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. Morning, everybody. I hope everybody's okay and getting oriented, settled. in Sashen. We're talking about Dogen's text, Zuimonki, and since pretty much everything he says means Zuimonki comes back to Zazen, it's good that we have this time to concentrate on Zazen and maybe in doing that our ears can be wide open for Dogen's words. So this morning I want to bring up some sections from Book 4, beginning with the seventh section of Book 4.

[01:08]

And again, I've been using a slightly updated translation, so it may be somewhat different from what you read in your text. So these are Gogan's words. Students of the Way. You do not attain realization because you hold on to your old fixed views. Without knowing who taught you, you think that mind is the functioning of your thoughts, knowledge, and views. And you don't believe me when I say that mind is grasses and trees. You think that the Buddha must have various physical characteristics and a radiant halo And if I say that the Buddha is broken tiles and pebbles, your ears are astonished. Such views were not transmitted from your father or mother. You have believed them without reason, simply being influenced for a long time by the people who have said such things.

[02:16]

Therefore, because what I have said is a definite saying of the Buddhas and ancestors, you should reform your mind. When it is said that mind is grasses and trees, you should understand that mind is grasses and trees. If you are told that Buddha is tiles and pebbles, you should believe that tiles and pebbles are Buddha. Thus, if you continue to transform your original attachment to your old views, you will be able to truly attain the Way. So here, Dogen is repeating what he says so often in Zuimoki, that we all have, naturally have and will have, a conditioned way of looking at the world, and that process is a reformation of those views, a transformation.

[03:22]

of the way that we view the world and ourselves. And all our suffering and the suffering of the world comes from these fixed views. And the main thing is that it's not that it's bad to have fixed views because they're somehow wrong or un-Buddhistic or that the Dharma is a better view and so we should follow that view because it's better. That's not the point. The point is that our deeply ingrained views are the cause of all of our suffering, and the suffering of the whole world. Now that may seem like an extreme thing to say, but when you think about it, it really is true. How come there's injustice?

[04:23]

Because people believe that it is advantageous for them to oppress others. That's a deeply held view. How come there are wars? Because people in power think that it is necessary for them to conduct wars in order to maintain their power. That's a view of reality. But on a smaller scale level, we see this as true. We all think, don't we, that it makes sense to defend ourselves against others who are not us, who are going to take advantage of us, you know, if we don't watch out. That's a view of reality. And these views create suffering on a small scale and on a big scale. So it's a very important matter for us that we reform, little by little, our views.

[05:29]

And that eventually we try to help others to do this too. And that's our practice, right? We sit, we study, we chant, we bow, we offer incense, we hang around with teachers and Dharma friends. a whole process to help us to reform our perspective. And the process also involves, of course it does, our intelligence, our thinking, our reflecting. But we can't change our deeply held views just by thinking about it or by deciding we're going to do it. Because our views are far too deeply ingrained in us. They're in part, you know, biological even. And most of the time we don't even know that we have such views in us. So reforming our views has to come about through an ongoing process that is physical, emotional, psychological and mental, and also relational.

[06:33]

In this passage, Dogen brings up the common Zen teaching that the real Buddha is not the Buddha we meet in sutras and stories. a wise person who attained enlightenment long ago and gave us profound teachings that we're supposed to learn and follow. It's not that that Buddha is not the Buddha. It's just that the true Buddha, the actual Buddha, is not a separate historical person who's not us. The Buddha appears wherever we look. The Buddha appears even in our own minds. And also, as he's saying here, even in roof tiles and pebbles. This saying might give us a little insight, extra insight into the story of Matsu, who's sitting in Zazen while his teacher, Nanyue, is polishing a tile, a roof tile.

