welcome everyone uh... tonight's dharma talk is going to be a little bit different than usual uh... we just finished sitting a three day session yesterday a session as uh... as traditionals and practice of sitting all day their breaks after meals we uh... sometimes do one day or three day or five day or seven day sessions session means to gather or meet the mind to settle into Zen mind, which I've been talking about here Monday nights for a while. So, during the session we talked about this deeper awareness that we become familiar with and settle into in Zazen, in this sitting practice. this awareness that is deeper than our discriminations and calculations and deliberations, maybe it includes that, but it's this wider panoramic awareness which is transformative, it changes actually how we see our connection, deep connection to the world.

[01:10]

we celebrated session the last three days and the previous weekend i was uh... i was away last monday i was up in minneapolis at a symposium at the university of minnesota about bob dylan quote frequently as many of you know favorite american drama part uh... it was actually quite impressive uh... one of the one of the best academic conferences or symposiums i've been a little wasn't just academic uh... Spider John Kerner and Tony Glover, who used to play with Dylan when he lived in Minneapolis in the early days were there, but there were a whole lot of very fine presentations. Ann Waldman, who's a poet and one of the beat poets and a shaman. co-founder of the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics at Naropa in Boulder. Maybe you've met her. Anyway, she gave this wonderful shamanic presentation about Dylan as a shaman.

[02:17]

She also toured in the Rolling Thunder. Anyway, there were many excellent panels. So in the spirit of that, I thought I would talk about tonight about Bob Dylan's song about Sesshin. So usually I talk about Zen texts or traditional Zen texts or the old Zen teaching stories or koans. When I say this is a song about Sesshin, of course it's about many other things. It's called Visions of Johanna, some of you may know it. course it's uh... so many as amongst the other things that it's about are the feminine or the singer's relationship to women uh... there are drug references in it commentators claim it's about hell so anyway but i would say it's about sashimi uh... so i want to uh... well we'll talk about that uh... so i hope there will be some time for discussion afterwards but what i want to do is

[03:18]

Well, some other disclaimers. I'm not claiming that Bob Dylan's intention in creating this text was to talk about Sesshin. The text itself I will talk about in terms of how it talks about Sesshin. We know that Dylan is most, as a spiritual poet, is most influenced by Judeo-Christian practices and teachings. But he's also had some, obviously, he's had some connection with Buddhism. He talked about Reuben Hurricane Carter, the falsely imprisoned boxer, as being, as sitting like Buddha in a 10-foot cell. And the 10-foot cell goes back to the Vimalakirti Sutra, and is the traditional size of Zen abbot's quarters. And of course, Dylan had a long association with Allen Ginsberg and other Buddhists. So, this last thing I'll say before I start in on each verse is that this song is often considered kind of gloomy and pessimistic by the commentators.

[04:30]

I don't feel that way about it. What I want to do, I feel like there's a turning phrase or line in each verse or sometimes two. Then there's one turning line for the whole song. What I'm going to do is play each verse and talk about it. uh... individually so uh... raise your hands in the back you can't hear it's just that the name tricks that you're trying to do is supply We sit here stranded Though we're all doing our best to deny it And Louise holds her hand full of rain Tempting you to defy it Lights flicker from the opposite loft In this room the heat pipes just cough

[05:51]

The country music station plays soft But there's nothing, really nothing to turn on Just Louise and her lover so entwined And these visions of Johanna That conquer my mind Ain't it just like the night to play tricks when you're trying to be so quiet? Well, as we sit in Sashin, or even in a period of Zazen, like tonight, ain't it just like the night to play tricks, ain't it just like your mind to play tricks when you're trying to be so quiet? Night as an image in Zen, going back to the harmony of difference and sameness, which we've sometimes chanted, dark and light are images in Zen.

[07:03]

Light is an image for, right now we can see with the lights on, all of the different particular people here, when the lights are completely off in the night, in the dark. is an image for the kind of communion which we talked about during Sashin, a communion with deep fundamental mind. But anyway, it's just like the night to play tricks when you're trying to be so quiet. We can often feel this in Sashin. We sit here stranded though we're all doing our best to deny it. So particularly sitting, you may feel this in one period of zazen, but particularly sitting period after period, you realize that you're stranded there on your cushion or chair. And you may be doing your best to deny it, but we're radically alone in zazen. It's an opportunity to be upright and present with this body and mind in a way that we don't really have an occasion to or a chance to do

[08:06]

uh... in our ordinary everyday activities uh... of course that's not the whole story we're also doing it together and supporting each other but at first at least it sounds it feels like we're sitting here stranded and yes we all have various patterns of resistance and ways in which we are tempted to deny it uh... i'm not going to go through every line in the song i'm gonna pick out certain lines that i want to talk about To me, the key line in this song, he says, in this room, the heat pipes just cough. During the session, we could hear the air conditioner. There weren't any heat pipes. But he says, the country music station plays soft. And of course, that could be a metaphor for all of the melodramas that might go through our thought streams as we're sitting. And then Dylan says this amazing thing, or whoever is singing says this amazing thing, there's nothing, really nothing to turn off.

