Well, I've been talking about, all last week, during Sushin, I was commenting on Suzuki, on our new translation, our new edition of Suzuki Roshi's talks on the poem, Sando Kai, of Sekito Kisen, called Branching Streams Flow in the Darkness. which has just been published. And so I want to continue talking about it all the way through, little by little. I thought about talking about the millennium, but then I thought, let the millennium take care of itself. So this is my last talk this year, except for New Year's, I think that, you know, we're having an extended New Year's event this year because of the millennium.

[01:31]

And so Thursday night we will have Zazen and maybe a talk, kind of sashin with a long work period to really clean up the temple for the new year. Friday. Okay, yeah, Friday. Thank you. And then sit all night and then maybe and then continue Saturday morning and have another talk on Saturday after the New Year. Anyway, you're all invited. So, I'm going to read part of the poem to get us into it. The mind of the great sage of India is intimately transmitted from west to east.

[02:37]

If you come in the morning, you'll hear this because we chant it in our liturgy, not every day, but it's part of our liturgy, so it may probably sound familiar to most of you. The mind of the great sage of India is intimately transmitted from west to east. While human faculties are sharp or dull, the way has no northern or southern ancestor. The spiritual source shines clear in the light. The branching streams flow in the darkness. Grasping at things is surely delusion. according with sameness is still not enlightenment. All the objects of the senses interact and yet do not, and so forth. So this is the part where Sekhito says, the spiritual source shines clear in the light. the branching streams flow on in the dark. Grasping at things is surely delusion, according with sameness is still not enlightenment.

[03:43]

So Suzuki Roshi says, quoting the first line, the spiritual source shines clear in the light. He says, the source is something wonderful, something beyond description, beyond our words. What Buddha talked about is the source of the teaching beyond discrimination of right and wrong. This is important. Whatever your mind can conceive is not the source itself. The source is something that only a Buddha knows. Only when you practice Zazen do you have it. Yet, whether you practice or not, whether you realize it or not, something exists. Even before our realization of it, that is the source. It is not something you can taste. The true source is neither tasty nor tasteless." Actually, what he said was, it's not like the source on your salad.

[05:08]

But we decided not to include that. The spiritual source is like the dharmakaya. We say dharmakaya, sambhogakaya, nirmanakaya. And the dharmakaya is the dharma realm or the source of all dharmas, the source of all existences, although in Buddhism we always hesitate to say God, we just say the spiritual source and as Suzuki Roshi says affirm or deny the term God, but we don't name something because when you name it, it limits

[06:37]

or gives us some false, our mind rests on the term and limits our capacity for infinite understanding. But this is also true for other religions. But Buddhism is a little different than that. So spiritual source, you know, Buddhism doesn't really talk about where something comes from. The first cause is not a part of Buddhism. In Buddhist philosophy, there's no beginning or end. But if you say there's no beginning or end, that's not true either. Whatever you say is not right.

[07:40]

So that's why it's better not to say anything. But rather than not saying anything, as Suzuki Roshi once said, we make a mistake on purpose. So in order to talk about something, we have these terms, the dharmakaya. Sambhogakaya and Nirmanakaya. Nirmanakaya is the personified Buddha, Buddha nature as a person walking on the earth. That's the person of Buddha. Sambhogakaya is like the spirit, spiritual aspect, or sometimes called the enjoyment body of a Buddha. And Dharmakaya is the essence, the essential source, which has no special shape or

[08:53]

characteristics. It's beyond all characteristics yet embodies all characteristics. So without saying dharmakaya, he says the spiritual source shines clear in the light. And so he says the source is beyond description and beyond our words because it cannot be characterized by either thinking or nomenclature. So he says what Buddha talked about is the source of the teaching, which is the beyond description of right or wrong. This is important, whatever our mind can conceive is not the source itself. So he uses this theme of whatever the mind can conceive is not the source itself.

[10:02]

So he keeps cutting out or pulling the rug out from all of our The source is only something that a Buddha knows. Only when you practice Zazen do you have it. So, I want to go back to the beginning. The spiritual source shines clear in the light. It means it illuminates everywhere. The first line is shines clear in the light and the second line is branching streams flow in the dark. So he's using both the light and dark as descriptions. The source is something that only a Buddha knows. Only when you practice Zazen do you have it. Yet whether you practice or not, whether you realize it or not, something exists even before our realization of it.

[11:09]

That is the source. Shining clear in the light means that wherever you look, there it is. But it's because it's so obvious that we don't see it. we grow used to the fact that we live on the earth and we grow used to the fact that we live with other people and that we eat and that we sleep and that we go to work, study, and then we think of life as usual. and when we think of life as usual or things just go on in a routine way or, well, nothing much happened, man. Even though it's right in front of our eyes, we don't see it.

