Good morning and welcome. Good morning. I've been speaking some of the time about stories from the Book of Serenity Koan collection. This morning, I want to talk about case 18. which is arguably the most famous story in Zen. But it's the unabridged version. So this is a story about Zhaozhou. If you can say it about anybody, perhaps the greatest Zen master of all time, maybe just because he lived to be 120. So this is from 9th century China. And I'll read the full version of the story, the case that's in the Book of Serenity. A monk asked Zhaozhou, does a dog have Buddha nature or not? Zhaozhou said, yes. The monk said, since it has, why is it then in this skin bag?

[01:06]

Zhaozhou said, because he knows yet deliberately transgresses. Another monk asked Zhaozhou, does a dog have Buddha nature or not? Zhaozhou said, no. The monk said, all sentient beings have Buddha nature. Why does a dog have none, then? Chow Chow said, because he still has impulsive or karmic consciousness. So just one little bit of this story is the first story in the Gateless Gate collection and is known by many Zen students. And that's just that the monk asked Chow Chow, does a dog have Buddha nature or not? And Chow Chow said, no. Or woo in Chinese, mu in Japanese. And in the Rinzai tradition and in some of the mixed Soto Rinzai traditions, students will spend years just focusing on that mu.

[02:14]

or not, or no, or it hasn't. But the full story includes two different responses. At one point, Zhao Zhou says, yes, it has. At another point, he says, no, not. And in the version in the Book of Serenity, it has the yes first. and then not afterwards. In the version that Dogen cites, which I'll come back to in his Shobo Genso essay about Buddha nature, it has the no first. So does a dog have Buddha nature or not? And in some ways, this is the fundamental question as we practice. And not about dogs, particularly, but about each one of us. Is there Buddha nature or not? And what is Buddha nature? And what is Buddha? So we sit upright, relaxed, settling, alert, paying attention, facing the wall, not to keep anything out, not to avoid anything, but to be present with everything.

[03:29]

Is there Buddha nature there or not? So, in the full story, and that's also in the recorded sayings of Jōshū in Japanese, he gives both answers and he gives explanations of each answer. And for people who spend years or sometimes their entire Zen life just focusing on this mu, not, you know, it said that this doesn't mean no of yes and no. But I would add that the yes doesn't mean the yes of yes or no either. Does a dog have Buddha nature? And then, what about these dogs? So in our society, dogs are one of the most privileged animal species, very well protected, taking care of pets.

[04:40]

In the monasteries in China at the time of Zhaozhou, dogs were you know, not domesticated pets particularly. They may have been fed by the monks, but they were kind of mangy, not necessarily domesticated. It's more like asking, does a rat have a boot in nature? Dogs were kind of pests. They were not seen the way we see dogs. Cats seem to have been more privileged then than dogs were. But anyway, does even a dog have Buddha nature? And the background of this is that this idea of Buddha nature had developed in China before and after Zhaozhou and up to the time when

[05:43]

Dogen later in the 13th century brought this tradition to Japan. In Indo-Tibetan Buddhism still, animals maybe have Buddha nature. Originally, the question of Buddha nature was some people have Buddha nature, some people don't. Some people, no matter what they do, will never express Buddha. Maybe you can think of some people you might feel that way about. But eventually it was understood in China that all people have Buddha nature. And eventually that all, not even just animals, but plants as well, have Buddha nature. And also Dogen clarifies that it's not a matter of having or not having Buddha nature. Dogen just says all sentient beings completely is Buddha nature. So Buddha nature is not some thing that you can possess.

[06:50]

And yet it is a key issue in Buddhism and in our practice. What is Buddha nature? How is Buddha nature? And as Buddhist philosophy developed in China and then was brought to Japan by Dogen, eventually at least some people, some teachers said that Buddha nature is part of the nature of reality. Everything is Buddha nature. Buddha nature. The floorboards, Buddha nature. So what does that mean? How do we see Buddha nature? So this is an open question, right? The point of these stories, these koans, is not to explain them or figure them out or solve them like some riddle.

