Morning. So today we are happy to welcome in his new clothing to this seat Imo Denkei Raul Moncayo. Imo Denkei is his dharma name, which means suchness field of blessings. Raul's been practicing here for more than 30 years. many of the key positions. He's a student, he's a priest here at Berkley Center. He's also a father and a psychoanalyst. And his Dharma transmission which took place over the is the first time that we've ever done it here at Berkeley Zen Center. Usually, we've done it at Tassajara or San Francisco Zen Center. But it was very sweet to pull together and work.

[01:01]

So I look forward to hearing what Raul Urdenque has to say. Good morning. Good morning. Thank you, Alan. Yes, so I was asked to give this talk and speak to you a bit about what this process was like for me and what it evoked or invoked. And so I have an outline of a talk, which more or less I'll follow. We'll see. if if there's something I have some conversations with people before the talk and If there's something I you don't understand about what I'm saying And I'll be happy to give you my notes afterwards And and then and then you can give me your email and

[02:08]

and then send me an email, we'll exchange emails, and we'll set up a time to get together, have tea, and have a discussion about it. But I'll try to be as clear as I can. So the three things that I wanted to talk about were, one is lineage, The other one is the precept vein. The ceremony is a lot about... all of the Buddhist ceremonies are about transmitting the precepts. But the precept vein has a kind of particular meaning in this ceremony that I wanted to touch on. And the other one is the teaching of sentient beings and Buddhas are not one, not two. which is also part of what you study. There's several things you have to study during this process. And so this is a little bit of my commentary on what I studied with Sojourn and then I'll talk a little bit about what it was like to be here for a week and with everybody that I was involved with.

[03:25]

So the name that I will use now is Denkei. That's my new name. Just for those of you who didn't know that, I didn't know that myself. It was a surprise because usually I thought I was using Imo as the name, but actually now I'm told that that name sort of goes In your gets put away. And the one that circulates, the one that uses your second name, which is then K. So it's a new name for me that I will have to get used to, to to answer to and to use. So the lineage. So the lineage, we could also call it Circle H. Line H, Circle H, since the lineage is both a line and a circle. And a circle includes all the ancestors, but also includes the entire Sangha.

[04:43]

So this transmission process is a pretty inclusive, all-inclusive process. Everybody's involved in one degree or another, and it's really something that is interdependent. It's not something that one does by oneself, but something that one does with everybody. And during the transmission process, we draw lots of lines and circles with the names of the ancestors. And so that. So that made me think that really a line is a circle because the more we walk in a straight line, particularly on the earth, the more we're walking around in a circle.

[05:53]

And actually, I was. listening to NPR the other day and they were citing this study where they blindfold people and inevitably they think they're walking straight but they end up walking in a circle going right back to where they started from. So that's something that's kind of ingrained in ourselves and in life itself. So the parent of the lineage is both a one and a zero. A zero is a circle. And another way of looking at the image and the way where it's discussed and we talked about is in terms of vertical and horizontal succession. So horizontal is in space, and vertical is in time.

[07:08]

So from the point of view of space, and nowadays we think of space as the fourth dimension of time, or continuous time, meaning everything is happening at the same time. So, from the point of view of horizontal succession, the entire history of Buddhism and the entire Sangha is right here, now. And that stresses the point of view of equality, that in a fundamental way we're all equal. and transmission is something that affects everybody. Also the dimension of space is that the ancestors are also linked to a land or a place.

[08:18]

So we have the movement of dharma from west to east, from east to west, from north to south, and from South to North. And I think all of us to some extent have moved North, South or West to East or East to West. And this also, in Buddhism, the directions, the four directions are, there's a fifth direction which is consciousness. So each direction is associated with a consciousness. So we could say East is intuition. West is reason. South, I would say it's heart or passion. And North is discipline or law. And different ancestors embody different aspects of this.

[09:22]

Although all the four directions are included in each one. at the same time. And vertical succession is the hierarchical dimension, which refers to the straight arrow of time from past to present to future, but also from future to present to past. And so for traditional religion, the past sets a standard for the present. So we're all here following the standards set by Buddha, and trying to meet it. Sometimes better than other times. And in the case of Orthodox religion, or Hinayana Buddhism,

[10:25]

the light gets dimmer, the more time has passed from the original realization. So often, you know, you talk to Theravada monks and say, well, you know, there's a big difference between the original Buddha and everybody else afterwards. They don't like this idea of the Mahayana talking about horizontal succession or all the ancestors in every generation being equal in some way. Because from the point of view of vertical succession, the past is stronger than the present. And in a way this is what happens to institutional religion. meaning that after the founder passes on, there is an institution set up to maintain and preserve the original realization of revelation.

