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. Good morning, everybody. And why don't we just have a little moment of well-wishing for the health of our abbot. Rinso Ed Sadezan, who had a little indisposition, a flu-type thing, last night. And the direction to send it in is straight upstairs. Okay? So why don't we just, like, for a moment, send a little bit of well wishes up and towards the middle of the building. Okay? Just... Thank you.

[01:02]

I can feel the healing energy permeating in that direction to Ed. And it really is the essence of our practice. May I be well, may I be happy. May you be well, may you be happy. And may all of us be well, may all of us be happy. And that is why I want to wake up in this life for everyone's benefit. And it really is as simple as that. And today four people, I believe, will be receiving the precepts. Five people will be receiving the precepts. And that means that the people who are receiving the precepts are taking on the life of the bodhisattva as their life in public.

[02:07]

And that means that in this very body and mind, we vow that our daily life is about waking up with the whole wide world for everyone's benefit. Not just for our own, though it does, whatever we do that benefits everyone does benefit us more than anything else could. And so the paradox is that wishing and hoping and working towards waking up for the benefit of all beings is the most beneficial thing we can do for our own health as well as for the health of everyone around us, seen and unseen.

[03:12]

So today I would like to talk about awakening and delusion. And awakening meaning when we live our lives in the context of the life of all beings, the real life of all beings, and delusion when other things seem more important. So it's a functional definition, a simple definition. When awakening for everyone's benefit seems important, when other things seem important. So how many people are here for the first time today? Welcome. And I'm happy to see you. I don't want to lean too heavily into being here for the first time, but it is the state of mind that Suzuki Roshi, our founder, said was the most important state of mind for us to kind of keep and emulate

[04:25]

for our whole lives. Just saying. Because when we're a beginner, we don't have any expectations or conditions on how something should be. And we're willing to suspend disbelief at least for, you know, five minutes or ten minutes or some period of time. And it turns out that that state of not being certain is actually the closest we can get in this life to understanding and waking up. Even though it doesn't feel that way, that's how it is. Many of the residents and non-residential practitioners here at Beginner's Mind Temple, see it's named after you, are engaged in a great project right now for several weeks, and that is called practice period.

[05:39]

The word for practice period means living together in peace. And the peace that we live in during practice period is about sharing an intention, sharing practices, sharing resources, the daily activities and insights. And this practice period, what we're sharing, is a teaching by the founder of our school in Japan. His name was Ehei Dogen Zenji. Ehei is his place name. Like Eheji is the main temple, one of the two main temples of our tradition in Japan. And so he's called Ehe Dogen. That's his place and his name. And in the Jukai ceremony today, the people who receive the precepts will be receiving a similar name in which the first part of the name places you.

[06:51]

in your current practice or current conditions. And the second name places you in the context of your wide intention that goes with all beings. So one could say that the first name is about our current existence and the second name is about our wide existence or our existence with all beings. So... For instance, my Dharma name is Shosan Gigan. The first name, Shosan, is Sunlight Mountain. So that situates my current practice as if I were on a mountain with the sun shining on it or like a mountain with the sun shining on it. And people who have received names can think of your name and understand. Just take a look at your name because it will situate you. If it doesn't, your teacher will probably tell you.

[07:52]

My second name is Gi Gen, which means Gi is like honoring or virtue or purpose or meaning. And Gen is the mystery, the inconceivable, the profound, the unknown. Shosan Gi Gen, sunlight mountain, virtue profound, or honoring the inconceivable. And I mention this because it has two sides, the light and the dark, that I always have to study. It's like a poem that was given to me by my teacher when I received the precepts. And so this past week in practice period, the practice period participants have been studying a section that says... Conveying oneself towards all things to carry out practice and enlightenment is delusion. So to carry oneself forward to experience the 10,000 things is deluded.

[09:00]

Like, here I am, and I'm going to stay exactly the same and not know anything about my impact or the impact of the world on me. That's the functional definition of delusion. But that the 10,000 things advance and carry the self is realization. So that everything moves itself forward and we live in intimate relationship. Living and being lived for the benefit of all beings is awakening. You feel the difference? So to... think of yourself as completely separate from everything and function in that way makes the existence very small. Like, I don't have to care about people starving worldwide. I don't have to care about that because I'm here in San Francisco where there's 1.1 restaurant seats for everybody above the age of newborn, including...