[07:46]

Temple grounds always have some roof tiles lying around on the ground, you know. Nanyue says, your sitting zazen to become a Buddha is like me polishing a tile to make a mirror. It can't be done. And also, as Dogen comments on this story someplace, it can't be done because the tile is already a mirror. already a shining Buddha, just as you are, sitting in Zazen, thinking you're not. Because Buddha is shining wherever you look, even in your own smelly and troubled thoughts on the cushion during Sashin. If your thoughts are jumbled and troubled on your cushion, Why would that be?

[08:50]

Because you think your thoughts are coming from your mind, that is your mind, that you are somehow responsible for the thoughts, and that they are you, they define you. But here we learn that mind is not what is inside your skull. Mind is grasses and trees. And this is no metaphor. This is actually the truth. Literally the truth. Your thoughts are no more personal to you than the tree outside your window that you see in the evening, or the sky overhead, or the birds that I can hear now and that Kathy and I hear in the early morning when we're sitting in our little zendo. My thoughts are no less or more mine than the sound of those words.

[10:01]

Inside and outside are convenient and necessary constructs. But they are constructs. Thoughts and trees and birds and insects and clouds together are all mine. Your problems are not yours. They belong to the whole world. Maybe when you realize this, it takes the pressure off a little bit. Your problems may still be there. But they're not just your problems. And they're not your fault. To be sure, you should do whatever you can do to make them better. But there's no need to take it all so personally. Dogen concludes this section with a lovely and very encouraging image.

[11:04]

He says, An ancient said, Though the sun and moon shine brightly, floating clouds cover them over. Though clusters of orchids are about to bloom, autumn winds blow, and they wither. This saying is found in the essentials of government during the Zinguan period, comparing a wise king to his evil ministers. Now I would say, Dogen says, even if floating clouds cover the sun and moon, they will not remain for long. Even if autumn winds wither the flowers, they will bloom again. Even if the ministers are evil, if the king is wise, he will not be deceived for long. practicing the Buddha way should be the same. No matter what evil we might commit for a while, if we remain steadfast and maintain our practice for a long time, the floating clods will disappear and the autumn winds will cease.

[12:14]

So the warm sun and beautiful flower of awakening is in you right now. Thank goodness it's not up to you to do the hard work of producing such things. If they are covered over by clouds or caused to wither by autumn winds, in other words, by the difficult conditions of your life, that's okay. That's a temporary situation. And it will clear up on its own, by and by, as you continue to make effort in practice. You know, in one way of looking at it, practice is such an easy and natural thing to do. Sometimes I think it is the easiest and most natural thing that a human being could do.

[13:23]

And I remember a long time ago, one of the most important times in my practice was the first time I ever visited Tassajara. Long ago, many decades ago, before many of the buildings that are there now were built, before the great beautiful stone walls were constructed, I visited there. And I was so impressed with the mountains and the temple. And I remember feeling that just as the trees and animals had a natural way of living in the mountains, an ancient way, the practice way, with its quiet zazen and its musical sounds of kesu and boncho, bells and han, was exactly the human analog of the way of the trees and animals in the mountains. It was the ancient natural way for human beings to live softly on the earth.

[14:26]

But in another sense, practice does take some effort. Clearing your schedule and coming to session takes some effort. And sitting all day from morning to night takes some effort. So I'm getting old, and I don't think anymore, as I used to think, that session needs to be very, very difficult, and that we all need to sweat and strain, otherwise it's not session. No, I think session is very pleasant and very easy. And yet, as we know, it does require energy and effort. We do have to show up. We do have to give our heart and turn over our activity to Sashin. And we have to start our practice over and over again, constantly.

[15:38]

Not only every period of Zazen, but every moment of every period. Just like Nancy was instructing us last night, suggesting the great practice of fluffing our cushion and straightening out our Zabatan. washing our face before we sit, and so on. We have to slough off our lazy, habitual selves and become present with each and every thing all day and even all night when we're sleeping in bed. But if we do do this, not only in session, but all the time in our practice, knowing, of course, that everyday practice feels different from session practice, but every day making effort, doing our best, falling down, of course, sometimes, but then getting up. If we will do that, for sure the clouds will part. For sure the autumn wind will turn into a summer breeze.

