Oh, the recording is in progress. Okay. So welcome, everyone. What I will do later on is go through the text of the Self-Fulfillment Samadhi, which I believe Helena sent the text to all of you. I'll go through it paragraph by paragraph. But for the first part, however long that is, I'm going to give background about it and talk about... the major teachings of Dogen in this text. So I want to introduce the text. So this is part of a text from Dogen called Bendo Wa, Conversations on Extensive Practice of the Way. And it's part, so Bendo Wa, so amongst the books that Helena did not get to mention The Wholehearted Way I translated with Shohaku Okamura in the early 90s in Japan.

[01:08]

So it was first published as The Wholehearted Way, a translation of Bendoa, with commentary by Uchiyama Roshi. And then more recently, Tuttle put it out as Master Dogen's Zazen Meditation Handbook. Anyway... So this is part of Bendowa. So I want to give an introduction to this text to kind of place it before I get into the teachings even. So this was not originally part of Shobo Genzo, but in the modern rendition of Shobo Genzo with 97 different essays, it's one of the part of Shobo Genzo, Chudarmai Treasury, one of Dogen's major works. Supposedly Dogen went to China, he was there from 1223 to 1227 with the question, if all being is Buddha nature,

[02:23]

Buddha and wholeness, Buddha and nature wholeness, why do we need to practice? So some scholars say that was a question he had. He could have found the answer to that question, I believe, in Japan at the Tendai school where he had practiced before going to China. But anyway, in the second paragraph near the very beginning of Bendowa, he gives a very clear response to that question. So this is in Bendo Wa. It says, although, he says, although this Dharma or reality is abundantly inherent in each person, it is not manifested without practice. It is not attained without realization. So, and so Dogen talks about the oneness of practice and realization, Shisho no Ito in Japanese. So, This idea of Buddha nature is not merely theoretical.

[03:24]

This is what Dogen emphasizes. It needs to be put into practice. It needs to be fully realized and activated. So that's in the very beginning of Bendowa. The text we're going to look at today is a portion of that whole Bendowa essay. There's a later section of Bendowa, which is questions and answers. supposedly questions framed by one of Dogen's successors, Cohen Ejo, who became the second abbot of Pei Heiji. But this was a kind of form that was used in China, in Chinese then. Just to check, can everybody hear me okay? Yeah, good, okay. Let me know if not. And maybe I should say, we will have some sections of some, maybe a couple, like brief intermissions, like 10-minute intermissions later on.

[04:29]

We'll also have question and answer at least a couple of times, so I'm looking forward to this discussion. But this question and answer format was traditional in some Chinese Chan writings, and Dogen used it actually only in Dendowa. It doesn't use it really elsewhere. Anyway, okay, so this portion of Bendawa called the Self-Fulfillment Samadhi, or in Japanese GGU Zanmai, is the section of Bendawa just before the question and answers. Is it chanted at San Francisco Zen Center? As a separate text? Okay, yeah, it is part of the liturgy in Japanese soto-san and it's chanted in some western soto temples. So I want to talk, give background about this before we get into the text.

[05:37]

So I would say that this writing Ben-Dawa It was written in 1231, and it's really the first writing by Dogen on the meaning, the inner meaning of Zazen practice. There's another text, Fukan Zazengi, Universal Admonitions or Recommendations for Zazen, and apparently there was a version that Dogen wrote in 1227, just after he came back from China. We don't have that version anymore. It's not, we don't have a copy of that. There are two later versions. One was in 1233, and another one, the more common one, is in 1244, which is part of Dogen's extensive record, or Ehe Koropu, which is a book, another text I translated together with Shomaku Okamura. And I will be giving another seminar on that.

[06:40]

through San Francisco Zen Center again on August 10th, Saturday, August 10th, so I'll be giving a seminar on Tukansa Zenki. But the earliest text that we have from Dogen is from 1231, this Ben Doha text, and the Self-Fulfillment Samadhi portion of that text, and really juicy. On some level, I would say that all of Dogen's subsequent work, all of Shobogenzo, all of Ehe Koroku, Dogen's extensive record, which I translated with Shohaku, all of Dogen's following many writings and talks and so forth, are commentaries on Gigi Uzama. That's a kind of broad claim, but I'm really happy to be talking about GGU Zaman, Self-Fulfillment Samadhi today. So the first thing I want to do is just talk about this word or this title, Self-Fulfillment Samadhi, GGU Zaman in Japanese.

[07:55]

So GGU, G means self. GGU is a compound which, as a compound, So in Japanese, where they use Chinese characters, two characters together is a separate word. So Jiyu as a term, as a compound means fulfillment, enjoyment, realization. So we could translate Jiyu Zammai as the self-fulfillment samadhi or the meditation of samadhi in which fulfills the self. or the self-enjoyment samadhi, the meditation, the samadhi for enjoying oneself, the self. It's not, and by the way, this isn't the personal self. This is the self that includes all of us. And then also GU means realization.

[08:57]

So this is the self-realization samadhi. This is the Concentration. So there are many different samadhis. There are several that Dogen wrote Shobha Genzo articles on, essays on, and in texts like the Flower Ornament or the Tamsaka Sutra, there are pages and pages of lists of different samadhis, different concentrations. Technically, samadhi is concentration, is meditation focusing on some object. But generally in Chinese, samadhi was used just for meditation. So it has that specific technical meaning, but it also means just meditation. Okay, so the GGU samadhi is the self-fulfillment samadhi, the meditation which fulfills the big self, sometimes it's referred to in English. But this name, GGU samadhi, is very, very interesting.

[10:01]

So Jiu-Yu as a compound, as I just said, means fulfillment or enjoyment or realization. Separately, Jiu is to accept. Like Jiu-Kai, some of you know that as receiving, accepting, receiving the precepts. So Jiu-Yu, Yu means function. Yu is usefulness, function. This GGU Zammai title could be read as, as I've been saying, the self-fulfillment samadhi, the self-realization samadhi, or the self-enjoyment samadhi, but also it's the self accepting its function, receiving its function, if you break down the GGU. So the self-fulfilling samadhi is the self in which one accepts one's function, one's

[11:02]

Dogen also often talks about Dharma position. So we each have a particular Dharma position. So I'm looking at this screen on Zoom with gallery view and I can see 25 different boxes and then there's another screen with a bunch more. Anyway, so there's, what is it? It says now 35 people on one screen or another here. Each one of you is occupying a box on Zoom. So for the purposes of this seminar, you each have your your Dharma position in the seminar. You can put it on speaker view and just see me anyway. So. This title, Gigi Uzama, is very interesting.

[12:03]

It's about the self-enjoying itself or about enjoying the full self, the self of all things, we could say. But it's also the self accepting its function, its Dharma position is another way to read that. So self-fulfillment is synonymous with Accepting one's function. So, you know, some of you are familiar with sitting in a formal zendo where each person has an assigned seat. That would be your dharma position in the zendo. But each of us has our dharma position in our life. We each have a particular combination of cause and effect and karmic qualities. to accept, to receive this karmic personhood, whatever this is, and all its complexities.

[13:10]

So I sometimes say that each of us on our seat right now is a function of all the people we've ever known. Of course, you know, family and friends and loved ones and co-workers and neighbors and so forth, but even people you, you know, your second grade teacher or people you met at a party 10 years ago or 20 years ago or whatever, and who in some ways is part of what you is right now. So accepting your function, accepting your position, accepting your personal reality is also, in terms of this title, GGU's online, except fulfilling the self, fulfilling yourself, but fulfilling the greater self, the Dharmakaya self, that we are all, each in our own way, part of. Okay, so that's a little bit about this title of this text that we're going to be talking about today.

[14:16]

Okay, so as I said, this is one of Dogen's very first writings, the first writing that we have of Dogen's from 1233. We have two versions, later versions of Fukan Zazengi. But this is his account of the inner meaning and the purpose of Zazen. And as I mentioned before, in many ways, all of Dogen's many, many, many subsequent teachings from all the different texts he wrote, Shobogenzo and the 95 essays that are considered part of that in modern the modern renditions of Shobo Genso. There were many different versions of Shobo Genso. Eheko Roku, Dōgen's extensive record that I took. It's not quite as long as Shobo Genso, but close. There's several other writings by Dōgen Ehe Shingi about the standards for the community.

[15:21]

I would say that in some way, all of them expansion or commentaries or reflections on what he's talking about in the Self-Fulfillment Samadhi. So I want to go through some of what I consider the major teachings of the Self-Fulfillment Samadhi text before we actually go through the text paragraph by paragraph. And again, it's a very... Part of what I want to... emphasize my favorite sentence in all of Dogen is this very radical proclamation near the beginning of the self-fulfillment samadhi, really challenging to our modern linear sense of logic. So I'm going to say more about this, but this writing is also a kind of hallmark of Dogen's later many environmental teachings.

[16:23]

So this is an environmental text in some ways. He celebrates in this text the spiritual functions of earth, grasses, and trees. But again, to go to my favorite sentence, and one of my favorite sentences, at least in all of Dogen's work, near the beginning of the self fulfillment samadhi, Dogen says, quote, When one displays the Buddha mudra with one's whole body and mind, sitting upright in this samadhi, even for a short time, then everything in the entire Dharma world, in the whole phenomenal universe, becomes Buddha mudra and, this is the phrase I really love, all space in the universe completely becomes awakening. So I've spent decades, you know, sitting with that phrase, all space in the universe, the whole environment of the phenomenal world becomes, we translated it before as enlightenment.

[17:37]

What does that mean for all of space to awaken? It's hard for us to, you know, get our heads around this. It's really a radical statement. And this is like in the beginning of Hogan's writings. And just a footnote about this word enlightenment. I used to use that in translations that I did, and it's ubiquitous in English translations of Buddhist and Zen teachings. I think of it now as a mistranslation, as a translator. And I use awakening. So there are three different Chinese characters that are translated as enlightenment. But I think more accurately, awakening, because the English word enlightenment comes from the age of enlightenment in Europe.

[18:40]

And so that word has been used. And you've probably all heard of enlightenment. And light as an image is very important in Buddhism. But enlightenment, as a phrase in English, comes from this Age of Enlightenment, which is about logic and about quote-unquote objective reality, scientific reality. And this is not to denigrate science. My father was a scientist. I think awakening is a much better translation and much less misleading. There's three Chinese characters that are translated as enlightenment. One of them is the oneness of practice and awakening. And that character literally means verification, to verify awakening.

[19:41]

That aspect of awakening or enlightenment, if you will. And then another is kaku, which literally means awakening. That's what it means. And then there's also go, or satoru. So you've probably heard of satori, and this is used often for awakening experiences. Anyway, all three of these characters are translated as enlightenment often, but I have started just glossing in this awakening, because I think that's less misleading than enlightenment. Although I think many Westerners came to Zen practice wanting enlightenment, because we've all been trained in consumerism and progress, and we think, oh, if I just get enlightenment, that'll take care of everything. One of my favorite phrases from Dogen is, which I'll come back to later, Buddha going beyond Buddha. So-called enlightenment or awakening is really just the beginning of practice.

