This podcast is offered by the San Francisco Zen Center on the web at sfzc.org. Our public programs are made possible by donations from people like you. Good morning. My name is Ed. How's the sound? Good. So nice to be here at Green Gulch on a... Foggy, but soon to be sunny day, I think. Isn't that typical the way it goes? I want to thank Timo for inviting me to speak. And it's so nice to see some of my old friends here. And just out of curiosity, how many of you are here for the first time? Well, special welcome to you. I hope you enjoy your time in this beautiful valley. We're so fortunate to have... obtained this as a place of practice so many years ago. And I also just as I was walking your thought about.

[01:05]

Some appreciation for the residents and staff here who take care of this magnificent place. It's enormous. It takes a lot of work to take care of it. And so a special thank you. To you. And I want to also welcome everybody that's online. I see you out there, I think, in a blinking green light, or at least a solid green light. Before I begin the subject of my talk this morning, as I sit here with this beautiful Jizu statue, I would like to take a moment to invoke her. Jizu Bodhisattva is the guardian of children and travelers. Jesus' vow is to remain present for all beings in all realms of existence, and that is our vow. Jesus holds in her hand a wish-fulfilling jewel.

[02:07]

It represents our wishes for the ease of all suffering of all beings. In particular this morning, I wish to wish for an ease of the suffering for those who are involved in wars, suffering from disease or social injustice, and all other beings who are suffering for the consequences of global warming. Thank you very much. Two months ago, I was at Tassara for a Sangha week, and I was inspired, as I always am at Tassara, by the power of the mountains and the sounds of the stream. How many of you have been to Tassara? quite a few. I hope at some point in time the rest of you can go. It's a long trip, but it's worth it. It's a very unique setting to have a Buddhist temple.

[03:09]

Suzuki Roshi actually danced down the road after we found the place in 1966. And Green Gulch is beautiful, too. It has the same power of the mountains, and of course, in addition, you have the ocean. And many times in the morning you can hear the ocean while you're sitting zazen here at least i could or maybe depending on what kind of state i was in i imagined i could not really it's hard to tell the difference at some point time i'm reminded of this poem by sudan poem it is said that he sat zazen all night long and in the morning he wrote this poem and gave it to the abbot at the donlin monastery The sounds of the stream are the teachings, the broad, long tongue of the Buddha. The colors of the mountains are nothing but the pure body of Buddha. All night long I hear 84,000 verses.

[04:11]

Tomorrow, how can I tell them to others? Beautiful four-line poem. With the advent of Mahayana Buddhism, Buddha is no longer a historical person who discovered the root of human suffering and developed a teaching method so that others could be freed from suffering. Buddha transformed to represent the eternal principle of the essential, ineffable nature of reality. So mountains and streams are expressing the essential nature of reality. and are constantly expounding the teachings. I brought this poem to my Vimal Sangha group on Friday, and so many people related to the powerful feeling they have when they open themselves up in walking in nature. How many of you love nature in that way?

[05:12]

Yeah. And nature has everything in it. There's trees that die, and... all kinds of things that are going on, but it feels so accessible in some ways. At Tassar, I lived there for four years when I was young, and on days off I would walk up the stream and I would just sit by the stream and watch the movement of streams. The mountains are so still and the stream is moving, and that combination of stillness and movement kind of reminds me of Zazen. We sit still, and because of that stillness, we can really feel the movement of our life, the impermanence of life as it moves through us. I remember one day I was sitting at Tassara, and I just really felt like the sounds of the stream were just pouring over me like I was a boulder in the stream itself, part of the stream. So in the mountains,

[06:18]

One feels the world around you as sacred. Its appearance is miraculous as is yours. This poem inspired Dogen's Mountain and River Sutra. Dogen, the founder of our Soto Zen lineage. And the first line goes, These mountains and waters of the present are the expression of the old Buddhas. These mountains and rivers of the present are the expression of the old Buddhas. We think of every teacher that brought the teaching to us from Shakyamuni down. They're all old Buddhas. And those teachings are being expressed by the mountains and rivers of the present. Present is an important word in the sentence. Dogen is saying mountains and waters express the fundamental truth of existence each moment.

