which was part of the center. Oh, the recording is now in progress. Okay. So, yes. So again, just to say, we're going to talk today about Fukunza Zengi, which is the earliest writing we have from Dogen Zenji, founder of Soto Zen in Japan. And so I want to talk about I'll talk about the texts first, but I also want to talk about some of the major teachings in the text. And in the second half, we'll go through it paragraph by paragraph. And there are many, many references in this text to old Zen stories, koans and so forth, which I will share as we go through the text. paragraph by paragraph. So just to say a little bit about what this text is, there are three versions of this text.

[01:11]

There was one from 1227, right after Dogen returned from four years in China. That version we no longer have. It's not available. It's gone. So the earliest text we have from Dogen is the one that I taught about last month, called the Jijiyuzamai from Bendowa, which is an essay by Dogen, and self-fulfillment samadhi. The Fukansa Zengi, again, there was a version in 1227 that's lost. There was a version in 1233. a little later than the 1231 Bendowa. And the version we're going to look at today is from 1243. This is the popular version most commonly used. And this is from... This is a translation I did with Shohaku Okamura from Dogen's extensive record.

[02:21]

I should go back to the screen where I can see myself. Yeah, so this book... Dogen's extensive record, or some people call it the expensive record, but the paperback isn't that bad. Anyway, that was from 1243, 1242 or 1243, just before Dogen moved his whole community from Kyoto, the suburb south of Kyoto, to Eheiji and set up his... headquarters temple, which is still one of the two main headquarters of Soto Zen. So I translated that version, the version we'll be talking about today, with Shohakuo Gamora, and I'll say more about how that came to be. So... Taigen, I'm sorry, I forgot to lead us into our chant. Oh yes, please. So we'll be chanting our before-lecture chant, and just go ahead and do the English part.

[03:24]

Please keep yourself muted, okay? Will you leave that, Alina? Oh, sure. An unsurpassed, penetrating imperfect dharma. is rarely met with, even in a hundred thousand million kaphas, having it to see and listen to, to remember and accept. I vow to taste the truth of the Tathagata's words. Thank you. So, okay, so again, this Phukhan Zazengi text, we'll be using the version that is in the Eheko Roku, Dogen's extensive record, which is the other major work of Dogen's besides Shogo Genzo, which many of you know some of.

[04:27]

Eheko Roku, well, I could say a lot more about Eheko Roku, but I'll maybe wait and we will have some time for questions and comments and so forth. But this is not in Shobogenzo. Shobogenzo is the Japanese writings by Dogen. This was written in Chinese, all in Chinese characters. So it's part of Ehikoroku, which is all the Chinese writings by Dogen, and almost as massive as Shobogenzo. Okay, so this is the universally recommended instructions for Zazen. And there is a Shobha Genzo essay called Shobha Genzo Zazengi, which has parts of this Fukan Zazengi. Basically, it has the procedural parts about meditation, physical posture, and so forth.

[05:32]

It does not have what's in Fukan Zazengi, which is the philosophical or dharmic elaborations about Zazen. from Dogen. So I'm going to talk about that. Again, I will, in the first part of this seminar, I'll talk about major point, major teachings in Fukunza Zengi, and then in the second part, we'll go through it paragraph by paragraph, and there are many, many, many references to old Zen stories in this text, and I'll share what those are. in the second part when you go through it paragraph by paragraph. So, yeah, so again, Shobo Genzo are the Japanese writings from Dogen, Ehe Koroku or Dogen's extensive record is the Chinese. So, going into just

[06:37]

Some parts of the text that I want to stress, and again, I'm reading the translation that I did with Shohaku Okamura that's in Dogen's extensive record, volume 8. The translation that I think you chant at San Francisco Zen Center is an older translation. I'm not sure if it was from, I think it's probably from Kaz or it might be from Tom Cleary. Anyway, this text starts, the way is originally perfect and all pervading. How could it be contingent on practice and realization? The true vehicle is self-sufficient. What need is there for special effort? I could keep going, but just, you know, I'll cover that whole paragraph later. But the point about that is that It is said that Dogen went to study in China for four years because of his question he had that there's this common teaching in Zen and in Mahayana Buddhism that all beings are Buddha nature or all beings express Buddha nature or have Buddha nature.

[07:52]

And so why do we need to practice? was supposedly the question he had. Actually, he could have gotten an answer to that in Japan. But anyway, whether or not that was really his question, he went off to China and studied for four years and found his teacher, Ryu Jing, and received transmission from him and then came back to Kyoto. And as I said last time in teaching on Jiji Uzama in Bendo Wa, which is the first Shobo Genzo or the first Japanese essay from 12, maybe 1233, the opening of that answers that question. It says, very near the beginning, although this Dharma or this reality is abundantly inherent in each person, it is not manifested without practice. It is not attained without realization.

[08:54]

So this idea of the oneness of practice realization, Shushin no Ito in Japanese, is very important for Dogen. It's a basic teaching. And that realization, awakening, doesn't happen without practice, active practice. And we'll talk more about that as it comes up in other parts of Fukanzazengi. But that's kind of the starting point for Dogen's practice. So later on in that first paragraph, he says, you are playing in the entranceway, but you still are short of the vital path of emancipation. So Dogen is encouraging his students and us to continue practice that we... that we need to do ongoing practice, that there's not realization unless it's expressed in practice.

[10:02]

And so one of the main phrases that Dogen uses very frequently, much more than he says Shikantaza or just sitting, he says Buddha going beyond Buddha. So the idea is that Buddha is not some static final destination, but that what Buddha means is ongoing awakening. So Shakyamuni Buddha, for example, continued sitting zazen, practicing every day the rest of his life after he became the Buddha and continued awakening after he became the Buddha. It's not some static attainment that is the end of practice. It's the beginning of practice, actually. So that's one basic point. A little further in Ukanza Zengi, he says, put aside intellectual practices of investigating words and chasing phrases and learn to take the backward step that turns your light to shine inwardly.

[11:19]

Body and mind of themselves will drop away and your original face will manifest. If you want to attain suchness, practice suchness immediately. So this is a very important basic Soto Zen, Zazen instruction. Take the backward step, turn the light in within. So... This is, you know, relates to our zazen. When we're sitting facing the wall, we're actually facing ourselves. We're facing the world. We're facing everything. And turning the light within means to turn our attention back to ourselves. To not focus on some spot on the wall or some ambient sound, although, you know, we can... sometimes help settle by focusing on the visual field or focusing on sounds.

[12:25]

But the basic practice, take the backward step, turn the light immediately to illuminate yourself. And so this backward step is a key part of basic soto zenzasen instruction. And then he says, body and mind of themselves will drop away and your original face will manifest. So, body and mind dropping away, this is another phrase that Dogen uses regularly, Shinjin Datsuraku in Japanese. Body, mind, let go. Let it drop away. And, you know, this is actually an area that's kind of controversial in terms of understanding Zazen practice. Does it mean to get rid of body and mind? It's not about obliterating body and mind.

[13:26]

So it's not lobotomy. It's not about getting rid of thinking. We'll come back to that. But body and mind drop away means are being caught by physical sensations and all the thoughts that are streaming by. Let go of that. And then the original face is manifest. Your fundamental basic reality. Your true body self, which is not separate from the Dharmakaya, from the reality of all things, will manifest. Your original face will manifest. And then he says, if you want to attain suchness, practice suchness immediately, this is... as I said, one of many references, but this is a quote from one of Dongshan's students, the one who's in our lineage, Yunzhu Daoying Ungodoyo, who was one of the two main successors of Dongshan, who was the founder of Zaudong or Soto Zen in China in the 800s, and who said, if you want to attain suchness, practice suchness immediately.

[14:44]

And so Dogen is citing him here. There's a fascicle, an essay in Shogo Genso called Imo or Suchness where he talks about this saying particularly. So just practice suchness immediately. This is Dogen's instruction about Zazen. So as I said at the beginning, there's also this Shobha Gensur Zazen-gi, which is just a physical instruction. So we'll go over those when we go over this text paragraph by paragraph. But one of the things in Vukhan Zazen-gi is he's talking about, you could say, the philosophical or dharmic or spiritual aspect of what Zazen is. If you want to attain suchness, attain reality, attain just this, Just practice it right now. So Yonju, Dongshan's disciple, said that and Dogen repeats it many times.

[15:47]

So again, I'm just going through some of the really important teachings in Bukhan Zazengi and then we'll go through the whole text. Next he says, put aside all involvements and suspend all affairs. Do not think in terms of good or bad. Do not judge true or false. So this is also kind of very susceptible to misunderstanding. He says, put aside all involvements, cease all affairs, suspend all affairs. That doesn't mean to get rid of all your involvements in the world and all affairs in your life. but it's an instruction for Zazen. During Zazen, just put that aside. So just sit. And, you know, those things come up, of course. Thoughts and feelings come up, but don't get caught by them.

[16:53]

So we'll get to that in terms of what Dogen has to say about thinking, which is coming up soon. But he also says, do not... think in terms of good or bad, to not judge true or false. So this is also, a lot of these teachings, which seem kind of basic and straightforward, perhaps, are actually really interesting and challenging in terms of everyday practice, in terms of ongoing zazen practice, which you all are familiar with. So, do not judge true or false. Do not think in terms of good or bad. Well, this doesn't mean to not pay attention to what's happening in your life or in the world. But our judgments are based on our preconceptions and our prejudices and biases.

[18:00]

So, judgmental mind... is usually an obstacle. We can make deliberations and make decisions about what's going on in the world and how we want to respond, but if we settle on some particular judgments and make those into prejudices and biases and, you know, this is how wars start. If we make judgments and are not willing to hold those lightly, and to reconsider and to listen to new information and to be willing to let go of our prejudgments and deliberate and consider further. So he says again, put aside all involvements and suspend all affairs. Do not think in terms of good or bad. Do not judge true or false. So one of the things that we notice in Zasen is

[19:04]

That we do make these judgments. We do have judgmental mind. And when that happens, you know, we can get caught up in judging ourselves for judgmental mind. So don't judge yourself for making judgments. And this can go on endlessly. But let go. Let go. Or try and let go. See if you can let go of your biases. And just look at what's going on. It doesn't mean we don't pay attention to the situations in our life. It doesn't mean we don't pay attention to what's going on in the world and make assessments about it. But then, how do we not get caught by those? So these teachings, these philosophical or spiritual teachings that are part of Fukanzazengi are very deep. They may seem straightforward. But in actual practice, when you keep sitting, you see that judgments come up.

[20:10]

How do we not judge our judgment mental mind? How do we make deliberations and assessments about the world? And then how do we respond and be willing to respond in different ways based on new information? This is pretty subtle, actually. Okay. The next major teaching in this Bukonza Zenki that I want to mention is have no designs on becoming a Buddha. Dogen talks about this a lot in many, many places. So the point of Zazen is not to try and, you know, I think many American Zen students come to Zen and maybe Zen students and Buddhist students in Asia as well. because I want to be a Buddha. You see images of Buddha. You hear about Buddha. Oh, yeah, I want to find that.

[21:11]

I want to express that. But Dogen says very strongly, here and in many other essays in Shogo Genso and in places in Eheko Roku, don't make designs on becoming a Buddha. Don't make your major effort, oh, I want to be Buddha. It's Buddha going beyond Buddha that Dogen talks about a lot. Buddha as an ongoing process. So have no designs on becoming Buddha. So all of these are challenging. And maybe before we go into going through the text, we'll have a space for discussion and questions, which I'm eager to hear. Then the next part is one of... the most important parts of Thukkan Sazenki, in my opinion. So, he says, settle into steady, immovable sitting. Think of not thinking.

[22:11]

How do you think of not thinking? Beyond thinking. This is the essential art of Zaza. So, many of you have heard the translation, how do you think of not thinking? Non-thinking. is how it was originally translated. And to some extent, I think this is an aesthetic question. But I have to say, my story about this is that I first heard beyond thinking in a translation by Shohaku Okamura, who I translated Hikoroku with later. And I had always thought that How do you think of not thinking, non-thinking? As a translator, in English, what's the difference between not thinking and non-thinking? It didn't make any sense to me to say non-thinking. Now, some of you might prefer non-thinking, and that's fine, but then you have to unpack it and express what is this non-thinking that's different from not thinking.

