Thank you. Thank you.

[01:59]

Thank you. Thank you. I vow to taste the truth of the Tathagata's words. No surpass penetrating in perfect dharma. It is worthy that with even in a hundred thousand million kalpas, having it to be in the same tune, Purely number and accept. I know how to taste the truth of the Tiptakata's words. An unsurpassed penetrating imperfect Dharma.

[03:07]

It is a dream that we, even in a hundred thousand million Kalabas, If you see and listen to, remember and accept, I vow to taste the truth of the Tithagata's words. Good morning. My name is Kokyo, and I've come here for the 80th practice period at Green Dragon Temple, which just began a few days ago.

[04:18]

Practice period is a time for practice. For Zen practice, which is always happening here, but during practice period, it's not exactly that there's more of it, but maybe it's like we just try to remember it more often. Zen practice during practice period for six weeks. So we have more zazen sitting, we have more dharma discussions, and so on. I don't know how there have been 79 of these practice periods here before this one, but... somehow it's happened.

[05:23]

I think it's just because people are interested in practicing Zen. At least enough to do 79 practice periods and maybe we'll complete this 80th one this year. Why would anybody be interested in such a thing? I think we're looking for something reliable and trustworthy in a world that is not so reliable and trustworthy, in a body that's not so reliable and trustworthy, in a mind that's not so reliable and trustworthy. Is there anything reliable and trustworthy?

[06:32]

This practice period, our study topic, focus, is the jewel mirror samadhi, which I would propose is the only reliable, trustworthy reality there is. Of course, it comes in many names, but this is one of many names of the one reliable, trustworthy refuge. The Song of the Dual Mirror Samadhi is a hit single in our Zen lineage.

[07:40]

One of the best. It was taught... We're not exactly sure who wrote it, actually, but it was... and transmitted particularly by our Zen ancestor in 9th century China, whose name was Dungshan Liangzhi, who lived on Mount Dong. And we call this lineage of Zen in China the Sao Dong lineage, named after Dungshan. In Japanese, we pronounce it Sōtō. Dungshan is Tōzan. And the Sao, or the So of Sōtō is the name of the place where the sixth ancestor taught Zen.

[08:54]

Sao Shi, or Sokei. So our particular stream of Zen is based on the teachings of the sixth ancestor whose name was Great Mirror Wisdom Ability. and the teaching of Dongshan, maybe most known for this jewel mirror samadhi song. This song, it seems like according to one story, was originally a kind of transmission, like a Dharma transmission document.

[10:11]

So in this old Zen collection we call it the Book of Serenity, in the commentary, Dung Shang, when he was passing on the teaching to his student, Cao Shang. In his last instructions, he seemed to be passing on this song of the Jewel Mirror Samadhi. And he said to his student, at my late teacher Yun Yan's place, I was intimately sealed with the Jewel Mirror Samadhi. meaning that this was like his transmission from his teacher was this dual mirror samadhi. He says that in the record of Dungshan also. So maybe this song was written by his teacher Yunyan, but maybe it was written by Yunyan's teacher Yao Shan.

[11:24]

We don't know how far back it went. It was a little bit like... very intimate and maybe somewhat secret. So in this book of serenity, Dengshan said, at my late teacher Yunyan's place, I was personally, intimately sealed with the jewel mirror samadhi in which all matters are comprehended most clearly and essentially. Now, I entrust it to you, Saoshan, my dear student. Keep it well and don't let it be cut off. Later, if you meet a true Dharma vessel, only then should you pass on this dual mirror samadhi to them because it's...

[12:26]

so intimate and essential. It should be kept somewhat hidden, not revealed too easily. I think that if this dual mirror samadhi is offered according to current conventions, it would be hard to connect with future descendants. something about this song, right, this very intimate, this is in the commentary to the 80th case in the Book of Serenity. If it's, if this Juhumir Samadhi song is offered according to current conventions, it might be hard to connect with future descendants.

[13:29]

What are the current conventions? We don't know what he meant by that, but we might imagine it as current conventions might be like being too flippant about the deepest dharma or too kind of superficial or just for people who just want a tiny tip-of-the-tongue taste of Zen instead of offer to those who really want the full package. I don't know if that was the current conventions in his time. So it seems like the song was a very intimate and almost hidden kind of thing in the time of the ones who wrote it and originally passed it down.

