So I'm in a little bit of an altered state at the moment. This morning when I woke up, there was about five feet of snow outside the window where we were staying up in the Sierras, a place called Donner Lake, famous for the Donner Party, which I think maybe you all may have heard about. Beautiful place up in the Sierras, and we spent two days walking around on snowshoes, and it was quite wonderful. So the weather was great. The snow was great. Company was good. And then we drove home. So I've been driving for many hours and unpacking and settling into my chair so I could greet you all. And I'm very happy to be home. And I'm very happy also to be starting a study of the Yogacara teachings. I was just thinking while we were sitting I miss Suzuki Roshi already. We spent a whole year looking at Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind, and just finished the last chapter, the epilogue, last Sunday.

[01:18]

So now we're going to be looking at some of the foundational teachings. that Suzuki Roshi was using in all of the different talks he gave. He was, you know, basically everything he knows and that comes to us as the Zen tradition is founded on these two main schools of Buddhism that grew out of many centuries of scholars and monks talking and discussing their feeling about reality, you know, about themselves and the world and things that are very relevant to us as living beings, you know. What am I? Where am I? And what am I supposed to do now that I'm here? So the Yogacara teachings, or the mind-only teachings, are one of those underpinnings, one of the major foundations for Zen. And another major foundation are the emptiness teachings, or what's called the middle-way school. So we have the Yogacara school and we have the middle-way school. And out of those two, the synthesis of those two, we get what we know or what we've heard a lot about, which is...

[02:21]

teachings of the Zen teachers, the Zen masters, as they're called. So I thought I would begin this conversation with a little bit of a joke, but it's actually something that I found on my screen, on my desktop, that I had done some years ago. It's a little bit like my junior high school homework assignment, so I'm going to show it to you. This is a drawing that I did at some point of, best I could, of the mind-only teachings, you know, what they look like. So I'm going to share that with you. I don't know if you can see this. Can you see that? Yeah? Impressive, huh? There's no drawing? You don't see it? You just see my... Scroll up or down. Okay. Scroll up or down. I think we're seeing your class notes. Oh, you're seeing my class notes about what I've just been saying.

[03:24]

You're not seeing. Well, let me try again. Stop the share, because that's not that interesting. But this other thing, I'm going to try again. Okay. Share. I think it's... How about that? Yes. Yep. All right. So this was my effort. This is my effort to try and get all of the different things that you're going to hear about when we look at the mind-only teachings. These are the parts of it, you know. It's like this incredible assortment of ideas and concepts and reflections on the human being. And how it is that we remember things, how it is that we carry along these things we've learned. They don't just disappear right after we learn them. But we actually carry a lot of stuff with us as we go. And that's what this big cloud called the alaya, that's what that's all about. And then there's our actual functioning in everyday moments. Every moment of the day we have our eyes and our ears and our nose and so on.

[04:27]

So that's the realm of our experience. So this is what we're going to be looking at. This is kind of the big picture of the Yogacara teaching. So that was really just for fun because I don't expect that to make any sense at all. So let me stop sharing. So Yogacara, I think I may have mentioned to you all that it was quite far into my... study of Zen and my residency in the Zen Center, that the translation happened of one of the major Yogacara Sutras called the Samdhinirmojana Sutra. And I think maybe 15 years ago or so at most, but I remember when we started to look at this sutra, which is quite amazing, it's dense and hard to understand, so we did quite a bit of peeling the layers of it over quite a number of years, actually. I said to my teacher, we were walking home, we lived along the same little pathway at Green Gulch, and I said, you know, this is the first time in a long time that I'm actually interested in my own mind.

[05:33]

Now, what's going on in here? I think that's the virtue of the Yogacara teachings, also called the mind-only teachings, is that it really draws you into a contemplation of your own mind and the workings of your own mind and how it is that you think about the world and how you make the world by how you think. which is an interesting proposition, right? So before you despair of understanding any of what was on that drawing of mine, please be assured that I'm going to borrow from a lot of other minds, including yours, to create an accessible narrative of the mind-only teachings. So I often begin talking about the mind-only teachings with a short set of verses that I heard a long time ago about the difference between the mind-only understanding of reality and the other major school, which is the middle way school and its understanding of reality, both of which are basically ways of interpreting the emptiness teaching, that other big term that we use and hear over and over again and almost always forget what it means.

[06:41]

So emptiness meaning empty of separation, empty of being separate from everything else. You know, that the universe is not made up of parts. It's actually everything's connected and everything influences everything else, that dependent core rising. So all of these terms that we've heard many times and we all have to review many times because they're kind of slippery, as is the mind, part of what we're learning. So the difference in the reality of this understanding that we encounter in our study of our Zen ancestors is And especially how they came to be dominated over the many centuries since the Buddha's awakening by this idea of this emptiness, as I just said, emptiness, which we all know, or many of you know, from the Heart Sutra. No eyes, no ears, no nose, no tongue, no body, no mind. You know, what is that about? So these two verses that I just said were, you know, introduced me to the differences between these two schools, the middle way school,

[07:44]

of emptiness, emphasizing emptiness, no, no, no, and the mind only, which is saying, well, yes, there's the mind. There's a positive, there's an affirmation. There's something they refer to as mind, mind only. This one is no mind. So the verses are, when the babies are crying, tell them this very mind is Buddha. When the babies are crying, tell them this very mind is Buddha. So this references... the mind-only school. Then when the babies stop crying, tell them, no mind, no Buddha. So the emphasis in this one is on the emptiness teachings or the middle way school. So the babies are crying, this is your mind is Buddha, right? It's comforting. You stop crying, no mind, no Buddha. And I just pull the rug right out from under whatever you got a hold of there. Nope. Nope. So this is a little bit of a contrast, a little bit of a tension between these two schools, and yet we'll find both of these approaches again and again.

