culminated. There is discarding of birth and death, and there is crossing of birth and death, both in a great way totally culminated. Realization is life. Life is realization. When the great way is realized, it is nothing but life's total realization. It is nothing but death's total realization. I think that's as far as I got. Yes. I just want to say a few words to get us into this in recapitulation. Emancipation means that life emancipates life and that death emancipates death. So one must find one's freedom within life, freedom from life within life, and freedom from death within death.

[01:09]

Instead of trying to escape from life, nirvana, we have to, we find it right in the midst of life or, you know, we find our release in the midst of our suffering, in other words. And we find our life in the midst of our dying, and we find our dying in the midst of our life. This is the non-dual door of emancipation that you find in the Vimalakirti Sutra. So he says, this dynamic working readily brings about life and readily brings about death.

[02:24]

The dynamic working, right, which is kikan or zenki. At the very time This dynamic working is thus realized. It is not necessarily large. It is not necessarily small. It is not limitless and it is not limited. It is not long or far, short or near. One's present life exists within this dynamic working. This dynamic working exists within this present life. And his footnote says that this dynamic working is not something to which dualistic concepts can be applied. So that's what Dogen is saying. You can't pin it, you can't describe it in dualistic terms. So you can't say that it's limited, you can't say that it's unlimited, you can't say that it's small, you can't say that it's large.

[03:33]

all these qualities are present. But if you try to define it through these qualities, it's not correct. So it's beyond qualities, it's beyond all these dualistic qualities. I remember Kadagiri Roshi once talking about Zenki and he says, Zenki is expressed as vow of practice.

[04:40]

And vow of practice means that one stands at the crossroads of the six worlds. You know, the six worlds. The heavenly realm, the human realm, the animal realm, the fighting demon realm, the, what did I leave out? The hell realm, and the, what? Hungry ghost realm. Hungry ghost realm. I should know that one. the hungry ghost realm. And when you look at some of these charts, you find there's a bodhisattva in each world, in each realm. It's divided up like a pie, and three worlds on top and three worlds on the bottom. And heaven is in the top and hell is at the bottom.

[05:44]

and then there's the fighting demons, and the animal realm, and the hungry ghost realm, and the human realm. And in each one, there's a Bodhisattva, and that's the Bodhisattva who lives by vow of practice, which means that as you transmigrate through each one of these worlds every day, you have the vow of practice that carries you through all these worlds, which means that you're in harmony with Zenki, you're in harmony with the dynamic working.

[06:49]

So within the cycle of birth and death, which means the birth of the self or the ego, and the death of the ego moment to moment, one has freedom. Within the realm of birth and death, one has freedom from birth and death. So life emancipates life and death emancipates death. So then he says, life is not a coming and it is not a going. It is not an existing and it is not a becoming. Nevertheless, life is the manifestation of the total dynamic working and death is the manifestation of the total dynamic working.

[08:13]

In his footnote, Dr. Abe says, each existence has its own respective Dharma stage or Dharma position, its own time, and does not intrude upon any other existence. Sometimes we say, when I was a little kid, we used to say, everything has its place, and no two things can exist in the same place at the same time. I think that's very similar to what is presented here, what Dogen says. No two things can exist in the same place at the same time. Everything has its dharma position. And even though things are moving around, they move around each other. They don't move. Even though we bump into each other still, there's independence. non-interference.

[09:18]

In the sense, in the absolute sense, there's no interference, even though we interfere with each other. It's not the same as that kind of interference, basic interference. Yet, that which makes each and every existence individual is also functioning equally within each and every individual. So that which makes everything, each thing individual is this total dynamic working, zenki. And it functions within each individual even though it's the same zenki. So we all have the same zenki, but each one of us uses it or is used by it. according to our individual existence. So, because there is life, there is death.

[10:23]

Because there is death, there is life. Life is life and is not death, yet there cannot be life without death and vice versa. So in Shobo Genzo Genjo Koan, Dogen says, it is an established Dharma teaching that life does not become death. Buddhism, therefore, speaks of no life. It is an established teaching in Buddhadharma that death does not become life. Buddhism, therefore, speaks of non-extinction. Life is one stage of total time, and death is one stage of total time. With winter and spring, for example, we do not say that winter becomes spring or that spring becomes summer. Sometimes we do say that, but Dogen is saying, don't say that. Yeah, life does not become death and death speaks of no life.