[12:18]

So our experience and our way of, our thinking mind actually obscures clearly seeing the spiritual source, which shines everywhere continuously. It's really hard to see. And yet, it's always right in front of us, and it's always right there with us constantly. But because it's so constant, we don't see it. When something unusual happens, we wake up for a moment, you know? Maybe we have an automobile accident, and everything is in slow motion, even though it happens very quickly. Suddenly everything is in slow motion, and you see reality for a moment, and then it's gone.

[13:29]

back to usual, our usual way. So a big hindrance is the mind. That's why he says, only in Zazen can you see it. Only in Zazen will you not experience it, but will you appreciate it. Maybe. Because in Zazen, thinking mind is put on the shelf suspended. Then he says, it is not something you can taste. The true source is neither tasty nor tasteless. read somewhere, the food of the gods, the tasty food of the gods tastes like nothing to ordinary mortals.

[14:43]

But it's neither tasty nor tasteless, means that it's beyond our senses. It's not something that we can necessarily apprehend through the senses. And then he jumps to the last four lines, I mean the fourth line. jumps around here, the first line, the fourth line, the second line, the third line. This chapter is very complicated in that way. In the last of these four lines, Sekito says, according with sameness is still not enlightenment. So to recognize the truth is not enlightenment either. Often we feel that the truth is something we should be able to see or figure out, but in Buddhism that is not the truth.

[15:54]

The truth is something beyond our ability to describe, something beyond our thinking. Truth can also mean the wonderful source, wonderful beyond our description. This is the source of all being. According with sameness is still, in other words, even though we let go of our thinking mind and realize that all things are one, it's not enough. Often we feel that the truth is something we should be able to see or figure out. but in Buddhism that is not the truth. The truth is something beyond our ability to describe. So then he goes on to talk about what he means by descriptions of the truth as opposed to what is the truth.

[17:02]

All of our descriptions of the truth are simply descriptions of the truth. By the way, when we say being, being includes our thoughts as well as the many things we see. Usually when we say truth, we mean some underlying principle, like that the sun rises in the east and sets in the west, or that the earth turns in a certain direction is truth. But in Buddhism, that is not ultimate truth. That is also being. being that is included in big mind. Whatever is in our mind, big or small, right or wrong, that is being. If you think about something in terms of right and wrong you may say this is eternal truth, but for us that idea of eternal truth is also on the side of being because it exists simply in our mind.

[18:04]

So what he's saying is whatever we can conceive of as truth or whatever we conceive of is a conception in our mind and the truth that the world turns in a certain direction and that the planets have their orbits and the law of gravity which he talks about these are truths on the material side. They're not truths in the absolute sense. Truth in the absolute sense is beyond our conception. So he's using these kind of concepts of the Madhyamaka and the Yogacara But he's doing it very loosely.

[19:14]

In the Madhyamaka understanding, philosophy, there are two truths. Even though Suzuki Goshe always insists there's only one truth, there's not two truths, there are two truths. There's the truth, the absolute truth and the relative truth. The absolute truth is that there is only emptiness. Everything is empty of any inherent existence. The relative truth is that, yes, things exist. Existence. Existence is the relative truth. non-existence is absolute truth, but of course non-existence includes existence within it, and existence includes non-existence within it.

[20:18]

Form is emptiness and emptiness is form. That's what the Heart Sutra is about. That's the Vajnamika teaching. But there is nothing, nothing exists. In the realm of relative truth, things go on as usual in our usual life. So you know this famous well-known statement, when before I studied Buddhism, When I began to study and was in the midst of the study of the Dharma, rivers were no longer rivers, mountains were no longer mountains.

[21:21]

After I achieved great understanding, mountains were mountains and rivers are just rivers. This is expressive of this understanding. before I understood the truth, I just took everything for granted, that everything existed. I thought existence was real. I thought that the things that existed were real. And then after, when I attained realization, realize that nothing is real. All existence are not real, totally not real. They exist, but they're not real.

[22:25]

Existence and reality are not the same. Then after I had my realization then rivers were real rivers, mountains were real mountains, but with a different understanding, that even though everything exists, they don't exist as realities, or everything that is real or that is existent is not necessarily real. Everything is empty. Empty, according to Nagarjuna, means interdependent. Nothing exists on its own.

