Good evening. Well, I am going to speak tonight using a text from Dogen Zenji, Ehei Dogen, who was the 13th century founder of Japanese Soto Zen, the branch of Zen that we follow here. This is from Dogen's extensive record, which I had the privilege to translate with Shohaku Okamura, and this is They're very short talks. I'm going to talk about one or two of them. This is from the last year of his life, last year of his teaching in 1252. So in some ways this talk is kind of, this short talk of Dogen's is very advanced Zen teaching. And we have quite a few beginners here, which is wonderful and auspicious for us to have people sitting their first period of Zazen.

[01:04]

But in some ways, this is the style of this Soto Zen teaching that we do. Kind of toss people into the deep water right off the start to start sort of at the top of the mountain to reverse the metaphor. But also in some ways what he says here I think is very appropriate for people new to Buddhism. So one of the things we'll be able to do when we have our new space is to offer a longer fuller introduction to Zazen meditation and practice. But I wanted to start tonight with this talk from Dogen and it's short and I'll read the whole thing first and then go back and talk about it. So he said, brothers and sisters, this is a good time. Just make effort. Time does not wait for people. Extinguish the flames from your head.

[02:06]

entrusting what is in front of your face. How could this depend on expression in words? One who actively responds to what meets their eyes is called a superior person who studies the mystery. If you can be like this, the style of our tradition will not fall. At this very time, how is it? After a pause, Dogen said, drawing legs for the four snakes is not my intention, but rather to diligently practice the Buddha ancestor's heart for this lifetime. So that's the talk. And so I want to talk about it and what Dogen said. So first he says, this is a good time. And in Zen practice and in Zen teaching, we emphasize being present right here.

[03:13]

This time includes all time. So just sitting, being present, sitting upright, finding this space in which we can meet this deep inner wholeness and dignity happens right here. This is a good time. It is. So he says, just make effort. Partly it's just the effort to show up. Here we are, we all were able to be here tonight. But it means showing up. The effort is to show up again and again, this time, this breath. So he says, time does not wait for people. Extinguish the flames from your head. This is a kind of common image in Buddhism for the suffering of the world. for the flames of greed, hate and delusion for the confusion and grasping and frustration or anger that is the human situation so he says extinguish the flames from your head and this of course was long before global warming even so this situation of being in the world in the world of confusion and

[04:38]

corruption and struggle and trying to get what we want, trying to get rid of what we don't want. This is described as a fire consuming us. So he says extinguish the flames from your head. How do we do that? How do we find a way to go beyond these difficulties of greed, hate, and delusion. So he says, entrusting what is in front of your face, how could this depend on expression in words? Of course, here he is using words to talk about it. And this is also part of the style of our tradition. We talk about what we can't talk about. We try and convey to each other and to ourselves and make available this practice of entrusting what is in front of your face.

[05:45]

So we sit in our meditation, formal meditation, facing the wall. And, of course, facing the wall is to face ourselves and our life. And whatever the problem is you are sitting with, we say, this month, this week, this evening, Entrusting what is in front of your face. So partly this practice has to do with a kind of faith, but it's not faith in something else. We do the entrusting. How can we bring our heart, our effort, our caring, our whole life to the situation right now? and of course maybe you know here now the flames aren't so hot you know for those of you sitting the first time it may have felt difficult to keep sitting to remain upright for 40 minutes but how do we entrust what is in front of our face so this is true in our sitting practice when we give ourselves to

[06:58]

each breath and the thoughts rolling around and the situation we're in, in our body and mind. And yet also this is the practice when we get up from our cushion. As we meet the world, how do we entrust what is in front of our face? How do we meet the world around us? How do we give our caring and awareness and attention to the situation we face. This gets right at the heart of what this practice is about. And trusting what is in front of your face, how could this depend on expression and words? So I often emphasize that This practice also is very much related to creative expression. We are expressing Buddha by sitting on our cushions, by sitting upright. When we bow down to the Buddha image in the front of the room, it's not that we're bowing to a piece of stone, we're bowing to this possibility of uprightness and inner dignity and wholeness in all of us and in all things.

[08:13]

So we find expressions for it in various ways. in our everyday activities. And then Duggan says, one who actively responds to what meets their eyes is called a superior person who studies the mystery. So always at the heart of our life is this mystery, this unknown. Nothing ever happens according to some expectation or plan. no matter how well we may explain the reality of the world using Huayen philosophy or modern physics or whatever great system of explanation exists in the world, the reality of this very time, this good time, goes beyond, is deeper than that. And so we study the mystery. the mystery of each moment, the mystery of how it is that we can come together and share this possibility of facing our life, facing the world, trying to engage the world with care and helpfulness and attention.