[20:46]

from Dogen's perspective and from the perspective of Dogen. Anyway, that was all. I want to go back to this statement that's in the Self-Fulfillment Samadhi. It's in the second paragraph of this Self-Fulfillment Samadhi text. So again, it says, when one displays the Buddha mudra with one's whole body and mind. So mudra, you know, is a physical position like our sasa and mudra held against our belly. This is another mudra or this is the mudra for granting. There are many, many mudras or physical gestures or positions in Buddhism. But in a sense, Buddha, like a Buddha image, like in any Buddha hole, Buddha sitting, like Buddha, is a mudra.

[22:04]

So what this is saying in this sentence of Dogen's, when one displays the Buddha mudra, in other words, when one sits like Buddha, with one's whole body and mind, sitting upright in this samadhi, even for a short time, Dogen says, then everything in the entire phenomenal world, in the entire Dharma world, so this, literally it's Dharma world, but this is Dharma as phenomena. So everything in the whole phenomenal universe becomes Buddha Mudra. And all space in the universe completely becomes awakening. All space awakens. When one person displays this Buddha mudra with one's whole body and mind, even for a short time, this is what Dogen says. This is what happens. All of space awakens.

[23:05]

So... It's hard to get what that means. What could that possibly mean? That all the space isn't outer space, like the space between the Earth and the Moon, or the Earth and Neptune, or whatever. We think of space that way sometimes. There's also the space between our ears, the space from our tailbone to the top of our heads, the space of the room that you're sitting in. All space awakens when One person sits in taking the Buddha mudra with one's whole body in mind. This is, it's hard to get our head around that. What does that mean? This is what Dogen proclaims when he first comes, early on after he comes back from China to Japan, as his understanding of the meaning of zazen. So we could just talk about that sentence the rest of the seminar.

[24:12]

There's just, it's, there's a lot to say about it and, you know, we can't capture it, capture what he means in words. All of space awakens. This, so this is also an environmental teaching, as I mentioned this, Giyazamai is a self-fulfillment samadhi text is very much one of his early, one of his many environmental teachings. So all of space awakens, all of space becomes, Enlightenment. So another way of thinking about this, when you sit in a Zendo, and there's a Buddha or maybe Manjushri in the front, we sit like Buddha. Whether you're sitting full lotus or Burmese or cross-legged or sitting on Caesar or sitting in a chair, when you're sitting like Buddha, we sit with our whole body in mind, to enact Buddha, to express the Buddha that's on our seat.

[25:22]

That's the point of Zazen, to express Buddha, to enact Buddha, to perform Buddha in our body-mind. And of course, we all know that sitting Zazen also includes witnessing to all of our hangups in all of our confusion and our greed, hate and delusion and so forth. So we have to face all of that. We face the wall to face all of reality, to face ourselves, to face everything in our life. But Dogen is saying here that when one does that, all of space in the universe completely becomes awakening. Now, as Bodhisattva practitioners, we know that there is much suffering in the world and that we're living in a very troubled society this year. So what does it mean that space is awakening thanks to our expressing Zazen?

[26:27]

This is a great koan for us. How do we express? So this is, he's talking here about, maybe Dharmakaya teaching about ultimate teaching, that ultimately all being is Buddha nature. But then as Bodhisattva practitioners, of course, how do we express that in our everyday activity? So Dogen has plenty to say about that too. Okay. So, you know, I could keep talking about this This is so crucial. This is kind of the starting point for everything Dogen says in his whole teaching career, I would say. But there's more. So wait, there's more. So I'm going to go on to three more crucial teachings of the self-fulfillment samadhi.

[27:31]

And then after that, we will go through the whole text paragraph by paragraph. So there's also this teaching called inconceivable guidance. In Sino-Japanese, it's the compound myoshi, wondrous guidance or inconceivable guidance. So in the text, Dogen says, the unsurpassed complete awakening of all things returns to the person in Zasa. And that person and the awakening of all things intimately and imperceptibly assist each other. Therefore, this Zaza and person without fail robs off body and mind, cuts away previous tainted views and thoughts, and awakens genuine Buddha Dharma. So this is a passage in the Self-Fulfillment Samadhi text. I'll read it again. The unsurpassed complete awakening of all things.

[28:31]

That's Anuttara Samyak Sambodhi in Sanskrit. Perfect, complete awakening. The unsurpassed, complete awakening of all things returns to the person in Zazen, Shogin says. And that person and the awakening of all things, quote, intimately and imperceptibly assist each other. So this phrase in Sino-Japanese, Myoshi, I hadn't heard, you know, in years of... 20 plus years of practice before I went to translate this with Shohaku in Japan. It's not something that we use as a phrase in American Zen, unfortunately. But this intimate and imperceptible mutual assistance or mutual guidance is another important phrase in this self-fulfillment samadhi text.

[29:35]

And he goes on to say, therefore, the Zazen person, without fail, drops off body and mind, cuts away previous tainted views and thoughts, and awakens genuine Buddha Dharma. So this mutual assistance of the person sitting Zazen and everything else, you know, the space that has awakened, thanks to our sitting zazen, this mutual guidance, mutual assistance, is a really juicy and important teaching in Soto Zen. And he goes on later in Self-Sulman Samadhi to talk about it in terms of we can't perceive it, we can't possibly perceive it because it's beyond our human perceptual faculties. However, this mutual assistance and guidance of things.

[30:42]

It's classic Buddhism, and it's very much part of the Flower Ornament Sutra or Navatamsaka Sutra, which I'll mention further. It's part of the five degrees teaching of Dongshan, which is kind of foundational, five degrees or five ranks, going back to the Chinese founder of Cao Dong and Shoto Zen in the 800s, this is part of that. This intimate, imperceptible, mutual guidance of our practice body and the universe. There are other teachings in Mahayana Buddhism, particularly, that express this in different ways. For example, Some of you may know the Lotus Sutra in chapter 15 of the Lotus Sutra. The Buddha has been calling on all of the disciples and bodhisattvas gathered around him in his teaching of the Lotus Sutra, who will come back and give this teaching in the future evil age, when the Dharma has been forgotten.

[32:03]

You know, all Bodhisattva practitioners think, oh, this is the future evil age, and I think that too. But who will keep alive this teaching? And then in the Lotus Sutra, what happens is there's Bodhisattvas who come from this distant world system or galaxy to hear the Buddha give the Lotus Sutra, and they say, well, we'll do it. And the Buddha says, you don't need to. And then out of the... open space under the earth spring forth thousands of great bodhisattvas who have been sitting under the earth waiting to appear when they're needed. So this is another foundational Mahayana teaching. And I feel like Dogen is sort of invoking that here, this imperceptible guidance. The universe, the world will help all the Zazen persons in our times of need.

[33:06]

So I'm looking forward to that this year. At any rate, this is another really important basic teaching that's in the Self-Fulfillment Samadhi text. And we'll say more about all of that. And again, in this Self-Fulfillment Samadhi text, there's also major environmental teachings. So when Dogen says in that sentence that I was talking about, that all space in the universe completely awakens, he's not talking about all space in the abstract. He's not talking about outer space. He's talking about the actual space wherever you're sitting, in whatever room you're sitting, in whatever building you're sitting, the space around that. the trees out front or out back or whatever, you know, the grasses, the shrubbery, whatever, all of that is the space that awakens thanks to our sitting, according to Dogen.

[34:18]

So, you know, I could say this and even say, Tiger's been off in Chicago too long, what is he thinking? Anyway, This is what Dogen says. Dogen is the founder of Japanese Soto Zen, which Suzuki Roshi brought from Japan to California in the 60s. Anyway, okay. So this environmental teaching celebrating the spiritual function of earth, grasses, and trees. This is, I'm quoting now from another section of the Self-fulfillment Samadhi, all of which we're going to go over a little later. talks about the Dharma or the teaching that goes beyond Buddha. And I mentioned this, that Dogen talks, and this is another teaching that he doesn't say explicitly in this text, but he says it often. He talks about Buddha going beyond Buddha more often than he talks about Shikantaza or just sitting.

[35:20]

Buddha going beyond Buddha means that, you know, when Buddha awakened Shakyamuni Buddha, you know, that guy back in Northwestern, what's now Northwestern India, 2,500 years ago, more or less, when he had unsurpassed complete perfect awakening, he didn't stop practicing. And he didn't stop awakening. He continued zazen, as doven would call it, every day, the rest of his life, he continued awakening. So Buddha going beyond Buddha is implied in this text I'm referring to, that awakening is the beginning of practice. Anyway, he's talking about the Dharma that goes beyond Buddha, and then at this time, Dogen continues, because earth, grasses and trees, fences and walls, tiles and pebbles, all things in the entire, in every direction in the whole universe, they carry on the Buddha work.

[36:22]

So there's a lot to say in this sentence. First of all, it's not just... you know, what we think of as natural things, like the ocean or lake or the grasses and trees. He even includes fences and walls, tiles, everything in the whole universe. So, you know, Gary Snyder talked about how the wilderness is not just outside cities in rural areas. The wilderness is right in big cities. I'm a city where most of you lived in Tassajara for a few years. But everything in the entire phenomenal world, even fences and walls, tiles and pebbles, are awakened. And he says in this jam-packed sentence, all those things in every direction in the universe, every aspect of the environment around us, of our environment, carry out Buddha work.

[37:25]

So I want to talk about Buddha work. So there's the environmental teachings, but in this sentence, there's also this other major teaching of Dogen's that's important in Dogen's teaching, the Buddha work. This is a basic bodhisattva idea. Literally, it's two characters, butsaji. It could be translated as Buddha's affairs or Buddha's deeds. Buddha's conduct, Buddha's work. And, you know, I checked this historically. These two compounds together are not used very often in Zen. Hongzhi, who I translated in another one of my books, Cultivating the Empty Field, who was an important predecessor of Dogen in the 1100s in China, he uses this phrase a lot too, the Buddha work. And I got help checking it.

[38:30]

It does appear in various sutras, and especially in the Avatamsaka or Huayen Sutra that I mentioned before, the Flower Ornament Sutra that Tom Cleary translated, which is very important and foundational to Soto Zen. Anyway, this idea of the Buddha work, the work of Buddhas, the work that bodhisattvas carry out, the Buddha affair of awakening all beings, as we say in the four Bodhisattva vows. Okay, so again, this one sentence, he's talking about the Dharma that goes beyond Buddha. At this time, Dogen says, because earth, grasses and trees, fences and walls, tiles and pebbles, All things, everything, everything, in every direction, in the whole universe, carries out Buddha work.

[39:34]

This is what Dogen is claiming, that thanks to our Zazen, this is what happens. Again, you know, we all experience the difficulties of Zazen, pain in our knees or our back or whatever, shoulders during Sashin, or... Or the pain of seeing our own ancient twisted karma and all of our grasping and confusion and aversion and anger and, you know, all of that comes up in Zazen too. Of course. But fundamentally, what Dogen says Zazen is about, the meaning of Zazen practice, is this Dharma going beyond Buddha, and when this is enacted in Arsasen, earth, grasses and trees, fences and walls, tiles and pebbles, all things in every direction in the universe carry out Buddha work.

