This podcast is offered by the San Francisco Zen Center on the web at www.sfzc.org. Our public programs are made possible by donations from people like you. I had dinner with my son and his wife girlfriend a couple nights ago and he was describing to her a Dharma talk he used to come when he was in the children's program and he said and then the speaker takes all this time to tidy their robes and tuck in and arrange themselves and they they don't hurry they just they don't think anybody's waiting for the Dharma talk they just slowly do this That was probably the most he got out of those Dharma talks, probably.

[01:06]

So welcome to Green Gulch. Today is the equinox, and this morning we had our seasonal celebration ceremony of the equinox with chanting and incense offering and words of the season. So equinox is, as you know, today there's equal amount of sunlight or daylight and nightlight or dark and light. And they're in balance, equinox, but just, you know, at what moment are they actually right in balance, this How do we live our lives so that our lives are in balance? Our tendency to be out of balance or favor one thing, avert from another, like and dislike, pain and pleasure,

[02:28]

good reputation, bad reputation, sickness and health, rich and poor. We might find ourselves striving after one thing, pushing away another, letting, you know, attaching to one, but trying to get, trying to accept one, but keep it away. Anyway, this is a huge part of our life that's I feel necessary to study in order to have an upright, balanced, centered life. And in the teachings, the vast teachings of Buddhism, this comes up over and over and over and over again, combined with or revealed with the teachings of the self. What is the self? So these two sides that we tend to see, when we see one, we don't see the other side often, or if we're pushing one away, we... Anyway, this constant struggle, I would say, struggle and challenge to find upright in the midst of this...

[03:58]

So there's a song, really a song of enlightenment by one of the Zen masters, Chinese Zen masters, called Harmony of Difference and Equality. Some harmony of these two things, that they're actually in harmony. All the myriad things, all the differences, all the unique qualities, and 10,000 is short for infinite possibilities of varieties of people and things and phenomena. And then the equality side of that, which is all those 10,000 things are one body. So you have myriad things and oneness or difference and equality. And, you know, from the beginning of my study of Buddhism, reading in the early years, this point was brought up over and over.

[05:12]

And I wasn't very interested in it. It was like it didn't... Why are you pressing this point all the time? And I think there's a quote from Suzuki Roshi of these two things, the differences and the oneness, or... partiality and universality, or relative and absolute, form and emptiness, I found those, even the words, like very, I wasn't interested, very, they didn't speak to me, they didn't. And maybe right now you're thinking, oh no, one of these talks about partiality and universality, how boring, can't we talk about our lives, you know, and our struggles, and And I felt the same way. But now, I don't feel that way. Now it's like the most, almost the most, not exactly exciting, but sort of thrilling study of the nature of reality, the nature of ourself, the nature of existence.

[06:21]

And Suzuki Roshi, I think one of the early quotes I read was that these are two sides of the same coin. two sides of the same coin. And I got the image, you know, like one coin, and on one side the heads and tails. But it's really one coin. But you flip it, and it kind of lands. So sometimes it's heads and sometimes it's tails. But it's one coin. That was a good metaphor, I think. It was helpful. But, you know, it's... just after many, many years of turning this and seeing how this relates to my own life, that I've begun to, that it's begun to kind of open for me. So I wanted to talk about this, these two, what are called in the mountains and waters sutra, two virtues, really.

[07:28]

the two virtues of mountains, virtues of water. Now this is a poetic, this Mountains and Water Sutra is written by a teacher in our lineage who lived in the 1200s, Japanese teacher, Dogen Zenji, and he wrote this, what's called Mountains and Water Sutra, San Sui Kyo, as a part of his collection of essays and work. But it's called Sutra. It's called a Sutra in this case. So I wanted to pull some sentences, some teachings from that Mountains and Water Sutra to illustrate this study, or to help us study, I should say, these two sides, what looks like two sides of one coin.

