This podcast is offered by the San Francisco Zen Center on the web at www.sfcc.org. Our public programs are made possible by donations from people like you. I'd like to ask you to have one minute of silence for our central abbot, Mjogan, Steve, Starkey. We want to pray for his recovery from his illness and well-being. So just one minute silence and make a prayer for his recovery and well-being in your heart. So close your eyes. Thank you very much.

[01:51]

Good morning, everybody. Thank you for coming to the Saturday Morning Dharma Talk. I also thank the City Center for giving me this opportunity. This is my first time to speak on this platform. I'm very, of course, nervous, but very honored. I feel very honored to be able to speak to you here today. I'd like to talk about the role of the body in Zen, body, this body, your body. There's a Japanese Soto Zen text titled Shushogi, literally means the meaning of practice and verification or realization.

[02:54]

It's a text comprised of extract or quotation taken from the Shobo Genzo. Are you familiar with Shobo Genzo? Dogen's main work on the Dharma. And so this text is a kind of combined with the quotation directly from . It's a very important text for the priest. It's often decided at the funeral ceremony and other occasions. In this text of Shushogi, there is this kind of paragraph. So let me start from my talk. from this quotation. So I quote the quotation. It is difficult to be born with a human body.

[04:04]

It is rare to encounter the Buddha Dharma. Now, thanks to our good deeds in the past, not only have we been born with the human body, we have also encountered the Buddha Dharma. Within the realm of birth and death, this good birth is the best. Let us not waste the best and the most precious human body, irresponsibly abandoning it to the winds of impermanence. We often see this kind of statement in the Buddhist text to emphasizing the difficulty of being born into this world as a human, or with human body, and do not waste this great opportunity, and so on.

[05:15]

Not only then, but also other Buddhist traditions. I read a very similar sentence in the Tibetan text, too. Have you ever thought about your body, a thought of your body in this way? Have you ever felt your body with this kind of feeling or idea? I am not sure there is a past life or next life, in a literal meaning. But I'm sure that when you can feel your body this way, your life or landscape of your life will definitely take certain shape.

[06:16]

So I'd like to talk about this kind of understanding of our body in Buddhism. Of course, time is limited. So I'd like to focus several points. This teaching is about the great value of being born with a human body and also the teaching of the deep appreciation of having Having is not the word. Being as a human body. Many religions, each religion has a different stance or different understanding of the body. But pretty often, a body is regarded as something impure or source of sin or source of evilness, and so on.

[07:23]

So the religious practice is somehow how to control the body or how to leave body behind through the practice. Behind this attitude toward the body, there is somehow, I can call it idealistic, This is quite a new word. Fastidiousness. Idealistic fastidiousness. Based on psychological immaturity, like a childish attitude for the pureness. But with this mentality, or for this mentality, of course, the body or the nature of the body is nothing but a hindrance or obstacle for their path.

[08:39]

And body is something, this is another one, disgusting. And become the object of aversion. But Buddhism, at least Buddha's attitude, is very different from this kind of general negative attitude toward the body, this body. As you know, we can read the biography of the Buddha. We can see some very critical event or episode in his life, particularly great renunciation. He's leaving from the palace. And before that, there's an episode which is called Four Sites.

[09:42]

I talk about it. Four Sites and Great Renunciation. and also his engagement. He practiced the two mainstream spiritual practices in India those days, yogic meditation and ascetic practice. And then he abandoned them, and he sat down under the tree and got enlightened, or got awakening, became a Buddha. I think I'd like to relate today's talk about the body with those episodes. Each episode, I can relate this question or topic of the body with each episode.

[10:46]

First, uh foresight when uh he was make excursion to uh see what's going on around his greenhouse like palace life and he witnessed the uh sick person old person dead person and that's become the uh the kind triggered become the trigger for the sit-down to change the course of his life drastically. What he saw is the body of the sick person, old person, and dead person. So somehow he realized that we live as a body. And this body has its own course, own process, or own logic, own nature, which is subject to sickness, old age, and death.

[12:09]

So in a sense, this episode of Four Sides is about the body. Before he witnessed those four sides, his life was somehow being operated on the dimension of having. So I want to include two dimensions, or two attitudes toward the life, the dimension of having. And in this dimension, the slogan is, You are what you have. And the basic theme of this attitude or dimension is pursuit of having more and more positions. Position, very materialistic position to very abstract positions.

[13:15]

From the car, house, handbag, jewelry. to more abstract social status, pride, human relationship, or more abstract spiritual awakening, psychic power, and so on. But all those objects are thought, are pursued as an object of possession, having. So Buddha's life was kind of perfect in terms of this dimension of having. He could get whatever he wants to have immediately. But through seeing those four sides, he was forced to awaken to another dimension, which is a dimension of being.

[14:16]

Totally different dimensions. Becoming sick, becoming aged, and being dead belong to this dimension of being. It's quite different in quality. So he was forced to explore this unknown dimension of being because he was strongly inspired to inquire into this dimension of being. So eventually, he had to leave the world of having and jump into the world of being. But this shift from the dimension of having to the dimension of being was not smooth.

