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 evening everyone. As you may know, we have been studying Dogen Zenji is teaching Genjo Koan for this practice period. That's not unusual. We study Genjo Koan a lot. And I ran across, I haven't been studious enough, I guess, in searching through Suzuki Roshi's lectures. But here's a lecture he gave in 1966. And it's on the Genjo Koan.

[01:02]

I realize that I have to go and search and see if I can find the preceding lectures because he says, good morning. This lecture is for advanced student in his practice. But I think this lecture will help you even though you have an advanced practice. And at least someday you will understand this lecture. This is the gist of Dogen's teaching, and various offshoots are the 95 fascicles of his work Shogo Genzo. This is basic teaching, basic teaching of Dogen. So this is what we know about Genji Okoan. This is sort of the essence of what Dogen Zenji... how Dogen Senji understood the Dharma. And then we have this sentence, and we have finished the first paragraph anyway.

[02:10]

And now I have to find the lecture in which he did the first paragraph, because those first three sentences are the distillation of Genjo Khan. But what I want to really talk about today is to convey... some of the feeling of practice that Suzuki Roshi shared with us. Well, what I find extremely interesting is that I highlighted some things and it's not showing up here at all. Okay. Life is so interesting. So what I noticed here, you know, in observing your practice, he's, now this is early on in his teaching, this is, is you're not completely involved in practice.

[03:27]

Your practice is part of you, just a small part of your life. One hour or two hours in 12 to 24 hours. And he laughed. That is your practice. So instead of practicing zazen here two hours, you think you can do something, if there's something good, better. It may be better to do something else instead of practicing zazen. This is, I think, still you have this kind of attitude. But Buddhism is not, our practice is not like that. Our practice, if we are not completely involved in our practice, that is not our practice. It is not one hour of 24 hours. So if I scold you, you may go out. If I give you some candy, you will stay here. I dare say you are impossible.

[04:32]

You are just like child. Because you know, because you know, you lack in your confidence to study it as a whole life study. Actually, you cannot get out of Buddhism. It is impossible to get out of it. But still, you think you can, you know. Go out from Buddhism. Go out from Zen, from this Zendo. Actually, once you enter, that's all. Someday you'll have to come back. I know that. I myself tried to get out of it many times, but I couldn't. Okay. Well, this will show me not to use a yellow highlighter anymore. So that's, I think, the first point I want to talk about.

[05:47]

That practice, practice for us is a matter of life and death. This life is our practice. This practice is our life. because it's all about birth and death. And we've all been born, and we're all going to die. And I didn't really discover that until I was 43. You know, it just never occurred to me. Sure, yeah, I'll die. Everybody dies when they get old. And then my best friend, who was my age, died. Boom. Got a brain tumor, went into a coma, died soon. And then I got a serious infection and went into septic shock and almost died.

[06:59]

And there it was, you know. Oh, my God. How do you live if you know you're going to die? Who knows? Who can tell me? And that's how I met Sisu Hiroshi. Somebody told me about the Zendo in Berkeley, and I went there for zazen instruction. And I don't know what there was about it. It was just a total gift to me. I went for zazen instruction. I started sitting every day that day. I was very fortunate. And then I met Suzuki Roshi, who used to come over to Berkeley to give lectures. And I thought, he knows. He knows what I need to know. There was something about him that it was clear. He knows how to live if you know you're going to die. And as far as I'm concerned, he was right.

[08:06]

It's just what he's talking about here. To practice, to make practice your life, to make knowing who you are your life, to make knowing how to live the focus of your life, finding out how to live, finding out what connects you with everyone and what separates you. Lou sat a sashim over here in the city. We were still living in Berkeley and going to the Berkeley Center. But he came over here and sat a sashim that Suzuki Roshi was leading. And Mel was ringing the wake-up bell.

[09:09]

And he rang the wake-up bell. And then he went, I'm sorry, I'm sorry. I ran an hour late. Please go back to bed, you know. And Lou was up, so he just went to the Zendo. And there was one other person in the Zendo, and then Suzuki Roshi came in and sat down. So there were three people in the Zendo. And then Mel rang the wake-up bell at the right time, and everybody else came. And people started sitting. And Suzuki Roshi began to talk. He said something like, you're all badgers in your badger caves. When the bell rings, get up and go to the zendo. And he jumped down off the ton and started hitting everybody in the zendo.