[10:11]

The visitors. And so I'm going to carry that sense of not caring or not being impacted by starvation into today where I'll look at my refrigerator and say something like, oh, ew, I didn't really like that, and dump it into the trash, not even the compost. Does that make sense? Maybe that's an extreme example. But not knowing our impact is a less visible example of the same thing. So let's say we're on the street driving and we have to get here by 10 o'clock in the morning and here we are driving around and there's another car in front of us and we go around to get here very quickly and not... not really caring, perhaps, that the person who we've just driven around is sitting there like this, shaking, because we sounded the horn and went around it very quickly.

[11:23]

So I was trained to drive in New York City, and I've spent the past 46 years trying to understand road impact, mine, on roads. them. Which I was trained to think wasn't really real or the impact of it was that I was right and they were wrong. Which seems very reasonable to me. That's called delusion. So I actually trained to I'm training myself in my Zen practice to drive as if there were other drivers. This takes a long time. if you are not used to it. That's why we have places like this. And so all things coming forward and carrying out practice awakening is realization.

[12:26]

So here we are on the road and there's rules of the road that we all share. A road that we share. And people are crossing the street. There are pedestrians. There are people on bicycles. There is construction. There are residential and non-residential areas. There are hills and there are places where the car can coast and I can hypermile if I want. Just all of those things exist. And letting them in and being awake to them and responsive to them is important. comes from awakening, expresses that. Like if somebody wants to keep their spot and there's a UPS truck in the right lane blocking the right lane and someone in the left lane is not quite to me so that I really could...

[13:36]

very quickly gun it and get around the UPS truck, but instead I choose to obey the law and let them go and wait for them, that may convey something to that person about graciousness or about life that is not often being conveyed these days. Anyway, I just want to say that To know that it's someone's birthday or that someone is ill and respond or care. To know that our choice of food or clothing has an impact. That kind of activity is the territory of awakening. So... So much so that Dogen, the founder of our school, actually defined Buddha, awakening, as Jin Daiji, the whole great earth.

[14:45]

So an expression for when our self proceeds with all beings. So there is actually a koan about this that... that I really love very much. And koan is a transliteration of a two-character phrase that means public case, koan. So that word has entered American parlance as a puzzle or a riddle or an enigma. But actually, koan... Koan means public case, a precedent, like a legal case. You know, when you have a legal argument, you want to look at precedents. How did the courts decide this before?

[15:48]

What was the situation? Was it similar or different? So in this particular koan collection, the Book of Serenity, there... are a hundred different ways or aspects of awakened behavior that are brought up through folklore or folk stories of Buddhism. So this one is about a master named Langya Zhao. And a monk asked him, Purity is originally so. How can it suddenly manifest mountains, rivers, and the great earth. Nlang Yajiao responded immediately, purity is originally so. How can it suddenly manifest mountains, rivers, and the great earth? So the monk asked, purity is originally so.

[16:52]

How can it suddenly manifest mountains, rivers, and the great earth? And the teacher said, Purity is originally so. How can it manifest mountains, rivers, and the great earth? Okay, so if I were in New York and I were still a teenager, I would say, come on, what are you talking about? I just asked you a question. Would you please answer my question? But you should know that out of 100 cases, this is case 100 in the Book of Serenity. It means the whole other 99 leading up to this one in the choice of the editor. Please make yourself comfortable. If you need to take a rest, please do. Because it's hard to listen if you're feeling very painful. So make sure that you're sitting in a way that actually takes care of you, okay? Can I go on? Are you promising?

[17:53]

Just asking. But after 46 years of Zen practice, I appreciate this case a little more than I would have when I was a teenager and kind of on the upswing, voted most likely to succeed. This koan would not have been my cup of tea. I didn't really care that much how I got somewhere. I wanted to know that I was getting somewhere at the time. So this is a case that's entirely about how we get somewhere, how a teacher answers a student and helps them understand not only the world, but also themselves. The teacher is acknowledging the student's question as the question. purity is originally so, how does it suddenly manifest mountains, rivers, and the great earth?