[40:35]

And then remember, again, there's this mutual guidance, this imperceptible, intimate, mutual assistance of the world and ourselves, which, you know, sometimes Sometimes maybe some of you, when you've been sitting in Zazen for a while, or maybe just the first time you said Zazen, it sort of happened to me the first time I said Zazen, I couldn't have articulated it, but everything in the whole universe is right there. There's this fundamental wholeness. And then again, how do we enact that in a troubled world? Okay, but I started reading this passage about... the earth, grasses, and trees, fences, and walls, tiles, and pebbles. He goes on to say, and I'm going to come back and go through all of this in the whole text, but he says, in the realm of self, of GGU, in the realm of self-receiving and self-employing, self-fulfillment, samadhi, without moving a speck of dust or destroying a single form, extensive Buddha work,

[41:46]

and profound, subtle Buddha influence, Buddha guidance, are carried out. Again, this is the meaning of the inner meaning. So in this realm of self-fulfillment, without moving a speck of dust or destroying a single form, extensive buddha work and profound subtle buddha influence or guidance are carried out then he says the grass trees and earth affected by this functioning together radiate great brilliance and when endlessly expound the deep wondrous dharma so there's a an essay in Shobo Genzo much later on where he actually referencing Dongshan who did the Jolmer Samadhi and who started the five degrees of five ranks, talking about so-called non-sentient beings expounding the Dharma.

[42:58]

So this is previewed in this sentence in the Self-Fulfillment Samadhi. All of these things radiate great billions and endlessly expound the deep wondrous Dharma. This is really... an important teaching in our Soto school, that so-called non-sentient things, the earth, the ocean, the great lake that's near me, grasses, trees, of course, all kinds of animals. We have rabbits around my house here. And of course, there's lots of insects and bugs everywhere. Everything Dogen is saying, endlessly expound the deep wonders dharma. And then he says, grasses and trees, fences and walls, demonstrate and exalt it for the sake of living beings, both ordinary and sage.

[43:59]

It's not important whether you're wise or dull. It's all living beings. In turn, living beings, both ordinary and sage, express and unfold it for the sake of grasses and trees, fences and walls. You might add oceans and lakes and mountains and rivers and prairies and forests and, you know, anyway, all of them. So this idea that Dogen is kind of previewing here and he expands upon it in later essays in Shobogenzo a great deal, that all so-called non-sentient beings are in some ways alive. in some ways expressing awakening truth, Buddha's truth, Buddha's reality, Buddha Dharma. So of course, our job as human beings is to take care of human beings most fully.

[45:08]

But of course, I know some of you are also involved in taking care of the environment. and the earth, grasses, and trees, but he includes fences and walls. It's kind of amazing. And in terms of trees and forests, you know, modern science, so-called objective, logical science has now verified that forests are living beings and conscious living beings. Well, conscious, you know, what does conscious mean? We don't know. There's lots of aspects of consciousness. We think of consciousness just as human consciousness. But forests, because of the mycorrhizal fungus network underneath forests, different trees, even of different species, send nutrition to other trees or send warnings of danger or help communicate with other trees so that the whole forest is actually, in some ways, an organism that...

[46:10]

we could say is intelligent, if you measure intelligence, by ability to respond to dangers, respond to nourishment, to communicate with other beings in that situation. Anyway, all of this is in this first essay and this section of this first essay by Dogen, The Self-Fulfillment Savannah. So I've gone over what I consider really fundamental teachings in this Self-Lathana Samadhi text, and I want to continue by going over the whole text paragraph by paragraph, maybe just to review these basic teachings, and then maybe we'll have a a little period of discussion, a question and answer.

[47:13]

So again, first of all, just that all space in the universe completely awakens when one person sits outside and even for a little while. Again, these don't make sense according to our usual Western logic. It's just these are mad proclamations by our But again, just to read that sentence, when one displays the Buddha mudra, when one takes the position of Buddha with one's whole body and mind sitting upright in this samadhi, this self-fulfilling samadhi, even for a short time, then everything in the entire universe, the entire Dharma world becomes Buddha mudra, becomes this Buddha position. And This is the phrase that, you know, again, just... I can't say it without just feeling blown away. All space in the universe completely awakens.

[48:17]

What the hell does that mean? All space in the universe completely awakens. Our idea of space, our idea of the universe, our idea of awakening are revolutionized by such a statement. Okay, that's the first... teaching I've highlighted from the Self-Infillment Samadhi. Then there's this inconceivable guidance, Noshi in Sino-Japanese, that the unsurpassed complete awakening of all things as a result of that returns to the person in Zazen, and that person and the awakening of all things intimately and imperceptibly assist each other. There's this intimate, imperceptible, We don't know how to perceive it. We don't realize. On some level, one has to take tokens and on faith. By faith, I don't mean just believing in some doctrine or some idol or whatever, but trust in ourselves, trust in the world, that imperceptibly and intimately, there's this mutual guidance.

[49:33]

of the person sitting zazen and reality itself. And therefore, this zazen person, without fail, drops off body and mind. I don't think I talked about that. Dropping off body and mind is another famous phrase from Dogen, in Sino-Japanese. It means just dropping away body and mind. Sometimes that's referred to as an experience that Dogen had with his teacher Rujing in China. But it's a phrase that Dogen uses. Maybe I talked about this. I can't remember. But it's a phrase that Dogen uses frequently. And he uses it as a synonym for Great Awakening. Dropping off body and mind. He also uses it as a synonym just for Zazen. Everyday Zazen. Ordinary Zazen. The last time he said Zazen was dropping off body and mind, according to Dogen. Dropping body and mind. Dropping away body and mind. It doesn't mean suppressing body or mind. It doesn't mean getting rid of body and mind.

[50:37]

It just means letting go. So I'll talk about letting go more when we talk about Fukunza Zangi next month, August 10th. But letting go is one of the essential, is maybe, I would say, the essential art of Zasen. Dropping away body and mind. Not pushing it away, just letting it go. It's like clouds come in the sky and you let them go and they come again. Thoughts come up in zazen, feelings come up in zazen, of course. I mean, some of you may have had some part of a zazen period where there's no thoughts and no feelings. And that's okay. That's not the goal of zazen. But, you know, that's nice when that happens. But there's also thoughts and feelings that come up. But dropping off body and mind means just letting go of the ache in your shoulders or knees. Letting go of the... turmoil, mental turmoil, the round of thoughts come up.

[51:44]

Anyway, Dogen says in this part, therefore, Zazen Pershing drops off body and mind, drops away body and mind, cuts away previous tainted views. So we do let go of views and thoughts. They may come up again, but awakens genuine Buddha Dharma. So that's another major teaching in this text. Then there's the environmental teachings, talking about the Dharma that goes beyond Buddha. At this time, earth, grasses and trees, fences and walls. It's just not the natural world. I started to say Gary Snyder talks about cities as natural events too. skyscrapers as mountains, whatever. Anyway, fences and walls, tiles and pebbles are all things in every direction in the universe. Carry out Buddha work.

[52:45]

So this idea of the Buddha work. What is the Buddha's affair? What are the Buddha's deeds? What is the work of Buddhas? Which is also, of course, the work of bodhisattvas, trying to enact the four bodhisattva vows, freeing all beings. cutting away all delusions, entering all Dharma gates, realizing the Buddha way. So this environmental teaching and the Buddha work. And then again, just to amplify this environmental teaching in the realm of self-receiving and self-employing samadhi without moving a speck of dust or destroying a single form. So this is not about getting rid of anything. This is about reality as it is right now. Extensive Buddha work and profound, subtle Buddha influence, this Buddha guidance, are carried out thanks to our Zazen.

[53:46]

Then the grass, trees, and earth affected by this functioning together radiate great brilliance, endlessly expound the deep wonders Dharma, and grasses and trees, fences, and walls demonstrate and exalt it for the sake of living beings, both ordinary and sage, and in turn living beings, both ordinary and sage, for the sake of grasses and trees, fences and rocks. Okay, so that's the introduction to talking about this text. And at this point, and then, you know, I want to have some discussion and then maybe a little break, and then we'll go through the text paragraph by paragraph. But right now, Helena, would you help assist me? If anybody has any comment, I don't know if you can put it in the chat and Helena will read it, or you can just raise your hand physically if I can see you or go to, I think Zoom has a raise hand option somewhere.

[54:52]

So comments, questions, please feel free. So Helena, would you help me in calling? Yes, of course. Griffin? And I see Jackie next. Thank you so much. You have put your finger right on what eludes me most in my practice. And that's that my experience or reality is that I vacillate from a brief given surrender to a fabricated, you know, that I'm constantly aware that of awakening to and then, you know, the stealing of by the egocentric mind and quickly. And when you use these words, imperceptible, intimately, mutual guidance, appreciation and enjoyment, oh, is that, you know, is that a longing? But, you know, like, it's only...

[55:59]

intellectual that I could understand that that big cosmic reality could take enjoyment out of my ancient twisted karma. That makes sense. Yeah. Thank you. That's the question. That is the question. And, of course, we all experience difficulty, sadness, grief, confusion. But what Dogen's saying and what we're doing in Soto Zen and all Soto Zen Sanghas is practicing Dogen Zen. And of course all the other ancestors. And so something I say especially during seshin, is please enjoy your zazen.

[57:03]

That includes enjoying when, you know, stuff, to use the technical term, comes up, you know. Okay, it's there. Let it go. It'll come up again. It's in our body-mind. It's in our ancient twisted karma. And we avow our ancient twisted karma. But somewhere in the middle of all that, there's this inconceivable guidance from the world to this quality of openness, of uprightness, of awareness. And I actually do believe that all of us have tasted that in some way. I know people who say that, I have known people who say that zazen is always torture for them. Or very difficult. I know long-time practitioners who've said that. But they keep coming back. How is it that they keep coming back to sitting sazin?

[58:07]

So the moments of samadhi, you know, where, yeah, it can be blissful. But then, you know, I don't enjoy seeing the fabricated mind grabbing that and pulling it down. Yeah. It's a judgment. Yeah, we make judgments. We say this, oh, that's great. Now I want that more. Or, you know, so our judgmental mind gets in the way. And when you see that, don't make judgments about that either, because that's part of the complete perfect awakening also, this judgmental mind. But, you know, I tell people to enjoy Zasana and to enjoy your inhale and exhale. Breathing is a wonderful thing. We do it sort of automatically, but we also do it consciously in zazen. We inhale and we exhale. And that's a gift that, you know, when you're aware of the inhale and exhale of the self-fulfillment samadhi, you know, it's in the background there and, you know, walking around in the world doing our everyday stuff, we can...

[59:23]

waiting in line at the grocery store, whatever it is, waiting for something, feeling frustrated about not hearing from somebody, whatever it is. Our Zasana experience has trained us in just letting go and inhaling and exhaling. Tremendous gift. This doesn't mean that we can just take everything for granted. There's also the Buddha work. How do we respond? to all the problems and suffering of our troubled world. So that's a whole other aspect of this, which isn't so much in this self-affirmative Samadhi text, although I'm writing a book about how Zen responds. But anyway, how do we respond to the difficulties? Of course, there are difficulties in our own body, mind, in our friends and family, with the people around us, with... our society, so forth.

