Good morning. So this weekend, I'm talking about major writings from Ehei Dogen about this practice of zazen we're doing this weekend. Today, I'm talking about the Fukan Zazengi, the universally recommended instructions for zazen. If you would like to follow, it's on page 20 of the chant book. So Dogen lived from 1200 to 1253. He's considered the founder of the branch of Buddhism that we do here, sometimes called Soto Zen. And this writing is sometimes considered the first writing he did after he came back from China. He went as a young monk from 1223 to 1227 to China and went to various monasteries and finally met his teacher, Tiantang Rujing, and received

[01:11]

certification from him and came back to Japan in 1227. Some version of this writing was one of the first things he did. This writing, which we sometimes chant, and we chanted yesterday, and we'll chant again today at midday service, includes five specific meditation instructions or zazen instructions. So I'm not going to go through all of it. We'll have some time for discussion. And if you want to bring up parts that I didn't talk about, we can. And we'll have a discussion this afternoon as well. There's another writing that maybe could be considered his first writing, the Bendo Wa, which I translated with Shohak Gokumora in The Wholehearted Way. So I'm going to refer to that because it has a response to the beginning of this. So this writing begins, the way is originally perfect and all pervading.

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How could it be contingent on practice and realization? The true vehicle is self-sufficient. What need is there for special effort? Indeed, the whole body is free from dust. Who could believe in a means to brush it clean? It is never apart from this very place. What is the use of traveling around to practice? So this was a question that came up yesterday in discussion, actually. According to the idea, the teaching of Buddha nature, everything is already as it is. Why do we have to make such an effort? And according to some versions, some stories, Dogen went to travel to China as a young Japanese monk because he wanted an answer to this question. There were answers, actually, in the Japanese Tendai teaching that I've been talking about.

[03:18]

And we'll be talking about some of the Japanese Buddhist teachings and perspectives that preceded Dogen. But when he came back from one answer to this, one response to this question is, in this writing, the whole heart, the Bendowa, And we'll be talking about a section of Bhen-Dewa, the self-fulfillment samadhi, tomorrow. But in the beginning of it, he says, although this dharma, this truth, this reality is abundantly inherent in each person, it is not manifested without practice. It is not attained without realization. Practice, in the text I was talking about yesterday, he emphasizes this. This zazen practice is necessary, and this realization is necessary. And the same as a way of making real, of verifying and realizing this reality that the way is originally perfect and all-pervading.

[04:26]

So this effort is needed. So he goes on to say, just in the end of that paragraph, suppose you were confident in your understanding and rich in enlightenment, gaining the wisdom that knows at a glance, attaining the way and clarifying the mind, arousing an aspiration to reach for the heavens. You are playing in the entranceway, but you are short of the vital path of emancipation. So this is Dogen's challenge to his students. Well, this was before he had a lot of students. This is his call to his fellow Japanese practitioners And then he mentions the Buddha, who sat six years upright before his awakening.

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And he mentions Bodhidharma, who's on our altar, who received the mind seal, but still sat facing a wall for nine years. OK. So in this writing, there are specific, as I said, meditation instructions, zazen instructions. that are in some ways classic and basic to this tradition that we're following here. He says, put aside the intellectual practice of investigating words and chasing phrases. He doesn't say destroy it. He doesn't say get rid of your intellect. But just put it aside. Forget about investigating words and chasing phrases. Learn to take the backward step that turns the light and shines it inward. This phrase existed in China before Dogen, but this is a basic meditation instruction.

[06:47]

Take the backward step and turn the light to shine it within. something that, this is a basic instruction for what happens in sasana. Take the backwards step as you sit facing the wall. Turn within, turn the light, shine it within. So we still, you know, in our practice have our eyes open, we're aware of the wall in front of us. There's this backward step. There's this turning within. Shine the light within. And then he says, take the backward step that turns the light and shines it inward. Body and mind of themselves will drop away, and the original face will manifest. So this body and mind of themselves will drop away. This dropping body and mind is a phrase that Dogen uses often.

[07:51]

For him, it's a synonym for zazen, and it's a synonym for total awakening. Drop off body and mind. He doesn't say, he's not saying to get rid of or mutilate your body or, you know, get a lobotomy or something like that. Just drop off body and mind. Let go of your cherished ideas or attachments to your body and mind. Drop off body and mind. Let go of body and mind. And when that happens, your original face will manifest. The original face is a famous phrase in Zen. Sometimes they say, what is your original face before your parents were born? So Dogen here says, when you take the backward step and turn your leg within, body and mind by themselves drop away.