[07:55]

These are stories that help us see aspects of our own practice. So going back to the Book of Serenity text, Again, a monk asked Zhaozhou, does a dog have Buddha nature or not? Zhaozhou said, yes, since it has, why is it then in the skin pack? Why would Buddha nature appear as a dog, a mongrel? Zhaozhou said, because it knows yet deliberately transgresses. So Buddha nature, if Buddha nature is in everything, then Buddhas can take on all kinds of forms. To me, this points to the bodhisattva practice that we are involved with here. So each one of us, as we sit in zazen, become familiar with our own

[08:56]

dogness. Well, I'll tell the second half of the story, because they go together. So another monk asked Zhaozhou, does a dog have Buddha nature or not? And Zhaozhou said, no, not. And then the monk said, because he read all the commentaries, all sentient beings have Buddha nature. How come a dog doesn't then? And Zhaozhou said, because he still has impulsive or karmic consciousness. So when we have impulsive consciousness, when we're caught up in gain and loss and trying to get ahead and competitive consumerist awareness, it's not Buddha nature. How could that be Buddha nature? But then what about the, so in some ways I like the other version that Dogen gives first, where no comes before yes, but it doesn't really matter. The yes is, the question then is, well, why would Buddha nature take the form of a dog?

[10:05]

And the answer to that, the explanation from Zhao Zhou for that is, knowingly and deliberately transgressing. So bodhisattvas enter the world of samsara. So I'm going to talk about this more tomorrow, but originally nirvana meant to escape from the world of suffering. that a Buddha is one who will not be reborn and is not caught in karmic conditioned consciousness. So we celebrated Parinirvana Day recently in honor of the Buddha's passing away as a nirvana. So in some sense, according to original Buddhism, nirvana only happens when you die. Otherwise, we're caught up in, you know, the food chain and the rat race and the dog race and being in the middle of karmic consciousness. So again, I started to say that when we, since us and we see that very clearly, we see our own desires and grasping and anger and confusion and fears are impulsive consciousness.

[11:21]

That's what's really difficult about satsang, to become friends with ourselves and to see how awakening, nirvana, whatever, is right in the middle of this samsaric world of karmic consciousness. So both sides of this story are important. And again, for the gateless barrier, they just say, does a dog have Buddha nature? No. And then that's something to sit with. But whichever side you take, if you say yes, how could Buddha nature be this lump of flesh on my seat now? Or if you say no, but everything is Buddha nature. Even dogs. When I went back to my hometown and gave a talk about one of my earlier books, Faces of Compassion, about Bodhisattvas, there was some old classmates in the audience.

[12:37]

And without knowing anything about the story, because they didn't really know about Zen or Buddhism, this girl who I was friends with in grade school, who's now an artist, a woman, came up to me and said, I have this wonderful dog. Can dogs be Buddhas? So some of you may feel that. How many people here have dogs that you think have Buddha nature or are connected with Buddha nature? Several. OK. Yes. Yeah, it's a real question. How do we see Buddha nature in our dogs? How do we see Buddha nature even in the people we think are causing the most harm in the world now? Is there Buddha nature there? How do they inspire our Buddha nature? So I want to go back to the text a little bit. Wansong's introduction, so there's a lot of textual material to consider. We won't get to all of it, but there's the case in the Book of Serenity, Hongsha's version of the case and his verse comment, and then Wansong's commentary to that.

[13:51]

Wansong's introduction, a gourd floating on the water. Push it down, and it turns, a jewel in the sunlight. It has no definite shape. So it reflects in various ways. It cannot be attained by mindlessness, nor known by mindfulness. Immeasurably great people are turned about in the stream of words. Is there anyone who can escape?" So how do we sit right in the middle of this question of Buddha nature? Yes and no. How do we escape from, into Buddha nature or out of Buddha nature? Anyway, I'll just read some of his comments, Wansung's comments to the case. If you say a dog's buddha nature surely exists, afterwards he said no. If it surely does not exist, still previously he had said yes. And if you say that, to say yes or no is just a temporary response.

