This podcast is offered by the San Francisco Zen Center on the web at www.sfzc.org. Our public programs are made possible by donations from people like you. This morning I said that all Buddhas and ancestors who uphold the Buddha Dharma make it the true path of enlightenment to sit upright, practicing in the midst of self-fulfilling samadhi. Another way to say it is they sit upright, practicing in the midst of Buddha's samadhi. Another way to say it is they practice sitting upright in the midst of Buddha's Zazen.

[01:01]

This self-receiving and employing samadhi, the self-fulfilling samadhi, is face-to-face transmission. it is the whole universe encountering the whole universe face to face giving rise to the whole universe that's Buddha's face to face self-fulfilling samadhi the whole gathered into samadhi universe. The whole universe, undistracted from being the whole universe, meets the whole universe, giving rise to the whole samadhi universe.

[02:27]

In particular, it is the whole universe... as you, meaning the whole universe as others, giving rise to the whole universe. Every moment in the zendo, when we are sitting upright, each of us has our own particular way of sitting upright. And our way of sitting upright includes all of our bodily and mental activity.

[03:36]

And we care for this experience in a particular way. And the particular way we care for this experience, the particular experience of caring for the experience is unique and includes the entire field of all phenomena. It is like my name, Zenki, the whole works. Each of you, each moment, is the whole universe working in a particular way. And the way you are working in a particular way is meeting every other particular in the universe face to face. Zazen is that face to face transmission. That is Buddha meeting Buddha.

[04:51]

And in that meeting, the Dharma is fully realized. Back in the late 60s, when Zen Center started to grow a lot, somewhat in conjunction with the founding of this temple, a lot of people came to Zen Center in the late 60s. And there was different types of meditation that people were intentionally involved in and unintentionally involved in. some people were following their breathing some people were counting their breathing and some people were practicing just sitting and some people were doing koan introspection and some other people were thinking about rock and roll or

[06:16]

how to build monasteries or their boyfriend or their girlfriend or somebody else's boyfriend and girlfriend. People were attending to different things in the practice. And there was also a kind of a idea that you do counting your breathing first And then when you're pretty good at that, you advance to following your breathing. And when you're pretty good at that, you move on to just sitting. So just sitting was higher than counting your breathing. And then also, trying to count your breathing and not being able to count your breathing was lower than succeeding at counting your breathing. There was even maybe some feeling like the people who were counting were lower than the people who were following.

[07:24]

So as a result, there was some rush to move on to practice just sitting because then you'd be more advanced. Such things were going on in Zen Center in the late 60s. And in 1970, in January of 1970, In our new building, which we moved into a month or two before, Suzuki Rishi gave a talk in the dining room of the new city center. What we have now is the Buddha Hall in the city center was a very nice living room, which had a fireplace and comfortable stuffed chairs and It was really like, it was a nice place to sit, like being in a mansion.

[08:28]

And the dining room was where we had Dharma talks, and also we had Dharma talks in the Zen Do. So he was giving a Dharma talk, I believe it was a Sunday morning, but maybe it wasn't. Anyway, he gave a talk, and he suggested that all of us at Zen Center count our breath. We all do the same practice. I don't know, I didn't say, Roshi, why are you suggesting we all do the same practice? Are you saying it because there's some competition going on? Anyway, he said that, and I guess many of us followed his instruction in practice counting our breathing. And I... Then a few days later, many other people went down to Tatsuhara for a practice period. And... And then we did the practice period.

[09:44]

It was the first practice period that was led by a visiting teacher named Tatsugami Roshi. And he... was from Aheji. He was the Eno at Aheji, I think, for 13 years. So he taught us chanting, for one thing, because he was the Eno at Aheji. He does all the chanting, basically. So he was a very good chanter, and he taught it to us. And Tsitsugu Roshi told me, he said, I want you to learn chanting from Tatsukami Roshi. I want you to learn chanting from Tatsugami Roshi and someday I want you to be Eno at Eheji. So we did the practice period and then in the spring and summer, Suzuki Roshi came down to Tatsuhara and one of my Dharma brothers said to me,

[10:48]

Roshi told us to follow our breathing, all of us. And he said, but I think maybe it's okay with him if we'd stop now. And, you know, do other kinds of meditation, like following or just sitting. And, yeah. He never, Suzuki Roshi never said, stop counting our breathing. Maybe we're still supposed to be doing it. Anyway. I think a lot of people did stop and try various other forms of meditation, which we're still trying. As I mentioned earlier, people come to me and tell me about various kinds of thinking that's going on in their mind or various physical issues that are arising when they're sitting. And so some people in sitting are really devoting a lot of attention, mental and physical effort to find a posture that seems upright and moment by moment.

