Good morning. Welcome. Some of us are sitting here all day and some of us have been sitting here the last two days and I've been focusing on the practice of samadhi, of settling. Literally sometimes it's translated as concentration, but it refers to our meditation as a way of settling into this experience, this immediate presence, our inner uprightness and dignity. So often we talk here about the function of zazen, how this awareness is carried into the world and into our everyday activities, into our relationships and our work life,

[01:03]

into facing and responding to the challenges of our world, the realm we might say of the precepts of the Bodhisattva guidelines for how to express this. But when we are sitting, other times too, but especially as we take time to settle into zazen more fully over the day, over the weekend, we have this opportunity to deepen our practice and settle more fully. And as I've been saying, it's in some ways impossible to actually talk about this and yet it's something we experience, it's something we can share. Usually in zen we talk about it through images or poetry, through there are many

[02:09]

different names of different kinds of samadhi. They're all totally connected, each one contains all the others, but there are different ways of talking about them. And the samadhi and the text I've been referring to this weekend is the Komyōzōzanmai, the Samadhi of the Treasury of Radiant Light. This is a text by Koen Ejo, who was the main disciple and successor of Heihei Dōgen, the 13th century Japanese monk who founded Soto Zen, the tradition that we follow here. So this Samadhi of the Treasury of Light is a writing, actually Koen didn't write much, this may be his only writing. He did compile and help edit a lot of Dōgen's writings and all of Shōbō Genzo, but this particular

[03:13]

writing is interesting because he's commenting on one of the essays in Dōgen Shōbō Genzo called Komyō or Radiant Light, and Koen Ejo felt that he didn't, that Dōgen had not said enough. So this is a quite a long essay and I'm just touching on some parts of it this weekend. So what is this light? How do we hear it? Where is it? How is it helpful? So a lot of what Dōgen writes and most of what I'm going to focus on are old stories from the Zen tradition that have to do with this, that Dōgen and this essay could go on and comment on. And I'll start this morning with a quote from a

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great Chinese master named Changsha, I think very helpful. So Changsha said to his assembly, the whole universe is the eye of a practitioner. The whole universe is the family talk of a practitioner. The whole universe is the total body of a practitioner. The whole universe is one's own light. In the whole universe there is no one who is not oneself. The whole universe is one's own light. So this isn't about some light outside, it's actually not about some light inside either, but the whole universe is your own light. When we think of light we think maybe of, you know, the lights in the ceiling or

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the light of the sun or the moon or the streetlights or whatever. Our basic basic meditation instruction is to take the backward step and turn the light inwardly to illuminate yourself. Dōgen says this, others have said that. So our direction, our starting point in this practice of meditation is focusing within, turning the light inwardly. We're so used to seeing the light somewhere out there, but actually it's not just out there. The whole universe is one's own light. In the whole universe there is not no one, no thing, that is not oneself. Everything in the whole universe is on your cushion or chair right now. So we could talk about this in terms of the teaching in Buddhism of

[06:33]

deep interconnectedness. We could talk about it in terms of dependent co-arising, how everything in your life has contributed as a cause to allow you to show up this morning. The whole universe is supporting you to just be present on your cushion or chair right now. Kōen Ejo says about this, the universe spoken of by Changsha is a single eye of the individual involved in Zen study. The entirety of space is the total body and mind. He does not grasp the holy or reject the ordinary. He does not say that confused people are not so, while enlightened people are thus. This isn't about, you know, who's confused and who's awake, who's enlightened. This isn't about some sacred special holy place or state of mind or something.

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Kōen says what he does is point directly to your own light. Don't just defer this to great master Changsha or any of the other great masters. So, the entirety of space is the total body and mind. This isn't something, this, so all of this light that we're talking about this weekend and the samadhi that we're practicing this weekend is not something out there that you have to figure out or acquire. This is about the fundamental reality that is already here under your cushion, around your cushion. In the various beings sitting on your cushion or chair right now.

[08:38]

What is this light? How do we express it? How do we enjoy it? How does it inform our practice body? So, Changsha also said the reason students of the way do not discern the real is simply that they continue to recognize the conscious spirit. It is the root of infinite eons of birth and death, yet deluded people call it the original human being. So, we get caught up in some idea of the self or of the world and we try to hold on to that. That's what gets in the way of allowing the light. Kōen just says about this to cultivate realization based on ideas about your own

[09:49]

mind and assumptions about what is to be attained is to cultivate the root of birth and death. And of course that's where we are in the world of birth and death, in the world of karma, in the world of confusion. This light goes beyond that and it's not something, again, that's somewhere else that you have to figure out or get a hold of. What is this light? Where is this light? So, oh, also, Kōen, as you've commented, that the way cannot be attained by the conscious mind, nor can it be attained by mindlessness. It cannot be communicated by words, but it can't, but it also cannot be reached by silence.

