Good morning. Well, Our practice period class, in our practice period class, we've been studying Dogen Zenji's Genjo Koan. And I'm going to continue, and maybe we'll get to the end, but I would like to. I don't know if you can hear in the back. Anybody that wants to come closer can do that. or whatever.

[01:00]

So what I'm going to do is, of course, we've been studying books on Nisayaris Nishihari's commentary on Genjo Koan. Not all of you were at the class, so a little explanation, but not much. We're using this book, Dogen's Genjo Koan, which we compiled three commentaries, Japanese commentaries. Nishiyari Boku-san, Suzuki Roshi, and Uchiyama Roshi.

[02:08]

And I've been using Nishiyari's commentary so far. So I'm going to read up to the point where we come, where we ended. And if anybody wants to close the door, it's OK with me. So Dogen Zenji says, when all dharmas are buddhadharma, there are delusion, realization, practice, birth and death, buddhas, and sentient beings. And when the myriad dharmas are without self, there is no delusion, no realization, no Buddha, no sentient beings, no birth, and no death. The Buddha way basically is leaping clear of abundance and lack.

[03:13]

Thus there are birth and death, delusion and realization, sentient beings and Buddhas. Yet in attachment, blossoms just fall, and in aversion, weeds just spring up. So, to carry the self forward and illuminate the myriad dharmas is delusion. That myriad dharmas come forth and illuminate the self is enlightenment. Those who have great realization of delusion are Buddhas, and those who are greatly deluded about realization are sentient beings. Further, there are those who continue realizing beyond realization who are in delusion through delusion. When Buddhas are truly Buddhas, they do not necessarily notice that they are Buddhas. However, they are actualized Buddhas who go on actualizing Buddhas. When you see forms or hear sounds, fully engaging body and mind, you intuit dharmas intimately. Unlike things and their reflections in the mirror, and unlike the moon and its reflection in the water,

[04:19]

And then we come to the place where we have not studied yet. And Dogen says, to study the Buddha way is to study the self. To study the self is to forget the self. To forget the self is to be actualized by myriad things. When actualized by myriad things, your body and mind, as well as the bodies and minds of others, drop away. no trace of enlightenment remains, and this no trace continues endlessly. So that's the part I'm going to talk about today, but I just wanted to go back a little bit to make things more clear. If you think in terms of intrinsic and experiential It will really help you to understand what Dogen is talking about. Intrinsic means that which is.

[05:29]

Intrinsic you can think of as empty, fundamental, or source. That's intrinsic. Experiential means what you actually experience. So there's always the dynamic of the essential and the experiential. If you keep that in mind, whatever the dogen or the commentary is saying, that will give you some way to think about it. So experientially, he says, when all dharmas are seen, at the time when you realize that all dharmas are Buddha-dharma, and sentient beings.

[06:32]

That's what our experience is. You're welcome. And intrinsically, when the myriad dharmas are without a self, there is no delusion, no realization, no Buddha, no sentient beings, no birth, no death. That's intrinsically correct. And then, going beyond both experiential and intrinsic, the Buddha way basically is leaping clear of abundance and lack. Abundance is experiential, and lack is intrinsic. Lack here meaning it's not something you can grasp. You can only grasp it through delusion. You can only grasp it through what is experiential.

[07:37]

So, the way is basically leaping clear of abundance and lack. Thus, there are birth and death, delusion and realization, sentient beings and Buddhas. Yet, in attachment, blossoms just fall. When we like something, too bad, because it will be gone. And in aversions, weeds just spread. You don't like it, but here it is. That's our life. So, then he talks about how we deal with all this. So here, he talks about what is our real practice.

[08:46]

Up to now, the genjo koan is in generalities. And then later, after this, he starts talking about it in more detail. But here, this is like the center of the genjo koan. This is like the main subject. To study the Buddha way is to study self. To study the self is to forget the self. To forget the self is to be actualized by the myriad things, or dharmas. Even though we know what dharmas are, I'm going to explain it again. When actualized by myriad things, or dharmas, your body and mind, as well as the bodies and minds of others, drop away. No trace of enlightenment remains, and this no trace continues endlessly.

[09:53]

So this is the summation of everything that's gone before. This is a kind of practice plan. This is many levels to what he's talking about. In Soto Zen, there are various, what would I call them? poems, let's call them long poems, or treatises, that are the core of expressing Soto Zen, like the Hokyo Zamai and the Sando Kai and the Five Ranks of Master Tozan.