[23:19]

When I saw Shohak was beyond thinking, I said, oh, wow, that's it, beyond thinking. And Dogen then says, this is the essential art of Zazen. So, based on that one word, beyond thinking, I moved to Kyoto for two years to work on translations with Shohaku Okomori, just because of that one word. And in Kyoto, we translated Bendo-wa, which includes the Selkothomal Samadhi, and we translated Eheshingi, Dogen's Pure Standards for Zen Community, Later on, when Shohaku moved back to the United States, he had been in Massachusetts before that, and he has a place in Indiana now, although he's somewhat retired. But when he was in San Francisco, he and I worked on this Ehe Koroku, Dogen's extensive record, which is almost as massive and as important as Shobogenzo.

[24:25]

It's the Chinese writings, and it covers, it goes back to Dogen's early Chinese writings when he was a student in China, and it goes all the way to his poetic writings at the end of his life, and it has many Dharma Hall discourses, we called them. Anyway, it's a massive text, and we spent three and a half years translating it back in the States, but at any rate, I just wanted to talk about beyond thinking. Again, that one word led me to move to Kyoto for two years. So what does this mean? This is a story, this is a think of not thinking, how do you think of not thinking, is a story about one of our great Soto Zen ancestors, Yaoshan, or Yakusan again in Sino-Japanese. And the story is, and Dogen refers to it in many places, but he unpacks it most fully in a Shobogenzo essay called Zazenshin, the main point of Zazen, and at the very beginning of that he talks about the story.

[25:40]

Yao Shan was sitting steadfastly, and a monk asked him, in this steadfast sitting, what are you thinking? What are you thinking about? And Yao Shan said, I think of not thinking. And this monk, who was very good, said, how do you think of not thinking? And then Yao Shan replied, Hishiryu, or beyond thinking. And again, some people prefer still non-thinking. But the point about this is an important instruction about the spirit of Zazen and the inner workings of Zazen. the philosophy of Zazen. So, non-thinking or beyond thinking, I would say, includes thinking and it includes not thinking. So, you know, when we're sitting Zazen, you're probably all familiar that thoughts arise.

[26:45]

Okay, whatever is going on this week in your life or this month or this lifetime, you know, thoughts come up. The point of zazen is not to get rid of all the thoughts. Some people have that delusion. But thoughts come up and we let them go. And then they may come up again. And in a period of zazen or in a day of zazen, whatever, or during seshin, there will be times when there's no thinking, when there's just being present without thoughts. This teaching of dogens beyond thinking, is about something deeper. It includes thinking, and it includes not thinking. So it includes the spaces in your zazen where there's no thoughts. It includes the spaces in your zazen where sometimes there's many thoughts rumbling around. But beyond thinking, it's a kind of awareness. You might say it's a kind of thinking.

[27:48]

You know, these English words get in the way sometimes. But it's... about settling into something that is a deeper kind of awareness. So as we're sitting, not being, not caught up in our thinking, even if thinking is going by, not caught up in our not thinking, even if we're enjoying some space of just being present without thinking, this beyond thinking is this kind of, you know, to try and talk about it is difficult. So some of you have sat, saws, You know, we'll be familiar with this kind of experience. But just to have this kind of physical awareness. Just being present. And whether or not there are thoughts. When there's thoughts, there's thoughts. When there's no thoughts, there's no thoughts. But there's this deeper kind of... I don't know what to call it.

[28:55]

Dogen says it's a kind of thinking, kind of awareness that is more fundamental to that. And we don't necessarily recognize it or know that that's happening when it's happening. But anyway, Dogen says this is the essential art of Zazen. That's what he says in Fukunza Zenki. This beyond thinking is the essential art of Zazen. And I don't disagree, but I would say, and I would say also that, and this is just my opinion, that letting go is the essential art of sasa. Letting go of thinking, letting go of not thinking, letting go of our attachment to body or mind, and both. Just letting go is also the essential art of sasa. So this is... This is very important. Dogen talks about, refers to this story many, many, many times. As I said in Shobhagen's Zazenshin, he says a little bit more, so I'll just cite some of what he says early on in this essay, Zazenshin.

[30:09]

Yaoshun said, beyond thinking. The activity of beyond thinking is crystal clear. In order to think not thinking, beyond thinking is always used. In beyond thinking, there is somebody that sustains you. Even if it is you who are sitting steadfast, settled, steadfastly sitting, you are not only thinking but are upholding steadfast sitting. When sitting steadfastly, how can steadfast sitting think steadfastly? sitting. Oh, I'm sorry. When sitting steadfastly, how can steadfast sitting think steadfast sitting? This sitting steadfastly is not Buddha thought, Dharma thought, Awakening thought, or Realization thought. So this is part of Dogen's commentary on this dialogue for the Aushan.

[31:14]

He adds, careless students in recent times say, the endeavor of Zazen is completed when your heart is quiescent, as Zazen is a place of calmness. Unquote. This is what Dogen says, careless students in recent times, in his time, say, and maybe it's still something that some people think, even in Americans then. But Dogen says, such a view does not even reach that of students of the lesser vehicle or inferior teachings. So our Zazen is not about achieving calmness. There's nothing wrong with being calm. In fact, it's helpful and maybe we need to realize some calm to go beyond thinking. But that's not the point of Zazen, Dogen says very clearly. A little bit more from this Zenshin. I was going to say add a little bit.

[32:18]

Well, okay. Oh, yeah. He says, who are beginners? Are there any... who are not beginners. So some people say that he talks about how some people say zazen, practice, is only for beginners. That's what Dogen hears from some of the people around him in Japan. But he says, are there any who are not beginners? When do you leave the beginner's mind? Know that in the definitive study of the Buddha Dharma, you engage in zazen and endeavor in the way. So this is Buddha going beyond Buddha. This teaching is a practicing Buddha who does not seek to become a Buddha. So, you know, San Francisco Zen Center City Center is called Beginner's Mind Temple. And Suzuki Roshi talked about Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind. So we never leave Beginner's Mind.

[33:36]

You know, when we think that we know what we're doing, That's a big problem. We have to be open to see more deeply. This is Buddha going beyond Buddha, which Dogen emphasizes. So all of this has to do with this story about beyond thinking. And again, I'm so grateful to Shohaku for translating it that way and enjoy translating a few books with Shohaku. I'll note that Kaz Tanahashi in his translations also uses beyond thinking, but I think my teacher still prefers non-thinking. Anyway, it's okay. It's a kind of aesthetic decision, I guess. Okay, further on in Fukan Zazangi, again, I'm just going through some of what I consider the major teachings in this text, and then we're going to go through the whole thing.

[34:37]

But he says later on, this Zazen I speak of is not meditation practice. It is simply the Dharma gate of peace and bliss, the practice realization of totally culminated awakening. So why does Dogen say that Zazen is not meditation practice? Well, Meditation is one of the six or one of the ten paramitas, the transcendent practices of bodhisattvas. And there are many kinds of meditation teachings and particular meditations. And I would say there's nothing wrong with that. But sazen goes beyond all of them. Practically speaking, sometimes I will advise individual students to... do some of these meditation practices, some of these, you know, we can think of guided meditations or particular meditations, counting breaths, which isn't really a Soto Zen practice, but we do pay attention to breath.

[35:47]

We do pay attention to inhale and exhale and the space at the end of the exhale or being aware of ambient sound or focusing on a saying from the teachings. from one of these texts that we chant, or from a particular koan, those can be, those are kind of meditation practices. And there are libraries full of specific meditation practices. And I would say myself that there's nothing wrong with those, but Sazen is not that. Sazen is not focusing on some particular meditation program or method. There are Zen teachers who talk about meditation methods. Anyway, what Dogen is saying about Zazen is teaching that he is promoting to his students in Japan is that it is not one of these meditation practices or programs or methods.

[36:52]

It is simply the Dharma gate of repose and bliss. It is the practice realization of totally culminated awakening. And it's not the end of that practice. It's, you know, this ongoing practice. So, he also talks about transcending both the mundane and the sacred. So, this is not about some sacred practice or place, but it's also about being in the world. So again, I'm just going through some of what I consider important teachings in this, and then we're going to go over the whole text. He says, intelligence or lack of it is not an issue. Make no distinction between the dull and the sharp-witted. This is not some intellectual practice. This is just sitting, just turning the light within, just this beyond-thinking awareness.

[37:58]

A little later, he says, practice realization is naturally undefiled. Going forward is, after all, an everyday affair. So Soto Zen emphasizes how we bring this awareness, this beyond thinking, and please excuse my puppy in the background, this everyday awareness is where our practice is and realization is naturally undefiled. So this is one of many references in this text to a particular old story. So I'll tell the story here. Again, the text says, practice realization is naturally undefiled. There's a story that Dogen references frequently about the sixth ancestor, Guining, and one of his two main students, although he had many students, but Nanue, from whom the Rinzai lineage comes, Nangaku in Sino-Japanese, he showed up at Huyneng's temple.

[39:09]

This is later after Huyneng started teaching. And Huyneng said to him, what is this that thus comes? What is this that thus comes? And Dogen mentions this story many, many times. And it's a funny way of saying, who are you? What is this that thus comes? What is this showing up here in front of me? What is it? What are you? What is this that thus comes? And Nanyue had no response. He didn't know what to say. I mean, what would you say? Anyway, Nanyue had no response. And the story goes on to say that Nanyue went back to the Zendo and sat like an iron pole for eight years. So in these teaching stories, in these koans, it seems like there's a statement and a response, statement and response, and it happens right away very quickly.

[40:13]

And actually, sometimes there's a space, some time period between one statement and the next response. And this is one of the few stories where they actually note that, and they say that Nanyue went away and sat very diligently for eight years. At the end of which, he came back to cleaning and said, now I can respond to your question that you greeted me with. What is this that thus comes? Now I can say that I can respond that anything I say would miss the mark. That was his utterance. So it took him eight years to come up with that. And then Huynang said, so is there practice realization or not? And Nanyu has said, it is not that there's no practice realization, only that it cannot be defiled.

[41:19]

So in Phukansa Sengi, Dogen says, referring back to this practice realization is naturally undefiled. Going forward is, after all, an everyday affair. So when Nanyue responded to Huyneng, it is not that there's no practice realization, it's only that it can't be defiled. The sixth ancestor Huyneng said, I am thus, you are thus too, all the Buddhism ancestors are thus. So this is actually good news. In your zazen practice, as bad as you think your practice might be, there's nothing you can do that can defile zazen. You can't mess up zazen. This is what Dogen says. This is what the sixth ancestor says. This is what all the Buddhist ancestors say. You can think you're messing it up, you know, and we do sometimes. But practice realization is naturally undefiled.

[42:28]

going forward is just taking care of this every day. So anyway, this is one of the places in Fukunza Zengi where Dogen is referring to one of these great old teaching stories. So a couple more things in Fukunza Zengi texts that I want to mention and then we'll pause for discussion and then we'll go back and go through the text paragraph by paragraph, and I'll talk about some more of these teaching stories that Dogen is referring to in the text. But a little further, this is towards the end of the text. It's the next, the last paragraph in the text from that we translated and says, you have gained the pivotal opportunity of human form.

[43:30]

I could say some things about that sentence too. But then he says, do not pass your days and nights in vain. You may have heard this. So many of you have heard the Sandokai or harmony of difference and sameness by Shuto. And that ends with, don't pass your days and nights in vain or It could also be translated as don't waste time. And on the Han that signals that is hit to signal Zazen events, this is often inscribed. This and some other parts of it. Do not pass your days and nights in vain. So that's referred to here by Dogen in this Really, this is the first text we have from Dogen. There was some version that was before that. Actually, this is, again, the 1242 or 1443 version.

[44:35]

There was an earlier version, which doesn't include, by the way, the thing about not thinking. So this is the popular version of this text, again, in Chinese. So... Do not pass your days and nights in vain. And he says you have gained the pivotal opportunity of human form. So traditionally in Buddhism, it's said that of the six paths, the six parts of the world, human realm, the six realms, human realm, animal realm, hell realm, then Asura or Titan realm and heavenly realm. after human human realm is the most advantageous because it's the it's the most it's the easiest realm in which to encounter the Buddha way and realize awakening for beings in the heavenly realms they don't see any suffering everything is blissful and it's a little hard for them to see the need to practice for beings in the hell realms they're

[45:49]

or the hungry ghost realms, it's very difficult, even though it's possible in all those realms. Anyway, that's the pivotal opportunity of human form. The last thing, and there are so many other references here, but in the last paragraph, he says, devote your energies to the way that points directly to the real thing. So... Don't get caught up in sidetracks, in various other endeavors. Of course, we do try to bring this awareness into the everyday world, and we do get involved in other activities, but focus on the way that points directly to the real thing. What is reality? What is really going on? And how do I respond to it?

