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 hear that today our Dharma sister Tia, who has graced us with her presence, will be leaving Tassahara. So thank you so much for being here. It's been really wonderful. The Anja changed my setsu tip and my wiping cloth yesterday. Thank you very much. Just to let you know that that happened and ponder that, ponder that.

[01:11]

I wanted to read what Dogen has to say about mending, which I just came upon and was delighted. We had our all-sangha sewing day last week or whenever we had it, and some people... were sewing Buddha's robe and other people were doing mending and sets of tips and various things. So this is a little, this is Shobogen's Suimon Ki. This is Ko'un Ejo's kind of notes that he took, you know, listening to Dogen talk and bringing up, Dogen would bring things up and Ko'un Ejo, Ko'un Ejo Daio Sho would take notes. So it says, once Ejo asked, as an activity of Zen practitioners, mending or patching old or tattered clothing instead of throwing it away seems to be clinging to things.

[02:20]

Yet abandoning old clothing and wearing new robes shows that we are seeking after new things. Both of these are wrong. Ultimately, what should we do? Dogen replied, If we are free from holding on to what we have, yet not seeking after what we don't have, either way is all right. Still, it would be better to mend torn clothing. Keep it for as long as possible and not pursue acquiring new clothing. So just to let you know what Dogen has to say about mending all clothing, keep it as long as possible, but also don't...

[03:24]

Don't be attached to how many patches I've got. How many do you have? You got a new robe? Oh. So either one. Just take care of things, and when it's time, you get a new underrobe or robe. So maybe we'll do another all-sangha sewing day. I know we have two more sewing days scheduled, so maybe we'll... continue with that practice, I thought it was a good thing. The word mend, by the way, means to make right, to correct, to repair. And the origin, etymologically, the mend part means free from faults, to free from faults. and also to reform, to improve, to mend our ways, to improve our health.

[04:31]

Oh, his leg is mending after, after Yun Man got his leg broken, his leg was mending, right? And also the words that are in the same word cluster are mendicant, and amend. So when we mend, we're I think coming into alignment in uprightness. marvelous to have this rain and not too torrential, so the earth is handling it beautifully and the streams are handling it and moving with it.

[05:35]

And I feel like we get to study the Mountains and Water Sutra right now, right here. We don't have to look at these pages and read commentary. I was remembering being at Tassara years ago and receiving a postcard from a Dharma sister, Layla Smith-Bachhorst, who had been the Eno for my Tangaryo practice period. And she sent me just a postcard, and written on the postcard was, how are things in Cold Mountain? That was all. I don't even think she signed it. Just how are things in Cold Mountain? And that... Hanshan is the poet, the Cold Mountain poems, and here's this poem about Cold Mountain, and somehow it reminds me of, you know, this feeling of don't think about time or beginnings or endings, just enter our seshin practice, and in the same way, entering Cold Mountain.

[06:52]

entering our life. So this is Ham Chan. I settled at Cold Mountain long ago. Already it seems like years and years. Freely drifting, I prowl the woods and streams and linger watching things themselves. People don't get this far into the mountains. White clouds gather and billow. Thin grass does for a mattress. The blue sky makes a good quilt. Happy with a stone under head. Let heaven and earth go about their changes. That seemed like a very apt poem for our for our seshing practice. Let heaven and earth go about their changes, linger watching things.

[07:57]

Not really remembering how long we've lived in these mountains. Anyway, long ago we got here. And prowling the woods and the streams of our Someone mentioned, after I had mentioned seeing the Dohan's place with all the different things arrayed there, this person mentioned, you know, that there was just as many things or more that they had that they were just inside. They weren't out there for everybody to see. And I thought that's probably true. Everybody's got their pillows and clocks that they're studying, that they're working with, that they're paying attention to. Just another thing to share with you that

[09:16]

things that just came to mind. One was a little snippet from a lecture from some practice period. I can't remember anything that was said in lectures except maybe two or three things when I was here at Tassahara years ago. But there was this one line that Zentatsu Baker said. I think somebody had asked him about going to the back door for snacking and wondering about it, if they were not practicing hard enough or something. And he said, oh, and I think this person dipped, they took their apple slice, I think it was a green apple, and they dipped it in the gamachio and then took it away to eat. And I think he said something like, It's fine for you to eat a piece of salted apple.