[11:11]

The Five Ranks which we've studied many times here, of Master Dozon, these treatises all are expressing the same thing in different ways. The Five Rings was part of the transmission in Soto Zen up to Dogen's time, but he didn't like the way it was used. he eliminated that, but he actually is expressing it in his own way. So I'm not going to tell you what that is because it's too much here. But the five ranks which Dogen kind of rejected is expressed in this poem. So I'll tell you how that is. There are two different aspects of five ranks. One is more dealing with the balance of the five positions, which deal with five different aspects of the balance between experiential and intrinsic.

[12:26]

And the other one is just simply the plan of progression or advancement in practice. So I'm just going to say something about that. So to study the self, to study the Dharma, to study the Buddha way is to study the self. That's called the shift. The shift from having a self-centered way to shifting to Buddha way. In other words, you let go of your ordinary karmic way in order to take a vow to practice the Buddha way. That's called shifting from one side to the other.

[13:31]

Shifting from ordinary karmic life as your center. In other words, instead of being self-centered, you shift to being Buddha-centric. That's the beginning of practice. And then the second sentence, to study the Self, is to forget the Self. So this is called willing submission. In other words, to letting go of self-centeredness. Forget the self means letting go of self-centeredness. It doesn't mean to cut your throat or, you know, drop into the ocean. It simply means to shift from ... this is a further attitude of actually doing this, to actually shift from an ordinary way of life to a dharmic way of life.

[14:38]

And then the third is to forget the self is to be actualized by myriad things, which is a commentary on the preceding, but I don't know if you go into that. So it means achievement, actualized by myriad things, is called achievement. You actually are achieving what the practice is about. And it's to be enlightened by all things. It might be a little better to say, you are achieved by... Well, you can say that, yes. You achieve and are achieved, I guess. But it's called achievement. So this is actually kind of like a fruit of practice. And then the other one is, when actualized by myriad things, your body and mind, as well as the bodies and minds of others, drop away.

[15:50]

In other words, there's no subject or object. You are not the subject where everyone else is an object. You are one with all beings. That's called collective achievement. And then the fifth one is no trace of enlightenment remains and this no trace continues endlessly and that's called integration of achievement. In other words, you're not attached to enlightenment and you're not attached to a delusion. This is called going beyond. But going beyond doesn't mean leaving. It means being free from enlightenment and free from delusion. We think that enlightenment is the highest thing. But actually, freedom from enlightenment is more complete.

[16:52]

Enlightenment's okay. This is called enlightenment beyond enlightenment. Going beyond going beyond. So this is one way of looking at the five ranks. I mean, one way of looking at this section. So now I'm going to present Nishyari, focus on Nishyari. I just wanted to say about dharmas. And then there are dharmas, basically the psychophysical, emotional feelings that we have.

[17:56]

These are all dharmas. And this is what we mean by study the dharmas. We study the psychophysical constituents of a human being, which are called dharmas. But the extensive field of dharmas is things. So to study the Buddha way is to study the self. So he says, this is related to the previous line. When one side is illuminated, the other side is dark. This refers to when there are no reflections. When there are no reflections, there's no separation. In order to have reflections, you need separation. That part that he's talking about means when one side is illuminated, the other side is dark. I'm just going to read, because I don't want to explain everything.

[18:59]

I don't have time for that. So, Dogon Zenji's intention is to demonstrate the daily course of practice enlightenment. in the fascicle One Bright Pearl of Nogen. It says, ceaselessly pursuing things and making them the self, pursuing the self and making it things, in this way, to be enlightened is no other than fully experiencing the self and fully experiencing myriad dharmas. He says the self and myriad dharmas are originally one, thusness. There is no separate self apart from the myriad dharmas. There are no myriad dharmas apart from the self. Therefore, when one dharma is actualized, the ten directions are comprehended.

[20:00]

In the first case of the booklet record, the introduction to Bodhidharma and the emperor, Go on. The introduction says, when you see horns behind the fence, you know there's a cow. When you see one, you see it all. When you really experience one dharma, So it is essential to practice, in practice, to fully experience one Dharma. This is Dogen's rephrase. Just when you experience one Dharma. This is why in the 13th century, Kamakura period in Japan, the teachers, the main teachers in Japan, all had their own way.

[21:10]

Each one had their own way of practice. Dogen's practice was shikantasa, or ji-ju-yo-zamai, or just sitting, satsang. Nichiren had chanting the name of the Lotus Sutra. That was their one dharma. Shinran had his chanting the name of Buddha. totally experiencing one Dharma, one practice, one step, and totally entering into that one Dharma, rather than collecting a lot of information and putting it into your basket and saying, no, I got something. So it is essential in the practice to fully experience one Dharma. When we fully experience the Self, it is not betrayed by the myriad dharmas.

