Good morning. This morning I'm going to continue with where I left off yesterday. First I want to say that In a taisho, one should look behind the words or beyond the words for the meaning and not get attached to the words. The words, you know, are used in various ways and not always literally.

[01:05]

If you study koans, if you read the koans, you begin to realize that the meaning is not in the words. but the words point to something. And if you stick to the words, you'll get very angry and confused. You'll say, this doesn't make any sense to me. And then you close the book. So you have to remember that the meaning is not in the words, and you have to get to the meaning which is, as Suzuki Roshi says, reading the back of the page, or as we say, reading between the lines. And in a Teisho, you may hear some words that sound strange or maybe the opposite of what you think

[02:21]

should be spoken, but you should look for the meaning for what the words are pointing to and not get attached to the words. Otherwise, you get caught in the barbed wire fence of words. The meaning is on the other side of the fence. And you start climbing over the fence and your pants get caught. And then you start railing about, well, you said blah, blah, and then you said da, da, da. So be very careful. I remember Suzuki Roshi saying, sometimes we ask a student, a teacher will say to the student, get out of here, but it doesn't mean you should leave.

[03:29]

You shouldn't leave when the teacher says get out of here. So, teacher uses various means to interact, but all these means are meant to help, not to hinder. There's a wonderful story, you know, that Dogen uses in the Ehe Shingi. Ehe Shingi is procedures for practice, for daily practice, practical stories for daily practice. And there's a story of these two monks, this is in China, who came to visit this

[04:38]

a master who was well known for his strict practice, and not very many students could stay with him because his practice was so strict. So when they arrived, they went into the Tangario room, which is the entrance to the Zen, where you sit Tangario before you enter the temple. the practice place, which means that you stay there for a couple of days, five days or whatever, and just sit zazen, and then they let you in. So they went and sat in the Tangario room with other monks, and it was the middle of winter, and the teacher came in with a bucket of water, and he threw the water at all the monks, And all the monks left, except these two. And he said, what's the matter with you guys?

[05:46]

How come you're still here? They said, well, we came a long way. You know, we traveled a long way to get here, so here we are, and we don't want to leave. So he said, okay, well, hang up your bags. So they stayed. And then eventually, one of them became the Tenzo. And they were really good monks. And so it was well known that the food in the temple was not the best, you know. Rice gruel every day with a few pickles and whatever they could scrounge. But there was a storeroom where they kept some noodles and some oil and various things. So one day the master left for a while, he had to go to town for something, and the Tenzo decided that he wanted to give the monks a nice meal.

[06:48]

So he opened the storeroom and he took out some noodles and some oil and some vegetables and he made this really nice meal for the monks who were very appreciative. But while they were still eating, the master came back. And he didn't say anything. He sat down and had something to eat too. But then later, he called the monk in, the Tenzo in, and he says, Did you do that? Did you? And the panda said, yes, I did. I wanted to feed the monks a nice meal, and I did. So I apologize, and I'm very guilty of this act. And whatever punishment you want to give me, I'm willing to accept. So the master said, well, I want you to leave the monastery and sell your robes.

[08:00]

So he said, OK. He sold his robes and left the monastery. As time went on, he'd ask his friend if he could just, to ask the abbot if he could come and see it, you know, just have dokasan with him. And the abbot said, no, can't do that. So... What? Yeah, I know. I'm thinking of what's in between those two. There was something in between those two. Yeah, right, that's right, he made him go begging in town. Did he have to pay back something? Yeah, and he made him pay back the money for the food. So then, one day the master went into town and he saw

[09:09]

him at the, in the town, right? And he was, what did he do? All right, so he said, have you been paying to stay here? And he said, no. He said, well, you should pay rent to stay here. So he went out begging for the rent. Finally, the master said, this is really a good monk. He has no resentments. He has no, his only desire is to do what I ask him to do. and to be a good monk. And if I asked him to jump off the bridge, he probably would. He didn't say that, but... So he called him back and reinstated him into the monastery. And he became a very famous Zen master.