[60:24]

And yet, there's this tremendous gift that Doget is pointing out to us of just sitting, as he refers to it sometimes, of this self-enjoying samadhi or meditation. So, just that you acknowledge that there are times when you feel good in zazen means that you know this. We've experienced this. How do we nurture that? How do we take care of it? How do we use and express this in our everyday activities? This is the problem in question. This is the Buddha work. So thank you. There's more comments or questions. Who is next? Yes, next is Jackie. Thank you. Thank you very much. My question is different than what I'm just going to say right now. I feel so healed. by this comment of imperceptible mutual assistance and inconceivable guidance.

[61:28]

Often when I am suffering deeply and have no answer for things, that I'm being guided inconceivably and to trust what's happening is very, very healing for me. And I don't know if that's what Dogen or what you intended as his teaching. The second part, my question is about these rocks and pebbles and expounding the Dharma. Is it Buddha Dharma? Is it Dharma? Is it Buddha nature? What is the difference? what is it that they're expounding? There's a long dialogue, or you could say koan, about this in the teachings of Dongshan, Tozan in Japanese, the founder of Saodom and Shotozen in China in the 800s.

[62:39]

And so we can't necessarily hear the Dharma that they're expounding. In fact, you know, part of that dialogue is if you could, we can't hear it, but we can use the word trust, which is right. You know, this trusting this inconceivable guidance, trusting that the world offers us something, offers us some guidance. that it's you know we're trained to try and figure out what to do you know to problem solve and to fix things you know this is and and that's fine if you can fix something please do it but more deeply also trusting this inconceivable guidance trusting that the world is offering us

[63:44]

some guidance that we can't quite hear or see, that's very deep. And it is helpful, as you were saying. In terms of, so I'm not sure if I've covered everything that you were asking about. In terms of, you know, the guidance of fences and walls and clouds and pebbles and earth and grasses and trees, You know, there are times when we go out into the world and, you know, we can just enjoy a flower or enjoy a tree or enjoy, you know, wild grasses or whatever. And often, though, we're, you know, caught up in our own, you know, the turmoil of our own mental calculations. So we don't get it. Zazen gives us a kind of just sitting, upright sitting, as Dogen calls it, and as my teacher calls it, being upright, you know, gives us an entryway to being able to access that some of the time.

[65:06]

You know, we live in this world that's full of hate and confusion and separation and, you know, anyway. how do we heal the world? This is the Buddha work. But we have this wonderful resource of the Dharma. You ask, what Dharma is it that the fences and walls and grasses and trees teach? It is the Buddha Dharma. It's the Dharma of awakening. Dharma means guidance. Dharma means truth. It means reality itself. It also means all the things and events of world of the phenomenal world and the Buddha Dharma is that everything is awakened and it's very sometimes it's very hard to see how some people and some events are expressions of awakening and our Buddha work is to try and express that and through compassion and

[66:14]

caring help somehow. I'm sure that doesn't answer all your questions, but that's my response for now. Thank you very much. What about Buddha nature? How does that fit in? Buddha nature is just the reality that everything partakes of this awakening reality. the dharmakaya, the realm of dharma, the whole universe as awakened is basic teaching, dharmadhatu, the awakened realm, which is also all of the space, all of the things in the world, in the universe, not just on this planet. And yeah, so our job, Our work is to share whatever healing we receive from sasem as best we can.

[67:17]

And there's a bodhisattva practice of skillful means. And it doesn't mean that we, there's no instruction manual on that. We have, it's trial and error and it's trying to be caring and to be helpful. And we make mistakes and it's really important to make mistakes. Dogen talks about that too. And hopefully we make mistakes good mistakes instead of really harmful mistakes. So good luck. Thank you. Deb, did you still want to share? Well, I was reflecting on what it means that the person sitting awakens all things. And I was wondering if that's because in that posture, you're receiving all things.

[68:23]

So it's kind of like a fundamental kind of expression of non-separation. Yes. Yeah. So we are... We are awakening all things and we are awakened. We can be. Well, we may not realize it, but we are being awakened by all things. And some of them are more difficult to realize. Some things are pretty screwed up. But how do we appreciate the possibility of awakening that we receive from all things? I was just thinking that at first that the meaning was that the person has this effect on all things, but actually it's the opposite. It's both.

[69:24]

It's both. It's mutual. This goes back to the flower ornament sutra. It's mutual guidance. It's this mutual non-obstruction and support. So, you know, in healing, we heal, you know, the Buddha work is to heal the world and to be healed by the world. And, you know, we can't figure this out in our usual, you know, calculations and deliberations, as is said often in Zen teachings. Jolnir Samadhi is all about this too. And yet, Dogen is saying, when he first comes back to Japan from China, this is reality. That there is this mutual guidance, this mutual support. And, you know, our Buddha work in part is to realize this in whatever way we might be able to and to support it and to help healing.

[70:32]

And to try and see through our anger and grasping and confusion. We have positive, negative, and neutral responses to things. And so when we have positive things, positive responses to things, how do we not try and grab it for ourselves? How do we just appreciate it as it is? When we have negative responses to things, how do we not turn that into hatred and so forth? Thank you. Thank you. And Cliff, hello. I'm sorry, but Mark was actually next. Oh, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Go ahead. Mark, I don't see you, but I'm sure you're there. Mark, you're still muted. Mark.

[71:36]

You need to unmute. There. Can you hear me? Yes, now I can. Great. Thank you. I believe you said that there are three Chinese characters that translate in English to enlightenment. Is that correct? Yeah. I got Satori. I know Satori, so I can spell that. The other two, I don't know how to spell in English. Yeah, that was... I didn't mean, I heard Satori. The other two, how can I spell those in English? Yeah, okay, let me go over them again. There's three Chinese characters that are used in Japanese, too. The first one is Sho, S-H-O, and we'll all know. And that's the Sho of Shusho no Ito. It's a phrase Dogen uses, which is that practice, which Sho is short for Shugya, practice and awakening are one. We don't practice in order to later on get awakened or to get some enlightenment in the future.

[72:43]

Practice is its self-awakening. That's what Dogen is talking about in the Self-Authanasamana. So that's one. And it show literally also as a character means verification. So it's verified awakening. Or it's verification from a teacher or in some ways verified. So show is one. You already mentioned Goa Satoru, which is the experience of that awakening. And then the other one is Kaku, K-A-K-U, in Roman transliteration of the Chinese character, which literally means awakening. So all three of those characters are used in Japanese and Sino-Japanese as characters for awakening or enlightenment. He liked that word. Does that answer it? Yes, thank you. I have another question. You mentioned that Dongshun had a koan which referred to the fact that non-sentient beings carry out the Dharma.

[73:52]

Did you mention what koan that was? I don't know if it's... Dogen talks about it in his... In his Shobo Genzo essay, Non-Sentient Beings Expound the Dharma. But one of my other books, I don't know if Helena mentioned this, Just This Is It, The Practice of Suchness, has a chapter about non-sentient beings expounding the Dharma. And there's a whole long, very long series of dialogues that Dongshan's involved with. It's on page 19, so page 19 to 32 of Just This Is It, Dongshan, the Practice of Sessionist. And then look, and then there's this Shobo Genzo essay, which refers to this material from Dongshan by Dogen, and it's, I think it's called Non-Sentient Meeks Expounding the Dharmon.

[74:58]

Okay. Mucho Seppo, I think, is the sign of that phrase. Oh, yes. Okay. Great. That goes into that whole dialogue. Okay. Thank you very much. You're welcome very much. Okay. Now it's Cliff's turn. Hey, Cliff. Hi. Hi. So we're talking about a teaching that's inconceivable and perceptible. So as you said, we need kind of a faith and trust. Yeah. And then I think of the word imagination. Faith and trust is kind of imagining. I love this text, and I've been studying it for close to 50 years. Me too. I kind of feel like I agree with it. It seems right. It doesn't jar me.

[76:01]

anymore. It's kind of celebratory. So when I study it, I feel, well, I imagine I'm awakened. Good, then you are. This gets a little embarrassing. So it's like, I'm just imagining I'm awakened. I assume maybe somehow there's a real awakening somehow. What is reality? Is reality separate from your awareness and your imagination and your celebration? Is that not real? Well, I'll keep asking that. Thank you. Yeah, no, thank you very much, Cliff. important.

[77:01]

Yeah, so the word celebration that Jodo used is important, that in some ways this whole text, the self-fulfillment samadhi, and all of Dogen's writings are celebrations of the reality of this inconceivable guidance and this connection between the Zazen person and the awakening of all things. So, celebration. Zazen is a celebration. You know, people come to Zen wanting something they think is called enlightenment, and they think if they sit enough sashims, they'll get it. I mean, people do think that. Maybe some of you have thought that. Maybe some of you still think that. It's okay. But really, our Zazen is a performance art in which we celebrate Buddha.

[78:08]

We enact Buddha. I have an article called Zazen as an Actment Ritual, that this ritual, to put it that way, of Zazen is celebration and a performance, performance art. So when you're sitting Zazen, you are performing Buddha in your body-mind as the person you are, with all your ancient twisted karma. This is what Zazen is, is your performance art, your performance of Buddha, of uprightness, of awakening of all things. So yes, celebration is an important word. Zaza is our celebration of Buddha. Even when we're having a hard time in Zaza and our knees hurting or our back's hurting or shoulders or whatever, and we need to remember to inhale and exhale and enjoy our inhale and exhale, that's celebrating Buddha.

[79:23]

And he used another word, imagination. And imagination is also a very important word for Zazen practice. I think in our conventional reality, we think of imagination as something other than reality. Reality is what we imagine it to be. How we imagine reality is reality. So we have images of Buddha, of bodhisattvas, of sitting upright, of zazen, of zendos, anyway. So imagination is very important to zazen. I'm going to do a seminar next October

[80:24]

my ancient dragon Zen Gate Sangha in Chicago about a Dogen writing later on, which I think is like all of Dogen's writings, this kind of elaboration of stuff in the self-fulfilling samadhi, but about expressing the dream within the dream. We usually think of awakening as opposed to dreams, but actually reality is a dream. So how do we imagine awakening? How do we image awakening? How do we sit upright? How do we celebrate our inhale and exhale? So, thank you. So, Helena, are there other comments or questions? There's a whole bunch of stuff in the chat that I... Yeah, there's just one more question. I think our last question for this period, it comes from Shinjin John Light, and he asks, how would you compare the Genjo Koans quote, to study the Buddha ways, forget the self, forget the selves, and be actualized by mere beings, and dropping away to no trace.

[81:29]

How do you compare this to Jiyu Zanmai? Yeah, Genjo Koan is another early and basic teaching by Dogen, and there's a lot in that one. To study the way is to study the self, to study the self is to forget the self. By the way, do not Try and jump to forgetting the self. Studying the self is itself forgetting the self. You can't bypass studying the self. That means feeling what you feel. Feeling greed, hate, delusion, grasping and confusion and anger and so forth. So it's okay. There's another line in Genja Koan that to me is... fundamental, Dogen says in Genja Kohan, I think this is from Kaz's translation, to carry yourself forward and experience myriad things, is delusion.

[82:32]

To project yourself, and that means the small self, you know, that means our usual self, onto the, you know, fences and all the people, you know, to project oneself onto all of that. That's what Dogen defines as delusion. That everything arises and experiences itself, arises together in non-separation. That's awakening. And we're included in that. That everything that arises and experiences itself is not somewhere out there. It's not about something else other than this next inhale. So those are two very clear definitions of delusion and awakening in Genjo Koan. And of course Dogen also says to be in delusion throughout delusion.