[14:53]

spoken according to the situation, in each there is some reason. So Jiaozhou can actually give some reason for saying yes and some reason for saying no. That is why it is said that someone with clear eyes has no nest. And so in some ways Zen is about escaping from all of our nests, all of our traps, all of our comfortable answers, our comfortable abodes. How do we get free of these nests? The point of this monk's question was to broaden his perspective and learning. He didn't base it on his own fundamental endowment. So he had heard about this question about Buddha nature. Zhaozhou said, yes, using poison to get rid of poison, using sickness to cure sickness. The monk also said, since it has, why is it then in this skin bag? He didn't realize he himself had been born in the belly of a dog. Zhaozhou said, because he knows, yet deliberately transgresses.

[15:57]

So, the bodhisattva intention is to be right in the middle of the world, with all the problems of the world, to respond helpfully, to try and avoid harm, to respect all beings, to include all beings. So, Wansong says, quotes Zhaozhou, he knows yet deliberately transgresses, Wansong says, one mallet strikes twice. A fleeting opportunity is hard to catch. This monk might have thought that he was judging the result on the basis of the cause, but if you understand it this way, you cannot even be the slave of a professor. So, I'll keep going here. Later a monk asked this again, where at Jiaozhou said, no, not. He was one who had attained. Whether he said yes or no, he had a way out. So this monk judged the fundamental way on the basis of words.

[17:00]

All beings have Buddha nature, he quoted. Why doesn't a dog? Thus challenged, I dare say that even the hand that can move the North Star has no way to turn around. But Zhaozhou answered sincerely with this, because he still has impulsive consciousness. So Wanzhong asks, did this monk have blood under his skin after all? So I'll read Hongxia's verse comment. And there's actually another verse that's quoted. A dog's buddha nature exists. A dog's buddha nature does not exist. A straight hook basically seeks fish who turn away from life. I'll come back to that. Chasing the air, pursuing fragrance, cloud and water travelers. traveling monks in noisy confusion. They make excuses and explanations. Making an even presentation, he throws the shop wide open. Don't blame him for not being careful in the beginning.

[18:03]

Pointing out the flaw, he takes away the jewel." So I'll read. There's another in the commentary. They include another verse commentary by Hongxue. This time Hongshuo said, Zhaozhou said yes, Zhaozhou said no. A dog's buddha nature. All over the world, excuses and explanations. A red face is not as good as honest speech. When the heart is true, the words are surely coarse. Old Chan uncle of over 100 years, donkey manure is changed for eyes when he meets with someone. So how do we meet buddha nature? Beyond yes or no. So the commentary on the first verse.

[19:03]

A dog's buddha nature exists. A dog's buddha nature does not exist. The two parts are not the same. He brings them out together, just like Shwedo, who said, one has many kinds, two have no duality. I like that. One has many kinds. Two have no duality. So going beyond our idea of duality. Tiantang Hongzhou wants to meet with Zhaozhou. That's why he versifies in this way. Another old teacher said, a straight harpoon catches ferocious dragons. A curved hook catches clams. So the straight hook basically seeks fish who turn away from life. In some ways, this story is a straight hook rather than a left jab. So how do you catch fish with a straight hook?

[20:05]

Wansung comments on the other verse Zhao Zhou's heart was true and his words honest. This is the straight hook, basically seeking fish who turn away from life. So an old king of China went hunting and saw Zhang Jia in the valley of the Bo River, three feet away from the water, fishing with a straight hook. The king thought this strange and said, how can you catch a fish with a straight hook? Zia said, I only seek fish who turn away from life. And earlier, Wansong said, or quoted somebody else as saying, a straight harpoon catches ferocious dragons. A curved hook catches clams. So why is the story a straight hook?

