Good morning, everyone. Welcome back, Leslie and Greg. Hold this microphone here behind. So first I'd like to thank you all for the beautiful Riyaku Kutatsu ceremony last night. I think it's a wonderful treat to be able to hold this ancient ceremony of repentance and repentance bow together the same moon as Buddha did 2,600 years ago.

[01:05]

And I just, I really have the sense of 2,600 years from now where there'll be other people continuing this practice in some form. It may not look exactly like this, but may it be so. May it continue. And therefore I have the sense of this, this kind of timeless nature of our practice. And I find it very reassuring and very inspiring. And I think the powerful way that our coming together to express our bodhicitta, our awakened mind, and to kind of acknowledge the ways that we have transgressed and recommit to our vows to live the bodhisattva life and to actively and consciously dedicate ourselves to the liberation of all beings. including this one. Never leave this one out. This is all being also.

[02:06]

So thank you for supporting each other in this meaningful and powerful ritual and ceremony. I would like to start with a few comments to support us on our sushin practice. And then once again move into the Mountains and Rivers Sutra into paragraph 10, which is where we left off at the end of our last class. I want to say some things about kinhin. And I have to confess that for a long time kinhin was not one of my favorite practices. I just wanted to sit. So this idea of having to get up between periods of zazen was kind of bothersome to me. But in time, I've learned to kind of come around and appreciate it in its own way. And now when I hear the phrase, the blue mountains are constantly walking, I think of kinyin.

[03:08]

And this image of them kind of walking along. They might have sneakers on or sandals, who knows, but they're doing their walking. And I looked up the... characters for Qin Hen and the two Chinese characters. The first part, which we pronounce Qin, has the primary meaning of to go through, like the thread going through a loom, to go through. And then the secondary meaning is sutra, interestingly enough. So particularly since we're studying the Mountains and Water Sutra and Dogen's claim that the Mountains and Water themselves are sutras, or expressions of the Buddha's awakened heart mind, their walking is a sutra. And so the character kin is combined with the character for walk in Chinese, and literally kinhen means to walk straight back and forth. It's kind of, you think, to walk sober, to walk in a straight line back and forth.

[04:13]

You can continue with clear intention where you're going. And alternatively, it can mean sutra walk. So we are sutra walking together whenever we do kynhin, right? This kind of stepping forth, step by step, stitch by stitch of mindful movement, embodying the presentation of the wake and mind. Just like the mountains walking, we are walking sutras. What are you expressing? with your walking in kinhen. Kinhen is often described as zazen in motion. And so we also focus, just as we do in zazen, on the posture. The posture alignment for kinhen is the same as zazen in terms of the back is straight, the head is up, our hands are over our solar plexus in the shashu mudra, and the shoulders are relaxed and down and back.

[05:16]

and the elbows are gently on our side, swaying a little bit. And also like kinhin, like zazen, kinhin is this meditation of joining the body-mind, unifying body-mind, gathering body-mind, which is the meaning of sashin. And so not only the internal body and mind, but actually... joining and integrating the experience of the external landscape as well, to see ourselves in relationship, not only internally but externally, to each other and to the wider world. And the point of kinhin is to feel your connection. So it's a feeling movement. Feel your connection as you're moving through space. So the sense of feeling the breath, the flow of the breath, feeling the space around your body as you're moving, the feel with each step and the movement of the body, feeling the foot on the floor as it first contacts the floor, and then the sense of the way that the body recalibrates in order to regain its balance after the other foot begins to ascend and descend.

[06:31]

It's kind of this falling forward, recalibrating, touching, trusting the earth to be formed. be there for us, to receive us. And you might be aware that Rinzai and Soto schools both have kind of two different forms or approaches to kinhin. The Rinzai school has a very brisk, energetic way of doing kinhin. And if you go there, it's a lot of kind of going very quickly around the room or like we've been doing at the Anabar kinhin. in that way, sometimes even faster, it's almost like a run in some cases. And then the sotus goes much slower and leisurely with the idea that upon each breath we take a step forward, only about six inches, so it's actually a half step. You're taking half steps as you go. And at the same time, keeping in mind your relationship with those around you. I see sometimes there's this big gap between people.