[12:03]

But they're actually putting big effort into their posture. And their meditation is actually to take care of their posture and have it be upright and still. Other people are having lots of difficult emotions and I've been encouraging them to practice compassion towards these difficult emotions that are arising when they're sitting in this room and outside this room. So I don't know what they're doing but maybe they're practicing responding with compassion to all the cries of pain within their own psychophysical field of experience. That's a type of meditation. It's called the meditation of compassion. It's called, I like, it's like a moment after moment, remembering great compassion in the midst of all that's going on.

[13:13]

That's a type of Zen meditation. And some other people are following their breathing and counting their breathing and so on. And some people are just sitting. So there's a variety here. And what I'm suggesting is that all those individual phenomena in the universe include or pervaded by all other phenomena and pervade all other phenomena. And those individual ways of practicing, which we're doing moment by moment, are encountering the totality of all other individual efforts of beings. And that encounter is the Buddha's practice. That encounter is the Buddha of you, including everybody,

[14:16]

meeting the Buddha of others, including everybody. And that Buddha meeting Buddha is the place where the Dharma is realized. In early Buddhism, they sometimes describe the dependent core rising of experience as sense organ, meeting, sense object or sense field, that in the encounter of sense organ of a being with sense objects in the field, that interaction, that encounter face-to-face gives rise to experience. This is the same, it's just that it's emphasizing that the sense organ that's encountering the sense object sense organ includes the whole universe and brings the whole universe with it and the sense object brings the whole universe to meet the sense organ and in that meeting the experience arises which includes and is included in the whole universe so it's a yeah it's a unfoldment or expansion of understanding of what's going on in the

[15:44]

the pinnacle arising of each experience, of each moment of zazen. So again, as we say, in each moment of zazen is equally wholeness of practice and wholeness of enlightenment. Another translation is each moment of zazen is equally the same practice as the person sitting and all beings. and the same enlightenment of the person sitting and all beings. That's what a moment of zazen is like. Each moment of zazen imperceptibly and inconceivably accords with all things and resonates through all time. And so we have the opportunity to fully accept and fully inhabit our particularity so we can be present for this great face-to-face meeting.

[16:59]

was wondering if I should tell some stories about the early, which tell the early versions in terms of Buddhist history of the Buddha's awakening and then tell the maybe later Zen versions of it. And so, but I think maybe I'll do the Zen versions of Buddha's awakening first and then maybe later I'll go back and tell the early versions versions of Buddha's awakening that we find in the suttas, the Pali suttas, and also the Sanskrit agamas. In the Zen story, one of the main Zen stories of Buddha's awakening, Buddha saw the morning star and said, I saw the morning star and awoke and said something.

[18:26]

So again, I would say that person who we call Gautama or Gautama Buddha, Shakyamuni Buddha, he was sitting upright on this planet in India under a tree. And he had an encounter with a star. And in that encounter, he woke up to face-to-face transmission. He was sitting zazen under the tree on the earth. With the tree and the earth and the stars. And he saw the star. And in that whole universe as him meeting the whole universe as a star, he woke up.

[19:29]

And he said something like, now I, together with the great earth and all beings, realize the way. So that story is a fairly recent story. It's only about a thousand years old or so. You don't find this story, I don't think, in India. You know, 2,000 years ago, they weren't telling that story. This is a newer story, which you find in the Zen histories and in Zen collections of koans. This story is a story... but it's also a koan. It's something to meditate on. And so what I'm bringing up to meditate on is this I together.

