Good morning. Good morning. This morning I want to comment on on a piece of writing by Min Zan. Min Zan was a prominent Soto Zen priest in the 17th century. And he was one of the leading proponents of Dogen's teaching. and he wrote a piece called Ji-Ju-Yu-Za-Mai.

[01:08]

Ji-Ju-Yu-Za-Mai is Samadhi of the Self. Za-Mai is Samadhi. And Ji-Ju-Yu means self-joyous or self-actualized. I think basically self-actualized is good, self-joyous is the result. But often it's translated self-joyous, samadhi. So, Menzan Zuiho.

[02:12]

I'll read this preface. It's quite long, so I'm just going to read the preface and talk about it. So I'll read that first. An ancient master said, the literal meaning of the name Vairochana is the universally illuminating light. This word has two connotations. One is that the Tathagata inwardly illuminates the true dharma world with the light of wisdom. This connotation is based on the concept, action of self-enjoyment or self-fulfillment, Jijuyu. The second is that the Tathagata outwardly illuminates people and teaches them with the light of his body. This second connotation is based on the concept, action of other enjoyment, or other fulfillment, which is ta-juyu.

[03:21]

This is the origin of the term ji-juyu-zamai. Nevertheless, the ancient master only talked about the Tathagata, who has already entered Buddhahood, and did not say that the same virtue inherently exists in the practice of ordinary sentient beings who are in the causal rank for attaining Buddhahood. This is because, as a scholar of a teaching school, he was caught by the distinction between the Tathagata and sentient beings. The essence of the Buddhas and patriarchs, or Buddhas and ancestors, is different. Great Master Rinzai said, If you want to become the same as the ancestors and the Buddhas, do not seek anything outside. The pure light of your mind is nothing but the Dharma body of Buddha. Zen master Wanshi, that's Hongzi, Zen J, said, it emits light and the great thousand worlds appear.

[04:27]

Each and every thing in the world is nothing other than the realm of the Jiju-yu of myself and its essential function. We must keep in mind that from medieval times, the Song-Yuang dynasty, China, 10th to 14th century, the way of practice changed and the essential function was lost because practitioners became dazzled by the practice of seeing koan stories. Dogen, the founder of A. A. G. Monastery, alone was not blinded and said, I sometimes enter G. G. U. Zamai. Each of you has to grasp it and make free use of it. How fortunate that we can encounter the Udumbara flower blooming in the forest of falseness that characterizes this decadent age. How can we help but show our gratitude and practice diligently? January 1st, the third year of Genbun, 1738, Zuiho, a practitioner of wakasa. This is the introduction to his treatise on Jiji-yuzamai.

[05:31]

You notice that he criticizes koan study and calls this a decadent age. It's quite common, when you read literature, to find that almost every age, according to someone, is a decadent age. And rightfully so, because everything is decaying. And at the same time, something new is growing. But when we look at one side, we say, oh, this is a decadent age. And when we look at the other side, we say, oh, this is a wonderful age of growth. But sometimes we can't see the growth, and we only see the decay. and vice versa. So anyway, some people are pessimists, some are optimists. But we should be able to see both sides, clearly. And the same thing applies to Jiju Yu's Amai and Koan study.

[06:42]

We should be able to see both, the qualities of both, and we should be able to see the dangers of both. So, throughout the history of Zen, at least after the 10th century, from about the 10th century on, there's been this kind of rivalry between the Koan school and the Silent Elimination school of Zen. Wanshi Shogaku, or Hongzi, in the 11th century was a proponent of the Cao Dung or Soto school.

[07:44]

And he promoted what was called silent illumination, Mokusho Zen, which is the heart of the Soto school practice. And Daoguian, of course, took that up and promoted it in his own way. And a teacher called Hui Hai was the proponent of the Kanna Zen, or so-called Koan Zen. And these two teachers actually liked each other very much and where each other understood each other better than most other people understood either one of them. And Hui Hai had a lot of criticism about Silent Illumination Zen.

[08:51]

I never heard Hongzi criticizing Koanzen. But even though there was this criticism, there was great admiration on both sides. And Hongzi actually This silent illumination teacher commented on the 100 koans, which formed the Book of Serenity, which has just been published. So he did not ignore koans then, but his emphasis was on silent illumination. And Hui Hai, whose emphasis was on Koan Zen didn't ignore Zazen.

[09:58]

But the emphasis is different. So the two schools both meet in Zazen, but they have a different emphasis on study, how to study the way, how to practice the way. So, here, Menzahn criticizes, he says, up until this time, things were going pretty well, and then people got fascinated with koan study, and everything kind of fell down. So, perhaps in his time, this is what happened. Each age has some particular fault which becomes apparent. And in recent ages, the Soto approach has been criticized. The problem with Soto Zen, you know, is that the criticism of Soto Zen is that it falls into quietism.