[07:33]

Someone's really walking very, very slowly, right? In the meantime, there's this traffic jam behind them because they've kind of lost contact or connection with the fact that we're walking kinhin together. We're creating the sutra together. So how is it that each of us as malas are equidistant in relationship to each other as we're moving around? So keeping that in mind as we do kinhin, And then when we go outside, it's the same thing, even though we're walking faster, the same sense of connectivity. How am I feeling myself in the body, feeling my connection to the earth? And feeling, you know, I like to think of it as not only us walking in the mountains, but the mountains walking in us. Can we feel that sense of nature? The landscape around us is actually moving through us. as we appear to move through it. What is the felt sense of that as we do that?

[08:37]

I will say that each person needs to regulate their body according to their needs. So if you really need to use the bathroom during kinhen, please do so. But be aware if you're using kinhen as a kind of escape, or distraction in some way from your single-minded practice. I confess, when I was first starting off, I would sometimes go back to my room for kinyin and maybe have some tea or coffee or something like that. Maybe crack open a book or a magazine or something. And I could see how in time I was kind of distracting myself. It's like, oh, Zazen is so intense, so I want to reprieve. So hiding out in my room for 10 minutes, rushing out of here to like, oh, I can do something other than be with myself. And so I'm just going to bring that to your awareness. Are you doing that? And if so, note what the root of that is.

[09:42]

But really, it's ideal, if you can, to stay in the Zendo. during king hin. So there's this, enables this kind of just sitting zazen and moving zazen to flow one into the other. So there's no separation between the two. And even if you do need to go to the cabin or to the bathroom, can you walk as if you were walking king hin? Continuing that same sense of there is no separation between the zendo and going to the bathroom in my room. It's all moving meditation. Am I continuing with that mind as I apparently go back and forth between the two? You might have to go a little bit faster, which is fine, but still the sense of connectivity. I just find it, in the end, easier if I can just stay here in the zendo because it's more supportive. Thank you for bringing attention to that practice that we do together.

[10:46]

The second point I'd like to touch upon in support of our Sushin practice together is a particular approach we might explore for skillfully engaging our field of awareness as we cultivate mindfulness. Often when I give Zaza instruction, I use the analogy of a spotlight or a camera aperture as a way to kind of understand how it is that we might focus and widen our field of awareness to be more inclusive or less inclusive depending on what our particular state of mind is at any particular time. And I'm sure some of you have heard me share this analogy before, so thank you for bearing with me. But I do think it's helpful to keep it in mind as we are doing Sushin together. So imagine your mind as a spotlight or a camera, if you will, with an aperture that you can adjust according to varying degrees, from either very narrow to wider, depending on your particular preference.

[11:58]

And I can think of the aperture, the apparatus, aperture itself, this narrowing and widening process as mindfulness. And the light, the luminosity of the spotlight as awareness. So mindfulness is directed attention. Attention, the word itself comes from Latin, meaning basically to tie to, to attend, attenuate. be able to fix to. And so we bring attention to an object. We narrow our field of attention to an object in some way. And then awareness is the luminous knowing or the revealing of whatever it is that enters into our field of mindfulness. So our natural state of awareness, I would say our capacity for knowing experience is ever-present and without limit.

[13:03]

So basically, the light is on all the time, folks. The light is on all the time. But we can skillfully find ways to narrow or widen the field of light to help us stay attentive to what it is that is before us in any moment. And I think when... particularly when we first start a meditation practice, and actually every time we get down on our seat, we sit down on our cushion or chair, we benefit from first choosing an object of awareness or mindfulness to focus on. The most common one in our practice is the breath. So the breath becomes our object in which the light, the spotlight is shining on and fixed on. And this idea is to... maybe narrow it down to a pinpointed one-point concentration. And maintain continuous contact with that particular object to stabilize awareness on that object.

[14:07]

And we just keep doing that. How often we can just stabilize the mind or the spotlight on that object. And we find that it kind of wanders off. We bring it back. We notice, though, this has happened. The flashlight has wandered onto something else, perhaps a memory or a fantasy or some other object, you know, in the mind. We just note it and redirect it and focus the spotlight once more onto the initial object that we had intended. And we might, in time, the more we're able to stay focused, we notice that our awareness stabilizes. that the spotlight stays in one place and is consistently there and doesn't move off so much. And at that point, once you have the stable light shining and it's consistent, you can experiment with widening the aperture. Widening the field of light in some way to include a larger...

