evening, everyone. Welcome. So I'll hit the bell, we can sit for a few minutes, and then we're going to continue the last class on Hongzhi, and also referring back to some of the earlier ancestors who are all of them are influential in the formation of the Soto Zen School. So we're heading toward Dogen next week, and these are the main teachers that have led to Dogen's realization and also his convictions around how to practice the correct upright sitting practice of our tradition. Okay, so let's do that for a few minutes, upright sitting. So today I want to just touch on some of the main influences that created Soto Zen.

[08:12]

And they're names that you know. We've looked at these teachers over the last year or two years and spent some time with each of them. And what's really, I think, would be good if you have time or would like to, is to read the teachings of Shurto, You know, he wrote the Sandokai, Suzuki Roshi's favorite text, and that's Eighth Century Zen Teacher. And these teachings that I'm naming right now can all be found in the Zen Center Chant Book. So these are ones that we are part of our liturgy, that we chant, you know, each week. Each one of these is chanted by the congregations here at Tassahara City Center. So I think for those of you who don't have that opportunity to chant with us, you might just take a look at these. And also, if you like, you know, chanting them is quite a nice thing to do, even, you know, if you're by yourself or someone else around who'd like to chant with you. So 8th century was Shuto. And then 9th century, our founding ancestor of Soto, Gongshan, or Tozan in Japanese.

[09:18]

And then in the 12th century, we have Hongzhi, the teacher we've been looking at. And all of them had this tremendous influence. on the arrival of Dogen Zenji in the 13th century. And so Dogen is the teacher who brought the work of these poets, the school of the poets, back home to him, with him to Japan. And he himself was a great poet. So I've heard it said that that's really the style of our school. Vipassana is really helpful for psychologists and Tibetan Buddhism is very, very inspiring for visual artists, and Zen is inspiring for poets. So lots of creative use of words and language. So last week I also talked about the influence of the two truths, extremely important underpinning for all of these teachers. And, of course, there's the great second Buddha, Nagarjuna, who expounds the teaching of the two truths.

[10:23]

And then these two truths were elaborated into a system of five circular images by Dongshan called the Five Ranks, the relationship of each of the two truths, the relative and the ultimate truth. And I talked about that last week, so you might review the two truths. There are books on Dongshan, and there's also teachings on the two truths that you can find fairly easily. So basically what... I want to return to today is the emphasis in Hongzhu's own teaching, as was true of these other teaching masters, is that all of their journeys is characterized by seated meditation. They were all sitting. The context in which they were teaching and writing their poetry was meditation practice, quite a lot of it. So when Dongshan formulated the five ranks, they were intended to be studied in conjunction with practice rather than as some intellectual exercise.

[11:26]

And Hongzhu also is emphasizing experiential life of the student over some academic proficiency. Now, they were all academically proficient. It wasn't that they didn't value study and learning and sutra study and so on. I mean, most of them, when they were children, had read... Much of the Pali canon, the Mahayana canon, you know, they were quite literate and educated as young Buddhists and as young monks in all of these classical texts. And yet they also understood the value of the physical expressions of practice, you know, working with our bodies and sitting upright in our bodies and keeping an eye on the movements of the mind as it does its... It's various gymnastics and somersaults and all the things that we're used to the mind doing. So I also found a poem or a writing from John Keats that seems right to this point as well.

[12:28]

He says to a friend, the point of diving into a lake is not to arrive at the other shore. It is to be in the water of the lake, to luxuriate in the sensation of water. You do not work the lake out. It is experience beyond thought. Poetry soothes and emboldens the soul to accept mystery, to which I think we can add, until only mystery remains. So this is a really important point, and I just want to reemphasize that as we do basically kind of intellectual examinations of these teachers. So we're kind of using our thinking process during the time we're together. But I think all of you, I hope, have a meditation practice, and it's something that you have confidence in as a kind of nurturance for your life. So I also wanted to share with you another really important influential story about experiential learning that I think some of you may recall.

[13:36]

It's a pretty famous one. A lot of us like to teach it because it features an old lady who... gets the better of a very learned Zen master. So this story is one that I brought up during the Diamond Sutras intensive last July. It's the story of a Zen master by the name of Deshon, and it can be found in the Blue Cliff Record. The title of this chapter is Deshon Carrying His Bundle. So I think one of the reasons a lot of us like this story so much, and the reason I'm going to tell you now, is because of this old tea lady, you know. And she turns Deshan away from academic study and toward a true realization of the teachings in the Diamond Sutra. So here's the story. Deshan, a Chinese Zen Buddhist monk during the Tang Dynasty, which is called the Golden Age of Zen, in his early years was a student of the Vinaya, the division of the Pali Canon that contains the rules that govern monastic community.

[14:38]

So he really he was like kind of like an attorney. He knew the rules. He knew them. You know, he studied them. He was a scholar of the monastic regulations. But he also became very well known for his vast intellectual knowledge of the Diamond Sutra. For those of you who haven't read the Diamond Sutra, it's also a very good thing to do. Along with the Heart Sutra there, the two kind of premier Prajnaparamita, or emptiness teachings, sutras of the emptiness teachings, the middle way school, which is... what Nagarjuna was basically teaching philosophically in his middle way teachings. It's all about the Prajnaparamita, wisdom beyond wisdom. So the Diamond Sutra is one of those, and it's a powerful text. It's not very long. You can read it fairly quickly, but it's very dense. It takes a while to kind of learn the pattern of the Diamond Sutra. So Deshawn... was expounding the Diamond Sutra to an assembly of monks in Sichuan, and he declares to the monks, according to what it says in this teaching of the Diamond Sutra, after diamond-like concentration, one studies the majestic conduct of Buddhas for a thousand eons, and the refined practices for another ten thousand eons before fulfilling Buddhahood.

