I bow to taste the truth of that which the Bhagavatam has birthed. Good evening, everybody. Nice to see you all. Thanks for coming on time. Yeah, I came on time. Yes, I'm quite proud of myself, actually. Let's see. Julia? Summer? You're Julia. OK. Possibly I could, by the end, at least learn everyone's name, maybe. Matt Bivreck. Matt. OK. Jeanette Foster. Jeanette. Joe. Hi. Thank you for those crazy books you always send me. You're welcome. Evelyn.

[01:01]

Evelyn, not here? You're good. Martin C-I-B-U. Sibulka? He was a guest, too. Oh, I see. Gregory Powell. Gregory. Gordon Johnson. Hi, Gordon. How are you doing? Nick said he might not be able to come. Mikael, I think that is. Sick. Sick? Oh. Emila? Hi, Emila. After a word, we can talk a little. Tom Vaughn. Is Tom here? I saw Eva and Rick walk in. Jacob is here. Jacob's the only one who really gets this text. Stuart. Are you Stuart Travis?

[02:09]

Hi, Stuart. Steve. Shope or shop? Yep. Hi, Steve. You're here for the practice period? Yeah. Well, it's hard to read this. Carl Grady? Carol. Carol, not here. Guy Malloy? Greg. Oh, Greg, yeah. Mikael Ellsmear. No? No? Okay. Dennis Ryder. You're Dennis? Hi, Dennis. Barbara Matschdinger. Barbara, yeah. Lynn Duffy. Oh, wrong name. Lynn Duffy? No?

[03:12]

Mia Leavitt. Melissa Fitzgerald. Greg Elliott. Is that right? Greg Elliott? That's you? Mary Madison. Diagon's here, Arlene's here. Mark Blackburn? Blackburn. Jackie Mohana. Hey, Robin. You're always over there. GWH, Daniel Leonard. Oh, that was a joke. Is Daniel here? Ryn's here. Lynn Forster. That's George.

[04:14]

Vernon Small. I see Vernon now. Zoe Gorman. Kristen Threk. No? Matt Chesky? Gary Green? Vignesh. So I assume that everyone else who's here is a visitor. If you are not a visitor... Okay, you did okay. So everyone else is... Gwen, yeah? Gwen, that's good enough. Okay, if anybody else can come and sign this at the end, if you're actually intending to come to the rest of the sessions, of which there are two more after tonight. But... We're meeting next week. I forgot to bring the paper, I think. We're meeting next week, but not the following week.

[05:17]

So we're meeting next week, skipping a week, and then one more week. Is that right? That's it. So, last time we discussed the whole of Zenki. And this time we're going to see if we can get through all of, or most of this text that I had a marvelous time studying today. I really liked it, especially it's such a great relief from email, fax machines, telephones, and freeways, that I can't tell you how much I enjoyed today studying this text. It was really wonderful. In Japanese, the title of this fascicle

[06:18]

from Shobo Genzo is Muchu Setsumo. And the Mu part means dream. So Muchu means in the midst of a dream. And Setsu means to preach or explain or expound. So, expounding a dream in the midst of a dream. It's beautiful. And of course, it's about expounding the Dharma, teaching. This is what teaching Buddhism is. It's expounding a dream in the midst of a dream. But, as always in Dogen, this is one of several texts in which Dogen expresses his understanding of the process and importance and sense of teaching. Words, Dharma words,

[07:20]

understanding the meaning of Buddhism in terms of literary texts and so on. And for Dogen, he always, lots of contemporary language philosophers really love Dogen. Because Dogen's thinking on these topics is absolutely contemporary. It's sort of post-Wittgensteinian thought. It's quite extraordinary. And that's why I always liked Dogen as a poet. I've always enjoyed this aspect of Dogen. Because for Dogen, there's nothing that isn't language. In other words, Dogen doesn't see necessarily any difference between the world as we know it, the world of appearance, the physical world, and language itself. Because actually the world is a language, right? In all of our experience. We're reading the world all the time, right? Whether or not there are words, it doesn't matter. We're always reading the world and there's a syntax to our lives. so Dogen says that to make a distinction

[08:24]

between language and other kinds of experience, as if other kinds of experience were more real than language, is to mistake the nature of language and the nature of experience. That's a very deep and profound point, and I'm sort of giving you a synopsis of it, but we'll appreciate the point, I think, as we study the text. It's a very deep and complex point that he's making. Excuse me, what was the last character? Mu. Mu. Mu, dream. Chu, in the midst of or within. Setsu, expounding or preaching. Mu, dream. So, within the midst of a dream, preaching a dream, or expounding a dream. The path of all Buddhas and ancestors arises before the first forms emerge.

[09:24]

It cannot be spoken of in terms of conventional views. This being so, in the realm of Buddha ancestors, there is the active power of Buddhas going beyond Buddhas. Since this realm is not a matter of the passage of time, their lives, the lives of the Buddhas, are neither long nor short. They neither pass quickly nor slowly. And this cannot be judged by ordinary in an ordinary way. Thus the Dharma wheel has been set to turn since before the first sign of forms emerged. The great merit needs no reward and becomes the guidepost for all ages. Within a dream, this is the dream you expound. Because awakening is seen within awakening, the dream is expressed within a dream. So, this first point, which is something

[10:25]

very wonderful, I think, about the teaching of Buddhism, that the truths of Buddhism are taken to be the structure of reality itself, put in a particular language. So that, the idea is not that the Buddha was a great sage who created a way of looking at life so much as the Buddha sort of stumbled into the pattern, the deep pattern of our lives and harmonized with it. And there are many traditional expressions of this. One is the idea of the seven Buddhas before Buddha. So, it's not that Buddha was the first Buddha. In Zen, particularly, in other traditions, there's the tradition of many, many Buddhas before Buddha who taught Buddha that there's an unbroken stream of people looking at reality.