[10:17]

Anyway... Why did I keep telling you that story? Oh yes, when he asked him to leave, it doesn't mean, well it doesn't mean you should leave, but he didn't, he left, but he didn't leave. He left, but he was still, still there. Just letting go of his ego. Stiff teaching. It's hard to have that kind of teaching these days.

[11:24]

So anyway, Suzuki Roshi says, the only way to stand on my feet when I'm at Tassajara is to sit. That's where I left off last time. That's the reason I am here. To stand on my feet and to sit on my black cushion are the most important things for me." And then he says, I don't trust anything but my feet. I think what he meant to say was, I don't trust anything more than my feet. I think he did trust other things besides his feet. But he trusted, he's saying, this is what I really can trust when it comes down to it. I don't trust anything more than my feet and my black cushion. They are my friends always. My feet are always my friends. When I am in bed, my bed is my friend. There is no Buddha, no Buddhism, no zazen. If you ask me what is zazen, my answer will be to sit on my black cushion or to walk with my feet.

[12:35]

To stay at this moment in this place is my zazen. There is no other zazen. When I am really standing on my feet, I am not lost. For me, that is nirvana. There is no need to travel to cross mountains or rivers. I am right here in the dharma world, so I have no difficulty crossing mountains and rivers. That is how we don't waste time. Moment after moment, we should live right here without sacrificing this moment for the future. He says to stay at this moment in this place, is my zazen. I think that's the real key, you know, to be in your place, to stand on your spot and to not get pushed off your spot by anything. That's the essence of Zazen and Suzuki Roshi's teaching. When people come to practice,

[13:40]

And, you know, a new student will always have trouble sitting and keeping their legs crossed. And they keep on crossing their legs. And then they come to their first Sashin, and they're uncrossing their legs, and they're wondering, what am I doing here? I can't sit still like everybody else. All you have to do is stay on their spot. You know, in some places, you're not allowed to wiggle. Some boys say, don't move. And Suzuki Roshi would say that, too. But he said, just because I say don't move doesn't mean you shouldn't move. You have to understand this, too. You have to understand the meaning beyond the words. Don't move. And everybody goes, mm. It doesn't mean that you shouldn't move if you have to move.

[14:46]

But just to stay on your spot, just to stay on your cushion is to do the sasheen. You have all this trouble, all these problems, you can't sit still, you can't, you know, but you stay there moment after moment, day after day, and you just stay there. And no matter what happens, you just stay there. That's your Sushin, great Zazen. You can't keep your legs crossed. You don't know what position to take, but you just stay there on your cushion, dealing with it. That's Zazen. And then, because you can stay in your place, then you can learn how to stay in your place without wiggling, little by little. But the main thing is just to stay on your spot.

[15:50]

And then in your life, you learn how to stay in your place and not be pushed around by anything. I really, sometimes I wonder about Zen students who can sit pretty still in Zazen, but they go out in the world and get pushed around by things. If you know how to stay here, then the other side of that is to be able to stay here in all circumstances of your life and then you always know where you are and who you are and how to relate to your surroundings. That's how, actually, how one judges the depth of a student's understanding. You may have all kinds of knowledge about Buddhism, but it doesn't matter.

[16:57]

It's how you don't get pushed around by anything. How you know how to be centered, where you are. That's why it's so important to have your breath down here. This is the center of vitality. And this is what Seshin is about. And if you know how to stay centered and know how to stay, to be able to stay in your place, then your mind can become calm. Your body can become calm. And even though you have a lot of problems, they don't push you around. You don't become dominated by anything. You don't become dominated by the pain.

[18:05]

You don't become dominated by discomfort. You don't become dominated by your ideas or thoughts. or emotions or feelings. And you can handle everything. And the only way you can stay there like that is to let go of your selfishness. So he says, to stay at this moment in this place is my zazen. There is no other zazen. When I am really standing on my feet, I am not lost. For me, that is nirvana. There is no need to travel, to cross mountains or rivers. I am right here in the dharma world. So I have no difficulty crossing mountains and rivers.