[08:33]

And the coin, what is the coin? The coin is the entire true human body, is the entire universe. That's the coin we were talking about, which is an unfathomable, inconceivable coin. But poetically, to have these images to work with, give us a feel for it, open us to it, draw us, help us to study more. And there's lots of different images like this, not just from Mountains and Water Sutra, there's from the Jewel Samadhi, Song of the Jewel Mir Samadhi, which is a song of enlightenment, I would say, there's the image of filling a silver bowl with snow, hiding a heron in the moonlight. So if you can imagine, if you can picture a silver bowl filled with snow, it's just one shining.

[09:45]

But when you array them, when you separate them, here's snow, and here's a silver bowl, You see they're not the same, but filling a silver bowl with snow is one, it's hard to tell what it is. But we have to be able to tell what it is. Two sides to one coin. So I wanted to bring up a few of these hearts, you know, sentences from this rather long work of mountains and water sutra, but I'm just going to pull out a few sentences, a few areas. The first two sentences, really, which are, you know, could take the whole lecture. This is what I'm concerned about.

[10:47]

Each one of these sentences... Could be the whole lecture or a whole sesheen or a whole retreat. So I want to be careful about that, but at the same time just give us that kind of impressionistic painting of mountains and waters sutra. The first two sentences bring up that the mountains and waters of this present moment, this is the first sentence, are the manifestation of the ancient Buddhas. And the second sentence, each abiding in its own Dharma state fulfills exhaustive virtues. So just some commentary on that. The mountains and waters of this present moment a manifestation of ancient Buddhas.

[11:50]

Buddhas are awakened ones. This very moment itself is a manifestation of awakenedness, of Buddha nature, awakened ones, or Buddhas are just awakened nature. So this very moment, this present moment, the mountains and waters of this present moment, manifests awakened nature. And each thing, each of each mountain or each water, each phenomena that's arising right now, including you, including me, including this, whatever this moment is manifesting, each is abiding in its own uniqueness, its own phenomenal expression that's different from every other moment. that ever was or that ever will be this moment and this moment and this moment, unrepeatable, and each abiding in this phenomenal expression fulfills exhaustive virtues.

[13:02]

And that's, what is that? This word virtue, in this case, and Dogen kind of coins a term around virtue, is The virtues of this exact moment are the fact that things are existing uniquely in this moment, all at once, all together, and that is completely still. Each moment is still. That's this oneness. It's just one. And then the next moment. So moment after moment there's, it looks like impermanence, ever-changingness, and stillness, complete stillness. Two sides of one coin, one reality. One reality that, you know, if you talk about phenomenal expression and uniqueness, you can only talk about that

[14:13]

And then how do you talk about ever-changing, moving, each unique thing is different, difference and equality. So this is how the sutra opens with the, in this very moment, the mountains and waters, or the reality of this very moment is awake in nature, and it has these virtues of ever-changing, and complete oneness, stillness. So, coming down in the sutra to the next paragraph or so, there's a quote. And the whole rest of the sutra really is, what do we say, unpacking, unwrapping, deepening, unfolding this quote in various ways. And the quote is, Preceptor Kai, this is Fu Hyo Do Kai, this is another Chinese teacher. of Mount Dayang addressed the assembly saying, the blue mountains are constantly walking.

[15:21]

The stone woman gives birth to a child in the night. So this saying of Fuyo Dokai, in the commentary on that, it's just he walked into the hall one day, coming into a room like this to give a Dharma talk, and said, the blue mountains are constantly walking. The stone woman gives birth to a child in the night. That's what he said. Now, if you were there, you know, what might have you asked? But you're here. Now, so what do you have to ask? The blue mountains are constantly walking. The stone woman gives birth to a child in the night. So in this unusual sentence, and you know when I started out saying it's very hard to talk about the reality of how we exist and all things exist because we tend to fall into one side or another.