[11:26]

The Buddha didn't create something. Then there's also an expression in a sutra where the Buddha says, and I've told many people this before, that he was, he said, I was like a person wandering around lost in the woods and all of a sudden I kind of saw a path that had been overgrown and wasn't apparent, but it was sort of, you could faintly see it. No one had walked on it for a while, so it was overgrown. And I just sort of started to walk down that path and I just continued as I walked, it became more clear, and as I went some distance, it was clearly a path, and then the path ended up in this gorgeous pleasure garden and so forth. So, in other words, I didn't make this up. This is not something that I created. This is not my original idea. I'm just a person who discovered something that was already there. So, the teaching of

[12:28]

the Buddha is something that goes beyond the Buddha. so this is some, this sort of absolute aspect of the teaching is something that goes beyond anything that we can understand. Because all of our, from the standpoint of our way of looking at the world, the Buddha was the first one, and the Buddha's teaching is this and not that, and so forth. But this is saying, no, no, the Buddha's teaching is nothing other than reality itself, really. It's just the shape of reality itself, which is beyond our ability to truly appreciate the whole breadth of it. So we can't judge it in ordinary ways. And, so, this this big pattern of reality is bigger than, see, the thing about a dream, the main thing that will be said here is that a dream is a dream because

[13:29]

we wake up. So we wake up in the morning from a dream and we say, oh, that was a dream. How do I know? I know that because now I'm here in my everyday world, and I see the contrast. But the dream of Buddhadharma is a dream that is an endless dream. A dream, reality is a dream which has no contrasting reality. Reality is unitary. So, he calls it a dream because compared to our usual reality, which is dualistic and limited conceptually, the big reality of Buddhadharma is a big dream, but not in the normal sense of a dream from which we wake up. So, within a dream, the Buddhadharma is the dream that is expressing the pattern of the dream. Because awakening is seen within awakening, the dream is expressed within the dream. And this

[14:30]

phrase, awakening seen within awakening, or awakening throughout awakening, comes up again in the next paragraph, and we'll say more about it then. So, that paragraph establishes the great big picture, the sort of non-dual, inexpressible, unknowable, inconceivable reality of our lives, which here he's calling a dream in an absolute sense. Then he says, the place where the dream is expressed within the dream is the land and the assembly of Buddha ancestors. The Buddha's lands and their assemblies, the ancestors' way and their seats are awakening throughout awakening. And express

[15:34]

or expound the dream within a dream. When you meet such speech and expressions, do not regard them as other than the Buddha's assembly. It is Buddha turning the dharma wheel. This dharma wheel encompasses all the ten directions and the eight facets of a clear crystal. And so the great oceans, Mount Sumeru, the lands and all Buddhas are actualized. This is the dream expressed within a dream prior to all dreams. So, he's saying that the archetype of the dream within a dream, the archetype of the expounding of the dream within a dream is the archetype of the Sambhogakaya Buddha, which is the whole mythology in Buddhism of Buddhas and Buddha lands and so on. This is referring to the Mahayana literature,

[16:36]

which is a really rich, incredibly imaginative literature in Buddhism. I always think of the Avatamsaka Sutra, which is this vast, maybe 2,000 page or more sutra. We had a three-year class. We read the entire sutra, every word of it. And it's a mind-boggling experience. I recommend it. If you read the sutra, you'll never be the same again. Because it just depicts the most vast kind of universe of... It's sort of like the way that... Like, say, in our scientific mythology, which we all know, we all grow up learning. In our scientific mythology, we all know that we're all sitting here

[17:37]

appearing to be individuals, people, and so on. There's a social reality and an intellectual reality, a physical reality to our being, who we are. But we all know, the mythology, that actually that's not really true. The truth is that we're this mass of atoms, and in the atoms there are electrons, and in the electrons there's space, and there's protons, and all this DNA, and all this kind of sub- microscopic stuff is going on. And we believe that. We say, well, that's... We know that that world has a reality beyond the world of appearances, right? So this is... Well, similarly, in Buddhism, there's the same idea that only instead of atoms and electrons and protons and DNA and chromosomes, the mythology is that on each cell of our bodies, and this is what the Avatamska Sutra talks about, on each cell of our bodies, on each atom, on each electron, there's a Buddha. And this Buddha... And all Buddhas have a particular kind of career, and it starts with the aspiration

[18:39]

for enlightenment, the bodhicitta, and then there's training, and then the Buddha gets a prediction, and then the Buddha serves other Buddhas and requests teaching, and there's a whole thing, there's a whole kind of course that happens, and then becomes a Buddha, and then when they become a Buddha, they have their own, very own Buddha land, and in that Buddha land, there's all these different kinds of people listening to their teaching, and there's beautiful trees, and so on and so on. It's a very developed mythology, and the concept is that in a very tiny... On each cell of the body, on each physical matter, this is taking place. And also, throughout the vast cosmos, this is simultaneously taking place. And this reminds me... I saw this amazing film the other day, that you should... If you can ever get this film... I don't know how you can get it, but... Gringotts should definitely own a copy of this film. It's called Powers of Ten. You ever see that film? Charles and Ray Eames. Charles and Ray Eames, yeah. It's like a 15-minute film. It's absolutely extraordinary. The film is just one minute of a person

[19:39]

at a picnic in Chicago by the lake. And the camera is right above the person laying down on a blanket. And then the camera pulls back, and each time it goes back, it's going back to another power of ten. So, in other words, the camera is pulling back past the earth, past the moon, past... First you see, you know, like the Shukla River Lake getting... You can imagine. And it goes off way to the end of the known universe. And you see this in about three or four minutes. And then it comes back, and then it zooms in to the same, exactly the same mathematical... And you see atoms, electrons, chromosomes, DNA, and everything like this. It was made decades ago. Amazing, yeah. This couple, Charles and Ray Eames, who were furniture designers

[20:42]

and... Yeah, yeah, yeah. They made about 80-some movies, apparently. Yeah, they were brilliant designers. Anyway, you get that when you see this thing, you recognize the fact that they're very tiny, and they're very immense. Actually, it's hard to tell the difference. The experience and the sense of them, it's hard to tell the difference. So that's the sense of the Avatamska Sutra and the Mahayana Buddhist literature, is taking the story of the Buddha in a polycanon, which is a fairly reasonable story of a person who maybe had a few magic powers and so on, but basically was a person who became enlightened. Taking that and doing this, showing a big picture. Anyway, that whole mythology, that's what we call,