[16:42]

Maybe it caught your eye that at the end of this passage he says, no matter what evil we might commit for a moment, for a while, Other places he refers to this. He says, you know, the Buddhas of the past were like us, and they also had evil thoughts and did evil things, just like we do. Evil maybe is, you know, a medieval word that maybe is an exaggeration to us now. But I think you get the idea. Since our views are not yet reformed, of course, we're going to have plenty of confusion and afflictive emotions, plenty of problems and controversies in our lives. You know the trouble with religion? It's so idealistic. Somehow it gives you the message that you are supposed to be a paragon of virtue. You are supposed to be perfectly good. And that doesn't help, you know?

[17:49]

Of course, it's a good idea to try to be good. We should definitely try to be good. Being good in the end is much more pleasant than not. And things will go better, you know, if you keep precepts. Crashing into things all the time can be exciting for a while, but it gets unpleasant after a while. You get plenty of bruises and it gets tiring. But even so, probably we won't be all that good because we're all just regular people, right? And this is what I value most about Dogen's teaching. He knows this about us because I think he must know it about himself. And he loves us anyway. And not only that, he understands that it is absolutely necessary for us to be who and as we are.

[19:00]

So we don't need to regret anything. In fact, we can be grateful for all of our issues and problems and foibles and suffering. The sentence about evil that I mention in here ends like this. You remember, no matter what evil we might commit for a while, if we remain steadfast and maintain our practice for a long time, the floating clouds will disappear and the autumn winds will cease. In other words, don't worry about anything. Just keep on with your practice and it's going to be okay. I mean, yes, you have a very serious and important job to do. You have to keep on. You have to not forget your practice. But it's going to be okay. The next section I like because it's a little bit personal.

[20:06]

Dōgen shows his personality a little bit here, which he doesn't always do, especially in Shébōgenza, but here in Zūimōki, he does. So here's the passage. Students, when you have the mind of a beginner, whether you have aroused the feeling of awakening or not, you should thoroughly read and study the sacred scriptures, sutras, commentaries, and so on. So notice that even though they say that Zen is beyond the scriptures and that you have stories of different Zen masters, you know, burning the sutras and whatnot, Dogen says, you should study the Dharma. He goes on, I first aroused the mind of awakening to some degree because of seeing impermanence. I widely visited various districts and finally left the monastery on Montier, where he had ordained, and practiced the way, staying at Keninji. During that time, I did not meet a true teacher and did not have good spiritual friends, and therefore I aroused mistaken thoughts within delusions.

[21:13]

Even my instructors taught me that, first of all, I should become an eminent person who could be the equal of our predecessors in study, become known in the nation, and be an honorable person in the world. Because of such instructions, when I studied the Dharma teachings, I desired to become equal to the ancient wise people in this country, or I intended to become the same as those who received the title of great master, and so on. In other words, eminent monastics of his day. So, first of all, Dogen doesn't say this in the passage, but when he says, I arouse the mind of awakening because of seeing impermanence, He's referring to the experience he had when he was a boy. He was eight years old when his mother died. And as the story goes, he was attending her funeral, and he watched the smoke from the stick of incense curl upward into the air, and he saw the truth of impermanence.

[22:27]

Although impermanence is everywhere you look, Somehow you miss it. But when something happens to you, a sudden searing loss or some other shock, it gets your attention. And you either fall apart altogether, temporarily or permanently, Or if possible, if you can do it, you find a way to cover over the wound without facing it and healing it so that you sort of think you forgot about it, but there it is festering in you forever and ever without you even knowing that it's doing that, motivating every single subsequent moment of your life. Or, if you're lucky as Dogen was, you are shocked into waking up. and you know you have to find a path.