[15:11]

array of experiences. So, for example, you might become, if you're aware of just the breath at the nostrils or in the chest or the hara, you might become aware of the breath throughout the whole body. So widening the aperture to notice the field of the body and the breath within the body. And again, it's the same kind of technique. Can you stay focused and have that attention or spotlight be stable and non-moving from that particular experience of awareness of breath in the body. And if you find at some point that that becomes unstable and kind of shaky, then you can narrow the aperture again down to just maybe one pointed spot, either a breath on the nostrils or in the chest or the hara, until once again the spotlight stabilizes, then once again reopening the aperture, a wider field, breath throughout the whole body. And then if that feels stable for a while, continuing to widen this aperture until you become aware of the breath or the space in the room itself.

[16:19]

So now that aperture is not quite all the way open, but much wider open. And you're taking the same approach. Can you stabilize the mind or the light on this particular field with choice? And if it becomes unstable, narrow it. until it stabilizes. And sometimes you might need just the whole period of zazen, just one narrow focus, depending on what's going on for you at any particular time. And at some point, perhaps, that feels stable, you can let go of the aperture altogether. So there's no longer a framing device. There's just wide open sky-like awareness. The light is everywhere. Everything is light. And you're just noticing anything that appears in the sky. Any object, thought, feeling, body sensation, sensory perception, anything. Just kind of passing through this field. And if any of the objects that are passing through the sky capture your attention, you find yourself kind of zooming in on them.

[17:27]

Again, noticing that's happened. Drop it. and open the aperture once again. And if it's still to kind of, you know, the mind's tendency is to want to fixate on a particular thing, then redirect the mind to a more neutral object such as the breath. So experimenting with this widening and narrowing the aperture, each time trying to cultivate stability of mind, you know, composure, presence, of continuous presence of the light. So I think that's all I'll say about that. I hope you find that a helpful approach to taking for your mindfulness practice, awareness practice. And of course, you know, Zen is, one of our emphasis is choiceless awareness.

[18:34]

The breath being a foundational point to start us to stabilize the mind so in time that we can just keep the aperture open at all time without focusing on anything. And oftentimes if we start Zazen, you know, the instructions actually kind of throw us in the deep end, you know, and just kind of say, okay, just do choiceless awareness. You know, like, huh? How do I do that? So we find ourselves kind of splashing around and kind of fumbling a lot. And maybe in time we kind of stumble upon this kind of like, oh, I can choose where to focus the mind. I can narrow the aperture of awareness and then widen it and close it accordingly. So Tibetan practices, for example, and Vipassana techniques as well have a tendency to offer a little bit more guidance on how to work with the mind in that way than we do in Zen. but they're all ultimately going to the same place. Okay, so I'd like to return to our study of the Mountains and Water Sutra.

[19:42]

And before I do so, I thought I'd share with you, in honor of A. Robin, who is a student of Norman Fisher's, something that Norman wrote, an introduction to the Mountains and Waters Sutra. Is there anyone else here who considers themselves a student of Norman's? Yeah, of course. This is for you, too, Arhealy. So Norman... wrote this. He said he wrote it because Dogen uses technical Buddhist language and many of the quotations and concepts from Buddhist philosophical upbringing that were particular to Dogen's life. And because of this, many of Dogen's references are of a time, culture, and literary milieu that we're not so familiar with or that aren't so easily accessible to us. So oftentimes when we read Dogen, we have to first decipher what does that word mean?

[20:46]

Just because he says mountain, what he's referring to as mountain has a whole different valence in many cases, or a series of different valences than what we might think of as mountains, due in large part due to his literary background and the cultural perception of how mountains had many different qualities. poetic expressions. And because we don't have so much access to the culture and the time in the literary milieu, that sometimes the language that Dogen uses doesn't have an emotional resonance for us. It can feel a little distant, a little cold to us in some cases. So part of what we have to do is kind of first understand what is Dogen saying and What's he pointing to? And then how do we frame it in our own language, define the heart or the emotion in it that Dogen himself was feeling when he wrote it? And that's not an easy task.

[21:48]

I find it takes some time to really kind of decipher what was he pointing to in the first place, and then how do I relate to that as well? So this is what Norman wrote as an introduction or encapsulation of the Mountains and Water Sutra. The world around you is sacred. The world around you is not as it appears to be. Its appearance is miraculous, as is yours. Each thing is not itself. It stands for something else. Each thing stands for itself, the mask that masks the endlessness of that thing, of everything. of you though this is clear everywhere it's clearest in the mountains it's clearest in the waters it's clearest in the silence in the wandering absorption into presence in the presence of being present with presence as presence in the soaring and the constant walking of time standing still forever

[23:08]

Still, as it passes without ceasing, so is endless. Mountains express this, waters express this, in weighty monumental stillness, in clarity and luminosity, in constant movement and stillness, as in a stream, a lake, its depth. The body is mountains and waters, the hardness of the teeth and bones, the softness of the lips and tongue, the living flowing of the blood that circulates round and round throughout the sky and space. The body sitting is a mountain. The body in motion is water. The body constantly sits and constantly moves. The earth sits within the body. The sky sits within the mind, the sanity, the wisdom, the truthfulness.