[07:22]

But he says more in the sutra than that. He's saying everything in the present moment is expressing the fundamental truth. You. Your crazy thoughts. Your aching body. Your wonderful and wild emotional life. All of that. is expressing a fundamental truth of existence. Sigur Osho used to say, to practice is to open yourself up to everything you see as an embodiment of the truth. To open yourself up to everything you see as an embodiment of the truth. This is why we practice Sazen, why everyone can join our practice, and why practice includes every activity of our life. We often say that, you know, we try to see Buddha in everyone, to see Buddha in oneself. Of course, this is not an easy thing to say, not such an easy thing to do, especially when we're feeling pain and suffering.

[08:34]

And two weeks ago when I was at Tassara for another event, Charlie Pokorni, an old student here at Green Gulch, and his wife, Sarah Emerson, there and they gave a lecture and charlie said uh he was emphasizing welcoming and friendliness so we oh i have this pain in my back i'm gonna welcome it and be friendly to it sure that's good and when we sit a lot of zazen of course we have pains in our back and go oh yeah no i wish it would go away Or why doesn't that person ring the bell in this period? I think they've fallen asleep. No, I think they don't like me and they're just forgetting. Anyway, so no, we, oh, welcome pain in my back. Friendly pain in my back. And of course, we have a saying, you know, if you enter into the pain and you become one with the pain and you really accept it, then just the being present with it frees you of it.

[09:44]

You've heard that, right? And sometimes it does, and sometimes it doesn't. And Charlie in this talk said, and we should welcome and be friendly with this difficulty. Sometimes it's an intellectual difficulty, an emotional difficulty, an interpersonal difficulty. We should welcome it and just say, we're just going to keep welcoming it and be friendly with it forever. Because the forever part is key. If we... say, well, I'm going to welcome it for 30 seconds, and if it doesn't go away, then I'm going to keep being angry at it. Forever. And we all sort of said, yeah, forever, sure, Charlie, yeah. And when it was Sarah's turn to speak, they were trading off in this talk, she says, I just want to bring up that forever thing again, just so you heard it. The sense that, of course, it won't be forever, everything changes, but that kind of level... of accepting difficulty gives you the ground upon which you can know what to do.

[10:47]

You can move from the actual place where your life exists. And just another comment from Suzuki Hiroshi that I came across. Sharing the feeling right here, right now, is the fundamental or basic thing for Zen practice. Sharing the feeling right here. Zen is, in a word, to share our feelings with people, with trees and mountains, wherever we are. That is Zen practice. When we can really appreciate the feeling of the woods, that is Zazen. Sikurishi's Zen was a very warm-hearted Zen. He used to say, feel warm in your Zazen. There's a kind of kindness. to yourself when you feel some warmth towards yourself. So there's a lot to say about to practice is to open yourself to everything you see as an embodiment of truth and why practice includes every activity of your life.

[11:56]

And I think what I'm going to come at it by going, I'm not sure, we'll try this connection to one of my favorite poems, koans actually. from The Gateless Barrier, Case 37, or The Book of Serenity, Case 47. I'm in a kind of nature mode, so this is a poem about trees, a koan about trees. So this is the koan, Jiaojou, a very well-known Zen master, and it's titled The Cypress Tree in the Courtyard. In the In several of the commentaries, it's called the oak tree in the courtyard. And then in other ones, it's called the cypress tree in the courtyard. I actually looked it up, and it's because the two characters in Japanese mean oak and in Chinese mean cypress. So I had to choose. And on the one hand, I love all the California live oaks we have here. So I'm leaning towards oaks, feeling close to me. On the other hand, I did, I think, I don't know, it must have been 15 years ago, we went to China and we stayed in Jiaojou's temple.

