the fact, notice how much your body is relating to all the other bodies that are sitting with you, you get a sense of the sort of enormous amount of communication that's going on amongst us without...

[20:33]

So this is not only traditional in our stuff, but also traditional in many cultures. And so this bowing was an acknowledgement. Yes, I understand what you're saying, and I thank you for it. And so that completes the interaction. So here's a student who had a question. The question was answered by an activity. that the teacher had, which was to continue not answering the question, but to just continue fanning. So I thought what I would do is, now that I've given you a kind of basic outline of what that story is, to talk a little bit more about some other parts of the Genjo Koan that expanded on this idea of how you live your life. And there were a lot of wonderful metaphors used in the Digenjo Koan, and one of them is about birds and fishes.

[21:37]

So birds and fish. I'm wondering whether I should read that whole section. Maybe I'll just read this one paragraph to give you a feeling for it about the birds and the fishes. Fishes isn't a word, is it? Let's just say fish. A fish swims in the ocean. and no matter how far it swims, there is no end to the water. A bird flies in the sky, and no matter how far it flies, there is no end to the air. This is 12th century Japan. Maybe he thought the air went all the way to the moon. We don't know. I don't know. Maybe it was still flat back then, and the ocean went forever. But anyway, the important idea is that the fish is swimming in a big ocean, and the... The sky is plenty big for the birds, so they've got plenty of place to go. However, the fish and the bird have never left their elements. They don't get out of the water or the air.

[22:38]

And when their activity is large, their field is large. When their need is small, their field is small. This makes sense. If you're a tuna, you can swim the entire ocean. That's what you need to do to eat. And if you're a little coral fish, you can get all your eating done in like a small coral reef. I don't know, you get to choose whether you're a coral fish in Hawaii or the Caribbean. It would be nice. That is, assuming that global warming doesn't eliminate all the coral reefs and alpine meadows, which was... I remember when that first... I don't know, do you remember when that first... It must have come out about 15 years ago when they announced, you know... It's quite possible we're going to be losing all our alpine meadows and all our coral reefs because of global warming. This is not a political statement, just a comment. And Dick Cheney said, well, we'll just have to adjust.

[23:38]

I don't know. I've hiked in a lot of alpine meadows. I've snorkeled and scuba-dived in a lot of coral reefs. I hope we don't have to adjust. to losing the alpine meadows and the coral reefs. Which just reminds us that this action that we have to take is not of minor significance. We have a responsibility to enact our enlightenment, not just for our own self, but for the sake of the entire world, for the sake of all the beings. so that they can continue to enjoy this beautiful planet and each other. Ah, back to our fish and coral reefs. Thus, each of them totally covers its full range and each of them totally experiences its realm. So the tuna gets to enjoy the whole ocean and the coral fish likes its little coral reef.

[24:41]

If the bird leaves the air, it will die at once. If the fish leaves the water, it will die at once. Know that water is life and air is life. The bird is life and the fish is life. Life must be the bird and life must be the fish. It is possible to illustrate this with more analogies. Practice, enlightenment, and people are like this. So the bird lives in an element called air and the fish lives in an element called water and we live in an element called life and practice. And we can never escape our life. just as a bird can't escape the air and a fish can't escape the water. Now, if a bird or fish tries to reach the end of its element before moving in it, this bird or fish will not find its way. Thank you, Sarah. And thank you, Jisha.

[25:42]

Lydia's been my jisha for 18 months, so she knows everything I'm supposed to do and tells me. Seven days of being scheduled by somebody. Ed, it's time for you to go do doksan. It's time for you to do service. Time for you to go prepare. Time for you to eat. Unfortunately, Lydia is leaving me to go to Tassajara. which I'm very happy about for her, but not so happy about for me. Anyway, one of these mornings, if a bird or fish tries to reach the end of its element before moving in it, this bird or fish will not find its way or its place. What does that mean? It means if you, well, when I was young and distressed about my life, I thought, I need to find out what the meaning of life is so I can figure out what to do with my life. Because I was totally confused that whatever meaning I had in life had been destroyed by the counterculture.

[26:54]

And so I wandered around for a couple of years looking for the meaning of life and doing nothing and was pretty miserable. And then I came across this... Well, and I met Sukiroshi and he said... dig ditches, move rocks, sit zazen. And later I realized what that was about, which is meaning is created in our lives when we find our place and path and begin to do something. You don't find meaning in life first and then go do something. You start doing something, and in the doing of it, you create the meaning of your life. Until that time, there's no ready-made meaning or purpose in your life. So if you're stuck trying to figure out what to do within your life, do something. So I'm going to continue with these fissionality. When you find your place where you are, practice occurs, actualizing the fundamental point.

[28:00]

Actualizing the fundamental point, translation of Genji Koan, the fundamental point is what am I supposed to do in this moment at this place with my life? So that's our practice, finding your place where you are in any given moment and any given situation. Find yourself there. Be in that place. Be in that moment. And when you find your place where you are, practice occurs. This is the realization of Genjo Cohen to find your own unique place in this moment in your element. When you take your place, practice occurs. Genjo Cohen is realized at that moment and the whole world is illuminated. So I'm going to continue on with this fish analogy. When you find your way at this moment, practice occurs, actualizing the fundamental point.

