We've been talking the last few weeks about this teaching of Buddha nature, and I've been reading some of the little sections in Dogen's long essay about Buddha nature. Dogen is the 13th century founder, Japanese founder of Soto Zen, who I talk about a lot in his practice we follow here. So this idea of Buddha nature is not so obvious, and so I want to, just by way of introduction, I've been talking about it some, but for those who haven't heard, or just for review, originally, just historically, going back to India, there was this idea that some beings have this capacity or potentiality to awaken and become Buddhas, this kind of seed or potential of

[01:03]

Buddha nature. Gradually, as this teaching evolved in India and in China, before it came to Dogen in Japan, it came to be understood that all beings, so there's a line from the Mahaparinirvana Sutra, all sentient beings, without exception, have Buddha nature. So Buddhism and Buddha nature is not just about people, it's about plants and animals, and came to be understood in Chinese Buddhist philosophy as, in some ways, the nature of reality itself. So what is this Buddha nature? Practically speaking for us, there is a way in which it's the foundation of our practice, that as we sit and breathe and return to awareness of our posture in this yogic physical practice, upright but relaxed, we can face not just the wall, but we face ourselves and the thoughts

[02:10]

and feelings that arise, as well as sensations, physical sensations, sounds, so forth, just the color of the wall in front of us. As we sit and settle into that space, we start to have access to this quality of Buddha nature. And the beginning of the essay, which I've talked about, and again to repeat, that Dogen takes the Chinese characters for this phrase from the Sutra, all sentient beings, without exception, have Buddha nature, and particularly that middle part, he changes by using other meanings of those characters to read it as, all sentient beings, whole being, or complete being, or completely are, completely is Buddha nature. And I've glossed that as all sentient beings, which means the whole phenomenal world really, in its wholeness, is Buddha nature.

[03:10]

Our practice is about finding this sense of wholeness, whatever particular causes and conditions and karmic problems and difficulties and challenges each of us has in our own life, and we have together in the communities, various communities we're in, and we have in our society and culture, and in all of the difficulties of this planet's being, there is this quality of wholeness to existence, that when it's expressed, is Buddha nature. So this is not some abstraction that exists somewhere out there, it's not on the wall, it's on your cushion or chair, it's on, in your being, it's, it, it, we have a responsibility to Buddha nature, in a sense, we have the Buddha work, Dogen calls it sometimes, to express Buddha, express wholeness, each of us in our own particular way, each of us has

[04:21]

our own way of, our own posture, our own breath of wholeness, of Buddha nature, of whole being Buddha nature. And the, this endless practice is about finding how to express that in our life, facing the problems of our world and the situation we're in. So the section, the section I want to read tonight, actually a few of the sections we've talked about have to do with time or temporality, and this one does in a way too. So Dogen starts with a quote of a story or a saying from a particular master, and this one, he quotes the sixth ancestor, the great sixth ancestor, Huineng, who, a great enlightened layman, who in some ways is the founder of Chan in China, and Dogen quotes this, this phrase from one

[05:27]

of the lamp transmission documents, the sixth ancestor taught his disciple, Singchang, impermanence is in itself Buddha nature. Permanence is, as such, the dualistic mind that discriminates dharmas between good and bad. So I want to read some of Dogen's commentary about this, but what he's saying here is, as he often does, he undoes not just conventional worldly thinking, but conventional Buddhist thinking. So in early Buddhism, this basic idea of impermanence is fundamental to Buddhism. It's one of the qualities of Buddhism, non-self, emptiness, impermanence. Impermanence is one of the ultimate realities, the laws of the land, so to speak, in the Buddha field, and in all of our reality. And in early Buddhism, they saw that impermanence

[06:28]

was a source of suffering, because we lose the things we want, everything changes, we can't hold on to anything, everything is ungraspable. So impermanence was the mark of samsara in early Buddhism, and there was this striving for nirvana, for peace, which was seen as Buddha, as permanent, as something reliable that we could hold on to. Dogen's turning that inside out. He's saying impermanence is Buddha nature. Impermanence in itself is Buddha nature. Permanence is just the dualistic mind that discriminates between good and bad, your own dualities. So what Dogen is going to say about this is pretty radical, and it has to do with how Buddha nature and our real wholeness is about embracing impermanence, change. How Buddha nature exists exactly in this world of impermanence, where we can't