[08:50]

And when we read Zen teachings and koans, we hear from Zen teachers, you may hear one side, this mind is Buddha, you may hear the other, don't fall for that. So back and forth, back and forth. So leaving that brief introduction to the tension between these two schools, I'm going to talk a little bit about the Zen school. which grew out of these two very important strains of Buddhist history. You know, I found it really useful to look at the Zen school of Buddhism through a number of different lenses. And in particular, I found a very good source for studying our tradition and a book by the late and wonderful Dr. John McGray. And it's called Seeing Through Zen. Seeing Through Zen. And the two main categories for seeing into Zen, or as Dr. McCray calls it in his title of his book, Seeing Through Zen, are these two different ways that our minds work. One of them, or that we tell stories, one of them is the stories we tell that are kind of under the mythical side of our understanding of the world, so mythos.

[09:56]

And then the other side is our logical understanding of the world, logos, you know, prove it. So mythos, I don't have to prove it. It's just a story. And logos, we kind of fall for logos. That's our science side, right? The one that can prove things. So mythos, in terms of Zen, includes Zen poetry, fables, legends, archetypes, magical thinking, all of which invites the possibilities of faith, of belief, of devotion, and of the thought of enlightenment. And logos, on the other hand, logic, includes a scholarship based on evidence of various kinds. So we're schooled mostly in logos. There's literary analysis, there's carbon dating, there's archaeological findings, and so on. So logos is also a kind of story that is being told using science and logic and well-reasoned propositions to explain what enlightenment is and what it is not.

[10:58]

So we have these two things kind of playing with each other throughout the history of Buddhism. So Zen's history, according to Dr. McRae, is really not about facts of what happened in the lives of the Zen ancestors that we've studied and that we looked at. Those of you who were part of our gathering some time back, we went through the transmission of light. Keizan Jokin's book, Keizan was a disciple of Dogen Zenji, the founder of Soto Zen, Japanese founder. And so Keizan's story, he basically takes each of the Zen ancestors, starting with Shakyamuni Buddha, and then his choice of disciple was Mahagashapa, and then we have Vasubandhu, who's a Yogachara. master of the Yogacara. We have Nagarjuna, who's the master of the emptiness teachings. And then we have Bodhidharma, who brought this stuff with him from India to China. And then there's Dogen Zenji himself.

[11:59]

So all of these names are linked together. But it's not so much how these really archetypal figures are perceived in accordance with science. It's the ongoing creation of a Zen mythology. So Zen is a kind of mythical creation. that has been done by generations that followed over many centuries, looking back and saying, well, maybe this happened, we can write a nice little story about that, and then we can say what that nice little figure did, and we can dress them up in a certain way, and it's kind of a retroactive attribution, I believe is the term, that you're basically attributing to the past. something about a character from the past, and we do it all the time. We've got all kinds of mythical characters in our human history that we then dress up and present as if they're actually so, actually real, that they're logos and not mythos. So this is part of what we need to be tolerant of and kind to the Zen tradition for doing because it's also done in many other traditions, particularly faith traditions.

[13:05]

So a mythology, says Dr. McCray, to which multiple generations of teachers and scholars and traveling Indian monks and Chinese literati have added their own special sauces. So Zen is a result of all that, all those stuff cooking away and creating a story that I'm trying to talk about with you and that I've tried to learn myself and that I find to be rather interesting and compelling. So within Buddhism as a whole, Zen mythology is primarily and uniquely genealogical, generations. And there's a genealogy that claims to transmit, you know, by means of the lineage of these venerable teachers, the ones whose names we know and that we chant in morning service. For those of you who have done Zen practice, we chant the names of our ancestors, you know, starting with Shakyamuni Buddha. So these venerable teachers are passing along something very interesting, which is this light, the transmission of light or awakening.

[14:14]

They pass that, as we say, from warm hand to warm hand, Shakyamuni Buddha to Mahakashapa, Mahakashapa to Ananda, and so on. up to Dogen Zenji and eventually Suzuki Roshi. And then many of us, if we have received transmission, the Dharma transmission, then those names, all of those ancestors' names are on a chart. It's called the lineage chart. And there at the very bottom, your name. So if you've taken Buddhist precepts, your name is on the lineage chart. following the name of your teacher, and your teacher's name follows the name of their teacher, and so on. So this is the warm hand to warm hand story of Zen. You know, as I said in Kezon's book, The Transmission of Light. So this light is said not to differ throughout the ages. nor within the unique divisions of gender or wealth or rank or intellect from the Buddha's very own.

[15:16]

So the light of the Buddha's understanding is no different than the light of anyone's understanding throughout this transmission process. So the light is said to be the real deal. It's said to be the awakened principle. And that's what's being... confirmed and passed along from person to person for centuries. So that's the mythos of Zen. So Zen distinguishes itself from other schools of Buddhism through the story of these names and how they got on the list. How did those names get on the list? What's their story? So when we study Zen, it's very helpful to have an eye for these myth-making elements that have stuck in to the lineage as it's passed down through the generations. We don't have recordings of Shakyamuni Buddha or Nagarjuna. We don't have taped recordings. We don't have visual recordings.

