I vow to taste the truth of the Tathāgata's words. Good morning. Well, I have As Sachin goes on, and I start looking for things to say, too much comes up. I have to zero in on what I want to deal with. But first I want to talk about the word divine, which we just talked about yesterday. And looking again at the etymology of the word, one is referred to the word Diana. We say Diana, probably D-I-A-N-A, the Greco-Roman deity.

[01:03]

And so the word Deus sort of comes from Diana, because she was a deity, and originally it concerned the Roman deities, or the Greek deities, Greek and Roman deities, referred to them. But as a term itself, it simply comes from the sky, and the sky like the illumination refers to illumination from the sky like you know the source of illumination from the sky and so and then the deists use it for referring to a deity But actually, I think my interpretation is that it's simply a term for luminosity and the source of luminosity.

[02:11]

And if you want to use it for a deity, you can do that. If you want to use it as just the source of luminosity, the sourceless, in Buddhism we say the sourceless source. it can refer to that. So I feel comfortable in that sense using the word divine as luminosity of the sourceless source. There are also a lot of other derivatives, like we say, oh that meal was divine. so forth. But basically, I think that's legitimate. oh yeah and you know it's interesting the Sanskrit word dhyana sounds like Diana which means meditation, which means becoming one with the source.

[03:32]

So I don't know that there's any, a lot of Sanskrit terms are But I don't know if that's one or not, probably not. So the other thing I wanted to comment again on Master Hongzi's practice instructions. Every once in a while I'll read Master Hongzi's practice instructions. which to me are the most illuminating, because he's always talking about illumination, but I think that if Hongzi was at Rujing's temple, he preceded him as the master of Hongzi's temple in China,

[04:33]

And I think if I had my choice of any teacher in our lineage that I would, if somebody said, which one of these would you like to study with, I would say Hongzhi. I feel the most affinity directly with Hongzhi. And next year, I'm supposed to be leading a, or co-leading or something, a visit to China to visit Tiandong Mountain Temple and other places around in that area where Dogen met his teacher. for a couple of weeks, and I think one of my people go there to pay their respects to where Dogen found his teacher, but I would also go there to pay my respects to Hongzi equally.

[05:50]

So if anybody's interested in going along, Well, Kaz Tanahashi did that tour recently, last month, and came back. Rev led a tour, more extensive, difficult tour of visiting a lot of the different monasteries from where the different teachers practiced. This is a little more modest venture, spending a little more time in some locale rather than traveling a lot. Andy Ferguson, who is very much involved in doing this kind of stuff. But this tour, this time, I think will be sponsored by Tricycle magazine.

[07:03]

So it's just in the works. I don't know exactly how it's going to work out, but we're planning on doing this in October next year, before our practice period. And the whole trip will probably be about $3,000, something like that, for everything. So as soon as I know, as soon as it's nailed down, I'll put up information and if people are interested you can think about it. I want to read one of Hongzi's practice instructions. Usually I pick out certain ones that I feel are very meaty, but I've decided that what I want to do is just simply go through them all, one at a time.

[08:18]

and look deeply into each one. He's somewhat repetitive, you know, he really talks about the same thing all the time in different words, you know, but he always is very inspiring, whatever he says, and directly to the point. So this is the first one. And these talks were taken down by one of his disciples, a monk named Pu Kung. Hongzi in our lineage is called Wanshi Shogaku in Japanese. So when we recite the lineage, we come down to almost the end and there's Wanshi Shogaku. and I never quite have time to bow to him before I have to stand up and bow to Ruijing and Dogen, but I decided that today I would bow to Hongzi, and then if I got around to Ruijing and Dogen, it was okay, but if I didn't, it was okay too, because I always bow to, you know, several times to Dogen

[09:43]

So the monk Pukun who recorded all this says, Hong Zi made vast and empty the bright mirror and saw through it and reflected without neglect. He manifested the mysterious pivot of subtle change, then trusted his fortune Only one who had the true eye and deep flowing eloquence could have mastered this. My teacher lived below Taipei Peak. Dragons and elephants tromped around. Those are enlightened students. The hammer and chisel of the teaching chipped away. The meaning of his words spread widely, but still conveyed the essence. Sometimes scholars and laypeople who trusted the Way asked for his directions. Sometimes mendicant monks requested his instructions. They spread out paper and wrote down his responses.

