Good morning. I am going to talk this morning about oneness in Zen. And this talk is a commentary on the painting that Kaz Tanahashi donated to us, his calligraphy of the character One, or Ichi, which is in the front hall. So I have a kind of preface, somewhat long preface to this talk. It was very common in East Asia for poets to comment on paintings, particularly landscape paintings, to write many poems and calligraphy on the painting, and many different people would do that. There's a little bit of an example on the Kannon picture attributed to Dogen.

[01:01]

with Dogen's writing at the top, and I'm not sure who else wrote on the bottom. But sometimes there would be these long vertical landscape scrolls with many different verses on it. And there's a book that I mentioned once before and didn't give the title. It's an academic book, Zen Buddhist Landscape Arts of Early Muromachi, Japan, by Joseph Parker, that I've been reading slowly. But he says some interesting things that I wanted to share, again as preface, about Zen in the 1300s, the Rinzai Zen monks in the Gozan, or Five Mountain Temples in Kyoto, were very much involved in bringing Chinese culture to Japan and in developing Japanese Zen culture. This is in the 1300s, a century or so after Dogen, who started Soto Zen, who I talk about often. In reading this academic book, Joseph Parker doesn't say it this way, but I have the feeling that what we talk about as engaged Buddhism needs to be opened up and expanded.

[02:16]

So usually in modern times, engaged Buddhism refers to Buddhist social activism. And some of the people in our Sangha and I have also been involved in that. But I think it's helpful to think about engaged Buddhism in a much wider perspective. So these Rinzai monks in the 1300s, very intentionally, very thoughtfully, were trying to bring Zen awareness into Japanese culture. they had this sense of Zen mind or intention, purpose, as something that they wanted to bring into Japanese culture. So this book focuses on how they did that through landscape painting and through poetry and also through calligraphy. So they actually were very successful

[03:20]

engagement with Japanese culture happened through many arts, through the way of tea and flower arranging, landscape painting, also landscape garden design, pottery, many other ways, including martial arts. But the sense of a way in Japanese culture is really how Zen most affected Japanese culture, not some not as much in the formal temples or meditation practices, although that happened too. But I think in their wanting to share their awareness with Japanese culture, in which they did successfully, they were engaged Buddhists trying to inform their society. So I think it's helpful for us on our storefront temple New Storefront Temple in North Central Chicago to be aware that we are engaged in the world, each of us in various ways, in various contexts, and that there's a continuum of engagement, which includes social activists, but also includes artists, teachers, parents, healers, therapists, many different ways in which

[04:45]

our activity in the world can be an expression, or is an expression, of our Zazen heart and mind. So I want to give this Dharma talk commenting on Cause's painting of One in the spirit of those Japanese Zen pioneers who commented on landscape paintings. as well as dedicating this to Cos. So the Chinese character for one is the most simple Chinese character. It's what all Japanese school children start learning when they learn to, they don't use, traditionally don't use pens, but use brushes and ink. So the painting that Cos made when he was here, he was here a month ago doing a calligraphy workshop in this room, sharing with us various Chinese characters and ways of holographing.

[05:51]

And the brushes, it's all done using a brush and ink. The brush is held about two-thirds of the way down, and it's held vertically. And it's a very different activity, a very different feeling, and a very different result or context than using a ballpoint pen to just draw a horizontal line. So the character, for one, in Chinese and Japanese, horizontal line, and that's what Kaas has brushed and left us out in the entryway. But if you look at this one, you will see that it's not simply a horizontal line, although it is that. The brush gives each character texture, and you can see the beginnings and ends of the brushstroke. And you can see the quality of the brushstroke and the thickness of the brush. So calligraphy is a very high form of art in East Asia.

[06:55]

There are people who do calligraphy with brushes or with pens, I guess, of American letters, but it's a very different kind of art form and considered one of the highest art forms in East Asia. So Cos left us this white-on-black one with a lot of textures. You can look at it afterwards out in the outer hall. Cos also has specialized in what he calls one-stroke paintings. So in addition to all his work translating Dogen and his scholarship, he has a wonderful book called Brush Mind, which talks about his calligraphy and painting. And he decided to do one-stroke painting. So in standard Chinese calligraphy, for example, he shows the character for person, which has one stroke, then another stroke.

