Good morning. Welcome, everyone. So for some of us, this is the fifth day of Rohatsu Sashin, a retreat honoring the enlightenment of our historical Buddha, Shakyamuni Buddha, 2,500 years ago, more or less. Yesterday is the day that we formally observed, but of course, it was a different kind of calendar. We don't really know, as is true of almost everything. We've been talking, we've been focusing on a particular a story, a particular Koan case from the Book of Serenity, which I've been talking from periodically. This is case 12. And the main characters are Dezong and Shushan.

[01:01]

And Dezong was a teacher who, Dezong was the name of his temple, but that's also the Chinese for the Japanese word Jizo, the great bodhisattva, earth womb or earth matrix bodhisattva who takes care of farmers and children and mothers and people in liminal spaces. Marginal people. Anyway, so this teacher is sort of named after that bodhisattva. So Dezang asks Shishan, where do you come from? Shishan said, from the South. Dezang said, how is the Buddha Dharma in the South these days? Shishan said, there's extensive deliberation. De Zong said, how can that compare to me here planting the fields and eating rice?

[02:03]

Xueshan said, what can you do about the world? De Zong said, what do you call the world? So that's the story. And there are these two important questions here. What can you do about the world? And then Duzang's saying, what is it that you're calling the world? So the... Backstory to this is that there were four monks traveling around. Shushan was one of them. They included Fayan, Wudong, and Jinshan. Fayan later became the founder of one of the five houses of Chan, five branches of Chinese Zen. And they were traveling around and at some point were blocked by rain and snow and swollen valley streams.

[03:14]

So they stopped at this Daxiong Temple and they sat around the fire and they kind of ignored the teacher there, Daxiong. Desang wanted to check them out. So he came by the fire and said, oh, there's something I'd like to ask about. Is it OK? Shishan said, oh, if there's something, if there's some question you have, go ahead. And Desang said, are the mountains, rivers, and earth identical or separate from you elders? Shishan said, separate. Desang held up two fingers. Shishun hurriedly said, identical, identical. Zisan, again, held up two fingers and then left. Fayan asked what the meaning of those two fingers were. Shishun said, oh. He did that arbitrarily.

[04:17]

Feiyan said, oh, maybe there's, he said, don't crudely insult him. Maybe there's something here. And so Feiyan stayed. The others left. Eventually, they came back. And there are other stories later about Feiyan and Zhizang, which we got into. But I want to focus on this main issue. What can we do about the world? And what is it we're calling the world? In Hongzhe, who picked the cases and wrote the verses, part of his verse says, source and explanation or expression variously are all made up. He's saying even the source is made up. Passing to ear from mouth, it comes apart. Babble, babble, babble, babble. Does it get to your ear? Planting fields, making rice, ordinary household matters.

[05:21]

Only those who have investigated to the full would know. Having investigated to the full, you clearly know there's nothing to seek. And then Wansong, the commentator says, communion with the source is one's own practice. Communion by speech or expression is showing it to those who are not yet awakened. And then he quotes the Lankavatara Sutra, where it says, there are two kinds of communion. Communion with the source means by way of the character of transcending progress, one attains to utterly detach from false conceptions, from speech and symbols, and go to the realm of non-indulgent indulgence. By this process of self-awakening, light shines forth. This is called the quality of communion with the source.

[06:24]

This is an important aspect of our practice, and in any given period of Zazen, but in a Sashin, in an intensive retreat like this, all day or day after day, particularly, we have this opportunity, communion with the source, communion with the ultimate, to settle calmly, deeply into awareness of universal ultimate reality. It's not something we necessarily realize or have an awareness of, but going down deep into this ground And doing this practice regularly, every day or several days a week, stopping to just be present.

[07:36]

And whatever happens is okay. And to pay attention to thoughts and feelings and sensations and whatever's going on on your seat. To face the wall, to face ourselves, to face all beings. This communion with the source is very deep and it's very important. The other side, to call it that now, the quality of communion by speech means teaching the various teachings of the nine branches of self-awakening, avoiding signs of difference or non-difference. existence or non-existence, and the like, using skillful means to express the truth as it's needed. This is the quality of communion by speech. There's a way in which this story leans over to the side of communion with a source, but both are essential to our practice.