[15:20]

So in the middle of this shift, he practiced the two mainstream religious or spiritual practice in India those days, the yogic meditation, ascetic practice. But from the viewpoint of the body, both approach which is based on the negation of the body. It's clear to see that the aesthetic practice is negating the body, beating the body, the harsh way, or stopping breathing, eating, stop eating, and so on, giving the pain to the body. So it's easy for us to see this. is based on the negation denying the body or somatic being.

[16:28]

But the meditation he practiced right after he left the palace is also the negation of the body. Because maybe I can say this type of practice is try to detach the mind from the body through the meditative technique, kind of escape It's an attempt of escaping from the bodily or somatic being by applying some mental technology or technique or method. So in that sense, both approaches were based on the idea that the body is not good. It's an obstacle or hindrance for the spiritual attainment. behind this approach there is always uh dissatisfaction and anxiety or discomfort of being in this world with a body that's the starting point and based on this uh

[17:56]

well feeling about our bodily being or being in the world with a body or as a body we try to this uh invent many many different ways of escaping from this way of being in a sense it's like escaping from the reality of being body So whatever we do based on this framework, it's nothing but distracting us from the reality or forgetting about, try to forget about that reality. And these are in the self

[18:58]

self intoxication self intoxication self absorption which means closing ourselves up and then deeply sinking into the subjective world and try to be comfortable within this shell or virtual reality whatever you call it So it's an attempt of showing your back to the reality. And then we can invent many, many different technologies to serve this purpose. So Buddha tried this project thoroughly. But he was not satisfied with it. He realized it's a dead end. Whatever he make, however hard he made effort in this line, he realized eventually he came to the dead end.

[20:11]

The block? Block. That's why he gave up this effort or attempt and sat down with empty hands. So there is a quantum leap between the previous effort of yogic meditation and ascetic practice and simple sitting under the tree. So we have to deeply understand what the nature of this quantum leap to the simple sitting under the tree. Because that's the beginning or origin of our city, Chazen. And then there is that somehow revolutionary quality there. He was the first person in the history of human being to sit, who sat that way, or with that quality, as a deep from the dimension of having to the dimension of being.

[21:25]

So those ascetic practices and meditative practices, those two approaches still had an element of having some attainment of stopping the mind or stopping the body. So it's a of not a negation of those uh it's a kind of i want to use not the negation but deep not the movement from here to there on the same plane but the leap from this plane to totally another plane having to be The characteristic of this effort is aggressiveness.

[22:35]

So he aggressively meditated to attain the no-thought state. And he quickly attained it. And there is a method or technique to attain that state of the mind. before Siddhartha tried this, already there's lots of accumulation of the effort by the spiritual people, how to control the mind in the name of meditation, or how to control the body in the name of ascetic practice. So there is already a clearly mentioned goal there, or state of mind or body, So we can learn the method and aggressively make effort to attain it. Aggressiveness or forcefulness there?

[23:41]

Forceful. We are forcefully controlling the mind in the name of meditation, or we are forcefully controlling the body in the name of ascetic practice. So aggressiveness and forcefulness. And also there is the element of artificiality. I look for the Japanese-English dictionary to find some kind of a scissorist kind of thing. High-handed. Unnatural. And also, Within this framework, what matters is the mastery of the technique, the matter of proficiency of the technique.

[24:48]

So whatever you set up as a goal of the practice, that's the result of the proficiency or mastery the method or technique but does the truth the in the truth there's no technique or mastery or proficiency the reality truth has nothing to do with those things with those human human or human effort Because as far as those attainment is manufactured by human effort, we are kind of trying to find the truth within the human activities. But what's there outside of it?

[25:51]

I think truth should be something beyond or outside, or of course inside, but outside of those human efforts. Outside of subjective satisfaction of attaining what we want to attain. Truth should be more universal. Fact. And for us, the most concrete example of this universal fact is this body. This body is always body, right? And nothing to do with practice or effort. This is a universal fact. Body being

[26:56]

a body, or a body is bodying by itself, for itself. And we are having human life on this fact. So the bodies always transcend our life. our life never be able to transcend the body. You see those differences. So in Zen, the body is not our possession. But a universal cosmological fact. Universal, cosmological fact. That's why we can say it's rare or difficult to have, to be born with human body, to attain or gain, achieve or receive the human body.

[28:17]

That's a platform is not the basis for our practice. But in our ordinary life, the human body is seen as a material, my material, material of the individuals. We are the owner of the body. So we see our body from the owner's viewpoint. So if you don't let go of this owner's viewpoint of the body, whatever we practice with the body, it's nothing but the control, manipulation of the body, which Buddha denied abandonment.

[29:31]

And as far as we try to control the body as the object, we are driven by our individual desire. And as far as we operate based on the desire, the number one priority is to satisfy it. To satisfy the desire is the number one priority. even though it is a spiritual practice. So what Buddha did under the Bodhi tree is revolutionally turn, paradigm shift, Kopernikan turn, like geocentric to heliocentric. or figure ground reversal.