[11:38]

But paradoxically, instead of maintaining it, it starts concealing it, instead of revealing it. And progressive religion, or liberal religion, is the opposite, which is like the theory of evolution. The more time that passes, the better it gets. However, with progress, we may throw out the baby with the bathwater. And we think we're doing an improvement, or we know how to do things better, when in fact we may be concealing or covering over some ancestral truth. but we don't understand so we have to be very careful in changing things because it's not so clear when one is one thing and when it's the other when instead of revealing you're concealing or when you may be concealing something you're actually revealing it

[12:47]

So this is why the teaching needs to be both vertical and horizontal at the same time, to balance these factors. So every generation needs a new set of Buddhas and Bodhisattvas to reform the tradition and at the same time be in harmony with the lineage. So both factors are necessary. And you have to be one with the ancestors and with your teacher, but you also have to become yourself. So become interdependent. And the way to become one with your teacher is to become yourself, not to identify or idealize your teacher. Actually, in idealizing your teacher, you may be actually deviating from the teaching.

[13:56]

So Zen has this potential for being both traditional and progressive at the same time. And I think this is perhaps what Tsukiroshi meant when he said Zen is Hinayana practice with Mahayana mind. So we have the traditional practice of Zazen, but with Mahayana understanding. So this contains, that statement contains both the vertical and the horizontal at the same time. So the excuse me, the second thing was that I wanted to talk about was the precept vein, vein, V.I.N.

[15:09]

Just to clarify, there is the vanity of the precepts, too. That's an entirely different matter. And during the transmission, in the transmission documents, it says that the precept vein does not mean preventing or stopping wrong actions or evil deeds. That the precept vein means Buddha nature and ultimate reality. And more specifically, that the blood vein of the precepts is not opposed to false dharmas. interesting statement I'm more or less quoting and you know part of it is one of the meanings and I won't stay there very long because I want to move on to something else about this but you know there's all this working with the names and usually Zen is a teaching

[16:21]

that de-emphasizes the function of names and words but you're actually doing all this work and writing the names over and over and over again so perhaps this is an example of this non-opposition to false dharmas meaning that names usually limit a dharma or the true essence of a dharma but here's an example where the name actually contains the essence or doesn't restrict it and so this teaching of not being opposed to false dharma one of the ways to think of them is that the ancestral path includes the passions rather than being opposed to them. And passions are transformed into compassion.

[17:25]

And Buddhas are Buddhas because they are enlightened about delusion. So enlightenment and delusion rise up together. They're not two separate things. So clarity is realized with the passions, not without them. And this is the basic teaching of the Vimalakirti Sutra, which, by the way, I want to mention that most of our, or many of our lay Zen teachers are this weekend at a retreat for lay Zen teachers. So I just wanted to, in mentioning Vimalakirti Sutra, is the sutra that features a lay teacher and that's one of the central teachings but it's perfectly consistent with this teaching about the precept vein so the moon of the feelings is the basis for the moon of realization usually people associate the moon with feelings

[18:41]

And then we associate the moment with realization. And so the feelings are there. You can hear a little feeling in my voice too, running through. So during the week prior to this Dharma transmission which lasted a whole week. It was interesting because some people, actually three people within the psychoanalytic community that I belong to and the word got out that I was going to be doing this ceremony started sort of questioning my commitment to psychoanalysis because I was doing this process. You know, aren't you really more of a Buddhist?

[19:46]

You know that, come on. And that was kind of painful for me actually. And I didn't really engage in debate. I really wasn't in the mood for debating anything really. And so I just listened. But it was rather painful. So I brought some of those painful feelings into the week here. And at the same time when I arrived here, you know, I experienced all this warmth and love from the Sangha and from the people that had sort of gathered together to do this with me. And I felt an incredible amount of of support and true friendship. That was really very moving and touching. And Mary Mussine was the tensor and she cooked some wonderful meals and the meals served as a basis, as a vehicle for us to sit down.

[20:55]

There were about six of us involved in this. including Vicki Austin who came from San Francisco Zen Center and whom I had met decades ago at some Jewish Zen event. And she came representing San Francisco Zen Center and of course Blanche Hartman helped me originally before Jean with the robe, the cutting and sewing of the robe. And we talked about many different things. Dharma and family. And then Ross here, who was here at the Dhawan seat and has been my friend for many years, helped me with... we went in the morning we do a round of the altars.