[19:04]

Now, if you can answer that, then I have a little Zen center that I would like to offer to you. And you could just live here and teach that, and everybody would be happy. So the introduction to this case explains the significance. It says one word, can cause a nation to flourish. One word can cause a nation to perish. This drug, i.e., the drug of thinking, can kill people and bring people to life, too. The benevolent, seeing this, call it benevolence. The wise, seeing this, call it wisdom. But tell me, where does the benefit or the harm lie? Where does it lie? How does it arise?

[20:05]

Does that make sense, the question I'm asking? Which is the question of the introduction. So it tells the relationship between purity and mountains, rivers, and the great earth without the questioner, the commenter, getting in the way. Does that make sense to you? So when Langya Zhao just says it back to the monk, he is saying, yes, you're right, that's it. But how are you right? How are you going to bring up this great matter with the stuff of your life? So there's a poem about this subject matter in the Tao Te Ching. And I would like to read the translation by one of my lay Dharma brothers, Bob Rosenbaum, who's a therapist who practices in that direction.

[21:18]

He is also a student of Sojin Mel Weitzman. Sojin gave me Dharma transmission, and so he's my original teacher. And I believe that Sojin Roshi also gave Bob lay entrustment, and it meant that he trusts Bob to express the Dharma as a lay teacher. And so Bob was translating verse 6 of the Tao Te Ching, and he translates it, in line with Zen teachings, kind of as a Zen koan. So he calls his book Walking the Way, or 81 Zen Encounters, for the 81 verses of this great classic. And this is how he translated it. The valley spirit is deathless. The unborn womb, the door.

[22:24]

the root of heaven and earth, the source, subtly everlasting, beyond existence and non-existence. Constantly we draw on it. It graces us by being inexhaustible. Okay, so shall I read it again? Okay, I'm drawing... Bob didn't do this, but I am using his verse to comment on that case about purity being originally so. How does it manifest mountains, rivers, and the great earth? I.e., how does it manifest us as a kind of in our aspect as both boundaried and boundary-less in relation to the universe? in relation to what is. So Bob's translation of verse six, the valley spirit is deathless, the unborn womb, the door, the root of heaven and earth, the source, subtly everlasting beyond existence and non-existence.

[23:47]

Constantly we draw on it. It graces us by being inexhaustible. So a visual for this might be, I don't know if you've ever seen the painting of Avalokiteshvara as very, very big. Avalokiteshvara is the manifestation of compassion. So in this painting, Avalokiteshvara has a beautiful, sweet smile. Sometimes Avalokiteshvara is shown as a woman and sometimes as a man. So Avalokiteshvara traditionally carries a vase. But in this painting, Avalokiteshvara's vase is big and he or she is holding it with two hands and pouring and looking with great love. And you see that as the water pours out of the vase, as the water of life pours out of the vase, thank you, it turns into

[24:50]

a stream and trees growing by the side of the stream and beautiful hills all coming out of this vase of Avalokiteshvara's love for everyone and everything. And so this is a visual to go with that koan. Purity is originally so. How does it suddenly manifest? mountains, rivers, and the great earth. And another, a sound example of this is how many people know Aum? Okay. So if you sit, if you make yourself comfortable, comfortable meaning the kind of comfort where you can sit upright, and just check this out for a second. And you can close your eyes if it helps you feel. But what if you suddenly were to, not suddenly, but inhale and exhale.

[25:56]

Inhale. And as you exhale, say the ah of om. Ah. And you felt where that is and where the echo of that is in the body. And now check out the ooh. So if you inhale and as you exhale, um. And now check out the um. Not um as in humming, but um as in singing. You inhale and use on the exhalation. Um. So you feel it's not the same in the body.

[26:57]

Where it's addressing in the body, it's completely different. You feel that I'm saying? Okay, so I could also reframe that question according to sound. Om, pranava, the seed syllable is originally so. How does it suddenly manifest the entire body and mind? You know, or visually. Avalokiteshvara's heart is originally so. How does it suddenly manifest everyone and everything? Okay? So it's the same question. My pure intention is originally so. How does it suddenly manifest getting out of bed, going to the toilet, and brushing the teeth? Same question. So I ask you, that is the question, that's what he was saying.