[21:14]

How can it catch us? How can we be the dragons that turn away from karmic consciousness? So this is another story. Quoting the phrase in the second verse, donkey manure is changed for eyes, when he meets someone, is like Lian Shangru taking the jewel. This is a complicated old story, I'll pass over that. Fozhan raised his rosary made of stones of the sorrowless fruit and said, do you all see? After a good while he said, that is what I got in exchange when I came to the capital. Each of you go back to the hall and search. Well, of Wansong Enzi's comment, if you people can believe completely as before, your eyes are under your eyebrows.

[22:27]

So there's a lot going on in this story, maybe. There's no Buddha nature, or yes, Buddha nature, in spite of karmic consciousness. So I wanted to share some of Dogen's comments on this story. I'll start with just some verses he has in his extensive record, and then talk about his Buddha Nature essay. So again, he quotes the story. He has yes before no in this version, and then says, this single story has a truth to be studied. Do you want to thoroughly understand this truth? After a pause, Doken said, Buddha nature has a nose to grasp, but a dog does not have a horn to hold. Buddha nature, not avoiding entry into a skin bag, cats give birth to cats.

[23:32]

So he turns it some. So we've all been born in a skin bag here. One of the chants we do, the song on the grass hut ends with, if you want to know the undying person in the hut, don't separate from the skin bag here and now. When we first started chanting that, there were people who were very upset because they didn't want to think that they were just skin bags. But no, how could a dog be Buddha nature when it's born into such a mangy skin bag and has impulsive consciousness? like all the dogs sitting on our seats here in this meditation hall. Yes, dog has Buddha nature. Knowingly and deliberately it transgresses. So for a bodhisattva, in some ways, being born and entering the world of

[24:40]

Gain and loss is a transgression. It's a mistake. It's a violation of purity, if there is such a thing. Let me read some other Dogen comments. He told the whole story again, and then said, today I have a mountain verse. And it goes, a turtle with hair and a rabbit with a horn are not of the same kind. Have any of you seen a turtle with hair or a rabbit with a horn? Probably not. On a spring day, a flower's brightness is like the moon opening. The nature of karmic consciousness, together with all Buddha nature, Jaojo's single staff arrives. So in some ways, the story is not complete without both sides. Yet another comment by Dogen. This is in his collection of stories and verse comments, number 73 in volume 9.

[25:50]

He tells the story again. Then he says, the whole body is a dog. The whole body is Buddha. Is this difficult to discuss or not? Selling them equally, you must buy them yourself. Do not grieve for losses or being one-sided. So here we are. We don't need to grieve for our losses or regrets. Then he has another verse. Yes and no are two Buddha natures not reaching the vitality of living beings. Although they resemble yogurt and cheese, this is really like samadhi without thought, which is the highest form of worldly meditation beyond all conditions. I'll just So there's a lot of words here. And there's this dog still wondering what to do. One of Dogen's longest and really most wonderful essays in his Shobo Genzo, True Dharma, I, Treasury, is called Buddha Nature.

[26:59]

And he talks about this Buddha Nature. And he talks about various stories about Buddha Nature, including this one about the dog. But he starts out again by saying, in the Parinirvana Sutra, which is the sutra that most fully goes into the issue of Buddha nature, he turns the original phrase, which is, all sentient beings without exception have Buddha nature, and he reads it, Dogen plays with the Chinese characters and reads it, all sentient beings, whole being, Buddha nature. All sentient beings, everything. And then we can argue, we can discuss what is sentient. Is the candle sentient? Is Lake Michigan sentient? Are dogs sentient? Are plants sentient? That's one of the differences between Indo-Tibetan Buddhism and East Asian Buddhism. that plants are considered sentient beings in East Asia.

[28:02]

And now there are botanists who are talking about plant intelligence. But anyway, all sentient beings, wholeness, buddha nature, Togen says. So buddha nature, again, is not some thing to possess. So just to read a little bit of his comments on this story, a monk asked Zhaozhou, does that dog have buddha nature? I like that. This is Waddell and Abe's translation. Not just any dog. Does that dog have Buddha nature? And Dogen says about this question, the meaning of this question must be clarified. It asks neither whether a dog has the Buddha nature or whether it does not have the Buddha nature. It just asks, does a man of iron still practice the way? So a person of iron is like somebody who's a strong practitioner. He goes on, Dogen goes on, Zhaozhou blundered into a poison hand, and his resentment may be intense.