[14:45]

And in one record of our Japanese ancestor four centuries later, it says that his teacher Ru Jing, when Dogen received his teacher Ru Jing's dharma, China before returning to Japan. His teacher gave him the teacher's portrait and gave Dogen this Jewel Mirror Samadhi, according to one story. So it seems like maybe for many centuries it was a kind of intimate transmission document. And we might say, well, we shouldn't even be talking about this kind of thing around here. on a Sunday talk. But some centuries after Dogen, a teacher, very important kind of reviver of the Soto Zen lineage in Japan named Menzan, felt like this song is...

[15:58]

It's kind of obscure, but it really could be a smash hit. So we should make it more widely known. So this was in the 1700s. And so Menzan then suggested that this song be incorporated into the daily liturgy in Soto-Zang temples. And it has been since that time. In other words, in temples of this lineage of Dungshan, in Japan, every Soto Zen temple would chant this song of the Jomir Samadhi every day or every other day usually, along with some other songs. So here, too, we chant this song regularly in our morning service.

[17:03]

In this practice prayer, we're going to chant it every day because we want to make it a smash hit around here. So what was originally very private, intimate kind of thing has for many centuries now been widely spread and celebrated as one of the heart teachings of how to practice Dongshan's Zen, Soto Zen. The title of this song is The Song of the Jewel Mirror Samadhi. Samadhi is a Sanskrit term from the Buddha that means like the unified mind, the unification of mind, the one-pointedness of mind.

[18:11]

That's how the Buddha defined Samadhi. Mind is often scattered or dispersed or split into subjects and objects. These kind of dualities. But samadhi is a unified mind. One mind. One pointed mind. Undivided mind. In the Buddha's early teachings, we have the Eightfold Path, important summary of the Buddha's practice methods and the foundational teachings. And without going into that, just know that the Eight, the final fold of the Eightfold Path is Rait Samadhi.

[19:19]

And in the Indian yogic traditions, like we have Patanjali's Yoga Sutras, is a central teaching of the yoga tradition, some centuries after the Buddha's time. And there's eight limbs in Patanjali's yoga. Ashtanga is the eight-limbed yoga. And it so happens that the eighth limb in the eightfold yoga path is called samadhi. Is that just coincidence? So not exactly that the eightfold path is a progressive kind of thing. aspects of one path. But maybe there's some significance that the Buddha and Patanjali put Samadhi as the kind of final practice on their list of the essential practice.

[20:43]

Unified mind, undivided mind, one-pointed mind. And then in the later great vehicle, Buddha Dharma, there's many, many names of different samadhis, colorful names. And in Zen, there's many names of samadhis. The limitless meanings samadhi, the storehouse of radiant light samadhi, self-enjoyment samadhi, and the jewel mirror samadhi. These may be different names for something very similar, but in this case, this song is called the jewel mirror, the precious mirror, unified mind. And I hope we can explore this song for the next six weeks in this practice period and in some Sunday talks and in the Sashin retreats.

[22:02]

There's many verses, so we won't hear them all today. But as a kind of introduction to this samadhi, how we might relate to it before we even go into the verses, These jewel mirror verses. One of my many favorite Zen-like teachings that I think is a nice way of talking about this jewel mirror samadhi in more modern times. I think it may be kind of accessible even for newcomers. Maybe not, but... Let's see how this introduction is for you. This is coming from the teachings of Douglas Harding, who has a book called On Having No Head, subtitled.

[23:18]

is Zen and the rediscovery of the obvious. That's a hint that is maybe kind of accessible, something really obvious here. And it's something that I think he, Douglas Harding, this author, at one point, discovered that he had no head. And at some point he started talking to people about this and thought, maybe people just think I'm really weird. Maybe I am kind of crazy. But then he discovered Zen teachings and he said, oh no, these people are on to it. The fact that we don't really have a head. I think he was comforted by that. So... So what he discovered, his headlessness, what he later called the headless way, is basically that he had no head and the way, experientially, he had no head.

[24:44]

And the way he kind of points this out as a kind of method is that we can all try now is try to get into this kind of open-minded space of kind of naive exercise here. There's nothing tricky about this. We're trying to just stay with our direct experience. So this particular method that I think is kind of good entrance into the Headless gate is we take our finger, you know, finger often points at things. So we can, we can like point at the ceiling and like follow our finger to what it's pointing at. And see if you point your finger at the ceiling and then kind of look along your finger at where it's pointing to, what do we see?