[46:51]

It's not just calmness. It's not just being calm and not caring about what's going on in your life with your family and friends in the world around us where we know there are many difficulties. Anyway, okay. So those are, I wanted to point those out first as major teachings in Fukunza Zenki. And I want to take some time now for discussion. And Helena, maybe you can help me call on people. And then we'll take a little break and then we'll go through the whole text. And again, there are many, many, many references to particular teaching stories in the rest, in the whole text. And I'll clarify some of those. So at this point, does anyone have any comments or questions or want to ask about any of those major teachings that I just mentioned.

[47:55]

Please, you can raise your hands physically or use the raise hand function on Zoom. And Helena, would you help me call on people? Yes, of course. And you can also chat if you didn't want to speak up and share through the chat. You can also chat me your question and I can just read it for you. Yeah, and Helen, if there are chats, would you please read them for all of us? Of course. So comments, questions. Oh, yes, Shokuchi. I remember to. Oh, hi, Shokuchi. Hi. Hello, Taigan San. So nice to see you. So great to see you. I hope you and others will be patient with me as I ask a translation question. But these seem to be really important to me. And I don't read either Chinese or Japanese.

[48:57]

Shinjin Datsuraku. I assume Shinjin means is what we have translated as body and mind. Yes. There's no and in there. Just body, mind. Yeah. Just body, mind. And I wonder if the Chinese also represented that because I think... I find this to be this Western notion of the separation of body and mind is very deeply held. And I myself am trying to get past it by hyphenating it or just writing the words together. But it always looks kind of weird. So I just wanted to check with you with how the Chinese depicted it in the ideograms. Thank you. Body, mind. There's no and. So body-mind is naturally undefiled. Body-mind dropped away. And does the Chinese for body and mind, this is my last question, are those literally what is used for body and mind?

[50:02]

Sometimes Chinese is more poetic and actually more revelatory, I have found. Yeah, no, translation is really... interesting art. And particularly translating Chinese, each Chinese character has many overtones. So literally, body, mind dropped away. And the dropped away is also controversial. It can be. Some people think it's get rid of body, mind, or cast away. How active is the datsuraku? I would say it's just letting go. which is why I talked about letting go as the essential art. But it's not, you know, get rid of it. So sometimes this is translated as body, mind, cast away. So the characters themselves, Xin Jin, I think it's actually mind, body. But it sounds better to say body, mind in English.

[51:06]

But it's not... In the original, it's not body and mind, but they don't usually have an and. So, you know, to put things into English, one needs to sometimes expand the literal. Literal translations of Chinese characters, just saying that character after character are often unhelpful and not accurate because... you have to put it into something that is intelligible and felicitous in English. But it's body-mind dropped away. Shinjin Datsuraku. And there's a story about this phrase, which some of you know, that supposedly, and this is also a little bit controversial, supposedly the story goes that Dogen was sitting late at night at his teacher Ru Jing's temple and Ru Jing was walking behind the students who were facing the wall, you know, as some of us teachers do sometimes.

[52:12]

And the person next to Dogen was sleeping. I mean, like, obviously. And the story goes that Ru Jing took off his... slippers that he used walking in the sodo in the monk's hall, and hit the person next to Dogen as strongly as he could, which, and he was an old man, so he couldn't hit him as strongly as, you know, he might have. And said, now I forget the exact thing, but zazen is a matter of dropping body-mind, it's not sleeping. And so Dogen was sitting next to this guy who was sleeping and heard this and had this awakening, as they say. And he went to Ru Jing's room, which was, Ru Jing had recognized Dogen's ability and invited him to come to his teaching room whenever he wanted.

[53:21]

And Dogen said, the story goes, Dogen said, I've dropped body and mind. And Ru Jing questioned him and he, I forget exactly how the story goes, but anyway, Ru Jing said this is body and mind dropped. So anyway, that Shinjin Datsuraku is one of the very important phrases for Dogen that he uses often. And he uses it as a synonym for zazen itself. Zazen is just dropping body-mind. It's also, he uses it as a synonym for complete unsurpassed perfect awakening, for some yakusambo dai. So, dropping body-mind is, dropping body-mind, excuse me for the and, dropping body-mind is zazen, dropping body-mind is complete perfect awakening, for dogen.

[54:24]

And again, I agree with what you were saying. Shokoji and I go way back to when I worked at Tassahara Bakery back in the, I don't know when, 70s or 80s or something. Anyway, she was a customer before she became a Zen student. I think it was the blueberry muffins, is that? I can't remember. Definitely taking care of body there. Anyway, so, yeah, dropping body-mind is important. But it's an ongoing practice. It's not like Dogen had some experience and then he was finished. He continued teaching and practicing and awakening every day. Anyway, but what your emphasis on... body-mind as one thing is very important. This is a physical practice. It's not an intellectual practice or just a mental practice. They're not separate, as you know.

[55:27]

So I believe you're a yoga teacher, right? Yeah. So doing yoga and other physical practices are very complementary and helpful to just sitting, to zazen. And a Zen priest. Of course. Thank you very much. It's great to see you. Okay, other people have questions. Yeah, I see Hunter, but first we have a question from Dylan in the chat. Tell me if you want to share the question on your own, or did you want me to read it up? Okay, so he asks, is response included in consciousness, or is consciousness included in response, or are consciousness and response both manifestations of reality? Well, I would take away the and. Consciousness response. Our consciousness is always responding. And response is very important. I'm working on a book now called Zen Response.

[56:30]

How we respond to the situation of our life and our world is Zazen. Zazen is a response. Whatever it was that brought you to do Zen practice, Zazen is your response to that. And Zazen encourages our further response. But response is challenging. How do we respond to the particular difficulties in our life? How do we respond to the particular difficulties in our world? It's important to respond. So... I'll put in the plug here for everybody to please vote in November. Anyway, a response is part of our practice. And consciousness is a response. And response is our consciousness. So, as Dogen says in Zazenshin, it's not about just being calm and quiet and still.

[57:32]

Zazen is an active, passionate practice, I would say. I don't know if that... covers the question, Dylan. Okay, thumbs up. So I think Hunter is next. Yes. Oh, I'm trying to unmute here. Hello? Yeah, I hear you. Awesome. Thanks so much for doing this. I have, I had one question and then I was sort of emboldened to ask a question. Different one by Shokuchi, so I may sneak in too. Feel free to take one at a time. Yeah, go ahead. Yeah, one or the other. I'm interested in that line there, that Zazen I speak of is not meditation practice that you referenced. And I'm just curious, you know, if you could tell us a little bit about what... Dogen and his various temples may have engaged in that was meditation practice or that he viewed as meditation practice or whether it was, you know, sort of all Zazen for him?

[58:38]

Well, that's interesting. I'm trying to think if he ever recommended particular techniques or methods. I think it's all Zazen, but, you know, it's elsewhere he says it's not learning meditation. So meditation in Buddhism, in various schools of Buddhism, there are meditation methods and meditation programs that one can get into. And I don't think those are bad. In fact, they can be helpful. And in my experience, as a Zen teacher or whatever, people come to... My sangha in Chicago, Ancient Dragon Zen Gate, is wonderful because a lot of the people there have... Some are just started at that temple, but many people have other backgrounds.

[59:48]

They've done Tibetan Buddhism, or they've done mindfulness meditation, or various other kind of more programmatic, I would say, meditation teachings. And that can be a helpful background. But then at some point, they may just come to zazen. But even in the middle of zazen, sometimes when we're feeling, when we lose energy or when we're feeling overexcited, it is very helpful to take on some particular meditation program, to put it that way, or a meditation method or technique like counting breaths or focusing on a teaching from a koan or something like that, online from the teachings. So it's not that those things are bad, okay? And they can be helpful background

[60:51]

to actually developing a really dedicated Zazen practice. But what Dogen is saying, that Zazen is not about learning some technique. It's not about learning some program. It's just sitting. And that's so simple that it's pretty hard for some people to do it. A lot of people, I know people who are... long-time Zen students who really, at least for a good while, needed some kind of technique or method. And that's okay. But zazen is not that. Does that respond to your question, Hunter? Yes, definitely. And you had a second question. Yes. You know, that phrase that you said inspired you to move to Kyoto, the beyond thinking. Yes. I'm a little curious sort of along the lines of what Shokuchi was saying, if you could go into kind of the linguistic elements of that.

[61:52]

And what I mean is, you know, first off, I'm just very interested in this question of like why Dogen was writing in Chinese versus Japanese at different points. But then what is that phrase in Chinese and Japanese? And just to throw one more thing in there, I I've learned a little very rudimentary Japanese and I was super struck that. that the present and the future are not differentiated in the way I've normally been accustomed to in other languages. And I just kind of wonder how that may have affected Zen and how they talk about it. Well, that last little thing you added is a whole long seminar on Dogen's view of time. I wrote a book called Visions of Awakening, Space and Time, Dogen and the Lotus Sutra. And yeah, Dogen's relationship to time and temporality is really important. And, you know, this, so I'm tempted to just go, take some time to go into just that, but, and I'm going to be doing a class, I think in September, on Dogen and Huayen, or the Atmatamsaka Sutra, and there are 10 times, and how that relates to Dogen's essay of being time, which some of you may

[63:11]

know of. Anyway, that's a huge question. But in Zen or Dogen time, I was going to say something about this a little later on when we're going through the text, but we have a wider view of time. We talk about ancestors going back to Shakyamuni Buddha 2,500 years ago, more or less, and going back to Dongshan in the 800s and Dogen in the 1200s. And Tsukiroshi, way, way back in the 1960s. Anyway, we have a wider view of time. And time is, in Flower Ornament Sutra, Huayen, Avatamsaka, teaching, time moves in many different directions. And Dogen talks about this in Being Time, too. So anyway, I got distracted by the last part of your question. So time moves in all kinds of different ways. But... Can you tell me the first part of that question?

[64:12]

Because I forgot. Just that phrase beyond thinking. Oh, yes, yes, yes. In Sino-Japanese. So Japanese includes Chinese characters along with Japanese hiragana, Japanese syllabary. So you asked about writing in Japanese and Chinese. Shobo Genzo was written in Japanese. And it was the first philosophical text that was written in Japanese, where he uses Japanese syllabary, which includes Chinese kanji, Chinese characters. And Chinese characters are complicated because each character has a range of meanings. And then there are compounds where there's two characters together, and that produces new meanings. But what you specifically asked about, shiryo is thinking that's those are the two chinese characters that mean thinking and omoe mas in japanese and that's uh so so uh i'll go i'll go back to the japanese and chinese but just to uh to say about thinking not thinking and beyond thinking shiryo is just ordinary thinking fu shiryo is not thinking fu is a negative particle and

[65:34]

So it's Fu and then Shiryō, not thinking. And then a different negative particle, a different negative character, Hi, Shiryō, is what Shōhaku translated as beyond thinking. And one of the most fortunate things in my life is that I appreciated Shōhaku's translation and went to live in Kyoto for two years because of it. So it's shiryo, fushiryo, and hishiryo in Sino-Japanese. And, you know, you could translate hishiryo as non-thinking. You know, translation, you know, how do you convey something in English from a different language? It's really challenging. Anyway, so that's literally what those three words are. And... Just to say a little bit more about Shobo Genzo and Eheko Roku, Shobo Genzo was all written in Sino-Japanese, which is to say Japanese, which includes Chinese characters.

[66:40]

And then Eheko Roku is all of Dogen's writings that were written in Chinese, including Fukunza Zengi, and including 531, I believe, Jodo or Darmahal discourses, which are the body of Eheko Roku. He also wrote Chinese poetry. He also wrote Japanese poetry. Anyway, so, and both use Chinese characters, but anyway, so it's a little complicated, but they're two different ways of expression. So I hope that helps a little bit. So other, Helena, other questions? Yeah, is there any other questions? You can go ahead and raise your hand. Brian. I just remember to unmute. Thank you. Thank you. You're welcome. A line that came to me or comes to me when I read this, Fukanza Zengy, it's in the same paragraph about learning meditation.

[67:52]

But he says, you must know that the true Dharma appears of itself. And that's been particularly significant to me. I guess in my own experience, I've thought of rather than true Dharma, insight. But insight is not something being not something that I can create for myself. Right. It's something that comes to me. And so the significance of that phrase is important for me personally. Yeah, say it again, the phrase that you're talking about. Well, the phrase, Dogen's phrase is, the true Dharma appears of itself. Right. So the true Dharma, or suchness is the way he talks about that, is always here. It's not something we can deliberate, and Dogen says all this, you know,

[68:56]

directly, explicitly in some of his writings. It's not something that's a product of deliberation or calculation. I mentioned the Sixth Ancestor story about what is this that thus comes in the Sutra of the Sixth Ancestor, the Platform Sutra. There's one chapter that I really like where he talks about the oneness of prajna and samadhi. That right in samadhi, prajna appears. So samadhi is concentration in that particular technical samadhis that are described in many sutras. But in Chinese, it's also just a general term for meditation. And prajna, insight, arises. So... When we are sitting zazen, very naturally, insights arise.