[16:17]

We don't have much proof of any kind, even their handwriting. We don't have anything left really to say, aha, we can logic this. There's a logos element too. So it's really leaning pretty hard into mythos the further back in Zen history we go. There's lots of stories that have been developed about those people long ago. The story of the founding of Zen, according to Zen, is that Shakyamuni Buddha held up a flower and twirled it, and Mahakashapa smiled. That was it. That's how Zen started. A whole bunch of monks were sitting there out in front of the Buddha. And the Buddha did this simple thing. He just twirled a flower. And of all those monks, Mahakashapa is the one who smiled. Do we know why he smiled? We don't know why he smiled. All we know is that he smiled. And that was the beginning of Zen. So however we want to see it or feel it or understand it, that's our story.

[17:23]

So... All of these stories were carried into China through these mythic figures, and particularly the mythic figure of Bodhidharma. Bodhidharma. Bodhi means awake, and dharma means the teaching or the truth. So Bodhidharma's name is the teaching of awakening. And we've also had, you know, added to the Zen DNA, these various insights that were based on Mahayana, or early teachings called sutras, Mahayana sutras are ones, they begin like the older sutras with, thus have I heard, meaning Ananda, the Buddha's attendant, who was the one who recited all the sutras when the time came after the Buddha had died, Ananda said, thus have I heard, and he said these sutras. So anything that starts with, thus have I heard, is a sutra. So the Mahayana sutras begin with, thus have I heard. So they're being stamped, given the stamp of approval by the tradition, whether mythic or proven, that they are the word of the Buddha.

[18:31]

And how that's so is a very interesting conversation to have. So these insights that were added into the Mahayana Sutras by these amazing luminaries One is called Nagarjuna. I hope you've heard some of these names. Nagarjuna is known as the second Buddha. And then there's another great ancestor called Vasubandhu, whose text we're going to be looking at as the Yogacara, as the source of our Yogacara studies. So all of these mythic creatures are said to have contributed to the understanding of Zen. They added their insights into the... you know, intellectual underpinnings based on the emptiness teachings of the Middle Way school and then the mind-only teachings of the Yogacara school. If any of that, I know this is really complicated. So if any of you have a chance to read some of this simple history of the Zen tradition, like Dr. McCray's book, which is really good, you can kind of review some of what I've been saying.

[19:35]

And certainly, please ask questions because I know this is complicated. and dense, and I'm going kind of fast. Because I want to get to the Yogacara teachings without getting too stalled by all these names and linkages and so on, which, as I said, go back for a couple thousand years. So all of this that has been... created and formulated through the Buddhist universities in India and the authoring of these sutras and the carrying of these sutras and the writing them down. Just imagine, this is pre, very pre-computer. It's barely at the time when writing's beginning. So things carrying these texts, they were heavy, they were very difficult to make, they were precious. So carrying these texts along the silk route, into China, you know, or on boats around into China from India. This took many, many, many centuries for these writings and these understandings, these philosophical insights to arrive in China.

[20:43]

So the way they kind of simplified all of that was just to give it the name Bodhidharma. So Bodhidharma, the teaching of awakening arrives in China as a person, personified by this person, right? And there's a famous picture of Bodhidharma. He's quite, he's got pictures of him, right? Even though we don't really know if he actually existed, but we have pictures of him. So there's a lot about Bodhidharma that's very interesting. And I'm not going to go through all of that today. But at some point, I may say some more about him because he has such an important archetypal figure of Zen. So he's Indian. He's an Indian. He was sent by his teacher. There's a question, a very famous Zen question that's often asked, like, why did Bodhidharma come from the West, come from India to China? Why did Bodhidharma come from the West? Sometimes that question is asked to the head student during a kind of special ceremony, kind of tests their understanding.

[21:47]

And I've heard a lot of different answers and they're all good, they're all good. But one answer is because his teacher sent him. This is what is recorded in the narrative of Bodhidharma's life. His teacher said, now you go to China, they're really just ripe for some dharma, and particularly this dharma, based on the emptiness teachings. So you go and you help straighten out their understanding. And so he did. It took him many years to get there, but that's what we understood, is that when he arrived, he basically met with the emperor of China, Emperor Wu, who asked him, you know, that famous series of questions, what's the highest meaning of the holy truths, to which Bodhidharma said, vast emptiness, nothing holy. Vast emptiness, nothing holy. And then the emperor says, who are you facing me? It's kind of a big question coming from an emperor. Who are you facing me? And Bodhidharma replies, don't know. So then after that exchange, Bodhidharma went and sat in a cave for nine years, gazing at the wall, which is why we of the Zen school spend our...

[22:57]

hours of meditation gazing at the wall because that's what Bodhidharma did. So we sit in our caves, in our zendo, we do that here in the mornings at Enso Village. We go down there and we sit and we face the wall. So that's how a lot of these things come out of these mythical narratives that have been carried, as I said, for centuries. So as I said, Although a lot of what was attributed to Bodhidharma was written many centuries after he supposedly lived and supposedly did all these things he was said to do, much of it was thought of and retroactively attributed to this person given the name Bodhidharma. And yet... I think this is the important part, as Dr. McRae emphasizes. He says, even though these are apocryphal, you know, they're kind of made-up stories, they're no less powerful or relevant to the issue at hand, and that is the teachings and the actuality of enlightenment itself.