[21:43]

that whole realm is what we call the Sambhogakaya body of the Buddha. We have the Mendelbrot Proctos. We have that film? We showed some of the people in the room, but we just wanted to keep it less than five. It actually is the Avatamska Sutra and it's just this incredible whole process of just exactly what we're talking about. I think I can speak a little more of it from the Avatamska Sutra. Yeah, when they get it back, I'd like to see it. Yeah, I'll call and ask them if they'll send it back. Yeah. So anyway, the imaginative realm, the language, the place in the imagination where this big space that's outlined in the first paragraph, this dream, takes place is in this realm. So, this phrase, awakening throughout awakening, is sort of the match phrase to the phrase that appears

[22:45]

in the next page and also appears in Genjo Koan, delusion throughout delusion and awakening throughout awakening. So, the phrase delusion throughout delusion is really, oddly enough, the equivalent of this phrase, awakening throughout awakening. Delusion throughout delusion. In Genjo Koan, he says, when there's delusion throughout delusion, this is enlightenment. There is no enlightenment other than delusion throughout delusion. And what he means by this is when there is the clear understanding and appreciation of delusion as delusion, this is awakening.

[23:47]

And our trouble is we take delusion for reality or enlightenment or reality. We don't see it as delusion. We see our delusions as somehow not delusive. And because of that, we're not awakened. But when we really see our delusion as delusion, then there's awakening. And here, in a similar way, awakening throughout awakening is when you see awakening as merely awakening. It's relative to non-awakening. It's just another state of mind. It's the equivalent of delusion throughout delusion. There's nothing to it. There's no substance to it. There's no difference between awakening and any other state, place, or state of being. Knowing this is to enter this realm of Sambhogakaya, to enter this big space and to know it for what it is. Every dewdrop

[24:50]

manifested in every realm is a dream. This dream is the glowing clarity of the hundred grasses. So this world that we think of as being sort of nailed down and fairly small and ordinary and we know what it is, is not what we think it is. It's a dream. It's this big dream that he's been speaking of. And this dream is the glowing clarity of the hundred grasses. Hundred grasses means every single thing. So this world that seems like I say, and you know, the world that we experience on an everyday basis is pretty much we're experiencing our own projection, right?

[25:51]

It's almost like we're experiencing our own state of mind which we project onto the world. So the world doesn't seem very terrific most of the time. But when you're in a heightened state of some sort and all of your projection dissolves and you just see something as it is, it appears to be fantastic. So he's saying that the world actually is like that. It is a dream like that. It is perfection itself. Each and everything that arises is perfect and wonderful. But who has the time to notice? Who has the freedom? Who can let go of all that we're holding inside long enough to let the world come forward and really appreciate it? So that's what we're trying to do in practice is learn how to let go and it's very difficult to do. I see myself, I look at my own mind I see how often I'm my mind is occupied with something

[26:54]

and if I can just let that go all of a sudden all problems are gone and the world just comes forward in a beautiful way. So it is the dream, this world is the dream if only we could let go. What requires questioning is this very point but what is confusing is this very point. So this is the place that we have to apply our effort. The effort of being awake present and letting go in the present moment of our experience. The path is always right here and right now. It's not in the zendo or in the kitchen or any particular place. When it's time to be in the zendo then definitely the whole of the Buddhadharma is only in the zendo. And then when we leave the zendo and we go out into the cloud hall all the Buddha realms only exist in the cloud hall. When we leave the cloud hall and we walk on the path everything that

[27:55]

we could ever need for our life is there on the path with each step that we take. And wouldn't it be nice to live that way? Wouldn't you like to live that way? Wouldn't it be a happy state to just have some ease when you walk down the path and recognize that everything is there? Have some ease when you got in your car and drove away and saw that everything was there? No tomorrow, no yesterday. And even when you had to negotiate tomorrow and yesterday, you knew it was delusion throughout delusion. You did it and it was fine. But you didn't take it to be other than something in a dream. Gee, I like that idea. Sometimes I have that feeling and those are happy moments for me. And I know that it's always there. See? It's not in the future or elsewhere. It's always there and if I

[28:56]

don't see it it's not because it went away from me. Someone did something to me to take it away. It's only because at that time I haven't been able to open myself to it. So that's why he says this is the place, this is the pivot point of questioning. And for Dogan questioning is the path, is the way to look deeply, let go. At this time there are dream grasses, grasses within, expressive grasses, and so on. And here he does, I think I mentioned this in relation to the Zenki text, this is a technique that Dogan often uses. Here he's got this term Mu-Jo Setsu-Mu the four characters, one character repeated, Mu, Jo, Setsu

[29:58]

and Mu. And here he just applies those four characters. Mu grasses, Jo grasses, Setsu grasses, and so on. When we study this then roots, stems, branches, leaves, flowers and fruits as well as radiance and color are all the great dream. All the sensory world, all the physical world is nothing but the dream. Do not mistake them as merely dreamy. In other words, don't, when I say dream here, don't think that I mean like a trivial dream that you're going to wake up from. I mean a dream with a capital D like the total, utter, absolute dream out of sight of which there is nothing. However, those who do not wish to study Buddhadharma believe that expressing the dream within a dream means speaking of unreal dream grass as real.

[31:00]

Like piling delusion upon delusion. In other words, those people who don't wish to study Buddhadharma set up something as real as opposed to the dream. And they're looking for something real as opposed to the dream. And in doing that they pile up delusion upon delusion. But this is not true. When you say within confusion is just confusion. So this is the kind of nihilistic because certainly somebody could hear this, what I'm saying here and hear this text and say, oh, I get it. Life's just a dream. So it doesn't matter what I do. It doesn't matter what happens. Everything's unreal. So what the hell? Right? Wouldn't you think that? But when you think that way, he's saying, it's because whether you're aware of it or not, you feel, this implies that there is some other reality by comparison

[32:02]

with which this is a dream. So it doesn't matter because there's another, this is unreal. Unreal means there's real. He's saying, no, [...] no. This dream requires us to be impeccable. It requires us to practice the way. It requires us to practice moral, ethical conduct. It requires us to save sentient beings. It requires us to be compassionate and so on. Exactly because it's a dream. You should follow the path in the vast sky known as delusion throughout delusion. Just this you should endeavor to investigate thoroughly. So, the expressing of the dream within a dream is all Buddhas. All Buddhas are wind and rain, water and fire. We respectfully maintain these names of Buddha and also pay homage to those names

[33:03]

of other Buddhas. To express the dream within a dream is the ancient Buddhas. It is to ride in this treasure boat and directly arrive in the practice place. Directly arriving in the practice place is riding in this treasure boat. Meandering dreams and direct dreams, holding and letting go, all freely flow like the gusting breezes. So this holding and letting go, meandering dreams and direct dreams, directly arriving here in the practice place. That's the style of the dream within the dream. These are ways of teaching dharma. Meandering, direct, holding and letting go, you know, the grasping way, the granting way that I was speaking about some months ago. All of these different ways of approaching the understanding of our life.