[07:35]

hold on to anything, where everything is shifting, where we don't really know even who we are. Permanence is delusion. Permanence is dualistic thinking. Permanence is being stuck. So Dogen is turning inside out the old way of looking at this. So I'm going to read a little bit of what he says and comment some more on it, and I hope we will have time for some discussion So he says, commenting on the saying of the Sixth Ancestor, Dogen says, preaching, practicing and realising of impermanence by the impermanent themselves can be no other than impermanent. Those who are now manifesting themselves to save others are manifesting themselves in their impermanence and preaching Dharma, and this is the Buddha nature. Moreover, at times

[08:38]

they manifest a long Dharma body, at times a short Dharma body. So this is impermanence. This is the world of Buddha and Buddha nature and our practice. It's this world of change, of shifting, the world where there is nothing solid to rely on, and yet here we are. Buddha is preaching in the realm of impermanence, in the realm of change. Sometimes a tall body, sometimes a short body, sometimes old, sometimes young, sometimes men, sometimes women. Buddha expresses itself, sometimes dogs, sometimes cats. Buddha expresses herself in this impermanence. And then Dogen goes on, the permanent saint or arhat is impermanent. The permanent unenlightened person is impermanent. For saints and ignorant people to be permanently saints or permanently ignorant would not be Buddha nature. It would be only the foolish notions of small minds and small nations. Restricted knowledge spun from discriminatory speculation. Buddha would

[09:42]

thus be reduced to a small, limited body and nature to narrow, restricted activity. So he's saying both saints or sages and ignorant people, for them to be permanently saints or ignorant, that's not the Buddha nature, couldn't be. That would be only the foolish notions of small minds, products of discriminatory speculation. Hence, he says, hence the sixth ancestor uttered the words, impermanence is in itself Buddha nature. Permanence, the idea of permanence is prior to turning into enlightenment. But even though Buddha nature turns into the wisdom that cuts away the passions or becomes the worldly passions being cut away, prior to turning is never associated with the traces of coming or going. Hence, it is said to be

[10:44]

permanent in the sense of Buddha nature as impermanence. So maybe all that is permanent is this impermanence. For that reason, the very impermanence of grasses and trees, thicket and forest is the Buddha nature. The very impermanence of people and things, body and mind is Buddha nature. Lands and nations, mountains and rivers, prairies and lakes are impermanent because they are Buddha nature. Supreme complete enlightenment, because it is Buddha nature, is impermanent. Great nirvana, because it is impermanent, is Buddha nature. Even great nirvana, he is saying, is impermanent. So what is this about? Well, one part of it is that if people were permanently wise or ignorant, that wouldn't be Buddha nature because there'd be no possibility of awakening. So we live in this world of change, and this

[11:48]

is exactly what Buddha nature is. We have some, each in our own way, maybe some habit of resisting change or wanting to hold on to things or the things that we like, we want them to remain. And yet, we live actually in the world of impermanence. Things are changing. Sometimes at a pace we can't see. We can't see how the mountains are worn down. We can't see the change in shape of Lake Michigan maybe, or sometimes maybe we can. But we live in the world of impermanence, and the practice then is to embrace this impermanence. So again, and I've said this before, but Buddha nature is not some thing. Buddha nature is the way things is. Buddha nature is not something that we can acquire. If we practice

[12:52]

long enough, then we'll realize Buddha nature, or we will get a hold of Buddha nature, or we'll figure out Buddha nature. Buddha nature is the nature of our questioning right now in this world of impermanence. So part of the point of talking about Buddha nature as actually impermanence is that there is this possibility of transformation, change. When we lose loved ones, when we lose situations that we are happy with, when things that are wonderful in our life or good in our life shift and change, this is very sad. So we know that impermanence is often a source of sadness and suffering. But also impermanence is the possibility of Buddha nature, because Buddha nature is not a thing, but it is dynamic

[13:53]

activity. It is awakening. It is compassion. It is caring. It is this possibility of realizing ourselves. It is this possibility of catching a glimpse of our wholeness and deepening this sense of our wholeness and finding a fuller way to express our wholeness in this body, in this breathing, in this posture, in the creative activities of our life. Buddha nature is a flow. It's not some thing that can be pinned down. So time itself is moving. It is moving. We may feel if we resist, if we want to resist impermanence, that we may feel that time is some external enemy or something. But time is just how we are expressing ourselves.