[22:21]

When we fully experience myriad dharmas, the Self drops off spontaneously. In other words, to study the Buddha way is to study the Self. What study here, nara u, means to be intimate with, to be intimate with the Self. It's just not like reading a book or studying, somebody's commentary, like we're doing today. It's fine to do that. But to study the Buddha way is to do zazen. Basically, to thoroughly experience this one dharma, penetrate this one dharma, then everything opens up. So, dharmas and the Self.

[23:24]

These are the two other things that Dogen is always talking about here, constantly. What is dharmas and what is Self? What is Self and what is dharmas? The Self is nothing but dharmas, but we call it a Self. Dharmas mean the constituents that make up something called the Self. the elements, the building blocks, the atoms. The Indians had all kinds of atomic theories, way back there. And they thought about what is the smallest particle. Suzuki Roshi said, we have this term, Gokumi, which means the smallest particle, which is beyond our conception. whatever that is. Not that we know what it is, but we know that it gets smaller and smaller.

[24:27]

And so we don't need to know everything about it, but we need to know that no matter how far you go, there's always something smaller. And no matter how far up you go, there's always something bigger. However, ordinarily, the self and various dharmas are seen as subject and object. So my self and the dharmas are seen as two different things. I'm the subject and the dharmas are the objects. Dualistic views are employed. It's like the son of a wealthy person wandering in hardship in a foreign land. The practice does not become solid. In other words, he's saying, when you just wander around looking for something, you don't really have anything solid.

[25:29]

So the practice has not become solid. So because of a lack of courage, investigation of myriad dharmas has not become thorough, because you're not really centered. This is to study the Self. If we study the Dharmas, then this is just ancient Indian practice, I mean, Indian Buddhist practice. You study the Dharmas in order to realize that there's no Self in the Dharmas, even though we say, My Self and Your Self. But here, it's important not to even though we know there's no self, not to push that aside and say, well, there's no self, because we experience dharmas as self. This is experiential. Even though intrinsically there is no self, our experience is there's a self.

[26:39]

So we have to be very careful and not just say, things that express these concepts loosely, hastily. So when you're here to study the Buddha way, you may think that it is to master the studies of the Tripitaka, the three baskets of learning, to attain the three vidyas, to master the six powers and attain the eight types of liberation or to go on a journey with the 42 stages of a bodhisattva as a distance goal. This is not the case. That would be a practice where the self is on this side and you see the Buddha way over there. It is a dualistic mind. So he says, to study the Buddha way is not like that. It is to study the self. To study the self means the body-mind study of the way.

[27:41]

This body-mind fully becomes Buddhadharma. What is this entire body fully becoming Buddhadharma? It is dropping off Buddhadharma and self all at once. Dropping off Buddha and self all at once means dropping the distinction. simply dropping the distinction between self and buddhadharma. In other words, closing the gap. Buddhadharma is the self, the self is buddhadharma. So if you see the dharma as distant, that's delusion. So the true practice of the Buddha way is that there is no self outside of the buddhadharma. There is no Buddhadharma outside of the Self. The Buddhadharma is no other than the Self. Dogen Zenji presents this as to study the Self.

[28:43]

People study the Buddha way, but often they don't study the Self. If we don't study the Self, it is not practice. It's just scholarly. So, to study the Self, Just to forget the self, what does this mean? Look now, practice while holding on to the self is not the Buddha way. When we're young, we tend to misunderstand this. We may think that we have aspiration because we have the self. But this is not right. We should completely forget the self. It is our right to forget it. Only when we forget the self does the entire body become the Buddhadharma. In other words, Forgetting self means, what I would say would be, to offer ourself to the Dharma and just become the Dharma. So whatever your activity comes from, it comes from the Dharma rather than from self-centeredness.

[29:54]

People say that they cannot arouse the Bodhi-seeking mind or that they can't hold the Buddha-Dharma in hand. That's because they have a certain view. If you want to pour sake into a sake bottle that's already filled with water, you can't pour it in, no matter how hard you try. Similarly, if you hold on to your old views, that is, views of self, the Dharma can't get in. If you surrender and throw your entire body into the Buddha's house, Today's practice of walking, abiding, sitting, and lying down is done from the side of Buddha. So that's what we call genjokoan, the way of everyday life. It's simply how you live your daily life. There's a story about a scholar that came to visit the Zen master And Sima Shukla sat down to have tea.