[16:00]

On the other hand, I hear that the southern Zen devils are saying that the mind itself is Buddha. So the Southern Zen Devils, that's us, you know, that's the Southern School of Sudden Doctrine, as it's called, Supreme Mahayana, great perfection of wisdom that was preached by the sixth ancestor Hui Nong. So this is the line of teaching, passing through Hui Nong, the sixth ancestor, that Deshawn is saying these devils, they're teaching sudden illumination that right now you can wake up. Go right ahead. Don't wait. Don't wait eons to have a realization. Just open your eyes. So consequently, it says in the commentary, Deshawn became very incensed and he went traveling on foot, carrying some of his commentaries on the Diamond Sutra, heading straight to the south to destroy this crew of Zen devils. So he was on a mission. So the commentator on this story says, you can see from how aroused he got what a fierce, keen fellow he was.

[17:07]

When Deshan arrives in Hunan, he meets an old woman selling fried tea cakes by the roadside. The name of the tea cakes is Mumu, which means mind refreshers. So Deshan puts down his commentaries to buy some mind refreshers in order to lighten up his mind. So the old woman says to him, what is that that you're carrying? And Deshan says, commentaries on the Diamond Cutter Sutra. The old woman then says, well, in that case, I have a question for you. If you can answer it, I will give you some fried tea cakes to refresh your mind. And if you can't answer, you'll have to go somewhere else to buy them. And so Deshan says, you know, just ask. He's a pretty confident guy. So the old woman then says to him, well, then the diamond cutter scripture says that past mind cannot be grasped, present mind cannot be grasped, and future mind cannot be grasped. So which mind does the learned monk desire to refresh?

[18:14]

So Deshawn was speechless. So the old woman directs him to call on Zen master Long Tan, meaning dragon pond, an encounter in which he was greatly awakened, you know, by the Zen devils. So this is kind of a fun story for the Zen folks. Following his awakening, Deshan takes all of his commentaries to the front of the teaching hall and raises a torch over them, declaring, even to plumb all of the inscrutable meanings is like a single hair in the great void. To exhaust the essential workings of the world is like a single drop of water cast into a vast valley. And then he burned his commentaries on the Diamond Cutter Sutra. So I think you can see from the passions that are revealed in this story, particularly regarding the difference between simply knowing the truth and experiencing the truth. So I would say... with some confidence that Zen is about experiencing the truth, about embodied truth, something that's beyond your mere intellectual knowing of something, which is what we've learned at school when we were young, to know things in that more intellectual way, answer the questions on the quiz, get the right answers.

[19:37]

That doesn't do you so much good in Zen practice. So, for example, like right now, you know, if we just draw ourselves back to our own experience right now that we're having, you know, I'm sitting here in my living room, my little house, Green Gulch, and actually it does look like this outside right now. Much of the year it doesn't look like this, but actually this tree is all full of blossoms right now. It's a magnolia outside my window here. So right now, as we practice with these teachings, It's really important for us every now and then to just stop and look around ourselves. So you can do that right now while I'm talking away. Just glance around your room and glance at your hands and your legs and where you're sitting and if there's anyone else in the room. What do you see when you look around? What's out the window there? So by listening and then listening, that's another thing.

[20:39]

You know, amazing sense organ sound, and we've got sights, and we have physical sensations of all kinds, you know, running through our bodies at all, you know, starting with your feet. How are your feet feeling right now? And then working your way up to the top of your head, which is a very nice thing to do when you're seated in meditation, is just to start exploring. One monk once said that the greatest pilgrimage of my life has been my body. So, you know, there's really no end to the body, the parts of the body that you've been ignoring for a long time, you know, like the back of your elbow and so on. There's all kinds of parts of your body that you can revisit and appreciate, you know. We're only going to be together a little while here, my body and me. So, you know, this is our good chance. This is a wonderful chance to be best friends with the body. So if we begin that kind of exploration, these are called the foundations of mindfulness.

[21:40]

It's a very ancient teachings for the Buddhists, you know, four foundations of mindfulness. Start with the body. There's very, you know, detailed descriptions of all the parts of the body that you draw your attention to, like the pores on your skin, the little hairs, you know, on your head and all of that. And then in doing that, You may notice that your breathing becomes a little easier and a little deeper because you've kind of withdrawn your attention from your thinking, which is pretty tiring. Thinking all the time is kind of exhausting. I think we all know that. I think we all know that. It's pretty tiring. Thinking, thinking, thinking. And then you might notice odors. When your breath calms, you might notice the coolness of the air coming in through your nose. It's been quite chilly. in the Zendo for quite a long time now. And because of COVID, we're leaving lots of windows open. So it's become a rather pleasant feeling there to be in that kind of cool, cool dark space and the coolness of the air coming in the nose.

[22:43]

And then as it goes out, it's warmed, the feeling of the warm air. All of those things that we can pay attention to when we're not doing other things, not busy. You know, the mind isn't so busy. You might smell like here in the mornings, I get down a certain place in the path and I can smell the fresh bread being baked. It's just amazing. It's like a little cloud that I walk into baking bread. So these are all the things that, you know, if we don't allow ourselves to notice, if we don't slow down our pace and we don't give ourselves a break, a sensory break now and then, they just pass us by. You know, we're just kind of dreamwalkers, as Dogen says. So you notice the sensations on your skin. You know, many of them, there's temperature, there's minor irritations that are often going on or very pleasant sensations that are going on. And so then the next, you know, the next foundation of mindfulness is of feelings. You know, what are you feeling?