[08:48]

So maybe that's enough for now. So this basic issue, what can you do about the world? What do you call the world? So this was back in the early 900s. De Zong passed away in 928. But the second half of the 800s and the first half of the 900s in China was a time of great turmoil, civil war, many, many dead. kingdom dividing, the new Southern Song Dynasty appeared. These wars between the North and the South happened from time to time. What can you do about the world was a real question then.

[10:06]

And the point of studying these stories is not to some historical artifact, and it's not about trying to solve some puzzle. But these are teaching stories that have continued because they have something to do with our lives. What can you do about the world? So, many of us here in the Sung are concerned about this. What can we do? Well, there are many problems in the world. The world is not just the world out there. What about the world on your seat? What about the people you interact with? during the week, family, friends, co-workers, what can you do about the world? So many problems, so much sadness.

[11:08]

The first noble truth is loss and sadness and dissatisfaction. But it's a noble truth because we can actually face it. We can sit upright or walk upright or stand upright, try to speak uprightly, kindly. and not run away from this reality, these problems. So what can you do about the world? And in our world now, of course, there's horrendous climate breakdown, floods in the southeast, fires out west where a couple of you live, and droughts, and the Arctic melting. And it's happening very fast. The UN panel just said that we have 12 years to do something about it. And somebody else, another scientist said, really, we only have two years.

[12:10]

That and mass extinction, I've read that since 1970, 60% of the species on the planet have gone extinct. So we're all suffering from climate trauma. A phrase of an eco-psychologist I know. We're all numb. We feel hopeless. Of course, there's plenty we can do. The effects of all this are going to be serious and cause lots of... devastation and death, at least. But how bad it will be is still up to us now. So there are things we can do. So here's my rap about what we can do about the world. Call your senators or congresspeople or local legislators every day. Call one of them a day.

[13:11]

Make one call a day. and say please act on this or call your local newspaper or television stations and ask them to please start using the word climate damage or climate breakdown instead of just extreme weather as if it's just happenstance. Or call institutions to ask them to divest from fossil fuel companies. Anyway, there are things we can do. many other things we can do. Will that solve the problem? Of course not. But we don't know the effects of our positive actions. Also, what we can do includes just recognizing and being aware and not turning away from or be distracted from the reality of our world, and expressing kindness and gentleness to the people around you.

[14:14]

This will change how people see the world. So what can you do about the world? Well, on some level, maybe not so much. On another level, it's really important that there are things we can do. De Song, however, said, what do you call the world? What is it you're calling the world? So this question is really important too. Making those phone calls or whatever, maybe just frustrating or irrelevant even if you don't look at what do you call the world? So there's this planet, there's the solar system, there's the universe, there's all the microorganisms on your seat right now. There's all the other beings besides human beings. So what do you call the world?

[15:17]

What is the world? What is it, how do we see ourself and the reality of things? Asking this question is not trying to reach some one answer because it's beyond that, but being willing to question what is the world? And what is it that we're calling the world? And how can we see it in other ways? How can we see this body-mind on our seat now, freshly? And these two questions actually are not separate. This is the important point of this story. So again, De Zhang said, the mountains, rivers, and earth, are they identical or separate from you?

[16:27]

And this guy, Shishan, who maybe he grew up later anyway, he said, oh, separate. And De Zhang held up two fingers. And they said, no, no, the same. Disnok still caught up two fingers. So one of the issues in our teaching tradition is non-duality, not being caught in one side or the other. But non-duality is not the opposite of duality. True non-duality is the non-duality of duality and non-duality. We think that it's not enough to say everything's the same, everything's one. It's not enough to say everything is different, separate. Of course, our language kills the world. It says there's these dead objects out there. There's a subject, verb, and object in most sentences in English.

[17:31]

So we see the world out there and people out there as, on some level, we see them as dead objects. They were trying and people try to manipulate the world or use the world to get what they want to make what they think is progress. And we don't have to indulge in that. Or else we were afraid of being verbed by subjects out there. So either way. So there's another story, one of my favorite Zen stories. It's actually the story I used for my case when I was Shuso at Tassajara. And it's also in the Book of Serenity. Case 21, I believe, in the Book of Serenity. But I'm going to give the version of it with a commentary that Dogen gives in his extensive record.