[70:01]

It's not that we have to try and calculate and deliberate and figure out and use analysis and logic to get to, you know, wisdom or whatever. Wisdom is something, insight is something that arises from taking the backward step that turns the light inwardly and then... insights arise. Sometimes, you know, and it's not like you have to, when I, early on in my study at San Francisco Zen Center, one of my practice instructors was Linda Ruth Kutz, who some of you may know, and she said to me one time that, you know, when you have an insight, it's not that you have to stop and write it down. It informs you. It's in your form. So, you know, It won't go away, you know, after you finish sazen. It's something that is, these insights, you know, in Western literature and poetics, they talk about the muse, right?

[71:06]

So it's like something that amuses you. It's something that comes forth as some awareness that may be very helpful. So does that respond? Oh, yeah, thank you. You're welcome. So, Helena, any other? Yeah, we have something in the chat from Gary. Gary, did you want to share it or did you want me to just read it? Oh, we can't hear you, even though you're unmuted. How about now? Oh, yes. OK, OK, great. Yeah, we're just following the discussion of the quote, the Zazen I speak of is not meditation practice. And it just strikes me in your answer. And thank you, by the way, for posting this. It struck me in your answer. You said just sitting. And so I wondered is perhaps he's using Zazen synonymously with a Shikantaza as opposed to some specific object, so-called object of focus.

[72:15]

Would that? Yes. OK. So shikantaza is not a phrase that he uses very often, actually, sometimes. But shikantaza literally means just sitting. And, you know, so that's what we do. We just sit and face the wall and we're upright and we're breathing and we're paying attention. It doesn't mean, you know, rigid military attention. It means, you know, just that we're aware. We're beyond thinking. And so, yeah, this not meditation practice. It's not a particular technical practice. Some translations say it's not learning meditation. It's not something that you have to, you know, kind of read books about and study. There are, you know, and there are American and others and teachers who emphasize this.

[73:19]

There are meditation methods or techniques or programs in various forms of not just Buddhism, but other spiritual undertakings or schools. And those, as I was saying before, those can be helpful and valuable, but Soto Zen and Dogen Zen basically is just sitting. And sometimes, as I said before, at particular times for particular students, I'll recommend a particular meditation technique just to help settle. So Zazen is not about just being calm, as Dogen says in Zazenshin, but it helps to be calm enough to allow just sitting to be just sitting. I don't know if that helps. I would, yeah, I was interested in your, I guess, concurrence, general concurrence.

[74:20]

And that sound, I'm good with that. Thank you. You're welcome. And Shokichi, did you want to share what you shared? Sure. I just had a thought. I wondered, I wanted to ask about it. I wondered if Hishirio could also be translated before thinking. Oh, yeah. Well, I'm not sure what the value is in that translation exactly. It's before and it's after thinking, you know. Okay. No, I mean, beyond thinking, it works for me, too. I was really happy. Oh, you mean, oh, wait a second. You're talking about Hesher Yopi. Beyond thinking, before thinking. Oh, that's interesting. Yeah, I would think of... rather than before in time, before, now, and after, underthinking or underlying thinking, beneath thinking.

[75:24]

I might say beneath thinking. Beneath thinking. Yeah. It's deeper than just passing thoughts. But I like beyond also. It's like, you know, over the horizon or whatever. Anyway. So those are just English words. So translation is, you know, how do you, how do you, put into English, sometimes literal translations, word-for-word translations, just don't do it at all. One has to put it into meaningful English. I really appreciate, as I mentioned, Shoha Kuokamura, I really appreciate his translations, working with him on translation. He was, you know, we actually, collaboration. His spoken English is really good. His written English, not so much. Maybe it's gotten better since I worked with him. But I'll say something about the translation process with him.

[76:30]

And Hannah was asking me about translation before we started. There are, and I may have mentioned this in the Shikantaza seminar, but there were times when we were going through heikoroku, again, which is in Chinese, and actually, in general, heikoroku is probably easier to translate than shobogenzo. Shobogenzo has very long elaborative. It's hard to know where the sentence starts or ends, so shobogenzo, sometimes you have to have very long sentences, or it's really challenging. But heikoroku, too, was challenging to translate. Sometimes we come to a Dharmahal Discourse of Jodo and Shraka would just stop and say, I don't understand. And I would look at the Chinese characters and I know Chinese characters some, and I would try and say something in English to say what it seemed to me to be saying.

[77:43]

And he would say, no, it can't mean that because of such and such. He would have reasons why it couldn't be what I was suggesting. And we sometimes spent, I don't know, three or four hours on one sentence or one paragraph. And then at some point we would go back and just look at it literally, and suddenly it was clear. And then I would find a way to put it into intelligible English. So, yeah, and translation is challenging. So, yeah, before thinking, beneath thinking, beyond thinking, non-thinking. Non-thinking, I just, some people like that translation. I just, it didn't mean anything to me. So, when I saw him say beyond thinking, like light bulbs flashed. Anyway. I had spent a few months going around to temples in Kyoto 20 years before that and fell in love with Buddhist statuary and Zen gardens and all that.

[78:51]

And then it was a few years later that I started actually practicing with a soto priest in New York. But beyond thinking, it just got me. And so... But I appreciate your thinking about non-thinking. You're doing what Yao Shan said. You just did it by saying, oh, before thinking. Well, is that Yeshuryo? Well, maybe. That might be the best translation for you. I said beyond thinking, and then I thought, well, beneath thinking would work too. Anyway, how do we express this in a way that connects with Zazen mind. So all of you have some awareness of how Zazen feels. And that's what we attempt to convey in translation. So thank you.

[79:53]

Yeah, but just to finish that, what I wanted to say about Shohaku is that his translations are very faithful. They're not literal like word by word, but they're very faithful to the meaning. And, you know, convey the thing. Anyway, other questions? I don't think so at the moment. Okay. Well, according to my watch, it's about 22 after, I guess, three there. So, Why don't we take a break now? And then when we come back, let's take a 10 minute break. And then when we come back, I want to do the next part of just going through each paragraph. I'll read each paragraph. Helena will share the text on the screen as I'm reading them. And then I'll just mention some of the stories that

[80:58]

that are embedded, some of the references to other Zen teachings that are embedded in this . So thank you all very much for listening and paying attention and for your practice. And let's take a 10 minute break. So people are still returning.

[91:44]

And before we get started on the second half, just in terms of the questions about translation, I'll share another story. Some of you may know another book I did called Cultivating the Empty Field, actually my first book, which was a translation of teachings by Hongzhi. who was a few generations before Dogen in China, actually the most important Soto teacher in China, the century before Dogen. Anyway, cultivating the empty field was a product of my master's thesis. And I had a Chinese philosophy professor who helped me with it. But after I had translated it, You know, there's an old hermeneutics teaching in Buddhism, in classical Buddhism, to translate the meaning, not the words.

[92:50]

Anyway, I had finished translating Cultivating the Empty Field, the practice instructions, and I took it to my thesis advisor, gave it to him, and then went back a week or so later And, you know, I thought I had finished translating it. And he said to me, this is no good, start over. And he said, you translated the words, not the meaning. So I had to go back and sit zazen with each paragraph, with each practice instruction and feel what was the Dharma, what was the teaching that Hongjo was trying to say in this particular practice. instruction. Anyway, that's where that translation came from. So Helena, should we start on the text? So what I'm going to do, as I said, I'm going to read through each paragraph and I'll stop where there are particular references.

[94:04]

So If you could scroll so I can see the whole paragraph. Great. So the way is originally perfect and all pervading. How could it be contingent on practice and realization? The true vehicle is self-sufficient. What need is there for special effort? Indeed, the whole body is free from dust. Who could believe in a means to brush it clean? It is never apart from this very place. What is the use of traveling around to practice? And yet, If there is a hair's breadth deviation, it is like the gap between heaven and earth. If the least like or dislike arises, the mind is lost in confusion. Suppose you are confident in your understanding and rich in awakening, gaining the wisdom that glimpses the ground of Buddhahood, attaining the way and clarifying the mind, arousing an aspiration to reach for the heavens.

[95:05]

You are still playing in the entranceway, but you still are short of the vital path of emancipation. So this is the opening salve of this text. And I'm not sure I have much to say about it, except that he's pointing out that even when you are rich in enlightenment or awakening and have good understanding, you're still just, you know, in the entryway. So there's not particular references I wanted to say about that, but does anyone maybe take away the share? Yes, somebody has a question, I see. Yes, I appreciate it. I find that last sentence, you are playing in the entranceway, but missing the mark, sort of devastating. I mean, I guess it describes me, but in my experience in Zazen, even being aware that I am vacillating between clinging to my suffering and letting go and watching that it's how my preferences are causing that, you know, is playing in the entranceway.

[96:31]

And Sometimes, you know, the only way I get beyond that is words that you've said often about enjoy your breath, enjoy your zazen, or tonight you said enjoy the space. So maybe that sort of brings a different perspective in. Can you? I don't know. You know, if you want to feel devastated, that's fine, but you don't need to. you're still short of the vital path of total emancipation. All this means is that you need to keep practicing. We all need to keep practicing. We all need to keep going beyond Buddha. So it's not, you don't need to feel bad about this. This is just the way it is. We're all a little bit short of the total vital path of freeing all beings in the world.

[97:33]

and ending all wars and feeding all the hungry and ending all genocides and so forth and taking care of all your friends and neighbors and family so that everyone is just happy all the time. The bodhisattva vow is aiming at that. But it doesn't mean there's anything wrong with your zazen. This is a description of zazen. we are still short in the vital path of total emancipation. So it's not a problem, it's just, well, it's the problem of being alive. And, you know, this project of freeing all beings, of helping everyone to just enjoy Zazen, you know, is not something that we can get done in a week or a month or one lifetime even. It's... you know, this ongoing process.

[98:34]

So please enjoy your devastation. I see Matt's hand is up. Hi, Matt. Hi, Tegan. Thank you. I apologize. I got back from the break a little late if you already touched on this, but whenever I see the first paragraph of the Fukanzuzengi, is this not speaking to Dogen's like great doubt? And how, you know, that question of why practice if we're inherently Buddha? Well, and as I said, in the very, in Bendo Wa, which is his first real or written writing that we have, you know, he says, the Dharma or reality is abundantly inherent in each person, but it is not manifested without practice. It is not attained without realization. So we can, aid to continue practice realization, or practice realizing practice, or it's going beyond Buddha.

[99:37]

So, again, we each have our own style of this, and sometimes we feel devastated, and sometimes we can feel joy, and sometimes, you know, it's just, this is the situation we're in. Does that respond to your question? Yeah, I mean, I think that's kind of why he went to China, right? Like he was, this whole Tendai teaching of original enlightenment just kind of struggled with him, right? And then he kind of had some realization. Yeah, but I think, as I said at the beginning, he could have, there were people in Japan who could have answered that question for him, but he needed to work at it. And he looked around China and and talked to many teachers who he didn't think so much of. But then he found Ru Jing and it just all worked and he continued and he brought it back to Japan and Tsukiroshi brought it to us in California and wherever we are now.

[100:45]

Thank you. So it's an ongoing practice. And yeah, we're still, we are all beginners. And that's actually where, that's actually the whole point is to just be beginners. Any other comments or should we go on to the next paragraph? I think we can go on. Okay. So if you would share the next... Maybe the next two paragraphs we can do together. Continue Shakyamuni at Jetavana. Although he was wise at birth, the traces of his six years of upright sitting can yet be seen. As for Bodhidharma at Shaolin, although he had transmitted the mind seal, his nine years of facing a wall is celebrated still. If even the ancient sages were like this...

[101:48]

How can we today dispense with wholehearted practice? So he's just encouraging, you know. Shakyamuni had to go and sit for six years. Bodhidharma had to face the wall of his cave for nine years. So we need to continue practicing. And it's not a matter of whether you have attained blah-de-blah or not. It's just, yeah, this is an ongoing practice. Therefore, and this is I've talked about this paragraph, but I'll read it again. Therefore, put aside the intellectual practice of investigating words and chasing phrases and learn to take the backward step that turns the light and shines it inward. Body, mind of themselves will drop away and your original face will manifest. If you want to attain suchness, practice suchness immediately. So I talked about all of this, but when he says, put aside the intellectual practice of investigating words and chasing phrases, just to say something about that, I'm a Dharma teacher, but I also teach academically.