[83:35]

To be in awakening throughout awakening. Not to try and get rid of delusion. That's a big delusion. But to be awakened to your delusions is awakened. I don't know if that helps. So if there's no other hands raised, Lena, or nothing else, that's a question in the chat. Why don't we take a little break? let's say a 12 minute break. And then we'll come back and I'll go through this text, the Self-Fulfillment Samadhi paragraph by paragraph. And some of the highlights we've already discussed, but I'll just mention some other things as they come up. Is that okay or is there another comment or question? I guess not, okay.

[84:43]

Thank you all very much. And we will continue after a little break. everyone right yeah

[91:39]

So welcome back. So what I want to do now is just to go through the text because I gave some highlights from the teachings, but there's other things. So Helena, if you would, could you screen share the text and just the first paragraph will go paragraph by paragraph. So I'm going to read each paragraph and then talk, say a little more about it. For all ancestors and Buddhas who have been dwelling in and maintaining Buddhadharma, practicing upright sitting in GGU's Samadhi, Self-Fulfillment Samadhi, is the true path for opening up awakening. Both in India and in China, those who attained awakening have followed this way. This is because each teacher and each disciple has been intimately and correctly transmitting this subtle method and receiving and maintaining its true spirit.

[93:05]

According to the unmistakably handed down tradition, the straightforward Buddha Dharma that has been simply transmitted is simply, you know, is supreme among the supreme. From the time you begin practicing with the teacher, the practices of incense burning, bowing, nembutsu, repentance, And reading sutras are not at all essential. Just sit, dropping off body and mind. So thank you. You can take away the screen, sure. So what Dogen says in this first real writing about the meaning of zazen, after returning to Japan, is that this is the heart. self-fulfillment samadhi. This is what has been transmitted from teacher to teacher throughout the centuries from Buddha to today.

[94:12]

Intimately and correctly transmitting this subtle method. I don't usually like the word method for Zen because that implies like a method to get to somewhere else and the method is to just be here completely. But at any rate, this is what Dogen says here. And the last part of this paragraph is one that has caused a lot of confusion. So I'm going to talk in more detail about that. In the time you begin practicing with a teacher, and Dogen emphasizes the importance of practicing with a teacher, the practice of incense burning, bowing, nembutsu, repentance, and reading sutras are not at all essential. Just sit, dropping off body and mind. And as I talked about before, dropping off body and mind is a synonym for Dogen, for just sitting and for complete perfect awakening. But these other practices that he talks about, sometimes this is understood as you don't need to do these things or don't do these things.

[95:20]

But actually, these are all practices that Dogen did himself at Aheji and at Koshoji. temple he set up some years after he wrote this self-fulfillment samadhi in southern Kyoto. So these are all practices that all of you who have attended Zen centers and zendos have probably done. These are all practices, I would say practices for expressing appreciation and gratitude for the practice. So burning incense, I know some places now, we don't burn incense because there's some people who are incense sensitive, so we use flowers instead, but burning incense is a regular practice that Dogen did and that we do at SEM centers.

[96:25]

Bowling, this includes just bowing like this, but also making frustrations. And there's a Dharma transmission text in Soto Zen that says, without frustrations, there's no Zen. So this is, that's a later Soto Zen transmission text, but at any rate, bowing is important. Nembutsu, this means literally recalling Buddha. Nembutsu as a phrase is usually thought of as part of what they do in Jodo Shinshu or Pure Land teaching and practice, which is calling the name of Amida Buddha. There was calling the name of Buddha in other ways before Amida Buddha. In China, Maitreya Buddha was very important and they called on Maitreya Buddha. But Nembutsu is part of our practice, of course.

[97:26]

part of Soto Zen practice. So reciting the name of Buddha, but being mindful. Well, Nembutsu literally means being mindful of Buddha. So we recite the lineage of Buddhists and ancestors. That's Nembutsu practice. We call, we, you know, in Soto Zen Myeongchang, we mention various Buddhists and ancestors. That's Zen Buddha's practice. So again, these are all practices that are done in Soto Zen. Repentance. We chant in our temple, and I think it's probably wherever you practice, all my ancient twisted karma from beginningless greed, hate, and delusion, born through body, speech, and mind. That's repentance practice. And Dogen emphasized that. One of his writings, which you may chant where you are. Calling forth the vow.

[98:35]

So repentance is important. In some ways, Salazen is repentance. Salazen is acknowledging our ancient twisted karma and sitting, being present with it. reading sutras. Again, Dogen says none of these are essential. What's essential is just sitting, dropping off body-mind. But reading sutras is also a practice that we do. And particularly in the Suzuki-Roshi lineage, so I don't know if everybody here is from Suzuki-Roshi lineage, maybe, maybe not. There are other branches of Soto Zen. There were three main branches of 20th century Soto Zen, which I can get into and take a while if someone's interested. But Suzuki Roshi studied with Kishizawa Ion, who emphasized both Sazen and reading sutras.

[99:40]

But the point of reading sutras, and the point of reading Zen text, too, is not to understand or remember or, you know, or... venerate particular sutras. I've mentioned the Flower Ornament Sutra a couple times already, which I love. But we read sutras, we read sutras, we read koans, we read some old Zen texts and Buddhist texts to encourage practice, period. So this is not, I also happen to teach academically Buddhism at the Institute of Buddhist Studies Seminary in Berkeley, but studying sutras, reading sutras is a practice, particularly in the branch of Soto Zen that Suki Roshi was in. And again, reading sutras, and I would say that all of these things that Dogen mentions right here in the first paragraph of self-fulfillment samadhi,

[100:55]

are to support our practice, to support zazen, period. Just to mention that there are three main branches of 20th century soto zen. The others, one is emphasizing zazen completely, tsuakitoto, where they actually don't do chanting or doksan or service, but anyway. And then there's another branch that emphasizes ceremonies and doing service and performing that beautifully. So at any rate, all of these are part of our Soto Zen practice. But what Dogen is saying here is that none of them are what's essential. What's essential is just drop off body-mind. Just sit. questions or comments about that first paragraph and what I just said.

[101:58]

Helena, would you help me call on people? Yeah, of course. Maybe there aren't any questions or comments about that. Okay. Yeah, so my question is, he describes how good is the Juju Zanmai, dropping off body and mind, just sit, but he doesn't really give instruction on how to just sit. Well, the textbook of Zazengi that I'll talk about next month, he talks about the form for sitting and and how to hold your body, and what, so Fukunza Zengi is more about what is the physical, but also the spiritual or mental attitude towards doing Zazen.

[103:08]

But I would say that actually, everything he says in the Self-fulfillment Samadhi is about how we sit, how we do Zazen. How we do Zazen is to, is to, realize that there's this mutual guidance between us when we sit and all things. But it's not like an instruction manual, like, you know, what kind of cushion you sit on and what position your legs are in or anything like that. So that is part of what is in Fukunza Zenki, which I'll talk about next week. Okay. In some ways, you know, It's hard to understand how to do zazen if you're not actually physically practicing in a practice place where you can see how it's done. I have a story about that. This may be a digression, but when I first tried to sit zazen when I was 20 and I'd never met a Zen teacher, but there was this Zen book then

[104:23]

that talked about how you have to get kensho and get enlightenment. It talked about sitting and posture. So I tried to do that on my own. But it said to sit with your eyes open. So when we sit facing the wall, our eyes are gently open. We're aware of the visual field in front of us. When I read that, though, I thought that meant that you couldn't blink. So I tried to sit. I was sitting in, you know, I think a pretty good posture, but I was like trying to force myself not to blink. And after a few minutes or so, water started pouring out of my eyes. And at that point, I thought, oh, I can't do this. So four years later, I met a Soto Zen priest in New York City and started sitting Zazen.

[105:29]

So it's hard without a teacher to do this. But, you know, you ask about how to actually sit Zazen. You have to see it, you know. And it's hard to, you know, Fukun Zazengi does give instruction in terms of the physical and mental position for sitting, posture for sitting. But, you know, we pick that up by seeing people sitting next to us, by feeling how they are. So, anyway. Other comments or questions on this first paragraph? I don't see. Can I just add one thing? There are resources... that go into more detail on how to sit. We actually have a class taught by Reverend Leanne Schulte that is a wonderful class that uses both Vipassana and Soto and gives exact instructions on where to sit on a cushion or how to.

[106:36]

And I've also heard from a Renzi teacher, very detailed ways on how to sit. And so there are resources out there if that's what you're looking for. Yeah, but those are all from people. They're not like something you read. Right. So say hello to Leanne shut for me. I will. Her brother is a Christian. I will. One of my disciples actually. Okay. Matt. Thank you, Tegan. Tegan, this first paragraph makes me think about how Pure Land was kind of starting back then. And Dogen, you know, focused on Zazen as his one practice. but there were other religions focusing on other practices. Do you wanna speak to that? I think this paragraph kind of makes me think about that. Yeah, sure. I think Japanese culture is particularly sectarian, more than China, more than America. So in the Kamakura period when Dogen lived, there were, as Matt says, the pure land schools,

[107:43]

There was also the Nichiren Moda Sutra schools. There were different branches of Zen, Soto, and Rinzai. And, you know, each school, and actually later on, the Japanese government made each school, you know, write out exactly what their teachings were as opposed to the others. But I think most American Buddhist teachers when I say Zen teachers are very, you know, syncretic and take whatever is helpful from different traditions. And I think that's wise. So, yeah, and Jodo Shinshu, well, there's several different Pure Land schools in Japan, and that comes from China and from India, Pure Land teachings. And yeah, the Jodo Shinshu founder, Shinran, is really interesting. teacher. There were many interesting teachers during the Kamakura period when Dogen lived.

[108:47]

But we're in the tradition that comes down from Dogen. But I don't think they're, you know, I sometimes chant mantras or names of Buddha, you know, as a support for my Zazen. Whatever helps, I think, is good. That's just my opinion. So, you know, Elena mentioned Vipassana. If Vipassana teachings are helpful to you and help you to siddhsasa, then great. That's just my opinion. Thanks, Matt. Good to see you. Anything else? We'll go on to the next paragraph, but we still have some time. Okay. This next paragraph is the one that I emphasized. Did you want to share again? Yeah, let's share the next paragraph. Or is there another comment or question? Yeah, just to clarify my question.

[109:49]

I guess my question was more like, why do we think, I guess, that he doesn't describe the method, how it's the Jijil San Maidan. Like, yes, he has the Fukan Zazengi in which he describes it, but In a way, kind of on reading the text, he talks about it, talks about it, but doesn't tell the reader how it's done. And I guess my question is, why do we think it's that? Well, because he was, he was actually, when he wrote this, he didn't have a temple yet. And he talked about that at the end of Bendawa, that he's wandering around. He didn't found his temple in Kyoto for a few years after he wrote this. But, you know, when you, but he had people who were coming to see him. Already people knew about him. So it's not something, as I was saying, it's not something that can be given, that can be instructed in writing only.