[24:14]

The totality of virtue and delight sits within this stillness and movement that is always murmuring its sound, its song crying out fully into all the distances, the message devoid of graspable content, of love, of belonging, of total inclusion. That is in the mountain's stone, in the water's splashing, in the heart's desire, the laughter of the tongue, the eye's tears. Pretty nice, huh? Yeah. So I think Norman did a lovely job of summarizing what Dogen is pointing to in Saint-Cui-Criot with his own poetic approach. Of course, it takes a very good poet to be able to write something like that, and that's one of the... joys of studying with Norman. So in our last class, we got through paragraph nine, and we're halfway through the practice period.

[25:24]

So we'll see what happens if we make it to the end. Maybe there is no end to the walking of mountains and waters. Whereas I heard that before. I heard that somewhere before. So we'll see what happens. And I just want to say, you know, sometimes walking through this, particularly it can feel a little bit during lectures like we're in class and we're kind of going through the lines and trying to unpack what Dogen's saying. And I'm really trying to find a way to balance that unpacking with also providing other views and approaches and integrating other practices and so on. But... it can sometimes seem like we're in a seminar when going through this. So thank you for bearing with me as we do this. This next paragraph, section 10, takes up four different views of mountains that appear in Buddhist texts, as well as various Buddhist teachings that Dogen thinks misrepresent the true aim of practice.

[26:28]

So as you notice throughout, he has... various times makes kind of pointed critical comments about other Buddhist practices or practitioners in terms of their particular views and ideas. And this is one section that happens again. So let me read number 10. Even when we have the eyes to see mountains as the appearance of grass and trees, earth and stone, fences and walls, this is nothing to doubt. nothing to be moved by. It is not the complete appearance of the mountains. Even when there appears on occasion in which the mountains are seen as the splendor of the seven treasures, this is still not the real refuge. Even when they appear to us as the realm of the practice of the way of the Buddhas, this is not necessarily something to be desired. Even when we attain the crowning appearance of the vision of the mountains,

[27:29]

as the inconceivable virtues of the Buddhas. Their reality is more than this. Each of these appearances is the particular object and subject result of past karma. They are not the karma of the way of the Buddhas and ancestors, but narrow, one-sided views. Turning the object and turning the mind is criticized by the great sage. Explaining the mind and explaining the nature is not affirmed by the Buddhas and ancestors. Seeing the mind and seeing the nature is the business of non-Buddhists. And sticking to words and sticking to phrases are not the words of liberation. There are words that are free from such realms. They are the Blue Mountains constantly walking and the East Mountain moving over the water. we should give them detailed investigation.

[28:31]

Once again, the instruction by Dogen, detailed investigation. So were you able to kind of note or track the four different views and mountains in that paragraph at the beginning? Maybe, maybe not. So let's walk through them. The first few. Even when we have the eyes to see mountains as the appearance of grass and trees, earth and stone, fences and walls, this is nothing to doubt, nothing to be moved by. It is not the complete appearance of the mountains. So different commentaries say different things about this particular section, and Okamura says that this first view is a kind of common sense view. It's not necessarily a Buddhist view, however. The mountains, in this case, are just a collection of objects, of things. Grass, trees, earth, stones, walls, etc. So in this way, they're nothing special, nothing to be moved by. But this ordinary view, according to Dogen, is not the complete appearance or manifestation of the mountains.

[29:38]

And manifestation here, the word used is genjo, same as genjo koan. So this first view is not a complete view or a true actualization of the mountains. And so we are encouraged to look further to understand and embody a complete view of the mountains. Then the second view. Here's the second view. Even when there appears on occasion in which the mountains are seen as the splendor of the seven treasures, this is still not the real refuge. So... Some beings look upon mountains as the splendor of the seven treasures. This is a reference to the Lotus Sutra. And the Lotus Sutra names these seven treasures, which are gold, silver, lapis lazuli, moonstone, agate, charnelion, and pearl. Thank you, Kitchen. Thank you for cooking us many treasures. Thank you.