[103:01]

And for some of us folks, we like to engage in the intellectual practice of investigating words and chasing phrases. For those of us who try to translate all this, we need to do that. It's not that that's bad, but put it aside for Zazen. Zazen is not about that. It's just taking a backward step, turning the light within, letting body-mind of themselves, Datsuraka, drop away. And we can come back, you know, so just one thing to say is that the practice of, well, it doesn't have to be intellectual, but the practice of investigating words and chasing phrases is especially relevant for Sugiroshi's lineage.

[104:10]

So there were, I can get into this if people are interested, but there were three main, branches of Japanese Soto Zen back in the 20th century. And Suzuki Roshi is one of his guiding teachers with Kishizawa Ion. And in Suzuki Roshi's way, their study is, Zazen and study are both part of the practice. And Dharma study, like we're doing today, studying texts, The point of that in our lineage, in Tsukiroshi lineage, some of you may be from other branches, but the point of that is just to encourage our practice. The point isn't to reach some great intellectual understanding. I mean, that's possible. It is possible to understand this stuff, you know, sort of intellectually, but that's not the point. The point of studying texts, the point of studying Dogen, the point of studying koans, the point of studying the sutras, is simply to encourage our practice in the fullest sense.

[105:22]

So that's what this is about. Okay, it looks like we're having a little bit of a technical thing happening. Just one moment, we'll just give Titan a second to maybe come back online. So did you hear the last? Recording is in progress. Okay, did you hear the last thing I said?

[106:24]

Maybe not. I was talking about Suki Roshi lineage and the point of study, the point of studying texts, studying Dogen, studying Koan, studying sutras, is simply to support our practice. Our practice realization. Basically, that's what I was saying. And there's a couple of questions, I think. Can you hear me? Yes. So we have Stephen and then Gary. So my question, Tygen, is it possible to read the Consider Shakyamuni in Bodhidharma? It seems to me that the chronology here is we have wisdom at birth and then the six years of sitting. And the focus and the, not approval, but the appreciation of the good thing is for the upright sitting.

[107:31]

And same with Bodhidharma. We have the transmitted mind cell, but then perhaps we have the nine years of facing the wall, which is appreciated as significant. So could it be that What Dogen is seeking is the sitting of these worthies and not simply the worthiness prior to the sitting. In other words, you lose any merit you thought you bring to the sitting as Bodhidharma or Shakyamuni is actually less important to the sitting that you bring. The sitting that is done by you, which is somewhat not... ranked according to your merit as Shakyamuni, wise at birth, Bodhidharma, transmitted the mind seal. That was comprehensible.

[108:33]

Yeah. I'm not sure that I actually understand where your question is, but let me respond a little bit and then you can follow up. So, yeah, he mentions Shakyamuni, he mentions Bodhidharma. On some level, you know, these great ancestors are not the point. How is your practice today or this lifetime, you know? But the other side of that is, of course, we deeply venerate and respect our great ancestors, known and unknown. all the great women and ancestors who were helping keep alive this practice and teaching tradition so that we could inherit it, even though we don't know all their names. So yeah, but the point, what Dogen is saying is the point, even the ancient sages were like this, how can we today dispense with wholehearted practice?

[109:43]

So again, as I was saying, point of, in our lineage and tradition, the point of studying, whether it's sutras, wonderful sutras, or Dogen's writings, or Hongzhi's writings, or all the wonderful teaching stories in the Book of Serenity, or the Blue Cliff Record, or wherever, or in all the other stories. You know, the point of all that study is... Not to have some great understanding, but simply to encourage us to practice, to face the wall, to face ourselves, to deal with all the stuff that is part of our ancient twisted karma and to look at all the stuff in the world and how can we respond helpfully. So, Stephen, follow up? Yeah, well, yes, because... I mean, I know that, and I've had this conversation with actually another very evident teacher, but the shift, the perhaps shift between wholehearted practice and Zazen as such, I mean, seated meditation.

[110:59]

Zazen as it would look iconically and then wholehearted practice off the cushion. And, you know, Dogen can be a little bit coy and... and perhaps a little bit, you know, vacillate back and forth. But, I mean, the emphasis seems to be to be here on, yeah, I mean, we don't have Zazen. Well, we seem to have Zazen, and then we get moving into wholehearted practice. They're not separate. Yeah. And he says the Zazen I speak of is not just sitting meditation. It's sitting, standing, walking, sleeping. Yeah. So practice is, you know, we need to do the formal upright sitting to anchor it. But actually, how do we carry that into everything in our lives? Or how does it express that awareness? We can't do it exactly.

[112:01]

It does us. How does this awareness express itself in... you know, all of our everyday activity. Right. And then, yeah, exactly. And then maybe the first and foremost thing some of us can do, some of us seem to be very skilled at this practice called Zazen, which has this iconic posture in which, you know, maybe perhaps an absolute numbskull could do. And that's why we're so skilled. All numbskulls are welcome. Right. Yeah, thanks. That's why I think I was trying to get at things. Yeah, it's not about having some body of knowledge or some intricate understanding. It's about just breathing and facing yourself and facing the world and responding to the suffering as best you can and, you know, in this body, mind.

[113:02]

And so that's what all the study is about. It's just encouraging that. And so it might also be the case that most fundamentally and most radically, Shakyamuni and Bodhidharma are absolute numbskulls. Well, I don't know. Yeah, maybe. You know, there's this story about Shakyamuni when he was born, because Dogen refers to that. He was wise at birth. Do you know the story about... Shakyamuni's birth and the seven steps. Yeah. Yeah, we celebrate that ceremonially on Buddha's birthday that Shakyamuni, when he was born, the story goes. He was born out of the side of his mother anyway. And then he took seven steps. actually in all directions, including up and down.

[114:06]

And then he raised his hands and lowered his hands and said, below the heavens and above the earth, I alone am the world honored one. And Dogen, when he talks about that, when he celebrates that Buddha's birthday ceremony, in Heikoroku, he makes fun of Shakyamuni. What a silly boy, anyway. So I don't know. Anyway, I'm not I'm not sure what else to say. Thank you. You're welcome. Was there someone else? Yeah, Gary. Can you hear me? Yes. Well, first of all, I didn't know how to raise my hand. I've been seeking. I'm used to using Google Meet and I can't find a raise my hand thing on this control. But. So I sent it by text and it was for the first paragraph. And I just wanted to make a comment. Oh, go ahead.

[115:06]

And first of all, I wanted to ask if if all of y'all on this call know each other. Are you all out in the western bootle land of California? No. OK. All right. I'm in Chicago. Oh, OK. North of the border. OK. And a couple of other people here are from my song in Chicago. And. Stratus from Minneapolis, and most of the rest of you I don't know. Most of you are from California. Where are you, Gary? So I'm Gary, and I practice under Zen Master Bo Moon, who originally came from the Quantum School, and I was given this invitation through John Warwick, who may know some of you out west there, but in any case, Part of my speaking up is a practice of speaking out in the trust that I'm among friends.

[116:07]

So I'm a stranger to all of you, but I wanted to comment on the devastation that someone mentioned on this first paragraph for what it's worth. And it strikes me in this paragraph that he begins with essentially faith. The faith aspect, the true vehicle is self-sufficient. What need is there for special practice? And yet we seek, we aspire to be Buddhists. That's our practice. And it strikes me that that aspiration can become seeking after... just like every other thing we seek after, a new car, more money, or not to have red hair, or whatever it may be. And so there is just this hair's breadth tripping over the wire into not being satisfied with myself and not seeing this practice, this vehicle as self-sufficient.

[117:21]

And so I seek to attain Buddhahood. And it seems to me that that's the point at which I'm playing in the entranceway. That's how I'm taking this paragraph. You know, I'm at that point one. Well, in this case, he says, if you're confident in your understanding and rich in enlightenment. So there's a little bit of a little haughtiness going on. It strikes me. And so in that mind, One is self-deceptive and playing in the entranceway and not just sitting without seeking reward. You know, not wholeheartedly engaged, but there's this separation going on. I just wanted to share that. And so I, too, become devastated. in those moments of self-delusion. Thank you.

[118:22]

Well, thank you very much. And I should, and thank you for, you know, being from the Quantum School, a number of my students at Masanga in Chicago practiced Korean San Buddhism before they came to our school. And I have a great deal of respect for Quantum School. So you're certainly welcome. And I should not assume that everybody here is a Soto Zen practitioner. And you're welcome if you're, you know, whatever. That said, Dogen does say that in Dogen Zen, have no designs on becoming a Buddha. Now that's, you know, somebody said that Dogen was kind of coy. And yes, Dogen's funny. He's very, very funny in lots of places. So it's actually in Eheko Roku, you see a sense of humor more than in Shobogenzo, I think.

[119:24]

But at any rate, yeah, we do come to practice wanting something, of course. Designs on becoming Buddha. Dogen says have no designs on becoming Buddha. But of course, our whole life is... our whole training, our whole society is based on training in, you know, transactional consumerism. You know, we do things so that, you know, what my favorite Dharma board says to not do things just to do things just to be something we invest in. And that's our practice as hungry ghosts and consumerists. And, you know, that's, the world that we were raised in, for most of us, I won't assume anything about anybody, but that's kind of our culture. So, of course, you want to

[120:29]

become whatever, enlightened. I use the translation awakening now rather than enlightened because, and that's a whole other discussion, but literally the Chinese character means awakening. Enlightenment as an English word comes from the Western logical, rational, scientific age of enlightenment. And of course, there's lots of light imagery in Buddhism too. So anyway, translation is... challenging but just the point that you're making is that we you know do want to get somewhere and it's really hard to just be who and where we are without wanting to be somewhere else and it gets very subtle you know that desire to uh you know um To scale the heights, what does he say in this first paragraph? Confident in your understanding, rich in enlightenment, gaining the wisdom that glimpses the ground of Buddhahood, attaining the way, clarifying the mind.

[121:40]

We want to do that. But the point is, as Dogen says, have no designs. Don't try and figure out. Don't designate or design to become Buddha. You're already Buddha. You are. We just don't know it. And how do we realize that? So that's practice realization. That's ongoing practice. And that's what he's encouraging here. So I hope that responds to your question. Any other questions? And for people who don't know how to raise hands on the Zoom thing, you can just put your hand up or send a chat to Alina. Anything else now, Alina? Doesn't look like it. Okay. I can keep going. And we may have time at the end for more general questions, and I welcome that.

[122:41]

But I do want to try and get through the text and to clarify the references to particular things. The next paragraph for practicing Zen, a quiet room is suitable. Eat and drink moderately. Put aside all involvements and suspend all affairs. That doesn't mean that, as I said before, that we, you know, get rid of all our involvements. We just put them aside while we're sitting Zazen. Do not think in terms of good or bad. Do not judge true or false. Of course, we all do make judgments. That's how our consciousness works. But how do we soften that? How do we tenderize that? How do we let go of our judgmental mind? Give up the operation of mind, intellect, and consciousness. Stop measuring with thoughts, ideas, and views. Here it is.

[123:42]

Have no designs on becoming Buddha. How could that be limited to sitting or lying down? So again, it's not just about your sitting. It's everything in our life. and have no designs on becoming a Buddha. Don't try and make arrangements to figure out and deliberate and concoct Buddha. Each of you fundamentally Buddha. But nobody can tell you how to be Buddha. And you can't even tell yourself how to be Buddha. Buddha is something we... we have from the very beginning and that needs to grow. So this Buddha going beyond Buddha is really important. Unless there's an immediate question, I'm going to do the next paragraph, which is more of the procedural things. This is more of what is in the Shobha Genzo essay called Zazengi.

[124:46]

And this comes pretty much straight from Chinese Chan's meditation instructions. At your sitting place, spread out a thick mat and put a cushion on it. Sit either in the full lotus or half lotus position. In the full lotus position, first place your right foot on your left thigh, then your left foot on your right thigh. In the half lotus, simply place your left foot on your right thigh. Tie your robes loosely and arrange them neatly. Then place your Right hand on your left leg and your left hand on your right palm, thumb tips lightly touching. Straighten your body and sit upright, leaning neither left nor right, neither forward nor backward. Align your ears with your shoulders and your nose with your navel. Rest the tip of your tongue against the front of the roof of your mouth with teeth and lips together. Always keep your eyes open and breathe softly through your nose.