[23:45]

Positive? Just really three that they ask you to attend to. Are you feeling positive? or negative or kind of neutral. And these change throughout the day, kind of depending on conditions. Oftentimes our feelings are very bound up with conditions. So get a nice message in the mail and you feel great. Someone criticizes you, feel horrible. So we know that. We know how that roller coaster of feelings goes on. So paying attention to feelings. And then also the next one is of thoughts. So that's the one that's really going to give you the most benefit in the long run, is to notice how much the world is being created by your thinking, how much you actually believe what you're thinking, and what happens when you begin to question your own thinking, or even to notice it. This is kind of a big deal, and it's not so easy.

[24:46]

You know, it's really hard with Dogen's calls, turning the light around, turning your attention onto the body, onto feelings, onto thought, you know, and so on. So, you know, where does your mind go? Where does it tend to go when it goes? Do you tend to go to the past or planning for the future? You know, are you grieving? Are you longing? Are you planning? So this is all of the, these are all the ingredients for a life of awakening, of awareness. Actually, you know in that experiential sense what's happening. What's happening? Where are you? Where are you right now? So by bringing our bodies along for our Dharma study, the whole purpose of the Dharma becomes more and more clear, which is for each of us to understand for ourselves. Where's the value in studying the Dharma? Why are you doing it? Why do you keep coming back to it if you do? You know, why are you here now?

[25:48]

What is it you're drawn to? You know, I have a pretty clear affection for the Dharma that's really grown over the years I've been at Zen Center and practicing with other people, living in community. So that's been something that's just grown. more and more as I've been exposed to more and more teachings and teachers and just the opportunity to live here in this world with an invitation to pay attention. So Dongshan walked alone, and yet he saw how everything was his true self. So he talks about that in his awakening poem, I Walk Alone. And yet everything, I'm not it, it's me. Everything I see is making me in every moment. You know, just like the scenery is making, makes me in every moment.

[26:51]

And Shurto tells us to understand the way right before us as we walk. So a lot of walking, a lot of walking that they're bringing up in their poetry. Left foot, right foot, left foot, right foot. How familiar, how often do you pay attention to the weight, shifting of the weight on your body and how your body moves? And kinyin, for those of you who've done kinyin in a meditation hall, that is the most wonderful way. It's just the most wonderful way to appreciate walking. It's like you're walking really slow. You walk, it's a breath walking. So as you inhale, You're balanced. You're kind of centered and balanced. And then as you begin to exhale, you move your back foot forward half a step. And then you go through another inhalation. And as you begin to exhale, you move your back foot forward. Take a step.

[27:52]

And so many things happen in between the simple little things of moving your feet from one front foot, back foot, front foot, back foot. Whole worlds are going on, balancing and readjusting and muscles and flexion. It's quite something. Whole worlds are there. Whole worlds are there. And Hongzhi says that outside of the body, there is nothing else. All things are the true body of reality. And it's very much in the same vein as Shakyamuni Buddha when he said the entire universe in the ten directions is the true human body. Try that on. Because it's true. The entire universe in the ten directions is the true human body. There's no boundary between you and the vastness of the universe. There's nothing separating us.

[28:54]

And therefore, we completely belong, completely of a part, of a piece of it all. And we only have a misperception of ourselves as separate, of not being the universe itself. So we want to work on that, break that spell of separation. And yet, once we begin to open to the vastness and spaciousness of our life, we have to watch out for this inborn tendency that we humans have. of going too far. Well, I have, maybe you do too, but we tend to go too far. For example, there's on the one side, as we're learning to detach and to let go from our obsessions with objects, whether they're physical objects or mental objects, from our small mindedness, we're then warned not to fall into the other side. which is an attachment to the experiential realization of our big mind, of our vastness, of our self as the universe.

[29:57]

I mean, you get caught in that one, you're kind of like useless. There's just a luminosity over there where there used to be a person. So we want to not fall into that, get a hold of that, make that into a thing or into a person, identifying with these experiences we have, attaching to some You know, that's the warning. There's a warning flag on the field about that. So this is the most seductive tendency for us, you know, for the all-too-human mind, is to go toward the greatest pleasure, and the greatest pleasure is a stable mind. So we have to be willing to forego stability in order to return to the world of suffering beings and to be able to understand what the words are that they're saying to us, you know. So I know sometimes in deep meditation states when people have been sitting for a long time, you know, it's like they forgot words. They don't know how words work anymore. They just sort of stare at you.

[30:58]

It's like, hello, are you okay? You know, I mean, they almost always come back, you know. But sometimes, you know, you stay out there for a while. But it's not recommended. But it's okay. You go to that side. There's a saying. You go to that side. So you know that it's there, and then you come back to this side to practice. There's no learning, and the luminous mind doesn't learn anything. It's the human mind that learns and teaches and helps, can learn how to tie a tourniquet or whatever it is you need to fly a helicopter, whatever it is we need to do, we need our small mind, we need our relational truths, our relative truths. So I think we've all had experiences that open our minds in memorable ways. And we have all seen how strongly it is, how much we wish to return to those experiences. Whether it's the great vacation you took or the wonderful love affair you had or the meditation experience, it doesn't really matter. Any of those things, they just want to suck you right back.

[32:03]

I want to do that again. I want to do that again. But you can't. It's a non-repeating universe. So you have to just face forward and get on, you know, carry on and prepare for whatever comes now. You know, how to meet now, what's going on, what's needed from you, you know, from this situation. So Shurto says to us, merging with principle is still not enlightenment. So that's what this is all about. Merging with the luminosity is still not enlightenment. And Hongzhu repeats this instruction in his own poetry. by exhorting us to fully integrate any deep experiential awareness of the ultimate, what he calls the dark, you know, of the light and the dark. The dark is the source or the ultimate experience in the language of the five ranks, as I mentioned last week. So right in light, there is darkness. Right in darkness, there is light, you know, is one of the poets. So we want to integrate whatever we experience to remember, don't forget that you need to integrate with the particular functioning in the world of things, with how you function, how you function with other people and with ideas and with your own struggles, your own personal struggles.

