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. There are flies in this microphone, so you may hear some static. Not from the speaker, though. So about five minutes ago, I decided, what is Sashin about anyhow? How do I feel right now? And the word poignant came up. I wasn't sure I knew what poignant meant. So I looked it up in the dictionary.

[01:03]

Number one, physically painful. piercing, incisive. Three, neat, skillful, to the point. Four, agreeably intense or stimulating. Five, the archaic, sharp or sour to the taste. And its roots are from to prick or to pierce. So those of us who are in Sashin, and many of us who aren't, can relate to the physically painful. Which often leads to one being pierced and incisive. Not always so skillful.

[02:11]

Three, neat, skillful to the point. agreeably intense or stimulating, it's good for your practice. This practice period has been on the Genjo Koan, the question of everyday life, how to integrate each moment into everything else. And there's one section of it, which is a very famous section, but which we didn't spend so much time on. So I thought I'd talk about it a little bit.

[03:16]

Study the Buddha way is to study oneself. To study oneself is to forget oneself. To forget oneself is to be enlightened by the 10,000 dharmas. 10,000 means everything. To be enlightened by the 10,000 dharmas is to be freed from one's body and mind and those of others. No trace of enlightenment remains and this traceless enlightenment is continued forever. To study the self, study Buddhism is to study the self. I didn't think there was a self in Buddhism. Did I misread there?

[04:34]

Buddhism is you. You need to study you. What's in front of you? Buddhism isn't some objective series of texts. Maybe it is, but... That's not the way we study it. We study it as ourselves. To study Buddhism is to study what's in front of you, and what's in front of you is Buddhism isn't subjective or objective. It's the meaning of objectivity and subjectivity. To study oneself is to forget oneself.

[05:56]

The more you study yourself, it becomes more difficult to see how you're separate from everything else. If you don't study yourself, you think everything is objective. Do you think everything is objective? Number one is very painful. To forget oneself is to be enlightened by everything. Everything can teach you. It doesn't have to go through a filter of a so-called self. To be enlightened by everything is to be freed

[07:09]

from the body and mind of self and others. It's to be free from the categories of separation. When that happens, there's no trace of enlightenment. There's nothing that sticks out. And this no trace is continued forever. Study Buddhism is to study the self. That's what you've come here to do, is to study yourself. To study the self, it becomes very painful, incisive, skillful to the point, agreeably intense or stimulating, sharp or sour to the taste.

[08:16]

To study oneself is to forget oneself. If you look at yourself very closely, the eye begins to disappear, and the separation from others becomes very fuzzy. To forget oneself is to be enlightened by the 10,000 things, by everything. If there's no longer a self that has to be the gatekeeper, then anything can teach you. to stand up for a little bit.

[09:56]

I can stand. I can walk and talk. Sashin is almost over. But this studying of the self is never over. Because it's a big habit to think of ourselves as separate. Now, we wouldn't be better off if we had lobotomies or if we didn't think that, if we responded to each other's names or we paid each other's bills. There's a truth to the self.

[11:33]

but it's not so important. If you ignore it, it's very important. But if you pay attention to it, the more you pay attention to it, the less important it is. But you may have to stand up sometimes. To get to self is to be enlightened by everything. And this enlightenment keeps going. Because there's no stopping it. There's one other important element in this session which we've been talking about sound. Objectivity and subjectivity of sound. The birds. What we hear.

[12:37]

And there's one more story I want to tell about sound. This is a story about Rick Fields. Rick Fields died around five or ten years ago. He was a Buddhist practitioner, Tibetan practitioner, and a journalist. I guess he would have liked to be called a journalist. And he was doing a three-year retreat by a creek, much like maybe Tassajara, but a solo retreat. And he began to hear a sound in the creek, a song. If you've been ever deprived of sensory objects, you can understand that you hear many things in the sounds, in white noise.

[13:43]

So he heard this song, and it was not a song he liked. Rick was a Canadian, and he was hearing the Star-Spangled Banner. So day after day, he would hear the Star-Spangled Banner in the creek. Probably this is Homeland Security's idea. He got so disgusted with it, he went in the creek and started moving the rocks around to see if you could change the tune. He couldn't, but it was a great idea. To test out your ideas. test out your subjective and objective sound. The problem with subjectivity and objectivity is not really a problem.

[15:02]

If you study objectivity, you learn subjectivity. You study subjectivity, you learn objectivity. They're just different directions. Hopefully they don't pass in the dead of night. Study Buddhism is to study the self. What else is there to study? You want to study some ancient writings? Translate them?

[16:06]

Well, that's good, because there are ancient writings about the self. To study the self is to forget your particular point of view. Or to refine your point of view so it's so specifized that it joins in with everything. The Buddhist sutras, it says, at such and such a time, Buddha dwelt in such and such a place and such and such people were there. It tells a specific point but puts it in a context. At such and such a time, Blanche Hartman was teaching at 300 Page Street with a vast assembly of Buddhists and Bodhisattvas.

[17:20]

And she was teaching the Genjo Koan. She was teaching to study Buddhism as to study the self. In the Lotus Sutra, it says, because you're here now listening to the Lotus Sutra, Reading it now, you were there in the past when it was being taught. I don't know if Dogen had so many students, but he may be here again. So what you hear is neither subjective or objective.

[18:47]

Suzuki Roshi said, when you hear noise, it's objective, because it doesn't have meaning. The more you know yourself, the more you know other people. One of the great critiques of a Zen teacher, as you could say, he was very smart, he knew a lot, but he didn't know himself. That's studying Buddhism as not yourself. And Rick Rickfields knew that he wasn't going to change the creek sound, but he tried it anyway.

[19:51]

That's faith in the Dharma. So many of us want to study Buddhism because we don't want to study ourselves. It's so boring. Particularly if you do seshin after seshin, you're stuck with looking at the same person with the same bad habits. Alas. and it's physically painful. It can be incisive. It can be to the point.

[21:00]

And you can always go into samadhi, agreeably intense or stimulating. But this studying of the self and forgetting of the self This not believing in the objective versus the subjective is skillful and to the point. Today we have the Shuso ceremony.

[22:04]

Leanne has been a great Shuso, and she'll prove it today. She talked about renunciation. Accepting and renouncing is what we need to do. Accepting our faults for how they've been from the very beginning, from beginningless greed, hate, and delusion, and then renounce our intention to keep them going forward. Accepting who we are and then going forward, not staying there. This is studying the self, forgetting the self, and being enlightened by all things.

[23:29]

Well, I wrap that up. Genjo Kohan has done. Sashin has been encapsulized. No. Not. Those of you who are in Sashin have come forward with your own insights. and practices moved far further. Those of you who haven't been doing Sashin probably have done the same in your everyday life. It's not that different except in Sashin we say, look at this. Our everyday life we say, don't look at this. Look at the books.

[24:37]

Which is okay, but not enough. So right now you are in the center of your life. Right now you're in the center of your life. Guess what happens next? We may not like it. It's not a matter of liking or not. It's making our best effort on each occasion. So I appreciate all of you coming and doing your best.

[25:55]

And we still have some more to go, both in our lives and in Sashin. 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.

[26:30]

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