[19:08]

That is how we don't waste time. Moment after moment, we should live right here without sacrificing this moment for the future. Sacrificing this moment for the future means someday I'll have enlightenment if I just keep on doing this. But this is the place where enlightenment should manifest as practice. If we keep thinking about getting enlightenment, we forget about what practice is. Practice is enlightenment and enlightenment is enlightenment. Whichever you choose is enlightenment. You may not have an enlightenment experience, but the practice itself is enlightenment. So we always put the emphasis on practice because it's something you can do.

[20:17]

So we say practice begins with enlightenment. Enlightenment is there in the beginning, but we don't recognize it. Even though enlightenment is there, we don't recognize it. we think it's someplace else or some big experience that we'll have. When we can appreciate this moment totally, that's enlightenment. In China, In Sekito's time, Zen Buddhism was very polemical. Also in India before that. In India they had the 24 schools which were always arguing with each other and contentious.

[21:27]

In the background of the teaching, there was always some controversy. There were many schools of Zen, and they were often lost in dispute. And because they were involved in ideas of right and wrong teaching, or traditional and heretical teaching, they lost the main point of their practice. So Sekito said, don't spend your time in vain. Don't sacrifice actual practice for idealistic practice. trying to attain some kind of perfection or trying to find the traditional understanding as taught by the sixth ancestor. People are always trying to come back to what was the original Buddhism? What was the original Zen? Which is understandable, but no matter how much you research, you'll never find out what was the original Buddhism. It's always an ideal, an idea, And what was the original Zen is also an ideal or an idea. But original Zen comes from you.

[22:32]

The origin of Zen is not from Bodhidharma. The origin of Zen is from you. You originate Zen. When you originate Zen, then you have realization. So our idealistic practice is trying to be like the old Zen masters, which of course is okay too. We use the old Zen masters as examples, but if we're too idealistic we don't recognize what our own practice is. That's why it's important to have a good teacher. because otherwise we only have some idea about what the Chinese Zen masters did in the past and we try to emulate that.

[23:35]

And then we have the art of Zen. The art of Zen is having a picture and then trying to imitate that picture. So the art of Zen is like, you know, some teacher coming on like Rinzai, you know, shouting and beating people with a stick and turning over the tables, which was great for Rinzai. That was his style. But you should have your own style. So we have this picture of what a Zen master is supposed to look like and be like, some ferocious guy with a big stick shouting all the time.

[24:36]

But actually, when you Someone will say to you, in the end, someone will say, why were you not you yourself? Why were you trying to be like somebody else? You know, this is saying, don't put another head on top of your own. Don't try to put a Zen master head on top of your head in order to look like a Zen master.

[25:42]

If you are just you yourself completely, uh, that's pretty good. And then he says, the disciples of the sixth ancestor compiled the sutra of the sixth ancestor, the Platform Sutra, in different versions. And each one of them said, this is the sixth ancestor's way. So they did have different versions of the Platform Sutra. And those who do not have this book are not the descendants of the sixth ancestor. This kind of understanding of Zen prevailed at that time. So Sekito said, I respectfully urge you who study the mystery, don't pass your days and nights in vain. Not to be caught by some idea, some selfish understanding of practice or teaching is to follow our practice in the right way. This is sometimes called tile polishing practice. Usually, people will polish a mirror.

[26:49]

If someone starts to polish a tile, you may laugh at him. This is an old story that Suzuki Roshi was fond of talking about. This is one of his best, you know, the stories he talked about a lot. But polishing a tile makes it shine. No, it doesn't. Ordinarily, polishing a tile does not make it shine. That's the whole point of the story. But he says, but polishing a tile makes it shine. Someone may say, oh, this is just a tile. It cannot be a mirror. That is the practice of those who give up easily, thinking, I cannot be a good Zen student, so I have to give up. I have to give up sitting Zazen. because I can't be a good Zen student. They do not realize that a tile is valuable, sometimes more valuable than a mirror. No one can afford to make a roof with mirrors.

[27:52]

Tiles are very good for making roofs, just as a mirror is important for looking at yourself. That is tile polishing practice. We polish the tile in order to polish ourself, not in order to make a mirror out of the tile. The person who has the most difficult time and stays with the practice, like I was talking about the person on the cushion, who just stays with the practice even though there's a lot of agony in your practice, is the one who has the most benefit out of practice. So if you have a really hard time, you can be encouraged by the fact that the difficulty you have is what will polish your tile to make it shine. Without difficulty, nothing much happens. So sometimes people say, well, I don't have any problem, you know, sitting, no brain, no nothing.