[110:53]

You have to see him. So person to person, you know. Okay. Okay, then. Thank you so much. You're welcome so much. So Helena, shall we go on to the next or is there something else? No, please go on. Okay, if you could screen share the next paragraph. And I'm just going to read it through and then a lot of this I've already commented on, but I'll just do it again. When one displays the Buddha mudra with one's whole body and mind, sitting upright in this samadhi, even for a short time, everything in the entire Dharma world becomes Buddha mudra. And all space in the universe completely becomes awakening. So that's the sentence that I talked about a lot. We can talk about it more. Therefore, it enables Buddha Tathagatas, which is thus come on Buddhas, in way of talking about Buddhas, to increase the Dharma joy of their own original grounds and renew the adornment of the way of awakening.

[111:55]

So this Dharma joy is wonderful. The Dogen talks about it this way. to increase the dawn of joy, to increase the joy of practice, to adorn, renew the adornment of the way of awakening, to appreciate and celebrate. Celebration is relevant to this adornment. So to enjoy your jazen. Simultaneously continuing, All living beings of the Dharma world in ten directions and six realms become clear and pure in body and mind, realize great emancipation, and their own original face appears. So we can talk about the six, if anyone wants to hear about the six realms. And this original face is, again, like there's a question about Zazen, one can't

[112:57]

explain or describe the original face in language, but it does appear. At that time, all things together awaken to supreme awakening and utilize Buddha body immediately and immediately go beyond the culmination of awakening and sit upright under the regal Buddha tree. Going beyond the culmination of awakening, is what I was talking about before, where Dogen talks about going beyond Buddha. Very often, going beyond the fulfillment of awakening to continue practice, to do the Buddha work, to continue awakening, to continue practicing every day. And to sit upright under the regal Bodhi tree. So sitting under the Bodhi tree is how Shakyamuni awakened, famously. And in early Indian Buddhism, They didn't have zendos, they didn't have temples like they constructed zendos in China later, but in early Indian Buddhism, the monks would come together during the rainy season and be together in Viharas, but then during the rest of the time they would go out and do begging rounds and they would sit not in

[114:21]

facing walls and zendos, but they would sit facing trees. So trees are very important in Buddhism. In early Buddhism, the monks, as they were taking breaks from wandering around to do meditation, to enter samadhi, they would sit down in front of a tree and face the tree. At the same time, it continues, they turn the incomparable great Dharma wheel and begin expressing ultimate and unfabricated, profound prajna." Wonderful phrase. To express the ultimate and unfabricated, not made up, profound insight or wisdom prajna. So, comments or questions on that paragraph? I guess I see somebody with their hand.

[115:24]

I had a question. Yes, Malik? Yeah, I noticed the, almost all of the sentences started with simultaneously or at the same time, at the same time. Could you say something about that? Because it seemed like those actions would generally be sequential. appears that they're not. Yeah, well, that's a whole different seminar on temporality in Dogen. And famously, he wrote Shobha Genzo being time essay, Uji. But he also talked about time in relationship to the Lotus Sutra and various other ways. So for Dogen's view of time and temporality, time is not past, present, and future.

[116:26]

In fact, in Buddhist texts, they don't say it that way, they say past, future, and present, because all time is present now. So there's some way, from Dorgan's perspective, that all times are in this time, the time when a Buddha awakens, all Buddhas awaken. So, This is not explicit in this text about the self-fulfillment samadhi, but thank you for picking up on that. Everything is simultaneous from the ultimate perspective. Of course, conventionally, we don't ignore karma. We don't ignore cause and effect. So conventionally, there is cause and effect. Something happens and something else happens. But from an ultimate perspective, as Dogen sees it, the cause and effect come up together, or sometimes the effect comes up before the cause. Anyway, all time is moving in lots of ways.

[117:32]

In Hawaiian Buddhism, in the Flower Ornament of Ravatamsaka Sutra, they talk about 10 times. So we think past, present, future, but the sutra talks about 10 times. There's the past, the present, and future of the past. There's the past, the future, and the present of the present. There's the past, future, and the present of the future. And then there's all nine of those together. So time is, you know, in our language, in English where we have a separation of subject and object and where things are sequential, of course, you know, time happens in in this sequential way. But from the perspective of ultimate, complete, unfabricated, profound prajna, everything is happening right now. So this is not emphasized in this text, but it's cool that you picked up on that.

[118:38]

And yeah, I don't know, I could keep talking about that, but that's a whole different seminar. Yeah, thank you so much. And thank you for you know, explicating this in general. Just a quick question about that time. Is there a way that that kind of connects with practice in a way that maybe you could talk about? Well, one example. So I assume that everybody here has said Zazen. And that you've said a period of Zazen that was supposed to be 40 minutes or 30 minutes or whatever. But maybe most of you can... remember periods of Zazen that went on and on and on and you thought the Doan fell asleep and it was never going to end. And then you might also recall periods of Zazen that went by like that. So time is not some separate external fixed container.

[119:43]

I mean we think of it that way because we have you know 24 hours and and minutes and seconds and all of that. Actually, I just saw something this week about how time is changing because of climate damage. Because of the melting of the glaciers, the equator is getting a little wider because there's more water in the oceans, and actually that is slowing down the rotation of the earth. by microseconds in each decade or whatever. But still, there's an effect of that so that at some point in the future, a day will be a little more than 24 hours. So time is flexible. It's not a fixed external. We all use clocks and watches to measure things.

[120:44]

In Dogen's Extenders for Pure Communities, he talks about how they measure time then. In Dogen's period, there were 12 hours, but they weren't the same. Each hour wasn't the same. There were six hours from dawn to dusk and six hours from sunset to sunrise. But as you know, as the seasons change, we're in summer now here in the northern hemisphere. I don't know if there's anybody here from the southern hemisphere, I don't know. Anyway, so the hours actually change. So time is not some fixed external set thing. Time is fluid in lots of ways. I don't know if that helps. And based on the Flower and the Sutra and other views of, oh, some of you may have been to Tassahara and, you know, the Han, to start the first period of Zazen.

[121:59]

In Dogen's Pure Standards for the Zen Community, that Han, oh no, the Han to start the wake-up bell running happened when... the Tenkin or the person hitting the Han could look down and could see ants on the ground. When it was too dark to see the ants, then the Han wouldn't be hit. But when the ants became visible, then they would hit the Han. So time is flexible. Anyway, that was a whole digression, but maybe, you know. Yeah, Eden. Again, a question about the phrase, whoops, let me find it, sorry. Therefore, it enables Buddha Tathagatas to increase the Dharma joy. What's that? What is Dharma joy? How do I know Dharma joy from just having a good time because my zazen feels okay today?

[123:02]

Well, that's Dharma joy. Okay. Dharma joy is... celebrating and appreciating reality and reality appreciating the truth appreciating the teaching about the truth when you when you when you feel gratitude gratitude is a word to throw in there for an appreciation and you know we have this wonderful buddhist holiday in our culture called thanksgiving so gratitude produces generosity They come up together. And that's joy. Thank you. I was struck by you saying, please enjoy your zazen. Years ago, the first session I did with Shohaku Okamura in Dokusan, at the end, you just said, please enjoy your zazen. And that's the only thing I remember from that session. That's enough. Yeah, yeah. I say that a lot. I don't remember.

[124:04]

Maybe I heard it first from Shohaku. I didn't. Remember that I just did. It was a revelation. For me, I don't know. So I don't know. Or maybe he heard it from. I don't know. Somebody else has a problem. Yeah, Mark asked in the chat to please talk about the six realms. Okay, the six realms. This is the way the aspects of this. this phenomenal universe that we live in. And the six realms are, I'll go from the bottom to the top. I mean, they're in a circle, but hell realm. And then there's hungry ghost realm. So we do this Sajiki or Sagaki ceremony to appease the hungry ghosts. Very sad situation. We're trained to be hungry ghosts because we live in a consumerist society where you're supposed to acquire all this stuff that's on the TV commercials or whatever.

[125:11]

Anyway, hell realm, hungry ghost realm, animal realm. My G show, my cat, Bessie, is sitting next to me. Anyway, animal realm, then human realm, which is very auspicious because in the human realm, we suffer enough to... to want to awaken, to find the way. And then there's Ashura realm, which is, you know, I used to think that was Titans, angry Titans, you know, like billionaires and, you know, very powerful people who are powerful because of previous good karma, maybe. Anyway, and then there's heavenly realms. So those six realms. But it's important to say that The six realms are not fixed eternal states. You don't die and go to one of those realms and then you're there forever. In fact, as human beings, many of us have experienced some of those realms.

[126:16]

So if you've experienced blissful realms, whatever it's from, whether in Zazen or some otherwise induced state, that's heavenly realm. But then there's hell realms when you're feeling, when something terrible happens and there are many humans in the planet today who are in hell realms, suffering genocide or starvation. It's terrible. But the six realms are fluid. One can go from one realm to another. So beings in the heavenly realms, after some many, many, many ages, can have some terrible thing happen. They can look in a mirror and see the bread. And that means that eventually, that sometime in the foreseeable future, they're going to leave the heavenly realm and enter one of the other realms. And if they get really upset about it, then they end up in a hell realm. Anyway, so they're not fixed states.

[127:21]

It's not like you go to heaven and you're there forever. So it's very different from Western ideas of realms. there's another question uh yeah sean thank you tegan for the workshop it's a lovely workshop i wonder if you could say something about what it means to uh I just lost my place here. Take your time. To utilize Buddha body. At that time, all things together awaken the supreme enlightenment and utilize Buddha body. It's redolent to some idea of actualizing your Buddha nature, but to utilize Buddha body.

[128:23]

What does that mean? That's the way of describing the Buddha work. So to employ, to function with awakened body, body not separate from mind, of course, to utilize your own quotient or whatever, your own Udinness, your own uprightness, to go beyond the culmination of awakening, to not just, you know, realize awakening, but to go beyond that and do the Buddha work to help other beings awaken. So zazen is a sangha practice. We practice together and we help each other and we help each other awaken. So to utilize your Buddha body is to

[129:26]

express caring and compassion and insight in your everyday activity. It's another way of self-realizing its function. Yes, that's right. That's right. Exactly. Yes. Another way of talking about that. Thank you. So we could go on to another paragraph or other comments or questions. Alina, is there anyone else? No, I think... Okay, next paragraph then, if you would share it. So Dogen says, There is a path. That's wonderful.

[130:30]

There is a path through which the unsurpassed complete awakening of all things returns to the person in Zazen. And that person and the awakening of all things intimately and imperceptibly assist each other. That's myoshi, what I was talking about, this intimate and imperceptible guidance, mutual guidance, each other. So all things in the universe. So just the first phrase, there is a path. There's a way to do this. It's called Zazen in our tradition. Maybe in Jodo Shinshu it's called just chanting the name of Amida Buddha. But there is a path. Buddha and Dongshan and Dogen and Tsukiroshi left us a way of appreciating this and experiencing Dharma joy and sharing it with others. So there's a path. And the Zazen person and the awakening of all things intimately and imperceptibly assist each other, which I spoke about already, but we can say more about.

