During practice period, we've been studying in our class, we've been studying Master Dongshan's five positions of host and guest, and also in relation to Dogen's lines in the Genjo Koan. To study Buddha Dharma is to study the self. To study the self is to forget the self. Those lines. During Sushin, I want to talk about various aspects of Dogon's Genjo Koan. to help make more clear Dogen's understanding.

[01:09]

So in Genjo Koan, which is considered to be the core of Dogen's understanding, all of the many fascicles, 95 fascicles of Shobo Genzo, which Dogen wrote, spring forth from Genjo Koan. And each one is a kind of commentary on some aspect of Genjo Koan. So the fascicle genjo koan is very important in understanding Dogen's understanding and in understanding our own practice. Since our practice is based on Dogen's understanding, we should pay attention to Dogen and make some effort to understand what he was trying to communicate. Although we should be careful at the same time not to be attached, too attached to Dogen's understanding or the way he interprets Buddhism.

[02:44]

I think this is important. Although we should have good understanding of Dogen's understanding, not be too attached to Dogen's expression. So, genjo koan means manifesting in the present. Something like manifest in the present. Koan has several meanings. I've explained this before. A koan is like a public case. If you're a lawyer, then when you want to have a precedent, you go to the public cases and read what the precedents are.

[03:54]

But in this case, koan has a little different meaning. The ko has a feeling of identity or absoluteness, or meaning to level, to make level. So in this case, to make level or identify with just like horizontal feeling or sameness or it stands for the absolute and on

[05:04]

means like difference and it stands for the relative and it also means in this case like having a position in the absolute realm There's no position, no particular fixed position. But in the relative world, everything has a fixed position. Fixed momentarily. Each thing, each dharma has a momentarily fixed position. And when I say fixed, it doesn't mean Well, you might think that everything is changing.

[06:06]

So when we say everything is changing and moving, nothing has a fixed position. But yet everything has its own position, which doesn't change. It never changes. In other words, it doesn't move. Even though we see movement, from a position doesn't move. It's immovable. This is on. Because we think that one thing changes into another, where there's transformation, it looks like things are moving. So, dug in, in Genjo Koan is always shifting his perspective.

[07:11]

And he's shifting his perspective from intrinsic value to experiential value. I say value. intrinsic existence to experiential existence and looking at life from those two points of view and constantly shifting back and forth. That's why Dogen is sometimes very difficult to grasp because he keeps changing his perspective without telling you necessarily. And there's some reason for this. So, Dogon is looking at existence, non-existence, from various points of view, sometimes from the absolute point of view, sometimes from the relative point of view, sometimes from non-duality, sometimes from the point of duality, but never sticking to one or the other.

[08:41]

So this is the nature of koan, not sticking to either, to one side or the other, but always including everything. So from a point of view of every dharma's dharma position, everything is included. So, from the point of view of ko, everything has absolute identity. Nothing is separate from anything else. And from the point of view of an, each thing is independent. So, in Asando Kai, Sekisho,

[09:45]

Kisen was talking about the same thing. And in the Jewel Mirror Samadhi, Tozan was talking about the same thing. And Belgen expresses himself in Genjo Koan, talking about the same thing. So the first four lines of Genjo Koan are the touchstone for the rest of it. So the first four lines are very significant, and the rest is a kind of commentary on the first four lines. So in the first four lines, Dogen says, when all dharmas are buddhadharma, there are enlightenment and delusion.

[10:48]

practice, life and death, Buddhas and creatures. When the 10,000 dharmas are without self, there are no delusion, no enlightenment, no Buddhas, no creatures, no life and no death. The Buddha way transcends being and non-being. Therefore, there are life and death, delusion and enlightenment, creatures and Buddhas. Nevertheless, flowers fall with our attachment, and weeds spring up with our aversion." These are the first four lines of the Koan. So in the first line, he says, when all dharmas are buddhadharma. The word when is very important because it means at the time, at the time of realization.

[12:00]

Intrinsically, all dharmas are buddhadharma. But we don't necessarily have that experience. So, when means when we have experience or when we realize at the time of realization. You want a drink of water? Why don't you go get a drink of water? So I want to explain again what I mean by dharmas, or what is meant by dharmas. Dharma has many meanings, but here it has two. Dharmas are all things.

[13:11]

So each thing in its individuality is a dharma. Basically, dharmas mean more like the constituents of our psychic life and physical life, and it's extended to mean all things. So here, it's extended to mean all things. And dharma, with a capital D, means the law governing the dharmas, the law that governs things. existence is called Dharma. So Buddha's teaching is called Dharma. It means the law, actually, the law of the way things go. And so when Buddha gave his talks and taught

[14:15]

He taught the Dharma. He taught the law, not just his own ideas, but the law that he had discovered about Dharmas, about the way the elements of existence interact with each other. Not so much on the physical level. That's more physics. the realm of science, but not excluding that, because we have to deal with the body, the way the body works together with the mind, and the way the body and mind work together with phenomena. So the Dharma is the law about the way the body and mind work together with its surroundings. without any self being interjected.