[25:44]

We see like what we call the Zendo ceiling. And it's like, it's over there at a distance from me. And we call it, in Buddhist terms, we often call it an object. It's an object of mind. The mind knows objects. The eyes see objects. The ears hear objects. The objective world is the world of experiences that are happening to others. mind or to our senses so particularly we're focusing on the visual sense in this exercise so we see this something that has a particular color kind of brownish different shades of brown and and a shape of kind of like rectangular looks a little bit from our angles where we're sitting it looks a little bit like trapezoidal shapes if we stay with our experience

[26:45]

So there's shape and color. And then we can point at something else, like a window in the window. It's something over there. It's also kind of rectangular and has a frame and so on. We can point to a cushion on the floor. It's kind of a round black thing over there. These are visual objects. We can point. Then we can point down to our knees, our lap. Follow your finger down there. Oh, yeah, it's another object called my lower body. Then you can move your finger a little bit like this. Now, you can't look quite along it, but if you look down, you can see your torso barely. If you stretch your neck, right, it's still just like the ceiling and the cushions, right?

[27:51]

It's another object that has a particular color of the clothing we're wearing and shape and so on, right? So it's feeling a little more intimate because it's this body, but it's still the same category of this stuff, color and shape and so on, right? Now keep moving your finger up your torso further and further. And what's at the end of your finger now? We're not talking about some memory you have of it or something you've heard about it, but in your direct experience, what is that finger pointing to? And if you say a head, I would say that's just an idea from the past. In your direct experience right now, is there any head there? Yeah? Laughter is good because you maybe got it. You really can't find any head there, right?

[28:55]

I mean, you might say, well, that's silly. I know there's a head, but without hitting it or going to a mirror, there's really nothing really there called a head or a face, right? And where we thought our head used to be, where we thought our face was, what do we find instead? It's almost like a, it's not something with color and shape, right? It's more like a transparent window, something like that. We might say, well, I'm seeing out through my eyes, my two eyes. But in our experience, it doesn't even seem like two eyes, really. Doesn't it seem like one big window with no edges, really? Doesn't it seem that way? We might not have noticed that because we just kind of feel as if and we think as if we have a head and we're experiencing through our head.

[30:03]

But in our direct experience, When we look at that, it's not like all those other things we were looking at. It's not something that has color and shape. It's not something that has a size or even a location. It feels like when we look for the edges of this window, we don't really see the edges. Maybe at some point we feel like the window doesn't go all the way back behind our heads, but it's kind of blurry, the edges. It's like an empty space, clear space. But where they used to be ahead, it's not that this empty space is nothing at all, right? Experientially, what is here is kind of like an empty, spacious window, but it's filled with everything, isn't it?

[31:07]

It's filled with the zendo and all the people here. And all those things we were pointing at earlier are like appearances in this empty, boundless, edgeless window. We could say window or we could also compare it to a mirror. It's like a very clear mirror in which everything in the room is reflected or appearing. Can you grok it? Can you verify the presence of headlessness?

[32:10]

experiential headlessness, facelessness. In Zen, we sometimes talk about our original face before our parents were born. It's another name for this one. The faceless one is also our original face. And our original face here, does it not, experientially for each of us, when we stay with this exercise, is it not true that this original face has no particular size or shape or color or sound or texture or

[33:15]

gender or race or past history. It's always just present, open, mirror-like window. And it's inseparable from everything that we see. It's not like there's a window over here and all that stuff is out there. Isn't it more like this empty space is filled intimately with all appearances without any distance, really, between this faceless face?

[34:17]

any appearances. So this is, I would say this is Zen practice. Maybe some Zen practitioners might even think like, that's not how I practice Zen. But we can, this is a nice practice because we can practice it sitting on a cushion silently. And we can practice it walking around throughout the day, and in every activity, this headless space never leaves us. It's always available. We're usually focused on the things being out there, and we forget that they're actually, experientially, not really out there. They're actually just the play

[35:19]

the images on the surface of this jewel mirror. And as Douglas Harding, the Headless Way discoverer said, I lost my head and gained a world. Where I thought my head was is actually the whole world. I hope you can taste that a little bit. I would say that's basically what the song of the Jewel Mirror Samadhi is about. But then there's lots of details in this song. The tradition of Buddha Dharma uses this metaphor, this analogy of a mirror quite a lot.