[24:05]

So, you know, okay, so you made it up. That was a made-up story. But did it help you? Is it helpful to you? Is it a good story? A lot of stories are good stories, and they can really help us to sort through our own lives. So part of what's happening here is we're getting these really beautiful stories that are compiled and then sent forward in time until they arrive here with us. And now we have a chance to look at them and think about them and appreciate them and the impact that they have on our own personal lives. So the central doctrine that's being transmitted through those teachings is nothing other than emptiness itself, including the emptiness of the mythical lore of the Zen tradition. As they say in Zen, if you see the Buddha, kill the Buddha. If you see something outside of yourself, that's not it. That's not it. So if we don't look for awakening outside of our own mind, if we are looking for awakening outside of our mind, that's a mistake.

[25:07]

And we're going to be hearing that again and again in the Yogacara teachings. And in particular, it's being expressed in the teachings of Chan or Zen as it evolved after Bodhidharma's supposed arrival. As Zen took a foothold in China, it became the dominant form of Buddhism in China for many, many centuries. And that's where Dogen got his Zen, was by going to China. because that's where all of these great temples and these great libraries and this great study was going on was in China, or Chan, as it was called. I think you all know that this word Zen is basically a Japanese pronunciation of the word Chan, Chinese word, and Chan, in turn, is a Chinese pronunciation of a Sanskrit word, Janna. or kind of meditation or concentration. So you have jhana in Sanskrit, chana in China, and zen or zenna in Zen.

[26:09]

So it's basically referring to meditation. That's kind of our thing, is meditation. So here's some of the teachings that were given by Bodhidharma following his nine years of wall-gazing in this cave behind the Shaolin Monastery. that he is said to have done right after he arrived in China. He sat in Facing the Wall. So I want to read to you the opening exchange between Bodhidharma and a monk from a recorded talk, again, Think Mythical, translated in a small book. of his talks, of Bodhidharma's talks. It's called The Zen Teaching of Bodhidharma, translated by Red Pine. So that's the book I held up here, and it's really delightful. If you're interested in looking at some of these attributions that were written about what Bodhidharma might have said if there had been a Bodhidharma, this is a wonderful collection of those teaching stories. So I'm just going to read you a little bit from one lecture attributed to Bodhidharma called The Bloodstream

[27:14]

sermon the bloodstream sermon okay this is a yoga chara or mind only teaching everything that appears in the three realms comes from the mind everything that appears in the three realms comes from the mind hence buddhas of the past and future teach mind to mind without bothering about definitions so that's bodhidharma's statement then the monk says but if they don't define it What do they mean by mind? Bodhidharma says, you asked, that's your mind. I answered, that's my mind. If I had no mind, how could I answer? If you had no mind, how could you ask? That which asks is your mind. Through kapas endless, without beginning, whatever you do, wherever you are, that's your real mind, and that's your real Buddha. This mind is the Buddha.

[28:17]

Says the same thing. Beyond this mind, you will never find another Buddha. To search for enlightenment or nirvana beyond this mind is impossible. The reality of your own self-nature, the absence of cause and effect, is what's meant by mind. Your mind is nirvana, is liberation. You might think you can find a Buddha or enlightenment somewhere beyond the mind, but such a place doesn't exist. Trying to find a Buddha or enlightenment is like trying to grab space. Space has a name, but no form. It's not something that you can pick up or put down, and you certainly can't grab it. Beyond this mind, you will never see a Buddha. The Buddha is a product of your mind. Why look for a Buddha beyond this mind? And so on.

[29:20]

So this is the mind only. This is the comforting, the crying child. This very mind is Buddha. You won't find it anywhere else. You won't find Buddha anywhere else except in the mind, the mind that you and I possess. I ask, you answer. That's our mind. Simple. So next week I'm going to share another example of the mind-only teachings which Bodhidharma is said to have brought with him to China in the form of a sutra called the Lankavatara Sutra, meaning the descent into Lanka. Lanka was a kingdom, an ancient East Asian kingdom. And the most important doctrines of the Lankavatara Sutra are the teaching that consciousness is the only reality, as you've just heard, and that all of the objects of the world and the names and the forms of experience are manifestations of the mind. All experiences we have of the world are to be seen as manifestations of our own consciousness and should be regarded merely as forms seen in a dream or in a vision, like phantoms, ghosts.

[30:32]

The key error of the mind, the sutra says, is to consider any phenomena as being something other than mind. So what do you think of that? I ask. I ask. And if you will be so kind as to answer, that would be lovely. So please, I welcome your comments and encouragements. Okay. Hello, Cynthia, please. Oh, yeah, I want to say hello to everybody first. This is really one of the nice things. get to do where is my gallery gallery view great there you are welcome again it's good to see your faces and i'm just going to go around and cynthia hello cynthia nice to see you and kakawan and lisa lisa are you here

[31:35]

Yes, Lisa's here at Enso Village. She's come many, many miles. Oh, and her husband, David. Wonderful. Nice to see you both. And Ulrika, you made it. Great. Yay. She was looking for the link. Yes. Yes. I'm so happy to join you and everyone else. Well, welcome. Welcome. We met in Germany, and it's just a delight to have you joining us. Okay, and then we have, I said Kakawan. There's Jerry. Hello, Jerry. Good to see you again. And Amar and Griffin next door. And Jifu. Jifu, welcome. Kokyo, Helene. Oh, hello, Helene. And there's Drew from Vermont. And Meredith. Welcome, Meredith. Carmina and Marianne. Gay Jerome. Gay again. Gay again. Kagan. Kagan. Is that correct? Kagan. Welcome, Jerome. And Jakuin. Jakuin, welcome again. Nice to have you joining us. Very, very happy to see you.