[23:32]

So he left, well, yay, but as he says, he didn't find good teachers or guard Dharma friends. So he naturally applied the usual mind of ambition and social gain to his Dharma study. He assumed, as anybody would, that the point of practice, like anything else you take up, is to get really good at it. to be better at it than anybody else and to get credit for doing this so that you can feel really good about yourself and also other people will admire you. That's how Dogen looked at it. As he says, that's exactly what he was doing. So if you find these tendencies in yourself, don't despair. You're in good company. You're just like Dogen. Just like you, Dogen was an ambitious person. But then he read the stories of the ancients, as he writes.

[24:42]

When I read biographies of eminent monks and so on, various texts he cites, to study how they practiced and how the Buddha Dharma was lived in China, I found that those people were not anything like the way my teachers seemed to be telling me. I began to understand that these ambitions I had aroused were thoughts despised and hated in all of the sutra's commentaries and biographies. Then, considering the true principle, I gradually realized that instead of being thought of as a good person by inferior people in this age, if I think of fame, I should instead humbly compare myself with ancient wise people, or good people in generations later than them. If I wish to be equal to someone, instead of comparing myself with the people in this country, I should humbly compare myself with the predecessors and great monks in India and China.

[25:50]

I should aspire to become equal to them. Also, I should humbly compare myself with various heavenly beings. unseen beings, all Buddhas and Bodhisattvas and so on, and intend to become equal to them. Once I understood this, I began to think of those who were honored with the title of Great Master and Roshi this and so-and-so that, like dirt or broken tiles. I completely reformed my body and mind from what they had been up to that point. Now, Here Dogen is using a typical sort of rhetorical medieval Japanese kind of language which might be a little bit misleading in its tone but really what he's saying I think is quite clear. When he read the biographies of ancient masters he realized that they were not ambitiously trying to be somebody to enhance themselves through their practice.

[26:56]

That's not what they were trying to do. In fact, they were doing the opposite. They were trying to fully live this life and throw away themselves. So he said, instead of trying to think about being somebody worthwhile in this world and achieving some kind of imagined attainable spiritual greatness, he would instead aspire to an ancient inner, endless and impossible goal. Not outside the world, but also not driven by the world. In this way, he would no longer be subject to the whims of fashion and the success and failure of the moment, whether it was inner or outer, he would have his eye on something beyond that.

[27:58]

As he says, he would humbly aspire to be the equal of the Buddhas and sages of all bodhisattvas and heavenly beings. That would be his aspiration. Which meant that he would never arrive at his destination, that he would always be traveling, but that his journey would be a deeply satisfying and meaningful one, because it was literally beyond compare. He then says, when we examine the Buddha's activities during his lifetime, we see that he abandoned his claim to the throne and entered the mountain forests. I have read that even after he had completed the way, he begged for food for the rest of his lifetime. In the Vinaya it is said, knowing that home is not home, abandon home and leave home.

[29:01]

As you know, to ordain as a Buddhist priest is to leave home. Shukye tokudō. To enter the way, leaving home. To leave your family enjoying the lineage of home leavers. But what is our home? What's our real home? You know, it's funny, most of us here live in America probably. Did you ever think of this? America is a whole nation of home leavers. Almost everybody who's here, their family, in the past, left home somewhere, left somewhere else, you know, left home to find home here. Some of us, it seems, have not left home to find home here.

[30:09]

We've been here forever. Our people have been here forever. But not really. Even the native peoples who have been here for 35, 40, 50, we don't know how many generations, their families also came here from somewhere else. long, long, long ago. Because this is what human beings do. They always leave home. They're leaving home to find home. And it isn't so much of the fight and trouble we're having in our country now have to do with this. Whose home is this America? after all? And who defines this home that we call America? The truth is, we are all at home on Earth.