[30:39]

So in other words, in this view, depending on your view, you're going to see mountains as precious, rare, beautiful, like jewels. And some people might actually take this literally. For example, you might, you know, if you see mountains in this way, you might go to the mountains to mine them for their precious resources. And depending on your particular interest or affinity, you'll see and relate to the mountains differently. If you're a skier or a hiker, you're going to look at the mountains as a place to ski or exercise. And if you're a woodcutter, you're going to see the mountains as a place to gather wood. If you're a poet or a painter or philosopher, you're going to see mountains as a source of inspiration to you. So depending on our karma consciousness, we're going to see the mountain the way that we see the mountain and then relate to it based on this limited condition, one-sided view. Do you guys do this?

[31:41]

Do you see mountains in a particular way and relate to them only based upon how you're seeing them? And do you do this with each other? You get a fixed view on someone. You haven't probably even ever spoken to them at some point. Oh, there's someone behind the counter. I'm going to relate to them as someone who can serve me. Or just, you know, however myriad ways that we see each other, we relate to each other from these limited one-pointed views, not seeing the full scope of our being-ness. So in here there's this point of view, there's this point about this view not being the real refuge. When we see the mountains through our limited condition views, they cannot be real refuge, according to Dogen. And real refuge here is a translation of the word jitsu-ki.

[32:46]

And jitsu means true, real, genuine. And ki means to return. And this ki is the same ki as in kie, which is what we say in namukie butsu. So when you're sowing a rakasu or an okesa, we say namake butu, taking refuge. I take refuge in Buddha. And jutsuki essentially means then true things we return to or in which we take refuge. True things we return to or in which we take refuge. So Dogen is saying here that seeing and praising the beauty of the mountains is not the Buddhist way. it's not the way of true refuge. Just because you find them beautiful and praise them, that beauty is not a refuge, an ultimate refuge. The things that we take true refuge in, however, are what? Shuso!

[33:49]

The triple treasure, Buddha, Dharma, Sangha. Thank you. You pass. Nope. There's no going or coming, I hate to tell you. You failed that one. I'm sorry, you'll have to stay now. So, in Dogen's fascicle, Shobo Genzo Kiesambo, which is taking refuge in the Three Treasures, he quotes Shakyamuni's statement about why we should take refuge in the Buddha Dharma Sangha. He says, Being fearful of oppressive suffering, many people take refuge in the gods enshrined in mountains, parks, forests, solitary trees, shrines, and so on. Taking refuge in such gods is neither excellent nor precious. By taking refuge in such gods, it is not possible to be liberated from many kinds of suffering. If all beings take refuge in Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha, and within the Four Noble Truths, they clearly observe reality with wisdom, they will understand their suffering, the cause of suffering, the eternal transcendence of suffering,

[35:00]

in the Eightfold Noble Path that leads to peace in Nirvana. Taking refuge in them is most excellent and precious. By taking refuge in the Three Treasures, it is possible to be liberated from many kinds of suffering. So we take refuge in Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha because they are the final places to return to. They are a place of continuous practice. Our continuous ceaseless practice, coming and going in the mountains, is our real refuge. Again, what we were doing last night under the full moon, taking refuge in these three treasures. And then there is a third view. Even when they appear to us as the realm of practice of the way of the Buddhas, this is not necessarily something to be desired. So this view is a way of looking at mountains as if they are secret places. special spiritual places that are meant for sages and Buddhists and other spiritual practitioners.

[36:01]

And as such, they're considered sacred sanctuaries and aren't meant for or loved, according to Dogen, by worldly people. But when we look at the mountains as sacred places and cling to the idea that they're sacred places, then we set up all kinds of arbitrary rules and regulations about how to relate to and worship these sacred mountains and who's allowed to be on them. So you might see examples of this. I understand that at Mount Iehe that women for a long time were not allowed because it was a sacred mountain. So imagine that, the whole mountain that particular people weren't allowed to have access to just based on gender or some other kind of discrimination. So this is how when we set up these kind of views of something special and something else isn't special, and these people are special and these people aren't special, that we create this basically violence and oppression against each other in some ways.

