This podcast is offered by San Francisco's Zen Center on the web at sfcc.org. Our public programs are made possible by donations from people like you. Good morning, everyone. Welcome to Beginner's Mind Temple. How's the audio? Good. Good. So I know many of you are here sitting in the One Day Sashin. Are there anybody here who's here for the first time? Okay, special welcome to you. So we're in a 10-week practice period here at the City Center, which means that we're involved in a more intensive practice. One of the things I've been talking about during this practice period is a famous essay called the Genjo Koan by Dogen Zenji, who was the founder of the Soto sect of Buddhism in Japan, which we are a member of the Soto sect of Buddhism.

[01:19]

And he wrote this essay in 1233. And The title, Genjo Koan, has an interesting meaning, which I'll do a little bit of a description of, according to Shohaku Okamura, who wrote an entire book, Realizing the Genjo Koan, on this four-page essay. Genjo means to manifest. And koan means absolute truth that embraces relative truth. And a little bit more etymological breakout, of this is that ko, and there's a long description of how it comes to this, means the equality of all things, the oneness of all things, and an means the uniqueness or particularity of each and every being. So koan is a combination of the oneness of everything and the uniqueness of everything. And so in a sense,

[02:23]

there's a kind of opposition within that koan. And that might be familiar to you in terms of sort of normal American usage of the term koan. There's always those sort of paradoxical stories from Zen, and that oppositional quality is part of that. So the word koan expresses the reality of our own lives. We are the intersection of equality, universality, unity, oneness of all being. So that's one part of what we are. We're one with everything. We may not believe that all the time, but that's a fundamental belief of Buddhism. And at the same time, we're totally unique individual. There's no one quite like us, and at every given moment we are a unique manifestation. So both this unity and difference defines our life. The Genjo Koan, combining the manifesting or actualizing, one translation of Genjo Koan is actualizing the fundamental point.

[03:34]

The fundamental point being that you are both one with everything and completely unique, and you're going to actualize that fact of your life in every moment. That's what our life is, is actualizing this fact. two-part element. So another way this is phrased is to answer the question from reality through the practice of our everyday life. So we answer this question actualizing the fundamental point, every moment of our everyday life. Another translation is the koan of the present moment. You know, what is this present moment asking of us? So that was just a little review for those of you who haven't been attending the last six weeks of the Genjo Kwan class. I'm sure you've caught up.

[04:36]

So I'm going to explore two sentences from the essay. and then the last paragraph of the essay. And the two sentences come from paragraph four, and they are the following. To carry yourself forward and experience myriad things is delusion. To carry yourself forward and experience myriad things is delusion. Second sentence is, myriad things come forth and experience themselves. That myriad things come forth and experience themselves is awakening. So we kind of have an oppositional thing here. That you carry yourself forward and experience many things is delusion. That many things, myriad things, all things come forth and experience themselves in you is awakening.

[05:44]

So we'll take the first sentence first. So carrying yourself forward and experiencing myriad things, we all have got that, right? That's what we do every day. We here take this self out into that world with all those things, and we try to get everything done that we need to get done. We try to get the things we need and avoid the things we don't want. We might have to battle with the forces of the universe to succeed in our efforts. This is just ordinary life. So one way this is constructed is within consciousness, our reality, our view of reality is distorted. And we take our distorted view of reality, our distorted ideas and desires, and move toward the world trying to find some truth. We try to see and capture reality with our minds, abilities, willpower, and effort in order to control everything and make our life stable and peaceful.

[06:56]

Does that remind you? Does that make sense? So I just thought, I mean, everybody knows that we have a distorted view of reality, right? I mean, first of all, just from a fundamental level, you know, a bird's view of reality is quite different than our view of reality. First of all, they have different eyes and they fly through trees and we walk around and so just from a normal way we understand that our view is limited by the fact that we're a human being. But even more important than that, our view is limited by the fact that we are a particular human being that came from a particular family structure and a particular culture. And I just thought I would roll through a little one particular description of how we come up with our particular psyche from one version of therapy. So according to this version, there's an adaptive imperative.