[16:36]

So this is this amazing kind of utterance by Fuyo Dokai. And I feel the compassion in there, the effort to say what cannot be said, to say the inconceivable, how it is that we exist. But he gave it a try. And he said the blue mountains are constantly walking. The stone woman gives birth to a child in the night. That was his offering to his students and to us thousands of years later, at least a thousand or so. This was in, I think, 900s. So what are we talking about here? The sutra opened up with the mountains and waters of this present moment are the awakened nature, are the

[17:36]

manifestation of ancient Buddhas, and those blue mountains, which are awakened nature, are constantly walking. Now you would say the blue mountains, or green mountains, or whatever color the mountains, first of all you might say they're not blue, but that's another conversation I think. Blue Mountains are constantly walking. You might say, no, you know, Mount Tam, it's right there. It just sits there. It's been that way. I grew up in Mill Valley. It is not walking, you know. That's what it looks like, and it has that shape, the woman lying down. But if we look more carefully, more closely, if we study Mount Tam or Tussar Mountain, or this is the physical mountain that we landscape mountains, we see... There is change. They are walking. There's erosion. There's forest fires. There's growth of all sorts of things.

[18:39]

There's the death of all sorts of shrubbery and trees and plants. There's birds that come and go. There's raccoons that fill the mountains and then die of distemper. It's constantly walking. It's constantly changing and moving. And unfolding each moment. But in our mind, you know, we have mountain. I know what a mountain is. Mountain is this. And it's a permanent thing. Some kind of permanence. We give it permanence, which it doesn't merit, you know. There is nothing that's impermanent in the way that we conceptualize things. and have a tendency, even though we know intellectually, yes, yes, yes, I know, I know, I've heard, everything's impermanent. But we once again go to things, they're gonna stay put, you know. Aren't they?

[19:40]

How do I make them stay put? And then we're, we may be sadly, sadly surprised But we're not really surprised because we know. We know. We know in our own bodies the Blue Mountain is constantly walking. And the beauty of that, the beauty of the growth of children who completely are babies and completely are changing and letting go of their babiness and turning into toddlers and little kids and And we can't stop it. Who would want to? And yet sometimes we say, oh no, no, don't. Don't grow up. Or don't get old. Or don't change. This is a figment.

[20:42]

This is a dream that we conjure up over and over again. So For Fuyo Dokai to say, the blue mountains are constantly walking. Yes, they don't walk like humans. It says later in the sutra, they don't walk in the same way as humans, but they are constantly walking. The blue mountains are constantly walking. And then the next part of that sentence that he said was, the stone woman gives birth to a child in the night. Now you might say, okay, I kind of get Blue Mountains are walking, thank you. I kind of see Blue Mountains, yeah, mountains, yeah, they're, yes. Stone women giving birth to children in the night, no way, you know. You're never gonna get me up board with that one, you know. So this is poetic language

[21:43]

for helping us to break free, actually, to liberate us from our fixed ideas, from our conceptual framework and karmic consciousness that we hold to and believe in and don't accept other things. So in this sentence, stone woman gives birth to a child in the night. The word stone in this... is Sekiju, this stone woman. And she comes up in this other song of enlightenment that I mentioned, the Jewel Mir Samadhi. There's a kind of couplet that says, when the wooden man begins to sing, the stone woman gets up dancing. That's another, you know, what? What?

[22:44]

Women don't sing? Stone women don't dance? Why are you saying this? Why are you trying to confuse me? So stone, stone women means, in another sense, it means also barren women, women who are not able to give birth, stone women. But this stone woman gives birth to a child in the night. What is the night? The stone woman, if we look at this as poetic language that's revealing something, showing us something, this stone woman giving birth is an impossibility, right? It's an inconceivableness. Just in the same way that The way we exist together as one interdependent whole.

[23:53]

One interdependent, connected body. How could that oneness make anything else? It's just one. There's nothing other than that. So that's in the night. That's the soul. Stone woman, the inconceivableness of phenomenal existence. This one body, this one truth body of reality, unfolds in each moment in myriad ways. Difference and equality. It isn't just a stone woman, like a lump, one stone woman that doesn't. This stone woman can give birth. But the birth, that child that comes in the night, in the dark, is a child that isn't a separateness, a separate child, unrelated.