[29:09]

But it is a means of seemingly, of seeing half a real saint after 30 years. So Zhaozhou, so then he says, Zhaozhou said, no, mu. Hearing this word, the course of practice to be pursued opens up. And for many sentient practitioners, just this word, mu, not, is the opening of practice. The mu the Buddha nature declared itself to be, the mu the dog declares itself to be, both must be utterances like Zhaozhao's mu. So does the Mu a bystander. So does the Mu a bystander, calls out. Such a Mu or not is a sun with stone-melting power." So Dogen likes to make these proclamations, has this particular kind of rhetoric in commenting on these stories. He continues, the monk said, all sentient beings, every one has Buddha nature. Why doesn't a dog?

[30:12]

And Dogen says about this question, what this essentially says is, Were there no sentient beings, there would be no Buddha nature. Right, that's the other side. How could there be any Buddha nature without sentient beings? The Lotus Sutra says the reason for Buddhas appearing is because there are sentient beings, and the Buddha appears just to awaken them. So, Dogen says, what this essentially says is, were there no sentient beings, there would be no Buddha nature, and there would be no dogs either. Essentially, it means, what? So the question, what is Buddha? What is Buddha nature? It's just, what? What? What? Dog, Buddha nature, what need have they to be called not, or moo? So he goes on, responding to each part of the story.

[31:17]

I don't want to leave time for some discussion or questions. I'll read a little further. The meaning of these words is that existence for the sake of others is karmic consciousness. Ah, this is not just blind karmic consciousness, Tolkien says. Although his existence in karmic consciousness is existence for the sake of others, it is dogmoo. It is buddha-nature-mu. Karmic consciousness never understands the dog. How could the dog encounter the buddha-nature? Whether we speak of existence in karmic consciousness, existence for the sake of others, or dog-mu, or buddha-nature-mu, they are always karmic consciousness. A monk asks, does that dog have the buddha-nature or not? And so for the second question, Dogen says, this question signifies that the monk has skillfully gotten hold of Zhaozhou. We thus see that making utterances and posing questions about Buddha nature are ordinary rice-eating, tea-drinking occurrences in the lives of Buddhas and ancestors.

[32:25]

So this questioning, what is our life? Where is Buddha? How is Buddha? What is awakening in the midst of impulsive consciousness? This is what Buddhas do. I'll skip a little bit ahead. He quotes Zhaozhou saying, it is because it knowingly and deliberately transgresses about this dog and says, as a mundane utterance, these words have long circulated in the world. But now it is Zhaozhou's utterance. He is saying that it transgresses on purpose in full knowledge of what it does, this dog. There are probably few people who would not have doubts about this. The words pushing into are difficult to understand in this context, pushing into a dog's back, to a skin bag. Not only that, and then he quotes from the Song of the Grass Hut, if you want to know the undying person in the hut, you must not leave your own bag of skin.

[33:31]

The undying person, whoever they may be, is never at any time separated from this bag of skin. To transgress knowingly is not necessarily pushing into such a skin bag. Pushing into such a skin bag is not necessarily knowing and deliberately transgressing. So sometimes without bodhisattva intention, beings are born. So maybe that's enough talk about this story. I want to ask you comments, questions, responses. Dog, Buddha nature. Yes, no, Donald. Yes.

[34:37]

Well, karma consciousness is how we all are. Karma consciousness is that we all have thanks to the karma of having lived in this life for as long as we have, and according to Buddhist ideas, having taken on the karma of some past life. We all have fears. We all have things we want, things we don't want. We live in a world of cause and effect where we think about how to get this and how to get rid of that. This is karmic consciousness. This is our ordinary karmic consciousness, our ordinary mind, which Zhaozhou's teacher once said that ordinary mind is the way. And in some ways, this is what's going on here too. Now, the second part of your question again? Yes.