[10:20]

That's all I remember. That little snippet, but somehow it was like, I think the way I received that was, you're okay. You can live your life. You can have a piece of salted apple if you wish. You don't have to, criticize yourself and berate yourself and question every single thing that you do in this harsh way. Get a piece of, I think it was a green apple, and dip it in the gamashio. It's okay. And enjoy it. And it was a very pivotal snippet. I don't know what point he was making, but that was the point. that it made for me, that I made that point for myself. I think I got in touch with how harsh I could be with myself and how mean and critical.

[11:34]

So our practice of being kind and generous and gentle to ourselves, to each thing we encounter, to each person, if we think that that's somehow not part of our practice, or we hear it's part of our practice but that's for somebody else, please look at that again. So back to our study.

[12:49]

I just want to look at this paragraph that we didn't get to yesterday, today, and read something from Gary Snyder. This paragraph has been this... We should realize that this teaching of the East Mountains moving over the water is the very bones and marrow of the Buddhas and ancestors. All the waters are appearing at the foot of the East Mountain and therefore the mountains mount the clouds and stride through the heavens. The mountains are the peaks of the waters and in both ascending and descending their walk is over the water. The tips of the mountain's feet walk across the waters, setting them dancing. Therefore, their walking is seven high and eight across, and their practice and verification are not non-existent.

[13:59]

So Okamura Roshi doesn't actually say that much about this paragraph, so I was left to... I mean, he says a few things. And I was... left to ponder it in different ways, and somehow the rain really helped me. You know, I was, it just occurred to me, yes, you know, the tips of the mountain's feet walk across the water, setting them, dancing it. It just felt like, yes, yes, look around, you know. This is the dancing, you know, of the mountains and waters together. It was... right before my eyes. So this paragraph is about the relationship of mountains and waters and it is the preamble to moving into looking at water. So it has these different qualities of mountains and waters, the solidness of mountains,

[15:11]

the movableness of waters. And I wanted to read Gary Snyder. I didn't bring my glasses. I was thinking, oh, I don't need my glasses. But... Oh, thank you, thank you. I think I'll try it. I'll try it. So this is Gary Snyder. talking about mountains and waters relationship together, there is the obvious fact of the water cycle and the fact that mountains and rivers indeed form each other. Waters are precipitated by heights, by heights carve or deposit landforms in their flowing descent. So this just, you know, this ascending and descending M, the peaks of the mountains are the peaks of the water.

[16:18]

Somehow this description of a naturalist or, you know, looking at mountains are formed by the descent of water, depositing landforms, which creates mountains, which create descending waters, this total interrelationship. rivers indeed form, waters are precipitated by heights, carve or deposit landforms in their flowing descent and weight the offshore continental shelves with sediment to ultimately tilt more uplift. In common usage, the compound mountains and waters, san sui, is the straightforward term for landscape. Landscape painting of mountains and waters pictures are called sansui. And a mountain range is sometimes also termed the pulse or vein as a network of veins on the back of a hand.

[17:31]

So the mountain range are the veins of this moving water. A mountain range is sometimes also termed a palsia. One does not need to be a specialist to observe the landforms are a play of stream cutting and ridge resistance and that waters and hills interpenetrate in endlessly branching rhythms. The Chinese feel for land has always incorporated this sense of a dialectic of rock and water, of downward flow and rocky uplift, and of the dynamism and the slow flowing of earth forms. And then he mentions these scrolls.

[18:37]

There's several... surviving scrolls of these mountains and waters without end. One is at the Freer Gallery, and some move through four different seasons as you go along the scroll. So this reality of mountains and waters forming each other, creating each other through flowing and uplift, and that seemed to me, this paragraph, All the waters are appearing at the foot of the east mountain, and therefore the mountains mount the clouds and stride through the heavens. The mountains are the peaks of the waters. And in both ascending and descending, their walk is over the water. The tips of the mountains' feet walk across the water, setting them dancing. And then this last line, therefore their walking is seven high and eight across, and their practice and realization, practice and verification are not non-existent.