[32:37]

Hello, Kathy, and Paul, and Kate, and Chris. Welcome, Chris. Hello, Michael, Millicent, and Jack, Shozan, Senko, Hope. Hello, Hope, and Laura. And Carolyn and Andrea and Tom and Dean and Anne and Blair. I'm seeing just set pictures and I'm just welcoming you because I think you're behind there. Alice and Genshin. Melissa. Okay. Welcome all of you. Very nice to have you joining us this evening and morning for some of you. Okay. Let's see. I think Ike, you were first. Hello, who? Hello, Cynthia. I have a question, and I'm not going to get to be able to stay for the whole question and answer, which is always so informative, but I want to read. I'm a studier, and I'm a reader, and I think this is the book?

[33:41]

That's it. Okay, so if I were to read this, I will, it will, or what you're doing here. Yep. This is about the mind-only teaching as presented by Vasubandhu, one of the names that I mentioned. Nagarjuna and Vasubandhu are two of the primary teachers of these two major schools. So Vasubandhu of the mind-only and Nagarjuna of the middle way or the emphasis on emptiness. So yes, that's the one. We're heading down that track. And that's the text we're going to use. Okay. And you also mentioned another book by Dr. McRae, Seeing Through Zen. Yeah, that's a lovely book. But maybe if I, not to become confused, if I were to stay with this, I can study this and maybe make some progress. Yeah, well, I never promised myself that, but good luck to you.

[34:46]

I don't know if progress is a Zen term, but anyway, we can always hope. Yeah, I think the thing about McCray's book is it gives you context for both the emptiness teachings and the mind-only teachings. It's a wonderful summary of what's this Zen thing, you know? And I think he does a really nice job, and that's why I like this introduction around the mythos. Right. Bodhidharma? Probably not. But anyway, there he is. Very important figure in our Zen tradition. So we have to reconcile for ourselves the kind of Santa Claus quality of some of these ancestors. You know, they're lovely, and yet maybe they weren't really there when they say they were and so on. So it's how to... And that's what Dr. McRae is doing, is helping us to hold both those sides without saying, well, that didn't really happen. Why should I read what Bodhidharma wrote? Somebody wrote it. That sounds interesting. What's his first name? John McRae.

[35:47]

Okay. John? M-C-R-A-E. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. It's a lovely book. And you don't have to read them side by side, but you might like to. Yeah. Yeah. All right. Well, I am going to have to exit the meeting, but I will see you next Sunday. Great. Nice to see you now. Bye. Bye. Jerry. Good evening. Good evening. I'm already terribly nervous about the midterm exam. Pass no report. Actually, you did answer my question. So we're going to use that book and go through it. Slowly, slowly. Okay, fine. The other thing, which is perhaps a technical question, I'm not sure. When I've done other classes, the person who presents yourself is spotlighted, which doesn't allow those of us in the gallery to

[36:57]

to highlight the person who's speaking and the other person, like myself. And I would like to be able to do that because I enjoy, as I'm sure you do, we all do, hearing from each other and seeing one another. So I don't know if that's something you can think about for this coming week or if someone can... Can you go on Gallery View and see everybody? So you don't see everybody right now? No, I can go on Gallery View and see everyone. What I cannot do is highlight the person who is speaking at the moment. Multi-view. And then you see Fu and yourself. Multi-view. I don't want to see myself. I want to see. Oh, multi-view. Ah, Griffin. There we are. Hey. Thank you, Griffin. Thank you, Griffin. Lovely. What does that do? Oh, I got that too. You got that too. Griffin.

[37:59]

Okay. I think Griffin's already read the book. Yeah, she's a little ahead of us. She's ahead of us. Thank you for that. Okay. Thank you, Jerry. Good to see you. All blown up there. All right, Griffin, you're on. Oh, wait. No, wait a minute. She's ahead of me. Yeah. Okay, so right now when I'm seeing, and maybe you're all seeing, I'm seeing Jerry and Griffin and me and really big blown up. And I'm seeing everybody else kind of tiny in the bottom. So probably that's not what is helpful right now because whoever raised their hand next. Oh, this is a technical thing. I'm going to have to work this out. All right. And I think spotlight is the issue, but you and your partner can work that out. All right, we'll work it out. I'm going to go back to gallery for now. Oh, gosh. Hi, Chris. Something changed there. What did you do, Karina? I know, but now I don't see everybody else.

[39:03]

I want to go back. I can see Chris. There, okay. That makes me happy. Thank you. Chris. No, just for now. Let's just do the old way. Hi, Chris. Hi, Fu. This is so absolutely wonderful. I'm thrilled to be able to be a part of this conversation and lesson that you're teaching and learning about the Yogacara, learning about the Lankapatara Sutra in particular. For me, part of it, you know, I'm thinking geographically also with where the sutra is based in Lankha. and I'm excited to go even more into the mythology of that. I believe we have an old palm script manuscript at the University of Georgia that I don't know if this is it or not, but it may be in Zinhalese Sanskrit, the Langa Batara, and I'm kind of curious to go into it a little bit more.