[09:32]

How do we study the mystery? So, Zen also talks excuse me, about the great matter of life and death. In each moment, thoughts and feelings arise and they fade away. And each month, people are born and people pass away. So, in Sangha, in our community, we have both births and deaths. We have the meaning of this mystery of our life. How do we entrust what is in front of our face? So we study the mystery not to kind of solve it or fix it or have some answer to the mystery. We study the mystery as the way of engaging the mystery. What does it mean? How is it to be here in this time? So he says if you can be like this,

[10:38]

the style of our tradition will not fall at this very time. How is it? So I've sometimes recommended as a mantra for Zazen, how does it feel? As you sit, inhale, exhale, in the midst of thoughts and feelings, how does it feel? What is going on? And the point isn't to get some answer to that question, but just to keep looking. to turn back and see, oh, what is it like? Not to be the person we think we are, but this body, this mind, this breath, this period of meditation. How is it? How does it feel? What's happening? So there's a posture, an attitude of, of inquiry, of paying attention, of study. Not study like we study books in school, but what's really happening here?

[11:43]

This is why sometimes Buddhism is talked about as very compatible with science. There's a kind of empirical method to this practice. What's happening now? that tension in my shoulder, what happens if I breathe into it? How do I feel my breathing in my belly, in my shoulders and chest? How is it? So we have various practices to help us settle into this situation of entrusting what meets us, what is in front of our face, and looking at this very time, how is it? So Dogen paused then, which he liked to do. And really all of these words, these expressions and words are just comments on the silence.

[12:49]

And then he added, drawing legs for the four snakes is not my intention. And of course, to put legs on a snake is extra superfluous. Snakes slither around, they don't need legs. And the snakes of our thoughts maybe don't need legs either. And when he says the four snakes, well, maybe that's earth, water, fire, air, the various things that come in fours, anyway. Rather, My intention is to diligently practice the Buddha's ancestor's heart for this lifetime." So this kind of teaching, extinguish the flames from your head, maybe this is... pushing us into some kind of effort that's more like how it is when we do intensive practice. Yesterday some of us sat in this room all day and sometimes we do three days of sitting and in our new space maybe we'll have some five or seven days of sitting but also each time one comes to face

[13:58]

the wall and entrust what meets our face, what is in front of us, there's this possibility for this kind of intensity. What is it? How is it? It doesn't happen according to some plan or expectation, even though we do have meditation techniques to help us focus. We can count breaths, or we can sit with a mantra, or we can work with the breathing in various ways, focus on sounds. There are all kinds of meditation technologies that we can offer to help in settling. But the point is just how can we entrust what is in front of our face? And yet, this kind of intense effort is the foreground of the background, which is, how do we bring this into our whole life?

[15:02]

So Dogen talks about diligently practicing the heart of the Buddhas for this lifetime. So I emphasize more than some intense effort, how do we sustain a practice of paying attention to our life? How do we find a way to keep coming back to sitting and facing our life or to engaging with friends, family, co-workers, the people who are difficult in our lives, particularly? are often our best teachers. How do we persist? So Brian's shirt says persistence. It's a great Zen t-shirt. How do we face our situation, this life, this world? So the point again is not to get some special particular experience. Sometimes we have opening experiences and sometimes those can be dramatic and transformative. But what's more deeply transformative is how do we find each of us our own way to persist, to continue, to practice through our whole life.

[16:12]

through our whole life, through time, through our whole life, through bringing this Buddha heart, this caring, this love, this extension of whatever this mystery is that we get glimpses of in our sitting. How do we bring this into the world? The world needs it. So please continue this practice. The world is suffering. whichever you know whatever you call the world the world that you meet through your week and the society around us and our planet needs attention it needs caring each of us can be a light for the world so i talked a while back about this basic instruction uh... said to be the last teaching of the buddha that's usually translated, be a light unto yourself.

[17:15]

And the poet Mary Oliver says, talking about this, make yourself into a light. How do we transform the flames from burning to a gentle lamp that can help with the people in the world around us? How do we offer everyone their own way of finding a space in which to be upright and caring and pay attention? So this is Dogen's diligent practice. And as I said, this is, you know, what he's talking about here is advanced practice, and it's also available to each of you, including those of you who just sat in meditation for the first time. Just make effort. Entrust what is in front of your face. actively responding to what Nietzsche-Reiz has called studying the mystery.

[18:17]

We can't totally understand the complexity and wonder and strangeness and depths of this. And yet, here we are. It doesn't exist outside of us. It's not somewhere on the wall, it's we entrust the world, breath after breath. So there's another talk that he gave shortly before this that somehow is to me related. And this, again, this very short talk, and I'll just give the whole talk first and then say a little bit more. Dogen says, the family style of all Buddhas and ancestors is first to arouse the vow to save all living beings by removing suffering and providing joy.