[31:13]

And we are all at home in our settled sense of being alive in this human body. No home that we could grasp and owned because we have a piece of paper that says so, could ever be our true home. Because impermanence is our true home. So home leavers are leaving their provisional home to find their true home, even though they've been living in their true home all along. And yet they have to wander around for a while to arrive there. Dogen then says, An ancient said, Don't be arrogant and consider yourself equal to superior wise people. Don't deprecate yourself and think you are equal to inferior people. This means that both are a kind of arrogance.

[32:16]

Though you may be in a high position, do not forget that you may fall down. Though you may be safe now, remember that you have to face danger. You may have to face danger at some time. Though you may be alive today, don't think necessarily you'll be alive tomorrow. The danger of death is always under your feet. This is a very important teaching to me, and I remember the first time I heard it and how much it impressed me and surprised me. We're all used to the idea that to be a stuck-up person, you know, thinking you're better than everybody else, is arrogance. There probably are some people that think arrogance is good. I'm glad I'm arrogant. But most of us don't think that. We don't want to be arrogant. So I thought that.

[33:17]

But it never occurred to me that to insist on your inferiority That somehow others are better than you. That you are somehow, even though nobody notices, you know you're kind of a mess. And you really need to improve. And others are not a mess like that. And you even envy them a little bit because they don't have the horrible problems you have. It never occurred to me that this too is equally a form of arrogance. Which is what Dogen is saying here. To see yourself as superior or inferior to others are both equally forms of arrogance. Actually, it might be worse to insist on your inferiority. You can feel superior for that, right? All beings are Buddha. Yes, I know. But I alone am not.

[34:24]

I alone am a mess. Everyone you meet, or ever will meet, is an awesome human being, a Buddha, including you. To me, this is really the freedom, the democracy, and the equality that we talk about. No one ever anywhere is better than you are. And no one ever anywhere is worse than you. Against all previous social understanding, they wrote this in the Declaration of Independence. Amazing. Now all we have to do is, first of all, know that it's true and feel it in our hearts. And someday, make this beautiful

[35:30]

human truth, and actuality in our societies. And we're working on it. Hard work, right? And as he says at the very end, we are all subject to loss and impermanence and we will all die. In this we are absolutely and completely the equal of one another, no matter what. Dugin also said, foolish people think and speak of senseless things. For example, there's an old nun working for this temple. She seems to be ashamed of her current humble situation. And she tends to talk to others about how she used to be a lady of the upper class. Even if people here believe she used to be, there's no merit in it.

[36:32]

I think it's quite useless. It seems that most people tend to have this sort of sentiment. We can see that such people lack the mind of awakening. When we reform such a frame of mind, we will become a bit more like people of the way. So when we were discussing this passage, we've been having lots of fun, you know, Kathy and I are discussing Zui Moki. When we were discussing this passage, Kathy says, it's too bad that Dogen only mentions women a couple of times in Zwing Moki. It's too bad that this one is less than admirable. And it is too bad. But I don't think Vogue is, you know, means to sing her out as a woman. In fact, the very next passage, he cites a man doing the same thing. Anyway, the point is, isn't it hard being at home as we are with this life as it is?

[37:35]

We just can't seem to be satisfied with it, you know? We have to be somebody. We have to complain about somebody. We have to resent somebody, or even ourselves. Or as in this case, we somehow have to justify ourselves. Well, I might look to you like an old broken-down nun sleeping in the temple, but I want you to know that I come from a very, very high family. I was a very important person, and I gave it all up to become a nun. I want you to understand that. about me. So, this last passage I'm bringing up, I'm almost done, is a guy with the same sort of problem. And this is nice because to me it's very endearing, shows something really endearing about Rogan. He says, there's a certain layman who completely lacks the mind of awakening in the same way that this nun does.