[10:54]

So, my job is to sit up here and say something. Your job now is just to listen, but that's what Buddhas do, they listen to the Dharma. As soon as you get involved in deliberation, you are 10 million stages away. Of course, we do get involved in deliberation. It's not that you should, please don't join the school of lobotomy, Zen. I think you have to get rid of all of your thoughts. We are involved in deliberation, but just know that when you get caught up in all of those thoughts, that's not, you're far away from just being a light, letting the light shine. So, again, what kind of light is this? Well, Shakyamuni Buddha said, the light of lights is not blue, it's not yellow, it's not red, white, or black. It is not matter,

[11:57]

material stuff, but also it's not mind. It is not existence, and yet it's not non-existent. It is not a phenomenon resulting from causes, and yet it is the source of all Buddhas, the basis of practicing the way of bodhisattvas, of awakened beings, fundamental for all Buddhists. So this light, we're talking, again, we're not talking about a yellow or red or black or white. This light is here, and we can feel it in various ways. We can be it in various ways, and maybe we don't even recognize it when we are. So sometimes people come to me and say that they're bored with their practice, or they're having trouble with their practice, or it's too painful, or whatever. And yet, right in that situation, there may be tremendous light.

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So, how do we support and sustain and enjoy this light? And again, light is a metaphor for something. Light is one way it's been talked about in our tradition, but there are many other ways too. Where is it? Can you feel the light? The light isn't in the books. It's not in the words. Yet, you know, we have these teachings because they might remind us of something.

[14:03]

That some light that we felt in our mudra or see out of the corner of our eyes or feel on our shoulders or our lower back. So one time, the great Master Yunmen, founder of one of the Five Houses of Chan, spoke to his assembly and said, all people have a light, but when they look at it, they don't see it. So it's obscure. What is everyone's light? Then too, no one replies. So Yunmen said, on behalf of the assembly, the community hall, the Buddha shrine, the kitchen, the mountain gate,

[15:09]

or I would say, the zendo, the entryway, the kitchen, the bathrooms, your cushion, your chair. Koen Ejo comments, when the great Master says that everyone has a light, he does not say it is to appear later on. So this isn't some light that you'll get to see, you know, later this afternoon if you sit well. He also doesn't say that it existed in the past. It's not some light that, you know, maybe you saw when you first thought of doing Zen practice. Nor that it becomes apparent to a view from the side. So Koen says, Yunmen is simply stating that everyone has a light. This is exactly what is meant in the overall sense by the light of great wisdom.

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It should be heard and retained and enjoyed and applied in your skin, flesh, bones, and mouth. So these are descriptions of how it is that in our settling, something emerges. Oh, it's bright, it's radiant, it's right here. So I didn't need to turn the lights up when I came in, really, but I wanted to be able to read these words to you. I could have skipped that, I guess.

[17:19]

But, you know, we use words to share this with each other. Silence doesn't work either. Silence is fine too, sometimes it's a very good response. How do we find this light, your own light, that includes everything and everyone who's ever been in your life or will be? How do we express it and share it? Silence is a very good response. So practically speaking, in this sitting practice, we stop and come to sit for a period on a Sunday morning or sometimes, like this weekend, come to sit for a day or two or three. Not just in the sitting, when we get up and do walking meditation,

[18:23]

when we take our meals in the meditation hall, as we clean the temple later on. How do we take care of each thing? In the light of this light. So, again, it's not something that'll happen later, it's not something you have to figure out. This light is not an ordinary light. Sometimes you may not see it, but people around you see it, and they feel it. So settling into just being upright and present, this body, this mind, this morning, there's a light. And, you know, this is a difficult world we live in, so sometimes it hurts. In Dogen's essay and in Cohen's commentary, he also talks about a saying from

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one of Yunmen's students, Shifu Sipo, who was famous for being a Tenzo. He was head of the kitchen in many, many monasteries for a long time before he became a teacher. But once he said, after he became a teacher, the Buddhas of all times turn the great wheel of the teaching in flames of fire. In Yunmen, a student said, the flames of fire expound the teaching to the Buddhas of all times. The Buddhas of all times stand there and listen. So all Buddhas sit in the middle of flames. What color are the flames? Well, they're not red. Yellow or blue or white or black. Maybe they're the flames of causes and conditions and grasping and attachment and

[20:34]

self-conceit and self-involvement and all of the patterns of grasping that we get to know when we study the Self in this way, when we settle. And they burn a little. And yet there's a flame that's more fundamental than that. Yunmen said, it's not that the Buddhas sit in the middle of flames and expound the dharmas. The flames expound the dharma to the Buddhas. The Buddhas listen. So, Dogen talks about this image much more extensively in another essay, The Awesome Presence of Active Buddhas. He talks about Buddhas sitting and listening. So just because I'm sitting up here babbling, that doesn't mean that I'm a Buddha and you're just a