[11:15]

It tends to fall into kind of quietism and inertia. And criticism of Koan Zen is that it tends to fall into over-intellectualization and relying heavily on certain methods and ignoring the essence of daily life. So, Menzong is, of course, trying to promote, or make us understand, or bring to light, the essence of Dogon's teaching, and Hongzi's teaching, and what he feels is Buddha's teaching. And to illuminate and bring out the essence of this school's true way.

[12:17]

So even though he criticizes Koan Zen, we should be allowing him to do that at the same time, not necessarily criticizing it ourself, or not just following his line of criticism. It's very easy when someone criticizes something for us to hop on to the critical bandwagon. Because when someone criticizes, then it gives us a, if we accept that, it gives us a critical turn of mind and colors how we look at something. That's why we should be very careful about how we talk about each other to others. Because whenever we talk about each other to others, then that whatever we say tends to color the way we look at somebody. And it becomes difficult to see or relate to somebody the way we really feel.

[13:30]

So it's something we should be very careful about. So it applies to this stuff too. We should have our own understanding, not just get caught by someone's criticism. And the Soto and Rinzai styles of Zen, if you read either side of the literature, it tends to give you a biased view. So we should be able to draw our own conclusions and withhold judgment. Anyway, withhold judgment. And it's not so much a matter, actually, of whether one side uses koans and the other doesn't. Everybody uses koan. Koan is common to all, both Rinzai and Soto practice. But koan practice is a different kind of koan practice in Soto Zen, strictly speaking, than in Rinzai Zen, because Rinzai Zen

[14:40]

since Hakuin's time, has systematized koan study kind of like a school system, and one passes through the many koans. Whereas in Soto Zen, Soto Zen is more formless. Even though we have a lot of form in our practice, our actual life is kind of formless, somewhat formless, and there's very little to hold on to. that we don't give you a lot to focus on. And our focus has to be on where we are. And a koan, the essence of a koan is to bring the sacred and profane together and go beyond it. And it's very difficult to do through thinking mind.

[15:44]

Thinking mind is naturally dualistic. So, to go beyond thinking mind and go beyond sacred and profane. So, koan study does that with the koan. And Silent Illumination, or Jijuyu Zamae, or Shikantaza, or whatever you want to call it, does that through the practice of daily life. Our koan is in front of us in each activity. It's called, Dogen called it Genjo Koan. So Koan is always with us. We can't escape this Koan.

[16:46]

We can ignore it, but we can't escape it. So the purpose of my practice is to make us aware of Genjo Koan. So Menzan says, an ancient master said, he doesn't say who that is, but the meaning of the name Vairochana is universally illuminating light. Vairochana of course is, we say homage to the Dharmakaya, Vairochana Buddha. And Vairochana is like the Buddha which personifies the Dharmakaya. or the great void, the great potential, emptiness, or however you want to say it, no special feature, the great Buddha.

[17:58]

And he says the literal meaning of his name, of Vairocana, is universally illuminating light. This word has two connotations. One connotation is that the Tathagata inwardly illuminates the true dharma world with the light of wisdom. In other words, the true dharma world is our world. and the illumination that each one of us has is Vairochana. Vairochana is our Self. It's interesting because during the Dharma Transmission Ceremony

[19:08]

You sit on a lotus seat and proclaim that, I am Vairagyana Buddha. And when I did that, I thought, well, this is really strange. But I'm beginning to understand the reality of that. It's not just something that you, it's not just some pose. This is our actual life. This is who we really are. This word has two connotations. One is that the Tathagata inwardly illuminates the true Dharma world with the light of wisdom. This connotation is based on the concept action of self-enjoyment or self-fulfillment. This is our self-fulfillment. The second is that the Tathagata outwardly illuminates people and teaches them with the light of his body.

[20:16]

This second connotation is based on the concept, action of other enjoyment, ta jyu-yu. Ta jyu-yu and ji jyu-yu are two sides of this term. Ji jyu-yu is self-fulfilling samadhi. Ta jyu-yu is the light with which we offer to others, to awaken them to this ji jyu. So it's sometimes called Other Enjoyment or Other Fulfillment Samadhi. So, you know, each one of us actually, when we sit and practice Sazen, G-G-U-Z-M-I manifests. and also influences the Ji-Ji-Yu-Za-Ma-I of others, which is called Ta-Ji-Yu-Za-Ma-I.