[37:08]

So Dogen's saying this is not the way to do it, and he was very critical of this kind of view and way of relating to mountains, and he wrote a number of diatribes about these kind of ridiculous views in which particular women or others are considered less than in some way. And then finally, the fourth view. Even when we attain the crowning appearance of the vision of the mountains as the inconceivable virtues of the Buddhists, Their reality is more than this. So we've been talking about mountains as the accumulation of all the virtues of the Buddhas, the crowning appearance of the highest virtue. And even while this is Dogen's view, that Dogen was forwarding and saying that the reality of the mountains, he's saying that the reality of the mountains is even more than this. So all these views, even Dogen's view, he confesses, is incomplete. nothing to be clung to. So his final summa remark then on these four views of mountains is, each of these appearances, or genjo, is the particular objective and subjective result of past karma.

[38:23]

They are not the karma of the way of the Buddhists and ancestors, but narrow, one-sided views. So in other words, these are all views that we create when we see mountains through our karmic consciousness. Our view or mountains have been shaped by our previous experiences, such as our familiar or cultural backgrounds, or our education, or some other particular way that we've been conditioned to see things. According to Dogen, this is narrow, one-sided views. And there are several metaphors or expressions of having narrow-minded or one-sided views that Dogen refers to. The expression in Chinese and Japanese for narrow, one-minded view is a view through a tube or a straw. Do you ever look through a tube or a straw? So you're looking through a wall. You're only seeing one part of the world, only a narrow, small part of the world.

[39:25]

And you might think, well, this is the whole view. I'm seeing it all, right? This is my aperture. This is my frame of reference. So what I'm seeing is the whole of what I'm seeing, yet it's only part of a view. So how often do you go around like this? Are you doing it now? Are you looking through this narrower view? Another expression which I think is amusing is... This kind of thing is being like a frog in the well, right? So you're a frog at the bottom of a well looking up at the sky. It's true. You see the sky. You see a portion of the sky, but you don't see the whole sky. So even though things are passing over it, what you're seeing is true. There's something there you're seeing, but you're only seeing it partially. And so it's not representative of what's happening in the entirety of the sky. And then Suzuki Roshi used another metaphor for this one-sided view of seeing, which is to call someone with such a view a board-carrying fellow, right?

[40:33]

And this is idiomatic for carrying a piece of board. You might see this with builders on their shoulder, right? And you can only see out one side. You can only see this side. Or if the board's on this side, you can only see one side, right? Limited. And this is also referred to as having blinders or tunnel vision. And sometimes I think of this, I grew up in Pennsylvania and my ancestors are Mennonite and Amish. And so many of them still drive horse and buggies. And the horses will have what's called blinders or winkers, winkers on them. So limited view so that because horses actually, I just found this out there, their view can all go all the way to the back. They have side view, so they can see almost all the way around, except for on the tip of their nose and at the back of their tail. So they put these blinders on so that they don't get spooked by or distracted by anything that's coming up from behind or to the side of them in some way.

[41:36]

So it has its skill, which is the same thing we do when we tell you during zazen and kinhen, keep your eyes focused down. Don't look around. Keep your little winkers on. Your blinders on. Stay focused. Don't get distracted. Single-pointed view at this point. And so it has its advantages, but at the same time, in the larger point of view, it has its disadvantages because we don't see things in their entirety. So the point of all these expressions is to say that the appearances of the mountains are are due to our tendency towards seeing the world through a limited dualistic perspective, or what Dogen describes as objective and subjective results. And the word results here means the results of our past karma. Okay, so what does this mean? What does it mean that our various views of the mountains of phenomena are not the full or complete view, but merely the results of subjective and objective karma?

[42:41]

And Okumaru helps by unpacking the characters that Dogen uses for the words objective and subject, subjective, which are iho and shoho. And he says the ho part in iho and shoho, eho and shoho, means reward or the result or retribution for past activities. So there are two kinds of results or rewards. that we can receive from our past karma. The first is shoho, which is the retribution of the actions of our particular body and mind. So shoho is the subjective results that are particular to an individual. So, for example, the personal choices that I make regarding the kind of food I'm going to eat, the transportation I take, the things that I purchase, the way in which I speak and relate to friends and strangers, the words that I use. my particular choicing mechanism, right?

[43:45]

And then the second one, EHO, is the retribution or results of our environment or particular circumstances in which we find ourselves. And EHO serves as a connection within the past and the present. So, for example, it's the culture in which I live, the way in which the weather in California affects the food that we grow here and the food that I might eat. And the privilege I have as someone who is white and male, as well as the homophobia I've experienced as someone who is gay. Another way to say this is that shoho is the subjective karma or the result of a particular person. So it's not shared. It's not shared karma. And eho, on the other hand, is objective or collective karma within a particular environment. So there's not shared and there's shared expressions of karma. You could say that we are the results, the objective fruit, the eho of each other.