[131:37]

Therefore, this Zazen person, without fail, drops off body and mind, cuts away previous tainted views and thoughts, awakens genuine Buddha Dharma, universally helps the Buddha work in each place. Again, the Buddha work. In each place as numerous as Adams, where Buddha Tathagatas teach and practice and widely influences practitioners who are going beyond Buddha, thereby vigorously exalting the Dharma that goes beyond Buddha. That's a long sentence. And, you know, translating Dogan... I could spend a good while talking about translating Dōgen, but sometimes, particularly in Shōbōgenza, but also sometimes in his extensive record, I translated it. In the Chinese, there's not a period.

[132:37]

You have to decide where to end a sentence, and sometimes you can have these very long sentences, and it's hard to translate them in short sentences, so that was a pretty long one. But anyway, this Zazen person without fail drops body and mind, cuts away previous tainted views and thoughts, awakens genuine Buddha Dharma, and universally helps the Buddha work. So this is important. The Buddha work, it's not enough to just have some realization. How do we express that and share that in our everyday activity? This is the Buddha work. In each place, as numerous as Adams, where Buddha Tathagatas teach and practice. And widely influences practitioners. So you all influence each other. Your practice supports the, you know, if you're sitting in a Zendo, your practice is supporting the practice of the person next to you and vice versa. And the person even across the way from you in the Zendo. So, yeah, widely influencing practitioners all going beyond Buddha.

[133:42]

And again, this phrase is really important. And Dogen talks a lot about Buddha going beyond Buddha. that it's not enough to just realize Buddha. It's not enough to just have a complete awakening. You have to keep doing the Buddha work. And going beyond Buddha means vigorously exalting the Dharma that goes beyond Buddha. So how do you express this teaching, this reality that is going beyond Buddha, that is Buddha awakening beyond Buddha? At the end of the paragraph. At the end of the sentence. Okay, at this time, again, this is the question about time. At this time, and there's always this time. Because earth, grasses and trees, fences and walls, tiles and pebbles, and all things in every direction in the whole wide universe carry out Buddha work.

[134:45]

So everyone receives this benefit. The benefit of wind and water movement caused by this functioning, again, this functioning, and all are imperceptibly helped. This is, again, myoshi, this imperceptible help, guidance, by the wondrous and incomprehensible influence of Buddha to actualize the enlightenment at hand. That's Genjo Koan, to actualize the awakening at hand. Since those who receive and use... Am I still on the same? Did I go to another paragraph? I think it's all one wrong paragraph. Since those who receive and use this water and fire, which is a way of talking about this phenomenon, extend the Buddha influence of original awakening, all who live and talk with these people also share and universally unfold the boundless Buddha virtue, and they circulate the inexhaustible, ceaseless, incomprehensible, and immeasurable Buddha Dharma within and without the whole Dharma world.

[135:52]

So this is about this inconceivable guidance. They universally unfold the boundless Buddha virtue and circulate this inexhaustible, ceaseless, incomprehensible and immeasurable Buddha Dharma. This is the Buddha work within and without the whole Dharma world. The example of this that comes to mind that I most often cite is somebody who had been sitting with me occasionally. I was doing this. We were doing this once a week down in Chicago in Rockefeller Chapel in Hyde Park and there was a Krishna sitting there with us regularly. And one time she said, you know, I didn't know if this, you know, what was happening with this stuff, but I was going up in the elevator in my apartment building and there was a woman who was there with me.

[136:58]

And she said, this woman said to her, what's happened with you? What are you doing? So this is incomprehensible and immeasurable, but all who live and talk with these people also share and universally unfold and experience this foundless Buddha virtue. Continuing the paragraph, however, these various mutual influences do not, this is the part about the imperceptible guidance, however, the mysterious guidance, however, these various mutual influences do not mix into the perceptions of this person sitting. And here, this is Stokin's way of trying to talk about this, because they take place within stillness, without any fabrication, and they are awakening itself. And then he says, if practice and awakening were separate, as people commonly believe, if practice, you practice first and then you got awakened.

[138:07]

If practice and awakening were separate. which is what people commonly believe, it would be possible for them to perceive each other. People practicing could see awakening and vice versa. But that which is associated with perception cannot be the standard of awakening. Because diluted human sentiment cannot reach the standard of awakening. So he's saying that... This awakening is something deeper than, you know, what we see or how we understand things or our usual perceptions of seeing and hearing and so forth. So there's a lot in this paragraph. So. Questions, comments. Looks like we might actually finish getting through this text, but. Paul had a question.

[139:09]

Okay. I can't hear you. Can you hear me now? I'm sorry. Yes, I can hear you now. Thank you, Sensei. I know it's probably a little off topic. It's a little soft. Can you increase your volume a little bit, please? How about now? There's nothing that's off topic. Go ahead. In some of Tibetan Buddhists, They talk about a person with a lesser capacity, a person with a middle capacity, a person with a higher capacity. The Hinayana is referred to as the lesser vehicle, etc. Those are discussions I'm sure people have had.

[140:10]

How does Dogen speak to practitioners' different levels of practice in terms of how... their capacity to fulfill a bodhisattva ideal plays out. Should I feel guilty? Because I'm struggling just to try to get somewhere between the personal lesser and the moderate capacity. That's probably going to take me the rest of my life, which hopefully is a little bit longer. But the point being, Does Dogen talk about that and have something to offer there? Yes. I don't remember where offhand, but he talks about, well, here he talks about sages and common people. So from Dogen's point of view, and going back to Dongshan and Shito and, you know, throughout the Sao Dong-Soto lineage, it's not a matter of

[141:14]

intellect it's not a matter of skillful development uh all just sitting anyone just sitting zazen is completely and Dogen gives actually Dogen gives examples of this uh in some of his later essays but it's um right where you are in Dogen's point of view in your dharma position just sitting, dropping body and mind, all of awakening is there. Now, you know, we may not realize or recognize it. People come to do zazen instruction and sometimes they stay and continue sitting. Sometimes they go off. And, you know, I'm aware that people who have come for zazen instruction and gone away and not continued, sometimes come back. I never think zazen instruction was wasted because whatever quality of experience of zazen someone has, that has an impact.

[142:26]

Everything has an impact. We don't ignore cause and effect. Each thing has some effect. Everything we do has an effect. So it's really silly to be hopeless about the situation of the world and all its difficulty and wars and environmental destruction and all that. Everything we do to help care and to help spread awareness and kindness and so forth has an effect. And it's not a matter of, you know, yeah, of course, we can say people have different capacities. Each of us has our own special gift. Each of us has our own way of our own abilities. We have different abilities, different ways of expressing the teaching, different ways of, you know, being in the world.

[143:27]

But each of us in our own way can fully, in our own way, share this quality of Brahma. That's what Dogen says, and that's what I agree. But thank you for the question, because I think our usual way of thinking is that there are smart people and stupid people or whatever, however you want to put it. We all have different capacities, but each of us in our own capacity has a whole range of capacities. So thank you. Thank you. Other comments or questions? Yeah, Eden. Sorry, wrong button. Anything special about wind and water and water and fire? Anything particular to know about those invocations of the elemental world, but pairing them wind and water together and then fire and water together?

[144:30]

Why not just say wind and water again or the four elements or whatever? Anything? I don't think there's any particular. He's just talking about the way that the earth, water, fire, wind function. He's talking about the functioning of the phenomenal world. I don't think there's any particular significance to the way he invokes them. But maybe I'm just ignorant about them. As far as I know, it's just a way of invoking the phenomenal world. Other questions? I had a quick question where it says, I guess, maybe like three sentences from the end of the paragraph. However, these various mutual influences don't mix, et cetera.

[145:31]

And then it says they are awakening itself. I'm assuming they is the mutual influences. Is that the myoshin, or is that a different mutual influence there? Yeah, I'm not sure which character it is. I have the text here, so I can look it up. But yeah, the mutual, it might not be myoshin, but it's the same idea. These mutual influences, the mutual aspects of the Dharma world, don't mix together into our perceptions. He's talking about how we don't perceive this from our usual conventional conceptualization. Our usual human perceptions are limited. Our visual perception. Well, on Zoom, I can see behind all of you.

[146:33]

And you can see behind all of yourselves in these zoom windows. But I can't see the second window. So we have limitations to our perceptions. And we also have limitations to our cognitive perceptions. And we also have limitations to our spiritual perceptions. So he's just pointing that out. Dogen talks about that in various ways. In Genja Koan, I think it is, he talks about being out in the ocean, the middle of the ocean, and you don't see the shoreline anywhere around you. Actually in Lake Michigan, this great lake that's near me, you can go out in the middle of that and you don't see any shoreline either. So Dogen says when you look around it looks like it's circular, but of course you're not seeing the details of the shoreline. So this is one example of how Dogen talks about the limitations of our perceptions. He also talks about In water, the ocean looks different to humans and to dragons and to hungry ghosts.

[147:42]

Hungry ghosts see a great lake as just full of pus. It's really sad for hungry ghosts. So yeah, we have various limited perceptions. That's part of what is being referred to here by Domi. Other questions or comments? Or we could go on to another paragraph. Oh, there's a, Matt has something on the chat. Can you see that? Yeah, did you want me to read it? If it's not too long. That's not too long. In response to Dogen's take on capabilities from Dogen's monkey section 2 to 11, Zazen is suitable for people of all capacities. This dharma can be practiced equally by those of superior, mediocre, or inferior capabilities.

[148:49]

After I heard this truth while I was sitting in the assembly of my late teacher, I set Zazen constantly day and night. Yes, so Dogen makes it very clear. It's not a matter of how intelligent or how acute your perceptions are or whatever. This is Zazen. Thank you. So shall we try going on to another paragraph? Okay, if you can screen share that. Moreover, Although both mind and object, which is also subject and object, appear and disappear within stillness, because this takes place in the realm of GGU, self-receiving and self-employing, without moving a speck of dust or destroying a single form, extensive Buddha work and profound subtle Buddha influence are carried out.

[149:54]

So this is about the Buddha world. Because this takes place in the realm of this self-receiving, self-employing awareness. Extensive Buddha work and profound subtle Buddha influences are carried out. Grass, trees, and earth affected by this function and together radiate great brilliance and endlessly expound the deep, wondrous Dharma. Brasses and trees, fences and walls demonstrate and exalt it for the sake of living beings, both ordinary and sage. Okay, so it's both ordinary and sage. It's not a matter of how refined your capacities are. In turn, living beings, both ordinary and sage, express and unfold it for the sake of

[150:57]

grasses and trees, fences and walls. So this is this mutual guidance, this mutual support and influence of the environment and Zazen people, people sitting, people trying or expressing Buddha in the forming Buddha in their body and mind. The grasses and trees, fences and walls demonstrate and exalt it for the sake of living beings. Both ordinary and sage. And then the realm of self-awakening and awakening others is fundamentally endowed with the quality of awakening with nothing lacking. And allows the standard of awakening to be actualized ceaselessly. So this is always happening. The realm of self-awakening and awakening others is fundamentally endowed with the quality of awakening.

[152:03]

Nothing is lacking. Of course, again, going back to the Buddha work, then how do we share this with all the people we come in contact with in our everyday activities and with all the difficulties in which we know so well in our world? So the next paragraph goes on to say more about that, but comments or questions about this paragraph? Or any of the text? Jerry shared something in the chat. Okay, go ahead. Can I say it because there were typos? Oh, yeah, please. So I said, I haven't heard Suzuki's Roshi's term interdependency. or the term dependent co-arising. Isn't that what all insentient beings and as well as sentient beings expound in the Dharma?

