Good morning, everyone. It's a beautiful morning. I'm very happy to be here to share the Dharma this morning with all of you. First of all, I'd like to apologize. Though I'm living here in this building for one and a half years, I don't have much time to practice with this sangha because of several reasons. So it's very nice to share the Dharma or Dogen Zen's teaching in this way. Well, Almost exactly one year ago, I had a chance to give a talk in this hall about the first three sentences of Dogen Zenji's Genjo Koan.

[01:09]

maybe some of you were here. This morning, I thought it was nice to talk on the last part of Genjo Kōan. The last part of Genjo Kōan, Dogen Zenji quote a story, Kōan story, about a Chinese Zen master whose name was Mayoku Hōtetsu. That story is as follows. Once the master was using a fan. Then a monk asked to the master, the wind nature is permanent. And it permeates everywhere. Why do you use a fan? Why do we have to use a fan to cause the wind if wind nature is permanent and all-pervading?

[02:15]

Then the master said, you know that the wind nature is permanent or ever-present, but you don't know how the wind or wind nature pervades everywhere. Then the monk asked again, how does the wind nature pervade everywhere? Then the master just kept using the fan. Then the monk made prostration. That's the end of the story. And Dogen then said about this story, To say we should not use a fan because the nature of wind is ever-present and that we should feel the wind even when we don't use a fan is to know neither ever-presence nor the wind's nature.

[03:47]

Since wind's nature is ever-present, The wind of the Buddha's family enables us to realize the goal of the great earth and to transform the water of the long river into cream. So this is Dogen-sensei's comment on that story about the wind nature. And this morning, I'd like to talk about what is the wind of Buddha's family. What is the wind? Actually, last week, weekend, last Saturday, I went to Berkeley Zen Center, and I talked on Dogen's, not Dogen's, but Ryokan's, Ryokan's poem.

[04:55]

Ryokan was a Soto Zen priest, lived in the 18th century, the second part of 18th century and beginning of 19th century. So he lived about 200 years ago. He was an eminent poet and also a calligrapher. But he was not usual the master. He didn't have temple. He didn't live in a monastery after he finished his training. But he lived in a hermitage in the mountains for a long time by himself. And he lived on takohatsu or begging. And the poems I talked on last week at Berkeley was a very short called Waka poem about Bodhisattva.

[05:59]

The poem is as follows. Here is a poem. It said, one who is a monk need only one thing, always respect everyone. For this is an excelled practice of all bodhisattvas. This is kind of my paraphrasing of the poem. Original name of this bodhisattva is never disparaging Bodhisattva never disparaging and this Bodhisattva appeared in one chapter of the Lotus Sutra And for both Dogen and Ryokan, the Lotus Sutra is one of the most important source of their inspiration and aspiration.

[07:04]

And the bodhisattva appeared in the 20th chapter of the Lotus Sutra. In Japanese, the name of this bodhisattva is Jō Fugyō Bosatsu. Jō is always. Fū is not. And gyō literally means to be right. But this means to disparage or despise, to look down. So the Bodhisattva's name is never or literally always not disparaging. So in one translation it said never disparaging. This is a poem I talked on last week. But I didn't have time at that time to talk on another poem by Ryokan on this bodhisattva.

[08:16]

So this morning, I'd like to talk on the second poem, Ryokan's poem on this bodhisattva, Never Disparaging. This poem is written in Chinese. And a little longer, it said, some throw stones. Some throw stones. Some beat him with sticks. He retreat, then stops and calls to them aloud. Since this fellow has left the world, no one has heard from him. but the wind and moonlight that fill the night. For whom do they reveal their purity? Let me read it again. Some throw stones.

[09:22]

Some beat him with sticks. He retreats, then stops and calls to them aloud. Since this fellow has left the world, no one has heard from him. But the wind and moonlight that fill the night For whom do they reveal their purity? Their means the wind and moonlight. And what I'm thinking is this wind is the wind of Buddha's family. And in order to understand the first half of this poem, I need to talk about this Bodhisattva, the story about this Bodhisattva from the Lotus Sutra. According to that story, there was a Buddha whose name was Ion Obutsu in Japanese, in English translation, Awesome Sound King Tadagata.

[10:35]

Awesome Sound King. I don't know why this Buddha is named in this way. But after this Buddha died, For certain period of time, his right teaching, correct teaching remained in this world, in the world. But after that, maybe a certain period of time, it said that for 500 years, Buddha's teachings remained in the world, correctly. And so there is a teaching, and there are people who practice, and there are people who attain enlightenment. But in the second stage of the history, it said only teaching. And practice remained, but no people attained enlightenment. And at the last period of the Buddhist history, only teaching remained.