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and your original face manifests. And then he says this other thing, if you want to attain suchness, practice suchness immediately. So suchness is a word in our tradition. Another way of talking about emptiness, just this, this suchness. So I could spend three days just talking about this. This paragraph, practice suchness immediately. So suchness refers to just seeing what is as it is, just seeing sight objects as it is, just seeing process of seeing as it is. Practice suchness immediately. Just do it.

[10:06]

Just see. So again, there's lots more to say about all of this, this backward step that turns the light within. So I'm offering this as something to investigate, to study, not to think about, but to Practice with today, tomorrow, this year, this lifetime. Take the backward step. Turn the light within. Body and mind drop away. If you want to practice suchness, practice suchness immediately. So we can talk more about this. But then there's more. In the next paragraph, he says, or in the next section, put aside all involvements and suspend all affairs. Now, he doesn't say get rid of all involvements.

[11:10]

This doesn't mean that you should spend the rest of your life in some hut on a mountaintop. I mean, some famous Zen masters have done that, but for us in this, storefront temple, non-residential temple involved in the city. You know, for now, today, as we're practicing, put aside all involvement, suspend all affairs. Do not think in terms of good or bad. Do not judge true or false. Can you do that? Can you give up the operations of mind, intellect, and consciousness? Stop measuring with thoughts, ideas, and views. This is how we ordinarily live. We're always thinking good or bad, right or wrong, judging true or false. This is how our ordinary mind works. But he says, OK, put it aside. Give up the operations of mind, intellect, and consciousness.

[12:12]

Stop measuring. with thoughts, ideas, and views. We all have that. That's our ordinary mind. Thoughts, ideas, and views. And there's a time for that. But put it aside. Stop measuring with thoughts, ideas, and views. Have no designs on becoming a Buddha. Forget about trying to become a Buddha in the future. Don't try and Spend the day thinking that if you just do enough days of sitting, later on you'll become a Buddha. Forget about it. It's not about becoming a Buddha. What is Buddha right now, here, this period of satsang? Just put aside all that dualistic thinking, all these operations of intellect, consciousness, right and wrong, good and bad, all those judgments.

[13:16]

As thinking arises while we're sitting, of course there are judgments. So don't, if you realize you're making judgments, don't judge yourself for making judgments. Put those aside too. What is it like to just be present and be aware without that? So in the next paragraph, he talks about sitting in full lotus or half lotus. And in American Zen, we recognize that sometimes, for some people, kneeling as opposed to sitting in lotus posture, that works too. And sitting in a chair works too. So don't worry about getting into the exact proper position that Dogen prescribes here, but just sit upright, meaning neither left nor right, neither forward nor backward.

[14:32]

So sit upright like Buddha, whether you're in full lotus or half lotus or Burmese, kneeling in a cross-legged position or kneeling or in a chair. The paragraphs are different in the version I have, but then what you have. But once you have adjusted your posture, take a breath, exhale fully, rock your body right and left, and settle into steady and movable sitting. Think of not thinking. Not thinking. Not thinking. What kind of thinking is that? Beyond thinking. This is the essential art of Zazen. We talked about that in the essay I talked about yesterday. This is a story, this comes from a story about Yao Shan, one of the great masters in our lineage. He was the teacher of Yunyan, who was the teacher of Dong Shan, who wrote the Jalmer Samadhi. And the story is that A monk saw him sitting steady and immovable, steadfastly.

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And the monk asked, what are you thinking about as you sit there like that? And Yaoshan said, I'm thinking of not thinking. And the monk said, how do you think of not thinking? And he said, beyond thinking. So this is another. fundamental Zazen instruction. Think of not thinking. It's not thinking, and it's not not thinking. So, you know, naturally, of course, in the periods of Zazen you sat this morning already, probably some of you did some thinking. Some thoughts arose. It's very highly probable. And it's also possible that some of you had some spaces between the thinking where there was not thinking. But this story from Yaoshan that Dogen repeats many times, he said, think of not thinking.

[16:50]

Well, what is that? Well, this beyond thinking. Or I think of it, I phrase it as maybe it's beyond thinking, it's underneath thinking and not thinking. Maybe it includes thinking and not thinking. It's a kind of awareness beyond thinking. It's not numbness. It's not deadness. Our mind is still, there's still awareness. It's a kind of awareness beyond thinking. Dogen says this is the essential art of zazen, beyond thinking. It's a kind of awareness. This is the essential art of zazen. I would say, in my opinion, well, maybe this is the essential art of Zazen.

