I'm gonna get you out of here! in the realm of our practice, it's very important for us to understand Dogen Zenji's teaching.

[01:04]

And it's important to understand Dogen's Genjo Koan. which Genjo Koan expresses Dogen's understanding of the Koan. In Zen practice, the teachers, the old teachers of the past, help the students by help them to go beyond their thinking mind and penetrate to the reality.

[02:11]

And if you've studied anything about Zen, you'll know that there are many collections of koans. Koan is usually a story, a little episode between a teacher and a student, which koan It has various meanings. One meaning is like a public case. If you're a lawyer and you want to find some precedent for a case that you have, then you go to the files and look up the public cases and see what the precedents are. So koan is kind of a precedent. And in Zen practice, koan is a precedent or an illustration of how the teacher and the student interact in a non-dualistic way.

[03:26]

Our thinking mind throws us into the realm of duality. Thinking and a discriminating mind divides reality into relative and absolute. And when our thinking mind is discriminating, we only see one side of reality. So Koan is to help us to see reality completely, not just from the standpoint of duality. So enlightenment in Buddhism is to be able to experience, or go beyond experience, to, but I'll say, experience reality yourself, beyond the realm of dualistic thinking, beyond duality, so that you can realize your own nature completely, not just from a self-centered point of view,

[04:57]

So Zen practice has always been associated with koan study. And in our practice, which we inherited from Master Dogen, Dogen was always commenting on the koans. And as Suzuki Roshi said, Dogen took all the koans and made them into one koan, which is called a genjo koan. So the practice of Soto Zen is the practice of the genjo koan. Genjo means something like manifesting in the present, or right now. the manifestation right now.

[06:02]

And koan, ko means leveling. And leveling in the sense of the absolute. beyond comparison. Unconditioned leveling. That's ko. And an means in the realm of the relative. So you can say ko is buddha, your buddha nature, and an is your self nature as an individual, as a person.

[07:10]

So kenjo koan means manifesting in the present. absolute and relative, buddha nature and person. And it has the meaning of the absolute and the relative meet right now, on each moment, in each situation. What is the absolute value of each moment's activity? Or, in other words, where is the sacred quality of each moment's activity? How do you express Buddha in each moment's activity?

[08:21]

This is the koan. This is what a koan is about. How do you express Buddha in each moment's activity? Whether it's offering incense at the altar or using toilet paper. Who is Buddha?" And Master U Mon says, a shit-wiping stick. Sounds very blasphemous, but reality is blasphemous if you stick to purity.

[09:26]

So, in Dogen's Ginjo Koan, maybe the heart of Ginjo Koan, is where Dogen says, to study the Buddha Dharma is to study the self. And to study the self is to forget the self. And to forget the self is to be enlightened or confirmed by the 10,000 dharmas, the 10,000 things. To be confirmed or enlightened by the 10,000 things is to free your own body and mind and the bodies and minds of everyone. And this endless enlightenment This freedom, this non-attachment continues forever.

[10:44]

No trace, it's called. This no trace continues forever, endlessly. So this is Dogen's expression of how we practice. It's an outline practice. First is, if we want to study Buddhadharma, you really need to study the self in all of its aspects. And self has two meanings. One meaning is Buddha and the other is me. We always say Buddhas and sentient beings are not two. Buddhas are sentient beings. But how do we experience that or how do we manifest Buddha?

[11:54]

That question is always underlined. That's a fundamental question. How do we manifest Buddha nature? When we say Buddha, we don't mean some entity, but our true nature is called Buddha. Buddha nature. Each one of us is Buddha nature. A manifestation of Buddha nature. But if we're already a manifestation of Buddha nature, what is there to study? That was Dogen's question. He said, if everyone is a manifestation of Buddha nature, why do I have to do something about it? And then Dogen's realization was, yes, even though Everyone is a manifestation of buddha nature. If buddhadharma is not practiced, buddha nature doesn't manifest as buddha nature.

[13:10]

So when Dogen says to study buddhadharma is to study the self, when he says study, he means practice. In order to study Buddhadharma, it's necessary to practice Buddhadharma. That's what he's saying. To study the Self. To study Buddhadharma is to study the Self. But study here means practice. In order to bring yourself and Buddha together and to manifest yourself and Buddha as one, it's necessary to practice zazen. That's what he's saying. He's saying, it's okay, we should study texts, we should study sutras and books, but he's saying mainly we should study the self in its actuality.