[27:59]

So the Genjo Koan, the poem that they're studying in practice period, then goes on. Those who greatly realize delusion are Buddhas. Those who are greatly deluded in realization are beings. So those who... greatly realize or understand delusion, all of our limited ways of being are Buddhas. They're awake. Those who continue to carry the self forward, even though realization is continually manifesting in everyone and everything, those who continue to manifest delusion of carrying the self forward as if it were separate, are just beings. So, what does that mean?

[29:04]

So, and why is it important? Well, why is it important today? So, if we're separate, we can't make a statement about wanting to practice for the benefit of all beings and have it be true. And how do we make that statement? Well, we, by acknowledging all the ways in which we don't act for the benefit of all beings out of our habits and preconception, not intellectually, but as they come up. So before receiving the precepts, we make the statement, all my ancient twisted karma from beginningless greed, hate, and delusion, born through body, speech, and mind, I now fully eval. And then we say that we're going to do, take on certain behaviors that express our awakened mind.

[30:13]

I won't go into that too much because time is ticking. But I do want to say that every moment of life can be seen in 3D. It can be seen as part of our that we would otherwise see as separate. It can be seen universally as the great dance, or it can be seen as our functioning with and our relationship to the great dance of everyone and everything. And... Those ways of seeing have names in Zen. So there's a way of seeing the big picture of everything.

[31:21]

Everything is originally so, as the beginning of Lange's statement. There's a way of seeing the mountains, the rivers, and the great earth. Okay? just as it is. There's Mount Tam, there's the Colorado River, there's you, there's me. Okay, that's a second way of seeing. And the third way of seeing is purity is originally so. How does it suddenly manifest mountains, rivers, and great earth? How is the third way of seeing? So the first way of seeing, purity, is called the single-bodied way of seeing. Single-bodied because everything shares that purity.

[32:23]

The way of seeing, you know, you, me, this and that, mountains, rivers, and the great earth, is called the manifest. what's clear to us, what we can see. And the way of seeing the how is called the maintained. And that's the way of allowing the endless creativity of nature, as Bob mentioned in his verse, that how. Constantly we draw on it, constantly It graces by being inexhaustible. I hope I haven't been mystifying you too greatly. I also want to just bring it up in a couple of different poems or cases.

[33:33]

Just mention it. so that you know that I'm not talking about something obscure. So, for instance, could somebody name a breakfast food that you ate today? Eggs. Okay. So if you look at an egg, an egg is miraculous. You know? And an egg... shares the suchness of everything. So an egg is not what you think an egg is. If you just go along mechanically and think that eggs are just eggs, things, eggs are just eggs. But if you have that as a preconception, you'll just kind of crack the egg, stick it in the pan, turn it into a scramble, eat it, and four hours later, you won't even know that any such thing ever existed. I'm not saying you have to brood over the egg like a chicken.

[34:37]

But if you realize as you're taking it out of the fridge and cracking it on the counter what you're doing and how it came to you or me or us, the experience of cooking the egg and eating the egg will be completely different or is completely different. So the egg just, you know, it's oval, it comes from Safeway or Rainbow, and you can crack it. It's called the manifested. It's miraculousness that you don't know what it is. It's called the ultimate or the single-bodied. And then how you enjoy it, if you are conscious of what it really is as you make it, is called the maintained. Or here's another poem.

[35:43]

This is a poem I love. I first read it when I was 18. And it was in a collection of poems that came out that year that were anonymous folk songs from the Han. And it was... translated by Kenneth Rexroth for his own delight. So this poem was probably a song at one point. And it goes in English. Bitter cold. No one is about. I have been looking everywhere for you. If you don't believe me, see my footprints in the snow. So you can think, oh, that's a story about someone looking for someone. And you can also see the snow and the footprints as snow, as a field, and footprints as distinct.

[36:54]

And you can see all of life in that one poem, all of the pain and beauty of our lives together. That's the territory of purity, mountains and rivers and the precepts. And I thank you so much for listening and invite you to join me in this imperfect exploration of awakening within awakening. and delusion within delusion. Thank you very much.

[38:05]

May we fully enjoy the Dorma.

[38:07]

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