[33:23]

I think it's always been well known that people would like to, this thing called spiritual bypass, we directly get out of this rotten bypass, deal of life I'm not doing all that well and is not you know going exactly I'm not the person of my dreams and so you know basically we would like to you know somehow it couldn't be nice would you just get out of here you know just float around but that's that's not this school that's not this teaching that's not Buddhism our job is to return return to the marketplace with gift bestowing hands to be able to function in the world with other people in the world of light, the world of relative truth. So dark and light merge host within the host, you know, both being in the world and of the world. So this is the merging of difference and sameness that Shurto writes about in his poem, The Sandokai. See also, Shurto also describes the culmination of such practice in his Song of the Grass Roof Hermitage, which is a

[34:30]

beautiful poem, which also is in Taigen's book, The Cultivating the Empty Field. He's included an awful lot of yummy stuff in his book. So Appendix A has the Song of the Grass Roof Hermitage by Schurto. And it ends with the lines, let go of hundreds of years and relax completely. Open your hands and walk innocent. Thousands of words and myriad interpretations are one I have the word toffee here, and I don't think that's right somehow. Or one toffee from obstructions. So you may have to research that yourself. Corinna, would you mind looking up? Oh, no, never mind. Anyway, something like toffee. It's one something from obstructions. If you want to know the undying person in the hut, don't separate from this skin bag here and now.

[35:32]

If you want to know the undying person in the hut, don't separate from this skin bag here and now. So don't separate from the body. Don't wish to separate from the body. Don't hate your body. You know, we got a big body-hating culture going on, you know. A lot of body shaming and I don't like my body. People, I don't like my body. Like, you don't like your body. That's kind of weird. Who's talking, you know? So you got to, yeah, it doesn't matter if you like it or not. You know, care for it. And don't separate from the skin bag. Here and now. It's your best friend. It's been with us from the very beginning and carries right through to the end. So reflecting on Hongzhi's practice instructions, especially if you've had a chance to read some of them in Taigen's book, I know some of you have and have really enjoyed them, you can see how he oscillates between the ultimate reality, the dark, and what for Dogen is expressed completely through upright sitting. For Dogen, The ultimate reality is sazen, upright sitting, meditation, and monastic discipline.

[36:37]

You know, that's really his specialty. And that's what he did, and that's where he lived, and that's who he taught, and he is certainly a specialist in monastic lifestyle. And then turning our expressions outwardly toward the world, you know, through actions that are devoted to the practices of the bodhisattva. So once you've kind of taken care of your own house, you know, you've got your house in order, you've reached that point of good enough contentment, good enough. Days are not so bad. When people ask me how I'm doing, I go, I'm okay. I'm okay. And I feel like that's as high as I need to go. Okay seems really good. When people tell me they're okay, I go, oh, good. That's great. So, you know, being okay and this... You know, showing that okay through a devotion and a modeling of our commitment to practice. You know, as Dogen called his practice as, you know, one continuous mistake.

[37:40]

It's not like some, like, we all walk around glowing. You know, it's not like, oh, wow, look at those practitioners. I mean, people come into the Zen watering hole and they think this is just like, you guys, this is amazing. Yeah, it is, isn't it? It's really amazing. And then, you know, if they stay around for a while, they find a bunch of human beings who are like doing their thing and like saying things that are not so skillful or getting irritated with each other. If you've ever been to a Zen Center staff meeting, you know, it's not so probably no different than many other staff meetings around town. So, you know, human first. And I think we... get some credit for effort you know some a for effort we are trying we do we do know that we wish to be the way on the bodhisattva path and we use that language and we remind ourselves as often as we can and we take we take the practice seriously you know we take the relative truth seriously and that's the way to go that's how we go is by you know working on the relative truths

[38:50]

working on the things that we are challenged by and that don't go the way we want, that are not under our control, which is just about everything. So we model our devotion and we model our commitment and so on. Human first, one continuous mistake. So Teigen tells us in his introduction to Hongzhi's teaching instruction that the Soto Zen teaching method is reflected in Hongzhi's very frequent encouragement that practitioners embody the teachings with independence, illuminating fully on their own. So this, again, is about the I walk alone. It's not a bad thing. I mean, I think some people think, that sounds terrible, I walk alone. I do walk alone. I've got these two feet. And I walk on them, right foot, left foot, anywhere I want to go. That's pretty much how I get there is on my feet and using my arms to open doors and to greet people or whatever I'm doing, get my groceries.

[39:51]

So I walk alone and I walk alone with others who are walking alone. I mean, that's the wonderful part. Everyone's walking alone and we can wave and say, how's it going? How are you doing? How's your... How's your life today? What have you discovered? What are you doing with your day? How are you taking care of things? So this is what Dongshan said when he saw his own face reflected in the water. I walk alone, and everywhere I look, I see him. I am all of this. As I walk alone, I have this realization. All of this is me. All one, you know, alone, all one. Like the universe walks alone, right? With all of us carried along and like, you know, this wonderful roly-poly. And then as Dongshan remembered hearing when his teacher, Yunnan, he departed from his teacher, his words were, just this is it, just this is it.

[41:00]

You know, there's nothing much that needs to be said. When you're walking alone, you're just walking, just walking down the path, you know, saying hello. I was really interested when I was at Tassajara, a couple, because we always still had guests, we still had guest season. It's hard to remember that. It's been a few years. But, you know, the guests would say, well, you, Zen people aren't very friendly. You know, I would hear that quite often. Well, that's, sad to hear. And so I asked the students that summer, you know, I hear you're not very friendly with the guests. What's with that? And they said, well, we're, you know, we're working or we're meditating or, you know, stuff like that. I couldn't quite figure out what they were, what they were, you know, how that was not needing, that they didn't need to be friendly. And somehow... And then I read in a text, a really old text, about the village people complaining that the monks weren't friendly.

