I love to taste the truth about the dark deserts. This morning I'm going to continue my talk on Suzuki Roshi's Sando Kai lectures called Branching Streams Flow in the Darkness. And I'll read you a little bit of the poem that he's commenting on up to where we are today.

[01:02]

Sekito, in his poem, says, the mind of the great sage of India is intimately transmitted from west to east. While human faculties are sharp or dull, the way has no northern or southern ancestors. The spiritual source shines clear in the light. The branching streams flow on in the dark. Grasping at things is surely delusion. According with sameness is still not enlightenment. All the objects of the senses interact and yet do not. Interacting brings involvement. Otherwise, each keeps its place. Sights vary in quality and form. Sounds differ as pleasing or harsh. Refined and common speech come together in the dark. Clear and murky phrases are distinguished in the light. So these last four phrases, four lines, are what I'm going to talk about today.

[02:11]

Sights vary in quality and form. Sounds differ as pleasing or harsh. Refined and common speech come together in the dark. Clear and murky phrases are distinguished in the light." This is a little bit subtle, obscure, and needs some commentary. So, Suzuki Roshi says, Everything has its own nature and form. Each thing has its own nature and its own form. And when you hear a voice, it is either agreeable or disagreeable. Here the Sandokai is talking about sights and sounds. But the same is true for all the senses as well as the mind. There are good and bad tastes, good and bad feelings, agreeable and disagreeable ideas.

[03:17]

It is our attachment to them that creates suffering. When you hear something good, you will enjoy it. When you hear something bad, you will be annoyed or disturbed. But if you understand reality completely, you will not be bothered by things. The next phrase gives the reason. Refined and common speech come together in the dark. So I'm going to talk about the last sentence. Refined and common speech come together in the dark.

[04:24]

So what is refined and common speech and how do they come together in the dark? Refined means non-dual. Common speech is dualistic speech, our usual ordinary speech. The way we talk and the way we communicate is usually, most often, in the realm of duality, because language necessarily is dualistic. As soon as we start to talk, then we start to discriminate. Discrimination is not necessarily bad. we must discriminate, we must distinguish between one thing and another. But distinguishing between one thing and another is to be able to separate in order to interact.

[05:32]

If there's no separation, there's no interaction. In order to play ball, you have to have some distance. If we're all standing up against each other, you can't play ball very well. So we have to have some distance in order to dance, in order to interact. So the dance of life takes place through separation. Coming together and separating. That's what dance is. Coming together and separating. and we do it in various rhythms and forms. But this is the realm of samsara, the realm of the undulation of life, and the realm of duality.

[06:35]

So duality in itself is not bad or wrong, But there's a problem in duality in that duality is one side. And when we're, unless we acknowledge or see or understand the other side, which is non-duality, then we're just caught in the realm of separation. the realm of discrimination. So this is what Sekito seems to mean by common speech. Common speech is just an example of duality. Refined speech is speech which brings everything together.

[07:55]

Refined speech is speech which harmonizes. or which you might say that common speech is divisive in a crude way and refined speech is speech which harmonizes or brings everything together or expresses the oneness of things. So refined speech is important, and common speech is important. It's not that one is right and one is wrong, or one is good and one is bad. But refined speech is very important, because without refined speech, we don't understand the true nature of ourselves.

[09:00]

And without common speech, it's very difficult to communicate. So Sekito is saying refined and common speech come together in the dark. In the dark, as we said, I have to reiterate a lot of these terms, explain these terms over and over again. The dark means Sekito uses dark to mean where everything comes together as one, and the light is where everything is seen as separate. And he keeps using these terms dark and light back and forth to illustrate the oneness and the duality. So when you turn out the lights, you don't see things as separate.

[10:07]

Everything is the same in the dark. When you turn on the light, you see the various forms, colors and forms, and individual shapes. So the dark side Sakyong says, the spiritual source shines clear in the light, right here, where everything is revealed in its individuality. The branching streams flow on in the darkness, which means that Buddha nature pervades everywhere unseen. It's everywhere, but you can't distinguish it from one thing. You can't distinguish it as separate from anything.