[19:21]

Only this family style is inexhaustibly bright and clear. In the lofty mountains, we see the moon for a long time. As clouds clear, we first recognize the sky. cast loose down the precipice, the moonlight shares itself within the 10,000 forms. Even when climbing up the bird's path, taking good care of yourself is spiritual power." So that's the whole talk. And a lot of it's very poetic, but the basic intention of it, I think, fits very well with his studying the mystery. So again he says the family style of all the Buddhas and ancestors is first arouse the vow. So we will chant at the end of the evening the four bodies of the vows to arouse the vow to save all living beings. This is, how could we imagine such a thing?

[20:27]

And yet this is the spirit of this practice, this Bodhisattva practice we call it sometimes, this intention to awaken together with and help the awakening of all beings. So, first we arouse the vow to save all living beings by removing suffering and providing joy. So, this practice is fundamentally about trying to ease the suffering of the world and all the beings in the world and all the beings on your cushion or chair. We don't ignore our own suffering. How do we attend to our own woundedness, our own sadness, and also provide joy? So Zen sometimes seems very somber or bleak. But really this is a very passionate practice. We're here to try and ease suffering and bring joy into the world in some way.

[21:34]

Thich Nhat Hanh suggests sitting with a little smile as you sit. There is a kind of satisfaction kind of deep joy to being willing and finding the space to just sit and be ourselves. This is noble and wonderful and you know it's maybe not the pursuit of happiness that is talked about in in our usual civics classes or civil religion, but anyway, how do we find this deeper joy? And then how do we share that? How do we help ease the suffering of those around us and bring some joy, some relief? So this is kind of the starting point for this practice of entrusting what's in front of our face. And Dogen says, only this family style is inexhaustibly bright and clear.

[22:38]

And then he uses these poetic images from his time in China and maybe also from what was in front of his own face when he was speaking this. He was teaching this in the deep mountains of Eiheiji, far north of the capital of Kyoto. So I'm looking forward to seeing them again. actually next month, later next month. In the Lofty Mountains, we see the moon for a long time, and maybe we can see this as talking about practicing up in the mountains, practicing in a kind of intensive practice period or meditation retreat. But I would say the rhythm of this is when we sit, we sit like a mountain, we sit still, we sit upright, and every time we come to our practice, we get a glimpse of the moon. As clouds clear, we first recognize the sky, this possibility of openness.

[23:42]

And he says, cast loose down the precipice, the moonlight shares itself within the 10,000 forms. So this possibility of openness, of awareness, of attention and awakeness is something we share. Not necessarily We may share it by going and helping others in some difficult situation, as Neeraj described, helping them to find their practice. But in ordinary everyday activities, standing in the line at the grocery store, washing the dishes, taking out the garbage, crossing the street, how do we help support this? possibility of openness. So then, Dogen concludes, even when climbing up the bird's path, even when we are open to moving through the openness of the sky without knowing what's in front of us, although the birds seem to follow the same migratory paths for centuries,

[25:00]

there is some path there is some way there is some way to study this mystery and uh... it unfolds in a way that we can't explain there are various roadmaps in buddhism various systems of practices all of them helped us to just find what is it like to be here right now but he says even then taking good care of yourself is spiritual power so Part of being available to help relieve suffering, bring joy, bring some sense of that kind of space of openness into the world, first requires taking care of yourself. So we do this in this practice of sitting upright and trying to take care of how it is to be present in that situation. But we also do it again in all of our daily activities.

[26:02]

How do we take care of ourselves? In a way that supports letting go of our own suffering and also finding some space of openness. So this is, I said this was advanced, but it's also very simple. And yet actually doing it is the point. How do we take on sustaining this kind of awareness and intention and attention? So we have some time if anyone has At this time, some comments or questions or responses, please share them. And for the people who are here tonight for the first time too, if you have some question, any question, please feel free.

[27:15]

What are you holding? Oh, this is a teaching stick that was given to me when I was entrusted to share this teaching, but really it reminds me of the responsibility that we all have to convey this possibility, this practice to each other and ourselves and everyone. This is a monk's robe. Some people are wearing a symbolic monk's robe or a smaller monk's robe like David is wearing there. He was lay ordained, as a number of people here were. And it's the same structure. It's sometimes referred to as a patch robe. So in our tradition, we sew them ourselves. So Yoshi behind you is wearing one also of the monk's robe.