[17:56]

There's another essential art of Zazen, though, which is kind of just letting go. And he's already talked about that, where he says, body and mind drop away. Letting go of thinking and not thinking, and maybe letting go of beyond thinking, too. So that's part of the essential process of Zazen. as I see it, but yeah, beyond thinking. There's just, I don't know, two or three more sections of this that I want to mention and then I want to hear your beyond thinking about all of this or your questions or comments. So there's a lot in this relatively short essay, but there's a lot of it that's very practical. He says the zazen I speak of is not meditation practice.

[18:59]

So he's saying this is not, you know, there are lots of, in Buddhism there are whole libraries full of meditation techniques, meditation practices. And, you know, some of those I recommend at times to particular people, to particular practitioners. Some of those are very helpful. Some of those I do myself, particular practices involving the breath or involving mantras or involving working with particular teaching stories or koans. And going back to India, there are practices around the jhanas or trances. There are many different samadhis. But what Dogen says here is that what I'm talking about, this sasan, It's not just another meditation practice. It's not one of those technical practices that are cataloged and fully present in all the libraries of Buddhist meditation techniques.

[20:12]

This is not a meditation technique. It is not a meditation practice. It is simply the Dharma gate of joyful ease The practice realization of totally culminated enlightenment. Now, a lot of Zen students have trouble thinking that this Zazen is the Dharma gate of joyful ease. Some of you have difficulty sitting Zazen for a day. People yesterday were talking about the effort involved. Yeah, this is challenging. It's difficult. But actually, it's the entryway, the Dharma gate, joyful ease. This temple is called Ancient Dragon Zen Gate. And maybe I've mentioned this, but for those of you who don't know, the Dragon Gate initially refers to a gate

[21:15]

the bottom of one of those rivers in China, one of those, I don't know if it's the Yellow River, one of those large rivers in China, and in that gate when fish swim through it, they become dragons. So there's an image of that, a statue of that. on the right side as I'm facing it of our altar. If you look in the altar, it's right there, where there's a fish swimming through and there's a dragon that's on the other side. I personally do not believe there's just one dragon gate in the world. I can't totally verify it, but, you know, I kind of feel like there's, you know, a Dragon Gate in Lake Michigan. I don't know. So anyway, this is Ancient Dragon Zen Gate. But here Dogen is talking about the Dharma Gate of joyful ease. The practice realization of totally culminated liberation. So I'm going to talk more about practice realization a little bit below.

[22:19]

He says, if you grasp the point, you are like a dragon gaining the water, like a tiger taking to the mountains. The true dharma appears of itself. From the start, dullness and distraction are struck aside. So this morning, somebody was telling me about their problem with dullness and distraction. When dullness or distraction arise, just be with dullness, just be with distraction. It's okay. That's part of sasang too. But as we settle into this, when we enter in through this dharmagate, dharmagates are boundless and we vow to enter them, we can find joyful ease. Dullness and distraction are no longer a problem.

[23:28]

Anyway, one more section I wanted to mention. Well, there's this section about triggering awakening with a finger, a banner, a needle, or a mallet. perfecting realization with a whisk, a fist, a staff, or a shout. Those are all referring to classic stories of triggering awakening experiences. But I want to go to the section after that. Well, he says, this represents conduct beyond seeing and hearing. It's a standard prior to knowledge and view. So our ideas about Awakening or not awakening. In Genjo Koan that I talked about last Sunday, he says that, Dogen says that Buddhas are awakened to their delusions. Deluded people have lots of delusions about awakening.

[24:33]

So our ideas about awakening are not so helpful. Or, you know, we have them, we have delusions about. about enlightenment and Buddha and so forth. And we should know that we do. We should be awakened to those. But anyway, he says, this being the case, intelligence or lack of it is not an issue. Make no distinction between the dull and sharp-witted. If you concentrate your efforts single-mindedly, wholeheartedly, whole-mindedly, that in itself is wholeheartedly engaging the way. So this is a problem for me in my teaching, because I happen to have an intellectual bent, and I have a PhD, and I've written a bunch of books. So people come here and think that to do Zen practice means you have to be really intelligent.

[25:34]

And that's just not what it's about. I had a student who came here, and she said, I love Zazen, but I can't do this because I'm not really smart. I don't like studying. I don't like reading, all this intellectual stuff. I don't know how to do that. But I like Zazen. And I said to her, it doesn't matter. You know, I didn't quote this passage from Dogen, but, you know, just sits us and just enjoy being here. And so she did keep coming and she kept sitting. She was a wonderful practitioner, still is. And she just, whatever was needed, she did.