[42:05]

This is 2,000 years ago. And I thought, gee, there's something in common we have with the Buddha's students. They're not friendly. And so the Buddha called them all together and he said, the village people are saying you're not very friendly. And they said, well, we're meditating. You know, we're walking down the street and we have our eyes cast down. And he said, well, that's not right. When you're walking down the path and someone comes toward you, you look up and you say good morning and smile. You know, it's like, really? Yeah, really. So, you know, it's sort of funny you have to tell people that. But, yeah, I mean, it's really important to be friendly, to have people feel welcome to where you are and to share where you are. You know, I think we can get very kind of possessive of, well, this is our Zen Center and those are... guests you know they just they're just coming in here to i don't know what you know take our take our our our beauty or take our you know our food or whatever they're doing but that's opposite world that's not the world we're trying to to create of of of our practice right so just this is it just this is it so in um

[43:24]

I'm on Dongshan still a little bit. In chapter 39 of the Transmission of Light, Dongshan has these doubts. He has these doubts about all of that. So that's when he sees his reflection. And he says, you know, here's his verse. He says, don't seek from others. I walk alone. Don't seek from others, or you will be estranged from yourself. So don't do things for the eyes of others. I remember one of the teachers told Blanche Hartman many years ago, and she would often... tell the story of the teacher saying to her, don't do things for the gaze of others. For whom do you put on your makeup? Who are you impressing? Who are you wanting to impress with your presentation of yourself? Who are you here for? There's a fantasy we have about that, about what they think of us. I mean, we all do that. oh, I don't think they like me, or whatever. Mostly, I don't think they like me, or I'm not welcome, or I don't like them.

[44:26]

So there's all these little mind games that are going on all the time, you know, which are just fantasies. We have no idea what other people are thinking. And the more friendly you are, it's kind of amazing, but the more friendly other people are in return. It's like, what happened to the world? You know, I had a friend who's a yoga teacher, and she said she's... very shy so when she'd go through the line at the grocery store she would just kind of do her thing and look and she'd glance up at the person taking the at the cash register and then she'd go about her way and she thought you know they're not very friendly and i said have you tried smiling and saying good morning to the person And so we met up later and she said, you know, that really changed things. I started, instead of me waiting for them to be friendly to me, I started to be friendly to them. And she said, it's quite a different world when you do that. I think it's true. Quite a different world. So don't seek from others or you will be estranged from yourself.

[45:27]

I now go on alone. Everywhere I encounter it. It now is me. I am not it. One must understand in this way to merge with being as is, to merge with thusness, to merge with thusness, for the dark and the light to merge with the self and all things to come together. Hongzhi emphasizes this practical experiential enactment of this teaching of non-dual awareness throughout all of his practice instructions. So, as I've mentioned before, Hongzhu is the one who's credited with this term, silent illumination, which describes the form of practice of this school, Soto Zen. And this is the same practice Dogen calls Shikantaza. Shikan means to hit. No, Shikan means just. And ta is to hit. And za is sit. So, just hit sitting.

[46:28]

Shikantaza. That's it. Just sitting. So, just sitting. Silent illumination, shikantasa, these are all the same way of verbalizing what our practice is. So in this form of meditation, there's no striving for goals, there are no stages to pass through, which makes it a radically different approach from those practices or traditions in which you are really encouraged to get something out of it, you know, to develop something or to win or to... to be the best, or whatever kind of thing. Any striving at all is not Shikandha. Nothing to get. You've already got it. It's already what you are. It's me. I'm not it, but it's me. And so there's nothing to get. And then Hongzhi says, those who sincerely meditate and authentically arise, trust that the field has always been with them. Those who meditate and authentically arise, trust that the field has always been with them.

[47:30]

been with them. So Hongzhi repeatedly makes this assertion by emphasizing wholeness and non-separation. That's his poetic. That's like his strum when he's singing his poetry. It's about wholeness and non-separation. And which nothing is external to the luminous present mind. There's nothing outside of the luminous present mind. And his final instruction from Hongzhi, the last one I'm going to bring up of his, is this distillation of his meditation instructions in a poem called The Acupuncture Needle of Zazen. Acupuncture Needle of Zazen. That's kind of great. You know, it's like, it goes right in, right to the point. And Dogen really praises this teaching, but he also wrote his own with a slightly different twist, which you can also find. For now, I'm just going to read Hongzhi. When we go to Dogen, I'll read you his acupuncture needle.

[48:34]

So this is Song Chur. The essential function of all Buddhas, the functional essence of all ancestors, is to know without touching things. To know without touching things. And to illuminate without encountering objects, without encountering things outside. To know without touching and to illuminate without encountering objects. Knowing without touching things, this knowledge is innately subtle. Illuminating without encountering objects, this illumination is innately miraculous. The knowledge innately subtle has never engaged in discriminating thinking. The illumination innately miraculous has never displayed the slightest identification. Never engaging in discriminating thinking, this knowledge is rare without match.

[49:35]

Never displaying the most minute identification, this illumination is complete without grasping. The water is clear right down to the bottom. Fish lazily swim on. The sky is vast without end. Birds fly far. Into the distance. The water is clear right down to the bottom. Fish lazily swim on. The sky is vast without end. Birds fly far into the distance. Hongzhi. So thank you, Zen Master Hongzhi. I hope you'll read him again and again. It's lovely poetry. And Dogen, as you know, as I've said, just really... appreciated, respected Hongzhi, took great inspiration from him. And although he's not in our lineage, doesn't show up on our lineage charts because he had a different teaching lineage that flowed down from another teacher to him.