[40:07]

And I am curious, when it comes to reading that sutra in combination with the book, from Bill, is there a particular translation? I know Red Pine has a translation that's readily available. Are there others that you would recommend that we take a look at that you found interesting or helpful? Short answer is... No. The only one I know is the one by Red Pine. I'm sure there are others, and a lot of people really enjoy the side-by-side reading. I haven't done that, so I only have the Red Pine, and I will just be extracting little bits of that, of the Lankavatara Sutra. It's pretty long. I mean, if you have a copy of it, it's... It's quite long and it's quite jumbled. People kind of criticize it sometimes. They just threw everything in the kitchen sink into this sutra. It's not really a narrative that starts and ends and has a middle.

[41:10]

It's just sort of all kinds of stuff was put together. But there are portions of it which you just read them and you go, oh, there's the mind-only teachings. There's the basis for this sutra. becoming such a powerful influence when it arrived in China. So if you find other ones that you find to be worth mentioning, I'm really happy to have you do that. Well, I don't know if I'll have the time. I hope I do. But it's fascinating, and I'll be looking into it more. And I think that's exactly it on these sutras. It's so hard to be able to narrow down the precise meaning for how they can relate to us individually. and really create transformational impact on our lives. And so I'm really excited about that with Bill Connelly's work and going through it and really directly applying it to what I'm doing. So thanks for doing this. You're welcome. I'm so glad that you're here and joining us in our adventure. Transformation, that really is the point, isn't it?

[42:13]

And so what? So what? So we read all this stuff and like, how does that impact my life? What does it have to do with me? And I think that would be a really good question to bring up front for each of us. What does this have to do with me? How do I see the world differently? If through these lenses, which is what they are, how does that change my perception of the world or my behavior even more to the point? How does that help my behavior? So I think that's what we're trying to skate right down that line of how is this relevant? Why does it matter? Thank you, Chris. Good to see you. Griffin, I just wanted to add that something that just really thrills me is the history and the mythical lore and the ancestors that a truth from thousands of years ago makes it through translations and languages.

[43:17]

And because it's true, there's some... Something objectively true that anybody who has ears to hear can resonate to. And here we're reading the latest book, the Ben Connolly book. Ben's come to City Center a couple of times. He's been pretty young. And he's an American Zen and not even taught by Suzuki Roshi. So, you know, he's an American Zen taught by American teachers who... probably were taught by Suzuki Roshi, you know, and this truth gets transmitted, whether it's your crying baby or your quiet baby, you know, through thousands of years and thousands of translations because it's true. And that just warms my heart. Yeah, it warms mine too. I think the only caution note I would put down is the one the Buddha said to me.

[44:20]

his students like you know don't believe me you know you find out for yourself if it's true and if you think it's true it's yours and if you don't think it's true fine let it go pass it along you know so it's really not like here's here's the truth and you better take this pill whole it's like you make your own mixture right as we all have and we all do so we get to cherry pick the parts of it that really resonate and that's one way we find out who we are you know how what is it that draws me Where do I tend to go when I'm wanting to find the truth? So this is really good. That's another very good point. What is true? What does it mean to say something's true? Dharma means truth, right? But what does that mean? So these are great questions. Thank you, Griffin. Anne. Welcome, Anne. Welcome to the Sunday Sangha. Have you been here before? I think maybe. I see your hand up. Hello?

[45:23]

No. Ann, are you there? Not yet. All right. You have a chance to come in any time. And while we're hoping you can, Drew, would you like to offer something? Sure. Hi. How are you doing? I'm just wondering, with Nagarjuna, I've often heard him as he's like the second Buddha. Yeah. Was there a real Nagarjuna? Is he considered apocryphal? Because we don't hear... We hear the mythology about the Nagas and underwater and... What do you think? Do you think he went under the water and got the Prajnaparamita Sutras from the Nagas? I think... I was thinking it was more... referencing going into the unconscious. So that's a modern way of looking at that. But did Nagarjuna exist?

[46:29]

Is there proof that where he grew up and all that kind of stuff? You mean like some DNA or something like that? I don't think so. I think these are, you're talking second century India. And there have been lots of changes since then in India, you know, including the Buddhism pretty much disappeared. So, um, most likely mythical, you know, but somebody really had a great understanding of the emptiness teachings and wrote some beautiful stuff. The, the middle way, you know, the fundamental teachings of the middle way, which is attributed to Nagarjana's work. And it's fantastic. And I've been reading that over again. It's like, Oh my God, it's so, it's so amazing. Yeah. Trying to find it. And, you know, modern day philosophers quote Nagarjuna going like, this is amazing. This is just answering some of the questions we've been struggling with for centuries in the West. So whoever it was, whatever mind it was that created that understanding, we call that Nagarjuna.

[47:37]

Right. Okay. Yeah. And that's the, you know, trying to put the mythos. Somebody did it. Right. So that's somebody wrote that down. And Zach, we'd kind of like to be able to know who that was, but I don't think we do. I've got to admit, a couple of years ago when I first heard about the idea of apocryphal, I guess I wondered where did things start to change instead of going directly to the polycanon where now we're studying people that... maybe didn't even exist. Well, the Pali Canon was about 500 years after the so-called Buddha existed, too. So we can't always say, oh, yeah, there's the recording of the real deal, you know? So that's pretty apocryphal, too. I don't think we're getting away from, like the Bible or any of these other, you know, major...