[21:23]

This is why we always practice together, and why without doing anything special, we're actually teaching and influencing our world. Suzuki Roshi used to say, when you have realization, you don't really have to do anything special. All you have to do is just be with people is enough. It doesn't matter where you are or what you're doing. You don't have to do something. It's enough just to be with people. So then he says, this is the origin of the term Jiju-yusamayi. Nevertheless, the ancient master only talked about the Tathagata who has already entered Buddhahood and did not say that the same virtue inherently exists in the practice of ordinary sentient beings who are in the causal rank for attaining Buddhahood.

[22:38]

This is because as a scholar of a teaching school, he was caught by the distinction between the Tathagata and sentient beings. If you read a lot of Buddhist literature, Mahayana literature, the literature is always talking about how wonderful and radiant the Tathagata is, and how many practices the Bodhisattvas have to go through before they can reach this state, and that the lowest of these states is much higher than any human being could ever possibly think of reaching. It's like being way up there at the Empire State Building to begin with. And this is kind of one of the problems of the teaching schools is the idealized access that they have invented around Buddhahood.

[23:40]

If you read Mahayana literature and the path of the Bodhisattva, to attaining Buddhahood. It seemed like an impossible, Herculean task. So, he's criticizing this scholar who says, this is because as a scholar of a teaching school, he was caught by the distinction between the targetous and sentient beings. sentient beings way down here, Chittagatas are way up there, and there's this huge gap. But in Zen, one of the principles of Zen is no difference between Buddhas and sentient beings. Zen closes this gap. So he says, the essence of the Buddhas and patriarchs is different.

[24:44]

Great Master Rinzai said, if you want to become the same as the ancestors and the Buddhas, do not seek anything outside. The pure light of your mind is nothing but the Dharmabhāni of Buddha. And Zen Master Wanshi Hongzhi said, it emits light and the great thousand worlds appear. each and everything in the world is nothing other than the realm of the GGU of myself and its essential function. There are many terms, as I said, that we use to describe the practice. GGU-ZMAI, we just talked about, in each one of these terms is talking about the same thing but from a different point of view. So, ji, ju, yu, za, mai is one term.

[25:46]

Another term is shikan taza, which means, of course, just it, just sitting, just this. Another term is komyo zo zamai. Komyo means light, radiant light. Komyo zo zamai is the radiant life of the self or the radiant light of Vairagyana Buddha as the self. And this is actually one of the, this is talked about in the Soto school But we haven't really heard so much about it. But this was a very important understanding of the Soto school.

[26:51]

Komyo Zo Zamae, the Radiant Light Samadhi, Ko Un Ejo, Dogen's dharma hair, talked about it quite a bit. And Dogen himself talked about it quite a bit. And he's quoting both Rinzai and Hongzi, talking about this radiant light of the Self. So, just to let go of everything and let yourself be completely immersed in Buddha's world and just allow Komyo or radiant light to manifest. This is our natural endowment. This Samadhi is Shikantaza and it's also called Zazen.

[28:01]

To sit in this Radiant Light, Komyo. just to let go of everything. Our natural endowment is always with us, but we tend to hang on to things, obscure it through our false thinking, through our divided mind.

[29:16]

and through our preference, grasping and rejecting. So, in order to let this samadhi manifest, to let go of grasping and rejecting, and just sit, shikantaza, just immerse ourself in our natural endowment. It's called, another name is silent illumination. Just silently illuminate. Dogen says this light has no special feature. It's not blue or white or yellow or any special color, nor does it have any special shape.

[30:25]

But everything is it. It's just another word for Buddha nature. So in Soto, practice. We allow this light to illuminate everything that we meet, including all the thoughts in our mind. If we don't hang on to the thoughts in our mind, then the thoughts are all illuminated with this light. If we have no attachment to things, but see each thing as it really is, without judgment, without partiality, then this light illuminates everything we meet.

[31:42]

So whether in Zazen or wherever we are moving around, same thing. So, silent illumination is not a derogatory term. It's the essence of our practice. And silent doesn't mean without sound. Silence includes all sounds. Silently illuminating all sounds. I'm silently illuminating all activity.

[32:55]

It just means stepping out of the way. Don't interfere with it. What is it? This is Ginjo Koan. What is it? Oh, I know what this is. But what is this? What is this? This is a mind that doesn't... inquiring mind, doubtful mind, which doesn't assume anything. Without assuming, If we say, oh, I know what this is, it means we've missed the reality.

[34:02]

What is this brings us to the moment with open eyes. With this attitude, life is full of surprises. So, when we meet things, when we meet stuff in Zazen, rather than, oh, I know what this is. What is this? We are redemption.

[35:32]

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