Good morning, everyone. Good morning. I've been speaking, and we've been discussing, focusing on, during this session, case 12 of the Book of Serenity. So the case, from cases and verses selected by Tianzong Hongzhe, The story goes, Dzong asked Shishan, where do you come from? Shishan said, from the South. Dzong said, how is Buddhism in the South these days? Shishan said, there's extensive discussion. Dzong said, how can that compare to me here planting the fields and making rice to eat? Shishan said, What can you do about the world?

[01:02]

Or what will you do about the world? De Zong said, what do you call the world? So we've been discussing these last two questions. and they had definite meaning back in the 10th century. Tzang died in 928, and included comments from Dogen, who lived in the 13th century, but they have particular meaning here in the 21st century. What can you do about the world? So, of course, there's so much pain and trouble and

[02:06]

sadness, just in our own worlds, in the world that you bring to your own seat, and then of course in the world at large, with climate breakdown and wars and so forth. What do you call the world? So, there's just the world, this planet Earth, there's the ground, of the world. There's the whole universe beyond this planet. There's the microbes inside us who make us what we are. There's the world of all of the species of plants and animals and earth and water. What do you call the world? These are real questions that if you would like, you can entertain yourself with through the periods of Zazen.

[03:20]

But this points to a deeper dynamic. So first, just to say, De Zong's, again, De Zong's name is the Chinese, in Japanese it's pronounced Jizo, and this is the name of one of the great bodhisattvas. There's a large picture of him in the kitchen. who's the earth womb or earth treasury, Bodhisattva, who's down to earth and takes care of farmers and children and women and marginal people everywhere, people in the hell realms. this master was named because the name of his temple was Disang, but still, there's that feeling of it. And just to review some of the commentary by Wansong, the commentator of the Book of Serenity, that point out the basic rhythms and processes of this situation.

[04:25]

Well, first, There's a story that, the prequel to what happens in this story is that a number of, of Zen people, four Dharma brothers actually, including Shushan and, Fayan, who later became the founder of one of the five houses of Chan in China, Wudong and Jinshan, were traveling and they came to a place outside their usual wanderings. were blocked by snow and rain and swollen valley streams, so they stayed at this Dzong temple. And they were gathered around the fire. And they kind of ignored Dzong, the master there. And Dzong wanted to check them out, so he also drew near the fire and said, there's something I would like to ask about.

[05:29]

Is that OK? And Shishan, who's the guy in the story talking with Dazang, said, yeah, if there's something, go ahead and ask. And Dazang said, are the mountains, rivers, and earth identical or separate from you elders? And Shishan said, separate. Dazang held up two fingers. Shishan immediately said, identical, identical. Dizang again held up two fingers and then left. Fayan said, what was the meaning of this abbot holding up two fingers? I think the last time. Oh, Shishun said, oh, he did that arbitrarily. Fayan said, don't crudely insult him. Anyway, so this question of, are we separate from the mountains, rivers, and earth?

[06:32]

And of course, we're just expressions of the mountains, rivers, and earth. Self-aware, so-called self-aware expressions, or we have some idea of a self that we carry around. Are we separate? And Xie Shan first of all said, oh yeah, we're separate, they're out there. And De Zang held up two fingers and then Xie Shan quickly changed his mind and said, no, no, we're the same, we're the same. So we've been chanting sometimes the harmony of difference and sameness. De Zang held up again two fingers. So there's this question in this story, many questions in this story. One of them is this question of, Non-duality, what is true non-separation? And non-duality is not the opposite of duality. True non-duality in our tradition is the non-duality between duality and non-duality.

[07:33]

Both harmonize, or we hope so. We practice at that. I'll read part of Hongzhe's verse comment. Source and explanation variously are all made up, passing to ear from mouth. It comes apart. So is the source the ultimate in my words or my voice, or the expression in my words or my voice. When that reaches your ear across the room, is it the same or different? Anyway, Hongshu says it comes apart. planting fields, making rice, ordinary household matters.

[08:38]

Only those who have investigated to the full would know, having investigated to the full, clearly know there's nothing to seek. So, maybe in some way all of you are here because you're seeking something. All of us as human beings There's a question about this idea of progress in here, that we want things to get better, whatever that means. Can we just be here sitting amid the difficulties and all the many worlds and the great sadness, as well as joys, on your seat here today? So can we clearly know there's nothing to seek?