[10:54]

He spoke up and answered their questions, producing appropriate Dharma talks. I have selected a few of these and arranged them in order. Ah, the emptiness of the great blue sky, the flowing of the vast ocean. I have not yet attained these utmost steps, so please excuse my attempt to record his talks. I must await the ones who mysteriously accord with spiritual awakening to pound out the rhythm of his words and appreciate their tones." So he wrote this down in then it was translated into English and everything, things always lose something in translation, sometimes they gain. But anyway, they're pretty good, translation is pretty good, the essence comes through. So this talk is called

[11:57]

Anyway, the translator gives titles to the talks called the Bright Boundless Field. So he says, the field of boundless emptiness is what exists from the very beginning. You must purify, cure, grind down, and brush away all the tendencies you have fabricated into apparent habits. In other words, you have to really work your habitual way of doing things and thinking about things and your opinions and let go of what you've established. That's one of the hardest things to do. I have had students who have not been able to do that. Especially if you get someone with younger people, it's easier because they're not so formed.

[13:04]

But the older we get, the more formed we are. And the harder it is to let go of what we've established as ourself and what we hang on to and what we have solidified. you know, whatever we established is our identification. One time I shaved my head, I just newly shaved my head and I walked into a store and there was a little black boy and he looked up at my head and he said, And the immediate response is, don't you know who I am? So he says, then when you let go of all

[14:17]

purify, cure, grind down, or brush away all the tendencies you have fabricated into apparent habits, then you can reside in the clear circle of brightness. Utter emptiness has no image. Upright independence does not rely on anything. This is the most difficult, to not rely on anything. But to not rely on anything means that you can use everything. You can use everything without being used by everything. So not relying on anything means to not be attached to anything. And zazen itself is the practice of not relying on anything.

[15:31]

You don't rely on anything. You sit up straight, you don't lean to the right, you don't lean to the left, you don't lean forward, and you don't lean backward. And this is called entering the circle of brightness. this is what he means, by entering the circle of brightness, you simply settle in that place. And then Hongzi is the proponent of silent illumination, Zen, which is so often criticized by Daoist and Rinzai school. but which is unjustly so. But if you do rely on this nature, true nature, it should be genuine.

[16:43]

So, the clear circle of brightness, to sit right in the middle of that. Utter emptiness has no image. Upright independence does not rely on anything. Just expand and illuminate the original truth, unconcerned with external conditions. without getting caught up in conditions. So this is like the unconditioned realm. Zazen is the unconditioned realm where nothing influences you. You're simply in the center of completeness. Accordingly, we are told to realize that not a single thing exists.

[18:02]

We often hear this, not a single thing exists, but not a single thing exists doesn't mean there is not a single thing. Single talk and double talk. We use the term double talk but you don't yet haven't discovered the term single talk. We're told to realize that not a single thing exists. Because things exist, we say they don't exist. Because if things didn't exist, we couldn't say they don't exist, right? You can only say a thing doesn't exist if it exists.

[19:03]

And you can only say it exists if it doesn't exist. But we always take the standpoint of things exist because they're here. They are here, but they don't exist, really. And because they don't exist, they're here. So, in this field, birth and death do not appear. Birth and death is also comparative values. In the realm of non-comparative values things do not exist and there is no birth and death. Only in the realm of comparative values is there birth and death and existence and non-existence. But the realm of comparative values is also part of reality. So we don't say that that's not reality.

[20:11]

there is birth and death, but at the same time, within birth and death, there is no birth and death. Within existence, there is non-existence. Within non-existence, there is existence. Otherwise, we fall into double talk. Single talk is that beyond birth and death. Double talk is that there is birth and death. So sometimes people say, well you guys are just using double talk, but it's really single talk that they're talking about. When they say it's just double talk. The deep source transparent down to the bottom, can radiantly shine and can respond unencumbered to each speck of dust without becoming its partner.

[21:21]

In other words, you know it's like the light beam coming in the window and there's the dust and the light illuminates the dust, Although dust and light are one being, have the same source, dust is dust and light is light. And the light exists independently of the dust and the dust exists independently of the light, but even though they have the same source. So the light is not affected by the dust except that If there's too much, it gets obscured and changes its appearance but not its essence. So the subtlety of seeing and hearing transcends mere colors and sounds.

[22:27]

Color and sound, you know, color sound or form and color is a way of saying a kind of technical term which means phenomena. The subtlety of seeing and hearing colors and sounds or the phenomenal sentient consciousness. It means that seeing here means seeing essence. So seeing essence has to go beyond the sense fields, the sense realm. even though the illumination illuminates the sense realms. The whole affair functions without leaving traces and mirrors without obscurations.