[07:58]

But in these paintings, he just does one stroke. He says, one-stroke painting, a single line, straight or curved, painted in one breath. So one stroke of the brush on the canvas or on the paper. Also, one breath. He says, to paint with just one brush stroke may sound like having a party by yourself. But if you can create a painting with one stroke, why do you need more? So I also want to share some of the pictures. And these are often just selections of or a little fragment of one stroke. Sometimes they're part of one stroke that's cut off. This, for example, is a piece of one brushstroke. So he selects, he frames parts of the stroke. Even sometimes something like this was part of one brushstroke.

[09:00]

And it's mostly empty space and texture. There are brushstrokes that are like this. So they're very lively. He has this book, Breschmann, just filled with these pieces of one stroke, sometimes something like this, where you can see a large section of a solid one stroke. At any rate, he has some interesting things to say about it, in addition to the ones I've mentioned. He also says, usually I have some kind of plan. Today I will draw a vertical line, which is dry. Today I will try a dot. or splashing a line from a bowl of ink. And when the forms come, I say, oh, isn't this nice? I can't believe what I have done, that I have done it. It's too good for me. Somehow it's there. So it makes you feel like you don't know what is going to happen, like flying. He also says, one straight stroke painting leaves little room for thinking.

[10:04]

The moment it's started, it's already done. So a different approach to art that maybe we sometimes think of. But I also wanted to talk today, along with Causes One Stroke, about the idea of oneness in Buddhism. And there are many contexts for that. So in Japanese tea and other ways, in other meditative art forms in Japanese culture, there's this saying, ichigo ichi. Ichi means one, and it means one time happens once. So it's about how each moment is actually, when we're paying attention, unique. Just like when you put

[11:08]

a lot of ink or a little bit of ink or whatever on a brush and do something with it on a piece of paper, it's going to be unique each time. So actually, when we look closely, each breath, inhale and exhale, is unique. So some of us have sat Even though it's been just a couple months or so, some of us have sat numbers of times in this meditation hall, and yet, each time, in so many ways, it's unique. What you had for breakfast, or what you did yesterday, or the pattern of the person walking upstairs, or your posture, or how you've been feeling in the past week, or what you're going to do tonight, or just where you're sitting in the meditation hall, or many things make this moment, each breath, each activity we do is totally unique.

[12:18]

This is an important aspect of oneness, this life, this breath, this Dharma talk. this posture you're sitting in right now happens once. And we change it sometimes. We raise our knee, whatever. And that becomes unique. Each breath, we may feel like inhale and exhale, but we've done that lots of times. But of course, if you had failed to inhale one time in your whole life before, you wouldn't be here. and each breath depends on every other breath. So this idea of oneness includes this sense of uniqueness, that this life is unique, that every particular event happens once. In some ways, this is the heart of the way of tea or of other Japanese arts and the heart of zazen. Appreciating this moment.

[13:23]

And of course, we may have, you know, the tapes rolling around as we sit, we may have familiar thoughts, familiar patterns of thinking about things, or responding, or in our life we have routines and habits, and some of those are helpful. In fact, all of them come about because we think they're helpful in some way, consciously or unconsciously. So the patterns and routines we have in our life That's okay. It's not that we have to try and do something to achieve oneness or uniqueness. It's not that we have to try to do things differently. Actually, when we study something like bowing or just sitting or making a bowl of tea or drinking a bowl of tea, we appreciate each time the unique particularity. It seems silly, but in a way, just to appreciate the vividness and uniqueness of each moment is very important in our Zen practice.

[14:42]

Another aspect of oneness in Buddhism is the idea of one vehicle. So this may be more theoretical, but actually it's kind of practical. This is from the Lotus Sutra. that's important in Zen as well as in other forms of Japanese Buddhism, that all of the different practices, all of the different Buddhist teachings, according to the Lotus Sutra, are part of the one vehicle, the vehicle of oneness, which is about helping all beings to awaken, this idea of universal liberation. And yet there are many, many ways, because there are many, many different kinds of beings, So one of the many classic stories about this in the Lotus Sutra is a man comes home and finds his house burning. And his children are playing inside, and they don't want to come out because they're having too much fun playing with their toys and don't realize that their house or the world is burning. And so he tells them, oh, I have all these different vehicles outside, you know, BMWs and Mercedes Benz, whatever.