[13:04]

temple, the jiaojo of this koan, and massively large place with these beautiful plazas. And in the plazas are all these magnificent old cypress trees. And in fact, the name of jiaojo's temple is called Bailan Temple, which means cypress woods temple. So I thought, well, we really have to choose cypress for this. Plus, the redwoods are in the cypress family, right? And they're right next door to us here across the way. So here's the case, now that I've given you an introduction. The monk asked Zhao Zhou, what is the meaning of bodhidharmas coming from the West? And Zhao Zhou said, the cypress tree in the courtyard. And there's some verses and commentary, but I think I'll skip them and we'll go to that later. I'll just read the verse quickly so you get a little bit of the hanging of what's going on here. This is a verse commentary.

[14:07]

Words do not convey the fact. Language is not an expedient. Attached to words, your life is lost. Blocked by phrases, you are bewildered. So we'll address that later. So here's the setting, as I imagine it, I always like to think. So I was at that plaza, and I can imagine Zhao Zhao was off there. Maybe he was walking between events, or maybe he had finished giving a lecture and was standing out by a cypress tree. This monk comes up to him. And there's the great master. Maybe the monk sees an opportunity to ask a question. Burning in his heart. And what does he come up with? What is the meaning of Bodhidharma coming from the West? A little complicated, right? You know, this is a metaphorical saying. I mean, the translation of that usually in these koans is... What is the living meaning of Zen? You know, what's the essence of Zen?

[15:09]

That's what he wants to ask the master. But he asks it in this complicated way because, you know, Zen coins like to be complicated just to avoid, you know, getting too much like you understand what's going on. Or maybe he's reaching back to Bodhidharma, the founder of Zen. And Bodhidharma traveled in this long journey from India to China. He sat nine years in a cave and had this famous teaching, which is the teaching outside the scriptures pointing directly to the mind. So maybe he was kind of bringing that up, saying, you know, is that the essence of Zen here? What can you say about that? And Zhao Zhou says, a cypress tree in the courtyard, as if to say, you don't have to reach back so far, you know. We're just here. Let's get more straightforward. So what's he talking about, the cypress tree?

[16:10]

Trees are great teachers. When I was down at Tassara two weeks ago, I was particularly appreciative of the sycamore trees at Tassara. Those are these large, you know, they're in the plain tree family, quite large, and they have these beautiful big leaves. And it was 104 degrees down there. So you really appreciated the shade. of these lovely trees. And they're throughout the whole valley. They're native to California, and they have these beautiful sort of gray-white parts. We see them all around here in the Bay Area, too. And I just love those trees. And I assume many of you have practiced with trees. I hope you have. If you haven't, do it. Take a tree that you feel close to. I have an oak tree outside my house, and just look at it. Watch it. See how it changes with the light of the day. Trees always adjusting to find, growing to work with the other trees around them.

[17:13]

Really wonderful things. Those plain trees down at Tasa are so beautiful because when they drop their leaves in the fall, they just completely blanket the ground. And then when they're all gone, you look up and see the stars through those twisted branches. Quite a wonderful canopy. So we would say, pay attention to the being of trees. Become one with the tree. This is maybe, maybe this is what this koan's about. Anyway, in Wulman's commentary, that was the end of the story. But of course, these things always carry on. And so there was an additional add-on to the story, which goes the following. So the monk continued the dialogue. The monk asked Jaojo, what is the meaning of Bodhidharma coming from the West? And Jaojo said, the cypress tree in the courtyard.

[18:13]

And the monk said, please don't teach me with reference to outside things. You know, you saw he had some sense of this from Bodhidharma. Why are you talking about trees? I want to know what's going on. My mind is causing me all my troubles here. He's asking about an inner truth. And Zhao Zhao says, I don't teach you with reference to outside things. Okay. And the monk says, well, what's the meaning of Bodhidharma coming from the West then? You know, give me the goods. And Zhao Zhao says, the cypress tree in the courtyard. So, I mean, we do have to admire this monk. Yeah. He's not giving up. I mean, he's got this great Zen teacher there and he's going after him and he's, is he making progress or not? You know, so he's challenging Jiaojiao. And Jiaojiao was, he studied for 40 years with his teacher and then he went on pilgrimage for 20 years and he didn't establish his monastery until he was 80.