[44:54]

In other words, we make each other. We make each other insofar as we are sharing in this context in life and hence co-creating our life together. And by just being together in this valley, in this practice field, we are co-creating our world and creating each other. So again, to bring awareness to how am I creating each others in this room? How is it just by relating to them and engaging them, I am fruiting other people in a particular way? So what's Dogen's point? Okamura writes, Our views are created in the relationship between shoho and eho, between the particular or personal subjective view and subjective karmic view. That is what Dogen is saying here. Depending on the conditions of our body and mind and circumstances, we create different views. Every one of these is just a view created by our karma.

[45:59]

Therefore, it is limited and conditional. We can't have a view that is not conditioned. because we are inside the world. And to see it, we have to take a position. Our view is always only our view. It cannot be the view of the mountains themselves. So in other words, views we have, the views we have are produced by collaboration between the self and the myriad objects. The mountains also create our view, and we create the mountains. So all views are conditioned. and the results are limited and complete. And we need to, basically, Dogen's saying, keep this in mind at all times. Do not fix onto any of your views. Always question your view. Because kind of your view is always wrong. It's incomplete. So any view that you have about yourself, about another person, about anything around you, is incomplete. Immediately question your attaching to it.

[47:01]

You're investing in it in some particular way. What would it be to move through the world not believing your views? What would you do if you didn't believe your views with such authority? What freedom would that give you? What would it allow you to manifest differently in your life? I'm going to finish the second part of this paragraph. And so the first part was all about the four views of mountains. And now the second half. In the second half, Dogen is being critical of other points of view, particularly Buddhist teachings, that he thinks misrepresent the true aim of practice.

[48:06]

And... he says this again in other places, but here he says, turning the object and turning the mind is criticized by the great sage. Explaining the mind and explaining the nature is not affirmed by Buddhas and ancestors. Seeing the mind and seeing the nature is the business of non-Buddhists. Sticking to words and sticking to phrases are not the words of liberation. These are words that are free from such realms. There are words that are free from such realms. They are the blue mountains constantly walking, and the east mountain moving over the water. We should give them detailed investigation. So regarding the first part of this paragraph, the first sentence, turning the object and turning the mind is criticized by the great sage. So here, Dogan scolds, which is Okamura's words, the practice of turning the object and turning the mind because these practices, he says, are too goal-oriented. they kind of emphasize psychological change too much.

[49:11]

You might think that if we can change or fix our minds in some way, that we're going to get enlightened. That enlightenment is only about fixing our minds, changing our minds. Or, you know, opposite, perhaps, is, well, if I can fix or change the external environment, then things will be okay, right? If I can change this person here... and make them do what I want to do, then everything will be okay. Then I'll get enlightened. Has that worked for you? Probably not. So Dogen is saying either of these ways, changing our mind, changing us, or trying to change others, is not going to work. And the essential problem here is that it's creating a subject-object. It's creating a duality. separation between the mind and the object in some way. And Dogen is particularly critical of this. There's a sutra, the Surugama Sutra, also known as the Heroic March Sutra, which kind of, Dogen says, posits this kind of dualistic view of a separation between mind and objects.

[50:22]

Mind's over here and object's over here, and therefore, if I can just get the mind to engage with the object in a certain way, then enlightenment will happen. And so we can kind of study for ourselves. Do we have this particular tendency? How do we have this tendency? And have we approached Zen at any point in our life as a self-improvement project? Or maybe even as an other improvement project? If I do Zen, other people will improve. Has that worked for you? So again, this kind of studying for ourselves. When do we do this? How do we do this? And if you remember Suzuki Roshi's saying, you're perfect just as you are, and you can use a little improvement. The part that we end up focusing most of the time on is, and we can use a little improvement. We don't focus so much on the more ultimate perfection, the nondual wholeness of our being. And so it kind of becomes one-sided in some way.