[11:09]

So here, I'll read this paragraph again. Everything has its own nature and form. When you hear a voice, it is either agreeable or disagreeable. Here the Sandokai is talking about sights and sounds, but the same is true for all the senses, as well as the mind. There are good and bad tastes, good and bad feelings, agreeable and disagreeable ideas. It is our attachment to them that creates suffering. When we have something wonderful, we become attached to it. And then when we can no longer grasp it, we suffer. When we can no longer hold on to what we like, we suffer. And then when something occurs that we don't like, we create an aversion toward it, which is another form of suffering.

[12:19]

So here he's saying grasping and aversion is the problem, not the thing itself. The thing itself is just what it is. But it's grasping and aversion that creates our problems. When you hear something good, you will enjoy it. When you hear something bad, you will be annoyed or disturbed. But if you understand reality completely, you will not be bothered by things. So what does he mean by understanding things completely? When you practice Zazen for a long time, You experience all kinds of good feelings, bad feelings, good thoughts, bad thoughts, strong emotions, weak emotions, but everything, but you learn to accept everything without being attached to what comes up.

[13:42]

you may have some painful feelings but without attaching to the painful feelings you can accept them so underneath everything that arises is a state of calmness and deep settledness so that when disagreeable things come, the mind may be disturbed, but the mind is not attached to the disturbance. Or when something pleasant arises, one may feel the pleasantness, but one is not attached to the pleasant feeling. So one can enjoy the pleasant feeling, One can allow oneself to be a little disturbed by the unpleasant feeling, but one is not detached to either the pleasant feeling or the unpleasant feeling.

[14:51]

So that one's equanimity is not disturbed. One's composure is not upset. That's what he means by not being bothered by things. To maintain composure in all circumstances is practice. When I see Zen students losing their composure, I can see where their problem point is. This is how you can tell where a person's problem point is. What it is that they lose composure over.

[15:57]

And that's the point, the place where the student has to work some. That's the point where Where the point of that problem is, is where the practice should be focused. So then he says, we understand things in two ways. In darkness, which is called an, and in the light of form, which is called shiki. where we see things as good and bad. We understand things in two ways, in darkness and in the light of form, where we see things as good or bad. We know that there is no good or bad in things themselves. It is we who differentiate things as good or bad and thus create good or bad.

[17:09]

If we know this, we will not suffer so much. Oh, this is what I am doing. Yes, if we realize that it is we who create good and bad. So, there are two levels of truth. One is the truth The ultimate truth is that ultimately there is no good or bad, no right or wrong. Things are just as they are. The universe doesn't care. Things just happen the way they happen. The other truth is that in the human world we have ethics. Every human being, I don't speak for everyone, but wants to be happy, wants to have a nice life, a satisfying life.

[18:22]

In order to do that, we have rules of conduct. How we interrelate with each other. How we accept each other. How we treat each other. And this is the other side of the truth. And in this side, there is good and bad. There's right and wrong. There are ways to interact and laws of behavior. And these are all very important. So these are two sides. One side is the side in the dark, the dark side. No good or bad, no right or wrong. Everything is just the way it is, period. On the other side, there is good and bad, right and wrong. You shouldn't do this, and you should act this way, and you shouldn't act that way, blah, blah, blah. And this is the way we should treat each other, even though this doesn't happen.

[19:28]

Still, we have ethics. But if you realize that things are just the way they are, even though in our human world, which is the realm of duality, right and wrong, good or bad, we make our best effort. So in the realm of good and bad and right and wrong, We feel it was good that I was born and it's too bad that I'm going to die. Most of us think that way. But sometimes you're in a position where it's the other way around. But in the realm of non-duality, it's not good or bad.

[20:41]

or right or wrong. It just happens. It's just the process of things that's happening. So it's a problem sometimes when people don't pay attention to ethics. If science doesn't pay attention to ethics, then it becomes evil, which means that it doesn't pay attention, people are not paying attention to the consequences of their acts. And we can all be destroyed. And religious fervor can do the same thing. Religious fervor can destroy in the same way. So it's not religion or science. It's people. It's our understanding. It's inevitably

[21:47]

If we realize that there is an inevitability to our life and to the way things appear and disappear, we'll not be so worried. Somehow we have to trust that life itself takes care of itself. Each one of us is here because life itself is making this happen. Life itself is creating this scenario, this dream that we're all participating in. And life itself will take care of us when this dream is over. We have to have trust in that. Why not? And if you don't have trust in it, I mean, if you do have trust in it and it's not true, so what? He says, things in themselves have no good or bad nature.