[15:55]

Anyway, so each one is attracted by a different vehicle and comes out of the house and they're saved. And then when they come out, they find there's just this one vehicle, this ox cart, this old jalopy or whatever it is. But really, that all of the different kinds of practices, all of the different kinds of teaching are part of this one vehicle, this one purpose, the one reason for Buddha's showing up in the world is simply to help beings awaken. to help beings enter into the path of awakening, this ongoing process of awakening. So here we are in a storefront in Chicago trying to make available this wonderful practice of zazen, of seated meditation, and this tradition of teaching and practice. And yet, each of us has our own particular way of approaching it. Each one of us is unique. In the Lotus Sutra, this was adopted in China and East Asia as a way of explaining and categorizing all the different kinds of sutras and all the different kinds of practices.

[17:04]

But I think in our times, if we think about how to release all beings from suffering, we have to recognize all modes of helpfulness. I think this idea of one vehicle is especially relevant in our time, when we have a global awareness and we have many, many different approaches to spiritual activity and practice. Part of oneness then is actually, part of this One Vehicle is really deeply appreciating differences. So this One Vehicle is about diversity. not just tolerating different kinds of people, but actually appreciating the uniqueness of each cultural form, and we can talk about problems and helpful aspects of each approach to helpfulness and awareness and awakening.

[18:12]

But still, compassion in Buddhism is about recognizing differences. So in some ways, Oneness is Manjushri sitting on a lion on the altar there in front of the Buddha holding up the teaching staff, showing oneness, cutting through. But the true cutting through all of our delusions, just oneness. But the true oneness also recognizes each of us has our particular way of expressing that. Each of us has our own particular way of engaging our life and our world with some awareness, some caring, some kinds of activities that we use to engage with the world. So the idea of oneness is very appealing.

[19:14]

The idea of sameness, oneness as sameness, is very appealing. And especially even when we look at differences, recognizing our commonality is very helpful. If we look at, you know, the different world religions, which sometimes fight with each other, or different cultures, or different approaches to how to engage in our world. On some level, seeing the commonality is very important. Seeing the oneness of the differences is very important, rather than kind of emphasizing the difference, seeing other people's or other approaches as different, as separate from us, as not part of how I'm approaching practice, or how we should approach practice. But again, oneness also implies the uniqueness of each particular expression of oneness.

[20:16]

So again, this idea of oneness can be very appealing. We are all one, seeing the oneness of all the different peoples in the world and so forth. And in terms of spiritual practice, in many spiritual traditions, mystics especially, have aimed to merge with oneness, to find oneness, to see oneness, to experience oneness. In some ways, the flashy satori or enlightenment experiences are seeing the oneness of everything. And there are different expressions of that in Buddhism, seeing that everything is Buddha nature, for example. But there's a deeper oneness that I want to talk about today also. So in one of our basic chants, the harmony of difference and sameness, In our translation it says, according with sameness is still not enlightenment.

[21:28]

This could also be read as merging with oneness is still not enlightenment. So there is this basic oneness. When Dogen came back from China to Japan, he said that all he brought back with him was Eyes horizontal, nose vertical. We all are that, to see the oneness of all of us. Eyes horizontal, nose vertical. But in Zen, true oneness is not oneness separate from difference or otherness. Oneness is not at the expense of appreciating differences. So Kastanahashi's translation of Genjo Koan, one of Dogen's basic writings, the actualization of the fundamental point, he says near the beginning, the Buddha way is basically leaping clear of the many and the one.

[22:39]

So again, if we look at the painting out there, we can see that it is a very lively, vital, unique one. And this sense of oneness, ultimately, in our practice and in Buddhist philosophy, to use that word, is about seeing this deeper quality of oneness. So, in some ways, part of what we maybe first are attracted to in our sitting practice is this sense of oneness. I think of it maybe as a sense of wholeness. But, you know, just one line includes all, everything. Just one. But again, this ultimate, the ultimate oneness is not one as opposed to two, or as opposed to many.