[21:59]

making offerings of incense and flowers and it was raining and it was cold and it was very early in the morning and we were walking hand-in-hand under one umbrella and it was very intimate actually and it was also very deep to offer incense at the Jizo altar for all the Sangha members that have died And so I had a moment of meeting with my Dharma sisters who were Shuso before me, Fran and Meili and Rebecca. And that was actually quite a profound moment. So my heart was actually very full with some painful feelings that I had brought, but also full with feelings of gratitude and love for the Sangha. And somehow these kind of feelings coalesce during the lunar eclipse, which was on Tuesday.

[23:11]

And the sun eclipsed the moon and the moon became red as a result of the sun. And so it was a red moon. So I was thinking like how the Sun and the Moon are like Saigonals and Buddhism or intuition and the intellect and how they can eclipse one another but they can also transform one another into something more beautiful than each one is by themselves. And I also fortuitously opened the Lotus Sutra at one point And I read a new meaning about my name Raul in Sanskrit, one of the roots of the name, which means a personified eclipse. Personified eclipse.

[24:20]

But, you know, an eclipse, we can say an eclipse or a hindrance, is not really a hindrance. Say rather, it means interpenetration. So, and this is an aspect, by the way, it's an aspect of the teaching of the Huayen school of Buddhism that's drawn from the Avatamsaka Sutra. And there it says that because all things are images of mind, they really don't obstruct each other in size or in space. So in an eclipse, the sun and the moon are not really obstructing each other. It's all a question of perspective. So passion doesn't obstruct precept. Precept doesn't obstruct passion. Intellect doesn't obstruct intuition. Intuition doesn't really obstruct intellect. The child doesn't obstruct the parent. And the teacher certainly doesn't obstruct the student. It feels that way sometimes.

[25:25]

It certainly does at times, but not really. So an eclipse is not really an eclipse. Although it's a wonderful Dharma. So... The last point that I wanted to mention was, that's repeated over and over in the different parts of what we study, is this teaching of sentient beings and Buddhas are not one and not two. Which was, I think we heard it a lot from Suzuki Roshi as well in many of his books. And it says there that sentient beings first it says sentient beings and buddhas are not two and that the ancestors first realized this that sentient beings and buddhas are not two and then go on to practice wisdom mind and so this is sort of similar to what Suzuki Roshi said that first you have an enlightenment experience

[26:46]

And then you practice, practice enlightenment. So, in formal practice then, there are differences between Buddhas and sentient beings, ordinary people and monks. There are not one. And so, traditionally formal practice was giving up secular relationships, turning away from the world, turning away from filial duty. and obligations to parents and children, and practicing in seclusion away from the world. And this is monastic practice, and symbolically monastic practice represents functioning without seeing things. So it's the practice of non-seeing, non-seeing the ordinary world. Or this is the statement in the Sandokaya which says, streams flow on in the dark.

[27:49]

So all our Dharma brothers and sisters who are practicing in Tassajara are like streams flowing on in the dark. But with maturity then we go back to the two not being two and not being one either. And I think we have a wonderful expression of that in our practice center here, under the leadership of Sojourn Roshi, where we have laypeople practicing as monks, and we have monks practicing as laypeople. And sometimes, you know, you can't tell one from the other. Sometimes it can be confusing, but it's really a wonderful practice. So this practice of not dwelling in samsara or nirvana and going back and forth between samsara and nirvana, going back and forth between formal practice and daily life and ordinary life and interacting with people in the world outside the sangha, interacting with people in the larger sense of universal sangha,

[29:13]

expresses this principle. And in this document, this principle is referred to, and I will quote now, going beyond ongoing. Going beyond ongoing. So we have ongoing practice. Right? We've been doing this for years. We've forgotten how long we've been doing it. And we will be continuing to practice this practice forever, indefinitely. And yet this ongoing is not something to stand on. You don't stay there. You don't stay in ongoing. It's going beyond ongoing. So this is the unobtainable beyond ongoing practice. And I would say this is kind of the essence of what Suzuki Roshi taught us about beginner's mind.

[30:25]

And last, I wanted to end with, I found a resonance with this, with a wonderful statement by Shakespeare. Henry V. And there he says, all things are ready if our minds be so. Thank you very much. Do you have any questions or comments, statements? You mentioned the vertical lineage, and it goes from past to present to future. And then you said it also goes from future to present to past. What does that look like?

[31:38]

Meaning all ancestors are students of Maitreya. I want to say that Monday morning, Tenkei-san will be conducting a question and answer session right here, 5.40. So you're welcome to come and bring your questions. Yes? Would you say a little bit more about the not being opposed to false dharmas? What was the first one in that sentence?