[18:32]

This is about a teacher in our lineage, actually the teacher of Dongshan, founder of our lineage in China, whose name was Yunyan. And he had a Dharma brother who was actually his biological brother named Dawu. Yunyan one day was sweeping the ground. doing temple cleaning like we're going to do some of us later here. Yunyan was sweeping the ground and Dao looked at him and said, too busy. And Yunyan said, you should know there's one who's not busy. And Dao said, if so, then there's a second moon. Yun-Yan just held out his broom and said, which moon is this? So I love this story. And rather than go into all of the commentary in the Book of Serenity, I'll just read Dogen's verse comment.

[19:35]

Who sweeps the ground and also sees the moon? Holding up the moon, his sweeping truly is not in vain. Within tens of thousands of moons is placed this moon. So we think there's only one moon or one answer. But within tens of thousands of moons is placed this moon. Although called the second, how could there be a first? So Tolkien is wild sometimes. So Gary Snyder says it this way. He says that Zen comes down to sitting Zazen, what we've all been doing, and sweeping the temple. And it's up to you to see what the borders of your temple are. So what do you call the world? How wide is the world? Do we take care of our neighborhoods? How do we take care of Chicago? How do we take care of Turtle Island,

[20:39]

How do we take care of people suffering genocide and famine and disease in Yemen because of our bombs? How do we take care of Muslim refugees fleeing from Buddhist persecution in Burma? Anyway, what do you call the world? How wide is the world? And of course, we also take care of our own little space of ground. So later we'll have time to, those of us here for the day, to sweep this temple, to take care of this space. And how do we do that? And someone might say, oh, you're too busy. So many of us feel busy in our lives. Many of us are victims of multitasking and have many things which we are trying to do.

[21:43]

That's great. But can you remember the one who's not busy? You should know there's one who's not busy. So on the Han out front, it's described, life and death is the great matter. Don't waste time. Once somebody asked, I've heard, my teacher, Reb Anderson, what is not wasting time? And he said, forgetting the one who's not busy. So communion with the source and communion with speech or expression. How do we express Buddha on our seats? How do we express Buddha in the world? one or two. Tens of thousands of wounds. So, we've been talking about this

[22:49]

situation for five days and I appreciate all the people who've come together today as well. So I'm going to stop and ask for your comments or questions or reflections. What can you do about the world? And what do you call the world? Please feel free to comment. Kelly, hi. A little louder, please.

[23:51]

Yes. Yes. Yeah. This idea of progress is so deeply ingrained in our culture, but maybe just in human consciousness. We want things to be better. That's bad. But we get caught up in ideas of what's better. We think we need to be somebody else or somewhere else or if only whatever. How can we be right here, sweeping the temple, taking care of this body-mind, taking care of our friends, taking care of our world, without attaching to some idea of some future outcome?

[25:10]

It's not that there's not some benefit. or transformation function of our practice. But if we have some idea of progress and we're deliberating and calculating and we want to get to this place or this point, then we can get hung up on that. Can you just enjoy sweeping the temple? Can you just enjoy helping a friend? Can you just enjoy making a phone call to try and make things better or whatever. This is challenging because this idea of progress, it's a good question. It's a question that others have brought to me this week. Maybe it's not even that there's not progress. all kinds of things we know and so there's ways we can discuss and deliberate what is progress and what is not.

[26:17]

But sometimes what seems like progress has unintended consequences, right? So even with good intentions, let alone with bad intentions. So yeah, it's a good question. Thank you. Is anybody going to make progress over that question? And you've come all the way from California. Do you have some response? a democratic member of the House of Representatives.