[11:40]

No one practiced. No one had an enlightenment. That was a kind of idea of history in Buddhism. This world is getting worse. And it's kind of opposite, you know, about our idea of the history. Things are getting better. Anyway, this bodhisattva appeared in that second period. And when the bodhisattva lived, monks, not only monks, monks, nuns, lay students, including men and women, so all sangha said, It said, overbearing arrogance exercised, let's say, it said, in the period of this, it said, counterfeit law, monks of overbearing arrogance exercised great authority and power.

[12:57]

And in another part, this arrogance means people analyze Buddha's teachings and may create a system of philosophy and cling to their own understanding without really knowing it, without enlightenment, or without really experiencing it. At that time, this Bodhisattva It says, appeared and was called Never Disparaging. And the stories about why this bodhisattva was called or named Never Disparaging. This monk, whatever persons he happened to meet, whether monks, nuns, laymen or laywomen, would bow in obeisance, so make prostration, to all of them and speak words of praise, saying, I have profound reverence for you.

[14:20]

I would never dare treat you with disparagement or arrogance. Why? Because you are all practicing the Bodhisattva way and are certain to attain Buddhahood. So this bodhisattva, whomever he met, he made prostration or bowing and praised all people. You are practicing bodhisattva way and you will become Buddha. All of you become Buddha. That was his practice. And it said he didn't reading or reciting sutras. So he was not a philosopher.

[15:22]

But he was simply went about bowing to people. So he was always bowing people, saying, I never disparage you. You will be Buddha in the future. That was his practice. And when people were bowed and praised, people weren't happy. He said, and if he happened to see any of the whole kinds of believers far off in the distance, he would purposely go to where they were, bow to them, and speak word of praise. saying, I would never dare disparage you because you are all certain to attain Buddhahood. So that was his practice.

[16:24]

And among the four kinds of believers, there were those who gave way to anger, their minds lacking in purity, and they spoke ill of him. and cursed him, saying, this ignorant monk, where does he come from? Presuming to declare that he does not disparaging us and bestowing on us a prediction that we will attain Buddhahood, we have no use for such vain and irresponsible predictions So people were not happy. And in that story, some people throw stones to him, or some people beat him with a stick.

[17:29]

That was Fattoryokan's writing in the first sentence, first part of his poem about this bodhisattva. But even as he, but when he was beaten or he was, people throw stone to him, he escaped. But and stay distance and still saying, I never disparage you. I respect you because you will certainly become Buddha. That was his practice. And he practiced in this way entire his life. And according to the Lotus Sutra, this Bodhisattva was the Shakyamuni Buddha in his previous lives.

[18:37]

I think this story is very meaningful, has very profound meaning in our practice, in our own practice. You know, those people, I mean, when I read the commentary on the Lotus Sutra, I found Sanskrit this bodhisattva's name that was Sada Paribhuta can be interpreted in two ways one is as it said you know never disparaging but another possible interpretation is always being disparaged always being disparaged.

[19:43]

So in this case, this is a passive. So the person, in the case of first meaning, never disparaging. The bodhisattva never disparage anyone. But because of this practice, because his practice, he was always disparaged by people. I think this kind of paradox has very deep, profound meaning in our practice. I think actually those two sides are not about two different kind of people, but two sides are inside ourselves. You know, we are always thinking, and in order to make choice, we have to make discrimination or distinction. And we create a system of value or our own philosophy or way to do things.

[20:54]

And in order to live in the society, we have to protect this. I have to think, you know, this is me. I'm a Buddhist. I'm a teacher. So I have to behave in certain way. I have to do things in certain ways. And when someone does not agree with my idea, I have to defend my thinking. And not simply defend is not enough. Sometimes I have to counter argue. So there's a kind of two sides, and we have to make choice. And if we have two or more group of people who have different opinions, If someone appeared and said, you are all okay, what do you think?

[22:01]

It sounds like that person makes fun of us. We are so serious. We have to find the truth, the true way of life. And in order to do so, we are arguing. But if someone says, you are all okay, that means no one is okay. Right? So when we have such a person, the person creates another side. And such a person, I think, certainly is disparaged by the people because such a person doesn't have his or her own thinking, idea, philosophy, or judgment.

[23:02]

Such a person cannot be a friend of anyone on that level. But when we lived on the level of what is right, what is wrong, what is correct, what is not correct, what we like, what we don't like, we cannot find the common ground to live together with other people. And sometimes we think we are right and they are wrong. And we try to argue, not only argue, but often we fight with people who have different idea or system of value or belief. When we live on that level, someone is right, someone is wrong.