[36:25]

And I think of various ways of tuning this mirror and looking at basically this metaphor of the dual mirror. So here's one of them from the Flower Ornament Sutra, which is a popular scripture these days around this temple, I've heard, the Avatamsaka Sutra, in chapter 29, called The Ten Acceptances. See if you can accept this. This is one of the ten acceptances. It's a bodhisattvas, enlightening beings, acceptance of being like a reflection in a mirror. Bodhisattvas, those who wish to be really awake for the benefit of all beings, have a lot of things they have to accept.

[37:42]

Ten big ones may be here. And this one is the acceptance of that they themselves are like reflections in the mirror, and everybody else and everything is also like reflections in the mirror. And this is how the bodhisattva, Samanta Bhadra, in this chapter, teaches this acceptance of awakening beings, bodhisattvas. He says, just as the sun, moon, moon, men, women, houses, mountains, rivers, springs, and so on. A lot of duality there, right? All those dualistic appearances. All these things, just as they are reflected in something clear, like still water,

[38:46]

or a jewel or a mirror, just as the sun and the moon and the mountains and the rivers are reflected in a mirror and the reflections are neither one with nor different from the mirror, are neither separate from nor united with the mirror, Can you follow that? Those of you who've entered the headless way, we're talking about this mirror-like headless space is not really separate from the images that are appearing within this window or mirror, but it's not that the

[39:47]

that the images are exactly united with this faceless face either. They don't really fall into that category of one way or the other. We can't really say they are the mirror because the mirror seems to be the same as we walk through the day, the same in in the sense of it's always just open and clear. It's always in that same kind of state. But the appearances are constantly changing, so they can't be, we can't really say they're exactly identical, but we can't say there's the slightest bit of separation between the mirror and its images either, right? This is something to contemplate. So just like these mountains, rivers, and so on are neither one with nor separate from the mirror. Appearing in the mirror without the mirror being affected by them.

[40:58]

These are like some nuances we can explore. Does this headless space where your head used to be, is that space affected by the different colors and shapes that appear within it. It seemed like it's always in the same condition. It's not really affected by them. And yet, at the same time, it's completely inseparable from the changing content of the reflection. So similarly to this analogy, great bodhisattvas, great awakening beings, know their own bodies and others' bodies are all appearances of cognition or of mind and do not understand them dualistically as self and others.

[42:16]

And simultaneously, these bodhisattvas appear in their own lands and other lands. Maybe we could understand that as their own lands is their own original face. They always appear there. They can't escape it no matter how hard they try. They can't leave their original face. But then if they walk over to someone else's house, they're in... their friends land, too. Just as there are no roots, sprouts, stalks, nodes, branches, or leaves in a seed, the seed of a plant or a tree, yet this seed can produce the roots, sprouts, stalks, nodes, and branches. So also do great bodhisattvas distinguish duality in that which is non-dual.

[43:28]

Their skillful means, completely fluid and all-encompassing, without hindrance. This is called great... Bodhisattvas, great awakening beings, acceptance of everything being like a reflection. That's a kind of old scriptural presentation of the Jewel Mirror Samadhi long before Dungshan's time. There's another old sutra called the Sutra Unraveling the Deep Mysteries, the Sandhya Nirmocana Sutra, where the Buddha says to Maitreya Bodhisattva, I have explained that consciousness, mind, is fully distinguished by the fact that

[44:44]

that it's objects, all these things we see and sounds we hear, that these objects are just cognition only. The appearances are the headless open space. I've taught that, Maitreya. And then... Maitreya says to the Buddha, Bhagavan, if that image is not different from the mind, then how can the mind reflect on itself in order to know these images? How could it do that? It seems like the mind is being aware of images, but how could the mind just reflect on itself like that to know these images? if you're saying that they're really not different. The Bhagavan, the Buddha, replied, Maitreya, although no thing ever looks at any other thing, nevertheless, the mind that is generated in that way appears in that way.