[07:59]

All animals are predisposed that is hardwired by evolution to adapt to their environment. That makes sense. And for humans... Our survival and adaptation requires maintaining a stable connection or attachment to parents, family members, or other caregivers. And a key to this adaption is the formation of a reliable concept of reality, an internal map of the physical and interpersonal world. This map-making process begins early in infancy and is one of the primary ways we develop our map of reality is by forming and testing hypotheses about how the world works. So we're a two-year-old and we are forming a map of reality by testing things, seeing what's going on around us. So we develop beliefs about our family, our relationships, our world, and ourselves.

[09:06]

This process of developing and testing beliefs begins shortly after birth and continues throughout life. So one of the key things about this adaptive process is our behavior is regulated by perceptions of safety and danger. These perceptions are an integral part of the map-making process. In order to develop a reliable and useful concept of reality, the individual must frequently assess his internal and external world to determine which experiences are safe and which are dangerous. So according to this theory, it goes on to say that traumatic emotional experiences are experiences of danger, and these experiences of danger leads a person to believe an important goal must be renounced in order to avoid the danger of hurting loved ones or being hurt themselves. and therefore a psychopathology stems from a pathogenic belief that typically stems from a traumatic childhood experience.

[10:15]

Pathogenic belief is a belief that causes suffering, pathogenic. These beliefs, which are usually unconscious, are extremely frightening and constricting because they suggest that the pursuit of an important goal is fraught with danger. So according to this theory called the control mastery theory, we have very early on developed a map and based on whatever early traumas we had in our life is quite distorted and restricts us from doing things because we're afraid if we do those, some harm will come to us or someone we love. An example of this would be a person who has difficulty expressing anger is frequently ruled by a pathogenic belief that angry feelings would wound or destroy a loved one. Another example would be a person who suffers from work inhibitions and who sabotages his or her own success often has the unconscious pathogenic belief that success will be injurious to a loved one.

[11:23]

Why I decided to take on a freshman course in psychotherapy this morning, I don't know. But you get the general picture. Each one of us has a belief system, a map, an internal map of who we are and what the world's like that quite distorts our way of operating in the world and either causes us a great deal of suffering when our map of the world doesn't match the actual map of the world and people behave differently from us than our childhood family situation was. And this is carrying forth our map of the world into the world and trying to make ourselves happy and get everything we want and avoid harm. But this map is so distorted that it's impossible to successfully do that. And, of course, as human beings, we're always working on improving our map, you know, just like...

[12:29]

normal topographers are, where as soon as we notice, oh, this part of our map is really bad, this belief I had from my childhood is no longer true, and you can either see that through sitting zazen and just noticing this crazy belief that's going through your head, and you say, well, this just is no longer true, or you actually go out into the world and test some of these beliefs by doing some things and noticing, oh, it isn't true that if I get angry, no one will love me. So you can disconfirm these beliefs by doing various things. So that's one kind of little snapshot of how our view of the world is not exactly consistent with reality. So I thought I would go to a poet's view. And this is one of my favorite poets, Kay Ryan. It's called Carrying a Ladder. We are always really carrying a ladder. but it's invisible. We only know something's the matter, something precious crashes, easy doors prove impassable, or in the body there's too much swing or off-center gravity, and in the mind a drunken capacity, access to out-of-range apples, as though one had to climb out of the damage, an apology.

[13:52]

I'll read it again. Carrying a Ladder In our head, we're carrying a ladder. And in our body, we're carrying it. We are always really carrying a ladder, but it's invisible. We only know that something's the matter. Something precious crashes. Easy doors prove impassable. Or in the body, there's too much swing or off-center gravity. And in the mind, a drunken capacity, access to out-of-range apples. as though one had to climb out of the damage and apology. So a couple of versions of, to carry yourself forward and experience myriad things is delusion. So we always have to be careful about these things because we use the word delusion. We think, oh, this is terrible. I don't want to do that. But basically, that's our life. And that's a big part of our life or most of our life.