[09:09]

This is a basic fundamental statement of Zen truth. this is uh... the core of the platform sutra, for those of you who know that, the sixth ancestor there's nothing really nothing to turn off we uh... see the forms of the world and yet in our sitting we also see that they're all constructions they're all fabrications we were talking about fabrication and construction during sasheen that our minds while we do our best to deny uh... this reality is busy creating all of the melodramas that they sing about on the country music stations, but there's nothing, really nothing to turn off. Actually, each situation, each problem in our life, each itch, each pain in our knee, each ache in our shoulders, there's nothing really nothing to turn off what we learn in sitting eventually is that it's okay to be the person sitting on your kushner chair right now with the problems you have and then we and then the buddha work which we talked about a lot during the session is about how we meet the situation we don't have to turn it off we don't have to get rid of our thoughts

[10:40]

We don't have to crush or destroy or deny our humanity. There's nothing really, nothing to turn off, just Louise and her lover so entwined in these visions of Johanna that conquer my mind. The song is called Visions of Johanna and I won't attempt to say what, who Johanna is or what Johanna represents here, but I think it could be many things. We all have visions of awakening, visions of the perfect being, who we could be or who we could be relating with and so forth. Anyway, I'll go to the next verse. In the empty lot where the ladies play Blind man's bluff with the key chain It's kind of the all night girls They whisper their scapades out on the D train We can hear the night watchman Click his flashlight, ask himself if it's him or them, it's insane

[12:10]

Louise, she's alright, she's just near She's delicate and seems like the mirror But she just makes it all too concise and too clear That your Hannah's not here Oh, ghost electricity Howls in the bones of her face So, um, I'm just gonna focus on a couple of lines here but the beginning there's this empty lot and again there are a few things here that are empty and uh... this might refer back to the nothing that there is to turn off but uh... i want to mention the night watchman who clicks his flashlight so the light comes on and off we uh... see the particulars of our situation and then we see

[13:38]

that and then we have glimpses of something deeper of some communion uh... with wholeness and as he clicks his flashlight the night watchman asks himself if it's him or them uh... the ladies in the all-night perils who's really insane uh... i think this is part of sesshi Is it me or are these visions that are insane? What's really going on here? Part of opening the mind of Sachine and really meeting the mind is being willing to expand our capacities and expand our sense of reality. So this is one of the classic five fears in Buddhism. Do you know the five fears? The fear of death, uh... fear of loss of reputation uh... fear of loss of livelihood and there's fear of weird mental states so uh... it's uh... it's maybe good to ask yourself if it's if it's me or these visions that are insane the fifth one is fear of public speaking

[14:59]

Anyway, but I just want to mention one other line in this verse. It's one of Dylan's greatest lines ever. The ghost of electricity howls in the bones of her face. So when we're sitting facing the wall, the wall is kind of, it seems like a mirror. It's kind of whatever we are is projected on the wall. The wall is ourselves, and the wall of the world is what we meet. We also meet face-to-face between teacher and student. I don't think it's just Johanna for whom the ghost of electricity howls in the bones of her face. For all of us, especially in Sesshin, this ghost, this shadow of electricity, of vitality, of energy, howls in the bones of our face.

[16:05]

Dougan talked about face-to-face practice. So our face is where we usually recognize people by their faces, not by their shoulders or elbows or some other body part. We recognize the face. And always, if you look in the mirror, the ghost of electricity is howling there. Anyway, there's a lot more in that first, but we're not going to get to everything. But the next verse, I wanted to spend some more time on. Yeah, little boy lost. He takes himself so seriously. He breaks in his misery. He likes to live dangerously. And when bringing her name up, he speaks of a farewell kiss to me.