[34:04]

Every, every, you know, in Dogen's view, everything that we do, all of human activity is practice. So within this dream, there's a million ways of expressing and expounding the dream. And they all freely flow like gusting breezes. You see that the means of expression here is inherently poetic expression. How else can you think about such things? You know, you can't be scientific or psychological about this kind of thing that Dogen is talking about. You end up resorting to poetic expression. And Dogen, I know, when you read, later on we'll read Hokioki, Dogen's journals that he wrote in China when he studied in Rujing. And Rujing used poetic expression. Sometimes he would give Dharma talks that would be long poems

[35:04]

that the whole talk would be a poem. So that's the way Dogen's expressing himself here. Turning the Dharma wheel is just like this. Turning the world of the great Dharma wheel is immeasurable and boundless. It turns even within a single particle, like we were speaking of a minute ago. Ebbing and flowing ceaselessly within that particle. Accordingly, whenever such a Dharma is turned, even an antagonist nods and smiles. No one can resist. It's so true. It's so clear. That even someone who doesn't like the Dharma has to nod and smile. Wherever such a Dharma is turned, it freely circulates like the flowing breezes. Thus the endless turning of Dharma traverses the entire land. In the all-embracing world, cause and effect are not ignored. Cause and effect means karma. It means moral

[36:04]

conduct. Despite this vast beauty of Dogen, and I think what makes his teaching so wonderful to me is that he's giving you a sense of the absolute quality of every moment of our lives, and all our acts as being decisive and world-changing. This is a wonderful thing. Every moment of everything that you do, no matter how mundane and insignificant it may seem, turns the whole world. So on the one hand he has that side. And when you contemplate that side, of course you feel, what's the point of morality, what's the point of ethical conduct and so on. But he says that exactly because the world is that way, that's why we have to practice compassion and ethical conduct. To ignore cause and effect

[37:05]

in Dogen's view is to set up some kind of a reality outside the dream. That these two sides, clarity of conduct and absolute vision of reality, must go hand in hand. So that's a deep thought, don't you think? Because usually morality, as the way we usually conceive of it, is something very small. Be a good boy. Be a good girl. Constrain yourself in all ways. Don't do this, don't do that. Follow the rules. Be good. Don't mess up. That's how morality usually appears. But this is a different sense of ethical conduct. This is ethical conduct, yes, care in what we do. But care that doesn't come out of restraint in the sense of smallness, but care that comes out of vastness and that creates vastness. It's a beautiful idea. It's a wonderful approach.

[38:07]

It's a little bit like Suzuki Roshi saying, our practice is Mahayana practice and Hinayana mind. In other words, we're very careful in what we do and we're very modest in what we do. It's not a big, spectacular thing. And yet, inside, the whole world opens up and our view and our sense of our life is very, very big. So I'm going to skip a little bit along. You have the idea, right? Do you? It's pretty, not so hard to understand. I mean, hard to live, but understanding not so hard. So, let's see. All things emerge and all things arrive right here. What made him be quiet?

[39:12]

What did you do? He's leaving. But he's still here. He knows he's leaving. Is that it? He knows he's leaving. We're going Dharma talk. You got to take me to Dharma talk. I'm just a baby. You know, I don't need this. I already know all that. You stupid people, you have to read these texts just to know what I already know? You said you wanted to skip along. I just wondered whether you could just go ahead and keep reading through, but then whatever. Do you know what I mean? You mean read the whole thing out loud more or less? Yeah. It's got such a flow. But then you might not want to comment on everything. Yeah, I couldn't do that. It would be good to hear though. Yeah, I think that's right. That would be a good class just to read it over and over

[40:14]

and over. So all things emerge and all things arrive right here. This being so, one plants twining vines and gets entangled in twining vines. So twining vines is another sort of technical term in Dogon. Twining vines means entanglements, but it's usually code word for specifically denoting language and especially Koan language, which spins you around and seems self-contradictory and paradoxical. So all things emerge and all things arrive right here is an expression of a dream within a dream. Everything right here, everything emerges and everything arrives

[41:14]

right here. This being so, because of this, we open our mouths and we get involved and entangled with our language and also I think I also interpret twining vines as meaning we also get entangled with each other somehow and confused in our relationships and our human lives together. This is characteristic of unsurpassable enlightenment. So as usual, Dogon turns these things upside down. Usually twining vines is bad, right? Get free of language, get free of twining vines, untangle the entanglements. But Dogon says, no, no, no, this is the characteristic of unsurpassable enlightenment is that we would get entangled. Just as expression is limitless, sentient beings are limitless and unsurpassable. Just as cages and snares are limitless, emancipation from them is limitless. The actualization, one of my problems tonight is I took all these marginal notes and I can't read them. So that's why I hesitate. I read them and I say,

[42:16]

I thought something really brilliant, what does it say? And I read it. And sometimes I actually can't see it or I can't read it or other times I can read it and I actually don't understand it. That's my problem. You should have been there. That would have been the moment. Oh, I see what this says. I see. Oh, yes, yes. The actualization of the fundamental point is, and I have scroll over here, Genjo Koan, because that is the term. Which you knew already. The actualization of the fundamental point is I grant you 30 blows. Tangling vines. In other words, lest you think that after you get enlightened, there's no more problems. Dogon is telling you that enlightenment is a problem. Because reality appears as a problem.