[50:38]

And then I'm not exactly sure where his lineage ended up. I should probably look that up. But not in Soto Zen, not in Dongshan's line or Dogen's line or line here. That's what I have to offer this evening. And I would very much enjoy hearing from any of you. Next week, my plan is to begin talking about Dogen. And, of course, we'll look at the Transmission of Light chapter, which has quite a lot to say about Dogen. Of course, this is written by third generation from Dogen. Kezan Jokin is a direct line from Dogen. So he has quite a lot of... to offer us about his ancestor. And there's also a lot of material that the Sotoshu has produced and translated into English, so I'm going to be using some of that material to talk about Dogen's early years, his early practice, some of his early writings.

[51:39]

And, you know, we'll work our way towards the liturgy, and there are several important writings, fascicles from the Shobo Genzo. Treasury of the True Dharma Eye, which is Dogen's large, his kind of monumental work, collection of his major pieces of writing. And the ones that you're most familiar with, if you have been chanting with us at any time, would be the Fukanzazengi, Instructions for Zazen, and the Genjo Koan. So we'll look at those for sure. There's a whole book on the Genjo Koan. I mean, there's so much... It can be done with Dogen's energy. So I have no fear that we will run out of things to look at and share. So there you are. That's it for today. I very much like to hear whatever you would like to bring up. Not yet.

[52:43]

I'm just going to say hello to Henning. I see him there. Henning, nice to see you. Yeah. Hi. You spotlighted Henning. Oh, hello. Embarrassing for you. Hi, how are you? I'm good. Good. Yeah, in Burlington, Vermont. Uh-huh. Hello from up north. Well, thank you. Thank you. It's nice to have you on board for tonight. You know I had a great time with your mother. Yes. Yes. Word got out. Yeah. She talks about it. She's a natural. We've got to get her back down there. There we have some hints. Bye, Henny. Hi, Guy. Do you have the lights out? I know. It's because I start with the lights on and I always don't plan very well.

[53:49]

Let me see if I can turn this up. There we go. That's nice. After going to City Center and sitting in the Zendo, I have a much better understanding of the lighting than I usually have set. But it's not very good for... for you to be able to see me. That's right. So thank you for illuminating yourself. No, no problem. Thank you so much for taking the time and speaking on cultivating the empty field, especially the specific, would you call it poems? Or how, because I know this one was titled Everyone Included in the Field, what you read, I think you read a part of it. And this one specifically spoke to me and raised some flags of awareness. But first, I wanted to point out one of my favorite parts right after what you read of people who sincerely meditate is where he says, square around, they just enjoy the center.

[54:55]

I absolutely love that. When I read that, that was wonderful. That's good. And at the end of that, He had put people or had written people who know its truth, nod their heads with comprehension. And upon reading that, I found myself nodding my head. And at the moment I was, who am I? Is that, have I just lost? And that was my concern, right? As reading Hongzhi retrospectively, because I feel like in Zazen, When we try to grasp at anything and say, oh, there's the field that falls, right? It's already not. It falls apart. So my concern in nodding my head is, am I thinking? Am I liable to thinking that I know? Exactly. See what I'm doing while you're talking? We're head nodders.

[55:57]

Exactly. Yeah. I will let you know I'm with you. I'm with you, yeah. It doesn't mean I – it's just empty head. It's just nodding. It's just absorbing and moving with the waves of sound and poetry and friendship. And not making it into a thing. You can't. If you could, you would. You can't. And it reminded me of the chant I say that we say every morning, the rogue chant, field far beyond form and emptiness. Great. There you are nodding again. That's how to keep more still. Yeah, you can try. But, yeah, it's been, you know, it's that thing Buddha said, be friendly.

[57:03]

Be friendly with your fellow nodders. You know, let them know you hear them. And kindly bent to ease. I like that line. I heard that a long time ago that, you know, you can be a real soldier, Zen soldier, right? I mean, not you personally, but you could probably. You know, like Reb said the other day, where's the samurai? So I think they left town. And then they all got old and put their swords down. But yeah, not too many samurai left around here. Maybe the young pups will come in and be samurai again. But I think we've all let that go. You know, there's that. You can do that. You can really, you know, put on a show. But I read this line a long time ago. Kindly bent. to ease suffering of others. So you kind of, you don't do that. You do, you know, you kind of lean in when you talk to children or old people or people who are sad. Thank you, Fu.

[58:07]

Thank you, Guy. Thank you for your help, too. Oh, yes, no problem. I'm going to ask you for some more. Of course. Stay tuned. Okay. Hi, Alicia. Hi, Finn. How are you? Good. Good. Nice to see you. It's really good to see you and hear you. Thank you for your teaching this evening. As you were reading the acupuncture needle of Zazen, it really made me think about how Hangzhou is playing with Ri and Ji and even with the five ranks. Yep. Because those last two lines really sound like the host within the host. You got it. Okay, cool. And even the title, acupuncture needle, because I know like in acupuncture, the needles used to move chi. Sometimes it needs to slow down. Sometimes you need to speed it up if it's stagnant. So it's just interesting too, like that, the needle. Yeah, and zazen is a pretty big needle.

[59:11]

It's your whole body, you know? Yeah. It's like a needle the size of your body. which is the size of the whole thing, right? It's just this, all of it coming at you. Yeah, yeah. And you coming at, I mean, the merging of the whole body of your physical self, your human self, and the vastness of your great big self. Mm-hmm. You know, that always is interesting to me, that dynamic of, like you were talking about the four foundations of like mindfulness. And that first one is through the body. And for me, that's, you know, so much of my practice is going through the body. But then Dogen talks about drop body and mind. But you have to go through the body almost before you can drop it. You know, you can't skip over it. No, you have to have one to drop it. That's true. That's a good point. I got it.