[14:23]

When we study the self, and this is very true in Buddhism, you realize that there is no self. This is to study the self. In Buddhadharma, there is no intrinsic self. Self-nature is no special nature. And there is no inherent existence. Human beings are manifestations of the one Buddha nature. This is, to study the Self is to come to this realization. And so he says, so in order to study the Self,

[15:28]

You have to forget the self. You have to drop all of your ideas about what you think you are, who you think you are, and just see clearly. You know, as we grow up, we try to make sense of our world, and in the process of making sense of our self and our world, have various notions and build up various concepts about who we are, what is the world, what is reality. But all of our thinking creates a partial view. Actually, no special view is called right view. No special view is called right view.

[16:35]

So to forget the self means forget all of our partiality, our ideas, our opinions. Our opinions like, I am alive. This is an opinion. Although we tend to think, well, how can you say that? But when you think about it clearly, from a non-partial point of view, then you can The reason why we're taken aback by that statement is because we have a vested interest in being alive. If we didn't have a vested interest in being alive, we could just look at that very clearly.

[17:52]

But we have a partiality toward what we call living. So that partiality colors all of our thinking. So to say, I am alive, is a kind of arrogance of human beings. To say, I'm not alive, is also a deluded statement. Say, no, I'm not alive. That's just the other side. So to drop, forget the self, means to forget our notions and just look at reality.

[19:06]

just sit zazen and become reality. By becoming reality means not dead, not alive. Who am I? What is this? Birth and death arise on each moment. the whole universe arises on each moment. There's this moment's universe, last moment's universe, the next moment's universe. So, living and dying, birth and death, In the total picture, there's no one who's born and no one who dies.

[20:24]

Even though we experience birth and death. Who experiences this? So then Dogen says, To forget the self is to be enlightened or confirmed by the 10,000 dharmas. So the first statement is like a shift from our ordinary life to wanting to understand the Buddhadharma. And the second one is to let go of everything in order to study ourself. And the third is realization, which means when I drop my body and mind, I'm confirmed by the ten thousand things.

[21:46]

Dharma is a word that has two meanings. Well, it has many meanings, but the two meanings that we use are capital D Dharma means Buddha nature or Buddha's teaching or the truth about reality. This is the Dharma, Buddha Dharma. To study the truth about reality is to study the Buddha Dharma. But D Dharma with a small d means things. everything. So, intrinsically, the dharma pervades everything. And what it pervades is the dharmas, or the things of this world. And what we're involved in in our daily life is the things. But the things are all manifestations of the thing.

[22:51]

They're just manifestations, arisings, flashings of the thing into the universe. So our real nature, true nature is the thing, which is no thing, no special thing. But every thing is a manifestation of the big thing, which is no special thing. So Buddha nature is not something that we can grasp tangibly. Buddha nature or big mind or it. But everything is it. Everything is it. It is everything but you can't point to it. It's the koan of, what is it?

[23:57]

Basic koan, what is it? So it is buddha nature, but it is also things. So it is nameless. So we can point and I may be talking about a table, and then in order to locate it, I say, this is it. I don't have to name it anymore. But everything is it, nameless. It's just a manifestation of it. So dharma and dharmas is like it and its. bits of it. So everywhere I point, I can say, well, this is it.

[25:10]

That's right. The answer to what is it is, this is it. This is actually the answer to the koan. The answer to Genjo Koan is, this is it. But saying this is it and realizing this is it are not the same. How do we moment by moment realize this is it? You know, we're always looking for it. But yet, this is it, and it's very disappointing. That's the problem. So, Dogen says, to be confirmed by the 10,000 dharmas, to drop body and mind, to drop

[26:25]

Body and mind is to be confirmed by the 10,000 dharmas. And to be confirmed by the 10,000 dharmas is to free your own body and mind and the bodies and minds of others. This means to have total freedom, to not be bound by anything. Isn't that what everybody wants? freedom, but we don't really want freedom. We just want enough freedom to do what we want. When we say, I want freedom, it's not really freedom that we're talking about. Exactly. Or our idea of freedom is very limited. We just don't want to have anybody hinder us. But even though No one hinders us.

[27:28]

We still don't have freedom. So freedom, it would be good if everybody really had the kind of freedom that they would like. And then everyone would see that even though they have the kind of freedom that they would like, they really don't have freedom. And then everyone would begin to study what is really freedom. But freedom has various manifestations, and one of the manifestations of freedom is giving freely. If you want to know what freedom is, then it's very simple. You just freely give, and then you understand what freedom is without any expectation. If you are continually giving yourself, then you understand what freedom is.