[31:08]

And this scholar was very full of himself. He was a little bit arrogant. He thought, well, this guy just sits out there all day. But he came and he said, well, please teach me something about the Dharma. And so the Zen master was pouring tea. And he, here's your cup, and he's pouring tea. And the cup's getting fuller and fuller. And the scholar said, you can't pour any more in there. It's too full. And the Zen master said, yes, just like you. There's no space for any more tea. So of course we say forgetting the self, but how do we do it?

[32:11]

That's the big question. How do we forget the self? How do we picture this? Throwing off the body. To be illuminated by myriad dharmas is the liver and bladder. We say the heart. They say the liver and bladder. Believe it or not. So to be illuminated by myriad dharmas is to thoroughly become myriad dharmas. Shiki, a gentleman, one of Pilgrim's disciples, comments, to be illuminated by myriad dharmas means to stick the entire self to myriad dharmas. This is good. It is the entire time and the entire place fully become dharma, and not even a speck of self is recognized. If we realize that we are dharmas, then we just pay attention to the activity and we don't become self-conscious.

[33:14]

Self-consciousness is a big obstacle. When we say self, it means ego. It doesn't mean usually We say, where is the self? There's the brain and the body and the organs and the blood and the thoughts and the emotions. Where is the self in all this? Well, the dharmas and the self are not two things. So, he says, the intimacy of practice lies here. Only when Only then does the self stand alone at one. Having a meal, you thoroughly become the meal. Forgetting yourself in the meal. At the time of zazen, you do zazen single-mindedly. This is to forget the self. Then the thought of before and the thought of after entirely become the self.

[34:20]

During all hours of the day, you're guided by the dharma without noticing the self. Only when we practice each moment of time as the entire time, and each dharma as the entire dharma, do you know the intimacy of the Self and myriad dharmas. At that time, each thing becomes your dharma. In other words, where the mind arises, there is no place to abide. To abide at ease in the place of no abiding is to forget the Self. thoroughly become myriadarman. At this time, the Self is the entire Self standing at one without conditions or without being attached to conditioning. You just see each thing, each event, each moment as new, totally new.

[35:24]

There's nothing held over. But we always are holding stuff over. And it's hard to just leave it all behind and go on. Because our motion, our forward movement, is tainted by our conditioning, instead of seeing things clearly, fresh, as they really are. So, when actualized by myriad things, this is the fourth line, your body and mind, as well as the bodies and minds of others, drop away. But look, here is body and mind dropping away. The self is this body. Others means myriad dharmas. Whether self or other, they drop away all at once. This is called being illuminated by myriad dharmas, because there's no self, only myriad dharmas are illuminating.

[36:27]

illuminated by myriad dharmas or illuminated by the self. This refers to the preceding section where the self comes forward and to illuminate the dharmas is delusion. That the dharmas come forward and illuminate the self is enlightenment. But here it doesn't matter because it's not two different things. So the body-mind of self and the body-mind of others drop away all at once. If you are not attached to either the self or merely dharmas, what illuminates and that which is illuminated both drop away. To allow all things to come forth in enlightenment and practice all-inclusive with non-attachment, as said in The Endeavor of the Way, which is a Dogon vesicle, of settling mind was a phrase, body and mind dropped off.

[37:39]

When body and mind are truly dropped off, it is the world of settling mind. In other words, settling mind where there's no place to settle. A naked doll cannot drop any clothes. I like that. A naked doll cannot drop any clothes. There's nothing to let go of. because of attachment. Having attachment is called naraka, or hell. There is no need to suffer by holding on to something. Deeply ponder. You might think that dropping off is suffering or a hardship. People do. Look at our society. Austerity. My goodness, what a terrible thing. Or a hardship that attachment is easier. We want to be more attached to more things. That way we have more security.

[38:42]

This is called topsy-turvy thought. In the Heart Sutra, that's what it's called, upside-down views. Dropping off is not such a complicated thing. The mind that arises in the place of non-abiding is the realm of dropping off. To take an everyday example, our love of bonseki, or plants, is a form of attachment. But when a gardener plants a tree, that is dropping off. It's a little bit funny kind of simile, but you can see what he means. The kind of possessiveness or attachment to cultivating this wonderful kind of special It's not the same. But when the gardener plants a tree, that is dropping off because he raises the mind without abiding. In other words, he's not attached.

[39:46]

In this way, you do not rely on any one thing for all hours of the day, and everything your eyes touch is in the realm of emancipation. It's in the realm of emancipation. It means that you are freed from your conditioned behavior of attachment. That's emancipation. In general, the attachment of ordinary people is small attachment. They don't have great attachment. I like that. Although we have a great fortune to have received a human body, which is very rare, most people don't aspire to make a vow to carry on great practice. They're drowned in wine and sex and so forth, following desires, neglecting cause and effect. and indulging in petty pleasure. Even if they live for a hundred years, they are still following in an ordinary way. What a pity! Practice is to throw away these petty attachments and petty delusions and arouse great attachment and great delusion.