[10:13]

It happened that Yvonne Rand was sitting in the first seat and... He hit her really hard. By the time he got all the way around the Zendo, it was pretty full. He didn't have quite as much strength as he had at the beginning. So Yvonne said she got hit the hardest because she was sitting in her first seat. He would go, whack, [...] all around the Zendo, saying, when the bell rings, get up, go to the Zendo. So my granddaughter recently, we have a book. You may know that my husband, Lou, recently died. A lot of you probably know Lou. He probably gave us an instruction to some of you. And we have a book out there for people to put stories they remember about Lou, interactions that made an impression on them, just to share with each other.

[11:19]

And I read my granddaughter, she's out here, she came out to be with us as he was dying. And brought with her her daughter, who's named Louise, for Lou. So they got to meet, and Lou was very, very happy to meet Louise. Big grin on his face when he met her. Anyhow, her... She used to visit us when we were living at Green Gulch when she was a teenager. And she kept hearing from people what great Zazen instruction her grandfather gave. You should get him to give you Zazen instruction. It's really great. So she went to him and said, Opa, would you give me Zazen instruction? He said, when the bell rings, get up, go to the Zendo. That's it. And she couldn't get him to give her any further Zazen instruction. Just do it. I wanted to share some other bits of Suzuki Roshi's teaching with you, but I think...

[12:41]

I can't see the highlighting. I will go on to the main point I want to talk about today. This part of the... Can you go on? We gain enlightenment like the moon reflecting in the water. The moon does not get wet, nor is the water broken. Although its light is wide and great, the moon is reflected even in a puddle an inch wide. The whole moon and the whole sky are reflected in a drop of dew in the grass. Another big teaching of Suzuki Roshi is embedded in there. It's not just that the whole moon and the whole sky are reflected in a drop of dew on the grass. the whole moon and the entire sky are reflected in each drop of water.

[13:48]

This Buddha nature, this Buddha mind, is in each drop of water. Suzuki Roshi used to say, you must see Buddha in everyone. That's a big order. We have our preferences. We have our ideas about what we like and what we don't like. But his teaching was to see Buddha in everyone, without exception. To see the moon reflected in each drop of dew. And again, there's a story that Ed Brown shares with us about when he was... I think I'm going to give up.

[15:01]

Thank you. I'm going to give up on the highlighting. So Ed was Tenzo at Tassajara. And he went to Roshi to complain one day about the people in the kitchen were not doing things the way he told them to do it. And how could he get them to bathe better? And Roshi said, Edson, you should see virtue in everyone. can I see virtue when they're acting like a bunch of idiots? Edson, to see virtue you have to have a calm mind. So this Sazen of ours is to help us settle into a calm mind so that we can see the moonlight

[16:15]

in each drop of water so that we can see virtue in everyone, so that we can see Buddha nature in everyone, so that we can actually experience the fact that we share the wisdom and compassion of the Buddhas with everyone. But we have to work on cultivating it. It gets overlaid with all kinds of preferences and likes and dislikes. And we get stuck in those likes and dislikes and those judgments and don't get to see the deep heart of everyone, the compassionate heart of everyone. When you see someone whose compassionate heart is not developed, that should really, we should have more compassion for such a person because they're suffering more.

[17:33]

When someone is caught up in greed or anger or delusion, they're suffering more and they're likely to cause themselves more suffering by engaging in harmful actions. And since actions have consequences, always, without any exception, we can't escape the consequences of our actions. We should have deep compassion for people who are caught up in negative actions because they're making themselves a big bunch of trouble that they're bound to experience later. When we realize, you know, the famous story of Yakujo and the fox, when we realize...

[18:37]

that whatever actions we undertake, we will experience a result. And if we undertake unwholesome acts, we will experience unwholesome results. And when we take care and act... from the light of the moon when we act from the Buddha mind that is in each of us then the result will be wholesome. And when we forget and act out of greed, hate and delusion the result will be painful. One of The fascicles in Dogen's Shobogenzo is called deep faith in cause and effect.

[19:45]

And when we recognize that without any doubt, if we act from unwholesome thoughts, or motives, from harmful motives, we will experience suffering. Once we get that, you know, it really helps us to live a more, a life not only more beneficial to ourselves, but everybody around us. And there's no way to kind of, you know, in the story of Yaka Jo and the Fox, does everybody know that story? Is there somebody here who doesn't know it? The question that came up was, does a greatly enlightened person

[21:02]

or is a greatly enlightened person subject to cause and effect. And the response, this monk made a response, no, a greatly enlightened person is not subject to cause and effect, and he was reborn as a wild fox for, I don't know how many lifetimes, but many lifetimes. And he showed up at Yakujo's Dharma Talk one night. And when it was over, everybody had left but him. And Yakujo said to him, who are you? He said, well, I used to be the master of this mountain. And the monk asked me, is a greatly enlightened being subject to cause and effect? And I said, no. And so I've been living as a wild fox for the last... however many lifetimes.