[23:29]

Everything exists interdependently with everything else, only. And its reality is its non-existence as a separate entity. That's the reality. So that way we can live with the realization that mountains are just mountains and rivers are just rivers, but it's all empty. Therefore, it's all real. Because it's empty, it's real. and its reality is its emptiness, as well as its form.

[24:31]

So he says, usually when we say truth, we mean some underlying principle. that the sun rises in the east, sets in the west, or that the earth turns in a certain direction, that is truth. But in Buddhism that is not ultimate truth, that's relative truth. That's truth on the side of exists. Ultimate, it is also on the side of being. Even our spirituality, you know, in terms of heaven and hell and God and Buddha and so forth, is all on the side of exists. But in Buddhism that is not ultimate truth, it is also being, on the side of being. In Buddhism it is not ultimate truth, it is also being, being that is included in big mind.

[25:55]

Whatever is in our mind, big or small, right or wrong, that is on the side of being. If you think about something in terms of right or wrong, you may say this is eternal truth, but for us that idea of eternal truth is also on the side of existence or being. because it exists simply in our mind. Whatever we think in terms of eternal truth is just on the side of existence. So we do not make much distinction between things that exist outside and things that exist within ourselves. You may say something exists outside of yourself. You may feel that it does, but it isn't true.

[26:59]

When you say, there's the river, the river is already in your mind. A hasty person may say, the river is over there. But if you think more about it, you will find that the river is in your mind as a kind of thought. That things exist outside of ourselves is a dualistic, primitive, shallow understanding of things. This is a very interesting statement. Inside and outside are relative statements. To say something is inside, It depends on where you're standing. To say something is outside is also dependent on where you're standing. Inside and outside are totally relative statements. They're not absolute statements at all. also, you know, he's expressing, he seems to be expressing the Yogacara understanding of mind only, that there are many versions of this understanding and one extreme version is that the phenomenal world only

[28:31]

And if you look at it carefully, you realize that objects arise with consciousness. Without consciousness, objects will not arise for you. So consciousness and a perceiving organ and an object are really all one, they are all one unity. But in order for us to discriminate the world we have to divide them into three entities, the object, the perceiver, and the consciousness.

[29:43]

Without any one of those three the world does not arise. arises as an idea in our mind. And when you see the river, the river is seen because of the organ of seeing and consciousness. So the three are always connected. They're really one thing, but we discriminate them as three things. And then when we see the river, we have a conception of the river. We say, that's the river. But actually, I don't know what it is. But we say, that's the river.

[30:47]

And as soon as you say, that's the river, you limit your understanding of river, because you have made a conception. So anyway, it's complex. The main thing is the attitude of not taking for granted that there's something over there called the river and that the river, whatever it is, it exists in our mind as a concept. If you jump into the river, then you know river. very cold. So we actually live in a dream world, the world of transformation, this world of continual transformation and a dream.

[31:59]

So dreaming mind thinks up things, thinks up ideas, and then the ideas are acted out. Sometimes they're not. When they're not acted out, we call them dreams. When they are acted out, we call them reality. But they're still just dreams. the line between dream and reality is not clear. So the characters of the first line, it's a little complicated, not complicated, but so the characters of the first line, Reigen Myo Koketari is the Japanese, the source of the teaching beyond words.

[33:08]

There are these two terms, ri and ji, which he uses throughout the book. Ri refers to the absolute and ji refers to the relative, ri and ji. Ri, if you studied the five ranks, ri is the dark side, ji is the the absolute, doesn't mean evil, it means absolute, or where things are not differentiated, something beyond our understanding. And G refers to the light side, where everything is revealed in its individuality, the world of comparative values. So he says, so the characters of the first line, regen, myo, ni, ko, kitari, refer to ri, the source of the teaching beyond words.

[34:16]

The true source, ri, is beyond our thinking. It is pure and stainless. When you describe it, you put a limitation on it. That is, you stain the truth or put a mark on it. the heart sutra it says no color, no sound, no smell, no taste, no touch, no objects of mind and so forth, that is ri, that is no, the realm of negation, whereas chi is the realm of affirmation, but is also the realm of affirmation, total affirmation. So in the realm of all dharmas are empty, in the nature, the true nature of all these dharmas which is color, sound, smell and so forth,

[35:22]

That is ri, true nature of all things. And then the next line, this is the second line of the poem, reads, Shiha Anirjusu, the branching streams flow in the dark. That's the title of the book. shiha means branch, stream, and Sekito says shiha for poetic reasons, to make these two lines of the poem beautiful, and to contrast shiha with reigen, which means source. So, both of these mean source, but reigen is more noumenal and shiha is more To say noumenal or phenomenal is not exactly right, but tentatively I have to say so. He didn't like to use those terms. That is why it is good to remember the more technical terms such as re and g. G, which is used in the third line here, refers to the phenomenal, to something you can see, hear, smell, taste or touch, as well as to objects of thought or ideas.