[46:02]

For instance, based on form, form is seen in a perfectly clear round mirror. But one thinks, I see an image. The form and the appearance of the image on the mirror appear as different things. Likewise, the mind and the images in the mind appear to be separate. It's also a prelude to Dungshan's Jewel Mirror Samadhi. There's many other Zen teachings about the mirror as well. I've been talking a while.

[47:04]

Maybe you might have some questions. doubts or qualms about such a thing? Do you have? No. No qualms. Do you have any clarifications to make, particularly about how we might practice this headless way in one moment and then... And then more and more ongoing way. Or you might also ask about, why are we doing this again? Yes, any? Using the mic, hold it close like that. Good morning, teacher.

[48:07]

Good morning. I was thinking about... and how as we grow and make assumptions about something or a situation. And I don't understand everything about what you're saying, but it seems like one thing you're pointing to is the nature of mind to grasp, to determine what it is we're dealing with, and that this teaching shakes it up. Yes. Yes, well put. Yes. Our mind has this tendency to grasp ideas, particularly, but also grasp sights and sounds and sensations and emotions. And usually by grasp, we mean try to hold on to, but also the opposite, to try to push away. Grasping and rejecting are basically two

[49:08]

movements of the same tendency, and they're both based on the illusion that there's something separate from the mind to grasp or to reject, that there could be something like that. So it reminds me of the next section I was about to read. So because it's so pertinent, I'll just read it here. a teacher just before Dongshan, a Chinese Zen teacher named Matsu, and he said, the mind of suchness or thusness is like a clear mirror which reflects images. The mirror is the mind and the images are things. If the mind grasps at things, then it gets involved in external causes and conditions, which is the meaning of birth and death.

[50:13]

If the mind does not grasp at external things, that is called suchness or thusness. So that's a more elaborated way of saying the same point, yes. And also, if we are wondering, so why are we... Why do we hear things like this? Why would we want to practice this? Because we're trying to release our grasping because grasping and rejecting are, according to the Buddha, no fun. Buddha's basic definition of discontent or suffering is grasping. So... We're getting right at the heart of the matter, one version of the heart of the matter. We might say, there's all this stuff that I'm trying to grasp and reject. Just stop doing it, Kokyo.

[51:17]

We can't really just decide to stop. These Zen teachings are particularly like shifting our perspective on things in a way that... that from the shift of perspective, naturally, there's less grasping and rejecting. That's the proposal in Zen. Rather than trying to make ourselves stop doing it, it's because we're seeing something in a false way. Yes, thank you. Hi, my name is Natasha. Hi. So this has been something that I've been thinking about while I was listening to you. You mentioned when you let go of your head, you gain a world. And I hope this doesn't sound like too much of an identity question, because don't get me wrong, I love my life. But as an empathetic human, I think what you're saying is, like with your window analogy, we're all...

[52:30]

of one being living under the same like as if earth was our home we're just different windows under the same roof but i still question like why i was given my window as opposed to a different window so thank you oh yes did you all hear that question So one thing about this window that we're exploring and verifying here today, nicely, you can take this window home with you, right? And in fact, you can't ever avoid it. It goes with you wherever you are. In fact, it is you. You are not it, really. But in truth, it is actually you. So something about this window, when we look at it, that you could say the world, we lose a head and gain a world, as you say, right?

[53:41]

So you could say the head that we lose is a particular idea of what our own head was. We've kind of lost the grasp on that one. But the world... that we gain is slightly different because the view in each window is different. We're just looking at a slightly different angle of the zendo, right? So even though we're very similar worlds that we're sharing right now. But you could say that we really look at the qualities of the window itself, or the mirror. We're kind of mixing the same analogy, window or mirror, right? You could say those qualities of that window-like mirror, are they not actually exactly the same for each of us? The appearance of the world is different, but the qualities of the mirror, the qualities I mean, the fact that it's spacious and edgeless and empty of any tangible, graspable stuff,

[54:55]

It's just appearing as a world. So the appearances will be slightly different for us. But the mirror-ness, the suchness of this mirror, we can explore or maybe deduce how mustn't it be the same for each of us. So you could say there's all these windows in one world that we share. But another way to say it would be, There's one window that we share with a bunch of different worlds, sort of reversing your idea. And then we might say, why was I given this particular location of this portal, this mirror? Why is it located over here instead of somewhere else? And the answer is, we have no idea.