[14:58]

There's a saying in Zen, if you see your delusion, if you're actually present and aware of your delusion, that is awakening. That myriad things come forth and experience themselves is awakening. That myriad things come forth and experience themselves is awakening. You know, for those who are sitting zazen today, that's what we're doing when we're sitting zazen. We're not trying to do anything. We're just sitting there experiencing whatever comes forth in us. We allow things to arise in us and experience themselves without feeling that we are amassing experience or shaping experience, that we are using experience, but allowing experience to come and go as it arises and falls. This is the myriad things coming forth and experiencing themselves as awakening.

[16:05]

Just allow things to come and go, to bear witness to things and allow rather than to separate and define oneself. You notice there's no person in this sentence. There's no you here. That myriad things come forth and experience themselves as awakening. You're not really there. It's just experiences are happening in you, with you, or there are experiences happening. Now, this is not probably as common, we think, as the first sentence, but actually I think it is quite a bit more common than we think, and I think it's useful for us to notice and cultivate this because it's kind of anti the way... we normally think about going through the world. Normally we think about going through the world as we've got a lot of problems. We're going to go out there and solve them. We're going to assert ourselves in the world.

[17:07]

And this is a different way. This is a way in which we are there as a receptive vehicle to what's happening in the present moment. I ran across a paragraph from a a marvelous book I got recently called Philosophical Meditations on Zen Buddhism. Oh my gosh, we go from therapy to poetry, now we're in philosophy. At least a philosophic meditation on Zen Buddhism. And I love Dale Wright's writing, and so here's the paragraph, and it refers to the second sentence that we're talking about. Wang Bo pictures... enlightened patriarchs. Enlightened patriarchs are famous Zen masters from the past, and Wang Bo was a famous Zen master talking about what they're like.

[18:07]

And in some sense, I like this because it so described my experience of Suzuki Roshi. Wang Bo pictures enlightened patriarchs, enlightened ancestors, or more we would do it, in real life situations. effacing themselves so that the true contour of the situation comes to disclosure in them. I'm going to repeat that sentence because it's a handful. He pictures enlightened patriarchs in real-life situations effacing themselves so that the true contour of the situation comes to disclosure in them. So a face means to make oneself appear insignificant, inconspicuous, disappear. So they disappear themselves so that the true contour of the situation, everything, the contour, that's like the contour of a moment, everything in a situation comes, disclosure means is exposed or revealed in them.

[19:17]

So we're saying an enlightened ancestor in a real-life situation is disappears himself so that the true contour of the situation is revealed in him. Get that? He's no longer there. The entire situation is manifested in him. They encounter the world not through acts of will and mind primarily, but through relinquishment. That is, through giving up. opening their own minds and will, the larger context of the situation comes manifest through them. I remember so many instances where I just see Suzuki Roshi, his whole being, every aspect of him is a perfect representation of what's going on in that moment.

[20:21]

Could be what's going on in that moment with the group. Could be going on in that moment with you. That is, he could see you. He could see you with his old being. He could be you because he gave himself up completely to feel you. This might be called compassion, to give yourself up and feel another person. That completely. opening oneself to the possibility of being moved so deeply by another. So he continues on a little bit. They help the situation along, help it come to fruition as it most beautifully can, not through their desire and action, but simply through their presence. I mean, you've been in that kind of situation in your life when you're with some person who's suffering and you have no idea how to take care of them or how to meet the situation and then you just give up and just be with them.