[48:37]

sources of wisdom. As soon as you start peeling it apart, you're going like, well, wait a minute. The Tang Dynasty was an invention of the Song Dynasty, which happened the next group of intellectuals who came around in China said, well, we need some really good stuff from the last centuries. So we're going to write it and attribute it back to the Tang Dynasty, the golden age of Zen. So a lot of this material was written a century or so after when it was attributed by these really brilliant monk scholars. But they say, well, if I say I wrote it, my name's David or something, and I wrote all this stuff, who are you? So it's kind of better to attribute some mythic figure that can't be disproven in certain ways. And certainly we're the generation that has to suffer the idea of apocryphal. You know, I don't think Dogen had to worry about that.

[49:38]

These were just true stories. These were real beings that did live and did write what it says they wrote. And same thing with the polycanon. They weren't into this. They didn't have the logos, the tools for proving or disproving the authenticity of these things. So we have to suffer that. I really was hurt. I was deeply hurt when I read McCray's book. I said, what do you mean we made it up? Okay, that's what I'm getting at. I don't like that. I don't want to think it was made up. I've been chanting those names with my whole heart, you know, thinking they really were. But some of those guys didn't even meet. They weren't even the same century together, let alone that that was so-and-so's teacher. But it's a good story. It's a good story. It's a good story, and that's kind of where we get to land, is on good stories. And that's why I recommend McRae's book, because I think it's good for us to sober up a little bit about our faith.

[50:44]

I love the Zen tradition, and I almost in some ways love it more when I know more about how it really is, how it really happened. It's like, oh, that's really interesting. Anyway, I leave it to all of you to work through the emotions of finding out that a lot of this stuff was fabricated. That's very helpful that you said that. Thanks. Sure. Hello, Fu. Hello, Sangha. I wanted to... Thank you so much. Thank you all so much for this wonderful discussion. I know a while back when you first mentioned this, it was also a lot of emotions to work through. And I think I would circle back to what you said of loving it even more and of how alive it is in the way that...

[51:51]

Speaking for myself, I've always loved Zen because it asks you to almost turn inwardly and really examine in a way, right? Study the self. And even this process of why am I feeling this way sort of pops some bubbles of, well, I want to put things in categories. I want it to be this way or fixed or something like that. So I think that that's something that I really appreciate in our new modern interpretations is that we're still sort of undoing. It's like the heart sutra. No, there's no bodhidharma. There's no, what is it alive right now? How do these stories become the moment right now? And it allows us to sort of catch ourselves and wanting to pinpoint and make it into a thing. It's about... right now, right? And living this and becoming it and that hand-to-hand transmission, warm hand-to-warm hand, mind-to-mind.

[52:59]

I always found that really something that I appreciated and it's inspiring to practice and to see that it is just a practice living right here in the moment and that even the teachers and those that would be most inclined to want to believe some sort of truth of it are open to the reality of the moment and what we know as of right now, right? So I really appreciate that. And I think to me, after dealing with some of the emotions and them helping in my practice itself, I think it just... for me, it really just deepened my love. And now I chant those names even louder and I bow, recognizing even more that it's not one person. It wasn't one teacher. All of us build this together. All of those little monks and not little, but right, little tidbits, the little tidbits that they may have added, the monks have added over time and our living interpretation of it now.

[54:05]

So I really appreciate it. And you providing this teaching and all those other ancestors that we know are real, right? I'm sure now we're taking closer, keeping closer track of it, right? Closer walks now. At least through Dogen, it seems like, I think we can feel pretty comfortable there, safe. So thank you. You're welcome. Thank you all for the great discussion. So one of the things that I thought about at one point around this lineage was that the living... The living Buddhism has been the Sangha. Yes, right? So from the very beginning, there were groups of people who gathered around these teachers, whoever they were. But really the names of the teachers are the names of a group of people that gathered around somebody, right? So Dogen had a following and Suzuki Roshi has had a tremendous following. So his name will probably show up in future centuries, we hope, maybe. It's not up to us.

[55:05]

But the idea that the Sangha has never failed. It's still alive. The sangha's alive. And that's what we are. We're alive. Flowing through the teachings. Which is the first word. Don't listen to me. Take it. Live it. And that's why we practice sitting. It's the embodiment. Practice realization. And Zen is always poking that whisk in the nose, right? Well, now I have the teaching. Now I know the teacher. Now I know who to follow or, right? But it's, that's always like, no, come back. Come back. Right, right. Get over yourself. This isn't about you. This is about the Dharma, the flow of the Dharma, the lineage. It has a red line that goes through all these names. That's the Dharma flowing. The perceptual vein of the Buddhism ancestors is the, teaching of the precepts the teaching of the kindness and compassion and wisdom that's what we're here for is to take that teaching on to the next generation we're like plumbing parts that's all we are we're just plumbing parts you know and uh and and i think it's nice that the the teachers who had a big draw are named i think that's nice but we shouldn't mistake that for the whole point of it which is the dharma you know the teaching yeah thank you for yeah thank you kakuan

[56:27]

Thank you. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Thank you. Kokyo. I know. That's your Dharma name. Hi, Aline. Adding to what Kakuan said, one of the things I love most about Zen, or maybe that I love, is just the utter honesty of it. Yeah. And, you know, just all of this stuff where we're going through things and trying to decide if this is actual or apocryphal, you know, it just speaks to the honesty of the tradition and the honesty of the people who are interested in the tradition. And that's... basically what Kakuan reminded me of in speaking to how we figure, how we go through things and look for truth.