[23:46]

It's the oneness of One with two, or one with 10,000. So there's an old saying saying, not one, not two. Not to be caught in one, not to be caught in two. The character for two is two horizontal lines. The upper one is slightly less lengthy than the lower one. But not one, not two, just wholeness. So when we talk about non-duality Zen, it's not non-duality as opposed to duality. It's non-duality of duality and non-duality. We appreciate the differences and we appreciate the sameness. This is this harmony of difference and sameness. We are all one and we are all one in a very unique, each of us in a unique way. And each aspect of our life is one. If you think about the many different kinds of activities that you do,

[24:49]

in your life, or the different places you've lived. There's still one karmic storyline that we imagine or believe in, and yet, differences. So how do we appreciate one as including everything, as very inclusive? like the one vehicle. And we have this storefront temple on Irving Park Road in north central Chicago. And so we are out here in the street, in a way, even though we are fortunate that our contractor designed things and we all help design things so that we don't, we're not so disturbed by the vehicles, the many vehicles driving by on Irving Park Road.

[25:52]

If you listen carefully, we might hear them. But they're all part of the sounds of this room, this one, this one room. So there are rhythms of oneness and two-ness or oneness and many-ness in our practice too. So sometimes we go and do a meditation intensive, or as there has been at Tassajara for three months, we go off and do some special practice where we can, of course there is There are different people and differences in Tasmara too, as Eric will testify. But sometimes we go into some turning within where we appreciate sameness more. Sometimes we go out and engage our world in various ways. So the oneness of those two is the true oneness.

[26:55]

So before we close and have some discussion, I wanted to read a passage from Dogen's extensive record that deals with oneness. This is from the year 1240. He was still living in Kyoto in the capital at the time. And this brief talk was given at the occasion of the winter solstice. So the first day of the lunar month in 1240, when winter began, and he says, to start, attaining oneness, heaven is clear, attaining oneness, earth is at rest. This is a quote from the Dogen, he's quoting from the Tao Te Ching, Lao Tzu, the basic, the first great classic Taoist text. Attaining oneness, heaven is clear. Attaining oneness, earth is at rest. So what I'm talking about today really is, what does it mean to attain oneness?

[28:06]

Can we attain a very rich, full oneness that does not ignore anything? Dogen goes on, attaining, and this is Dogen speaking, attaining oneness, a person is at peace. Attaining oneness, the time becomes bright. As this oneness grows, within the days growing longer, the Buddha ancestors attain longevity. So he was talking about, at the winter solstice, about how the days were about to start getting longer. And now here we are into Chicago spring, and the days are getting longer. And we can feel that. He was saying this on the shortest day of the year. He says, as this oneness grows, within the days growing longer, the Buddha ancestors attain longevity. Everybody within this growth, you arouse awakening mind, practice, engage the way with effort and attain the realization of a single phrase.

[29:08]

So maybe he's talking about realizing a single phrase from Lao Tzu, attaining oneness, heaven is clear, attaining oneness, earth is at rest. You have already attained the power and vitality that is within this growth. So he's talking about as this oneness grows, this oneness that he's talking about is not static, is not a simple flat horizontal line. And we can see that looking at causes one where there's lots of texture. We can feel the ink splashing. As this oneness grows, within the days growing longer, the Buddha ancestors attain longevity. So we can feel this with spring arising in everything now. Still pretty chilly, but the oneness is growing.

[30:12]

We don't usually think of oneness as something that grows, or that changes. I'll just read the rest of it, and it's talking more about this quality of the winter solstice. Therefore, making a rosary with the bodies of Buddha ancestors, you reach 360 days. Every time this day of winter solstice arrives, the length of days proceeds just like this. This is exactly the body and mind of Buddha ancestors. So this growth proceeds like this. So every winter solstice, the days start to grow longer. After a pause, Token said, the body and mind of each Buddha now can grow. The face and eyes of jade rings and round jewels are shaped in a heavenly palace. Having counted each of them, how long and far do they reach? On this suspicious occasion, knowing the count is the single brightness.

[31:15]

So he's referring there to counting beads, which some of us sometimes carry. I thought I had some in my sleeve here. He says that each bead is the head of a Buddha ancestor. Anyway, we can practice with that or not. But the point is that oneness grows. Oneness is not just one or just two. Oneness is this inclusive wholeness. And yet each one is unique, so the particular calligraphy of one outside is unique. Not static. Not narrow like a ballpoint pen. Dynamic, multifaceted. So, this oneness, the horizon, it expands. It unfolds like enlightenment itself.