[43:16]

And the problem accepted as a problem is awakening. So, what is the fundamental pivot point of reality? I give you 30 blows. You're in trouble. You have a problem. You're alive. And that's the problem. And enlightenment must appear as the problem of your being alive. Otherwise, there's no enlightenment. This is the actualization of expressing the dream within a dream. Isn't that wonderful? We'll all walk out of the room and we won't remember it or understand it anymore. But at the moment, it's a wonderful thing. The last sentence that I said? Oh, I can't. Maybe somebody else can. The problem is enlightenment. There you go. Thus a tree with no roots,

[44:19]

something that's impossible, the ground where no light or shade falls, which is impossible, and a valley where no shots echo, which is also impossible. These are sort of inconceivable, illogical things, are no other than the actualized expressions of the dream within a dream. So these expressions that defy conceptualization are expressions of the dream within a dream. This is neither the realm of humans nor of heavenly beings and cannot be judged by ordinary people because it's inconceivable. It's non-conceptual. Who could doubt that a dream is enlightenment since it is not within the purview of doubt? How could doubt... We have doubts. As human beings, we have doubts about many things. We have doubts about the Dharma, we have doubts about ourselves,

[45:21]

we have doubts about what we're doing, and so on. That's normal in a conceptual world in which we can make these kind of comparisons and imagine something better. But you can have no doubts about the dream within a dream because it's bigger than that. It's beyond what you can doubt. So this is a kind of wonderful thing. I think that one of my pet ideas... I've been doing this long enough to have several pet ideas. I keep changing them, getting new ones. One of my pet ideas is that, especially for us, being post-modern Westerners, most of us, and most of us new to Buddhism, that we have a lot of doubts.

[46:24]

We might practice and think it's really great, but then in the middle of the night we think, What the hell am I doing? You know, I could have been doing something else. Why am I doing this? My friends think I'm a little odd, and so forth. We might think in the middle... Having a kind of faith in our lives as practice is the only enlightenment we ever need. I think. And we're all trying to develop that sense. However, even in the middle of the night, in the midst of our horrible doubt, let's say, that we have about our practice, or even like ourselves as a human being, which we have. People have doubts in the middle of the night about their lives. Even in the midst of that, the dream within a dream

[47:26]

is still true. It's part of it. So, think of that next time that middle of the night comes around and you wake up wondering, Why was I born? Was it a mistake? I was talking the other day to a friend who feels that way. It's very sad. But even though he feels that way, still, it's contained within the dream. So, it's beyond doubt. Our doubt can't touch it. So, it would be good to know that, right? Because then, when you have those moments of doubt, you can say to yourself, Well, now I'm in a very bad state of unhappiness and faithlessness. Still,

[48:26]

reality is reality, even now. And then, it makes a big difference. Because that means you're in delusion throughout delusion. You know your delusion for delusion. You see? You see the difference? It makes a big difference. It doesn't really matter if we're... Naturally, we're going to have different states of mind, you see, over time. Good states of mind, bad states of mind, depending on conditions. Anyone with bad enough conditions will enter bad states of mind. But, if you know this is a bad state of mind due to bad conditions, and you're not sucked up by it, you know it exists within the dream, it's okay. So, who could doubt that a dream is enlightenment since it is not within the purview

[49:31]

of doubt? Who could recognize this dream since it is unrecognizable? Because it's not beyond our conceptual thought. As unsurpassable enlightenment is unsurpassable enlightenment, so the dream is called a dream. There are inner dreams, dream expressions, expressions of dreams, and dreams inside. Without being within a dream, there is no expression of dreams. Teaching comes up. That's why we... Why should we need to have classes like this? Why should there be poetry? Why should people make music? Why should they... Who invented such things? It's the most unlikely thing in the world. And yet, everywhere you look, in the farthest reaches of the human history, you find such things.

[50:32]

Why is that? Well, because the characteristic of being within a dream is expounding that dream within a dream. And that's why all that kind of stuff comes up. Without expressing dreams, there are no Buddhas. Without being within a dream, Buddhas do not emerge and turn the wondrous dharma wheel. This dharma wheel is no other than a Buddha together with a Buddha, and a dream expressed within a dream. And this is actually the title of another of Dogen's fascicles, Only a Buddha and a Buddha, which expresses the idea that there's no such thing as a... See, the way we think, no matter how much we study Buddhism, we always come back to thinking in terms of individuals. We're separate individuals. But it's not true.

[51:35]

I mean, in a very simple way, who we are is a network. It's the result at any moment of a network of people and possibilities and notions and things that have happened and so on. You don't love me for yourself. You only love me because I do all these things for you. Well, who am I? I'm the one who does all those things for you. What me would there be to love outside of all those things? You see what I mean? So, there is no such thing as a Buddha. There is no such thing as one who is awakened. There is dynamic activity of awakening that happens in between, in the space between. So, awakening happens between a Buddha and a Buddha. It's always relational. It's always in dynamic activity. So this

[52:37]

is existing because there's a dream expressed within a dream. Simply expressing the dream within a dream is itself the Buddha's and ancestors, the assembly of unsurpassable enlightenment. Furthermore, going beyond the Dharma body is itself expressing the dream within a dream. Here is the encounter of a Buddha with a Buddha. No attachments are needed to the head, eyes, marrow and brain or body, flesh, hands and feet. Without attachment, one who buys gold, sells gold. Which means when you're not attached, you don't need to have a feeling of possession about your body or mind. Usually we do, of course. And this is our problem. This is where the suffering and pain comes in. Why did he treat me like that? I possess my body and mind and someone

[53:40]

is now threatening it in some way, diminishing me, so I'm quite upset about it. But, if I have no attachment to my body and mind, then I'm free. Then I can freely receive gold and I can give it up, is the idea. In other words, I can give and receive freely when I'm not attached to body and mind. This is the mystery of mysteries, the wonder of wonders. The awakening of awakenings, the head above the head. This is the daily activity of Buddha ancestors. When you study this head, top of the head, you may think that the head only means a human skull. Without understanding that the head, this head right here, put your hand on top of your head. Can you notice that? How many times have you ever felt the top of your head? So, the idea

[54:44]

is that you think this is the top of your head. It's not. It's Vairochana Buddha. This amazing experience of that there could be a sense of touch, that there could be hardness and softness and all the things that you feel when you touch the top of your head. You think it only means, you think this is a human skull, but this is really the crown of Vairochana Buddha. How can you realize it as the tips of the bright, clear hundred grasses? Who knows that this is the head itself. Everything. The hundred grasses means everything. Everything is like that. Everything is like before we were talking about how things appear as perfection itself. Sometimes you have that experience. It helps to sit for 3, 4, 10, 20, 30 hours in a row. But then after that, usually when you sit for a long time, I don't know about usually,