[19:47]

So this term, seven high and eight across, means freely, very completely freely, the walking. So I still... Just with the whole sutra, you know, I get a body sense and feel for this is our life of interpenetrated where we form and create each other. You create me and I create you in this ever ascending and descending, uplifting, sediment building that creates uplift. All this is going on nonstop. as one whole walking. Just a couple other notes here.

[20:47]

I think I mentioned this yesterday about the bones and marrow. And I just wanted to say that this bones and marrow, skin, flesh, bones and marrow comes from Bodhidharma's transmission to but he had four disciples, and the second disciple was Jirthang, was the nun. So Jirthang Acharya, right? She was the first. She was one of Bodhidharma's disciples, and we chant her in the Acharya, and she was the one who said, you get my flesh. The first person was another disciple, and then he asked the nun, Jir Tong. And he asked them for their understanding, and they each said something at the end.

[21:54]

Tai Soeka didn't say anything, he just bowed, and he received the robe and bowl of Bodhidharma. But in Twining Vines, in Kato, the fascicle Kato, which is... called one of the transmission fascicles, Dogen very clearly says each one of them was equal. They weren't like deeper and deeper and deeper understanding. He felt they were all deeper. They were all equal. And still, Taisoeka received the transmission. So... This skin, flesh, bones, and marrow comes up many times in Shobo Genzo and refers to that story. And then this last sentence of this is, therefore their walking is seven high and eight across, and their practice and verification are not non-existent.

[23:00]

So I wanted to go back to... this practice verification, not non-existent. And what that story refers to, and many of you know this story, it's repeated over and over, often in Sesshin. And it's a conversation between the sixth ancestor, Hui Nang, and Nanyue, one of his disciples. And Huenang asks, as often the teachers ask, where are you from? Or Huenang just said, where from? Or where are you from? And Nanyue said, Mount Song. And Huenang said, what is it that thus comes? What is it that thus comes? And Nanyue said...

[24:01]

probably after some time, he said, speaking about it won't hit the mark. And Hui Nung said, does it rest on practice and realization or practice and verification? Nanyu Wei said, it's not that there is no practice and no verification or realization. It is just that they cannot be defiled. And Hoi Nang said, this non-defilement has been guarded by the Buddhas. You are like this, and I am like this. So this particular conversation, Koan, Doha incites many, many times, and the term, you know, what is it that thus come? The thus come is the Tathagata, right? Tathagata means the thus come one. And what is the thus-come-one?

[25:06]

So when he asks him, where from? He says, from Mount Song, from San Francisco. And then, what is it that thus comes? What is it that thus comes? What are you? What is the thus-come-one? What is the Tathagata? This is the epithet for the Buddha, is the thus-come-one. The Tathagata we say all the time, right? The Tathagata is teaching the thus-come-one. So here's this fellow, Nanyue, and his teacher says, what is it that thus comes? Who are you, really? And when he comes back with his response, he basically says, speaking about it won't hit the mark. And, you know, I don't think he was shirking anything.

[26:11]

He was expressing fully that speaking about it misses the mark. Or another translation is... If I say anything, I miss the mark, if I say anything at all, it's already not it, or it's already one-sided. It's already a board-carrying fellow. It's already only one side. And then this further question, well, does it rest on practice and realization, or then is there no practice and realization? And then this answer, it's not that there's no practice in realization, it's just that it cannot be defiled. It's not that it's non-existent. It's just that it can't be defiled. And this defiled also can be translated as it can't be divided or it can't be talked about in a dualistic way.

[27:17]

I can't talk about it dualistically. Because defiled often... You know, that word defiled has a lot of connotations of, what, sullying or dirtying or something. But I think things are defiled by making them dualistic or separating. So he says, I can't speak about it. I can't hit the mark. But it's not that there isn't practice in realization. It's just that I can't defile it with trying to talk about it. And then Hui Nung says, this non-defilement or this non-dualistic truth has been guarded by all the Buddhists, by all the Buddhists and ancestors. I am thus or I am like this. You are like this too. So I would say...

[28:22]

We are like this. We are the thus. We are thus. We are thus. We are the thus come one. And each thing is thus. Each thing is such, is suchness. Each thought, each sensation, each raindrop, each meal, each and every arising is such. not an object in a dualistic, outside-ourselves way, but is Buddha Dharma, is the thus-come-one, is the Tathagata herself, himself, is the thus-come-one, thus coming. And when we allow the things to come forward and realize themselves, we're allowing the thus-come-one to come forward. We're allowing the tathagata.