[09:48]

But what do you do about the world? There's all this suffering and misery and confusion in our own lives, but also in the world at large, all the polarization in our society and so forth. How does that fit with nothing to seek? From Buddha's perspective, it's all just the working out of the ancient twisted karma of maybe not just our species, but also the mountains, rivers, and earth. So in the comments by Wansong to Hongzhi's verse, he refers to someone saying, communion with the source is one's own practice.

[10:55]

Communion by speech is showing it to those who are not yet awakened. And this goes back to a saying from the Lankavatara Sutra. There are two kinds of communion. Communion with a source means by way of the character of transcending progress, being right where you are, one attains to utterly detach from false conceptions, from speech and symbols, and goes to the realm of non-indulgence. Interesting phrase, the realm of non-indulgence. How much are we always indulging in something, in our thoughts, in our posture, in our awareness? This is one of the things that happens with communion with the source, transcending progress, entering the realm of non-indulgent.

[12:02]

By the process of self-awakening, light shines forth. This is the quality of communion with the source. So this is a basic function of zazen, of our practice. This is, and especially maybe sashin, sitting here for a day or three days or five days or whatever. settling deeply into, you know, one nickname for it in Zen is the source, into the ultimate, into the universal, any word I use, isn't it? But settling deeply, communion with our non-separation, or the mountains, rivers, and earth's non-separation from us. That's one side, communion with the source. That's like, what do you call the world? Then, again from the Lankavatara Sutra, on some quotes, what is the quality of communion by speech?

[13:14]

It means, teaching the various inductive doctrines of the nine branches. These are basic aspects of teaching of self-awakening. Avoiding signs of difference or non-difference, existence or non-existence, and the like. Using skillful techniques to explain the truth as it is needed. So skillful means. This is the quality of communion by speech. We might say expression. So the point of our sitting is not just to have some deep experiential realization of ultimate reality. The point of our sitting is not just to awaken ourselves. The point of our sitting is not just to become an expert meditator. The point of just sitting is How does that get expressed? And Dogen, founder of our branch of Zen in Japan in the 13th century, emphasizes Zazen as expression. So there's sitting, calming, going deeper.

[14:18]

But then there's also, what do we do when we go out into Chicago? What do we do when we get up from our cushions? How does this meditative awareness express itself in our lives, in our interactions, and in our responses to the world and its confusions? Both are totally important. It's the integration, the harmony of this. So, and maybe during Sashin, we, Maybe I should emphasize communion with the source, that side, because we have a chance to really settle. So as I said this morning, if you, you know, in your sitting, you can forget about these questions of what do you do about the world and what do you call the world. Just enjoy settling and breathing and allowing that source to be on your seat.

[15:23]

Here, now, today. There's also this passage that's very provocative. Communion by speech without communion with the source is like the sun being hidden by clouds. So a lot of people are out there trying to do good and help things and respond to the difficulties of the world. But without this settling and calming and connection and communion with something deeper, It's like the sun being hidden by clouds. Communion with the source without communion by speech or by expression is like a snake gone into a bamboo tube. So we talked about that a lot. Snake in a bamboo tube is an image for the confines of, well, we could say monastic practice, but even just the structure of the schedule of a day of Sashim.

[16:29]

Allowing the snake into this bamboo tube. No squirming. No wiggling, just settling deeper. So that's the other side. Then he says, communion with the source and communion by speech together is like the sun in the open sky. That's lovely. Communion with neither the source nor speech is like a dog howling in a thicket of reeds. So sometimes we go there, I guess. He later, one song says, even though planting the fields and making rice is ordinary, everyday matter, unless you investigate to the full, you don't know their import. You don't know the purpose of our everyday activities. So I think that's what brought me to Zen, particularly, was I felt there was nothing meaningful, and I wanted to find something that had some meaning.

[17:41]

So, yeah, we practice to commune with something deeper. And I mentioned yesterday, I'll read again Dogen's comment on this story. A little bit of a different translation. Zhizong asks Shishan, in the South these days, how's the Buddha Dharma? And he says, there's extensive deliberation. So I think that's happening. If you read the Buddhist quasi-magazines or whatever, there's extensive deliberation going on out there somewhere. West or the east or anyway, maybe it's the south too. Tzu-Zang said, it's better for me to stay here and sow the fields, making rice balls and eating. So just everyday matters. But Xu Shun said, what will you do about the world? And Dazang said, what is it you call the world?