[19:20]

And they claim he taught there until he was 120. So he was like, you know, the real thing. So I do admire the Simone. So what's the issue that's being brought up here now? He's not referring to something outside, an object. He's not referring to a subject inside. We're referring to life. One of the essential truths of our practice is we are seeking a personal, visceral encounter, with one's life. We want to actually meet our life, become ourself. And we're not bound by scriptures or doctrine. We are seeking this connection. Life is life. Experience is experience.

[20:22]

Our experiences are always limited because we can only see as far as the eye can reach. At the same time, while limited, it is always complete. Whatever we need is right there, right here in front of us, within the limitations of our world, if only we know how to receive it. There are no objects to be understood, no subjects to understand. There is just experience. What is it? In a moment of lived experience, essential wonder is preserved. Awakened experience is immediate, intimate experience. There is just what arises. This

[21:24]

kind of connection, is the basis of our ordinary everyday lives. When we have a real taste of this, and we get this often in Zazen, our life is based on a real foundation. Suzuki Roshi emphasized having a direct experience of things, a direct experience. By making that a practice, it becomes an experiential basis for our living, And are responding. Of course, that wasn't enough for our monk. He continued. So he goes... He's back to it again, the basic question, which he's not given up.

[22:28]

Has the cypress tree Buddha nature? But it's different. Has the cypress tree Buddha nature? I mean, we've been exploring, what's the being of a tree? Does the cypress tree have Buddha nature? Good question. No, any of you that have been communing with cypress trees have an answer to that? What do you think the answer is? Right on the mark. exactly what Zhao Zhou says. Yes, it does. Then the monk said, when does a cypress tree attain Buddhahood? And Zhao Zhou says, wait until the great universe collapses. The monk said, when does the universe collapse? And Zhao Zhou said, wait until the cypress tree attains Buddhahood. You can see how helpful Jajo is along the way here. So by this point, we're starting to get the picture that, you know, we're not talking about cypress trees anymore.

[23:34]

The monk is saying, do I have Buddha nature? That's his real question. That was his real question right from the beginning. And when can I awaken? How do I awaken to my nature? That's what he's asking. So Jajo's nice. He says, yes, you do. And I really love this because it reminded me of when I was young. I was 25. I was working on my Ph.D. in mathematics, and the whole turmoil of the counterculture erupted and turned everything over in my life. And in my confusion, I decided to rush off to California in search of the truth. And thankfully, somebody had given me a copy of Three Pillars of Zen, and I'd heard about this Zen master, Suzuki Roshi. in this place called Tassara. So I bought myself a VW van and I drove to California, find in the Big Sur Mountains, and drove into Tassara in Hope to see maybe what was going on there.

[24:40]

Maybe take a swim, look around a little bit. But anyway, because you could go to the hot baths and swim if you paid $3 for the day. But anyway, I didn't do that. I went to the front desk and I said... you know, I read a book on Zen and have some interest in it. And the guy behind the front desk looked at me and said, oh, we have a program here. If you'd like to stay for a week, you'll learn more about Zen in a week than if you read all the books about it in English. Do you want to do that? I was in. Anyway, I met Suzuki Roshi that summer and heard him lecture and spent some time with him. And really, when I got back to graduate school, I was convinced that I'd seen something that was really important, that was maybe the most important thing. Maybe that was the answer to what I was searching for, what my meaning in my life might be. But another part of me was said, but you're so screwed up, Ed.

[25:42]

No way this is possible even for you. So this question developed in me, whether could I really, could I do it? Is this something? Could I be awakened? So I jumped on the train and went out to the city center, where fortunately Siddharthi was in residence at that time. And I checked in as a student, and I had this burning question. And I went to his assistant and said, I have to talk to Siddharthi. I met him last summer. I had this big question. She says, well, Siddharthi is too busy. Maybe write him a letter. That was not cutting it for me, writing him a letter. Are you kidding me? I was not very happy. But anyway, as things might be, and I'm not going to tell this whole story, I was doing some cleaning up, sanding a table in the back room, and Tsukiroshi came in, escorted by his assistant to observe the work that was being done.