[15:00]

How it is to feel the intention in our neck, to feel the position of our head, to feel where our hands are, how our fingers are. Time is our expression of time. Time doesn't exist as some external objective reality. We do have clocks and calendars and so forth, and that's part of time too. But the point of practicing fully the wholeness of Buddha nature in its dynamic flow is not to pin it down. That's why Huining said that the Six Ancestors said that permanence is not Buddha nature. Permanence is just dualistic thinking. So this quality of whole being, Buddha nature, this quality of enlivening, creative, joyful,

[16:07]

whole body, Buddha nature, joy not excluding sadness, but being able to be present with the whole of our life and the whole of our world as it is, here now. It's not timeless exactly, so excuse me for picking on you, Laurel, because you were talking about timelessness yesterday, and I appreciated the direction of your question. But to be fully in the present in terms of this impermanence Buddha nature is to be fully engaged in the dynamic flow of time right now that fully inhabits time, to really take on impermanence. Because we are impermanence. We are Buddha nature. Buddha nature is us. How do we see? Well, it's not even a matter of seeing, because we can't understand this. I can babble about it, and

[17:10]

we can get some feeling about it. And the point isn't to figure this out or understand it, so don't worry if you understand a thing I say. Don't worry about remembering a single thing I say tonight. Can you be encouraged, however, to really enjoy the fullness of your being time in this impermanence of Buddha nature? Time is moving in many directions. As we sit here, as we've sat here for a period this evening before service, our body and mind was moving around between being present and past, maybe in a thought of something in the past, but maybe just in terms of whatever you had for dinner being part of the way your body was, or whatever you had for lunch. And future too, maybe just in the limited way of your ideas about what you're going to do tomorrow or something. But also, the reality

[18:10]

of your future is totally dependent on each breath you took this evening and are taking right now. Time is moving in many directions. Impermanence is not just about things changing in one direction, in one line. Are things getting better? Are things getting worse? That's not the question, because things are moving all around. We don't know how things will change. And for those of us concerned about the problems of the world, things change in ways we don't understand. Sometimes good things happen, seemingly suddenly, but there are innumerable causes and conditions. I've mentioned the example of the Berlin Wall coming down, or South Africa, apartheid ending relatively peacefully, not that there aren't problems

[19:12]

in both the situations. There are changes in our world, and we don't know how that happens. So the point is that Buddha nature is about taking responsibility for expressing your wholeness here and now, which affects all time. So for me, the point of Dogen talking about this and recalling a statement about impermanence is itself Buddha nature, how do we take on the questions and the shiftings and the uncertainties? How do we bring our most dynamic whole being, wholeness, to the situation of this impermanence? How do we bring our most creative self to this life? Part of that might be studying yourself, studying

[20:18]

how things are changing, studying how various aspects of your life are, we might reflect on how you are different from a week ago, or seven months ago, or two and a half years ago, and probably you all have some examples of things in your life that are different. And we could even imagine how you're going to be different seven months from now, this is August, so next February, seven months from now. And some things will seem the same and some things will be different, but the point is that we live in this Buddha nature impermanence. The point isn't to get rid of that, or to try and hold on to things as they are in some static way, but to really enjoy being alive. That's really what this is about,

[21:19]

just how do we enjoy really being alive in the way in which, as living beings, things are shifting, sometimes in very subtle ways, sometimes in very big changes in our lives. So I don't know that I have that much more to say about it, or whatever else I have to say about it, I'll say in response to your questions, comments, responses. Please feel free to ask me anything. David. So what's the difference between Buddha nature and emptiness, or is there? Yeah. Emptiness or suchness, somebody asked me the same question about suchness, is a way of describing reality, inner connectedness. To talk about it in terms of Buddha nature is a perspective on that. We're bringing Buddha to that. We're bringing, yay, all being. The point of this practice is to help relieve suffering. The point of this practice is to

[22:24]

help wake up, to help bring our life to life, to help everybody else in the whole world, to pay attention to the quality of their life, and the quality of the world and the suffering around them. So in a way it's not that Buddha nature is different from emptiness or different from suchness, but it's a way of talking about it that gives a little other edge to it, that emphasizes your job as Katsuryu is how to express the impermanence whole being of your Buddha nature. It's not that it's yours. It's not that there's some thing called Buddha nature you have, but how is it that Buddha nature expresses itself through you? So I think it's useful to talk about suchness and emptiness in this way. There may also be usefulnesses to talking about emptiness or suchness. Good question, thank you. Laurel? So in the spirit of babbling and maybe not being understood, I'll take another crack