[18:49]

So Dogen, later commenting on this, said that Dazang and Shoshan spoke like this, but I have something else to say. Dogen says, seeing the world, but not in the manner of the world, how can entering or leaving disturb the non-existence of inside and outside, of some separation of inside and outside? Be that as it may, there's extensive deliberation, but what worldly people love, how can I love? Having reached here, ultimately, how is it? So this is a reference to the Song of the Grass Hut, which I think we're going to chant today. I'm chanting that some of the time. So the translation we usually chant of that says, what worldly people love she doesn't love, he doesn't love. But this reading, how can I love what worldly people love, Jenny pointed out yesterday how this is an actual challenge to us.

[19:53]

How do we connect with people in the world? And people in the world is not separate from what's on your seat right now. All kinds of people in the world are part of what's happening on your scene. So, I want to throw into this another story. So there was a question yesterday about what happened after the story between Zhizang and Zhishan. And Fayan says in the commentary, came back and studied with Zhizang. and all of the other people he had been traveling with who Dezong challenged also did. And Fayan became a successor.

[20:57]

I guess because we know their names, they all did. But anyway, Fayan was a great successor of Dezong, the guy who's named for Jizo Bodhisattva. There's a later story, and the caption in the films would say, 10 years later, or whatever, I don't know. I'm not sure how long Valiant stayed with de Zong, but in Dogen's extensive record, he actually quotes from, this is another case in the Book of Serenity, for those of you who follow such things. This is case 20, but I'll read the story from Dogen's extensive record. So Zen Master Fa Yan visited Zen Master De Zang, and actually in the Mukheswarni version it makes it clear that he visited him as he was getting ready to leave, to go after years of training, he was going out to visit other teachers. Check out the world and see how he did with that, and so forth.

[22:05]

It's a regular part of the rhythm of practice. And the teacher, De Zang, asked Falyan, Reverend Sir, where are you going? Falyan said, I will travel around on pilgrimage. De Zang asked, what's the meaning of pilgrimage? What's the purpose of your pilgrimage? Falyan said, I don't know. And De Zong said, not knowing is most intimate. And this version of the story, Feiyan suddenly was greatly enlightened. I think he still went out and did pilgrimage, but I don't know, maybe he stayed. But Dogen says, commenting on this, if this was Dogen, if this was myself in this situation, I would respond to De Zong, is not knowing most intimate or is knowing most intimate. So there's something to be said for knowing as well.

[23:07]

There's also know-it-alls who think they know everything and don't know what they don't know. But anyway, is not knowing most intimate or is knowing most intimate? And then Dogen says, I completely leave the greatest intimacy to intimacy. But now I ask Zhe Zhang, what is this intimacy? So this came up a couple days ago. A Levian discussion was talking about the intimacy of what is the world and what do you call the world? And there's a great intimacy to our practice. What's most difficult often about this practice is not getting your legs into some funny position or staying still for 30 or 40 minutes, or dealing with the pain in your knees or your shoulders or wherever, but just this question of intimacy, seeing all of the stuff that comes up.

[24:19]

Are any of our psychologists here? I don't know what the psychological term for stuff is in modern, what nation, what is stuff in psychological terms? Okay, okay, yeah, it's a technical term, stuff. So, all of our demons, all of our sadness, all of our ancient twisted karma, you know, if we sit long enough, it's all there. So the first noble truth is, sometimes it's translated as the truth of suffering. Etymologically, it's more like the things are out of line, things are out of whack. There's dissatisfaction. We can all imagine something better. It's not so hard these days. But I think it's a noble truth because we can actually sit upright, face the wall of our sadness, face the wall of the world's sadness.

[25:36]

So I don't know that this is all we need to do about the world, but to be able to just sit upright in the middle of it all, to keep breathing, to even enjoy our inhale and exhale, to settle deeply this communion with the source, right in the middle of not ignoring your own grasping and anger and confusion and fears and regrets and all of that. Not to mention all of the sadness and misery of all of the wars and the climate breakdown and the corruption and inequality and injustice and all of those things. And what do we do about that?