[11:40]

I think, yeah, see this word life is also the word birth. So I think it would have been better to say birth rather than life in that right here. I thought about that when I read it because here birth and death are the verbs So you change it to birth does not become death? Yeah. Buddhism therefore speaks of no birth? No birth and no death. In other words, the transition of some thing being born and dying. So in a relative sense, there's birth and dying. In an absolute sense, there's no birth or death. we have various levels on which we observe birth and death, or no birth, no death. The common way to observe birth and death is, as I said last time,

[12:53]

there's the coming together of the sperm and the egg and the gestation period and the birth, right? And then there's the growing up, middle age, getting old and dying. So we see that as birth and death. But if you think about it, even on that level, before the coming together of the egg and the sperm, where are you? So there's this process that's continually going on. And when the persona appears, we say something has been born. Someone has been born. And then when it disappears, we say someone has died.

[13:59]

But this is only one level. Actually, who is it that dies? Who is it that's born and who is it that dies? Is it the same person or different? Is it the same person that was born that dies as an old person or a different person? So you can say, yes, it's the same, but if you look more closely, we're not the same moment to moment, even though there is something that's the same. And also, since it's really nothing but kind of universal activity that's happening, We do not own this person. This is simply a manifestation that's arising through causes and conditions.

[15:03]

So, and then as we become, as we grow up a little bit, you know, and become self-conscious and conscious of the world, then we form the sense of I and ego and mind, I and mind and so forth, and you are separate from me and so forth. So this separation is what we call me. But we only call it me as it's separate. So there is a separation, but the separation is the separation of something that's one whole piece. It's like a pie, one big pie, and you cut it into various parts. You say, well, this is this piece and this piece. You can give them names if you want to. But actually, in Japan, every little hill has a name. Mountains have names, hills have names, valleys have names.

[16:12]

And so you can point out all these separate names and all these undulations of the earth. But you can also just take all those borders away and just say, look, there's that earth. It's just one piece with all these waves. So we're like that as well. We're just one piece with all these waves. And some of us want more than others. We want to take things away from each other, you know, so that we can become happier. But it doesn't work that way. We keep trying. So when it comes to talking about birth and death, yes, there is this level of birth and death where the ego appears and the ego dies or the ego subsides.

[17:20]

And then there's the body as well. the body and the ego. But as far as life itself, life is simply birth and death is simply the undulation of life and death or whatever you want to call it, the undulation of this universal activity. So nothing is really lost. The only thing that's lost is our self-consciousness. So we say that life has this illusory quality, right? You can say life is an illusion. I don't like to say life is an illusion. That's too definitive. But life has this illusory quality where we see things as real, but they're not graspable, you know?

[18:25]

They're not really real. There's a tendency toward being real. They are real, but not in the sense that we claim them as real. Because they are real because they're illusory. They're real illusions. So, real, actually, from the point of view of non-duality means non-substantial. Everything is real, meaning non-substantial. But we usually think that real means substantial. We say, oh, this is real, you know, it's substantial, even though it's not.

[19:27]

But if you want to understand reality, just understand that everything is non-substantial. Everything is real, non-substantial. Yes? The only thing that was real about him was his cigar. No, it's just a joke. So he said, you should know that within the incalculable dharmas that are in you, am I on the right page already? Yeah.

[20:30]

The incalculable dharmas that are in you, there is life and there is death. You must quietly reflect whether your present life and all the dharmas existing with this life share a common life or not. In fact, there can be nothing, not one instant of time or a single Dharma, that does not share life in common. For a thing, as well as for a mind, there is nothing but sharing life in common. I know why I thought I was in a funny place. I was reading the footnote and then I came up to... So I want to go back to the footnote. It is an established Dharma teaching that life does not become death. Buddhism therefore speaks of no life or no birth. You can say either one. It is an established teaching in the Buddha Dharma that death does not become life. And I read that, okay, spring and summer. So you should know that, then Dogen says, you should know that within the incalculable Dharmas that are in you, there is life and there is death.