[25:14]

that child is also completely interconnected. That unique child, meaning this moment, each phenomenal existence that comes forth and manifests completely, complete manifestation, is not separate, but is completely integrated with all the causes and conditions that brought it forth. Stone woman gives birth to a child in the night. This night is creative, fertile night. Creative, giving forth each moment that manifests and looks like the 10,000 things, but each of those 10,000 things is empty of separateness and is totally connected

[26:15]

with everyone else, is part of the whole, is the whole, is a manifestation of wholeness, but looks like a separate thing. But if you look strongly, carefully, deeply at separateness, you see it's completely integrated and connected. Do you see how hard it is to talk about the two sides of the coin at the same time? This is our... Language itself, we can only talk about one thing at once, and then we tend to forget about the other. And then we'd say, well, don't forget about this side, let's look at that. And then we forget. So this marvelous teaching of Fu Yodokai walking into the hall and saying, the green mountains are constantly walking. The stone woman gives birth to a child in the night. That was his compassionate, you know, something's missing there.

[27:23]

Something's always going to be missing in the expression. When Dharma is completely manifest, there's something missing. You can't say it. You can't say it all, but that was... We're still talking about it thousands of years later, hundreds and hundreds of years later, this effort to say about the reality of our existence. So, this is Fuyo Dokai. Now, this Mountains and Waters of the Present Moment is is not just mountains and waters, although it is regular old mountains and waters, but it's more than that, because what are mountains and waters but manifestations of an integrated whole of which we are, of which we are.

[28:34]

I was gonna say of which we are a part, but that kind of sets it up as we're a part of something else. But the teaching is that not that we're, although it's said sometimes this way, that we're a part of something, but that we are that something. So our own study and expression and practice and actions are not a part of the whole, but the whole manifested through our uniqueness. And it's completely still and completely liberated in that stillness. It's not caught. It's ever-changing. There's no abode. There's no stopping. There's no place where it's done. The...

[29:39]

The stone woman gives birth to the child in the night. The image of night as being creative or filled with possibility comes up in many places. There's a phrase, branching streams, the branching streams of a river. Branching streams flow on in the darkness. Branching streams flow on in the darkness. And the name branching streams was given to the affiliate sanghas all throughout the states and also in Europe and South America or Central and South America of all the different affiliate groups that have been flowing from the teaching of Suzuki Roshi. Many teachers who studied here have gone out, but not just teachers. Suzuki Roshi's teaching has gone out in the form of books and lectures, and online, of course, you can read and hear lectures.

[30:51]

And out of that, Dharma-offering groups... branching streams have flowed on in the dark in this inconceivable way, and groups have started up all over. Last week we had a meeting of the branching streams affiliates in San Francisco, and groups from all over the country came. There were like 67 people, and we hosted, Zen Center hosted what I heard, I didn't attend, but I heard from the liaison with the affiliate Sangha, Steve Weintraub, I heard how, what a wonderful event it was where people got to see each other and talk and bring up, how do you take care of the Dharma in Tampa, Florida with a small group? What is the way to bring Suzuki Roshi's teaching alive in a bigger group, smaller groups, all over? And the fertility of it, the creative fertility,

[31:56]

branching streams flowing on in the dark in this night where stone women give birth to children, all these Dharma children all over. Another phrase within the Mountains and Waters Sutra that I wanted to bring up is near to the end, and it's... it connects with, actually I was asked to write a letter in gratitude for the membership of the Zen Center, and I took this phrase from Mountains and Water Sutra, and the phrase is, although we say that mountains belong to the country,

[32:58]

Actually, they belong to the people who love them. And then this second line, when the mountains love their owners, this word owners, those they belong to, the wise and virtuous inevitably enter the mountains. So this phrase, although we say that mountains belong to the country, they belong to the people who love them. So this this phrase I mean if we think of our Los Padres National Forest or the GDNRA or Mount Tam or you know it belongs who takes care of it you know the park system or the country you know mountains belong to the country. But actually the mountains belong to

[34:00]

those who love the mountains and the mountains here as I said before yes there's mountains like Mount Tam or El Capitan in Yosemite but mountains also means in this poetic expression the true reality of our existence all existence all beings each phenomenal existence that manifests is mountains is the You know, the mountains and waters of this present moment are awake in nature. So those mountains, which are Mount Tam as well, it's not like Mount Tam is another kind of mountain. Mount Tam is a phenomenal existence. All those phenomenal existences belong to those who love them. Now this character love in this is... A-I-I in Japanese.