[55:45]

but sometimes it happens, that when you sit for a long time, you kind of cool off. You know? You have all these problems, these things are going on and this and that and the other thing, but after a while you forget about it. And you just enjoy being present. Then you go outside. They ring the bell, they let you out. You go outside and you take a look at the pond out there, you know? And not that you think this, but it just looks like it's perfect. Do you know what I'm talking about? It looks like it's perfect. It looks as if, well, you wouldn't call it perfect. That's the point. Yeah, it's just, there it is. It just emerges from, it's like something magical. Yeah. I think that's the reason why everybody loves Green Gulch so much,

[56:46]

because they do all this zazen, they look around, whoa! But actually, Green Gulch is beautiful. No doubt about it. It helps. But the truth of the matter is, that so is your kitchen table. So is your backyard. So is the front seat of your car. If you could see it, you know, that way. So, where did, how did that all happen? So the top of your head. Oh yeah, the top of your head, yeah. So the pond at Green Gulch is Viral Chandra's head. The steering wheel of your car is Viral Chandra's head. And then he goes on to this part, you know, there's an old saying in Zen. See, one of the things that Dogen always loves to do, he's so funny, you know, he loves to take these old phrases that are absolutely standard phrases in Zen, that always mean one thing. He loves to take those phrases and tell you

[57:47]

that they mean the opposite. And then expound them in the most profound way. And that's what he's really doing here, because there's an old Zen phrase that says, don't put a head on top of your head. We all know this phrase, right? Don't put a head on top of your head. It means, you know, just be present. Don't think about everything and make everything complicated. It also means, don't listen to somebody else. See for yourself. Have your own experience. So if any Zen person will tell you, don't put a head on top of your head, that means what I just said. And now he says, no, no, no. You should put a head on top of your head. Because your head is really the head of Viral Chandra Buddha. That's what it means to put a head on top of your head. It's just the opposite of what they... And of course, when they say, don't put a head on top of your head, they mean, don't use language and conceptualization. You shouldn't be like that. You should be like, you know, you should get beyond language and conceptualization. But for Dogen,

[58:47]

language and conceptualization transcend language and conceptualization. And so there's no difference between conceptualizing and not conceptualizing, because there's no way not to conceptualize ever. And to conceptualize and know you're conceptualizing is to be free of conceptualization. Did that make sense? You're in trouble. But no, I meant it to make sense. No, I knew already that I was in trouble. I just didn't know that you were in trouble. Yeah, yeah. Well, that's more like this, you know, Vairochana, right? That's right. Yeah.

[59:54]

So then, the next paragraph is about that. The expression of the dream within a dream can be aroused by both ordinary people and sages. Moreover, the expression of the dream within a dream by both ordinary people and sages arose yesterday and develops today. This paragraph really got me, you know. You should know that yesterday's expression of the dream within a dream was the recognition of this expression as expressing the dream within a dream. The present expression of the dream within a dream is to experience right now this expression as expressing the dream within a dream. Indeed, this is the marvelous joy of meeting a Buddha. Oh, he said a mouthful there.

[60:57]

And I will just read you my note. There's a margin here. And then I'll see if I can understand it. And if I can, I'll explain it to you, and if not, maybe you'll explain it to me. Can you read it? I think so. Um, okay. It says here, both yesterday, in quotes, so-called yesterday, and now, in quotes, and so-called now, are now. Right? Understanding Dogen's point, intellectually understanding Dogen's point, and letting it go, and just experiencing it. So,

[62:02]

yesterday's expression of the dream within a dream was the recognition of this expression. So yesterday, the dream within a dream expressed itself yesterday as a recognition that it's a dream within a dream. Today, now, the expression of the dream within a dream is experiencing, right now, this expression as expressing a dream within a dream. So, we're studying this text of Dogen. He wrote this text out of his profound appreciation for the Dharma and for this point. He wrote it because he thought it was worth writing,

[63:03]

and it's lasted 800 years, and we read it because we think it's worth reading, and it helps us to understand our life and our practice. That activity is useful. To understand what Dogen is saying, for him to express himself, is useful. But, it's not explaining something else. When we understand his point, and then let go within understanding it, experience his point as a conceptual experience, then we're free. In that way, it's a kind of, in a way, intellectual yoga, which can free us from intellectual bonds. Because, and I think that very wisely,

[64:04]

he understands, you could get the feeling from a lot of Zen literature that you're supposed to not be thinking, not conceptualize, not study. There are places in Zen, places where they don't let you study, they don't allow books in there. So don't study, don't think, just be present. So it can look like thinking and studying and so forth is something else, but the truth of the matter is that there is no way not to think, and not to have that kind of content in your mind. I often tell the story of my father, who used to, he was tough on me, my father. And he was always complaining about me, and part of my problem, according to him, was that I was always reading and thinking and all that. He said, if you wouldn't read and think so much, you wouldn't be so crazy, you would get a job, do something useful, and you wouldn't be like this. And so I used to think, even though of course I resisted this whole idea mightily, I never could possibly

[65:06]

give him any satisfaction. Still, in the middle of the night, I would think, you know, he's really right. My father never went to school or anything, didn't read any books or anything like that. I said, he's really right. All this stuff is extra. Why am I thinking about all this? He doesn't have to think about all that kind of stuff. He's just non-conceptual, I thought. Then I began to pay attention. And I saw, geez, you know, my father has as many ideas as I do, even more. The only difference is they're pretty unexamined. Maybe that's good. But it's not like he doesn't have any ideas. There's plenty of ideas. A lot going on in his head. Because everybody receives a lot of ideas from the world around them. So it's a false, I think, to think that a human being is not going to have ideas. So, Dogen says, understand ideas as ideas