[15:20]

This is what Dharma is. Dharma is about the way things work without having to interpose a self. So, in the early Buddhism, the monks studied Abhidharma, the higher Dharma, the law of the way things work together. the law of psychic life, the laws which govern emotions, feelings, thoughts, and activity. So the way the Abhidharmas studied was to analyze and take everything apart. When you analyze and take everything apart, you realize that there's no intrinsic existence, no inherent existence in anything, and that everything is held together by gravity, in one form or another.

[16:32]

But the Mahayanists, instead of thinking in terms so much of analysis, think in terms of synthesis. How the whole universe is one body. This is Mahayana way of studying the Dharma. The whole universe is one body. And what is our, how do we realize this? This is Mahayana enlightenment, to realize the whole world, the whole universe is one body. And who is this? So Dogen says, when, meaning at the time of realization, that all the dharmas are Buddha dharma. There is enlightenment and delusion, practice, life and death, Buddhas and creatures.

[17:47]

Buddha dharma here means realization of oneness, because Buddha means non-differentiation. It means wholeness in this case. Dharmas mean separateness, each thing. So when we realize that each thing, each separate dharma, is Buddha dharma, when each entity is actually absolute, This is koan. And we've been studying this. When each separate thing is actually, has the nature of being not separate, is buddhadharma. Each dharma is buddhadharma.

[18:52]

There are enlightenment and delusion, practice, life and death, buddhas and creatures. So enlightenment and delusion is a duality. Life and death, it's a duality. Buddhas and creatures is a duality. He's saying, when we realize these things, there is duality. But then he puts in the word practice. And practice doesn't fit in there, right? It doesn't fit in these polarities. He says, when all dharmas are Buddhadharma, there is the polarity of enlightenment and delusion, practice. the polarity of life and death, and the polarity of Buddhas and creatures. It's a little strange, actually. What is practice doing in there? That's a good question. What is practice doing in there? Polarity practice.

[19:56]

What? Polarity practice. Polarity practice. No. Isn't practice always there? Practice may be always there, but I think here it means something conscious. What practice was leaping clear of the many and the one? Oh, you've been reading. Yeah, practice is leaping clear of the many and the one. But how does it work in this sentence? It's just saying that as if there's practice apart from other things. It's distinguishing things. It's distinguishing practice. What do you mean distinguishing?

[21:10]

Well, he names categories of things. And when we're naming, then there is such a thing as practice. So what are the things that he names along with practice? Well, he's enlightenment and delusion, life and death, buddhas and creatures. There's a time when there aren't those things, but there's a time when there is. So if there's a time when there is life and death, then there's also a time when there's practice and something else. You're talking about different times. Maybe it means that when there's, in the realm of duality, when you're in that realm, there's also practice because you're not, you need to keep practicing if you're in that realm.

[22:21]

But if you're in the realm where there's no birth and no death, That sentence is practice. It is genjo koan. Practice is koan. Right. Well, all these are... I don't want to say that any of these are wrong. Right. Responses? I have a question. Does big mind practice? Who practices? Practice. Who practices? Practice practices.

[23:28]

I remember someone once asked you what you did when you were doing Zazen. And I think you said something like, I'm always telling myself Each one of these sentences is looking at the same thing from a non-dualistic point of view, even though the dualities are here in each one of these sentences. It looks like maybe going from a dualistic point of view to a non-dualistic point of view. but even though there's a dualistic point of view, it's within the realm of non-duality.

[24:32]

So each one of these sentences are really saying the same thing from a different point of view. So when he says, When we have realization, there is enlightenment and delusion, and still life and death, buddhas and creatures, but they're within the realm of practice. So what ever practice might mean? Practice means, maybe in this case, the realm of non-duality. the realm of enlightenment, beyond enlightenment. Or you can say it means actually turning the Dharma.

[25:42]

So that even though there is These opposites are there. They're there within the realm of practice. And practice is what transforms the duality. So, you can just as easily say, when all dharmas are not Buddha dharma, There are no enlightenment and no delusion. The word practice means activity. Activity. So, what kind of activity is darshan? Is it activity of non-activity? Is it what? Activity of non-action. Non-activity. Okay, but if you think... That's true.

[26:53]

If you think... So activity, which is practice, includes no activity. And no activity includes activity. So even though we have the duality of enlightenment and delusion, birth and death, they're within the realm of non-duality. No life, no enlightenment, no delusion, no birth and no death. And when you say, no birth and death, then there is no practice.