[21:39]

Okay. All the incalculable dharmas, well dharmas means things, but for those people who don't know this, dharma with a capital D means reality or truth, Buddha's teaching, and the sutras that we study and so forth. Dharmas with a small d means things. But in a specific way, it means your psychological feelings, thoughts, emotions, and physical body. So within the incalculable dharmas, in other words, what we are is dharmas and skandhas, the five rivers

[22:50]

of what makes a person exist. Form, which is rupa, feelings, perceptions, mental formations, which are karmic thoughts, and consciousness, various levels of consciousness. And these five streams combine to form the nucleus of a person. or the constituents. And within these skandhas are the dharmas, which are the building blocks or the specifics. So you should know that within the incalculable dharmas that are in you, there is life and death. So it's the life and death of the dharmas. you must quietly reflect whether your present life and all the dharmas existing within this life share a common life or not."

[24:04]

Well, yes, they do. They share a common life. All the dharmas existing with this life share a common life. So, you know, the skandhas and dharmas that are your life also share a life in common with all other dharmas and skandhas. In fact, there can be nothing, not one instant of time or a single dharma that does not share life in common. for a thing, as well as for a mind, there is nothing but sharing life in common. And Abhi's footnote says, the following passage, part of which comes in the Vimalakirti Sutra, that is found in Dogen's fascicle, Shobogenzo Kaiin Zamai. He says, the body consists of all dharmas combined together. When it is produced, it is dharmas only that is produced.

[25:07]

When it perishes, it is dharmas only that perish. When these dharmas are produced, we do not say an I is produced. When these dharmas perish, we do not say that an I perishes. So this is basic Buddhism, just basic Buddhism. If you read any book about Buddha's primary teaching, When we say a person is born, it is simply dharmas that are arising. And when a person dies, it's simply dharmas that are disengaging. There is something more, you know, which is the feeling of you. So this is a kind of reductionist way of speaking. you know, Buddhist scientist reductionist way of describing what happens.

[26:10]

It doesn't account for the way you feel, you know, and the ideas that you have and the kind of, you know, the filling in of the life of the dharmas, right? It's simply describing the fundamental thing that happens. So when people say, well, Buddhism is just so cold and sucks the life out of the person, it's simply talking about the underlying structure of reality. Yes. Sharing life in common?

[27:25]

Is that just referring to interconnectedness of things? I think so. I think that's what it means. The interconnectedness of things is the interconnectedness of dharmas. Yeah, dharmas are sharing existence in common. You know, if you read the Heart Sutra, which you do every day, it says, all The skandhas are all empty in their own being, right? Means that the skandhas have no inherent existence. And then it says also, the dharmas are also empty. All dharmas are also empty. So at one time, I mean there were schools of Buddhism, you know, the 18 schools of Buddhism in India, where most of these schools agree that there was no

[28:42]

but they felt that the dharmas had some substantial existence. But then Nagarjuna came along with the Mahayana and said the dharmas also do not have an inherent or a substantial existence. They are also empty. So emptiness of skandhas and emptiness of dharmas. In other words, emptiness of self and emptiness of the constituents of existence. So it looks like even though there's no self, no substantial self, of course are substantial and kind of recombine to make forms.

[29:52]

But the dharmas or those form-building components are also empty. So this is the fundamental standpoint of Mahayana Buddhism. Emptiness of Atman and emptiness of self. Atman means self. Yes? When you say emptiness of self, especially for the Dharmas, they're empty of a separate self. Empty of any inherent existence. You're only separating with your mind. The thing exists as it is only in relation to everything else. So in that sense it's empty of its own being. Yeah, that's right. Things don't exist independently as things. And atoms don't exist independently as atoms and so forth.

[30:59]

And even the smallest unit, which is called in Japanese, Gokumi, is beyond the atom. Whatever it is that's the smallest thing, that's called Gokumi. And even that doesn't have substantial existence. We keep looking for the final particle. If you're a scientist, you keep looking for the final particle. But good luck. I'm not sure that people really feel that they can find it, but you have to keep looking for it anyway. Because if you keep looking for it, it keeps leading you on. You get grants. You get grants. So.