[20:38]

There's this I in this together that is the attaining of the way. It's not just I attaining the way. It's not just together attain the way. It's something about I and together. Or, you know, me and together. So, when we practice in this room, we have I here and we have together here. And there's something about I and together that's being offered to contemplate. as the way Buddha realizes the way. And it seems like that is available here during this session, is that we have a bunch of eyes and we have it together. And we can look at what's this eye in together, attaining the way.

[21:41]

What's the face-to-face transmission between eye, and together, between I, Buddha, and together, Buddha. What is that? What is that? How is that? This morning we chanted the Phukhan Zazengi, and in one place it says, turn the light around and shine it back to illuminate the self. Did you hear that part? And did the light get turned around at that point? Did it? It did. Did you notice it? The light got turned around and got shined back to illuminate the self. And when it got shined back... Around here, around here, this seat here, when the light got turned around and shined back, I saw that the self was a conversation.

[22:58]

The self got illuminated. What is that self? Oh, it's a conversation. It's a conversation between me and you. I don't know what you saw when it got turned around in your little zazen box. So that's the story of Buddha's enlightenment. It's the first koan, the first story in what's called, a book called The Transmission of the Light, compiled by one of our ancestors, Kezan. the transmission of the light of Buddha's zazen. That's the first story. And, yeah, now you have it. So, please enjoy it for the rest of your life.

[24:05]

I, together, attain the way. Together can I attain the way. Together I attain the way. In conversation, I attain the way. In conversation, the way is attained. For your information, thousands of stories come to my mind which further demonstrate this.

[25:35]

Thousands of Zen stories demonstrate what I'm talking about. What am I talking about? Buddha's practice, Buddha's Zazen. Thousands of stories of conversations. thousands of stories of face-to-face meeting, of the universe as this person and the universe as that person meeting and talking and realizing the way together. And so I'm not going to tell a thousand stories today. However, they are included in all the stories that I've told. So you're not missing anything, and neither am I. Maybe I'll just tell one more. Once upon a time in China, there was a... Buddhist monk.

[26:47]

His name was... Dharma Eyes. Or Dharma Eye. Fa Yun. And... He was... teacher of a big monastery, and in the monastery there was a director. The director's name was, by coincidence, Carolyn. Very unusual Chinese name, but... So, anyway, Dharma Ai said to the director, Carolyn, you never come to Doksan. How long have you been director? Three years. You never come to Doksan. What's up? And the director did not say, well, I don't like you, master. You're not worth talking to. Did not say that. The director said, oh, didn't you know?

[27:49]

I had entry into the way when I was with Ching Lin. And I... Dharma eyes said, oh yeah, well tell me about that. And the director said, well, I asked Jing Lin, what's Buddha? And Jing Lin said, fire god comes looking for fire god. Fire God comes looking for fire. And when I heard that, I entered the way. And Master Fa Yan said, Oh, I think maybe you misunderstood.

[28:52]

Would you tell me a little bit more about your understanding? And the director said, Yeah, it's like the fire god lives in the realm of fire. And so it's kind of like pointless to be looking for the fire in your own realm. And Fa Yan said, oh, yeah, I thought maybe you misunderstood. And now I see you really did misunderstand. And the director... became infuriated and left right away. And as he was traveling the road away from the monastery, he thought, maybe I'm being a little hasty because he's supposed to be a really good teacher and he's leading a monastery of 1,500 monks.

[29:59]

Maybe I should give him another chance. So he went back and asked to talk to the teacher again. And... And the teacher said, okay. Ask me the question you asked Ching Lin. And so the director says, what's Buddha? And Fa Yan said, fire god, come seeking fire. And... director together with Fa-yen and all beings entered the Buddha way through face-to-face transmission which the director thought wasn't necessary anymore because he already entered the Buddha way so he doesn't need to have conversations with the teacher

[31:06]

because he's already had enough face-to-face transmission. That's it for him. And maybe that's it for me and you, too. Thank you for listening to this podcast offered by the San Francisco Zen Center. Our Dharma talks are offered free of charge, and this is made possible by the donations we receive. Your financial support helps us to continue to offer the Dharma. For more information, visit sfcc.org and click giving.

[31:40]

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