[28:16]

Well, that gets to the next sentence. You're anticipating, don't you? Which is good. It's all very logical. Practice is like the catalyst for reality, for realization. So I think the reason he puts practice there is because even though we may understand these things, They don't manifest as reality without practice. Our understanding doesn't become real without practice. I think this is what Dogen is trying to express here.

[29:24]

We have the dualities of life. But we also have practice, which is the catalyst for understanding in its true way, in a true way, for bringing forth in a true way our realization. Because even though you know these things, we don't realize it without practice. And practice is the experiential side. So the rest of what he's saying here is kind of intrinsic side. But without practice, it's not experienced. And then he says, when the 10,000 dharmas are without self, that's the next sentence. When we realize, when?

[30:30]

that the 10,000 dharmas are without self, there is no delusion, no enlightenment, no buddhas, no creatures, no life and no death. This is true emptiness, meaning no special form, no self, no special form of anything. You know, in a way you can say, you can look at these three sentences like One is looking at the waves on the ocean in the realm of existence. And the second sentence is like looking at the ocean without any waves, where there's no sign of life, no sign of existence. Everything is very placid. Nothing is arising, no dualities.

[31:32]

And the third sentence is like watching both the water and the waves, seeing the real, the underlying form of things, which is no special form, and yet appreciating all the various forms as they arise. This is like, more like true, realization, complete realization. So in the third sentence he said, the Buddha way transcends being a non-being, or leaping clear, or the one of the many, as he said. Therefore, there are life and death, delusion and enlightenment, creatures and Buddhas. So, in the first sentence, he's expressing, seems to be expressing the duality of non-duality.

[32:57]

And in the second sentence, he's expressing the non-duality, duality. And in the third sentence, he's expressing how duality and non-duality have to be transcended. And then in the last sentence he says, nevertheless, This is all rather theoretical, right? He gives us three theoretical aspects. And then he says, nevertheless, flowers fall with our attachment, and weeds spring up with our aversion. But the reality of life is that no matter what our understanding is, this is the way things go. When we try to hold on to something, it fades in our hand.

[34:08]

And when we try to push something away, it envelops us. And we're always dealing with these two aspects of grasping and aversion. Flowers is like enlightenment. This has the feeling of going after enlightenment. When we go after enlightenment, the flowers fall when we try to grasp it. And when we try to push things away which intrude, as we're pushing them away over here, they're springing up over here. It's like maybe when you're digging a hole in the sand, you kind of get someplace, but then the sand is always falling in the hole again.

[35:17]

So what do you do? That brings up the question, well, what do you do? Nevertheless, flowers fall with our attachment or with our longing. It's another way of saying that. When we long for something or when we seek something or grasp after something. So it kind of has the feeling of, with our desire, flowers fall. And even when we get hold of something, What do we really have when we get it? So grasping and pushing away, grasping and rejecting are the, as I say a lot, are the two sides of our life which we're always dealing with constantly. And it has to do with choice, moment by moment, making a choice.

[36:18]

And what is our choice based on? How do we choose moment by moment so that we don't get caught by grasping And we don't get caught by aversion. This is actually a good koan by itself. Flowers fall without grasping, and weeds spring up with our aversion. It's a good, very good koan. It's actually the koan of Zazen. Very good koan for Zazen. How do we sit still without wanting something and without avoiding something? So for five days, we'll be sitting without trying to hold on to something.

[37:31]

avert something, just letting things come and go freely, letting everything come as it comes and go as it goes, feelings, perceptions, mental formations, states of consciousness, pleasure, pain, But yet, each moment, we have our dharma position, which is immovable. And the next moment, we have our dharma position, which is immovable. And the next moment, we have our dharma position, which is immovable. And yet, through it all is the feeling of constant change.

[38:40]

and transformation. So we should pay attention to our koan, which is arising moment after moment. Our genjo koan, which is arising moment after moment. completely new. And not only does it arise completely new, it arises with everything, as everything. so

[39:49]

So the most important thing for us is to settle them. We can watch, you know, be observant of how feelings and thoughts and emotions arise and grow out of from somewhere, wherever it is that they come from. And at the same time we can settle down and just let go of them. because they have no real roots.

[41:41]

They really have no real roots. But we give them reality and existence. So, it's kind of like bubbles. feelings, emotions, thoughts are kind of like big bubbles and we can fill them and get them bigger and bigger. Or we can deflate them and they can get smaller and smaller. And we can go either way. It's possible to go either way. It's possible to create something, and it's also possible to not create something. But sometimes we think, I have to create something.

[42:45]

But you don't. It's only a compulsion. We feel compelled. That's a compulsion. But you're not compelled. It's just as easy to let go of something as it is to take hold of it. And it's also just as easy to let something come and pass through as it is to hold it off, even though it doesn't seem like it. So in this five days, I would like us to practice Letting go of something just as easily as we grasp it, and letting something come just as easily as we push it away. Try it.

[43:51]

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