[29:02]

For the place, the way, is neither large nor small, neither yours nor others. The place, the way has not carried over from the past is not merely arising now. That's Dogen. When you find your way at this moment, practice occurs, actualizing the fundamental point. When you find your way, isn't it beautiful the idea of a way? It's like your path. When you found your way, practice occurs, actualizing the fundamental point of your life. And for the place, the way is neither large or small, can be large or small. You can either be an enlightened hermit living under a bridge for 30 years, writing a few words of poetry, or you could be Obama trying to fix the world. Your way can be large, your way can be small. The place, the way, has not carried over from the past and is not merely arising now.

[30:08]

This moment is unique to itself. Actualizing the fundamental point is not a concept or a philosophic idea. It is actual practice using one's body and mind, a body and mind that are connected with the entire world. This is one of the things we've been talking about a lot. You are both an absolutely, totally unique manifestation of a human being. There is no one else like you. And yet, you're intimately and totally connected to everything. We tend to be more aware of the unique part of ourselves because, oh, I'm here in that big world out there, out there. I've got to figure out what to do with. But you actually are connected, and when you quiet down enough, as we've been doing for seven days, you can feel some of that connection.

[31:12]

This broad, flexible, and endless path can lead to a wondrous and unbelievable way of life. Where did I come up with that sentence? Well, that's okay. I'm going to read some more Dogen to you. We're just sort of wandering along. Accordingly, in the practice enlightenment of the Buddha way, meeting one thing is mastering it. Doing one practice is practicing completely. Here is the place. Here the way unfolds. Doing one thing. In doing one thing, everything is realized. If you just sit in zazen, everything is there. We give ourselves to any moment of activity in our living, everything is there. One of our early teachers, Katagiri Roshi, was always saying, wash a pan, wash a pan. He loved washing dishes, or at least he loved the metaphor of washing dishes.

[32:21]

Maybe it was because most people don't like washing dishes. I think this was before we had a lot of dishwashers everywhere. Anyway... You still have to wash pans that don't work in the dishwasher. And if you actually, really, totally wash a pan, everything is there. And you should do that with all of your activity. I think most of you can relate to that. When I was a business person, I had piles of projects on my desk, and usually at some point in time... There would be so many projects that my brain would just explode with, I can't do this. How do I figure out what to do with all these projects? But if you just take one project at a time, and usually the best approach is to pick the hardest one that you've been procrastinating about and just attend to it. And then the next one, there's a kind of quietness that comes over you, a kind of calmness that comes over you. Meeting one thing is mastering it.

[33:27]

Doing one practice is practicing completely. There is the place. There is the way that unfolds. So I think I'm going to sort of just end with that last paragraph. So the actualization of the Buddha Dharma, the vital path of its correct transmission is like this. If you say that you do not need to fan yourself because the nature of wind is permanent and you can have wind without fanning, you will not understand neither permanence nor the nature of wind. The nature of wind is permanent because of that the wind of the Buddha's house brings forth the gold of the earth and makes fragrant the cream of the long river.

[34:38]

So just to focus on that last sentence, the wind of the Buddha family, the wind of the Buddha family is the product of our ceaseless practice of vow and repentance. which is firmly rooted in zazen. This ceaseless practice makes our world as precious as gold and our lives as rich as cream. The earth symbolizes the world we live in. The cream of the long river symbolizes the stream of our lives. Have you ever heard of the wind of our house or something? That's our style of practice. Our practice is the wind of the Buddha family. And our practice brings forth the gold of the earth, the gold of the world we live in, and makes fragrant the stream of our lives. That's what Dogen's saying in the last sentence.

[35:44]

Our practice brings forth the gold in the world and makes fragrant the stream of our lives. I'm going to just make one quick comment to those of you who are sitting the Sashin. There's a beautiful lecture called Not Sticking to Enlightenment by Suzuki Roshi and Zen Mind Beginner's Mind, which is basically there's a tremendous tendency after you've sat for seven days and maybe you had some experience and you think you want to carry that experience into the outside world, I'm going to be this way when I leave this place, that's called sticking to enlightenment.

[36:48]

Sikhi Roshi quotes the sixth ancestor saying, if you dwell on emptiness and stick to your practice, then that is not true zazen. So even if your zazen is great zazen, totally concentrated and everything is wonderful, if you stick to it, already it falls off the mark. When you practice zazen moment after moment, not just on the cushion. You accept what you have now in this moment and you are satisfied with everything you do. So when you leave here and become busy again, be satisfied with that. Real enlightenment, this is Sikiroshi saying this, real enlightenment is always with you. So there is no need for you to stick to it or even to think about it because it is always with you. Difficulty itself is enlightenment. Your busy life itself is enlightenment. Busy life itself is enlightened activity. This is true enlightenment. So thank you very much for coming on Buddha's Enlightenment Day and letting me talk a little bit about our understanding of what enlightenment is.

[38:07]

The only unfortunate thing about this being Buddha's Enlightenment Day and the seventh day of a Sashin is for those, there's no cookies and tea served. And there's no wonderful lunch, which we'll have a lunch, but you won't. So come back next week and we'll serve cookie, tea, and lunch. 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 sfzc.org and click Giving. May we fully enjoy the Dharma.

[38:55]

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