[23:02]

To understand this is to understand things in utter darkness. then you are not involved in a dualistic understanding of things as good or bad. Sekito says, refined and common speech come together in the dark. Darkness includes good and bad. In utter darkness, good words and bad words will not disturb you. And then the fourth line of the poem is, clear and murky phrases are distinguished in the light. Clear and murky phrases. There are pure words and muddy words. In brightness we have dualistic words, the duality of pure and impure. So pure in this sense means non-dual. When Suzuki Roshi used to talk about what is pure practice, he said, this appears in my beginner's mind,

[24:23]

Pure practice means non-dualistic practice. It doesn't mean to separate pure from the impure. Purity is only found within the impure. But purity means all-inclusive. It doesn't mean separating out one thing from another. It doesn't mean separating out the good from the bad or the right from the wrong. Pure practice means everything is included in your practice. There are pure words and muddy words. In brightness, we have dualistic words, the duality of pure and impure. Even though we are angry at someone, we can still acknowledge that person.

[25:33]

That's a very important phrase. Sometimes people say to me, I'm so angry at somebody, I'm so angry at them. My response is, you may be angry at them, And you may need to reprimand somebody, but you should always do it with compassion. As long as you don't abandon the person in your mind, or write the person off, or forget them. then you can be angry and you can express some anger if it's necessary. But you should always remember to be compassionate and compassion should temper your anger or your upsetness.

[26:49]

So, you know, aikido is the practice of never harming your opponent. You're always trying to help the person who's your opponent. And instead of throwing the person, you move in such a way that they throw themselves. So even though we are angry at someone, we can still acknowledge that person. Because a teacher knows a student very well, sometimes the teacher will be angry with him. When you are familiar with someone, then it's easier to be angry. You tend to quarrel with people that you know, or you tend to Because, you know, married people tend to have certain kinds of contentiousness with each other because they know each other so well and they get stuck in their positions.

[28:02]

And then they, you know, fight and have resentments and so forth. And somewhat like that with a teacher and a student, After a while, they know each other pretty well, so the teacher will get angry at the student because the teacher expects something of the student, and the student is not living up to that expectation. So maybe the teacher will get angry, but always with compassion, never abandoning the student. But sometimes the student will be lazy. The teacher knows that the student is very good, But sometimes the student would be lazy. Then the teacher would hit him. Well, this is Japanese style. Suzuki Ryosho always walked around with his stick. And occasionally he would hit somebody with a stick, but it was always with compassion.

[29:07]

I never saw him hit anybody that wasn't, he didn't do it with compassion. And sometimes he'd walk into Zendo, where everybody was sitting, and he'd just walk down the row and hit everybody. Bam, bam, bam, bam, bam. And everyone, of course, loved it because it was so compassionate. But still they felt something from him. They felt touched, you know, stimulated. So the teacher will hit him. Sometimes the teacher will praise or encourage the student. But it does not mean we are using different methods or a different attitude. The understanding is the same, but the expression is different.

[30:09]

Students who are pessimistic, who see things very negatively, should be encouraged. If they are too good or too bright, then the teacher will scold them. That is our way. So if the student is depressed or negative or doesn't have much confidence, then you really encourage this person and give them a lot of good feeling and encouragement. But if the student is too smart or too quick or too maybe arrogant, then you keep putting him in his place. No, no, sit down, stop it. You know, like the dog, you know, the dog that's always, you know, there with his nose in your lap and you say, sit down, sit down. And the dog is in the corner and you say, come on, come on, come on, come over here.

[31:12]

So we say positive way and negative way. The positive way is to acknowledge things in terms of good and bad, or beautiful or ugly. If you make a good effort, you'll be a good student. To acknowledge a student's effort is the positive way. The negative way is not to accept anything. So I remember one of my teachers, Tatsugami Roshi, used to express it as, we take the student and we squeeze the student, and then we let go. And then we squeeze, and then we let go. So the squeezing is like, no, no, nothing you do is right. Nothing you do is good. Just keep working as hard as you can. And then letting go is, oh, you're really doing well. Yeah, go. Everything you do is really good.