[28:19]

He was priest ordained. So anyway, this goes back to the beginnings of Buddhism, to the time of the Buddha when he founded an order of monks and nuns, of practitioners, take care of this practice and to try and share it with others. So some of the people here are preparing and sewing rocks, as they're called, for lay ordination. So we take, at that time, we take refuge in Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha. We entrust ourselves and the world to this process of turning towards awakening. And in some ways, all of us, whether we do that formal ceremony or not, just by coming here and sitting, we are sharing this caring. So this idea of this first arousing of the vow, in Sanskrit it's called bodhicitta, when we first have the thought of spiritual practice,

[29:28]

when we first think about, oh, what would it be like to meditate, to actually do some activity that helps support a kind of aware and caring life, this first intention towards that is considered very important. In some ways, that's the basic turning towards taking refuge in Buddha. And this is just a kind of formal public way of expressing that. Some of us do. Why do you read from Dogen's book? Because I find Dogen and of course other Zen teachers and sutras inspiring. I feel encouraged. So, as I said, I had the honor and obligation of translating all of that together with a Japanese Zen priest friend. Dogen's teaching particularly I find very inspiring.

[30:34]

because he's not trying to explain something to us really. So when we recognize something, the word sutra is used for the teachings of the Buddha. I also read sometimes, teach sometimes from sutras. These are the words the Buddha spoke. And again, sometimes they may give us practical instructions on how to take care of ourselves, how to take care of sustaining the practice. But for me, really, it's kind of encouragement to continue. So anyway, I want to share what I feel is kind of inspiring. question. Good.

[31:36]

So another way to say it is that in Soto Zen in Japan, and now in America. Dogen was a very prolific writer, one of the most prolific in Zen history, and so he had a lot to say, and what he says is coming from this place of sustaining this kind of deep attention and awareness and attention. But there are also many other. For a practice, particularly, Zen emphasizes the practical experience of this beyond words and letters. And ironically, we have libraries full of words and letters about this. So it's kind of a joke. But anyway, here we are. And at least for Adam, these words evocative of something. So partly, you know, the words don't approach the mystery, but also, you know, as Katagiri Roshi said, we have to say something.

[32:50]

Here we are, sitting together, and we could sit silently, and that's actually, you know, maybe the heart of it, but also, Each of us has our own way of expressing something that reflects a bit of that mystery. And that's actually a great joy that we can express together. So some people do it with pictures or painting or music or... by running or teaching or taking care of gardens or cooking. There are many ways to express this. Words is maybe the most superficial. But feel free. And I sort of like put myself in their shoes and sort of think, well, you know, if I was saying that for the first time, what would I sort of think about what you're saying?

[34:10]

And so I just have a thought that, you know, sort of engaging in this practice that sort of organically sort of in a way trains you to be more, to pay attention, to be more present, to be more open, to be more I think that having that sort of practice, the path that your life can take versus the flames of attachment and aversion and all that this society tries to promote can be pretty drastically different. Good. Other responses to Brian? Kevin, any thoughts? His smile says it. Yes, Nathan.

[35:13]

One thing I've been thinking about this week, I came down with an illness and I was thinking about how Buddhist practice is sometimes divided into samatha and vipassana, which are quality and insight. I realize that I maybe tend to overemphasize the insight side of things and overlook the tranquility part. Sometimes I get back to that tranquility and calm and the relaxation that meditation brings. Yeah, thank you. I think it's useful to talk about it in terms of those sides. that there is the settling, the calming. Sometimes it's called serenity or tranquility, but a little bit of calming, a little bit of settling.

[36:17]

And then there's the side of insight. And one of the great Zen teachers talked about how they're exactly the same. So part of our settling is that in this settling, awareness can arise. And that awareness supports our settling. But yes, we can talk about it in terms of those two sides. Thank you. Yoshi, any thoughts to share? I just wanted to ask Nathan a question. How did getting ill lead you to I'm thinking about traumatised depression. Well, the illness was shingles, which is a nasty thing that young people usually get. So it's probably about stress induced. So I was thinking, should we relax a little bit? Please take good care of yourself.

[37:35]

With the doctor's help. We have just a little more time if anyone else wants to share something. Dawn. And I said I went and visited some folks in Indiana. this weekend. And so there was a couple of different situations where I was put in just listening to what people were saying that were definitely way opposite views and were actually really painful for me to hear. You know, kind of some views that were just really, I didn't understand. But that these people truly believe in their hearts. But so I had to like really kind of, so it was painful. So instead of just breathing into, you know, like my knees, which is what I do a lot of times, or my shoulders or whatever, you know, I was kind of breathing into what the pain that I was feeling was that.

[38:43]

Because it was their views, and so how was that? And, you know, it's not necessarily a bad thing, but it felt painful to me. And so I was just kind of sitting with that truth Just that. And just being able to sit and breathe was good. I'm glad I can do that. Part of this practice gives us a wider capacity to just listen and hear even what's unpleasant to hear and just be there with it. And sometimes in that situation we can find, even if there are very opposing views or views that we feel are harmful, we can find some common element, some part of something that we can share with the other person. Well, I think the breathing helps.

[39:45]

It's a good thing to keep breathing. I want to encourage you all to do that. Well, thank you all very much for coming and sharing this practice together.

[39:59]

@Transcribed_UNK
@Text_v005
@Score_91.53