[21:36]

mere Zen student. Buddhas sit and listen to the dharma. This light is here. Your cushion, your chair, this body, this mind. So often when I want to talk about samadhi, it's so difficult to say anything. I go back to this writing of one of Dogen's ancestors, Hongxue, who talked about serene or silent illumination. Another way of talking about this light. He was Chinese, lived a century before Dogen. So, just one sample of what he says about this. The way wanders in the empty middle of the circle,

[22:36]

reaching the vacancy where appearances are forgotten. So we've been talking the last couple of days about letting go. And part of the craft of practicing Zen, part of the craft of Zazen, and of samadhi, is letting go of that which obstructs the light. Feeling the cracks in our edifice of the self through which the light shines in. The way wanders in the empty middle of the circle, reaching the vacancy where appearances are forgotten. The pure ultimate self blazes, brilliant, simply from inherent illumination. Facing the boundary of the object world, without yet creating the sense gates, realize the subtlety of how to eliminate the effects of the swirling flow of arising and extinction.

[23:39]

It's a mouthful, and it's actually a practice we can do as we sit, enjoying the light. He says again, facing the boundary of the object world, all the things, anything you can imagine, wood, paper, cups, flames, candles, but also any idea you can imagine. This object world, facing the boundary of the object world, without yet creating the sense gates, can you settle into not being caught up in, even though we sit with our eyes open, not being caught up in the color of the wall in front of you, or the sound of the air conditioner, or the heat or the cold, or whatever is created by the sense gates, realize the subtlety of how to eliminate the effects of the swirling flow of arising and extinction. So thoughts and feelings arise and go away, constantly as we sit.

[24:45]

Don't try and prevent thoughts and feelings from coming up. They come up and they go away. But can you let go of the effects of the swirling flow of arising and extinction? Can you not get caught up in them? Just thoughts arising, sensations arising, sensations going away. Of course, sometimes we follow some train of thought, and after a few minutes or 20 minutes or whatever, we can come back to just being upright and feeling our posture and enjoying this inhale, this exhale. He says, rely only on the source of creation. If you feel a shadow of a hair's gap, nothing will be received. This source of creation, this is the biggest difference, the probably the biggest difference between what we're doing here, this Zen Buddhist practice, and the Western religions we all grew up with. The source of creation is not something that

[25:50]

happened 6,000 years ago, is it, in some garden in Mesopotamia? The source of creation is in each inhale and in each exhale. That's our view from the point of view of Buddhist meditation. And come back to that source. Rely only on the source of creation. Thoughts and feelings are created and go away. If you feel a shadow of a hair's gap, nothing will be received. Just experience and respond appropriately. So, this practice is about just settling and being present. It's not passive, though. It requires your attention. It requires everything you've got, actually. Can you bring your body and mind to your body and mind in the light of this light right now, in the next breath? And, you know, then we do see that there is a hair's gap, and we've listed it. Okay, that's fine. Take another

[26:56]

breath. The source of creation is happening in each breath. It's not like, you know, please make mistakes. Please get lost. Please wander around the light. It's still there. It's not going anywhere. Again, this is a practice for human beings, not for some super being who has all this perfectly arranged. Just the person you are. Just experience and respond appropriately. From this singular impact, many thousands of roads open, and all things are preeminent. With this unification, Manjushri says, I radiantly speak the Dhamma. Can sounds be radiant? He says, irradiantly speaks the teaching. Can sensations of warm or cool be radiant? When we sit and take lunch, as we will today, those who are here all day,

[28:02]

and in this formal practice of eating in the meditation hall, sometimes we can taste something radiant. We can radiantly taste the Dhamma. He says, the self divides into 10 billion distinct illuminating spirits. So maybe it's not just one light. I don't know. We could, you know, you could spend some time considering whether there's one light or 10 billion lights. But actually, Manjushri says that this self, your experience, your constructive self divides into 10 billion distinct illuminating spirits, many lights. Distinguish these without falling into names and classifications, and accord fully without effort. So in the discussions the last couple of days, we've been talking a lot about effort. Of course, this takes some effort. And in some ways,

[29:03]

it's just what's right here. This is subtle. How can we accord fully without effort? Well, as soon as we fall into names and classifications and dividing this and that, there's lots of effort. Anyway, the mirror is clear and magnanimous. The valley is empty, but echoes from the beginning, unbound by seeing or hearing. The genuine self romps and plays in samadhi without obstruction. When enacted like this, how could it not be beneficial? So this samadhi that we're talking about this weekend, this light, we can play with. We can let it play in us. Samadhi is the experience in which we can play freely with the whole of our being. And, you know, going back to the beginning of what I was saying about the point of this is,

[30:06]

you know, our practice is about helping each other and everyone else onto the path of awakening and helping to relieve suffering. And this world needs it. And yet, how could it not be beneficial to find your light, to find your space of light or lights and just play in samadhi? So it's hard to talk about this, or maybe it's impossible to talk about this. And yet, here we are doing this together. So inhale after inhale, after exhale, after exhale, period after period, settling upright, enjoying the light, or getting distracted and caught up on some train of discriminating thought or some idea about whatever.