[32:20]

So these are the two sides of dealing with students. We don't always use that method as a method, but it just naturally happens. So sometimes, this is in order to keep the student in the middle. Sometimes it's important to bring out the student's ego, and then sometimes it's important to suppress the student's ego or to sit on it. so they can see who they are or what they're doing. Sometimes we say you have to have an ego before you can let go of it. You have to see the ego, you have to recognize it, you have to have some sense of yourself before you can let go of what's not necessary.

[33:35]

So, people who have been suppressed for a long time need to be able to express themselves as who they are. And then, you know, you have something to let go of in order to feel confident. So he says, students who are pessimistic, who see things very negatively, should be encouraged. But if they are too good or too bright, then the teacher will scold them. That is our way. We say the positive way and the negative way. The positive way is to acknowledge things in terms of good or bad, beautiful or ugly.

[34:45]

If you make a good effort, you will be a good student. To acknowledge a student's effort is the positive way. The negative way is not to accept anything. Whatever you say, you will get 30 blows." Positive and negative, sometimes one and sometimes the other. Usually, we are very much attached to either the bright side or the dark side of things. So he's still talking about the bright side and the dark side. Do you know the famous koan? A monk asked the master, it is so hot, how is it possible to escape from the heat? And the master said, why don't you go to a place where there is neither cold nor heat? The disciple said, is there a place where it is neither cold nor hot? The master said, when it is cold, you should be cold Buddha. When it is hot, you should be hot Buddha. Actually, it says, the koan says, when it is hot, you should let the heat kill you.

[35:52]

When it is cold, you should let the cold kill you. You may think that if you practice zazen, you will attain a stage where it is neither hot nor cold, where there is no pleasure or suffering. You may ask, if we practice Zazen, is it possible to have that kind of attainment? The true teacher will say, when you suffer, you should just suffer. When you feel good, you should feel good. Sometimes you should be a suffering Buddha. Sometimes you should be a crying Buddha. And sometimes you should be a very happy Buddha. This happiness is not exactly the same as the happiness that people usually have, or the happiness that we usually think of as happiness, is what he means.

[36:54]

There's a little difference, and that little difference is significant. Because Buddha knows both sides of reality, Buddhas know both sides of reality, they have this kind of composure. They are not disturbed by something bad or ecstatic about something good. They have a true joy that will always be with them. The basic tone of life remains the same and in it there are some happy melodies and some sad melodies. He uses that term. This is the feeling an enlightened person may have. It means that when it is hot or when you are sad, you should be completely involved in being hot or sad without caring for happiness. When you are happy, you should just enjoy the happiness. We can do this because we are ready for anything.

[37:59]

Even though circumstances change suddenly, we don't mind. Today we may be very happy, and the next day we don't know what will happen to us. When we are ready for what will happen tomorrow, then we can enjoy today completely. You do this by not studying a lecture, but through your practice. The basic tone of an enlightened person's life runs very deep. Happiness or settledness is always there. And the basis of this tone. Sad things happen.

[39:01]

Happy things happen. Tragedies happen. Birth and death happens. But the tone is always the same. And the composure is always the same. And even though there's the coming, arising and falling of this emotional life, the composure is always the same, which is a very deep contentment or happiness or joy of life. in the midst of events without anticipating.

[40:04]

You know, one of the problems we have is anticipation. To be able to just stay in this moment without leaning into the next moment or leaning into the past moment. Even though we have some idea of what our path is, where we're going, what our direction is, still we're in this moment. But we get caught in projecting into the next moment, and we lose our footing in this moment. We lose our composure in this moment, and we're easily pushed over. So this is called unassuming mind. Unassuming mind is just open and ready for the next moment without anticipating.

[41:10]

Openness and readiness. Like a cat waiting for the mouse to come out of the hole. Just sitting there. But when the mouse comes out of the hole, the cat's there. So Dogen, he says, Dogen Zenji was interested in this kind of koan. He was interested in this koan like, when it is cold, you should be a cold Buddha, and when it is hot, you should be a hot Buddha.