[30:36]

That's why I say it's revolutionary. So in Zen, at least Dogen Zen, we start from shifting this viewpoint, owner's viewpoint of the body, to like... like absoluteness of the body. The body becomes the starting point. But in that case, as I said, it's a figure-ground reversal. I cannot call... I cannot limit the concept of body only within... inside my skin. It's much more... big and large and deep. In the recorded saying of Joshua, a very famous Zen master, the monk asked, what is a true body?

[31:43]

What is a true body? And Joshua answered, spring, summer, fall, and winter. Of course, this is one of the core ones. It has a deep implication or meaning. So this true body, Joshu make it equivalent to spring, summer, fall, and winter, is a self. Dogen mentioned the self in the sentence, to study the Buddha Dharma is to study the self. That self is this self of spring, summer, fall, and winter. And also, in other expressions, the self verified by the media things. So here, the concept of the self is totally changed.

[32:47]

A body, too. And this self is a body. So true human body is the entire world of the 10 directions. This is what we talk about, the body. body, this body. So we have it already, this body. But you have to shift your view from the owner's viewpoint. The owner's viewpoint only sees the body through the sensations. But this true body is totally beyond this perception of the body through five sensory organs so we cannot observe this true body because the act of observing itself is supported by the work of this body so like you cannot grab your right hand with your right hand

[33:58]

You cannot see your eyes with your eyes. But the fact you are grabbing something else, you are seeing something else, is a proof there is a hand and eyes. So this true body is not what you hid after the long-term seeking for it. You never hid it. And also, it's not something you can reach by accumulating the experiences. It's totally out of our agenda, a human agenda. Rather, we become very intimate with this true body by giving up those human agendas.

[35:02]

So it's a very different story. We try to get something through those human efforts. But there's something very important that we cannot get it as far as we're seeking for it. Only when we give it up, it's there. So Dogen mentioned this kind of point. Just let... go of and forgetting body and mind, casting Zen into the house of Buddha, being activated by the Buddha, when we go along in accord with this, then without applying effort or expanding the mind, we part from birth and death and become Buddha. This quality, without applying effort or expanding the mind that's the practice so another big shift is necessary to think about the practice you know i'm making lots of practice using applying effort a lot expanding the mind a lot we think that's a practice but according dog if dog is right

[36:31]

Our practice should have this kind of quality. Letting go of and forgetting body and mind. Casting Zen into the house of the Buddha. House of the Buddha is not over there. It's here. Being activated by the Buddha. Here, Buddha or house of the Buddha is the work of the nature. So our practice is not the matter of getting something, but rather how to receive the support, help, from the house of the Buddha. So it's not a matter of closing, but opening. Here, another paradigm shift is required. Actually, there's not many paradigm shifts, just one paradigm shift. But I can talk about it.

[37:34]

We can think about it in many different angles. So our job is leave the body as a body, true body. Don't disturb it with technique. This is maybe very difficult for you to understand because we are trained to improve our mastery of the technique for whatever, you know. So I quote the last quotation. I recommend you to read Six Patriarchs and Platform Sutra of Six Patriarchs, Six Ancestral Teachers. In this, there is a very interesting contrast of the two approaches. to the practice.

[38:34]

One bhikkhu was reciting Dhyanamaster Wu Lun's verse. Wu Lun has a talent to stop the hundred thoughts. Facing situations, his mind won't move. Body grows day by day. This is easy, right? Easy to understand. Of course, not easy to do it, but easy to understand. When the master, an ancestral teacher, heard it, he said, this verse shows no understanding of the mind ground, and to cultivate according to it will increase one's bondage. Then he spoke this verse. Huinen himself. Huinen has no talent. to stop the hundred thoughts. Facing situation, his mind often moves.

[39:36]

How can body grow? Do you see the difference? First one, Gu Long has a talent to stop the hundred thoughts. But Huey Nen says, I have no talent to stop the hundred thoughts. Facing situation, his mind often moves. Of course, it's your choice to follow the first one. I don't stop you. But in Zen tradition, the second approach is revealed as Zen. And also, Huinen said, to cultivate according to the first one will increase one's bondage. How do you understand it? So, Each of us are being in this world with this body. You can use it as a material, or you can learn from it.

[40:42]

So depending on how you view your body, totally different cores will unfold. you try to, if you think the body should be controlled by you, the breath, posture, even mind, is the object of the control or regulations. Usually one-sided, because you aggressively try to control the body in terms of posture, breath, and mind. But the second approach, your body change the meaning drastically. Not from the object of control to the teacher. You become the student. Your body becomes the teacher.

[41:43]

You learn from the body. So your relationship or approach to the body is totally different. I think when Buddha first sat under the tree, this shift happened in him. And I think it's very revolutionary. So every time we sit Zazen, we have to sit like a Buddha under the tree, right? If it's true, every time we sit Zazen, we are bringing about that revolution. So let's sit Zazen revolutionarily. maybe I talked maybe two sort of what I prepared so I have a chance to answer your question after this I stop here thank you very much 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

[42:58]

Your financial support helps us to continue to offer the Dharma. For more information, please visit sfzc.org and click Giving. May we fully enjoy the Dharma.

[43:14]

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