[21:36]

And that is the most beautiful way to be there. This is renunciation. Renunciation is not giving up coffee or ice cream. It's giving up everything. and merging with the flow of reality. So, two ways. Two ways we operate in the world. We carry ourselves forward and experience myriad things. That's delusion. that myriad things come forth and experience themselves is awakening. So I thought I would take a little bit of time and talk about the very end of the Genjo Koan.

[22:42]

And in some sense, the Genjo Koan ends with a story. In fact, a koan, a famous koan from the past that Dogen used. He often took a koan and put it at the end of one of his essays and used that koan to sort of frame the entire, or the rest of the essay was kind of a commentary on that koan. And it's kind of wonderful that Dogen shows this particular koan to frame or illustrate this, the Genjo Koan, because it's kind of, the Genjo Koan is sort of a summary of Dogen's teaching. And this Koan was a resolution to a fundamental question that Dogen had in his early childhood that drove his pilgrimage to China and eventual discovery of Zen Buddhism. According to his biography, Dogen was, well, Dogen had

[23:49]

His mother died early and his father was unknown. Probably he was born into a very high aristocratic family located with the aristocracy in Kyoto. And early on he ordained into the Tendai school of Buddhism, which was the major school of Buddhism in Japan at that time. And one of the fundamental Mahayana teachings of the Tendai school is that all living beings and non-living beings are already enlightened Buddhas. This is a fundamental teaching. All living beings are enlightened Buddhas. You're an enlightened Buddha. This is actually not just Mahayana teaching. This comes from Buddha himself when he had his enlightenment experience. He didn't say, Oh, wow, I'm enlightened. Too bad for all you fools. He said, Oh, I'm enlightened and so is everything else. So... Anyway, Dogen's question was, well, if I'm enlightened, why do I have to practice?

[24:56]

Why do I have to work so hard practicing? It doesn't make any sense. If I'm an enlightened Buddha, I can just, like, whatever's happening is cool. It's groovy. That was kind of what was happening when we were all, well, not all of you, you're too young, but when I was young and we were all hippies. Hey, man, everything's cool. Whatever I'm doing, I'm Buddha. So he had this question, and he wasn't satisfied with the answers he was getting from his Tendai teachers. And there was a small Zen group that had started in Kyoto, and he went over and started sitting with them. And he and the guy that was leading that group decided to go to China, where Zen was really happening, and find out what was going on and answer this question. So he did. He set off on this pilgrimage. And in those days, it was a long boat trip to China, which is a whole story in itself. He met a very famous Chinese Zen master and resolved this question for himself.

[25:59]

Came back to Japan and wrote fairly early on the Genjo Koan and also the Fukanzazengi. So now I'm going to tell you why I think This particular koan at the end of the Genjo koan is related to resolving this question. So, this is the koan. Zen master Boche of Mount Meiyu was fanning himself. Fanning himself, he had a fan. Probably hot in China. And a monk approached and said, Master, the nature of wind is permanent and there is no place it does not reach. Why then do you fan yourself? And the master said, although you understand that the nature of wind is permanent, Bao Che replied, you do not understand the meaning of its reaching everywhere.

[27:06]

And the monk said, what is the meaning of its reaching everywhere? And the master just kept fanning himself. The monk bowed deeply. That's it. So you can clearly see how this answered Dogen's question so deeply. But maybe I'll read it again so we can really you know, get into it. Zen Master Baoce was fanning himself. A monk approached and said, Master, the nature of wind is permanent and there is no place it does not reach. Why then do you fan yourself? And he says, although you understand that the nature of wind is permanent, you do not understand the meaning of its reaching everywhere.

[28:09]

The monk says, what is the meaning of its reaching everywhere? And the master just kept fanning himself. Well, so we're not really talking about wind here, are we? The nature of wind is permanent. He's saying, Buddha nature, your true nature, your Buddha nature, your Buddhaness is everywhere. Why do you need to fan yourself? Why do you need to do anything? Why do you need to practice? Since the nature of... Your Buddha nature is everywhere. No need to practice. And Vauce is just saying, well, you don't understand the meaning of it reaching everywhere. What is the meaning? And he keeps fanning. Yes, the wind is permanent and reaches everywhere, and that's why I can fan myself and why I must.