[26:36]

Very helpful. And then a strange thing happened. Well, she went and practiced in temples in California. She just loved Zazen. But then she got interested in studying about this. And now she's doing a Master of Divinity in Harvard. I didn't care if she did that. Anyway. Who knows who we are, you know? Anyway. But the part I wanted to read, really, is, you know, he says, if you concentrate your efforts single-mindedly, that in itself is wholeheartedly engaging the way. And then Dogen said, practice realization is naturally undefiled. Going forward is, after all, an everyday affair, just to take care of everyday stuff. just to do what needs to be done in front of you in an everyday way.

[27:43]

And this practice realization is naturally undefiled. It refers to a story that I talked about yesterday, but some of you weren't here. So I'll tell it again, because it's a story that Dogen refers to often. And it's a story about the sixth ancestor. So Dogen refers to Bodhidharma here, who's on our altar. But in some ways, Huining, the sixth ancestor, is really in some ways the founder of Chan or Zen. And he's an example of, you know, intelligence or lack of it is not an issue. because he was an illiterate woodcutter from the south of China, from the boondocks of Canton, where people were considered to be stupid if they were from the south. This happens in lots of places. How many of you are from the south?

[28:48]

OK, well, we won't hold it against you. But anyway, he became the sixth ancestor and really was, in some ways, the founder of Zen. But anyway, when he was a teacher, he had this guy, Nanyue, who is in a story I talked about yesterday, another story. But he came to see the sixth ancestor. And the sixth ancestor said to him, what is this that thus comes? Very strange way to say, who are you? And Nanyue, his name later on when he became a teacher, it was dumbfounded. He didn't know what to say. So the story goes, he went and sat in the zendo for eight years like an iron rod. So sometimes in these stories, it seems like they're just talking back and forth very quickly. But sometimes there's a space, there's some time between a question and a response. Anyway, eight years later, Nanyue came back to Huining and said, oh, I can finally respond to that question you asked me.

[30:01]

You asked, what is this that thus comes? And now I can say that anything I say misses the mark. Took him eight years to come up with that. But it's true. Anything I say is, you know, you can't... Anyway, this is... But then Huineng said, so is there practice realization or not? And Nanyue said, it's not that there's no practice realization, it's only that it can't be defiled. So that's what Dogen is quoting here. Practice realization is naturally undefiled. You might think that your zazen is so bad that you're defiling practice realization. You might think that your consciousness is so terrible that you are ruining awakening, you're ruining enlightenment, you're ruining practice and realization.

[31:05]

You can't do that. It's impossible. That's what Dogen is saying here. But going forward, making progress in practice realization is simply an everyday matter. So we continue practicing, expressing Buddha in our life because it opens up. It can increase our capacity for expressing awakening and sharing that. And so that's basically what I wanted to say from this writing, oh just one more phrase I'll mention. He says that in both India and China, in all the different lineages, they equally equally expressing the Buddha seal. They're all simply devoted to this sitting practice, and they're totally blocked in resolute stability.

[32:07]

Strange phrase. So if you feel blocked in this upright sitting, join the club. So again, there are these particular guidelines or zazen instructions in this writing that I encourage you to sit with. Take the backward step that turns the light inward and that drops away body and mind. Put aside good and bad and judgment. have no design on becoming a Buddha. And then this think of not thinking, this beyond thinking. Anyway, maybe that's enough.

[33:11]

Comments, questions, responses to any of this, please feel free. Discussing all these various ideas and thinking about beyond thinking. Is it? It just kind of came up, but like, is it in some way related to like love? But are they akin? I'm not saying they're equal or the same. That's great. So affirmation, that's sometimes in Zen.

[34:16]

Love isn't a word that's usually used in Zen, it's sometimes. Well, it's in the Metta Sutra that we chant. Then we could unpack, What is love? That's as good a question as, what is Buddha? But Buddha's about love. So yeah, I think that's a good thing to throw in there. Thank you. Other responses or questions or comments? Yes, Michael. Well, that refers to dragons and their lifespan and their morphology, that dragons As I understand it, you know, from the science of studying dragons, that they sometimes are born in, you know, they're born up in the mountains or in caves, and then sometimes, well, sometimes they go back to caves, but they go into the water and spend some time in the water, and that's a stage of their life, and they enjoy being in the water.