[23:35]

So functioning without leaving traces is, Dogen describes as the moon reflecting in the water. the moon isn't affected and neither is the water, but there it is. You see the moon and the water, but actually the water, each wave of the water is reflecting the moon without affecting the moon. So he says enlightenment does not disturb the water, and the water doesn't disturb enlightenment, the whole affair functions without leaving traces and mirrors without obscurations. In other words, everything is seen just as it is without partiality or being obscure or being clouded over. Very naturally, mind and dharmas emerge and harmonize.

[24:39]

Mind and dharmas emerge and harmonize things. Dharmas, of course, means the things. So mind emerges and harmonizes with dharmas without interference. An ancient said that no mind embodies and fulfills the way of no mind. non-dualistic mind. Non-mind, no-mind means total mind, not partiality, the mind of partiality or discrimination. Embodying and fulfilling the way of no-mind, finally you can rest. Proceeding, you are able to guide the assembly.

[25:47]

With thoughts clear, sitting silently, wander into the center of the circle of wonder. That's a great phrase. with thoughts clear, sitting silently, wander into the center of the circle of wonder. This is how you must penetrate and study. I like this wandering, wandering, and just kind of stumble into it, right? Another place he says, enter in and sit in the center of the circle from which light issues forth. This is Zazen. So Hongzi is a kind of mystic, you know, we don't usually think of Zen teachers as

[26:56]

what's his name, called Dogen the mystical realist. Yeah, Heejin Kim called him the mystical realist, and he was, I think, very much influenced by Hongzi. I don't know, you know, Dogen talks about But there must have been some influence of Hongzi hanging around that temple that he picked up on. I really feel sure about that. But I think Hongzi was a real mystic. And that's why I feel this affinity with him, because I always felt like I had that temperament of being a mystic, which was difficult because I was not ungrounded. There's nothing worse than being an ungrounded mystic.

[28:11]

You have your head in the clouds, you know, but you don't have your feet on the ground. So when I read the Hasidic tales, the one thing that came through as a theme was you have to have your feet on the ground all the time. And that was a really strong influence, I mean really kind of penetrated that. And then when I met Suzuki Roshi, his whole practice was having your feet on the ground. There's nothing mystical about Zen, don't worry about it. That's good to say, good thing to say. So, you know, a mystical person, a mystic should stay totally grounded and not let out any light.

[29:14]

You just keep your, you know, they always say, contain the light. don't scatter it around. And in zazen that's what we do, we contain the light, we're sitting right in the midst of it, right in that circle and allowing it to illuminate. But the way you use it is in your everyday activity in a non-flashy way. it transforms as ordinary mind and is not recognizable as anything else. Some people just bask in it, you know, and that's their life.

[30:22]

Some hermit practice. You just kind of stay in there, in that light, but you don't share it. That's called pratyekabuddha. Bodhisattva practice is to share that light in numerous ordinary ways. So to be as ordinary as possible so that it becomes distributed in a broad way. So that's generosity. having a generous spirit and not keeping it for yourself.

[31:24]

But the more you give it away, the more it fills you up. So if you try to hang on to it, it will distort you. because it's not flowing. It has to be flowing. It's like money. Money is very useful, full of light. Money is full of light. But if you hoard it, then it distorts you. And so you have to let the money flow. When money is flowing, as Suzuki Roshi says, everywhere, then it works, society works, and it's no big deal, just that everything's working. And when your spiritual life flows, there's no big deal, just ordinary activity, but everything's working.

[32:38]

That's why in Soto Zen we discourage hermit practice. Hermit practice is always discouraged in Soto Zen and people are always wanting to build little hermitages. all right, you know, I'm not going to say that that's not right, but you know people like to do hermit, they like the idea of hermit practice, you know, but we do hermit practice in a shared way. Monastic practice in Soto Zen is done in a shared way. So that we don't, because it's easy to have hermit practice become egotistical practice, something you're just doing for yourself. No matter how wonderful it is, it's still something you're doing for yourself, just for yourself.

[33:51]

When you give away, continuously give away the fruit, then the benefit keeps accruing to you. The more you give away, the more you have. So it's practice benefits you as well as everyone around you. Peter? Well, where do things come from? Where did they go?

[35:03]

So we just say exists. Exists is a convenient term for something that's always in a state of transformation. So something only exists momentarily as what it is. the next moment exists as what it is, but it's not what it is, it's not the same what it is. It contains elements of the past, the former existence, but it's its own existence. So you can't grasp exists. There's no way you can grasp exists. If you could grasp exists, then just your movement would deny that.

[36:21]

Because if a thing exists, it exists permanently as a thing, as itself. It would have to exist permanently as itself. Fortunately, things don't exist. See, we usually think it's too bad that things don't exist, but fortunately things don't exist, or beyond fortunately and unfortunately things don't exist. What exists doesn't exist as real. It's only real, its reality is that it's not real. That's its reality. So we're always thinking backwards. We think perverted thought. This is what's called perverted thinking in this Heart Sutra. We say perverted thinking, right?