[26:46]

The phone rang, and I had a moment with Tsukiroshi where I could ask. my question the question this monk was asking is this available to me is this buddha nature this awakening available to me so i will say i got my answer from zika not in a spoken word but i got it and it was an answer and a question that existed for me for many years so i do think that this monk got that same answer he got an answer, and I'm going to expand on this collapsing universe, but I think in a moment he met Zhajo. And that is what Zen practice is about. That is the essence of what Zen is about, is to meet another person, to stand in your own life as it actually is, and meet another person standing in their own life as it actually is.

[27:48]

And in that meeting, that connection, That's when Zen comes alive. So that was the opening. What is the meaning of bodhidharma coming from the West? Meaning of bodhidharma coming from the West, the essence of that is for us, all of you, and us together, to meet each other, whole person, the whole person. So since I have just a few more minutes, I will expand on the collapsing universe. Koans are so dramatic, aren't they? Collapsing universes? I mean, really? No. So we spend our lives trying to prop up the universe. What's the universe? The universe in our head. You know.

[28:50]

The world we've built in our head, we started when we were a small child and we built a universe of what the world's about, who we are, what we're about. It's filled with all kinds of pathogenic beliefs about what we can and can't do that cause us suffering. This whole world is in our mind and restricts us. So the answer is we just let it crumble and we're free, right? Just let it collapse. this whole structure that's binding us in our mind, we let it just crumble. But of course, that's not so easy. It's an easy thing to say in a beautiful little koan like this, but maybe it's more like Uchiyama would say, you know, opening the hand of thought, relaxing the grip your thinking has on you, Give yourself a little bit of space in your life.

[29:55]

We also use the term letting go. You know, it's so easy. We go through life and an event happens and we get attached to it. We want more of that. And we're not getting more of that. So now we're unhappy or an event happens and we don't like it. We want to get rid of it. Why is this? Why did this person treat me so badly? All this stuff that's going on through our head, which is... interfering with our capacity to be present in this moment and meet the moment and see the truth, the real truth that exists in this moment outside of this mental world you've created with your thinking mind. So now we finally get to the verse that I read earlier. This is the verse which explores... this a little bit, or kind of makes fun of it in certain ways. Words do not convey the fact. This is Robert Aitken's kind of summary of that.

[30:58]

That is true, isn't it? In the pungent English proverb, fine words butter no parsnips, the word butter is neither smooth nor salty, right? You know, that toast tastes good. Well, Those words don't taste good, but the toast may if you actually experience the toast. So words don't convey the same thing that the actual experience of eating the parsnips with butter on it too. Attached to words, your life is lost. Yes, words are the keys which program most people. Such people are used by words instead of using words. Their understanding is not experiential but merely verbal. Instead of coming from the life and using words, they act on the basis of concepts which can destroy life. It's a quote from Robert Akin on his comment on the second line.

[32:01]

And, of course, I loved his comment on the fourth line. Blocked by phrases, you are bewildered. Blocked by phrases, you are bewildered. That is not altogether bad. How else can one practice? The oak tree in the courtyard, bewildered by that, you have a great chance. And, of course, that's what koans really are. You know, I talked a lot about this koan, said various things about it, but really... You know, if the next time you see a tree, you're bewildered by it, or you walk by a stream and you're bewildered by it, when the wonder of life is there, you know, it's not the answer, it's the question. The question is what our practice is about. So I hope this koan brought some questions into your mind as we discussed it.

[33:06]

Thank you for listening to this podcast. offered by the San Francisco Zen Center. Our programs are made possible by the donations we receive. Please help us to continue to realize and actualize the practice of giving by offering your financial support. For more information, visit sfcc.org and click Giving. May we fully enjoy the Dharma.

[33:38]

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