[153:04]

Isn't awakening understanding no-self impermanence and interdependent co-arising, the total working of the universe? Yes, this mutual influence, that's another way of talking about dependent co-arising. Exactly, that's right. So everything is coming up together. That's why. So, yeah, this is all happening. And, you know, so Dogen doesn't talk about it in terms of that particular way of talking about it, but that's what he's talking about. That's what I want to hear about. It's mutual influence, mutual guidance. So, yes, thank you. This is dependent on the horizon. Okay, I'll go to another paragraph then.

[154:06]

Sorry, I had a quick one then. Standard of Enlightenment. I think the previous paragraph and this one again. Yeah, standards. Standards of Awakening. So one can talk about how Awakening is expressed how awakening arises, how awakening. So all of these standards, qualities of awakening, I think is what is referred to there. There's not some particular standard of awakening. It's just the, you know, the quality, the virtue, the support, the mutuality, the wonder. the mystery, all of those are standards of awakening.

[155:06]

I don't know if there's any particular thing other than that that is referred to there. Maybe somebody else does. Okay, well, yeah, we... Yeah, I think it's possible to... spend a lot of time thinking about what are the standards of awakening. And we can probably all think of how awakening would apply in certain contexts or how it would be expressed or how it would be illuminated. But he's just, you know, standard also, I mean, I forget what character is used there. I can look it up, but I probably don't have time right now. But, you know, the way in which awakening is celebrated. So a standard is also at the banner of the celebration of awakening.

[156:10]

Just to riff on the English words. Well, thank you for the question. Shall I go to the next paragraph? Therefore... Even if only one person sits zazen for a short time, because this zazen is one with all existence and completely permeates all time, all time right here, we're talking about, it performs everlasting Buddha guidance. This Buddha guidance is, you know, that's the myoshi, that's the... Buddha work and how it expresses health mutually. It performs everlasting Buddha guidance within the inexhaustible Dharma world and the past, present and future.

[157:12]

Zazen is equally the same practice and the same awakening for both the person sitting and for all things, for all dharmas. The melodious sound continues to resonate as it echoes not only during sitting practice but before and after striking shunyata or emptiness which continues endlessly before and after a hammer hits it. So think of a bell and how the sound kind of continues to shimmer for a while. So this is about this mutual influence and about dependent co-arising. This expression of zazen is shared with all phenomena. So the melodious sound continues to resonate as it echoes not only during sitting practice, but before and after striking shunyata, which continues endlessly before and after a hammer hits it.

[158:20]

And this striking shunyata is a reference to the poem by Dogen's teacher, who talks about striking a hammer striking in one of his poems. Not only that, but all things are endowed with original practice within the original phase, which is impossible to measure. So we can't measure it in our usual ways. And I'm just going to finish with this next short paragraph. You should know. That even if all the Buddhas in the ten directions, as numerous as sands of the Ganges River, and all the sands of all the Ganges Rivers throughout the universe, if they were together to engage the full power of their Buddha wisdom, they could never reach the limit or measure or comprehend the virtue of one person's zazen. This is Dogen's Dharma proclamation, his celebration of

[159:26]

wonders of Zazen. And I would give a modern take on that. You should know that even if all of the hard drives and all the computers in all the worlds and all directions, including all the computers in distant galaxies, if they were to try and figure out and together engage their full power, they could still never reach the limit or measure the or comprehend the virtue of one person's Zazam. So we got to the end of the text. We have a little bit of time. So comments or questions on these last paragraphs, anything in the text there, or anything else we've talked about. If anybody who hasn't spoken yet has a comment or question, please feel free. We have some time just to hear any comments or questions. I know this text is so dumbfounding that it's hard to say anything after experiencing it.

[160:49]

Mark? Yeah, I've always liked that last paragraph, but I've never understood it. Good. Somebody once said to me something about this being... fact that nobody can really understand anybody else's zazen, I believe, or judge it. I don't know if I'm remembering that correctly or not, but can you help me understand this statement more than what's being said there? Well, I don't know if I want to help you understand it, but I can try and express my appreciation for it, which might resonate like the bell striking Shumata. Yeah.

[162:00]

Well, could you say your question again? Just say the question. Why would all the Buddhas in the Ten Directions want to comprehend the virtue of my Zazen? Well, because they are grateful. All the Buddhas and all the Ten Directions in the past, the future, and the present are all grateful for your Zazen. They really are. They really appreciate it. Sometimes I say to people, I cannot tell you how to be Buddha. Each of us has their own particular way of expressing Buddha given our own particular uh karmic conditioning and all of the all of the all of the beings who are present on your seat right now from from innumerable lifetimes as well as all the beings you've ever met or will meet in this lifetime and how you know so

[163:13]

I can't tell you how to be Buddha. That would be silly. But I can appreciate, oh, wow, look, there's a Buddha. Yes, that's helpful. Thank you. And that does also reflect what was said to me a number of years ago by this one teacher. I understand better now his response. I have another quick question, too. Please. I think I inferred that somehow the original face was related to the six realms. Did I? Is that accurate? I think each being in each of the six realms has their original face. And, you know, it's said that the human realm is the one that's most advantageous for entering the path and realizing practice awakening. But I think, you know, there are bodhisattvas in each of the six realms, famously. Jizo bodhisattva. Shita Garba in Sanskrit is the one that goes into hell realms particularly and helps the beings there.

[164:18]

So wherever you are, that's a place for awakening. And now I'm reminded of Jaojo, great Zen master of the Tang period. Joshu in Japanese who, if anybody is the greatest Zen master of all time, it's probably him. just because he lived 120 years and he had a longer time to do this. Historically, we know that. But somebody once asked him, where will you go when you pass away? And he said, straight to hell. And the student said, wait, you're a great semester. How could you be going to hell? And he said, well, so I can be there when you get there to help you. WONDERFUL, THANK YOU. OTHER COMMENTS OR QUESTIONS ABOUT ANYTHING? ROSEMARY.

[165:28]

HI, THANK YOU VERY MUCH FOR THE TALK. SO THIS MUTUAL GUIDANCE, I'VE CHANTED THIS this GGS of mine many, many times, and it really, really hit me tonight, this area of such a source of connectedness. And so I was thinking how just taking this in and internalizing it is such a reminder of our connectedness. Yeah. which sometimes get lost even in Zazen. So thank you. Yeah, we forget how wonderful Zazen is. We forget how wonderful the world is. And it's really easy to forget because the world is such a mess now on one level. There's so much suffering. And yet, just to appreciate, you know, so thank you for chanting.

[166:35]

Gigi is in line so many times and for appreciating it. And somehow when you were talking, I was reminded of something Kategori Roshi said when I did a practice period with him at Tassahara. He said, if you go out from the Zendo and you see a flower and you say, wow, beautiful flower, the wow is too much. You don't need it. I don't know why that came to me when we were talking. It's the world. And so Suzuki Roshi said the world is its own magic. I don't know if there may be other people, but I saw Paul have it. Yes. Can you hear me now? Yes. So a little faintly, if you can turn up your volume. But yeah, I can hear you. That should be better. I just wanted to share this because I've been thinking about it all day. And this is. When I came home yesterday, I've been having a heat wave here in New Hampshire.

[167:39]

For us, a heat wave is anything close to 90 and some humidity. So I put my car in. My partner's gone for the weekend doing something. And I sort of put one foot out of my door of my car, kind of tired. Look up and I live in a rural setting with a big field and trees and there's this deer standing there looking at me. And I looked at the deer. She looked at me and I just said, okay, what's on your mind? Or something like that. And the deer took a second look at me, went back to eating the grass and just kind of sawned it off. And then I looked at the trees and I go, this is what, this is that. This is that. So I have to share that. Yes. Yes. Thank you for this report from New Hampshire. I had sort of imagined that most of the people here would be from California, and there was a couple other people here from the Chicago area, and I know somebody's here from Virginia and from Minnesota.

[168:52]

Anyway, this Zoom vehicle is a wonderful way of expressing our connectedness. Here in Chicago, it's cooled off a little bit this week. It's still hitting 80, but we had a very hot week a little while ago. So please take care of yourself in the heat. And we have time for maybe one more person to share. I'm wondering if... Shoju, did you have your hand up at one point? I did. I did. Yeah, I see you, Jerry. Shoju, did you want to share? We can't hear you.

[169:58]

You don't look muted, but I don't know if you're talking. Sorry, we can't hear you. I'm going to go to Jerry. I just thought about the first long sashim I did at Green Gulch. It was during a practice intensive. I came out and we had a break and I looked down at the ground and it was just this incredible experience of every dew drop on every piece of grass. And I could see moon in a dew drop. I mean, I could look close to the drop and see all the reflections. And I'd never, ever looked at a dew drop, I think, in my life. You know, it's like, oh, that's a dew drop. But the intensity of that experience was just opened up a whole bunch of things for me.

[171:03]

And I'll never forget that I mean, just striking green and glittering dew drops. It was just a magical experience. Wonderful. Thank you for sharing that. I think we're getting to the end. And before we do, did you have any last words, Tegan? Yeah, I do. So this Buddha work that is spoken of in this wonderful teaching is really important. So, you know, this text may seem like idealistic or, you know, but part of what is also said here is that

[172:05]

We all have some responsibility because we have communed with this amazing mutual influence of dependent colorizing of all things, sharing, awakening, because we all have experienced us and we have worked to do. And I've mentioned a couple of times that the world is a mess. you know, the world is also perfect. You know, Suzuki Roshi said that the world is perfect just as it is. So we all need to work a little harder on various versions of that. He also said that we are constantly losing our balance against the background of perfect balance. So having tasted, glimpsed this background of perfect balance, please do the Buddha work. which means take care of the world in any way you can.

[173:10]

Do what you can to heal the world because there's a lot of suffering in this world. We know that. And so our Buddha work is to respond when we can, each in our own way. So please take care of all the trouble in the world. And I'm tempted to to just add at the risk of offending anyone to please vote in November. And just before everyone goes really quickly in the chat, I'm throwing up a few links. The first one on the very top is a feedback form. So please, if you have a couple minutes, go to there and Let us know your thoughts. Let us know if you like this, and then we'll try to give you more of it. And under that is a way to further support Taigen and his teachings by giving Donner a donation to his wife's PayPal account.

[174:21]

And then under that is a few ways to stay connected to San Francisco Zen Center. If you haven't, please sign up for our newsletter and get the latest scoop about what's going on here. And then under that is a way to donate and to become a member to San Francisco Zen Center. And just once again, thank you all so much for being here. You're the reason why I'm here and the reason why online programs exist. And I just have gratitude to each one of you. Humongous deep vows to our honored teacher, Taigen. Thank you so much for bringing this to all of us and spreading the Dharma. Thank you. I'm sorry, I forgot to add that I mentioned it before, but August 10, here, through San Francisco Zen Center, I'll be talking about the next primary text by Dogen, Fukanza Zangi, Universal Recommendations Resolution. Thank you.

[175:24]

And the link for that is in the chat. And all of this will be in the email with the link to the recording if you wanted to review it. So thank you so much. Thanks, everyone. Thank you. Bye-bye. Thank you, Elena.

[175:41]

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