[35:04]

And it's often used in a negative sense. It's often used for, like, attachment or, you know, things that in another poem it says, the things people love, I don't love. Meaning that things people really hanker after and are craving and attached to, I don't love, sings this monk in this particular teaching. But Dogen in Mountains and Waters uses love in a positive way. Although the mountains belong to the country, actually the mountains belong to those who love them. And this I means love or care for. The kind of love where when you love it, you want to care for it, watch over it. There's kindness, compassion, attention, this kind of love and caring.

[36:08]

Care equals love, caring for something. So the mountains really belong to those who care for them rather than those who exploit them or ruin them, whether it's a mountaintop that's been leveled for coal or the forest or what's happening to mountains and waters with fracking and trying to extract oil from rock and in the meantime poisoning aquifers. The mountains belong to those who love them, to those who care for them, meaning all the phenomenal world belongs to those who care and love them, love it, love each thing. And our practice, when we practice, and the more we practice, the more this caring mind, loving mind, kind mind, generous mind has a chance to develop and grow and be given birth to in the dark.

[37:13]

This mind of caring for is supported and nurtured and... given birth to in our practice of zazen and precepts and loving kindness, patience. So although we say the mountains belong to the country, they actually belong to those who love them. And in this letter that I wrote to the membership, I said, I quoted that and also said Zen Center belongs to those who love Zen Center. those who care for Zen center, you know. Zen center and these practice places, these branching streams, belongs to, it doesn't belong to, I don't know who we think, the board or a certain teacher. The practice place, the sangha, which is often called mountain.

[38:19]

The practice place is called mountain. either in the name of the temple or whether it's in a mountain or in a city. It's called mountain. The mountain belongs to those who love and care for it. So I know there's a membership. This is membership month, I think. And I was actually asked to mention there's a membership drive, which is a funny phrase, isn't it? Membership drive. We're driven to join. But actually we're not... Nobody's riding hurt on us or driving us. It's just a time to emphasize or encourage membership if you haven't. So I think the little slogan for this membership drive is, you already belong, why not join? And Zen Center belongs to those who love. You already belong because... If you care about it, care about the practice, and that these temples thrive, and that they're there for you, and the teachers are there for you, then it belongs to you, and you'll want to care for it.

[39:33]

So it's all one whole of loving and caring and belonging. And then the second line in this paragraph, when the mountains love their owners, the wise and virtuous inevitably enter the mountains when the mountains love their owners. So this is a kind of, you might say, well, how do mountains, you know, Mount Tam doesn't love me, or personally, or doesn't, or what's personal, you know? So many people go to the mountains for solace, for comfort, for to find their heart's truth, to calm down, to stabilize. And the mountains are there. The gardens are there. The earth, the great earth is there for us.

[40:36]

When we are paying attention and caring and loving, the mountain meets us. It comes forward to meet us And the birds sing our song. This isn't theoretical. This is how we exist together. The whole great earth is the body of the self. Walking in the mountains is walking in the reality of your existence. And you give and receive. the joy of giving and receiving the truth of our existence. And then this next line, and when sages and wise people live in the mountains, because the mountains belong to them, trees and rocks flourish and abound, and the birds and beasts take on a supernatural excellence.

[41:43]

This is because the sages and wise people have covered them with their virtue. We should realize that the mountains actually take delight in wise people, actually take delight in sages. Two weeks ago we had a watershed work week and we had a number of people, maybe some of you, who are in the assembly right now, we're here for that, and lots of work was done in taking care of Green Gulch and the watershed, and we did a lot of work on the creek, and Suki, our land steward, comes up with many projects to help, you know, remove exotics, and just, you know, when... When sages and wise people go into the mountains with love and caring, then there is this, they cover the mountains and the trees and the birds and the animals with their virtue.