[23:35]

at timelessness, which wasn't the right word. Everything else you said was so wonderful that I had to pause on that word, sorry. Oh, I so appreciate it. I like it. So what I find compelling about Buddha nature is that it's not trapped in this tiny time frame of human beings on this planet. We live in a four and a half billion year old planet in an immensely more ancient universe, and most world views talk about the last 2,000 years. It's crazy to me that that's where the meaning of everything comes from. Buddha nature explodes that into something with which I can't find words that express it. So I think it's really

[24:38]

not expressed well enough, but so much more, the importance of that seems so much more interesting or compelling and makes my whole little being vastly more significant to me. It's just so thrilling, actually, and to be made of the same substance as all these other ancient specks, it's just very thrilling. So that's what I mean by timelessness. Good, very eloquent, especially the part about you can't find words for it, because that's exactly the point. Anything we say about it is just, you know, somewhere out there across the street. But yes, the perspective of impermanent Buddha nature is, and of the Mahayana sutras,

[25:46]

is Bodhisattva showing up from distant galaxies or from several hundred previous big banks ago. So to have that real perspective of wholeness, impermanence, Buddha nature, is to, on the one side, see that 2,000 years of human history is somewhat, well, I don't know, I don't want to call it trivial, but anyway, it's a tiny piece of reality. And from that perspective, we can see that we're living in this 21st century, that we're living in this very kind of dark ages, in this very immature species who's caught up in cruelty

[26:46]

and violence and corruption. The way our world is organized causes a lot of suffering, and we can see that. And we can also feel the wholeness that goes beyond, that goes way beyond. So yes, I think that's what you were trying to get at in talking about timelessness. But it's really the richness of time, or the richness of this time, the richness of all time, the richness of all being. And then, the other piece then is, okay, when we get a taste of that, and we can't understand it or even say anything really articulate about it, but when we get a taste of that whole being Buddha nature, how do we bring that into the challenges of our own particular life, our own problems with our relationships or with family or friends or co-workers and the problems of our world and society? It's not that we, so it's not that we check out into emptiness or whole being impermanence Buddha nature. It's that we are informed by that, and then that gives us such a greater

[27:52]

capacity and a greater kind of comfort with which we can then respond, take responsibility, do the Buddha work of trying to be helpful for ourselves as well as for people around us in our world. And our world needs it. It makes a big difference. So yes, thank you for reminding us of the beings, 50,000 whatever should go away from here, who are also part of this impermanence Buddha nature. Yes, Adam? I'm interested in this expression of the whole being impermanence Buddha nature that you were saying to David. It seems to me that sometimes, well a lot of times in the course of the day you can be interacting with someone or if you're paying really close attention and there comes a point where maybe there's something different that could come out of

[28:59]

you that was not premeditated. And I'm wondering about the potential expression of that or the actual expression of that and the trust involved or the delicate balance there of how that comes to be or does not. Are you watching it? Are you saying, wow, I had the impulse to go there but I watched it and I didn't? Or it's not something that happens thanks to our figuring it out. I don't want to say that in a totally unqualified way because there's some people who may, their minds may work in such a way that they analytically kind of see something. But there was a statement about this in what we chanted. Let's see if I can find it, which exactly that point that I was talking about. Yeah. Do not suppose

[30:02]

in the Genja Koan that what you realise becomes your knowledge and is grasped by your consciousness. Although it is actualised immediately, the inconceivable may not be distinctly apparent. Its appearance is beyond your knowledge. And yet you describe the experience that some of us may or may not recall of being in a situation, talking with somebody, trying to work on a particular, in a particular context, where suddenly there's some access to some other wider sense of things. And that can be applied particularly to that interaction, that situation. Where does that come from? We don't know. It's not... I was just wondering about trusting that. Yeah, and then you put the word trust in there, which I wanted to, yeah. I mean, do you know what it's coming from, this inconceivable luminature, or is it coming from, you know, a four-year-old hurt child, or, you know, where, you know...