[35:43]

So this is what the dog does when it knowingly and deliberately transgresses. How do we practice in the midst of karmic consciousness? We can't get rid of karmic consciousness. You know, there are some people who practice to try to get rid of thoughts. That's not the point. There are some people who practice to escape from their lives or to be able to, as a refuge from the troubles of the world. That's not what this practice is about. So, yeah, right in the middle of karmic consciousness. That's what brought us to practice. for various, there are various causes and conditions that we each have which allow us to be here this morning. The various causes and conditions that we each have and that we have collectively that allowed us somehow and that will allow us somehow to be present and paying attention and trying to see how to be helpful rather than harmful.

[36:50]

So they can't be separated and yet the way we think about things in karmic consciousness, we make these distinctions. So I hope that helps. Other questions, comments, responses? Well, that's it. What's that? That's it. Yeah. You throw the ball and she brings it back to you, right? Yeah. We do that a lot. Karmic consciousness, Buddha nature. So that's my comment. Thank you. It's a nice image to have. You have Buddha nature.

[37:53]

She'd be like, please throw the ball. What's your dog's name? Kiki. Lovely. Paula. Living for the sake of others, being karmic consciousness, could that also point to that none of us exist without existing in relation to something else? That's what karmic consciousness means. Isolated, separate, it's impossible. We are the product of innumerable causes and conditions, and the cause of innumerable further causes and conditions, everything we do. So yeah. So living for the sake of others is also living for the sake of ourselves, and vice versa. And others living for our sake

[38:54]

is others living for the sake of others. So that's the flip side of karmic consciousness, as opposed to greed, anger, and delusion. We see plenty of that. There's lots of greed and hatred in the world. But the flip side of it is that we are all connected. We can't live separately, actually. And part of what practice provides us is that we start to see that. And start not just to understand it, but it becomes part of our physical being, that we are connected. Yes, Highness. Does God exist?

[40:03]

Yes, yes. Yes. They only want to be satisfied. Yes. Yeah. So part of this has to do with questioning too. When we're really sitting with a question, this is part of our practice. It's not that we think about it and try and figure it out, but we have to sit deeply with not just both sides, all sides of

[41:03]

dog, Buddha nature. And, you know, again, it's part of, one of the hardest parts of Zen practice is to sit with the depths of our own karma consciousness, our own grasping, our own anger, and so forth. But at the same time, right on your seat is a bodhisattva who is willing to Face that. Other comments or questions, responses? Yes, Daniel. I was talking recently about the non-duality of duality and non-duality.

[42:42]

It's going beyond all of that. So really, our practice is for each of us in our own body mind to become a question. And sometimes questions are answered. Sometimes there are resolutions to things. But then if they're good answers, they give you more questions. So how do we sit fully as a question? That's a question for you. So time for one last comment, if anyone. Yes, Brian. Yeah, Buddha means awakened one, right? Yeah, that's right. So if the question is, and our life is awakening, and so the question really might be, do you have awakening, or do I have awakening?

[43:55]

And it's sort of the wrong question. Well, Dogen says again, awakening is not something you can possess or have. Right. So it seems like it's more like, is there awakening right now? I mean, it's always right now. It's not, yeah, I got it five years ago and I still have it. Or I'm born with it and I've always had it. And so the question is really, are you here in awakening? Yeah. Yeah. And you can't, I mean, you can say yes right now, but I can't say that in an hour from now necessarily. No, definitely. But you can say yes right now for an hour from now. You can say yes now, an hour from now is awakening. Yeah. So yeah, our practice is to wonder about Buddha nature or just Buddha.

[45:04]

Our practice is to see how wonderful Buddha nature is. And then, you know, we make some mistake or we do something stupid or whatever, you know. But here we are in karmic consciousness. Here we are, Buddha nature. So thank you all very much.

[45:28]

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