[32:43]

The precept vein is not opposed to false dharmas. And I think maybe you were sort of relating, associating psychoanalytic questioning of, you know, there's a dogma there, a religion of psychoanalysis. But would you say a little bit more about what this means? Right. That has something to do with the general... Yeah, that it works with the ground and the dust in our hearts and minds. It doesn't oppose them. It transforms them. So this is not a repressive morality. It doesn't divide us. It brings things together.

[33:45]

It brings things together and people together. Where both the good and the bad are included. Does that apply to traditions also? That would apply to traditions also. Traditions? Different Buddhist traditions. Different aspects of Buddhism? Different traditions. Well, like Mahayana, Vajrayana, Theravada. Yes. Yeah, I think that's, I mean, that's one of the ways to understand the horizontal transmission or succession, that it moves across lands and characteristics. Yes, Ed. And then Ross. Could you say a little bit about what the

[34:48]

what it means. It means trust and that you're walking steady on the path and you may fall off a little bit to the left or a little bit to the right but you know how to get right back onto it. And when you're falling off a little bit to the left, you see that, you recognize that. And so, there it is, and you bring yourself back. So it had, I mean, the significance of it is that, in our tradition, I guess I'm unclear as to how that occurs.

[36:00]

Oh, I see. Well, it varies. I mean, we did have some conversations about this during the process. And you know, in Japan, it's different. In Japan, priests who want to have the intention to be, would like to be priests at a temple, they have to go first to a heiji and train and maybe 3, 4, 5 years and then they get dharma transmission and they go back to a temple and for us it takes much longer than that and in some cases like me it takes a lot more longer and in Japan the more learned you are, the shorter time you have to stay in a heiji. And with Sojin, the more learned you are, the longer, the longer you have to sit and practice.

[37:10]

So it kind of gets to your bones. I think Ross has his hand up. I'm wondering if the affirmation of the transmission process interpenetrated to your involvement with the detractors at your psychoanalytic circle. Did that turn in any way? Well, thank you for asking that. It did actually. We did have a meeting. You know, it's a school to train psychoanalysts. And so there's a right to enter and a right to exit. And so there was an event which is called a palimpsest, which is the right to enter, and two people were going through that. And it was really a wonderful event.

[38:15]

I think it's OK. I think it's really OK to be challenged. And it's good for people in leadership to be challenged and to not see the challenge as an opposition or an eclipse, as we were talking about before. It feels that way. But when the turbulence dies down, then you see in the ocean, you see all the way down to the bottom. And so in that event, the turbulence had died down and the view was very profound. Yes. You know what you said? What exactly has been transmitted?

[39:23]

Nothing. Absolutely nothing. There's nothing added. There's nothing extra. If anything, things get peeled away. Layers get peeled away. but the transmission is already there. It can only be transmission if the transmission has already happened. Yes? I wanted to say first of all what a pleasure it is to hear you this morning. Thank you very much. You're welcome. And I was intrigued by Your discussion of the unity of the circle with the straight line. Yes. And I think at one point you spoke of zeros and ones. Yes. And I want to say that binary turns out to be an illusion.

[40:26]

Not one, not two, not one, not zero, not one, not zero. Yeah. Well, zero is a. is a relative term. And the zero that's not relative, we don't know anything about. That's the absolute zero. What can you say about it? So our computers really are a mystery. Maybe. Maybe we'll probably find out a lot more things about them in the future. Well, it would be interesting to have a computer run by Nagarjuna's Tetralama.

[41:31]

But maybe. Yes. Thank you very much for your talk, and this may be related to what Ross was talking about. I don't really understand what you were talking about. It seemed like sort of a conflict between your psychoanalytic practice and the transmission you've just gone through. Do you have time for about a minute or so to give an example? Because it seems like they would kind of meld together. Right. But for some people, they may be conflicting. You know, sometimes you can see things as one or as two different things. You can see them as aspects of the same thing or you can see them as different. And in some ways you have to see them as one thing. In other ways you have to see them as different. Because you don't want to collapse them either. Right?

[42:37]

You don't want to do that to Buddhism. You don't want to turn Buddhism into some form of psychoanalysis, and you don't want to turn psychoanalysis into Buddhism, although the two are not two. I don't know if that makes you more confused or less confused. Thank you. You're welcome. Yes? And that was a challenge for you? What? What you just said. She just said that... What was the challenge about it? No, no, for you that was a challenge to figure out how to work with Buddhism and be a psychoanalyst, I mean... Was it difficult? It's been at times, at times, because one, you know, favors the intellect and the other one favors intuition and sometimes those two eclipse one another in both directions. You think it will be less of a challenge for you as you move forward?

[43:37]

That something in this process shifted for you and it will be less of a challenge? No, there's something to hope for. That would be the best of luck. Last? Yes. Yes. It's time.

[43:57]

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