[26:39]

But this is a practice where we just sit and it's actually kind of noble to be able to be present and upright in the middle of that. Not to turn away or run away from it. to become friends with your own ancient twisted karma and your own stuff, to be gentle and kind with yourself. And then, of course, when we can do that, when we go out into the world, how do we express that in the world? So both sides are important. What can you do about the world? And lots of people here are doing all kinds of wonderful, generous, kind things. And you may feel like it's pointless and the world is still a mess, and it is, and it's going to get messier.

[27:45]

But there is an effect of our kindness, our awareness, our being willing to face all of that. And then also, what do you call the world? What is all this? And so when we commune with ultimate source, that's actually my name, I'm telling you, it's ultimate source. So here you are, communing with the ultimate source. When we can settle and breathe and be present and upright and feel our feeling, feel what you feel. Allow thoughts and feelings to be there. It's not about deliberating and trying to figure them out or fix them.

[28:46]

How can we just be present in the middle of all of it? Face the sadness. Face the confusion. So what is, so again, this story, another question, another question for us that Dogen asks. Leaving the greatest intimacy to intimacy, he asks Dzong, what is this intimacy? What is intimacy? What is true intimacy? What is true closeness? How can we be intimate with ourselves, and each other, and the world, and respond appropriately, somehow, while we make lots of mistakes? So, what do you call the world, and what is this intimacy?

[29:50]

So that's enough for me to say today. We have a little bit of time. We'll have a discussion period this afternoon, but if anyone has any comments or responses or whatever, please feel free. Right. And yet, when we talk about the non-separation part, we still use relational terms, like community, as if there's me and the source, and I'm trying to get to where there's already a relationship.

[31:06]

And I wonder if there's non-separation as a negative way Communion. Well, you can see it that way, but you can also see it as just the union of everything coming together in whatever, in Brian, in each of us, in this piece of paper, in the planks of wood, in the microbes living in your intestines. Yeah, but that's a separation. But it's a non-separation, of course. But when we use words, there's separation. That's why Dazon comments on all this discussion and deliberation. What is non-separation?

[32:08]

So as soon as we use words, we're We have subjects and verbs and objects and we see things out there as objects whereas actually they're part of us or vice versa. And so we want to manipulate. Progress means to manipulate all those things out there to get what we want or what we think would be good, even if we have good intentions. Or to prevent ourselves from being verbed by subjects out there and becoming an object. So yeah, as soon as we use language. That's why there's the side of deliberation and discussion and then there's just eating rice. Are you eating rice or is the rice finding you? Yeah, it's not wave in relationship to ocean. Wave is ocean. Yeah, exactly.

[33:10]

But as soon as we talk about it, you have one word that's called wave, which is wavy, and one word that's called ocean, which is oceanic. So, yeah, it's impossible to talk about this. And yet, when we're sitting for 30 minutes or 40 minutes and enjoying our breath, there's something that happens. And it's not about reaching some special state of being or state of mind or that's not, you know, that's just more accomplishment or, you know, but something that's already here, but that we don't realize. How do we settle into that? And as soon as I use words, there's a sense of separation. But it's not about some other out there who's going to fix it for us, even as we take refuge in Buddha. Yes, Nyoza?

[34:17]

It says there are four carriers. Yeah. And the images, if you're carrying a board, you can't see the other side. However, I think the point of the language of non-separation, as opposed to sameness or oneness, is to emphasize the inner side of difference. is that world where everything is recited and everything else.

[35:39]

Yeah, and the point is that when we emphasize one side or the other, we're sort of off balance. And it's maybe inevitable that at any time that we're caught up in, what can I do about the world? Or we're caught up in, what is this world anyway? And going deeper. And both are important. So to talk about it in terms of the universal and the particular or the ultimate and the phenomenal, the interrelationship of that is kind of fundamental to Zen philosophy, as much as there's a philosophy. But how do we actually experience our settling? with something deeper, and then how do we express that in our lives? And that's the dilemma of practice, and we get caught on one side or the other, but there's a, Suzuki Roshi's talking about constantly losing our balance against the background of perfect balance.

[37:19]

Part of what Sashin allows us is a chance to find, so I won't use that word communion, I know it's a Christian word or we think of it that way, but some deep connection with both aspects. So, anyone with a last comment or response? Utterance, time for one more. Okay, well then I'll give the last word to our theme song, the 440 Subject.

[38:00]

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