[31:12]

Just come back to this source of creation. The next inhale, the next exhale. When we can give ourselves to this, when we can allow Buddha to give herself to us, then actually it is relevant to the rest of our life. Doing this practice, this training, this, you know, it does take some work just to show up, actually get to ancient dragon, to actually be on your cushion, to actually take another breath. It takes some effort. But then, with this light, we are able to be more effective, more flexible, more helpful, more, enjoy ourselves more and the world more as we enter into all of the difficulties of our life

[32:16]

in the world. And we can enjoy those too, and see the light there as well. So, for those of us here for the day, we'll have some time for discussion over tea this afternoon. But also, maybe now, if anyone has any comment or question or reflection of the light or other response, we can take a few minutes. Please feel free. I have a request. You're a Dharma DJ. You made some cool tracks. So, yesterday, you read, maybe it was in

[33:16]

commentary. It was in fire. And I wondered if you could read a little bit more of that passage again, where it talks about who's being formed by fire, burning fire, inside fire. You know, I've been trying to sing to you about it last week. It was burning in you, huh? Somehow, it comes up, we were doing song lyrics yesterday. There's a song about falling into a burning ring of fire. Anybody want to sing us a chorus? It makes a fiery ring, bound by a wild desire. I fell into a burning ring of fire,

[34:23]

went down, down, down, the flames went higher, and it burns, burns, burns, the ring of fire, the ring of fire. So, Johnny Cash, they actually trump. Other requests? Night and day. It's night and day. Sun-Face Buddha, Moon-Face Buddha. Sun-Face Buddha, Moon-Face Buddha, you know, there's a Buddha who's, somebody sent, did you get that? I think it was sent to info at Ancient Dragon. Somebody sent out a, some scientist from Southeast Asia sent out this thing from the web with pictures of the sun

[35:26]

and the moon, and they said that there was a Buddha in the moon, and showing the pictures, and there's also a picture of Kanon Bodhisattva in the moon, but he was referring to Sun-Face Buddha and Moon-Face Buddha, an old saying by a great master, Mazu, Sun-Face Buddha is the Buddha who lives a very long time, as long as the sun is around. Moon-Face Buddha lives one day a night, or just one night, and when Mazu was asked about his health as he was dying, he said Sun-Face Buddha, Moon-Face Buddha. Night and day. We can enjoy this creation in each breath, in each moment, and as I said yesterday in discussion, hopefully, with any luck, everybody here will get very, very old. So anyway, I don't know, that came up for me out of your song reference, sorry.

[36:39]

Other questions or comments or responses or reflections or lightning bugs? Yes, Jeremy. There's a part that you read that said if you get caught up in deliberation, then you'll be 10,000 steps? 10,000 stages away. I feel like even if you're caught up and you're 10,000 stages away, at least you're 10,000 stages away. Yeah, good, yes. The light is here, even if we don't see it, even if we, you know, force ourselves not to enjoy the light, which happens sometimes. Steve. When I sat, you know, in the past, basically the White Plum Tradition, sometimes during Sashimi, the teacher might say, you know,

[37:46]

what is your health holding for Samadhi today? I didn't quite say it that way, but I said it that last night, I was feeling the beauty of the space. How do I see it? With my skin. With my earlobes. With my inhale and exhale. So,

[39:14]

how can you force yourself not to see the light? Well, you can get caught up in some situation of maybe being anxious about being anxious or making judgments about your judgments. You can get caught on some idea and push yourself to think about that. And, you know, that can happen. You can feel angry about something and hold on to it and imagine all kinds of things you're going to do to that person. You know, there are all kinds of ways as human beings that we can build up that stuff to, you know, avoid seeing the light. Sometimes we feel the light and it's like too much. It's so wonderful. It's like

[40:15]

you see something really beautiful and it hurts and you don't want to because it's like you can't stand it. Sometimes people are in love. They don't want to see the person they're in love with because it's just too much. It's painful. So, we can do that. You know, we're weird monkeys. We have all kinds of capabilities. And yet, the light is still there. Love is still possible.

[40:51]

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