[31:09]

I don't think it, I don't think it matters where it's coming from. If it helps, great. So, it may be coming from all of that. It may be coming from some period of Zazen a week ago. It may be coming from some hurt when you were a four-year-old. It may be, you know, or all of the above, or some being from, you know, 20,000 light-years away. We don't know how. And yet, it is actualised immediately. It doesn't happen through... When that sense of spaciousness and possibility arises, here it is. It's not something that we kind of manipulate into being. Suddenly, oh yeah, and you find some other way to respond to this person you're working with, who you have some problem with, or whatever. And it's, it doesn't, even though you realise it, it doesn't become your knowledge,

[32:09]

and it's not grasped by your consciousness, necessarily. You may recognise some part of it. Okay, so the question of trust is, I think, a good question to put into that. How do we trust that situation or that response? So, I think that's part of what you were asking about. Where, how do we find our way to trust that? So that's a big question. I would say, just to take a little corner of it, just turning towards Buddha, taking refuge in Buddha. Just so faith, to use that word, or trust, is a big part of our practice. We trust that there'll be another breath. We trust that somewhere back there, if we reach back in the middle of the night, there's some whole view. In our meeting, in the middle of our situation of working, talking with someone,

[33:15]

some meeting at work, and some other quality arises, you have to kind of, you know what you don't know, or you know where the trust is, I don't know, we can't figure out the trust either exactly, but it has to do with a kind of trust, a kind of confidence that, just to keep going, that it's a trust in impermanence, in a sense, and maybe that's part of what the Sixth Ancestor is saying, that because Buddha nature is impermanent, there are other possibilities right here, now. And where does it come from? We don't always know. Usually we don't know. Sometimes we might be able to trace it or track it a little bit. That's not so important, usually. Just, okay, how do I give my wholeness to this? So part of our practice is just generosity. It's just trusting Buddha, turning towards Buddha, turning towards, taking refuge in Buddha,

[34:18]

and Buddha means trusting impermanence, trusting wholeness. And so you may express something in some meeting with someone at work, and that that comes from someplace other than what you had thought of before, and it may be helpful or not, but then that's not the end of it. Then in the next moment or the next meeting, well, okay, where is that wholeness, and how do I bring that to this situation? And it's not that we do this perfectly. In fact, we're continually making mistakes. But the trust part is that we can turn back and remember all being, remember impermanence, remember Buddha nature. So that's not an answer, but my response to you. Thank you. Dave? So what Adam's question felt like to me is sort of that juxtaposing, carrying yourself forward to experience myriad things,

[35:20]

and then the myriad things coming forth to experience themselves. So you're in this conversation, and this body language from that person, the things he said, the project going on, the work, and the time of day, and what you've eaten, and all these things are coming forth, and then there was you that responded in a certain way. Sort of that you came forth in the advent of all these things arising, and then there was you, which is contrary to what we normally think, is we bring ourselves into some situation. So then there was you, and then it sounds like our habit, like our intellectual sort of habit to think like, okay, well, how did that happen, or how can I figure that one out? And in a way, it seems sort of like beyond our capacity to do that. Good, yeah. So we allow all being Buddha nature to express itself through us, and then let it go, and come back to our posture and our breathing and meeting the next thing. Any other, someone else, comment or question or response?

[36:29]

One last. Well, the point is just to enjoy. This wholeness that we can't really get a glimpse, it's so far beyond something we can figure out or see clearly, and yet it can't, we get actually, we allow something that we can't get a glimpse of, access to that through being willing to do this practice, through being willing to be present and upright, and enjoy impermanence. So don't get caught by trying to figure out something or trying to get at something or trying to reach some special experience or special state of mind or state of being. It's here now in this impermanence.

[37:30]

How is this wholeness expressing itself? In you. Yeah, Kevin. Now in yoga, they have the Atman, which is supposed to be the individual repository of, I guess, identity, a certain way. Buddhism sort of grew out of yoga, out of Hindu practice. Is there any, but whereas one is very more concrete, Buddha nature is not. Can you speak to that at all? Yeah, well, so to say part of, let's talk about impermanence, let's talk about non-self. So Buddha grew out, Buddhism grew out of Hinduism the same way Christianity grew out of Judaism. And along with impermanence, there's another basic principle of Buddhism is Anatman. So Buddha rejected the Hindu idea of some essential soul

[38:32]

or substantial self as the repository of all this. And that's, in a way, the same as celebrating impermanence rather than permanence. Things are flowing. There's not some fundamental essential canon, or Brooks, or Kathy. There's this flow of Buddha nature. And so this is embracing impermanence, not being stuck anywhere. And I'm not saying this to criticize Hinduism. There are different ways of talking about things. But certainly Buddhism is also a yogic practice. This is a yogic practice that we're doing. This is a physical practice. This is not something we're trying to figure out. This is something we actually engage in with our bodies. So in that sense, yeah, this is part, this is a, Zazen is yoga, is part of yoga.

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