We have many practices in Buddhism and they don't always look like what they seem to look like and yet of course they are, you can't try to practice them as if they aren't what they seem to look like. It wouldn't make any sense. You have to practice them what they look like, you know. For instance we say non-doing. Well, maybe non-doing is some actual participation in the world, but if you try to have some actual participation in the world by non-doing it doesn't make any sense as a practice.

[01:05]

You start out by doing and by trying not to do, trying to get a feel for not doing. Likewise, we talk about doing one thing at a time. So we start out trying to do just one thing at a time and not doing three things or thinking about two and doing one. But doing one thing at a time means actually the subject and object are one, but you can't try to do, practice subject and object are one. Do you understand what I mean? More or less. Now our world continues because we're ignorant and our karma continues because we're ignorant

[02:23]

of it. Because we're ignorant of it our karma can continue, but the world continues because we're enlightened and our karma continues because we're enlightened. So what's the difference? It's exactly the same except it's different. The one difference is you're not fussing about your life so much. And you know after that by the time an event occurs, something occurs, it's too late. So we don't get upset by what happens.

[03:31]

Not because what happens, some event that occurs, you know, the stone wall built a certain way here, Tassajar, it's not that it's too late to change the wall, but that what's really happening isn't the wall. Maybe we can say non-doing has happened. The biggest stone you carry around with you is trying to understand yourself, trying to have some point of view rather than no point of view. You know there's a famous story about Hogen, I think it's Hogen, he's in the Blue Cliff

[05:10]

Records, maybe more than once, but anyway he's in number seven, he founded the Hogen school, one of the five schools of Buddhism. He was one of those early Zen masters who was responsible for getting, sort of, getting Zen together, practicing and studying the Kegon or Huayin school and Tendai school of Buddhism and transmuting it into practice. So it doesn't exist, so they don't talk about philosophy, they talk about practice, particularly in Zen we talk about things just as they are. Anyway, when Hogen was a young man he liked to travel a lot and he was leaving his temple

[06:19]

and his teacher came to the gate to say goodbye, and the most respectful way in China and Japan, I suppose here too, to say goodbye to somebody is to accompany them to the gate, and at the gate you say goodbye. So he walked out to the gate and as they were saying goodbye the teacher said to him, you always say you're one with everything, and Hogen said, yes I do, and the teacher said, well is this stone inside you or outside you, and Hogen said, inside me. So, his teacher said, please take it with you, and that was so abrupt, a quick statement.

[07:22]

Hogen had some feeling, my teacher doesn't accept my saying everything is one, so he did his bundle and stayed for a few more months, and he kept presenting, trying to answer what his teacher said in various ways. No matter what answer he gave, his teacher said, you don't know how to study Buddhism, that's not the way to study Buddhism. And finally, after such a response, Hogen said, what is the right way to study Buddhism? And his teacher said, when you know the right way to study Buddhism, there will be no question in your life. And of course, in a Zen story, Hogen was immediately enlightened, and lived, I don't know,

[08:48]

um, So, a rather similar story is the later story that's in the Blue Cliff Records, when Hogen is asked by his disciple, Eicho, Eicho comes up to Hogen, who by that time is head of his own school, and says, Hogen, it says it's your reverence or something, I am Eicho, what is Buddha? Hogen said, oh, you are Eicho, that's all.

[09:55]

And Hogen was quite a good Zen master, I guess, Suzuki Roshi said and other people said, I don't know exactly, seems to be. And he didn't, his way was very quiet, he just said something like that, he didn't bring his staff down like thunder, you know, cry out and things, make interesting remarks, just something like that. Oh, so you are Eicho. What did he mean? Did he mean you are Buddha? Maybe. Maybe that's what he meant, partly. Anyway, Engo, who introduces each main subject, says, before I say anything, I don't know,

[11:15]

it's actually very flowery, what he says, but basically what he says is, before I say anything, you should understand Buddhism. On my staff, you know, the light of the Dharma is always coming on. Huayen philosophy emphasizes six, I guess, kind of six states of being. They're like variety and oneness and disintegration and integration. Anyway, six pairs. Anyway, we simplify it to, we say two and yet one, one and yet two.

[12:19]

As you need legs to walk, so you also need eyes to walk. And as you need calmness to know wisdom, you need wisdom to know calmness. So if you are to know Buddha, you must be Eicho. Eicho has to get on his own wavelength. Some of us have some feeling, I'm on Buddha's wavelength, or I want to meet so-and-so because, I expect to meet so-and-so because he'll be on my wavelength. But actually, if you have your own wavelength, everyone will tune in. Buddha will tune in. Way, many years ago, a very good shakuhachi player came to Zen Center.