[60:13]

I got it. Okay, now drop it. Okay. I dropped it. Drop it again. Okay. You know, and then what does Ru Jing says to him? Now drop that. Drop dropping. Yeah. So, you know, if you think you dropped your body and mind, okay, now drop that you think you dropped your body and mind. Right. You know, don't make a thing out of your whatever you think. is going on of your practice. Just keep rolling. Just keep rolling. Dogen kept rolling. He rolled back to Japan, and he started a monastery, and he taught the best he could. So it's not like you got done. He didn't get done there in China. He just got his engine turned on. Yeah, yeah. What could get done anyway? Exactly. Thank you so much. He's back.

[61:22]

I'm back. I'm sorry. That answer was wonderful for me. It was like a continuation of the answer to my question. So thank you so much. And I wanted to point something out that it reminded me of that I read that was shocking when I read in Hangzhou. And I wanted to reread and get your thoughts on that, where he says, the Buddhas and ancestors all do not reach one's own genuine, wondrously illuminating field, which is called oneself. Do not. They don't reach it. They do not reach. Yeah, I'll read it again. Yeah, please. The Buddhists and ancestors all do not reach one's own genuine, wondrously illuminating field, which is called oneself. Now that leaves one. The remedy. Doesn't it? Like, huh? Ooh, that kind of, that's good. Which one is that? This one is, let me pull it up here.

[62:23]

What page is that on? The problem I read it's stepping from the cliff's edge. And then let me see. I don't I read it on my on my Kindle. So does that give it does that give it enough? Sure. I'll find it from the cliff's edge. It will probably be on the it's it's one of my favorite lines in this one is in upright practice. Let go from the edge of the cliff of the high cliff, not grabbing anything. Freefall. Yeah, freefall. That's what we're doing, freefall. Us and the whole planet, we're just flying around in outer space. Really? Yeah, really. I don't know what's going on, but it's kind of wonderful that we got a chance to be here, don't you think? And the opportunity to watch, it's something magical. I remember one of the most confusing at first answers you had ever given to me.

[63:26]

when I was focused, what do I have to do in Zazen? What am I supposed to be doing? And I remember it was a similar response to where, well, I enjoy watching my mind. And I enjoy the workings of my mind, what I had been fighting against, right, for so long and how to stop and having the opportunity, right, to see how the miracle that it all... Oh, that we can... I mean... you know, we're so used to it. It's like we just make movies and write books and we go to school and we're just so bored with, you know, there's something on sale. So we go to the store, you know, we're just so adept at this miracle that we hardly notice the miraculousness of being alive, you know, of thought, of sound. It's like, you know, it's like, hello, hello, humanity. Just take a look, you know, how could you hurt anybody? if you really saw what a miracle you are and they are and if you really um like a passion that comes from feeling your own suffering in a way which is never never the same right but but just like you said when we even understand the feelings behind tears whatever they might be it really um it's really something something powerful yeah yeah very dear so dear

[64:55]

It's all love. It's all love. It really is. Thank you, Ki. Okay. Marianne, did you want to come back? A couple of folks. Oh, Dean. Hey, Dean. Hey, Fu. Hi. So this is a question from last week, or I think it's last weekend. I have a real problem reading my writing because I'm going so, because I don't want to lose the thought before I get it written down. But something was said about when we were talking about the re-engineering that it can't, that this can't be taught without words. Does that ring a bell? Yeah. It can't be taught without words. And I kept thinking about that, but it's learned without words. Guess what? It's learned without words. I mean, it can't be taught without words, but we don't learn it from the words.

[66:01]

We learn it from something, but I don't feel like we really learn it from the words because we can't hold on to the words. You know, once we define what those words mean, then we're off the track. So there's some relation between that. cannot be taught without words, but that we learn it without words. And that makes sense to me, but I can't really say why. And maybe it doesn't make sense to anybody else. Well, unfortunately, I am using your words to learn something about what you just said. So I'm kind of caught in the spiral of I talk to you, you talk to me, we talk to each other. It's kind of like you know, what do you call that game that everybody plays now? Paddleball. It starts with a W. Pickleball. You know, it's like pickleball. So we're just, you know, we're just sending it back and forth like ants, you know, we're just kind of doing that.

[67:05]

I think your point is a good one. You're pointing to what is learning? Like, what is it to learn something? I mean, I can hear all kinds of things, but what do I learn? How do I learn? And I think what I feel like you're pointing to is the deepening of our... knowing which is beyond words like i know that it's cold i don't have to tell me it's cold right i know it i know that i'm upset or i know that i care i love the dharma you don't have to tell me about it you know there's some way in which what i know and the kind of the depth of my wish to to to care for things is not about where i can't explain it right i can't explain it and you and i are both you know required really to learn language well enough to be able to to help each other i mean i've been helped by the words that have been said even though i don't remember them right something something got reoriented you know sort of like my genetic makeup got sort of reconfigured because of things that i heard things that i cared about that mattered to me matter it's like matter

[68:20]

There is a, you know, if you ever look at the Abhidharma charts, which is a little esoteric, but it's kind of interesting. There's the physical form of having these senses, these sense organs, eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body. Those are listed as materiality. There's five organs and there's five fields where the organs do their thing. So there's visual field and then there's eyes and then there's auditory field and then there's ears. So there's 10 altogether. Then there's an 11th. It's called Avishnapti Rupa. Great name. I remembered it because that's the one. Avishnapti Rupa is not material and it's not mental. It's in between. And that's where vows are placed. We take vows. I said those words, but the effect of saying those words is profound in terms of our behavior, our... our actions in the world. And we can't really explain it. Like, well, did you, somebody stick something in your body when you took those vows?