[29:03]

And I think, well, I'm sorry for you. People have a lot of trouble, a lot of pain, a lot of difficulty and stay on the cushion. That's what creates a real wonderful result. So he says, as you know, there is a famous story about Nangaku, a disciple of the sixth ancestor, and Baso, his student. Baso was practicing Zazen when Nangaku passed and said, what are you doing? And Baso said, I'm practicing Zazen. Why are you doing, what are you doing that for? In order to become a Buddha, It is very nice of you to try to become a Buddha, said Nagaku.

[30:09]

And he picked up a tile and started to polish it. So Baso asked with some curiosity, what are you doing? I want to make this tile into a mirror. His disciple asked, how can you make a tile into a mirror? Suzuki Roshi says, his disciple asked whether it was possible to make a tile into a mirror. Nangako answered, you said you were practicing Zazen to be a Buddha, but Buddha is not always someone who may attain enlightenment. Actually, he said, according to the story, Suzuki Roshi always adds his own words. You said you were practicing to be a Buddha, but you can't make a Buddha by polishing a tile. But a Buddha is not always someone who attains enlightenment. Change it. Everyone is a Buddha whether they have attained enlightenment or not. So Baso said, I want to become a Buddha through sitting practice.

[31:16]

And Nangaku said, you speak of practice in the sitting position, but to sit is not always Zen. Whatever you do, that will be Zazen. This is a tricky statement. Whatever you do, that will be zazen. Not necessarily. That has to be qualified. Whatever you do, that will be zazen, if you know how to practice. If your practice is selfless, then whatever you do, that is zazen. Zazen practice is selfless practice. So whatever you do with a selfless attitude, that's zazen. But people do whatever they want and they say, you see, whatever we do is zazen, so we can do whatever we want. No, that's not zazen. But if you do whatever you do with a selfless attitude, then it's zazen. With a non-dualistic selfless attitude, then everything you do is zazen.

[32:22]

That's the extension of, that's called genjo koan, the koan of everyday life. Your practice says it's extended from zazen. Everything you do is the koan of zazen. So in our practice, it's not that we don't use koans. It's that everything you do is your koan. there's nothing but koan, moment by moment, you're dealing with your koan. And when you come and have dhokasana with me, I help you to understand that, even though you may not understand that. I don't say this is your koan necessarily, but I help you to focus on what you're doing. So Baso was lost.

[33:31]

Then what would be the appropriate practice to do? And Nagarko replied, if a cart does not go, what would be the appropriate means to make it go? To hit the cart or to hit the horse? So the usual response is, well, of course, you hit the horse to make the cart go. In other words, the cart is like the horse is the mind and the cart is the body. So naturally, if you want to make something go, you use your head, right? But in Zen, we whip the cart. Hmm. There's a saying, are you a monk of body or a monk of mind? Are you a monk of body or a monk of mind? Well, that's a kind of koan. because body and mind are not two things, and yet body is body and mind is mind.

[34:36]

So, Nangaka said, if a cart does not go, what would be the appropriate means to make it go, to hit the cart or to hit the horse? Baso couldn't answer because he was still involved in practicing to attain something. So Nangaku continued his explanation. I cannot tell you all the details, but in short, what he said was, trying to figure out which is right, to whip the horse or to whip the cart, is wrong, because the cart and the horse are not separate. They are one. So wherever you hit is the right place. Sometimes we say the practice is to whip the cart, but you have to get the meaning behind the words and not stick to the words. If you stick to the words, whipping the cart doesn't work.