[42:16]

That's all. To be completely involved in what you are doing without thinking about various things is Dogen's way of doing things. This kind of attainment is reached through actual practice, not through words. Words can help your understanding of things. When you are very dualistic, when you are getting confused, they can help you. But if you are too interested in talking about these things, you will lose your way. We should be interested in actual zazen, not in these words, and we should practice actual zazen. Dogen Zenji's way is to find the meaning in each being. like a grain of rice or a cup of water. You may say a cup of water or a grain of rice is something that you see in brightness, but when you pay full respect to the grain of rice, I mean when you actually respect it as you respect Buddha himself, then you will understand that a grain of rice is absolute. When you live completely involved in the dualistic world, you have the absolute world in its true sense.

[43:20]

So instead of trying to separate from the dualistic world to find the absolute world, you find the absolute world within the dualistic world. You find the dark within the light and the light within the dark, which he talks about later. When you practice Zazen without seeking for enlightenment or seeking for anything, then there is true enlightenment. Well, enlightenment is in darkenment, but he says, Sekito says, but just understanding the oneness of things is not enlightenment either, yet.

[44:53]

He says that in the poem. You have to realize the non-duality of duality and non-duality. Well, yes, that's because that's what we're involved in all the time. And our sensory world, sensory world is involved in the light side, in the realm of differentiation. So here we find ourselves in the world of differentiation, of comparative values. And we forget But the other side, because we're so involved in self-preservation. Rick? Yeah, I think you're right.

[47:22]

Fada. Fada. God. We used to use the stick all the time, but there was a lot of objection to people, from people, some people, and so the stick got sort of less used, but it has nothing to do with anger.

[48:49]

The stick has to do with compassion, and if it's used in anger, That's misuse. But anger comes up. Anger will come up with everybody at one time or another. But the stick is used with compassion, not with the anger. In other words, the anger may come up But the teacher will turn to compassion and not use the stick with the anger. Sometimes the teacher will use the stick with the anger, but without attachment to the anger. So sometimes if we want somebody to hear something that they're not hearing, we have to say it in an angry tone of voice.

[50:00]

But we're not attached to the anger. We're just using the anger as a means. So one has to know how to do that. It's not like you made me angry, but I am angry. Don't blame the other person for your anger as long as you're not blaming the other person for your anger. You can use your anger So I want to show you anger So it's unrealistic to say that anger never arises or, you know, and so forth. But it does arise. But it needs to be handled. And it can be useful.

[51:03]

But one has to know how to use it. Malcolm? I can't hear you. not ethics. The truth of oneness of things. Yeah. And I was wondering, you said that the truth of right and wrong is that you call it the human realm, the realm of humanity. And I was wondering, it seems pretty clear to me how we can use the precepts and try to operate in that realm. That's where we seem to be most of the time. But how do we practice on the other side? Well, through Zazen you will understand that. It has to be in your bones. Paul?

[52:13]

You have to speak up. Do I think that's true? I don't. I think all cultures are the same. They're all different, but as far as the duality and non-duality of life, I think that all cultures are the same. You find people who are highly intuitive and you find people who are not intuitive at all in every culture. And it's not like, you know, all the Indians were flocking to Buddha.

[53:22]

That's not true at all. As a matter of fact, he was arguing with everybody around him. He wasn't arguing, but he was just, you know, they had all different kinds of ideas in Buddha's time. And he had to debate with all the philosophers of his time. So he did have followers, but, you know, given the number of people in India and the number of Buddhists, it's just like a speck of sand in the Ganges. And the number of people who really understand in this way is very small. Anywhere. the world. So I don't think that the Indians had any special advantage.

[54:23]

I think, you know, they're just people everywhere and they're all the same and then they're different countries and they have different understanding about things, it's true, and they're different colors, but I think that's all superficial. Anybody, anywhere can understand And I don't think any particular culture has any edge on understanding. The Japanese sometimes think they do. It's very arrogant. We're the only ones that can understand Zen. They think that. So it's very arrogant, which shows that they don't understand Zen. This lady with the hat on. Oh, is that a hat or is that your hair?

[55:29]

That's a hat. I was wondering, am I to understand that if something annoys you, that that is not, if there's a noise that annoys you, it's not reality? Well, it's a real noise. And it's a real disturbance, but you create it. You're creating the disturbance in your mind by discriminating it. We all do that, you know? Oh, God, I hate that music, you know? Turn that down. But that's just, you know, somebody else says, boy, turn it up, you know? Anyway, it's time to quit.

[56:26]

@Text_v004
@Score_JJ