[69:21]

Is it a material transformation? Not exactly. It was words. I said, vow means words. I did say words. I promise, you know, I promised something, but apparently it has a physical impact on that. And that number 11 is how the Buddhists understand the, the, the impact of words. I think maybe that's what I'm talking about is the physical impact, which doesn't really have a definition or words. And yet that it comes from something and maybe it comes through the words or some things come through the words. And then then, you know, someone said to me one time, I don't know, I said something and she had been to Berkley Zen Center and she said, Well, you don't sound like you have much of a practice because I couldn't explain something. You don't sound like you have much. And I said, well, it's called a practice.

[70:25]

It's not called a perfect. Oh, that's good. It made perfect sense to me. It's not a practice. It's a perfect. And she just sort of shook her head and was like, well, fine, just keep going. But... you know, that whole thing with words. And you said before that, I'm curious, why is it that this practice is so strong with scholarly types? Like you said, it's a poetry thing. I never grew up with poetry. I don't understand it. I understand analogies. I don't understand metaphors. So what is it that this practice has got that You know, I sit and listen to people and I don't understand them a lot of the time because I'll ask someone, so what does that mean? And they'll say, blah, blah, blah. So what is it with the scholarly? Yeah, well, I think they're evocative. Like I was just thinking Suzuki Rishi's thing about walking in the mist.

[71:29]

What you're talking about, you know, you walk in the mist, you keep doing the practice. You don't really see anything. You can't really feel it. It's just kind of damp. But little by little, you begin to absorb and understand. You know, so that's a metaphor, walking in the mist. And so there's a lot of that in Zen, a lot of these ways of not directly saying, well, if you spend a lot of time and you go to the Zen, you know, we all understand that. But maybe it's more, it just kind of hits in another location, maybe more in our hearts, more in our feeling function. When the poetry, I think, oftentimes will evoke for me, like, You know, something very, it's just like, ooh, ooh, ooh, that's a good one. You know, so it is a bit of an acquired taste. I would say I felt that way. I didn't grow up with poetry or, you know, my parents weren't educated people in that way. We didn't have books, you know, we watched TV, which is fine.

[72:33]

But, you know, I have, over time, I've come to really enjoy. It's not too complicated. Well, I'll always ask someone. So, you know, I don't have a problem saying, I have no idea what they were talking about. Would you explain it? And everybody's happy to. So I guess I'm really glad I'm around a lot of scholarly types because they can't explain it to me. There you go. There you have it. Thank you. They give them something to do. Right. Nice to see you, Dean. Thank you. All righty. I think we lost. Marianne. Marianne, you still out there? Hey, all right. Are you going to give up? Are you going to come back? Okay. Yeah, right. Thank you. Thank you, Poo, again. Good evening, Sangha. Well, for somebody who has been raised in stages of spiritual development, states of spiritual development coming from the Abrahamic tradition, stages and states, to hear...

[73:38]

What you just talked about in terms of just sitting is so liberating. You know, I mean, the point is we're always on a journey to get to the end of samsara. And it seems like it's just sitting. Just sit. You are there at samsara. And it's just so illuminating and freeing. And liberating, truly liberating. We're constantly trying to get out of our bodies. And then it's just, no, sit with the body. Yes. Come home. Come home, little Sheba. So it's just very liberating. And to really, you know, know that. And many of the Zen talks many months ago, maybe even a year ago, I don't remember who the Zen teacher was, but she gave the 10 o'clock talk on a Sunday.

[74:41]

I think she was from Germany. And she was just saying to us, just do your practice. Five minutes, 10 minutes, 20 minutes. Just do it. Just do it. And I'll never forget it. It was just also that kind of freeing thing. You know, okay, yes, you want to sit 40 minutes. You want to sit 40 minutes. number of hours you want to do all the practice but her point was just do a practice just do it every day whatever it is it was just so liberating great great great i'm so glad i am so glad you you all are getting the encouragement from this practice because that's what we all want you to have more than anything right but thank you thank you so much thank you thank you Okay, so nice to be with you all, as always. And I'll see you next week. And we'll be starting our journey with Dogen Zenji. He's going to take us across the Great Ocean to China from Japan and back again. It's like Frodo with the magic ring.

[75:45]

Okay, please be well. Thank you so much, Fu. So welcome. Always welcome. Glad to see you all. Please take care. Yeah. Thank you. Bye, everyone. Bye. [...] Thank you. Be well. Lovely. Lisa, I'll see you soon. Yes. We have a date. I will be there. Great. Bye, Henning. Good to see you. Bye. Oh, Karina says you were her best kitchen buddy. She misses you so much. Yeah, no, we had a great time. She just, every time I say Henning, she goes, Henning. Yeah, I want to make it back, but I have to figure out. She wouldn't go in the kitchen without you there. Yeah. All right. Yeah, you have a fan at Green Gulch. Big fan. Well, you know, my mom's a fan of you, so we have.

[76:49]

Well, there we go. They got the whole family. Yeah. You know, Henning came to visit, and I got scallions, I got tofu, and he didn't bring home the recipe for ginger scallion tofu. Oh, no. Henning, come here. Yeah. Put your face in for Henning. I think he might enjoy looking. Marina made the tofu. I made something else. Here she comes. Look at my T-shirt. See what that says? I can't see it. Good for nothing. Well, you have a friend in high places. She could probably go get it for you. I was telling my mom, you know, I figure any recipe you need, you know. You know, the only problem is it was marinated the night before and that I did.

[77:49]

Oh, that you got to do. That's the secret. You got to soak up the marinade. Yeah. Otherwise that tofu is just tofu. That is it. And that is not tasty. But it marinated it. All right. Lovely ones. We'll see you soon. Good night. Bye bye.

[78:10]

@Transcribed_UNK
@Text_v005
@Score_92.39