[32:23]

From one blossom, five petals open, as Dogen says in the verse up there. So, appreciate the dynamic quality of oneness growing. So any comments or questions or responses this morning, please feel free. other selves. But at the same time, I see a problem with that, too. And I guess I just wondered if you could speak to self in terms of oneness, because we do tend to. I mean, I certainly do. I think most of us at various times think of ourselves as being very distinctly different personalities. We have our own Facebook profiles.

[33:26]

We have various things that are unique with ours, our brand, if you will. I'm wondering how that plays in. Well, that's exactly what this is about, that we each do have our unique sense of self. And that's how the human mind works, how consciousness works. So the teaching of non-self, which is basic teaching in Buddhism, does not mean get rid of yourself. It means to see that The whole circle of everyone in this room is one circle, and yet each one of you is particular. So ultimately, and this is part of seeing the oneness that can happen when we sit satsang, we see that our construction of the self, our particular Facebook page, is a construction. It's something we've put together based on many causes and conditions, friends, teachers, family members, relationships, and so forth.

[34:32]

And yes, it does exist conventionally as a separate self. This oneness I'm talking about is seeing how there is a thread all through that. All of us, eyes horizontal, nose vertical. And yet, each of us is expressing that oneness in a unique way. But when we hold on to ourself as separate from other, then we have, you know, conflict and wars and all kinds of problems. We think there is stuff out there we need to get or that we need to protect ourselves from, rather than seeing how we are actually in it together. And yet, part of compassion is recognizing the differences and recognizing that different people have different needs and different approaches. And so it's this dynamic between the one and the many. And in terms of ourself, to see how our self is a concoction of many influences and is not static.

[35:38]

So Buddha talked about non-self in response to the Indian Hindu teaching of Atman, that there's some essential fundamental self, but with impermanence and the complexity of causation, we see that actually there's not some fixed, eternal, substantial Andi. Andi is a dynamic, wondrous event that uniquely expresses the oneness of all of us. Does that help? like when you talked about each of us is sort of unique but there's a connecting thread, a circle. I'm just wondering too about a lot of times it seems like half of the world is around people creating sort of a cultural self that draws a line between say, you know, the one down the street, or the church down the street, or the other tree.

[36:45]

So that it sort of adds another level of complexity, because we can think that we're really connecting, but at the same time, maybe we're just drawing a line a little further out from our individual self, but we're still drawing that line around us and separating ourselves. Yes, so the problem is this sense of separation. And yes, very much. Karma is not just individual. This is a problem with a lot of Asian Buddhism. Karma is collective, too. We have a collective karma, this Sangha, as opposed to Daiyuzenji down the road and Ravenswood, you know. Soto versus Rinzai. Well, you know, there's things to offer in each approach. Or we think that, well, we're different from Oh, I don't know, Arabs. We're Americans and Arabs are people we can torture and invade their countries. All kinds of separation and sense of separation. It's a big problem. So to see oneness is to see that we are connected, but also this aspect of seeing differences not as some barrier in separation where we have to do unto so-called others before they do unto us, but actually as a way of appreciating

[37:56]

the five flowers, the five petals that grow out of one blossom, as appreciating the differences that inform us about who we are. This is this dynamic oneness. Yeah, Eric. I was just, you know, thinking about what Eddie was saying, how we, you know, we draw those lines farther and farther away, you know, to sort of include more within a oneness with their, you know, those lines themselves remain a problem because there's always an outside. And it occurs to me that part of what happens is it's not like we see a self and, you know, therefore we draw a line between self or others. It's like we start drawing lines in order to sort of bolster the illusion of having a self, you know, as part of how we try to get some solidity. And it's true that there's this, you know, I mean, there is, I mean, you know, you and me are different, we have different, you know, pasts and interests and all those things, but there's always a constructive nature to that.