[125:51]

So this is basic Zazen postural instruction. And it's also in Shabogenzo Zazengi, and you've probably all heard this, but I do have some comments. Mainly that, you know, this is Dogen's instructions for his Japanese monks. And... In terms of sitting in half lotus or full lotus, Japanese people sit on the floor. They, until very recent times, mostly sat on the floor, so they were used to doing that. For many Westerners, when you try and sit cross-legged on the floor, your knees are up, so it takes a while, and sometimes they settle, and many people sit seiza, it's called, with a sitting bench or a upright Zafu between your feet and sitting upright then. And some people sit in chairs. And for the last couple of years, I've been sitting in a chair.

[126:53]

I re-injured my knee a couple of years ago. I fell and re-injured my knee from an old knee injury I had when I was working at Tassahara Bakery a long time ago. Anyway, 40 years ago? No, I don't know, whatever. 1985. Anyway, So, and actually, I'm really happy because I'm just in the last week or two, I've started being able to sit on a cushion on the floor again, which I really like. But many people just sit in a chair. So the point is that in Western American Zen, we honor physical limitations. And if you can sit full lotus, great. I sat half lotus for many, many years. Now when I sit on the floor, it's Burmese with one leg in front of the other. But the point is, don't be caught by this description and think that you have to do it exactly this way.

[127:56]

I've known people who had to do periods of Zazen during Sesshin standing or even lying down. So this is the, what he says, what Dogen says in this paragraph is the model, but anyway, one of the, I think, really good points of American or Western Zen is that we're flexible about this. The point is to sit upright, to back straight, the mudra, which he describes against your belly, not out here, where you can slouch over. So how to sit upright, how to be upright, how to be upright. My teacher wrote a book called Being Upright. Anyway, how to be upright in whatever position you're in.

[128:58]

And then there's, you know, to try and be rigorous about some of these things. can be misleading. It says always keep your eyes open. When I first tried to sit Zazen, this was before I met any Zen teacher or priest, and I was following one of the early books about Zen, and I won't name it, but it's a book I really dislike because it emphasizes You know, that the whole point of Zazen is that you have to get some Kensho experience, whatever. Anyway, and I read that book and I had that spirit and I was trying, I was camped out in the mountains in Colorado one summer and I was trying to sit Zazen. And my posture was probably really good, but I thought that always keep your eyes open meant that I couldn't blink.

[130:00]

So I did that. And after a few minutes, water started pouring out of my eyes and I said, oh, I can't do this practice. And I gave up until I met a real Zen priest several years later. So we have to be flexible about what we can do. And some of us have injuries and we have to take care of them. So how do we, so this is, you know, what Dogen says here is great and it's the model. But the point is, how do you, Be upright in whatever posture you can manage. So anyway, that's a wrap on that paragraph. Comments or questions, please. You can take. Yeah, thank you. How do we honor our own limitations? and trying to be a perfect SEND student and do all the forms perfectly.

[131:05]

The forms are there to help us harmonize together and to actually, as mindfulness tools, to show us our awareness. So we try and follow the schedule and follow the forms as best we can, but we need to also respect our own and each other's limitations. So if there are no comments or questions about any of that. Okay, I'll go on to the next paragraph then. Or maybe the next two paragraphs. The next one is again a continuation of, it starts out as a continuation of postural instruction. Once you have adjusted your posture, take a breath and exhale fully.

[132:08]

Rock your body right and left and settle into steady and movable sitting. And then he throws in this story. Think of not thinking. How do you think of not thinking? Beyond thinking or whatever. Beneath thinking. Non-thinking. This is the essential art of Zasa and Dogen says here. And again, the full story there is that Yaoshan was sitting steadfastly in immovable sitting. So this follows up on Dogen saying, settle into steady immovable sitting. So the next paragraph, the Zazen I speak of is not meditation practice. We've talked about that. It's also been translated as the sasana I speak of as not learning meditation as some technique. It is simply the Dharma gate of peace and bliss, the practice realization, the totally culminated awakening.

[133:11]

It is the koan realized, traps and snares can never reach it. If you grasp the point, which I think that, I'm not sure, I think that might be... Also translated as if you realize the koan. I'm not sure if that's the word that's used, the character that's used there. If you grasp the point, you are like a dragon gaining the water, like a tiger taking to the mountains. For you must know that the true Dharma appears of itself. So somebody asked about that. So that from the start, dullness and distraction are struck aside. Comments or questions on those two paragraphs? There's a hand up. Yeah, we have two hands up. I don't know who went first. Griffin and then Shokoji. I'm finding the words peace and bliss put expectations in my head.

[134:12]

That maybe the culmination of awakening is not peace and bliss. Maybe it is. I mean, that somewhere in me, I think letting go and surrendering should make me feel better. But, you know, try it. And I'm I don't know. I mean, maybe the culmination of awakening is just I don't know. And peace and bliss throws me off personally. Yeah, I sympathize. But also. Again. in the commentary on the story about beyond thinking and says, Dogen says strongly, it's not about reaching calmness. That's not the point. This is the Dharma gate of peace and bliss. That's not the end point. The practice realization of totally culminated awakening. You know, it really helps to realize some sense of settledness, of calm.

[135:15]

And of course, we get upset, you know. There's lots of stuff in the world to upset us. You might have noticed that. But the Zazen that he speaks of is, he says, is not some meditation technique that way. It is just a gateway to peace and bliss. It's also been translated as to repose and ease. These characters can be translated various ways. How do we find our... I mean, literally it could mean bliss, but it also could mean ease. How do we find our enjoyment of our life? That doesn't mean that that's where we stop. This is the gateway. And realizing some settledness, some calm, some repose, is really helpful in the practice of skillful means and finding appropriate response to all the other stuff in the room.

[136:23]

I think there's a confusion in my part about a gateway and an end. You know, like samadhi is a tool, it's not the end point. Maybe my confusion lies partly in that. Well, also, if you think there's some specific end point, that's a bit of a problem. There's a direction. We say beings are numberless. We vow to free them all, or various versions of that. That is an endless project. So if you think you've, you know, even Buddha somewhere, Dogen talks about Buddha going beyond Buddha and Buddha continuing to practice. So it's not about reaching some particular goal or outcome. Our practice is meaningful. All of our actions and efforts have effects. This is the law of karma, of cause and effect. But trying to reach some specific outcome, you know, or imagining some specific goal or outcome, like, you know, we all have ideas of what Buddha might be.

[137:36]

But the point is that it's a process. And there are endless gateways. There's a Shinto shrine in South Kyoto, actually near Bukkaksu, where Dogen's first temple was, that has all these torii gates. And you walk up the mountain and there's one gate after another. They're like a foot apart, each of them. And so it's endless gates. Anyway, that's what I was reminded of. So it's not, so just part of it is to enjoy the process. The joy and bliss is to enjoy your practice realization, enjoy your struggles, enjoy the difficulties, enjoy your ability, your practice of trying to respond helpfully. As best you can.

[138:38]

So. Thank you. I think maybe Shokoji was next and then Hunter. Maybe there's others. Well, here I am chasing words and phrases again. So. Well, when I read this, if you grasp the point, you are like the dragon. And I knew there was something that I hadn't heard there before. And I checked out the translation. I usually chance. And it says, if you grasp the heart, which is a little different. But when I saw that word point, I thought of Genjo Koan, a sentence I really love, which is when you find your place where you are, practice occurs, actualizing the fundamental point. Yes. I feel like, is this the same point? Yes. I actually, you know, I was looking for the characters before, and I have them here somewhere, but I think it might be that this is literally Genjo Koan, but it's the same meaning.

[139:42]

And so in Genjo Koan, in what we chant, and we call Genjo Koan, would fundamental point, is that Genjo Koan too? Yeah, yes. Oh, great. But yeah, but... What does he say here? Hold on. Yeah, it's like the dragon gaining the water. It's like finally finding your home. Like a tiger taking to the mountains. It's like finding your Dharma position. Finding your place. Finding the heart of your practice. And we each have that. And it's not static. Because the world is alive. And everything in the world is alive. And so we have to, so it's a process. The fundamental point grows and shifts and revises itself in circumstances.

[140:46]

Finding your place where you are makes me think of zazen. Yeah, that's what zazen is. Yes, exactly. Right. Thank you. Hunter. Here we go. Hi. So, man, these are two paragraphs here. And, you know, I feel like, okay, we've had the instructions for getting down on the cushion. We're going to set aside if we have any kind of difficulty with our knees or what have you. And then, you know, we just have to think of not thinking. And we get to that question that, like, for me, is a huge roadblock. Like, how do you think of not thinking? And I don't know if this is one of these, Dogen being humorous, but, oh, it's simply the Dharma gate of total peace and bliss. Good. All right. Settled. And I think I see in here, when I try to approach this and I see in here sort of two different ways of doing it, and I'm curious how you might see it,

[141:54]

You know, the first I'm always struck by, you know, this anecdote I heard about Suzuki Roshi, which is that like the frog was his favorite animal because the frog never has to think about being the frog. So kind of in my head, I'm always like, oh, the frog was just doing zazen. We've got to just like be frog-like. But then I see here, you know, grasping the point and the koan realized, right? And I'm curious, I mean, I don't know if this is sort of the same question Shokuchi was asking, but is there a specific koan here? Is he talking about it generally? And then also, you know, that kind of central point about, like, the unity of our bodies and the air and the sky and the mountain and all that, is that what we're meditating on? Or should we just be not thinking we're frog-like? And sorry to ask such a... Well, you know, the word grasping might be a problem there. It's, you know, when you get the point, when you... It's not about grasping anything. It's about just allowing... the point to grasp you. When you feel the heart of your heart and of our life and of the world, yeah, then it's just like, oh, we find our seat.

[143:10]

You know, for people just starting Zen practice, it takes a while to find your seat, to find what's... relatively comfortable, not to wallow in a comfort zone, but how do you find your, and this is where yoga can be helpful, how do you find your posture, your position, your combination of cushions or whatever that allows you to be like the dragon gaining the mountain or gaining the waters. So, It's not like there's some particular thing that you have to figure out. It's allowing just sitting. Dogen talks about Dharma position, finding your Dharma position, which has to do with posture, it has to do with your karmic situation, it has to do with your relationship to Sangha and to your life and to your work and to your

[144:21]

friends and family and your world. And it's alive. It's a process. It's not like you get it and then you're finished. I don't know if that at all responds to your question. I mean, I think it's kind of a, for me, I'm grasping at the answer and approach to that question the whole time. So I guess sort of what I heard from you is that's, That is in its way the point, like finding your comfort. The point is not to grasp the point. Grasping is, you know, that's one of the main problems that gets in the way of Zazen when we're trying to reach some particular thing. We're grabbing a hold of our idea of what it should be. So just to open up and allow. And I see a hand up. Yeah, Gary.

[145:23]

Yeah, if I may. There's there's a grasping as in taking the hand offered with confidence. Say if you fall down or seeing or we could just say to see the point. Yes, I'm also struck here. You know, I love this dragon gaining the water or a tiger taking to the mountains. It it has this great confidence. We have a small group here in Huntsville, Alabama, which is where I am. OK, I was asked, well, you know what? What's a common thing that causes people problems? And my answer in the moment was. the question, am I doing it right? Am I doing Zazen right? And that comes up in my experience, whether you've been sitting for decades or days, am I doing it right?

[146:26]

And there's sort of this poor defect that we feel each. I've run into this a lot. I hope I'm not just speaking for myself. There is this sense that there's something inherently basically wrong with me. And I think Dogen here is really speaking to the faith aspect, not in terms of faith as a belief, but faith and trust and confidence that I, too, was born of a mother. That sort of, you know, eyes horizontal, nose vertical. I belong here. And the Buddha touching the earth and the tiger. ascending into the mountain. So, grasping the point is to see that, you know, really, you belong. And there isn't anything to be gained, just but simply to sit upright in the presence of whatever it may be, good, bad, whatever we resist, it should...

[147:39]

And I'm not meaning to preach. I struggle. Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, good, good. Thank you very much. Yeah, you're welcome. A couple of things you said that I want to jump on. Yes, this idea, am I doing it right? That's just, you know, it's hard to avoid that. You know, we can ask that. Am I doing it right? Am I, you know, is this it? Am I following my true way? and so forth, we ask that question. And it's important to ask that question. But if you ask that question in a way that's debilitating, that's not so helpful. So you mentioned faith, and somebody else didn't. I didn't respond to that before. Yes, this practice is about finding your seat. And for Dogen, faith is very much... important. But this English word faith is another translation problem.