[35:39]

Nicholas? Yeah, there was one line that jumped out. It's like the rise of the mind is possible. just embracing them and making, sort of like choosing my hindrance as the path to really just cut through and pay attention. And it's been very helpful to not be so confused because it's like I'm not picking or choosing, liking or disliking.

[36:43]

That's certainly part of our practice is to just acknowledge that we do have these electromagnetic bodies and minds and we have attractions and aversions. And we should not try and obliterate them because how can we do that? So to know your likes and dislikes and to This is like Dogen saying in Genjokan, the way is to study the self, to know your own patterns of grasping or aversion and to not be caught by them. So if you know likes and dislikes, if you are aware of them, we don't have to act them out or act on them.

[38:07]

If you just kind of repress them, then they'll come up in some other way. So that is part of the practice. There's also just opening up to as he says, just dropping away body and mind. But part of dropping away body and mind doesn't mean to suppress body and mind. So yeah, there's a dynamic to this practice. And when we sit for a day or two or three, various aspects arise. So yeah, thank you. Chris? A little louder, please. Pointing to what?

[39:41]

Pointing to this, what's inaudible, but this, well, this original face, this prior, prior to the self, prior to, I mean, the big S self, which is prior to the small S self. Okay. But, I'll go for some phrases that are, you know, people are much more free than I am in this. What you were saying reminds me a lot of vote. to give it a little bit of what you were saying.

[40:53]

I know you had a lot of news on this for some time ago about this as well. And you were saying that the phrase was a tiger taking to the mountain. Yeah. Yes, yes, yes. So it's interesting that they have all these different words that point to this invulnerable thing.

[42:39]

Yeah, so that's, so Chris is referring to this phrase from the Self-Fulfillment Samadhi we'll talk about tomorrow, which is about this deep interconnectedness of everything and how, and the way in which it's supportive. And so, yeah, we'll talk about that more tomorrow. But yeah, to talk about that in terms of love is interesting. Yeah, so time maybe for one more question or comment. Yes, Dylan. What is the difference between the dharma gate of joyful ease and then the quote yesterday of congealing into ease or something like that? Congealing into tranquility. Yeah, so good question. Yeah, that's. Thank you. Yes. Great. So the phrase yesterday, that was in the commentary, in Karl Bielefeld's commentary to the acupuncture needle of Zazen from Dogen that I talked about yesterday, where he warns against

[44:00]

Maybe he was quoting from something else in his commentary, but that it's possible to settle into some space, space of emptiness, a space of bliss. And yeah, I think there is a difference between that, and that's a very traditional, there's a traditional warning that many Buddhist teachers refer to against, it's possible in various meditation practices to find a space of bliss, a space of non-attachment. Nagarjuna says the most dangerous attachment is the attachment to non-attachment. So yeah, there's a warning of congealing into tranquility, becoming settled into coagulating into tranquility, into

[45:16]

Sometimes it's referred to as quietism. It's not so much a danger for us. This is something that happens more if you go off into some monastery up in the mountains where it's very easy to just become settled into some bliss state. Living in the city, it's harder to You know, we have lots of things to disrupt that kind of state, practically speaking. But what Dogen's talking about here is, I think, something else. Just that we can enter into a space of joy and ease that's not congealed, that's not inert and unresponsive. So it's an important distinction. Can we be at ease?

[46:21]

Can we be joyful in the midst of the chaos? and disruptions and suffering in this world, and then be able to be responsive to that. I think that's, anyway, that's how I would understand what Dogen's pointing towards as a possibility. And it's an important distinction, so thank you for that question. Last word, Chris. Yes. Yeah, so we sit facing a wall not to push away or not to ignore anything.

[48:03]

It's not a wall to keep out the world. It's not a wall to block our problems and suffering. It's a window. The wall is a window to include ourself in the world. So this is not a practice to run away from ourself or the world. It can be used that way. This happens. There's a phrase for that. Spiritual practice can be used as an escape from the difficult realities of our own lives in the world. And sometimes maybe it's OK to take a break, you know. to just put aside all involvements and cease all affairs for a day or for 40 minutes or whatever.

[49:06]

We need that. We need to take a break sometimes or rest. That's okay. But if you're using practice as a way of suppressing and denying our own problems, the problems of the people around us, the problems of the world. That's not what this is a practice for. So thank you. We'll talk and we can discuss more this afternoon. But please allow all of this to be on your seat. But also, please allow the Dharma gate of joyful ease to Be the wall that you face. Thank you. We'll close with the Fort Borey Suffrage Vows.

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