[37:26]

Upside-down thinking. Upside-down thinking means we think that things that don't exist, exist. And the things that exist, don't exist. That's upside-down thinking. Topsy-turvy views. It's called upside-down. But we're upside-down without realizing it. But at the same time, everything exists just as it is. Yes, you're there and I'm here, right? There's the post. It's all this is existing at the same time, but at the same time that it's existing, it's not real. It's real in one sense and unreal in another sense. It exists in one sense and doesn't exist in another sense. So, our perception is very broad.

[38:31]

We don't have a fine perception, frankly. because we're used to thinking in terms of continuity. That's a broad perception. A fine perception is that this dharma only exists as a flash in the pan for the moment and everything is in continual flux. We see that everything is changing, you know, but we act as if it's not. So it exists and exits and exists and exits. It exists and exits. What? It exists and exits. Is that what you said? Yeah. Yeah, it exists and exits. Peter? You mentioned in the scheme of upside down thinking. does not exist.

[39:38]

We believe that what doesn't exist, exists. What we believe not exists, really exists. Yeah, or not is, is. Can you give me an example of that opposite? Yeah, what not is, is you, but you think you exist. There's fundamental existence, and then there's momentary existence, okay? So, fundamentally, nothing exists. Momentarily, all phenomena arise on each moment, altogether, in dependent origination. But dependent origination itself means things don't exist.

[40:44]

That's the meaning of dependent origination. Because you exist dependently. And what exists dependently doesn't exist in reality. It only exists dependently on causes and conditions. When the causes and conditions are taken away, So in the diamond sutra it's like a bubble, like a phantom, like a shadow. But catch the joy as it flies, right? That's what Blake says, very nice. Catch the joy, like here you are, you know, for this moment in this time with these surroundings. Be it, totally.

[41:47]

That verse is something like, try to catch a joy and it dies, but kiss it as it flies and you'll live forever in eternity's sunrise. Yeah, that's good, thank you. I had a question, if something did exist and we couldn't say so. That's right, you wouldn't be able to open your mouth. Why, if anything did exist, we couldn't say so? Yeah, because you would exist without moving. As long as there's movement, there's non-existence. Can you think of some other thing as existing? I don't exist. Well, people think that God exists. as the fundamental non-existent, I mean fundamental existent, but not in Buddhism.

[43:01]

That's why we don't posit a deity, because it's like everything is interdependently moving with everything else as one big being, and all of the phenomena are momentary expressions of that one big being. So it's like if you've ever looked at a ... you open a bin of worms and you see this big pile of worms and they're all kind of doing all this, right? That's like existence and non-existence, right? They exist in this big pile which is it. We say it, right? It is the whole shebang with its creepy crawlies, you know, its manifestations in time and space.

[44:08]

So there's just transformation of this one big being. So you can't get lost in the universe. You always appear in the universe in some form, but you don't call it me. But now we call it me, right? But that's also a mistake. That's why we say you have no self, no separate self. When you let go and have no separate self, then you realize your true body. True body is the whole universe. This is called realization or enlightenment. you let go and realize that your whole body, your true body is the universe. Even though you feel that you have a separate one, you know, we feel that.

[45:24]

And we don't, so we don't want to die. Because, you know, and reasonably so, we're very attached to our, you know, this body, mind, and so forth, and things hurt, you know, and we don't want things to hurt, and we don't want to disappear and all this, right? So that's difficult for us. But the more we can let go now, the easier it is when we do disappear. And so, as it's said, die now and come to life, and really come to life. And this is said not only in Buddhism, this is also Christianity, you know, be born again. Buddhism is exactly the same, not exactly, but die now and be born again, you know, into your true understanding. Stop clinging to ego. Yeah. I thought that was a great remark.

[46:49]

It's like, well, we don't want to die. We don't want things to go away. We want our pain to go away. We don't want our joy, our pleasures to go away. And then we hang those things on these words. And I just feel like it's kind of a ... The point of these practice discussions, the hamji, I think, is like, it's tricky because it's like they're Well he doesn't really talk that way, he just says, just put yourself here. That's what he's saying, he's not talking about existing and non-existing. Well maybe he does a little, but what he's basically saying is let go of all your attachment and just put everything right here in the center of that circle.

[48:22]

That's his basic view, it's basic emphasis. And then there's all this talk around it, right? Just like we say, just sit Zazen, but then there's all this talk around it, which is Buddhism. Well, we have seven days to figure it out. Well, I don't know. I think it's... I don't have a hard time with it.