[29:24]

So you can ask, as a meditation, on each breath, if you want to, what is it that thus comes? There will be something that will come to meet you. How could it not? Thus-ness is thus. The teaching of thus-ness has been intimately communicated. Now you have it. So keep it well. I think this is the same thing. This has been guarded by all the Buddhists, not guarded and kept from others, but the teaching of thusness is freely given and it has been protected by all the Buddhists and ancestors, protected and passed on, not protected and kept secret. It has been freely given over and over again by the Buddhist ancestors and it's hard for us to hear.

[30:31]

It's hard for us to hear it. Just like we chanted, you know, I vow to hear the true Dharma and that upon hearing it no doubt will arise in us. But we do have doubts and we do have our past ancient twisted karma that we bring forth, and so it's hard to see the thus come one. Our karma that we bring forth is also thus come one, but we don't see it as thus come one. We think it's something else. This is our confusion. So the walking of the mountains and this interrelationship of mountains and waters and solid and moving and still and impermanent and sentient beings and Buddhas and birth and death is not, you know, practice and verification are not non-existent.

[31:54]

There is practice and verification right there. So many teachers have spoken about this koan, what is it that thus comes. And as a meditation instruction to ask and to bring that question to mind with each throughout the day, because what we often do is we bring forth what we think it is that's coming. I know who you are. I know what a mountain is. I know what water is. I know what sashin is. I know what pain is. And then we... block ourselves in. But if we turn that to, what is it that thus comes?

[32:57]

What is this sensation? What is it? It's the Buddha Dharma of that moment. It's the mountains and rivers of the present moment is the manifestation, is the expression of the ancient Buddhas. What is it that thus comes? So if we can drop away, drop away, and wither away, wither and melt away this sense that I know what it is, because that's our karmic consciousness that says, I know. I know who I am. And I know who you are. And I like it or don't like it or prefer this or don't prefer that. So our sashin practice, we can... We have to really drop away our preferences and our likes and dislikes if we're going to really be present for Sashin.

[34:00]

It's too exhausting to try and deal with all of our preferences that are not getting met. It's just exhausting. Forget about it. And just, what is it that this comes? Oh, it's the Tathagata. And how surprising. and how cold, how cold it is in Cold Mountain. So this teaching has been guarded and protected and passed on by all the Buddhists and ancestors and now we have it. Now we have it. What are the, you know, positive energy and karmic conditions that have brought us to this point? So to requite the gifts of the Buddhas and ancestors, we practice and verify their teaching.

[35:20]

for ourselves, but not just for ourselves alone. Our practice realization is the practice realization of all the Buddhas and ancestors, too. At a seshim that Tenshin Roshi led, the Rohatsu seshim, in one of the question and answer where he has people come up, and not a shosan ceremony, but just come up during lecture. Someone came forward, I can't remember their exchange, but at the end they said, there is no one to whom I am more grateful. They said to Tenshin Roshi, there is no one for whom I am more grateful. And I felt the depth of that statement, and You okay?

[36:28]

And there's no one to whom I am more grateful. And to me it was Tenshin Roshi and all the Buddhist ancestor with whom he is just the peak of the mountain dancing on the water. He didn't arise fully formed, you know. And to requite our gratefulness, to give back, the only way we can give back is to practice. There's nothing, no gift, no offering, no number of infinite boughs. That can requite. The only thing we can do is to practice with our full body and mind, without holding back, that's all we can do.

[37:31]

And that's all that's being asked of us. We're not being asked to give more than we can give. We're being asked to give completely what we can give. So to have confidence that we are the thus come one, how could we be otherwise? What would we be? We have thus come sponsored by every single thing in the entire universe has brought us to this moment. And we call that thus. The countless innumerable billions of conditions coming together in us right now and life forms that are in us right now living out their lives is just inconceivable.

[38:43]

So being a leap year The leap year is confirmed. Let us leap right smack dab in the middle of our life at practice without holding back. Thank you very much.

[39:58]

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