[29:28]

Life is already sacred. It is already good. We are awakened already. We don't need improvement, and we don't need to make our lives something we are not. That's what Buddha nature means. But... Being alive is making an effort. There is no way to be alive without manifesting your life. There is no boat without someone pulling the boat. This refers to an earlier part of the Genjo Koan where your body and mind is a boat and you're the person in the boat steering it, guiding it, pulling it. And that effort to manifest our lives is not out of some lack, but the opposite, out of some fullness that we can practice. So the fact that Buddha Nature is in us and everywhere, that we are totally awakened at all moments, is our chance to fully express, to manifest our lives.

[30:41]

not something extra we do to fix ourselves. It is simply the natural expression of our awakened nature. That is what Master Bauche means when he fans himself. Isn't this why we're here? To express our deep Buddha nature, to express our innermost desire. Practice is a very wide container. There are many ways to practice, but we have to practice. That's how we honor what is most worthwhile in us and the best way to express our responsibility as a human being.

[31:50]

So there's a little bit more to this. The story goes on a little bit more, which is mostly just kind of a add-on. I'll read it to you. The actualization of the Buddha Dharma, the vital path of its correct transmission, is like this. If you say that you do not need to fan yourself because the nature of wind is permanent and you can have wind without fanning, you will understand neither permanence nor the nature of wind. The nature of wind is permanent. Because of that, the wind of the Buddha house brings forth the gold of the earth and makes fragrant the cream of the long river. was a beautiful poet among other things. The sacredness of all our life makes this world and our life beautiful. If you practice, you will appreciate it and you will be able to express it with kindness and compassion.

[33:07]

When Dogen returned from China, the first essay he wrote was the Fukanza Zengi, which is translated as recommending zazen to all people. So he clearly felt that the way to actualize our Buddha nature was to give ourselves over time... Oh no, that's not what I want to say. Or at least I don't want to say that there. He felt the best way to express our Buddha nature was to model ourselves on the practice of Shakyamuni Buddha. And the practice of Shakyamuni Buddha was seated meditation, zazen, as we call it. So that's the first essay Dogen wrote when he came back from China, was a two-page essay with explicit details of how to practice zazen. how to choose a place to practice, how to put your cushion, how to fold your legs, how to place your hands.

[34:20]

That was the first thing he wrote. So today, those of you who are here on this one day sitting are having a chance to practice Buddha's way as a way of expressing your Buddha nature and sharing it with each other. So I think I'll conclude this little talk with an interchange between Yaoshin, who was a monk who became a famous Zen teacher, and his teacher, Shito. And this is a little essay concerning the deep practice of zazen. One day as Yaoshan was sitting, Shido asked him, what are you doing here?

[35:28]

Yaoshan said, I am not doing a thing. Shido said, then you are just sitting leisurely? Yaoshan said, if I were sitting leisurely, I'd be doing something. This guy, Yaoshin, was pretty good, don't you think? Really. I mean, Shido was a real first-class Zen master. I mean, three of the schools of Zen in China came from him. So Shido went back and said, you say you're not doing anything. What is it you are not doing? Touche. The game is a Hanh. Yao Shan said, a thousand sages don't know.

[36:34]

A thousand sages don't know. So you are practicing zazen today. We don't know what it is. A thousand sages don't know. But we do know it is a very deep, that comes to us from a teacher a long time ago. I wish you a good day. Thank you. Thank you for listening to this podcast offered by the San Francisco Zen Center. Our Dharma Talks are offered free of charge, and this is made possible by the donations we receive. Your financial support helps us to continue to offer the Dharma. For more information, please visit sfcc.org and click Giving. May we all fully enjoy the Dharma.

[37:37]

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