[42:51]

Now their virtue, this virtue is walking and staying still, manifesting complete in this moment and complete stillness. These are what are called the virtues. And then the regular virtues of just being worthy of merit, excellence in taking care of things. So when it says here, the trees and rocks flourish and abound and the birds and the beasts take on a supernatural excellence, I wanted to tell you about this ceremony we had because we've begun the restoration of the creek In the fifth field, we've removed the deer fence. We changed where the fencing is, and we're going to allow the creek to find its own meander once more. And we needed to pull down the fence.

[43:52]

And our ceremony that we created, really, from the suggestion from one of the water... She had work week participants, and then Suki and Jeremy, the head of practice, and I kind of came up with a ceremony which included invoking the creek, speaking to the creek, the waterway that teaches the way, just like the Mountains and Water Sutra, the way water is and flows and exists is our own body, and it can teach, it can teach the truth, can teach Dharma. So speaking to the water, and then speaking to the beasts, the animals that had been with this fencing that had been there kept from getting down to the water, from flourishing, and then

[44:58]

acknowledging our actions that were maybe not based on taking good care of this creek, were based on other things, and that were shifting and our emphasis and wanting to restore the creek so that animals, coho, salmon, and other animals, black bear, actually, and butterflies and all sorts of birds can come back to the creek. And then the trees and vegetation that was not allowed to flourish in this ecosystem will come back. And we spoke to all these plants and animals and insects and butterflies and acknowledged our actions and apologized if we had done any harm knowingly and unknowingly. Then we welcomed them back with great gusto. And then... Everyone who was there held onto this big, thick rope, and we yanked down the fence, which was so satisfying.

[46:07]

Down came the deer fence and dragged the fence away to free the creek, to liberate the creek, which is, you know, each thing is liberated in its own existence. Each thing has no abode, no unmoving... unchangingness within wholeness. So we liberated it. And in that liberation, we were liberated. We were joyous. As we loved and took care of this part of our natural environment, we were served and delighted and we flourished. just as the trees and animals and insects will flourish. And when sages and wise people live in the mountains, because the mountains belong to them, trees and rocks flourish and abound, and the birds and beasts take on a supernatural excellence.

[47:15]

This is because the sages and wise people have covered them with their virtue. We should realize that the mountains actually take delight in wise people, actually take delight in sages. So I encourage myself and each of you to be aware of that which you love and those feelings of wanting to take care of it and to enact that, to manifest that as your, as really the fullness of your, the reality of how you exist. To hold back from that means we don't thrive and flourish.

[48:18]

You know, if we have scarcity mode, we might think, well, if I, Take care, if you take care, without taking care of yourself, right, you won't thrive and flourish. Taking care of what you love and what belongs to you means taking good care of the self and good care of everything we touch and see and hear. This is the manifestation of the ancient Buddhists. This is the reality of how we exist together. So I wanted to end with, I never sing. So many of the Dharma teachers who have beautiful voices sing at the end of a Dharma talk. And I never sing unless it's ceremonially. But this is a ceremony. This is a ceremony of a Dharma talk. I wanted to sing the song that we sang at this ceremony when we pulled down the fence, which was suggested by the tanto.

[49:29]

the song, a particular song, or the chorus of the song, and in looking at this chorus again, to look at the lyrics, I realized it was very much the Mountains and Water Sutra in a kind of Broadway hit. It has the Blue Mountains constantly walking and our ever-changing, no abode, freedom and liberation, and it also has one body alone paying attention and practicing zaza, and that's how I heard these lyrics. So a lot of you know this song, and I want you to join in, even if you don't have the lyrics, see if you can remember it, or maybe I'll sing it once and you can, it's Don't Fence Me In. Do you know it?

[50:30]

See if I can get it good. And you can join it. Oh, give me land, lots of land under starry skies above. Don't fence me in. Let me ride through the wide open country that I love. Don't fence me in let me be by myself in the evening breeze and listen to the murmur of the cottonwood trees send me off forever but I ask you please don't fence me in let's do it again Oh, give me land, lots of land under starry skies above. Don't fence me in.

[51:35]

Let me ride through the wide open country that I love. Don't fence me in. Let me be by myself in the evening breeze. Listen to the murmur of the cottonwood trees. Send me off forever, but I ask you please, don't fence me in. Thank you very much. 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.

[52:35]

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