[36:34]

Whatever can be introduced into our consciousness is g. Something that is beyond our consciousness, the noumenal is me, or the dark side. In the darkness, the branching streams flow everywhere. The water, even when you are not aware of water, it's like water. Even when you're not aware of water, there is water. Water is inside of our physical body and in plants as well. There is water all over. In the same way, the pure source is everywhere. It's someplace else in this book, I don't know whether I said it or not. In Japan we say, you say the tree is full of water. In Japan we say the water holds the tree. water contains the tree.

[37:40]

Naturally everything is backwards from that because they're on the other side of the world, which is, I think that's true sometimes. So each being is itself the pure source and pure source is nothing but each being. They are not two things. So the spiritual source shines clear in the light, the branching streams flow in the dark. The source and the branching streams are not two things, and each being is itself the pure source, right, the branching streams flow in the dark, means pervades everything everywhere unseen, can't see it.

[38:54]

This is the side that is not seen but is The stream is the pure source and the pure source is the stream. So there is no difference between Re and Ji, the pure source and the stream. The pure source is flowing all over even though you don't know it. This don't know is what we call dark and is very important. So don't know and dark. Not knowing is called the highest understanding. If you read the literature you see there are a lot of koans, a lot of places where the teacher and the student are having some kind of dialogue and the teacher is asking the student or something like what do you know or there's a situation where the

[40:04]

And the teacher is always pulling the rug out from under the student whenever he thinks he knows something. And this is one way a teacher judges, not judges, but understands students. There are a lot of very intelligent students who know something. When you come someplace to learn something, even though you know something, you should set aside what you know, because it's only a piece of knowledge. It won't do. You have to let it go and start all over again, so that what your true and allow that to happen, which is sometimes difficult.

[41:14]

Sometimes the older you are, the more you rely on your knowledge or your understanding, and it's harder to let go of it. But it's absolutely necessary. And oftentimes coming to practice is just wearing yourself down year after year until you finally come to the place where you can let go and accept the teaching without interjecting your knowledge. The biggest hindrance is, oh, I already know that, or I know more than they do, or something like that. It may be true, but it won't help you. after you have some realization, then you can have your knowledge back. When you go to Eheji Monastery in Japan, they take your shoes away and they give them to you when you leave.

[42:28]

In the same way, You put your knowledge in a bag and we'll keep it for you on the shoe rack. When you leave, you can have it back if you want it. So not knowing is, if you really want to advance in practice the fastest way, you should cultivate the not knowing mind. When the emperor asked Bodhidharma, who are you? He said, I don't know. So this don't know is what we call dark and it is very important to just allow yourself to be in the dark.

[43:38]

There's also a term like walking blindly, feeling your way along in the dark. That's what practice is like, feeling your way along in the dark. allowing yourself to feel your way along in the dark. Also, it's like the moon. There's the light side of the moon and the dark side of the moon. The light side of the moon is the side that we see and the dark side of the moon never see that, but Zazen, you know, our daily life is like the light side of the moon. Zazen is like the dark side of the moon, and the dark side of the moon

[44:40]

deal with, conceive. So we go back and forth between the dark side and the light side, but it's really all one moon. Light side and dark side of the moon, it's just only one moon, but we let go of the light side be at one with the dark side. And then we let go of the dark side and just play in the light side. Back and forth, back and forth. But that's one moon. So it looks like we don't have much time. So I think that in the next millennium, in this particular time, spiritual practice is in a state of confusion.

[46:16]

Religious practice is in a state of confusion because of the superstition and creating a spiritual practice that makes sense in the 21st century is going to be a big wonderful challenge for people. it will have to be something that makes sense for people. And religion is not something fixed. As soon as it becomes something fixed, then it doesn't work anymore. And it evolves like everything else evolves.

[47:19]

And to be aware of its evolvement, not necessarily to push or contrive it, but to be aware of its natural evolvement and to stay right there with it, I think would be important for all of us. Some people say religion is not necessary, Some people say science is not necessary, some people say blah blah blah, but all of it's necessary. It's all necessary and also evil. Religion is good, it's also evil. Science is good, it's also evil. So, when religion is good, it's very, very good. And when it's bad, it's very bad.

[48:25]

So, it's up to us to make it real. I think that's our challenge for the 21st century.

[48:39]

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