[39:13]

We're always sort of inventing that. Part of the way we do that is by coming up with this notion of something that's not the self. So there's differences in their commonalities. You both have blonde hair and glasses, so you're the same person, right? No. Yeah, but it's not just that human beings create self. It's actually in the nature of our awareness. So studying the self, as Doken calls it, we can see that consciousness, discriminating consciousness, works by making distinctions. left and right, men and women, good and bad, Soto and Rinzai, whatever. The nature of our awareness is, and the nature of our intelligence, it's not that we should get rid of this, but to see that we are all constantly making distinctions and to not get caught by them, to not buy into drawing those barriers between

[40:30]

this version of this part of the oneness and that part of the oneness. So this is a lifelong practice. This is the heart of our practice. How do we connect or see the differences, appreciate them? How do we learn to work with our sense of difference, others' sense of difference? I would say this is what engaged Buddhism is about, by bringing this meditative awareness into Japanese culture through art, through poetry, through sitting and accepting a bowl of tea, or arranging some flowers, or designing a garden, or appreciating the particular pattern of wholeness and oneness, we start to not be so caught by our sense of separation. it's possible to not be so caught by our distinctions at the same time that we can use them to practically take care of things in our world.

[41:42]

I've been thinking about where that comes from, that tendency to separate and how It really is part of our earliest conditioning of things that we learn about the world, but also thinking about how much of that can be fear-based. I don't have any particular conclusions about why we do that, except that it also seems to foster a lot of fear of, you know, if I can be in a way, you know, I can make myself separate and maybe keep something out, but then if I make myself separate, then maybe I keep me out, and that's, you know, kind of a scary thing. And so I've been thinking about, you know, the oneness is like, is there a way to just sort of expand to, I don't know, work with the fear in some kind of way? Yeah. So working with fear is an important part of our practice. And the first part of it is just facing the fear, not being afraid of fear.

[42:55]

Fear is about something in the future. So if we're sitting Zazen and our knees or our calves or our upper back starts to hurt or feel uncomfortable, there's This fear, oh no, what's going to happen? If my knee keeps hurting this much, oh no, it's going to explode. It's not rational. But it comes up. Part of Zazen is that we actually experience that pain. And of course, the deeper pains in our heart, too. But fear is about something that might happen in the future. Yes? Just a quick point on that. Just something that I'm always I don't encounter it a lot when I read the Buddhist texts that I'm familiar with, which is limited to being sure.

[44:05]

But I'm just wondering, based on what you're saying, is fear sort of a subset of delusion in a sense? Because it's just a sense of worrying or anxiety about things that may or may not happen anymore? Yeah, it's a product of the basic truth of suffering or dissatisfactoriness. But it's also not recognizing the oneness of time. So that's a whole other series of Dharma talks. But yeah, there are teachings about fear. I'm going to talk in the announcements about Mark Lesser, who's coming in a couple of weeks in his book. He talks about facing fears in very practical ways. There are five fears in Buddhism, five petals, fear of death, which maybe we can all at least relate to if we don't have that ourselves. Fear of loss of reputation. Fear of loss of livelihood, which is certainly something happening in our culture now, and I want to talk more about right livelihood in weeks to come.

[45:10]

Fear of weird mental states. Fear of going crazy. And the fifth one is fear of public speaking, which may seem like it doesn't go with the others. Apparently, that's universal. So yeah, there are ways of practicing with those, specifically. Is there texts you can refer to that you can read? Or put something together that would be great. Yeah, OK. I'll get back to you on that. Oh, cool. Thanks. Eddie, we have temple cleaning and tea and cookies coming up, but any last comments? I was just thinking about how physically different the calligraphy is than leaning forward with your elbow on a desk. I just wonder how that seems like one

[46:14]

style of writing has much more alignment and uprightness than the other. Yeah, so calligraphy itself is considered a way. Shodo, I took a few lessons when I was living in Japan, but it's the way of the brush. You sit upright and the brush is upright and you breathe. So because when the workshop took our hands, we like tried to let go of our, trying to hold on and just move the brush for us. So we could feel what each of those characters felt like in each of those brushstrokes. So it's actually, it's something that all, you know, Japanese school children learn. And it's also a way, a meditative art. So yeah, it's a very different, when you're sitting upright, and also moving the brush Slowly, it's amazing how slow it is. And you feel the texture of the brush and how much you're pressing on the brush, brush or not, the thickness of the brush line.

[47:25]

It's a very vivid, sensual experience. So to bring that into the mode of writing something, again, it's an example of one of these ways. even in western artistic traditions there are a lot of ways of holding brushes so I think like in in grade school we only learn you know one way of holding the pencil but you know sign painters hold

[47:57]

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