[66:09]

and be clear about your ideas. And let go within the thinking of your ideas. And have, of course, Dogen would also say, and have your ideas be clear enough within your ideas that your ideas become the ideas of Buddhadharma. And that's what will happen. If you're really clear about your ideas and understand them for what they are, they will be Buddhadharma. And then you will be expounding a dream within a dream. Your ideas will all be the expounding of a dream within a dream. So that's how I understand that passage, if that makes any sense. It's very hard to understand when you first read it. We should regret that although the dream of the Buddha ancestors' bright hundred grass tops is apparent, clearer than a hundred thousand suns and moons, the ignorant do not see it. What a pity. The head that is the head placed above the head is exactly the head tops of a hundred grasses, thousands of types of heads,

[67:10]

the ten thousand kinds of heads, the heads throughout the body, the heads of the entire world unconcealed, the heads of the entire world of the ten directions, the heads of teacher and student that join in a single phrase, the head of the top of the hundred foot pole that you leap off, placing and above and placing the head above the head are both heads. These words are heads. Also, the word placing, the word above, the word head, these are all heads. Study this, so you investigate this. This is the spirit of practice, investigate. Study this. Whatever it is that should arise, study it. That's the only way to live. Sickness, old age and death comes, investigate. Failure comes, investigate. Success comes, investigate. Something good comes, investigate. Something horrible, investigate. Study and investigate this because everything that comes along is this head of Vairocana.

[68:13]

Thus the passage from the Diamond Sutra that says all Buddhas in their unsurpassable perfect enlightenment all emerge from this sutra is exactly expressing the dream within a dream which has always been the head placed on top of the head. This sutra while expressing the dream within a dream brings forth Buddhas with their unsurpassed enlightenment. These Buddhas with their enlightenment in turn speak this sutra which is the established expression of the dream within a dream. So the Diamond Sutra makes this claim that, you know, if only you would just say one line of this sutra then, you know, all this fantastic things will happen which is an odd idea. You know, it's like you can put the sutra on the altar and offer incense to the sutra. You don't even have to read it or just say one word of the sutra and wonderful things will happen. As the cause of a dream is not obscure, the effect of the dream is

[69:17]

not ignored. And this I believe is a quotation from the famous sort of in Zen the main place to find teachings about karma is in the story of Hyakujo's Fox which I think is the second case of the gateless gate, the gateless barrier, the Mumonkan. You know, everybody knows the story of Hyakujo's Fox. I won't repeat it. But the punchline of the story you know, the Zen master is asked, is the enlightened person free from cause and effect? And he says, yes the enlightened person is free from cause and effect and then he's condemned to live 500 lives reborn as a fox. Then he comes back in human form to his successor Zen master and says I was asked that question, I gave that answer, I've been reborn as a fox, what would you say? And he says

[70:18]

the enlightened person is not obscured by cause and effect or does not obscure cause and effect. So Dogen is quoting that here I think. As the cause of a dream is not obscure the effect of the dream is not ignored. And this is like the point I was making before, that you would think that this cosmic perspective would leave any sense of cause and effect, karma, morality far behind. But no. Exactly because of this perspective cause and effect, it does matter and our conduct is very important. This is one mallet striking 1,000 or 10,000 blows. So one like the butterfly effect you know. One little thing that you do has vast implications. As it is so a thing of suchness expresses

[71:19]

the dream within a dream. Reality, suchness. A person of suchness expresses the dream within a dream. The thing of no suchness expresses the dream within a dream. A person of no suchness expresses the dream within a dream. So lest you think that, oh suchness, oh good, that's what I'm in favor of. Also no suchness. Because don't make something dualistic out of it. Don't make something limited out of it. Hold everything lightly and let it go. This is the point, right? Hold everything lightly as the Buddha Dharma and let it go, moment after moment. Don't set up something and then make it into a big, big hole and then jump in and wonder why you're suffering. This understanding has been acknowledged as crystal clear. What is called talking all day long about a dream within a dream which I assume is another I don't know this expression particularly but I assume

[72:19]

that it's another standard expression in Japanese, Chinese proverbial saying which means, you know, they sat around all day talking about a dream within a dream. A proverbial expression for you know, wasting time talking about reality. They should be out like me in the fields, you know, planting rice. And here, the whole fascicle is taking this phrase and turning it upside down and saying, no, no, it is, reality is a dream within a dream. Making one brief utterance. Beyond understanding and beyond knowing is the expression of the dream

[73:20]

within a dream. As the expression of the dream within a dream is the thousand hands and eyes of Allah, that function by many means the power of seeing colors and sounds and hearing colors and sounds is fully maintained. The expression of dreams in a myriad aspects of dharma are the expression of the dream within a dream. Taking hold and letting go are the expressions of the dream within a dream. Directly pointing is expressing the dream. Hitting the mark is expressing the dream. Then he has this part here which is really quite wonderful about a balancing scale. Which made me think about it. You know those scales with pans? You put something in the pan and it behaves like things behave in this world. You know, like you drop a weight, it falls, right? So you put a weight in the pan,

[74:22]

the pan reacts normally. Then you put a weight in the other pan and then this object flies up into the air. Right? It defies its nature. It defies gravity. Of course we can explain it by the law of gravity. But the experience is this thing flies up. He makes the point that it flies up because it's empty. The balancing scale works, he says, when you take hold or when you let go. So this is life, right? Every moment of life, we take hold of our life. Yes, I'm alive. We let go. Yes, I let go of this moment. It's gone. And that's life, right? Taking hold, letting go. So when you take hold or when you let go, you need to study the common balancing scale. As soon as you understand it, the measuring of ounces and pounds will become clear and will express the dream within a dream.