[57:46]

I mean, there has to be this honesty to find truth. Totally. It's a commitment to that. And for a personal truth, when we're walking through the world, I mean, I think that's where, you know, the application, as Chris was saying, how do you apply it to your life? Well, tell the truth. You know, you don't necessarily know what the truth is, but you make your best shot. Right. And that is being honest. Yeah, right. Yeah. Very, very good point. Yeah. Thank you. Can I just say, this is Zendo Events. Zendo Evans is speaking. I got a message from Anne. Yeah. She said, apologies, I'm unmuted, but you can't hear me. I'm here for the first time and just wanted to thank you so much for your wonderful clear talk today. I'm in the remote mountains of northern Arizona, and I'm very grateful to find this class.

[58:48]

Thank you. Thank you, Zendo Evans. Appreciate that, sharing that. That's actually Karina, for those of you who don't know. Karina is my tech support. She's on a computer in the other room and helping us to do this together. So thanks, Karina. Senko. Hi, everyone. You know, I am so grateful for Zen and your teaching. I have a lot of delusions coming to Zen. I think it... I didn't realize my delusion, just to be honest. And I didn't really just get all enlightened and things just changed for me. But I find there is this thing that's happening. I just feel more and more deeply about it. It's like I often find myself back in similar difficulties or situations I'm struggling with. I will go back. It's not like then it's here I am just suddenly free from those troubles. I'm not.

[59:50]

But every time when I go through those difficulties, I find myself different. Like a little bit different. And how I feel about it, how I make other people around me feel about it, the difficulties. It's different. That's why I'm like, just recently I'm doing some emotions. Yeah, it's not the same person. The emptiness. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, you're learning. Zen is a learning tradition. I've just been offered this other wonderful book about Socrates that I'm enjoying very much. Some of you may know it. I think it's Open Socrates or something. Anyway, the whole thing about how he wasn't tortured by not knowing. In fact, that was the inspiration. He kept asking questions. Well, tell me more about that. What do you mean by what you just said? I mean, he just kept asking questions because he said of himself, I don't know. I don't know the answer, so I assume you don't either. So I'm just going to keep asking this Socratic method, which I have heard of, but I didn't really think much about it until I'm enjoying this book very much.

[60:59]

But it's like that. It's like we're here to learn. We're here to learn all we can. We have a short time to learn what we can about ourselves and the world and our children and our friends and all of that. And what a wonderful gift, you know. No. Yeah. Yeah. Thank you for that. Yeah. Thank you so much. I tried other methods, but so far Zen is the one just cracked me open a little bit. All right. You're in good company here. These all cracked open people. Yeah. Well, thank you, Senko. Thank you. Okay. Lovely. Lovely. Thank you, all of you, so much. I think this is going to be... I dare use the word fun, but I think this might be really fun looking at the yoga chart. It is challenging, but also, like I said in the beginning, it really turns your attention onto your own mind. If that's all that's happening, maybe you should check it out. What's going on in here, you know? And it's so informative.

[62:00]

You'll learn so much more from yourself as you study yourself. And it's such a gift, such a wonderful gift. Yes, Kokyo. Are we going to go over the introduction as well? Are we going to start the book from the very beginning? We can. Would you like to? Well, I started reading the introduction and it seems like there's a lot in there. Yeah. Well, let's do it. I just don't know if we're starting with the 30 verses or if we're starting with the intro. Let's start with the table of contents. And there's a little talk by Norman Fisher, our former abbot of the San Francisco Zen Center. It's really sweet. And we can look at that. Bring up any questions you have. We're making this up. You know, I don't have a plan, except I like this book and I like having your questions. And so why don't we start with the introduction?

[63:02]

OK. OK. Just curious. OK. I might give a little more background. I was thinking I'd share a little bit from the Lankavatara Sutra just to give you another taste of the mind-only source material, which is the Lankavatara and the Samdhi Nirmachana Sutra. Those two are the biggies. So I might just pull up some quotations as we go along from each of those so that you hear something of what Bodhidharma was bringing to China and what we're receiving from this lineage, from the transmission through this lineage. So... I think I will do that, and I also will go through Ben Conley's book in a systematic way, like we did Suzuki Roshi's lectures. That's a kind of plan. That's a plan. That's my plan. Thank you. Thank you, Helene. So welcome again, and lovely having you here, and I will see you next Sunday, I hope, those of you who can come.

[64:03]

And if you have not yet gotten Inside Vasubandhu's Yogachara, that's the text people are asking about. Vasubandhu is spelled B-A-S-U-B-A-N-D-H-U. Vasubandhu, very famous Indian thinker and master of the Dharma. And so it's inside Vasubandhu's Yogachara. I am going to say a little bit about Yogachara because it's an interesting name and it's an interesting school. So I will say a little bit about that. Maybe I'll do that next week and then we'll do the introduction because I did have some thoughts I wanted to share with you. Ben Conley, his last name is C-O-N-N-E-L-L-Y. Ben Conley. Okay. Well, thank you again. You're welcome to unmute and say good night and wherever you are. I hope you're well. Thank you, Fu. Thank you for having me here, everyone.

[65:06]

This is beautiful. Good night. Thank you. Bye-bye. Bye-bye. Take care. Have a good week. All of you.

[65:18]

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