[148:43]

There's a character Shin that literally can be translated as faith, but it doesn't mean, as you were indicating, you were right, it doesn't mean belief in something. Belief in some deity, belief in some text, belief in some, you know, something that you heard from somebody, from your teacher, whomever. It's not a belief in something. It's actually an act of subjective kind of functioning faith is confidence it's trust it's taking the next step it's being okay to have a question being okay in your questioning being okay in your wondering is this it or not but then continuing just continuing trusting that trusting the path moving forward And entering through the Dharma gates are boundless. We've had to enter them. So entering into some gateway to some kind of repose, which then propels us forward.

[149:45]

And how do we live? Zen is about how do we live in this world, in our world, in our body, mind, in our life? How do we do that with trust, with confidence, with questioning? The questioning is vital. Is this it or not? We have to keep looking. If we think we have the answer, then we just kind of die. So how do, again, one of my favorite journal poets, who I've quoted before, says, they not busy being born is busy dying. So how do we allow ourselves to continue to find where we're at, again, anew, afresh? So thank you. And welcome. I'm glad to have somebody from Alabama here. Great. Shall I go on to the next paragraph? And maybe I'll do two at a time again.

[150:53]

I have this. delusion of wanting to get through the whole text. And, you know, maybe that's not so necessary. But anyway, Dogen continues, when you arise from sitting, move slowly and quietly, calmly and deliberately. Do not rise suddenly or abruptly. That's... sentence has sometimes been a question for me, because my first teacher, who was a very good Japanese santa zen priest in New York, when the bell for kinhen rang, would get up very quickly. I sometimes consciously try and take my time getting up. Anyway, in surveying the past, we find that transcendence of both mundane and sacred and dying while either sitting or standing have all depended entirely on the power of zazen. And I'll just mention here, so it's not about worldly or sacred, mundane or holy or whatever.

[152:00]

And dying while either sitting or standing, the power of that. There's a reference here. Dying while standing is something that happened in our lineage. The third ancestor in China, Zhangji Songsan, his name in Sino-Japanese. Anyway, the third ancestor, who also suffered a lot because he was a leper, but he died, the story goes, standing up. So anyway, that's a reference to that. The next paragraph has many more references. In addition, using the opportunity provided by a finger, a banner, a needle, or a mallet, and meeting realization with a whisk, a fist, a staff or a shout, these cannot be understood by discriminative thinking. Much less can they be known through the practice of supernatural power.

[153:06]

They must represent dignified conduct beyond seeing and hearing. Are they not a standard prior to knowledge and views? This is one of those paragraphs that has many different references to old Zen stories. So the opportunity, so these are all of these, there are many stories referenced in this first sentence. The opportunity provided by a finger, a banner, a needle, or a mallet. And meeting realization with a whisk, a fist, a staff, or a shout. There were famous then teachers like Deshawn who shouted at their students and helped them awaken that way or held up a fist. Excuse me. But this finger, banner, needle, or mallet are four different old Zen stories. So I'm gonna try and give you the Koan references.

[154:12]

The finger is an old teacher named Gute in Japanese or Juzha. And that story is in the Blue Cliff Record, case 19. And you don't need to take notes, but you can if you want to. Or Gateless Gate, Mumon Khan, case three. And this was this guy who always held up a finger as a way of teaching. And did this throughout his whole teaching career. But the story is that one of his students This is kind of a brutal story. They were tough in China. Anyway, one of his students held up a finger when he was asked a question by a visitor. Somebody was dropped in, and the teacher heard about that, and he said, come here, and he chopped off that finger. And the student screamed, and then he had this great awakening.

[155:18]

So the point is that whatever the teaching method is, in this case, raising a finger, is not the point. It's the finger pointing to the moon, pointing to something, pointing to wholeness. The moon represents, the full moon represents wholeness, completeness. Anyway, that's the reference to the finger. The banner is another story. And that's a wonderful story that I really like. It's in the Gateless Gate, Mumon Khan, case 22, and it's about Mahakashapa and Ananda. Mahakashapa was one of, actually both of them were amongst the great disciples of Shakyamuni. Mahakashapa is known as the first ancestor of Zen, that he received the Dharma transmission from Shakyamuni. So all these stories, you know, These are not necessarily historical stories, but they're really key legends in Zen lore. So the story about the banner is that Hananda, who was this great disciple of Buddha who had a photographic memory and he remembered all of the... He was the Jisha, the attendant for Shakyamuni, and he remembered all of the...

[156:39]

teachings that Shakyamuni ever gave. But he wasn't an arhat yet. He wasn't personally awakened. But there was a meeting of, after Shakyamuni passed away, there was a meeting of the arhats led by Mahakashapa. And they invited Ananda to come in and tell them all of the teachings that the Buddha gave. And so all the sutras start with, thus have I heard at one time. And then he describes a place in the assembly and so forth. Thus have I heard, is Ananda saying, this is what I heard. Anyway, later on, Ananda came to Mahakashapa and said, is there anything besides the robe and bowl that you received from Shakyamuni? And Mahakashapa said to Ananda, take down the banner at the gate. So traditionally in India and in Tibet, whenever there was a Dharma combat, Dharma debate, they would put out a banner, a pennant or something in front of the gate of the temple to let people know.

[157:44]

And Mahakashapa said to Ananda, take down the banner. So I love this story. And this is a story about... ideas of self and selflessness and so forth. Anyway, so that's the story about the banner. The story of the needle is one of my favorite stories. And this is about the great teacher Nagarjuna, who was the great exponent of emptiness teaching. And Nagarjuna is actually a great ancestor in all subsequent Buddhist schools. He's also one of the ancestors in the Zen school. He had many disciples, and one of them was Kanadeva. And we are in the school of Kanadeva. Kanadeva is the next teacher in the lineage after Nagarjuna. Kanadeva Dayosho is the way we say it in Sino-Japanese.

[158:47]

The story is, Kanadeva came to Nagarjuna, and Nagarjuna took a bowl of water and put it in front of Kanadeva. And Kanadeva took out a needle. I guess the early monks had certain, like, 18 objects that they always carried with them, including a sewing kit and a needle. Kanadeva took a needle and put it into the bowl of water. And a question I have is whether he put it... whether it went straight down or whether it floated on the top, and you can sit with that question. But at any rate, Kanadeva put a needle in the bowl of water. And Nagarjuna really appreciated that. And that led to him transmitting to Kanadeva, whose school we are in, as all some people.

[159:52]

or in the school of Kanadeva. And there's references to this in many places, but one of my favorite teachings is Hokkyo Zama, the song of the Jolomera Samadhi by Dongshan, who founded Cao Dong or Soto Zen in China. And there's a line in there, a silver ball filled with snow. which to me is about the story about Kanadeva. So I'm sorry if this is getting really obscure, but I just am trying to point out the stories that Dogen is referencing in this book on Zazengi. And if any of you have read Cat's Cradle by Vonnegut and heard about Ice Nine, you might think about that in terms of a solar bowl filled with snow and Kanadeva putting a needle in this bowl of water of Nagarjunas. Anyway, that's the needle or a mallet.

[160:53]

So in addition to using the opportunity for awakening, for realization, provided by a finger, a banner, a needle, or a mallet, the mallet goes back to Book of Serenity, Case 1. So this is just to point out how Dogen is just throwing in all these references to payments and stories. some of us monks anyway would have known. The Mallet is about Book of Serenity, Case 1. In that story, Shakyamuni comes in to give a Dharma talk. And Manjushri is like the Doan. And instead of a bell, they used a mallet that they pounded on a wooden block to indicate the beginning of a Dharma talk or the beginning of a period of Zazen. They still use that in Japan in Soto Zen. I don't know if any of you have seen that anywhere. But anyway, the story about the mallet is that Shakti Muni came and he got up on a seat and he settled himself in the posture.

[162:02]

And then Manjushri, who was the Doha, the great Bodhisattva of wisdom, who's often depicted in the center of all Zendos, pounded his mallet and said, behold, the king of Dharma. The king of Dharma is thus. And once he had said that, Shakyamuni had nothing more to say, so he got down from the seat and left. That's the story that the mallet refers to. It's Book of Serenity, case one. So anyway, that's that first sentence. And he says then, these cannot be understood by discriminative thinking, much less can they be known through the practice of supernatural power. So the practice in Japan before Dogen introduced Soto Zen, one of the main schools, actually both main schools included what's called sometimes Vajrayana.

[163:10]

Shingon was one of the schools in Japan before Zen and Tendai was the other and Tendai It's based on the Lotus Sutra, but it included some of the stuff that was in Shingon, but they didn't use supernatural power. Anyway, Sudokhen is saying they cannot be known through the practice of supernatural power. They must represent dignified conduct beyond seeing and hearing. Are they not a standard prior to knowledge and views? So this dignified conduct, there's a Shobha Gensel essay translated, with cause called the dignified conduct of awesome, the dignified practice of awesome Buddhas, active Buddhas. So this dignified conduct is important for Dogen, and it's beyond seeing and hearing. It's not a function of perception. So some people have mentioned Genjo Koan, which includes a bunch of references to

[164:17]

going beyond our usual perceptual faculties. Referencing, seeing, and the Gigi Uzamai, Self-Performance Samadhi I spoke of here last month also talks about not being caught in usual perceptions. So this is about the limitations of human perception. Dogen uses a number of examples. in Ginja Koan and elsewhere, like if you go out in the middle of the ocean, or if you go out in the middle of Lake Michigan, which is near where I am, and you look around and you can't see the shoreline, you might imagine that it's circular, but the details of the shoreline are different. He also uses the example of water, that water is different for a human, or a fish, or a bird, or a dragon, or a hungry ghost.

[165:19]

For hungry ghosts, water is like, it's really sort of sad. Anyway, so in this sentence, he's saying, this must be, this practice realization must represent dignified conduct. It's not about some verbal teaching. It's not about some intellectual understanding. It's just about Awesome presence, dignified conduct beyond our limited human perceptual faculties. So there's a lot in that one little paragraph, so I'll pause there and we're getting close to time. But I do want to see if anyone has questions or comments, please feel free. I have a question about the connection of the last sentence.

[166:28]

I wonder if you could say something about that. Oh, yeah. Well, he's talking about famous stories about awakening. Okay. Famous stories where there was some opportunity provided by fingers and banners and so forth. or fists or shouts or staffs and so forth. And he's saying that those situations and those realizations that happened as a result of those particular stories, that's not it. I mean, he's not denying those stories, but he's saying what is important is to represent dignified conduct beyond perception, beyond our knowledge and views. Does that help? I'm just wondering, I think, is the, well, what is the they that is being, are they not beyond, is it, is it the.

[167:43]

Oh, that's a good question. Yes, pronouns are, pronouns are really difficult. English and Japanese and sometimes in this original Chinese there's no pronoun and just we throw in a they just to make the sentence an intelligible sentence but I think what's referring what is what must represent dignified conduct is I think he's talking about practitioners there so trying to unpack the English grammar, the understanding derived from these events that he's recounting can't be understood by intellectual discrimination, much less can they be known through practice of supernatural power. And so all of these events that allow awakening

[168:48]

must represent are about just dignified conduct. This presence that is what really conveys the heart of Zazen. So the they is actually the dignified conduct. So that's what it means that dignified conduct is the standard that's prior to any knowledge or any views. Am I understanding? Yes, yes, yes, that's right. Thank you. Yeah. So I'm tempted to go on because there's just a few more paragraphs and we don't have so much time. But if there's somebody else who has something they want to, some comment or question. Alina? Yeah, I think we want to... try to finish. So let's go. And then maybe we'll have some time at the end. Yeah, and I can go a little past time. That's okay. This being the case, intelligence or lack of it is not an issue.

[169:50]

Make no distinction between the dull and the sharp-rooted. This is not an intellectual practice. This is not about intelligence. If you concentrate your effort single-mindedly, that in itself is wholeheartedly engaging the way. And that's Ben Doha. just to have a single-minded effort to really focus on just this dignified presence, this dignified conduct, this practice realization of Zazen. Practice realization is naturally undefiled. And I talked about that story about what is this that thus comes in non-USF. It's just that practice realization cannot be defiled. Going forward is after all an everyday affair. So this is not about some intellectual trickery. It's not about some manipulation of consciousness.

[170:53]

It's just Buddha going beyond Buddha. Just keep on trucking. Shall I continue? In general, in our world and others in both India and China, all equally hold the Buddhist seal. The Buddhist seal, so this is about the transmission and the ancestors and respecting this. So he's mentioning all these stories, traditional stories about awakening. And, you know, this is to reference this long lineage of awakening. And these are all confirmed by... the Buddha's seal, seal as in a stamp of confirmation. So one of the, there's three Chinese characters for awakening or enlightenment. Actually, there's another that's just a transliteration bodai, but one of them, bodhi, just means awakening, kaku.