[75:22]

Unless you know ounces and pounds, and without having leveling the balance, there is no actualization of the balance point. Because, I guess he means that if you have a 10-pound weight and you put a 2-pound weight over here, nothing happens. So you have to understand this is 10 pounds. I put 10 pounds over here. So, that's pretty good. It's like the Buddha Dharma. You have to understand it so that you know how much weight to put in there and you know how to make it work. Right? You know how to operate it because you understand the instructions. When you attain balanced equilibrium, you will see the balance point. Once you know pounds and ounces and you do follow the instructions, you'll see that it's balanced. You'll see the balance point. Achieving balance does not depend on the objects

[76:28]

being weighed, on the balancing scale, or on the activity of weighing. It just hangs in emptiness. So this thing happens using all this equipment, which you have to know how to use, like practicing Buddha Dharma. But it isn't the equipment that makes it happen. The scale doesn't work because of scales. Scales work because of reality, right? If we lived on another planet, the scale would work differently even though we did the same operation. So it's because of the nature of gravity that the scale works, not because of the nature of scales. So if we follow the instructions and practice the Dharma and we find relief and peace in our lives, it's not because we practice the Dharma. It's because that's the nature of our life. Thus, deeply consider that without attaining balance, you do not experience solidity. So the weight and the balance

[77:28]

where the thing flies up are two sides of the same coin. You can't experience the weight without also experiencing the balance. You can't really experience the reality of your life without understanding the emptiness of your life. It's a pretty good analogy, huh? Thus, deeply consider that without attaining balance, you do not experience solidity. Just hanging on its own in emptiness, the expression of the dream within a dream allows objects to float free in emptiness. Within emptiness, stable balance is manifested. Stable balance is the great way of the balanced scale. While suspending emptiness and suspending objects, whether as emptiness or as forms, expression of the dream within a dream joins settled balancing. I'm getting tired of that myself.

[78:29]

So, in a few minutes, anything that we should bring up? I think my strategy here is to talk you to death. By the time I get here, nobody can say anything. But maybe you can. Anything? A couple of things came to mind. But, you know, it's also dense. By the time we got on to the next paragraph, I was like, what was that? Yeah, it's a very close study here. But I hope that anyway, you have an appreciation for, a feeling for the depth of what Dogen is here speaking about. I hope so, because he's not saying there's this and there's that. This is right

[79:31]

and that's wrong. This is the opposite of what he's saying. He's trying to get us to see that that's what we're saying. You know? That's what we're saying all the time. And that's why we're suffering. He's trying to get us to see that reality isn't subject to those kind of categories and those kind of judgments, and that it's very deep. And it includes all of everything. If only we would stop taking ourselves so seriously and just, you know, fly up like that object in the scale. So that's what he's getting at. And also the other main point that came out tonight, that this whole thing is not the opposite of ethical conduct, but it makes ethical conduct even more fundamentally important. So, when we think about our lives,

[80:32]

what are we doing with our lives? We need to, I think, this tells me, when I think of this, that I have to find a way to live my life not thinking so much about my well-being and, you know, this and that, what I need and everything, but just, am I living a life where I'm really doing conduct that's righteous and benefiting the world? Because, if I appreciate what Doge is saying, I know that this is the only thing that will give me satisfaction in my life. What really had a strike in my heart was about life being a problem. And an enlightenment. And so, it seems that the more you study or walk the path, for me anyway, I feel like I'm a misfit in my daily

[81:34]

reality of my routine activity at work. Hmm. It seems like different things are operational. Yes, yes, yes, yes. So, I like it when it's said a problem accepted as a problem. Yes, I understand what you're talking about and I think that, yes, it's a little bit like the old saying, when I first started practicing mountains were mountains and then after a while mountains are not mountains and then mountains are mountains again. I think that in the beginning, you know, we accept on face value our daily life in the world, in the values of the world. It's just given, you know, a given. When we start practicing we notice a dissonance between our inner life

[82:35]

and what we understand of the Dharma and what seems to be going on otherwise in the world. And so I think that's what you're saying. And I know that, and that happens, and that's difficult, that's very difficult. I appreciate that. But if we stay with our practice and stay with the difficulty, in any way, at a certain point you don't have any choice, actually. You finally come around to seeing that everyone, even though they look like they're doing something different, in fact, everyone shares in this dream. It's all one big dream. And then you can harmonize with your situation, even though it looks like it's, from one perspective, at a certain stage of your practice it looks like it's something quite opposite from what you're doing. But afterward you see, for example, you look at a mean person, a nasty mean person, and say, boy, this person certainly isn't trying to practice compassion. This person certainly isn't concerned about their behavior, and so forth and so on. But then, later on, you look at that same person and you see,

[83:35]

this person has had a lot of suffering, and because of their conditioning, how could they be otherwise? And this is this person's path, to suffer what they're suffering, in their meanness, in their whatever it is. So your heart goes out to them. Before you're thinking, oh, I can't be around these people, they're so awful, I want to go to Green Gulch, everybody's real nice at Green Gulch, they're all practicing hard and everything, and it's really good. But at work, it's just a mess. Then you realize, actually, the truth is that the Green Gulch and the work people are the same thing. Everybody's just suffering and doing their best, and everybody's practicing in whatever way that they can, given where they are at that time. And you see that. You actually see it that way. And then you don't feel such a big gap. You may have hard days in the office or wherever you work, but then you think, that was a hard day. Tomorrow, I better be more mindful and more careful.

[84:38]

And I think it was a hard day because I didn't get enough sleep, so I'm going to bed earlier tonight. That kind of thing you can see. So I appreciate that. That's really important. I'm glad you brought that up. That's a really important point. Yeah, my life is very different now. I'm not coming to Green Gulch too much. So I live like regular people on the freeway and all that. And I understand, like, how can anybody stand it? It's really hard. Telephones, fax machine, email, freeways, errands, traffic. It's very hard to live in the way we are living. So we have to take care of ourselves very well every day. Maintain good state of mind and happiness and not take anything for granted. So I'm trying to figure out how to practice all day long in the midst of all that. I'm not doing that well,

[85:41]

but there's hope. Can we read the rest of this next time? Yeah, next time. Matt? In Delusion Throughout Delusion, I was reminded that Kierkegaard said something like the worst kind of despair is someone that doesn't know that they're in despair. Yeah, exactly. And other writers pointing out that the most miserable places are, say, affluent suburban communities in the U.S. They have the highest rates of suicide. And that's people not knowing that they are in delusion. That strikes me as the opposite of being in delusion throughout delusion. Yeah. It brings up for me the importance of really knowing delusion as delusion. Yeah. If you're in poverty, you can think, I've got to get out of poverty. That's my problem. But if you're affluent, then you might think, what's wrong with me? Yeah. Yeah, we all need to

[86:44]

think about this. And we all need to find a way to have access to this deepest part of our hearts. I don't think we can possibly do without this. Really, truly. Maybe for a short while. But it catches up to you. It really does. I'm not kidding. Okay. Thank you.

[87:06]

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