[28:36]

And it doesn't have anything to do with any situation that you're in. Freedom really has very little to do with your situation. Because in any situation, you're free to give. Almost any situation. I won't say every situation. Some situations are very difficult. But I'm trying to make a point. And the point is that if you want to, if we want to experience freedom, then we experience freedom by continually giving. Because what binds us is our own possessiveness. No one else binds us. So, one of the precepts, you know, is to be generous, not to hold back either spiritual or material things.

[29:46]

So, someone who is continually giving is a person who is always free because there's nothing to bind. So when we do something, it helps us to do it completely. And if you're going to study Zen practice, it doesn't mean that you have to sit Zazen every day, but it means when you sit Zazen, you give yourself completely. You know, the koan, Dogen's koan of Zazen is, Not thinking. When you sit Sazen, you have this koan. Think, not thinking. And he says, what is think not thinking? Non-thinking.

[30:52]

So, non-thinking It doesn't mean that there shouldn't be any thoughts. Koan always includes its opposite. This is how a koan is different than a usual kind of question or problem. Koan always includes its opposite. So, a monk asked Joshu, does the dog have Buddha nature? Joshu says, mu, or wu, Chinese, which means no, nothing. But this is not an ordinary answer. Joshu's response is always non-dualistic.

[31:58]

So, Joshu's move, his no, also includes, yes, of course a dog has buddhanature. If everything has buddhanature, why doesn't the dog have buddhanature? So the monk who asked the question knew that everything had buddhanature, so he asked Joshu, does the dog have buddhanature? No. This is like When you sit Zazen, think, not thinking. What is not thinking? No thinking. Non-thinking. He didn't say not to think. He didn't say you shouldn't think. Think, not thinking. So if you explain a koan, then you make it into a dualistic problem.

[33:01]

So you can only go so far. It's the same as do not doing. In Chinese, wu wei means not doing. It's a Taoist term. It means non-doing. Do not doing. How do you do not doing? Non-doing. Same thing. It doesn't mean that you don't do anything. It means doing does. Thinking thinks. Seeing sees. The seeing and the seer are not separate. When the seeing and the seer are not separate, then there's no seeing, no one seeing.

[34:06]

This is how you drop bodily mud. This is called forgetting the self. Just doing, just seeing, just thinking. When thinking and the activity are exactly the same, In now, this is forgetting the self. Simply stated, it means not being self-centered or egotistical in a radical way. And then he says, this no trace, continues forever. This is the realm of total freedom. No trace means not bringing the past to the present or the future to the present. The past and the future are contained in the present moment.

[35:10]

But the present moment's activity is its own dharma stage its own being stage. So, allowing ourself, myself and buddha nature to come together without hindrance, to let big mind manifest in every circumstance, unhindered. This is called total freedom of no trace. So this is, for our practice, we should understand Genjo Koan. Do you have any questions?

[36:24]

Do we fail or are we failing? Well, Kensho, or this experience of realization, can sometimes be very dramatic and sometimes it can be very quiet. And so what we read about in the book is something very dramatic. But we say it's like walking in a fog After a while you touch your clothes and you realize that they're wet. This is also Kensho. Some people have, you know, if you have a, what do you call it? If you're building up a great amount of energy which is held in,

[38:04]

then when that explodes, then you have big experience, right? But the other side is when you're just practicing every day, at some point you realize that you've changed. Those are two different aspects. And there are actually different types of people who have different kinds of experience. And there are various practices which are geared toward having various kinds of experience. So sometimes if you have koan study, systematic koan study, some teachers created the atmosphere for building up a lot of tension and then to have a big experience.

[39:10]

And other teachers have a more calm kind of practice in which something's understood in a more subtle way. In that same realm, I gave a talk last year. Somebody wrote a book talking about the two types of experience. One was the faith type and the doubt type. There's a certain kind of person who is a faith type who just goes along with practice and doesn't really have much doubt.

[40:11]

And so there's not a lot of tension created in the practice, but it's more like the fog type of result where you realize you're close or away. You realize, gosh, I've been doing things differently and my understanding has been different for a while and I didn't realize it. And the other type is more like a Rinzai approach, where people have a lot of, there's a certain type of person that has a lot of doubt. And they're always on the edge of extreme tension with their doubt. And that type of person will often have a big experience when their doubt is broken through. So we should be very careful not to stereotype either experiences or teachers or students.