[51:27]

And Dogen says, therefore, Because of this, we want to turn away one way or the other. And Dogen is saying there is nowhere to turn to. Just be this one completely. Then you will have full realization. So no turning away. He also says here that practice is espoused by certain Buddhist schools and teachers of explaining the mind and explaining the nature. And seeing the mind and seeing the nature are also not affirmed by Buddhists and ascers. ancestors and are the business of non-Buddhists. Again, these are practices that are put forth by and central to a Saragama Sutra and positing a separation between mind and nature, shin and show. And the nature of mind, shin, is sometimes called our true nature or original face or true face. And some Buddhists thought that mind, nature or shin show was hidden.

[52:30]

And all we needed to do was discover it. It was kind of like a jewel buried in somewhere. So if I just kind of keep, you know, kind of sifting through this muck, I'll find the jewel of my true mind nature. And then as a process, I will be enlightened. And Dogen's saying, this is not what the Buddhist ancestors taught. And that the expression seeing the mind, or Kenshin, and seeing the nature, Kensho, actually mean the same thing. I was going to talk about Kensho and Satori, but I think I'll skip that. Because you're not interested in either of those. And just get to the last two sentences of the section. Because then you'll fix onto it in some way. You'll be like, oh, Kensho or Satori. Basically, the bottom line is that Satori, you already are what you are.

[53:37]

You're already awake. You know, Kensho has this idea of seeing something separate. So I get to see something that's other. And Dogen's saying that's not the correct way of understanding of seeing. There is no other thing to see. You already are awake. So rather than saying all Buddhas have Buddha nature, having means it's a separate object that you have, like you're carrying it with you in some way. Dogen changed the phrase to all beings are Buddha nature. Your whole being is already that. So there's nowhere to get. So drop this outward externalizing view and then you will see for yourself or experience yourself exactly what the truth of what you are. So last two sentences. Sticking to words and sticking to phrases are not the words of liberation. They are words that are free. There are words that are free from such realms. They are the blue mountains constantly walking and the blue mountains moving over the water.

[54:40]

We should give them detailed investigation. So the first sentence of this is a common critique of getting stuck in words and phrases, which means don't get caught in conceptualizations and dualistic thinking. And this could be a reference in some cases to koans, working with koans or koan phrases as a way to produce powerful insights. And Dogen's saying this too isn't it, you know, to fix onto words in this way as a practice. He's saying that this is all good Zen stuff, that's fine to do them, and they're traditionally used, but they are not ultimately the best way to approach liberation. And then Dogen goes on to say that there are actually words that don't get stuck in conceptualization, that are actually free of words and phrases that go beyond them. There are words that are free from such realms. They are the Blue Mountains constantly walking and the East Mountain moving over the water.

[55:41]

We should give them detailed investigation. In other words, these particular words are words that go beyond words. What are words that go beyond words? Ogamora says that for Dogen, realization means coming and going within the mountains as our body, which means living with all beings within the network of interdependent origination. Remember yesterday I shared the koan about the monk who said, tell me the way, right? And the Zen master says, what a fine mountain this is. And the monk says, I didn't ask you about the mountain, I asked you about the way. And the master again says, if you, what was it now? If you can't go beyond the mountain, you can't go forward in the way. So be the mountain. There is no other way. There is no other, period.

[56:43]

Just be this completely. Go beyond this. in terms of the perception that you have of this. So in the end, Dogen is pointing out the need to deconstruct our views and not grasp onto any view whatsoever. So this is something that bothers Dogen, this idea of setting up something and opposed to something else. And he doesn't like this idea because he actually says this is not what the Buddha taught. And it creates a kind of violence because it sets up all kinds of goal-seeking, and dichotomies and opposites and hierarchies and other bad dynamics. And we don't need to do this according to Dogen. We don't need to try to get somewhere else. Positing any somewhere else is always a duality. So whether or not we grasp on views as the right view or a better view, including the four conditioned views of mountains, or views about practice or about use of language and words, we're missing the point completely.

[57:44]

We should study and investigate in detail the way these mistaken views arise and then focus on letting them go. We just need to focus on living out our lives and living out the mountains walking without trying to see something special. There's nothing special happening here. If you can rest in that nothing special, you'll have it all. Or all of it will have you. It already has you, actually. You just don't recognize it. Okay, so I'll end there. That was a lot of Dogen to digest, and thank you again for your kind attention and patience. So let's go beyond views and just go walking in the mountains, or have the mountains actually walk in us. So we'll go for a walking meditation after this. And be sure to hold all of your conditioned views as you're outside walking around very lightly.

[58:46]

Things are not as they appear to you. Thank you very much. May our intention equally extend to every being and place. With the true Mary of Buddha's way.

[59:11]

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