[49:24]

What I have a hard time with is myself. I've never had a hard time with the Dharma. I've never had a hard time trying to understand it or believe it or doubt it. The only thing I've had a hard time with is myself. Why is it hard for me to do this? Why can't I do that? or I keep slipping off or I keep falling down, but I always climb up because the Dharma is there and the problem is me, not the Dharma. And I've always seen it that way. I've never seen the Dharma as a problem, but I've seen myself as a big problem. And so it's easy for me to have faith in the Dharma. because I'm always trying to make an effort to come up to it, and so the Dharma is not a problem.

[50:36]

I always looked at it to the fault as mine, more shortcoming as mine, but if we look at the Dharma, to the Dharma as the problem, then we're looking the wrong way. I didn't think you were saying that, but You weren't saying the other either. Yeah, but I have to say I've never doubted myself either. I've seen my shortcomings and continue to see my shortcomings and my problems, but I never doubted myself in that I could continue to make the effort. And sometimes I see myself as lazy, but even so,

[51:43]

and big questions that couldn't be answered. But even so, I've always somehow had the patience to know that even though I was goofing off or lazy or not able to do what I wanted to, that that was all part of the practice. I've never faulted myself for not being able to keep up with the practice the way I wanted to. because that's part of it. The straying is part of it and the coming back is part of it. As long as you really have the intention to practice, everything is happening according to the way it's supposed to happen. And all your shortcomings and falling down and not being able to match up and that's all part of it. You have to go through that process in order to deal with whatever it is that you're dealing with in order to come out the other side.

[52:45]

That's why I have this great optimism. I've always been a tremendous optimist, you know, and I've seen, I know I have a lot of faults and problems, but I have this great optimism that is a salvation. James Kenney? Well, you know, we talked about this nature of reality and illusion. Say, beg your pardon? We talked about the reality of About what? Movies. Movies? You know, obviously there are illusions, but we enjoy them.

[53:52]

Yes. If you try to take the movie frame by frame, the illusion is gone. So the first part of practice is disillusionment. to take away the illusion, to see through the illusion. That's the first part of practice. Before you practice, you're totally immersed in the illusion. When you enter practice, the effort is to look to see through the illusion, to see through the illusion and see through the delusion. Then when you have thoroughly done that, you can enjoy the illusion without being caught by the illusion. And it's almost time to stop.

[54:55]

I think it's way past time to stop. I really got my attention. He said the inclinations or the tendencies that we bring that create the apparent habit. Yeah. I was really struck by that. It's almost as if to say even habits themselves don't really exist, but if we think we have a habit then we will do it over and over and over again, the way he said apparent habit. Right, so I don't know exactly what is meant by that or whether that's a good translation or apparent habit. It's almost as if you say there's no self in the habit. Well there is self in the habit, but because the habitual which is clinging and attachment is self.

[56:04]

I said it back, putting the word apparent in there brings out the fact that what keeps But the apparent is appeared. The habit appears from tendencies, and that's what the apparent habit is. Tendencies conglomerate and then it appears as a habit. Apparent habit. Yeah, but I think if you wanted to say that, you would say appearing, because apparent usually means as Peter said, that which is apparently so. It's kind of in between there, it's somewhere in between. You can construe it either way. But it could be not fixed, that habits are not fixed. apparent in the sense that they're not fixed.

[57:07]

And they can be let go of and they can be stopped, you know, or they can be taken up. And I always say that the first time you do something, it's touching. The second time, it's interest and you have a choice. The third time, you start going that way, it's a direction, and then it becomes a habit. So, you know, they always say, when it comes up, to recognize it. The second time, you may show interest, but that's where you have a choice of taking it up or abandoning it. Yes, when it comes up again as interest.

[58:09]

Now it's a habit. And now it's a habit. That's the wheel of origination. Yeah, yeah. Linking, yeah, linking. I wanted to say about these discussions of existence and non-existence, it's as if we're trying through words to understand what we can only understand with practice. And Hanji gives a very clear instruction about how to understand this, is to let go of the habits.

[59:11]

If you let go of the habits, then what you don't understand, you will understand. Not through verbal. Right. But we use, sometimes we use direct words as a kind of abruptness, you know, because you say, we use the word to bring up the opposite, to bring up its opposition, and it's in a kind of startling way to express the non-duality. So to express the non-duality we use the dualistic word, but it shakes up your mind. Yes, they do sound habitual, but we don't, we keep bringing up the question. So, I could just walk over and hit people.

[60:15]

We hit them with words.

[60:18]

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