[17:10]

He sure got a lot of gall to be so murdering small talk at the wall while I'm in the hall. Oh, how can I explain? It's so hard to get on. And these visions of Johanna, they kept me up past the dawn. So little boy lost he takes himself so seriously This is Maybe a reference to William Blake's poems and the songs of innocence and experience and there's a little boy lost in a little girl lost So I think for most Zen practitioners

[18:24]

when you first sit sashim when you first sit and face the wall uh... somehow this little boy lost or little girl lost appears and takes himself so seriously he brags of his misery he likes to live dangerously so part of what we have to do in this practice is to uh... meet this little boy lost or a little girl lost and you know sometimes students come to me with all these serious questions and they take themselves so seriously and brag of their misery this happens and I remember how I used to do that too part of Buddhist practice is letting go of the self, but first we have to do that by studying the self.

[19:26]

So how do we take care of this part of us that feels lost, that takes very seriously all of the stories of personal history and all of the construction of the self that we grasp onto so tightly? And even after we let go of parts of it, it's still there very subtly. In the song he says, he sure got a lot of gall to be so useless and all. And this next line is how I knew this was about Sashin, muttering small talk at the wall while I'm in the hall. So, I've seen this in the hall of meditation. And probably we've all muttered small talk at the wall. And, you know, Dylan here doesn't really offer any assistance or help.

[20:27]

He just, you know, in a way, you could even see this verse as kind of cruel. It's a kind of put-down, but we have to face this little boy lost or little girl lost. Taking this self we've constructed so seriously, holding onto it so tightly, bragging of our misery, Of course, the First Noble Truth of suffering brings us into this practice of sitting and facing ourselves. And sometimes it feels so overwhelming that we just, you know, brag of our misery. Anyway, to me the key line in this verse, after saying, muttering small talk at the wall while I'm in the hall, he sings, how can I explain? So it's pretty hard to say anything to someone who's bragging of their misery.

[21:28]

And also, one can't explain at this point that there's a whole lot more beyond this little boy lost and little girl lost. So I think we have to, each of us and together, and when we see it in each other, be kind to that little boy or little girl who's lost inside you. part of our practice is not just seeing through. So I think Dylan is a great example of penetrating wisdom but then there's also how do we take care of this and there's no way to explain but can you befriend and be kind with this little boy lost or little girl lost. So there's lots more to say about all this and I want to have time for discussion but We're getting to the key line. Inside the museum, infinity goes up on trial.

[22:39]

Voices echo, this is what salvation must be like after a while. But Mona Lisa must've had the highway blues You can tell by the way she smiles See the primitive wallflower freeze When the jelly-faced women all sneeze Hear the one with the mustache say, Geez, I can't find my knees Hercules and Binoculus hang from the head of the mule. Visions of Johanna make it all seem so cruel. So to me, the key line in the whole song is, inside the museum, infinity goes up on trial.

[23:57]

Then he says, voices echo, this is what salvation must be like after a while. So we have a couple people here who work in museums. I've been to a few museums in the last month. If any of you haven't been to the wonderful exhibit at the Chicago Art Institute, it's called From Cezanne to Picasso, I highly recommend it. But also, there's a field museum in town, and, which is the one you're at? Science and Industry Museum. The Science and Industry Museum also, Infinity, goes up on trial. But in this line, I think more of art museums, but it's also true of natural history, of course, and of science and industry museums. And in fact, the funny thing about talking about this in connection with Dylan is that this exhibit was in conjunction with a wonderful exhibit about Dylan at the Weissman Museum, which is part of the University of Minnesota.

[25:00]

And this song was, you know, one of the songs that you could hear at this exhibit in this museum. Anyway, inside the museum's infinity goes up on trial. This exhibit at the Art Institute, it's focused on, of course, just the regular exhibit of the Art Institute is like this. Infinity goes up on trial. But this exhibit, this particular exhibit, has not just Cezanne and Picasso, but many other great works of art by this dealer and art agent who's befriended a lot of the artists. There's a lot of Gauguin and Monet and Renoir, and there's two rooms of paintings by Vincent van Gogh. And, you know, inside the museums, this is kind of where we can see, you know, infinity goes on trial, humanity goes on trial,

[26:04]

And we can actually feel like, oh, this is what salvation must be like after a while. We can see real beauty. We can feel the value of all of our human endeavor, that we can see such a display. And I had an idea, particularly in the two rooms of Van Gogh's, I particularly like Vincent's paintings. To me, each one of them is kind of a miracle. They're just alive and the brushwork and so forth. But there's a, some of you may know of a Zen, American Zen teacher named Bernie Tetsugan Glassman from the Maezumi Roshi lineage. He's led sesshins at Auschwitz in Europe with

[27:07]

Jews and Germans. And I've never been to one of them, but I've heard from people who've been there. It's extremely powerful. And they sit for seven days just with the ghosts of a different kind of electricity. Very powerful to be present and to have the mind so open in such a place where such horror has occurred. Some of you know I go every year to Richmond, Virginia, to a Zen group there and lead sittings sometimes, and I've talked with them. We may actually do it. Richmond, Virginia is a place downtown, when they were taking me around to historic sites like where Patrick Henry said, give me liberty or give me death, or where Edgar Allan Poe last read The Raven and things like that, several battlefields. There's also the auction block. So, over a 50-year period, hundreds of thousands of Africans were brought into slavery at that place and then shipped all over the South.