[171:56]

There's another that means satori, which means some experience of awakening. And then there's another that is shou, and that's the character that's used in the phrase, Practice realization is one. Shusho, shu for shugula practice. Shou, it means awakening, but it literally means verification, confirmation of awakening. So that's what Dharma transmission is, just affirming that this person in some ways is presenting the way fully. confirming that. So Dogen again says, in general, in our world and others, our world being Japan, I guess, and also just this planet, in both India and China, all equally hold the Buddha's seal, while each lineage expresses its own style.

[172:59]

And that's important. They are all simply devoted to sitting. Fully obstructed or blocked by the resolute stability of Zazen. This is another wonderful phrase in Hupan Zazengi, which is challenging for people. To be fully obstructed or fully blocked in the resolute stability of Zazen. So Griffin was expressing that before, feeling, and a few of you have expressed this sense of feeling blocked, feeling obstructed. What is this? So we all feel that. And that's part of the heart of it, Dogen is saying. He's saying all the different lineages, all the different traditions are simply devoted to sitting fully obstructed or fully blocked in the resolute stability of Zazen.

[174:05]

So go back to Yausha, I'm saying, the monk asking, what are you thinking of while you sit so steadfastly? And I'm saying, I'm thinking, not thinking. That's the resolute stability of Zazen, that beyond thinking. Then Dogen continues, although they say that there are 10,000 distinctions and 1,000 variations, they just wholeheartedly engage the way in Zazen. And then he goes back to the beginning. Why believe behind the seat in your own home and wander in vain through the dusty realms of other lands? If you make one misstep, you stumble past what is directly in front of you. So I'm just going to continue and then we'll go to the end and then we can have some comments or questions. If you make one misstep, you stumble past what is directly in front of you right now.

[175:07]

And making one misstep, you know, elsewhere, Dogen talks about his life as one continuous mistake. Or he talks about the importance of making mistakes. And I would say it's good to make good mistakes. It's good not to make, you know, we should try and make helpful rather than harmful mistakes. But we're making mistake after mistake. That's our life. So, When we do that, we stumble past what is directly in front of us. All of this is directly in front of us. This practice realization is right here. Right on the wall that you're gazing at as you're sitting upright. I'm going to keep going. You have gained the pivotal opportunity of human form. I think I talked about that, that the human realm is considered the most propitious for awakening. although it's possible elsewhere. Do not pass your days and nights in vain. Don't waste time.

[176:08]

You are taking care of the essential working of the Buddha way. That's what we're all doing. Our practice, each of us, and together in sanghas, are taking care of the essential workings of the Buddha way, of the Buddha path. Who would take wasteful delight in the spark from the Flintstone, from worldly pleasures? Besides, form and substance are like the dew on the grass, the fortunes of life like a dart of lightning, emptied in an instant, vanished in a flash. That last passage is from the Diamond Sutra, that our world is like this, like the dew on the grass. Our lives and the world is like dew on the grass, like darts of lightning, emptied in an instant, vanished in a flash. And then he says, Please, honored followers of Zen, long accustomed to groping for the elephant, do not be suspicious of the true dragon. And those are two more stories, and I'll just mention what the references are.

[177:13]

Groping for the elephant is from the Mahapara Nirvana Sutra, the Mahayana Sutra of the passing away of Buddha, and it's a famous story about a bunch of wise men were blind and who go to see an elephant. There's never been an elephant there before. And each one of them touches the elephant's leg, another touches the elephant's tusk, another touches the elephant's ear, another touches the trunk. And they all describe the elephant in various different ways because of that. So we're all like that, groping for the elephant and touching what is right in front of us. And he says, do not be suspicious of the true dragon. That's a wonderful story since my song is called Ancient Dragons Endgame. The story goes that this is an old Chinese story that there was this guy who was a literati, some kind of writer or artist or something, but he loved dragons and he had sculptures of dragons, statues of dragons, paintings of dragons all through his house.

[178:27]

He loved dragons. And one day there was a dragon flying overhead. And they heard about this guy who loved dragons. So this dragon flew down and poked his head in the window of this guy's house. And I screamed in horror. So this is an old Chinese story. And Dogen is saying, don't be suspicious of the true dragon when it appears in front of you. Devote your energies to the way that points directly at the real thing. Revere the one who has gone beyond learning and is free from effort. So there is a stage in the various stages, systems of Buddhism, of people who are beyond study, free from effort. So, you know, respect that. But accord with the awakening of all the Buddhas, succeed to the samadhi, the meditation practice of all the ancestors. I was going to talk about ancestors in some of this today, but anyway. Continue in such a way for a long time, and you will be such a person.

[179:33]

If you want to be such a person, just practice this suchness. The treasure store will open up itself, and you may use it freely. So that's Wakanda Zengi. I went through the last few paragraphs quickly. So we're a little bit over time, but I can hang out for a while. If anyone has a question or a comment, Our numbers are dwindling and that's okay. People have to go beyond the schedule. But for anyone who's still here and for the recording, if you have a comment or question, go ahead. Well, just really quick in the chat, Mitko, Ask what is beyond thinking or non-thinking, and then we'll go to Hunter. What is beyond thinking or non-thinking? Yes. Yeah, so beyond thinking is not about thinking or not thinking.

[180:37]

So I tried to talk about it before, but of course anything I say misses the mark. But beyond thinking is this physical awareness. So Deirdre was talking about body-mind oneness. It's not... about intellectual understanding, it's not about deliberation, it's not about logical calculations. But that brings me to say that sometimes people say that the teaching stories, the koans are illogical. And I would say otherwise. They're beyond Western Cartesian rational logic, our usual way of thinking about logic. But there is a logic to awakening. So it's not that these stories are nonsense. Sometimes people say that Zen is about nonsense riddles or something like that.

[181:43]

They're not nonsense. It's not nonsense. None of this is nonsense. But it's not our usual logic. It's the logic of... practice realization of awakening. And there is a logic to that, but it's a different kind of logic. And so anyway, I maybe lost the track of the question. Helena, help me. I think you got that question. Let's go with people who have not spoken yet, if there's any I think everyone who wants to speak has spoken. We have Hunter, Gary, and Matt, who have their hands up. Okay. Hunter? Hi. First off, thank you so much for doing this. It was a great class. Two quick questions just sort of for my own future study. One, you referenced having a teacher in New York. I'm just curious who it was because that's where I am.

[182:45]

And then also in terms of sort of stories of the ancestors, you know, I'm always struck reading this stuff when there's references to, you know, anecdotes about Shakyamuni Buddha. And I'm trying to sort of find good books to sort of read that story, if you will. I have the Thich Nhat Hanh, the old path, white clouds. I'm just wondering if you'd like that, if there's more you recommend. And then similarly with Bodhidharma, you know, how they referenced like the nine years and the rock face. I have the Red Pine sort of translation of his sermons, but I'm just wondering if there's another book you recommend that kind of has the mythos there. Thank you very much. Well, all of Dogen is filled with these stories, and Dogen is vast. So Dogen's extensive record that I translated with Shohaku and Shobogenzo, and there's a complete translation by, oh, you have that. There's a complete translation from Kastanahashing in two volumes. But I also recommend the Book of Serenity, which is the Soto Zen collection of these teaching stories.

[183:50]

Book of Serenity, there's a good translation. It's not a perfect translation, but Thomas Cleary, who I studied with personally, is pretty reliable. So that's another place. But there are libraries full of this stuff. And if I may, before the next two questions, Just to say, I will be doing other teachings. If you go to ancientdragon.org, there's a page of my upcoming seminars. And just to say, as a promotion of further teachings I'm going to be doing, they're not all on that page, but they will be. So I'm going to be doing teaching saturday sunday uh september no august 25th at great plains and center near chicago on dope on dogan and the lotus sutra also you can go to great plains and center and look for that it's maybe not up yet but it will be and it will be on my seminar page um so i'm sorry for this uh shameless promotion but um i will also be doing a series of three

[185:11]

classes at North Shore Zendo in north of Boston, Joan Amaral's place, Friday. Let's see. Oh, that's later. That's in October and November. Yeah. Thursday evening. October 31st, November 7th, and November 14th, on the Song of the Grass Hut, which is a wonderful teaching poem by Shuto, who also wrote the Harmony of Difference and Sameness. And that's not up on the seminar page on Ancient Dragon yet either. But then later on this year at Ancient Dragon, through Ancient Dragon, I'm doing a seminar Saturday, October 31st, no, wait, October, hold on, Saturday seminar like this, October 12th on Shobu Genzo essay that I translated with Kass Tanahashi called Expressing the Dream Within a Dream, talking about dream practice, the importance of dreams in medieval Japanese Buddhism, and that is on the seminar page, and then

[186:32]

There will be more, but then November 23rd, I'm doing a seminar like this Saturday afternoon, November 23rd, about Dogen's Essay on the Painting of a Rice Cake. So just promoting some of my ongoing teachings. And I think I will be doing other teachings. Helena will be working on this, maybe at the beginning of next year through San Francisco Center. So sorry for that promotion. Matt and somebody else had questions. Gary actually had his hand up. Okay. But I don't know if he wanted to share. It's not critical that I do. We'll let someone else speak. Thank you. Is Matt still here? Yeah, Matt. I am. Yeah, I'll make a quick tag and thank you for staying late. you know, I always get the end of the Fukan Zuzangi mixed up with the end of the Genjo Koan.

[187:33]

You know, they're both extremely poetic, you know, whether it's the treasure store opening up or what is it? The cream ripening of the long river, the gold of the earth. I mean, it's so poetic. So Dogen is pretty much using, you know, Chinese stories left and right in the Fukan Zuzangi, but that last line, the treasure store opening up itself, is that entirely his or is that referring to something? else. If there's a reference there, I don't know what it is. The treasure store is a well-known... Well, that's the Zhou in Shobhugin, right? Yeah, right. But, I mean, he's such a poet, and, you know, I'm sure you love poetry, too, and when you end a poem with something like that, or when you chant the Fukanzazengi, you always remember that beautiful last line, so I just really appreciate Dogen's last lines. They're very good. Yeah, Dogen is very poetic, especially in the Shobo Genzo. The Shobo Genzo, as I said, is in Japanese rather than Chinese.

[188:36]

But each essay in Shobo Genzo, he's elaborating on a particular story or a particular theme like plum blossoms or, you know, many things. And it gets very elaborative and very poetic. And he does that, too, in the extensive record. but he's also very funny in the extensive record. I mean, you have to, he's got a very dry humor, so he might not get it initially, but anyway, yes, he's very poetic and he's very funny in a certain way. Koi, somebody said, and that's one part of it. Thank you. Thank you all. I don't know if there's any last burning comments or questions. I think that might be it. And I just want to thank you so much, Tygen, and everybody here. I'm going to go ahead and put on the screen our closing lecture chant and keep muted and we'll just do the English.

[189:42]

And please do that, chant that for us. May our intention equally extend to every being and place. With the true merit of Buddha's way, beings are numberless. I vow to save them. Delusions are inexhaustible. I vow to end them. Dharma gates are boundless. I vow to enter them. Buddha's way is unsurpassable. I vow to become it. And just real quick in the chat, I'm going to throw in a few little items. At the very top is our feedback form. So please let us know what you thought about this offering that we've done today. And that really helps us at Online Programs figure out what we go and do in the future.

[190:49]

Underneath that, if you have... want to continue to support Teigen and his teaching, please go ahead and give them some Donna right there. And then underneath that is just a few ways to stay in touch with San Francisco Zen Center through our newsletter, becoming a member or donating. And all of this will be in a follow-up email that I'll be sending out probably tomorrow in morning with the link to the replay from today. And so once again, thank you all so much. You are what makes us possible and keeps the lights on here. And so just a big bow to our esteemed teacher, Taikan, and thank you so much. And we'll see you in the next one. Yes, yes. Thank you all very much. Please enjoy your practice. Please enjoy being completely blocked by Zazen. Just, you know, continue your practice realization. Continue passing through the Dharma gates of propose and bliss.

[191:53]

even when they're painful. And I hope I'll see you again when I do future seminars here, and do check the ancientdragon.org for my seminar page, which has some of the upcoming things I'm going to be doing. And I'll include that link in the email as well. And yeah, check back on it, because I'll be adding a couple of things in the next week or so.

[192:18]

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