[24:06]

Then there's no way, you know, the... perfect peace appear in this world because we have to always fight or argue each other to justify ourselves. And not only with other people, even within this person, you know, I have two ideas. And within myself, I often argue. Two sides of myself argue. And sometimes we feel, you know, this side is wrong, this side is right. So I try to do things according to this idea. But somehow, because this side is also part of me, you know, this side of me complain about this. So we start to fight inside of ourselves.

[25:10]

I think we often, you know, experience in this way. And according to my own experience of this practice, Zazen, when we sit in this posture, What we do in our zazen is just sit in this posture and just please keep our eyes open. And according to my teacher's expression, what we do is let go of thought or opening the hand of thought. That means we don't control, we don't grasp. We let keep our posture straight, breathe deeply from our abdomen, and keep our eyes open and facing the wall so there's no object. Even though there's no object, somehow so many things coming up from our mind.

[26:19]

Our mind is often very busy and often argue each other. Two or more sides of myself argue each other. And by letting go of thought, letting go means letting go of all thoughts, not letting go of this side or that side. You know, we have to let go, in other words, let go of even our own understanding of Dharma. Or we have to let go even of Buddha's teaching. And just sit. And when we, at least I, practice in this way, to sit in this posture, somehow we hear the voice of Buddha that is saying, I never disparage anyone. That means any side of me, or any people, including this person,

[27:26]

So Buddha is saying, I never disparage you. And praise us. You will be Buddha in the future. You are bodhisattvas. I think when Ryokan says, so I return to Ryokan's poem. poem again. Some throw stones, some beat him with sticks. That is our life. He retreats, then stops and calls to them aloud. Since this fellow, this fellow means the bodhisattva never disparaging. And this bodhisattva was Shakyamuni Buddha in his previous life.

[28:32]

So since this fellow has left the world, no one has heard from him, from Buddha. But he said, but the wind and moonlight that fill the night, for whom do they reveal their purity? For whom do they reveal their purity? So I think this wind and moonlight, refer to the moonlight in the 15th day of the 8th month, that means in the autumn, in the lunar calendar. The 15th day of each month is full moon in the lunar calendar.

[29:36]

So it has a full moon. And in that time of the year, at least in Japan, in the summer, it's very hot and humid. But in the fall, it cools down and becomes a little dry. So the wind in that time of the year is very pleasant. And because it's not so humid, it's very clear. So the moonlight and wind is very pleasant in that time of the year in Japan. And Ryokan is saying, for whom those wind and moonlight is so pure, clean, or beautiful? And that means Ryokan said, Ryokan is saying, the wind and the moonlight is the message of this Bodhisattva, never disparage.

[30:52]

And that is the message from the Buddha. You know, I never disparage you. I never disparage you. I bow to you because you will be Buddha in the future. So whenever we experience the wind and moonlight, You know, moonlight is also a very important image in Genjō-kōan. Dōgen said, when a person attains enlightenment, it is like moon reflect on a drop of dew on a grass.

[31:58]

You know, the moon is, the moonlight is very beautiful and the moonlight reflects itself on even a tiny drop of dew. That means ourselves. So this moonlight and this wind is really a message from Buddha. And I think we are always, we can hear the voice of Buddha that is saying, we never disparage anyone, or I never disparage you. So we are respected by Buddha. Buddha is making prostration to us. But we always disparage him. We always think, no, that is not good.

[33:04]

Things should be this way or that way. So we forget. Even though the wind is always blowing, we don't feel it. Even though the moonlight is always illuminating us, we don't feel it. But at least for me, at least when I sit in this posture and let go, by letting go of my discrimination, my personal idea, my system of value, my picture of the world, I'm grasping this and try to argue against other people who have different idea or system of value. or even in myself i have the same conflict but when i open my hand and see it's just sitting i think is the how can i say we don't hear the voice or sound of the wind with our

[34:25]

or we don't think about it. But sitting to me, this sitting and leave everything to this posture is the way we open our eyes to the moonlight and open our ear to the sound of the wind. And this sound and this light as Dogen Zen said in the last passage of Genjo Koan, makes this earth, that means our world, gold, and makes our water in the long river into green. That means our life By listening to that sound from Buddha, I never disparage you.

[35:36]

And this voice is saying everything is impermanent. Everything is empty. Everything is egoless or no substantial. that allow us to be free from clinging to my own ego-centered way of thinking, desire, and let me cool down, and allow me to listen to other people. I think that is the way the wind of Buddha, or Buddha's family, and the light of Buddha's family, illumination from the moon, makes our life, our own lives, rich like the gold or like cream.

[36:49]

I think that is what Togen is really trying to say to us in Genjo Koan. Well, I think it's time to stop talking. Thank you very much for listening.

[37:10]

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