[28:20]

So, we've talked about doing it. Sitting a Sashim day there. The state of Virginia this year formally expressed its regret about this history. So it's kind of up there. Anyway, I think it would be very powerful to sit for a day at that place. But I had a thought inside the museum, inside these rooms with, they weren't large rooms, but with these Van Gogh paintings. that the other side of that kind of sashim would be to sit, I don't think the Art Institute would let us do that, actually Nancy works at the Art Institute, maybe she could get us in, but to actually do a sashim for a day or five or seven, just in that one of those rooms. So this isn't so likely to happen, but to just be sitting and then get up and do walking meditation and see these miraculous visions.

[29:35]

be very powerful. So in such a setting, maybe also at Auschwitz or at the Auction Block, infinity also goes up on trial. Each of us and our lives together and our karmic lives as human beings on this planet go up on trial. And I kind of feel like that's what Sashin's about too. Inside the meditation of infinity goes up on trial. So instead of paintings on the wall, there's people sitting facing the wall. Each one is a miracle. can we sit long enough to put infinity up on trial?

[30:44]

To feel our connection with wholeness at all time. Excuse me, as Dylan sings, voices echo, this is what salvation must be like after a while. But, Mona Lisa must have had the highway blues, you can tell by the way she smiles. So actually, We can't explain it. We can't frame, you know, even Vincent van Gogh in one of his amazing paintings of wheat fields can't capture the reality and the life and the vitality of the ghost of electricity howling through those pictures. Mona Lisa must have had the highway blues. So sometimes Zen students try and figure it out or have some experience of wholeness and then feel like they can put a frame around it and put it up on the wall and they can bow down to that.

[31:49]

And that's not it either. It says, see the primitive wallflower freeze. So there's various ways to interpret that, but also, as there's a frieze of figures sitting facing the wall, there's a flower in the back of each, as we sit. Quietly, a flower grows in the back. And then, of course, there's a line, jeez, I can't find my knees. So this is a common utterance during session. Okay, we'll finish up with the last verse. The peddler now speaks To the countess who's pretending to care for him Saying, maybe someone that's not a parasite And I'll go out and say a prayer for him

[32:54]

But like Louise always says You can't look at much, can you, man? And she herself prepares for him That Madonna she still has not showed We see this empty cage now corroded With her cape of the stage once it flowed The fiddler, he now steps to the road He writes everything's been returned which was old On the back of the fish truck that loads While my conscience explodes The harmonicas play The skeleton keys and the rain And these visions of Johanna are now all that remain.

[34:02]

So, that's Visions of Johanna. There's a lot going on in that last verse, and as I said at the beginning, this song is about more than just sashim, but it's about that. There's a few lines I wanted to talk about in this verse. The peddler speaking to the countess, who's pretending to care for him, says, name me someone that's not a parasite, and I'll go out and say a prayer for him. So, this is one aspect of our interconnectedness. and maybe part of what needs to be accepted, that in some ways we're all part of the food chain, that we can't be this perfect image, we can't be Johanna or whoever it is we think we have a vision of.

[35:17]

Is there anyone that's not a parasite, that's not in some ways dependent on others of course we're all dependent we can see it as parasitical or we can turn it over and see this is symbiotic how do we cooperate together but also how do we realize that you know i couldn't give this drama talk without all of you and bob dylan and so forth uh... we're all totally interconnected and then uh... madonna this uh... image of a uh... The image of a perfect woman still has not shown. We see this empty cage now corrode. Part of the self that we construct is an empty cage. And part of what happens as we take on this practice is that it starts to corrode. It starts to wear away. But the main line for me in this verse, the fiddler steps to the road and writes, everything has been returned which was owed. I was once at a shuso ceremony at Tassajara.