[35:48]

The cart won't go if you whip the cart. Practice and enlightenment are one, like cart and horse. So if you do actual physical practice, that is also enlightenment. We call practice based on enlightenment, real practice that has no end. And we call enlightenment that starts with practice and is one with practice, beginningless enlightenment. If someone starts to practice, there is enlightenment. And where there is enlightenment, there is also practice. There is no enlightenment without practice. If you don't stay on this spot, realizing your position, then you are not practicing our way. That's really, he's re-emphasizing that again. So you are wasting your time if you are sacrificing your present practice for some future attainment. That is not real practice. Don't sacrifice this moment for some future attainment.

[36:50]

This is all there is. You have to realize enlightenment right now. This is all there is. But this is everything. Everything is right here. There may be something else next moment. There may be an abundance of things in an hour, but everything is right here right now. And the more things there are, the more distraction there is from realizing that everything is right here now. Only when you take everything away can you really realize that.

[37:52]

I was thinking about, well, who is the wealthiest person in the world? Well, in the beginning of the century, it was Gandhi. He had a loincloth, and a pair of glasses, and a book, and a pair of sandals. And he was the wealthiest man in the world. Sekito was also a direct disciple of the Sixth Ancestor, and he knew the Sixth Ancestor's practice very well. So when Kotaku Jin and his disciples started to denounce the northern school of Jinshu, Sekito felt bad about their being attached to some idea without realizing what practice is. His understanding was carried on by Dogen Zenji in Japan five centuries later. Dogen extended this understanding not just logically but more widely and with more feeling and in a more poetic way through his tenacious thinking mind.

[39:08]

Some people say the Sandokai is not such a good poem because it is so philosophical. That may be so if you don't understand the background of Sekito's teaching, and if your mind does not penetrate through his words. We say to read the back of the paper, not just the printed characters, but the other side of the page. It is important for us to understand Sekito's Sandokai in this way. So that's the end of the Sandokai lectures, except for the questions and answers. which are also very interesting. I didn't go through the questions and answers, but they're very interesting. Do you have any questions for some answers? Or are we almost done? It's actually time, but if you have a question, Joel, do you have a question? You told me you had a lot of questions and we didn't have a chance to talk about them.

[40:15]

Yeah, I know I did. Okay. Well, what comes up is what I was thinking about. Like, what is the place of art in all of this? What? Oh, art. Art? Yeah. Like, there was a lecture where you were talking about... Harmony of art? Well, you were talking about, like, science is related to, not Prashna, but that other thing for wisdom, and then religion with faith. with things that could really cooperate and harmonize very beautifully.

[41:21]

And so how to conceptualize art in terms of Buddhist categories? Well, never mind that. Art, you know. Okay, cool. Yeah, cool. Art is an expression of emotion, emotion, deep emotion and feeling and intellect and actually true art combines in various proportions emotion, intellect, feeling and observation of nature. and verifies our mutual experience of life and can touch the deepest part of our life, which is an expression of truth or reality.

[42:39]

And so that kind of expression is one way of understanding truth or reality, depending on the artist. And a lot of, we say, important art comes through the artist's suffering. And through the art of suffering, the artist is making his effort to get deeper and deeper into the reality of their life, the essence. And then expressing that essence through the art is a way of communicating and bringing that forth. That makes a lot of sense. So, you know, Buddhist art doesn't necessarily mean art that shows figures of Buddha. Right, sure.

[43:44]

It's like, you know, R.H. Blythe wrote all these books about Zen during the 40s, and he evaluated the Western composers And he said Bach was the Zen composer, the Zen musician. And then he evaluated the others. These evaluations were good, but not totally accurate. So, you know, we can find not Buddhism, but truth and reality in the depths of music and art. the total intensity of the artist doing the art was very important in that sense.

[44:47]

And I think so too. And yet at the same time, I wonder about a certain ethical dimension. Like in music, I think the most obvious case is Wagner. I mean, the total artistic intensity and the connection with the truth. Well, you know, there's the, I don't want to carry this on much longer, but there's program music and then there's pure music. And program music always has some idea behind it, you know, like Wagner. Pure music is just, you know, no ideas about, you know, the ideas are subsumed in the music. And it's the purity of the music itself is beyond ideas.

[45:52]

I'll ask you what you're getting at. The ideas are ethically problematic, but your music, I believe, is not ethically problematic. That's right. Yes. I remember this.

[46:15]

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