[32:05]

So he says, for a thing as well as for a mind, there is nothing but sharing life in common. But first of all, he says, you should know that within the incalculable dharmas that are in you, there is life and there is death. You must quietly reflect whether your present life and all the dharmas existing with this life share a common life or not. In fact, there can be nothing, not one instant of time or a single dharma that does not share life in common. For a thing, as well as for a mind, there is nothing but sharing life in common. So then he says, life is like a man riding in a boat, or a person. You know, nowadays we say a person. In those days he said a man. But now we say a person. Life is like a person riding in a boat. Aboard the boat, you use a sail. You take the tiller and you pull the boat along. So you have all these things, you have the boat, and the sail, and the tiller, and you have all these instruments.

[33:16]

Yet the boat carries the person, and without the boat, the person is not there. By riding in the boat, you make it a boat. You must concentrate yourself to studying and penetrating this very time. At this time, all is the world of the boat. The heavens, the water, the shore, all become the boat's time, and they are not the same as time which is not the boat. It is for this reason that life is what I make to exist, and I is what life makes me. In boarding the boat, one's body and mind and the entire surrounding environment are all the boat's dynamic working. Both the entire earth and all space are the boat's dynamic working. the I that is living, the life, the I that is living and the life that is myself is just like this. So, life is like riding in a boat.

[34:25]

So, we have this thing called a boat. And it's made out of wood or fiberglass or steel or concrete. And we call it a boat. And we put it on the water and it floats and we say there's a boat. But it's not really actualized as a boat until we step on the boat because the boat has to have a use in order to actualize itself. And the boat is only a boat because of our use of it. We construct the boat. So constructing the boat is kind of like constructing our vehicle, the vehicle for our life. We construct the vehicle for our life. When we're a little kid, we say, what are you going to be? Oh, I'm going to be a fireman, and I'm going to be a policeman, and I'm going to be a blah, blah, blah.

[35:28]

This is the vehicle that we use in order to actualize our life. Yeah? Well, let's not carry it too far. It is a metaphor, but the boat doesn't think. You do the thinking, or the mind that's there, your mind does the thinking. And what was your other question? Well, really I'm talking about the passenger and the boat. Well, the passenger and the boat are one thing.

[36:30]

Even though one is being pulled along by the boat, one is also pulling the boat along. Pulling the boat along. or sailing the boat along. The boat only does what the person commands it to do. So that means that you make life what it is and life makes you what it is through your activity. And there's a free choice. although certain pathways are laid out for each person according to where one is born and into what society one is born and into what economic or educational or status one is born, each one of those are vehicles.

[37:39]

One can either take up those vehicles and ride with them or not. In the olden days, the men used to take up the careers of their fathers and the women would take up the careers of their mothers, but nowadays it's all different. So to say aboard the boat you use the sail and take the tiller and pull the boat along, yes the boat does carry the person and without the boat the person is not there. In other words, one is actualized by one's activity.

[38:39]

We're all in the same boat. Well, yeah, we're all in the same boat. I mean, from time to time. But not necessarily. I mean, there's certain aspects of our life in which we're all in the same boat. But anyway, the point is that Our individual activity is what creates our life, and our life creates our surroundings. So our life is self-creating. Each one of us, each one of our lives is self-creating. And if you wanna use popular little sayings, you can say, we all make our own bed, and then we have to lie in it, so to speak. Right, well, that's right.

[40:17]

So given the fact of breath and thought and feelings and emotions and the body with arms and legs and organs and ingestion and elimination, We're mostly vegetable or meat. Vegetable and water and moisture. So yes, we have to something has to figure it out, right? Some part of us has to make it all work.

[41:19]

But there's also, even though we don't think about it, it's working anyway. So what is it that's working? Something's working. Instinct. is working. So the kind of combination of factors that make it all tick. And it's enormously complex, enormously complex. Within each atom of our body, mind, is the universe. And this universe is very possibly an atom in some other being, some inconsequential or hidden atom in some larger being.