[41:28]

Some people expect a Zen teacher to be a certain kind of person. And there's always been wonderful stories throughout the history of Zen of people approaching the teacher and they saying, You talked about the arrogance of thinking, I am alive, I am dead. I was wondering if you'd say a little bit about the conceit of just saying I am. I am presupposes an I. So we say I am for convenience sake, in order to But we should know who we really are.

[42:34]

So, it's okay to say I am. But we should realize that it's just a convenient way of talking. And if we I invest too much into that, then we start creating ego. Ego is important. There are three things. Ego, will, and desire. So those three elements. Desire is our wanting, characteristic of wanting, which turns into craving. grasping. And so, sometimes people say, you know, get rid of desires. You read Buddhist literature, or say the four vows, we say delusions, you know, but originally it's vows.

[43:46]

I mean, originally it's desires. I vowed to get rid of desires, the second of the vows. But you can't get rid of desire. And the same with ego. Ego is a sense of self, albeit not necessarily true self, but it is our sense of self, something that we feel about our entity. So sometimes you say, well, we have to get rid of ego, but you can't get rid of ego either. And willpower Sometimes we say, well, you have to resign yourself. That takes care of will. But we have to have all three. You have to have ego, you have to have desire, and you have to have will. But get rid of doesn't mean get rid of, because you can't cut them off.

[44:47]

If you cut them off, then you become a kind of lifeless blob. With ego, it means returning consciousness to its true purpose. And with desire, it means turning desire to a proper object with will. And without will, there's no way that things are going to move. So if we turn our desire to a proper object with our will, then our ego falls into place. It doesn't get too big or too small. And we have a real sense of personality, which takes the place of ego.

[45:52]

True personality, actually, which takes the place of ego. Ego is what we call our false personality, or built-up personality, whereas true personality comes through allowing Buddha nature to flow freely. So, the main thing is to know how to direct our desire, because we're loaded with desire, but it goes into this, and it goes to that, and it latches on to this, and latches on for satisfaction. So the greatest satisfaction is to realize our Buddha nature. So that's where we have to direct our desire. If our desire is directed toward realization of Buddha nature, then ego falls into place, willpower falls into place, everything falls into place. We have to get rid of self, actually, because then self becomes apparent.

[47:00]

It becomes apparent what self is. So in precepts, we have 16 precepts, but they're all one precept. First precept is direct your attention to Buddha nature. Follow Buddha nature, not false desires, then everything falls into place. You don't have to worry about following the precepts. But you should, I meant to say. Strictly speaking. This is where desire should go. Then you don't have to cut off desire. Maybe this is, shouldn't follow the precepts, you are the precepts.

[48:07]

Yeah, then you are the precepts. I think even though I didn't understand it, I probably need to hear it every day. And maybe little bits would come and go. Today, I don't put just that about being disappointed. Because usually when I come here, there's a little brain buzz, and then after a while, I sort of hear the birds, and it's kind of nice. Not today. Thinking, thinking, thinking, thinking about one problem at work. And every five minutes, I'd say to myself, oh, God, you're still thinking about that? Stop. Just breathe. You're thinking, thinking. More. Think, think, think. Same thing. So what was it?

[49:10]

Thinking? Yeah, it was thinking. Thinking Buddha. Right. But then when you guys were thinking, not thinking, You didn't get that. That's understandable. And I still don't. If you did, then you'd forget it. So, when you sit zazen, think not thinking. That's good. And then, if anyone wants to know, come and talk to me about it. In the beginning, when we say the opening chant, there's a word in there that I don't know what it is, but I'd like to know what it is.

[50:19]

Kalpas? Oh, Kalpa? Well, Kalpa, according to the meaning here, means an immeasurable period of time. It's usually described in various ways, but there's this huge mountain, like Mount Everest, and there's a celestial maiden who comes down once every 10,000 years with a piece of very fine cloth and wipes the cloth against the mountain. In the length of time it takes the mountain to be worn away? So Indians are very fond of using big incalculable numbers. And so in order to do away with numbers, when it came to the end of numbers, they talked about a Kalpa.

[51:21]

Is there a name for that being used? Is there a name to the being that does the work? What time is it? Celestial being. Celestial being. Okay. Happy practice.

[51:35]

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