[38:41]

And because he's a close friend of mine, I always see him. And I would love to tell him to pray to the Buddhas and gods to allow him to arouse the mind of awakening. But I know that if I told him that, he would get angry at me. And he would probably, you know, end our friendship. And yet... unless he does arouse the mind of awakening, it's pointless for us to be friends. So, a couple things about this. First, a lay monk was common in Dogen's time. And it is common today in Japan, and of course very common here in the West. It's a person who has ordained as a home leaver, as a priest or a monk, but who does not live in a monastery, but rather lives with his or her family. I'm pretty sure, I'm not 100% sure, I'll have to look this up, but I'm pretty sure that even in Dogen's time, it's certainly true today in Japan, but even in Dogen's time, I think that often these lay monks

[39:58]

were married and had families. Even if they weren't legally married, they had spouses and children, which is why they were living outside the monastery. Often, not always, but often. Anyway, whatever it was, Dogen says this particular lay monk friend of his didn't have the dedication and the discipline to be able to let go of his complaining, comparing mind So he was always, you know, troublesome. And here's the part that I like about this, what I think is so beautiful. First of all, two things. First of all, Dogen thinks, as he says, very casually, if you don't have the mind of the way, and we might think to ourselves, you know, that's true, I don't really have the mind of the way, I wish I did. Well, if you feel that way, what you should do is pray. That's what he says. I wish I could tell him to pray to the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas to get the mind of the way.

[41:03]

I mean, we think, well, Buddhists don't pray, you know, because they don't believe in God, but that doesn't matter. Of course Buddhists pray. Dogen prays, right? Dogen is recommending prayer. Please, Buddha, help me out here. I can't do this. Give me the strength to overcome my conditionings. Maybe we should all be praying ourselves every day. I do. Every day, you know. Please, Buddha, help. We need the help around here. So that's one thing that I think is really lovely about this. But the other thing is Dogen here is sharing a dilemma that I bet you you've had too. You have a friend who's like going astray and you'd like to say something to her but you can't because you know that she would never listen to you. and she'd get mad at you for saying so. That's what Dogen, that's his dilemma. Now maybe you think, well, Dogen, come on, you should say something.

[42:08]

I mean, isn't it false of you to think this and not say it to your friend? I mean, shouldn't you help your friend out? Do you not have the nerve to speak to your friend? Dogen seems to be saying that he knows it's better for him not to say anything, because if he does say something, the friend will get mad and you know abandon the friendship and Dogen does not want to abandon the friendship does not want to risk the friendship maybe because he doesn't want to lose his friend maybe because he's loyal to his friend and maybe he thinks that it's good for his friend that the friendship continues so he's not going to jeopardize the friendship and he knows that the friendship Even so, unless it changes, unless his friend changes, it can't mean much because how can you really be friends with someone who's basically self-obsessed, right? But never mind, Dogen's going to stick with his friend.

[43:13]

He's just going to be there and he's just going to wait for the moment to arise. And I think that's so sweet and so revealing, you know, about who Dogen is as a person. We might not have imagined that. Okay. So I have spoken a lot of words there. Thousands of them. Thousands of words. Substituting for the words that would have been in your head during this period of time if I had not been speaking. So I'm going to stop speaking and leave you to your own words or hopefully no words just some beautiful silence right now things have changed considerably where I am and I'm hearing the sound of rain which I was not hearing at the beginning of my talk maybe you're hearing that too where you are we're very fortunate really lucky to have this time to sit people nowadays

[44:27]

Privilege, you know, is a buzzword, right? Well, if anybody was ever privileged, it's us to be able to sit here these days to make a simple, quiet, natural life. Zazen truly is the fountainhead of our practice. And everything good in our practice flows from Zazen. So we're lucky to have this time to focus only on Zazen. Thank you very, very much for listening to my talk. Please continue to take good care of yourselves. And I say goodbye. Thank you for listening to this podcast offered by the San Francisco Zen Center. Our Dharma talks are offered free of charge, and this is made possible by the donations we receive. Your financial support helps us to continue to offer the Dharma.

[45:28]

For more information, please visit sfzc.org and click Giving. May we fully enjoy the Dharma.

[45:39]

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