[36:20]

Shiso is the head monk for a practice period. All of the students ask the head monk questions, kind of like the Shosan ceremony we did an informal version of yesterday. but this is the first time that person is being questioned like this and then also the former head monks come and ask questions and then at the end after all the questions and the head monk responds the former head monks make statements of congratulations and at this time Lou Hartman A great monk, one of my best friends at Zen Center, he's in his 90s now, and the husband of Blanche Hartman, who was the former abbess there, he just said to Robert, everything's been returned which was owed. So, all infinity's on trial and yet we owe something.

[37:26]

So I was talking about during Sashin that we have some responsibility. We have Buddha's work to do. And yet it's possible that everything's been returned which was out. It's possible to give ourselves, to being ourselves, not to being some magical Johanna, however we see that. It goes on, on the back of the fish truck that loads woman, my conscience explodes, and a lot of commentators have seen that as very negative, like the destruction of conscience, but I don't know, I think it's kind of exploding into the whole world and into taking care of all beings. So I see that as a positive image. Anyway, the harmonicas play the skeleton keys in the rain and these visions of Johanna are now all that remain. So we might feel like he's missing Johanna and Johanna's not there, and that's very clear.

[38:36]

But there's something about the visions of Johanna. that still remain is another one of his gospel songs. Dylan says, strengthen the things that remain. And in many ways, I feel like that's our practice to take care of what is helpful to all beings is Buddha's work. Dogen says to express the dream within the dream. So these visions of Johanna are maybe more important than Johanna herself, if there is a Johanna. In one of his recent songs, Dylan says, my heart's in the highlands and there's a way to get there. I'll figure it out somehow, but I'm already there in my mind and that's good enough for now. How can we open our mind to seeing uh... infinity upon trial to seeing wholeness to connecting with all this so uh... i've taken longer than i'd hope to it's about time to stop but i do want to have if sometime if people have responses or comments just to say this is a pretty this is i've never done it i would talk like this some of you might not like this song

[40:07]

I love that song, and I really like hearing what you have to say about it. It helped me hear certain things in ways I hadn't before. But I think also in keeping with what you said at the end about conscience exploding and sort of opening up the world, I've always heard those lines as sort of a diagnosis of the futility of a certain kind of self-involvement and the need to, you know, open the door to the person who shut out of the hall and do something and not in an abstract way, but you know, you know, God damn it, it's me.

[41:19]

I'm out in the hall, you know, like stop talking to yourself and address the situation. And I think, you know, I think, I think that's not counter to what you said, but I think it's also sort of in line with the, the sort of thrust of what you're saying about the song. Very good. Yes. Thank you. Other comments, questions, responses. Along those same lines, I'm also a big lover of the sun, in that it's so hard to explain, or how can I explain, it's so hard. So hard to get on? I had never taken how can I explain to be with what's before, I'd always taken it to be with what's after. And it goes very nicely with both. Yes. Because very often it is very hard to explain to someone why in your personal world it is hard to get on at this point. Yes. But it's also wonderful to think about seeing that as a positive comment on how can I explain all the beauty that is here, too. Yes. Thank you.

[42:21]

Yes, Michael. I just want to say real quick that I'm not ready to leave the church of P.J. Harvey, but if I make a Dylan fan of me... Other comments? I sort of take Johanna as... Johanna reminds me of a whole series of people I've been obsessed with, you know, romantically, and that sort of thing. And what strikes me in this interpretation is that that's not necessarily a problem, but it opens up a whole door and that actually the image of Johanna is actually more important than whoever Johanna is. Yeah. I found that really striking. Yeah, actually I meant to say something a little bit more about Van Gogh. People think of him as this tortured artist and we know he committed suicide.

[43:25]

I don't, when I see those paintings, I don't feel torture. I feel this, you know, great, incredible vitality. There are some interpretations or some historical suggestions that he had some kind of chemical imbalance and that's what led him to these terrible headaches, you know, what drove him to suicide. I've also saw recently that he felt like his brother Teo, who was his greatest friend and took care of his paintings, that he and his wife were about to have a baby and Vincent felt like he would be a burden on them. Teo, it turned out, died maybe six months or a few years after Vincent. His wife, whose name happened to be Johanna, is the one who kept Vincent's paintings.

[44:26]

So I doubt that that's what Dylan was thinking of. But who knows? Anyway, any last comments? Michael. One last serious comment. That very last line about just the visions of Japan are amazing. I've mourned for people in my life, past relationships and things. And it's such an amazing and freeing feeling no longer have that emotional charge, but at the same time very precious and valuable to have the memories and to deeply appreciate the effects that those people had on your life. So I also see that as a very positive image. I think he's been free of Johanna perhaps, but at the same time is able to keep and treasure what had been and what still was alive. Thank you.

[45:29]

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