[42:29]

So there's smaller, we can't say what's small and what's large. small and large are just ways of viewing something from the point of view of where we are. So because I'm this tall, things that are bigger than me look large, and things that are smaller than me look little. But it's simply all relative. And what seems inside What looks like it's outside only looks outside because of what feels like it's inside and vice versa. So there really is no inside or outside that's also relative. So when you start taking it all apart, when you start taking the relative positions

[43:33]

and seeing them for what they are, you realize that things only exist in relationship. You know, we have color, you know, and we say, well, this is gray and this is pink. But then when you put the gray and the pink together, the gray becomes green. You know, this is the law of colors. They only exist in relationship to each other and in contrast with each other. So what we take as a substantial world, we keep trying to make it more and more substantial because, you know, we wanna feel secure. And so in our desire to make our life secure, we create a substantial, a substantiality to our lives. And I think that's why it's important.

[44:39]

But when it becomes too important, we lose sight of, we lose our spontaneity for life. And when it becomes too loose, we have accidents. But we have to remember always that it's an interplay. And when we lose the interplay, we lose the spontaneity of our life. And when we start thinking of it as too substantial, we lose the spontaneity and the vitality of life. Yes. It's time for a break. Five. Take five. Have a monastic practice and then go into the world.

[45:55]

But to tell you the truth, I have not seen that. I have not seen people who practice monastic life and then go into the world and use that as an opportunity. I haven't seen that transition. People, they practice the monastic life and then if they go into lay life, they just kind of disappear. But I don't know, maybe I just haven't tracked it enough. But I think that's an ideal, because once you learn, once you get it in your bones to do monastic practice, then to actually do that in the world, I think it's ideal. Like you. Hopefully.

[46:59]

Hopefully. Yes, Paul. I've been thinking about someone like Thomas Edison and the kind of things he did which made me think that he really understood himself as being part of the universe, or he understood electricity, or he understood energy in a way that made it physical. Well, you know, sorcerers also understand energy. you know, in a certain way. There are a lot of people that can harness power, but that's not the same as being selfless. Matter of fact, it's somewhat dangerous. And although Henry Ford is looked up to as a model for industry, I don't think he's looked up to as a model for selflessness.

[48:05]

So he says, all becomes the boat's time, and they're not the same as time which is not the boat. It is for this reason that life is what I make to exist, and I is what life makes me. In boarding the boat, one's body and mind and the entire surrounding environment are all the boat's dynamic working. Both the entire earth and all space are the boat's dynamic working. The I that is living, the life that is I, is just like this. This is kind of what Dogen means when he says, being confirmed by all dharmas in zazen, is emancipation from all attachments, or enlightenment. He says, all dharmas conform, you know, he says, in Genjo Koan, to go, to put yourself forward, and, how does he say it?

[49:41]

I don't have a copy here. It's delusion. And to let the 10,000 things come forward and confirm the self is enlightenment. But the interaction between confirming, between confirming dharmas and having dharmas confirm you is to go beyond delusion and enlightenment. You know, there's the, story of Gutei raising his finger. Whenever anyone asked Gutei a question, he would just go like this.

[50:53]

A question about Dharma, he would go like this. And then, of course, his little acolyte started doing this, and so he cut off his finger. But regardless of that, Raising the one finger, you know. The one finger contains all dharmas. Everything is contained within the one finger. And yet, the one finger is just one finger. So this is why Zen practice is very simple. You know, if you go to Japan, and especially in the Rinzai monasteries, all they do all day long is sweep. That's all they do all day long is sweep the grounds.

[51:57]

It's amazing. I remember when Suzuki Roshi was dying and he was up in his apartment at Page Street. He said that he loved to hear the students out in front sweeping the sidewalk because they were sweeping their own mind. I remember going to Well, you know, at Ryoanji, the temple where they have the rocks, you know, and they rake around the rocks, you know, every day they rake around the rocks. And it's kind of like this, there's something very simple and solid, and then, which is like unmoving, you know, then there's this careful, mindful raking, which is like,

[53:17]

waves, you know, on the water, which gives you the feeling of this stillness, and yet, around this, in the center of these waves is this mountain of stillness. Just like this one finger. Because it wasn't his own expression. You have to find your own way of expressing.

[54:24]

you can't, I mean you can, but if you just express someone else's idea as if it was yours, it's okay to do that if it really is your idea, if it's really coming from you, if it's authentic. But if you're just kind of flipping your finger and saying, I can do that too, I don't know if he actually cut off the finger or not, but it's a great story. It's nine o'clock. So we're just where I wanted to be. Oh, the boy turned around.

[55:32]

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