[27:18]

So we went with a particular position. So we do Zazen in the morning, and we do canvassing in the afternoon. But then sometimes Dharma teachers would come and give talks, and someone said, when you're canvassing, it's Buddha reading Buddha. And I was glad that Halloween came right before the election, because sometimes I go to someone's door, We had a little app on our phones, and it would either be Democrat or Declined to State. A lot of people were Declined to State. So we'd come, and then sometimes they'd say, oh, we're Republicans. We don't want to vote for that guy. But they usually had some fantastic Halloween stuff in the front yard. So I'd say, well, that's OK. I love that pumpkin. That one, you know? And they'd start laughing. Oh, man, I would leave. But although we had a definite goal of getting this guy elected, We're just trying to meet people without pushing them towards the goal.

[28:21]

I mean, we talk about what I thought was very strong points as a candidate, but our emphasis is just on meeting people. That's good, yeah. How do we respect everyone? How do we meet people who have different opinions from us, respectfully, as Buddhas? Yeah. One time a guy came to the door and had two children, so we were talking and I said, Oh, your children are beautiful. He said, come in, come in. I have another child over here. Yes. How do we take care of the children? Other comments or viewpoints or reflections?

[29:22]

Kathy. He was talking about Nelson Mandela. And so he was talking about Nelson Mandela. Can you hear her in the back there? Yes. Yes. OK. Trying to, thinking about what needed to be different in South Africa, what the laws were, what the problems were, what needed to be different. And that during this time in prison, that he was working on himself to develop skills that he hoped to see eventually flourish in South Africa. Yes, so yeah, good example of how looking at, communing with the source, looking at what's most important for you. What do you care about?

[30:28]

All of you are here because you care about your life, or the quality of your life, or the quality of the world. We may come to somewhat different conclusions about what to do, or we each have our own particular ways of acting in the world. But this process for Nelson Mandela, I guess his prison cell was his zendo. He was able to look deeply at what's important. Yes, Haitian. of other people who didn't come here today who also care about the world and want to do something about the world and maybe have views about what that is that are very different from us.

[31:30]

Perhaps in a way we are somewhat self-selecting and I just want to highlight that it's in doing something about the world we really need to include Yeah, so I told a story about Fa Yan and De Zhang that happens later on. Fa Yan, who was the guy who founded one of the five houses, stayed with De Zhang and practiced with him for a long time and at some point he was going to go away and wander around and check out other teachers and check out the world. And he came to Dzong and said to his teacher, I'm going out on pilgrimage. And Dzong said, oh, what's the point of your pilgrimage? And Fayan said, I don't know. And Dzong said, not knowing is most intimate. Not knowing is nearest. So we talked about that one of the days this week. What is intimacy?

[32:32]

Dogen says in his commentary on that, not knowing is intimacy and knowing is also intimacy. But right view in Buddhism is not to hold on to one view, to be flexible, to listen to other views. But then, you know, we can also speak our truth to power strongly. but also to not be caught in dogmatism. So thank you. Yes, Suzanne. What do we say?

[33:37]

What do we name it? And that watching that shift is really powerful. And when being immersed in a particular conversation, then going about the world and seeing what's there and what's missing in a different way is so, like, it just makes that awareness an opening Yeah. Thank you. Yeah, that questioning and not, you know, not holding on to one, really tight to one version of what we call the world. a beginner's mind, being open to learning, open to different opportunities.

[34:50]

Take it, Evan. And learn from difference. Yes. Not just tolerate, but really appreciate. And look at where we are on that perspective. Where we're still going and where our perspective is in terms of difference. There's a huge teaching within that that's much bigger than just let's look for the commonalities. And I personally, when somebody sees my difference and acknowledges it, and acknowledges that they see that, I'm much more comfortable

[37:20]

It's a cuss. the pure omega-3 and it's in like a

[38:46]

What could be better than me eating this rice? Farming and livestock, cows and stuff, the methane they generate just generates a huge footprint on the environment. So maybe something as simple as cutting down on the meat we eat as a society. Not farming as many animals. We still have to feed people, but encouraging vegetable diets or less commercialized agriculture. Yeah, so all of the issues and difficulties and challenges of progress. So anyway, the food we serve here is all vegetarian. Oh, OK, last word, Tom. It's interesting. Well, thank you all.

[40:33]

These questions are worth holding and continuing to allow them to inform you. What can we do about the world and what are we calling the world?

[40:49]

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