[40:53]

Sometimes people say, well, can I be attached to the Dharma? And, of course, it's a kind of trick question. Because if you're attached to the Dharma, it's non-attachment. But seeing it in a dualistic sense, you should not be attached to the dharma. That's right. But being attached to the dharma is great attachment. I'd rather have great attachment to the dharma than petty attachment to the kind of stuff that we're all attached to. Great delusion is to vow not to receive the benefits of all the sages, even if you are drowned for innumerable kalpas. That's great delusion. So this is the Bodhisattva's vow. It's great delusion. Bodhisattva's vow is, beings are numberless, I vow to save them without being before myself. Everything comes before myself.

[41:57]

All beings come before myself. Which doesn't mean before. doesn't mean, oh, my poor little me. It means with great liberation that I can allow all beings to come before me. So without this courage, practice is not possible. This is what I call the pill of emancipation. If you swallow this emancipation pill, you will find well-being within it. A hundred years' longevity is guaranteed.

[43:01]

Longevity is not to die within death. It doesn't mean that your life continues on some way. It means that Birth and death. Life is beyond birth and death. Life is not limited by birth and death. Since no trace of enlightenment remains, and there's no trace that continues endlessly, this is the last part. This way, there is continuous going beyond, because you're not limited by enlightenment. Then, what is the absence of any trace of enlightenment? Trace of enlightenment is the boundary of realization. That's a place where you, oh, I'm enlightened, so there's no place else to go. No further. This is your limitation. This is called the boundary. So you let it go. If you say that you are finally enlightened, the front door is locked with a golden chain.

[44:08]

If you abide in the place where you were enlightened, going beyond is blocked. body has a trace, or if enlightenment has a shadow. So it is said, a cloudless blue sky still needs to be hit with a stick. Cloudless blue sky means enlightenment, emptiness. I have reached emptiness. Get down there. Help somebody out. When you are enlightened, you should completely forget about enlightenment. This is great practice. This is called letting go. But this is very hard practice. All the distinguished teachers abide in glory and enjoy bringing up the past. But compared to this, Ikkyu was great. Sojin Ikkyu was probably the most famous monk in Japan.

[45:17]

because he went to whorehouses and he went to bars and he converted with all kinds of people and he didn't make any distinction between one person and another or one place or another or one activity or another. He was really a great monk. And he said, compared to this, making a mistake called enlightenment. This is good. He doesn't look outstanding or distinguished, and he doesn't have the stink of enlightenment. There's a koan about that. We should study sometime. out as other Zen masters do. In other words, he doesn't follow stereotypes.

[46:20]

He's just himself. Then what is this no trace continues endlessly? Because enlightenment must not remain, you grind it off completely until there's not even a speck of enlightenment. When you reach this point of no stink of enlightenment, where there is no trace, you vow with great determination to let the absence of enlightenment continue long, long, long. like a single rail of iron for a myriad of miles. This is, again, great practice that encompasses the entire future. When you say, plunge in and work secretly like a fool, like an idiot, this is the end of the Hokyo Zama, right? Just plunge in and work secretly like a fool, like an idiot. Or when you say, no more enlightenment, never cease. Even when you get to the time of Maitreya Buddha descending, you go all the way, together with sentient beings, transmigrating through the six realms.

[47:28]

In other words, you don't separate yourself, you just go along with people. So this is indeed great practice. Look at this closely. Practice has to be like this. It's stupid to be puffed up, puffed up over a handful of enlightenment, like a long-nosed So instead, you let the absence of a trace of enlightenment emerge long, long, long. You must travel through the three realms magnificently with this absence of a trace of enlightenment throughout the three asamskaya kalpas and a hundred more. This is it. The 42 ranks is the long, long, long emerging of this absence of a trace of enlightenment. the true study of all of these studies is the absence of the trace of enlightenment.

[48:33]

Bodhisattvas of great power, appearing in various forms, responding to circumstances, are the bare magnificence of this absence of any trace of enlightenment. In other words, you just enter life with people as they are. knowing how to deal with life, people, circumstances, without being drowned. Body and mind dropping off is the beginning of practice. This is what we call beginner's mind, actually. Beginner's mind is the same thing. Adding practice enlightenment to this body-mind dropping off is indeed the Ginjo Koan of the Buddha ancestors' practice enlightenment. So, as we sit down today,

[49:47]

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