[22:08]

Please say a turning word and free me from this body of... So Hyakutjo said, ask me. So he said, is a greatly enlightened being subject to cause and effect? And Hyakutjo said, a greatly enlightened being does not ignore cause and effect. And the monk was freed. He said, Please, would you call your monks together and have them do a burial? So if you look around on the other side of the mountain, you'll find the body of a wild fox. Would you have them do a monk's funeral for that fox? And that's the essence of the story. The essence of the story is a greatly enlightened being does not ignore cause and effect. A greatly enlightened being... is aware that, in fact, they are subject to cause and effect and conducts themselves accordingly.

[23:15]

So we can be of great benefit to people by making that known to them. We can be of great benefit to ourselves by paying attention to cause and effect, by paying attention to the motives of our actions. Are our motives altruistic? Is our intention to relieve suffering? Intention is the key to whether actions are wholesome or not. what I want to recommend to you is see the light of the moon in every drop of water.

[24:29]

See Buddha mind, Buddha heart in everyone. Connect with that part of each one you meet. And be aware of your motives, what motivates your actions. Be sure that your motivation is altruistic. The more of us who conduct ourselves in such a way, the more we'll enjoy this life. Eno said to me that no one would be angry if I ended early. But I would like to know if there any... I'm sorry, I'm somewhat distracted these days.

[25:31]

And... I would appreciate it. If you have questions you want to explore together, bring them up and let's talk about them here and now. Yes? It comes from that light of the moon in this drop of water that you are. It comes from... Well, I suppose that you could have an unwholesome intention, and that I would say comes from ignorance, comes from ignoring cause and effect. We do suffer from delusion. We do get caught up in greed, hate, and delusion. And so sometimes our intention is not wholesome.

[26:41]

But if we're paying attention, we will notice that when we have an unwholesome, when we have an intention that's based in greed, hate, or delusion, nothing good comes out of it. Those actions end up creating suffering. If we're paying attention, we begin to notice that. And... change our ways. So people who are stuck in unwholesome actions and unwholesome motivations really deserve our compassion because they're making a lot of suffering for themselves as well as others. they don't deserve our hatred. And we don't, you know, if we go that way, we ourselves will end up with negative actions.

[27:54]

So... I mean, you know, the precept says... a follower of the way does not harbor ill will. Ill will will arise, but we don't give it a place to tie up and, you know, we don't give it a place to park in our life. When we notice that ill will has arrived, that's the moment at which we should let it go. Because it can only lead to suffering. So this practice helps us to see those connections, helps us to see what's actually happening in us and keep an eye on it and not let it get out of hand until it begins to subside.

[28:57]

So this practice is cultivating a calm mind where we can see what our motivations are. I mean, the Dalai Lama says the first thing he does each morning when he wakes up is to check his motivation. Is it the altruistic motivation of bodhicitta? Or is it some selfish motivation? So if he has to check it every day, I guess we should check it several times a day. it reflects in other deodorants. That's a very good question.

[30:06]

There's a quotation from Suzuki Roshi that I saw on the altar at the hospice when he was talking to his doctor I'm going to take the Diderot bursting as perhaps a metaphor for dying in this case. Anyhow, when his doctors told him he had cancer instead of hepatitis, he said, oh, what a great opportunity for teaching. Things teach best when they're dying. And his doctor said, well, I wish you were teaching something else. And Roshi said, I don't want to die, you know. I don't know what will happen when I die. Nobody knows what will happen when they die.

[31:11]

But at least I'll know that I'm a Buddha. And I don't know if I'll be... a Buddha in agony or a Buddha in bliss. But at least I'll die knowing that I'm a Buddha. But not I, and only I am a Buddha, but that I, along with everyone, is a Buddha. Yes? How should we proceed when we recognize that there are selfish motivations bound up with altruistic motivations? Well, then we should work at relinquishing them.

[32:14]

Just because that's going to cause us trouble now. That's going to cause us suffering down the road. I mean, for our own benefit, We want to look at the source of these selfish motivations and see if we can relinquish those attitudes. See if we can return to the fundamental bodhisattva vow of benefiting beings. You know, benefiting all beings includes this being. It doesn't mean we shouldn't... care to benefit this being. We need to take care of ourselves. If we want to be a bodhisattva in the world, we have to take care of ourselves so we can do it. But not at the expense of others. We take care of ourselves along with others. So let's see the moonlight in each drop of water, including this one.

[33:42]

Thank you for listening to this podcast offered by the San Francisco Zen Center. Our Dharma talks are offered at no cost 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. May we fully enjoy the Dorma.

[34:09]

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