[55:58]

But here we are. And we all have the equal opportunity to appreciate the qualities of the mirror that we share. I think that's the unique thing. We're really into the differences, but this kind of song is exploring. the shared qualities of each of our windows. So identically shared that it might be, it might raise the question of, is it actually one mirror? Someone nods their head. No, it couldn't be. Why would you think? Sure, sure. Yeah. I'll come back to you.

[57:03]

I mean, it's an open question for me, too. Who did... Ah, that was you. I'm Susan. Hi. I think the mirror's not the same as the world because there are... We don't have... We have five senses, but there... There are other beings in the world that have more than, or different senses, like birds have magnetic, perception of magnetic fields. So what we see in our window is not the same as what they see. This is a great point that you're bringing up, yeah. I mean, one thing here is that this mirrors, I would say, an analogy, right? It's a metaphor to talk about something... And the Buddha talked a lot with analogies and metaphors because it's really hard to get at some of these subtle points without saying it's like facing a jewel mirror. So one thing that I didn't mention that I think is important here, we're exploring it through the visual metaphor.

[58:10]

But actually, this kind of jewel mirror is a special, very strange kind of mirror in that it doesn't just reflect visual images. It reflects sounds and smells and tastes and tactile sensations and ideas and all of that. And then, yes, so other creatures maybe even have more senses or less senses or different senses or they see a different range of colors and so on. So you could say that's the realm of... In that way, you could say that, yeah, each mirror is the... You could say the... the packaging of each mirror is slightly different, which is why we each have our kind of location of mirror and see a slightly different zendo. But if we step back further and further into the most essential qualities of this mirror or window, which again, I would say the most essential are that it's edgeless, boundless, changeless,

[59:20]

empty, receptive, allowing, these kind of qualities, those kind of qualities, I would say, are what would be shared amongst all the species even, not to mention all humans. Yeah. So it's a good clarification. Questions left and just four minutes. Shall we take one more? Sure. And will you join for tea outside? Sure. Do you have another? Thank you for your talk. You're welcome. The other day at City Center, Michael McCord was speaking about the relevance of... seeing other people as fundamentally different than ourselves when communicating with them, because our assumptions about our sameness can bring us into troubled interactions, essentially.

[60:31]

I'm not sure if there is a tension between that and what is being taught right now, or whether it's just... There's a paradox there. I'm curious what you would have to say about when to approach other human beings with an emphasis on their fundamental differentness versus, or their separateness versus seeing them as fundamentally the same. Yeah, yeah. What I could imagine him referring to is that we don't want to make assumptions about how people are just like us or think like us or vote the same as us or something like that. These kinds of samenesses, I think we are exactly right. We should be careful of those. But again, and even that people would see the same color range, like different species, we shouldn't assume are, you know...

[61:40]

Think like us, for example, right? So I think that's true. But the sameness that I'm celebrating today is that one where we step back further and further, where in this previous discussion, the one that really is the same. And in the sense of like... that all living beings equally have no head. That sameness. And that one I would propose, this is my deep faith, that we don't get in trouble if we relate to others with that sameness. That's basically Buddha nature is another name for it. We can relate to others as the... sharing the same Buddha nature, and there's no problem with it.

[62:42]

But anything, like one level up from that, in terms of particulars, particular aspects, I think that's what probably he was referring to. We shouldn't assume that others' thoughts are the same as ours, or their preferences are the same as ours. But those are all in the realm of reflections. Reflections will always be different, and we should be sensitive to that. And sometimes we share the same reflections, and then we assume everybody in the zendo reflection must be the same. Oh, no. But the Buddha nature aspect, the deep sameness, I feel like this is the healing, This is what we, I would say, more important than not getting caught in assuming that others are superficially the same.

[63:51]

I would say more important, at least today, because it's so hard to remember that we have no head. And this headlessness is... As Suzuki Roshi sometimes says, the most important thing. Thank you for your attention. And thank you so much for having no head for yourselves and for having these. For me, you all have heads. For you, you have no head. For me, I have no head, but for all of you, I have a head. This is how it is. May our attention equally extend to every being and place.

[65:00]

We'll send you. Thank you. Thank you. ... ... ...

[66:06]

... [...] I don't know if I don't know if I don't know what to do.

[66:42]

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