[13:49]

And somehow he knew Suzuki Roshi, I don't quite know how, but anyway, he was a very old man and he died a few years after that. And I guess he was considered one, he was a national treasure, but he was also considered one of the greatest shakuhachi players ever. And he said, anyway, he had, it was interesting, it was one of the most moving experiences I've ever had, watching him play. And I guess maybe you know the Obaku sect of Zen, which came in rather late and actually influenced Soto sect quite a lot. And the layout of the buildings of the Heiji, for instance, is Obaku, late Chinese style. And much of the chanting and the way it works is Obaku style. But now Obaku sect is more or less a part of the Rinzai school and barely exists.

[14:53]

It's quite small, maybe, I don't know, maybe it has 25 or 100 temples or something. Maybe more, I don't know, but it's quite small. I have a big headquarters down in south of Kyoto in Fuji that Philip took me to. I didn't know where it was and Philip took me to it one day. Anyway, it's quite similar to the Heiji. But originally the Obaku monks played supposedly the shakuhachi for their practice. And they wore big hats, you know, that you can see through the straw, but other people can't see through the straw. And they played their shakuhachi. Because the practice of playing a shakuhachi is quite similar to our Zazen. Anyway, this man had that feeling that he was practicing Zen, the shakuhachi.

[15:57]

And he had some huge shakuhachis, you know, bamboo about this big around. I don't see how he could blow them, just the quantity of air. These uncanny noises would come out of it. And he had many, I don't know, he had about 10 or 12 shakuhachis with him, ranging from quite small to two or three really big. Anyway, he said that for a shakuhachi, the important sound is before the note begins and after the note begins. And if you can understand your Zazen and what I say or what some teaching says,

[17:08]

in this way you can maybe. What I say isn't Buddhism. And what you understand isn't Buddhism. But if you can understand what I'm saying or what Suzuki Roshi says, before we say it, then what you hear is just an acknowledgement. Then if you see a stone, it's just an acknowledgement. So you can put a hat on it, send it on a journey. So when Hogen sees Eicho, Eicho is just an acknowledgement. Then everything you see speaks to you, teaches you Buddhism.

[18:27]

The trees or whatever. This is what we mean by non-doing. Usually we, you know, look, peer at our karma as if it was, you know, from the entrance of a cave. We sort of look in and can't quite see. But to be everywhere in the cave or the house at once, without any point of view. Just what you feel and what you think is Buddhism. Also in the introductory word by Engo, he says something about the sweat of the horse,

[19:54]

which refers, I think, to a famous poem, that only the warrior who's been through the battle can know what the sweat of the horse means. So things and doing are not the point, you know. You can understand Buddhism pretty well, but as long as it's in the realm of doing, it's not anything. You're still ignorant of your karma as long as it's in the realm of doing. How to let yourself into the realm of non-doing?

[20:57]

The Zazen, the trying to do Zazen before you come to Zazen, and after Zazen. It's a whole different world. A world of non-doing. Everything is pretty clear. There's no question about a particular point of view. There's space for anything to happen. There's space for the fan or the wind of Dharma.

[22:04]

As long as you're trying to understand yourself, trying to have some point of view, you can't understand anything. The trouble with anger or desire or lust or any of those strong feelings of wanting something, like trying to get into the cathedral, to knocking down the cathedral, to steal a stained glass window, all you end up with is some bits of broken glass, colored black. So far, understanding is directed by some ambition to understand,

[23:49]

ambition to give up. It's still like knocking down the house. You want some greater acknowledgement. It's like bending a stone at the gate. You want to say something about it, or you want to find out what is Buddha, or you want to understand what I'm saying rather than understanding before I say. Then you seek greater and greater acknowledgement.

[25:08]

So if you want understanding, or you want to state what's happening, this realm we live in, not just your house and my house, where we signal to each other, some big house, Buddha's palace, Dharmakaya Buddha, which we share. The more we want to understand it or have some point of view on it, then we can't read... What's the word? There's no word for it. Upping the ante or something. You up the ante till you're out of the game. You want more and more some kind of acknowledgement of reality, I understand, or I will say this is what's happening.

[26:15]

Then you don't see what's happening. The more you let go of a point of view or trying to put some word on it, the more you can see the doing of non-doing. The realm in which things are moving, everything is traveling. The stone is traveling. Everything is moving inexorably. And you're moving inexorably. But because you're ignorant of it, it goes on. So ignorance maybe protects the world. But if you're enlightened to it, it goes on.

[27:19]

Hogan said, So you are at H.O. But first, you know, you practice trying to do one thing at a time. Trying to see what you're doing is trying to walk with your legs, sit with your legs, trying to see what you're doing. The more you can look at the source rather than the object, generally we see some activity or effort we're making

[28:48]

and we see its effect and we try to understand it by its effect. Ah, what my intention was, such and such. But already that's too late. You may develop some tact or skill that way, but that's not understanding your karma. To understand your karma means to see it at its source before it even becomes anything that can be expressed. You can hear Buddhism in that way. Pre-voice, sometimes we say. Do you have any questions?

[29:59]

Yes. It's more about the source than the common understanding. It's the way of life. Where does that come from? Why is it useful to answer that question? I don't think knowing why helps to know how to turn it on. We can figure it out and say various things about it. Pardon me? Pardon me?

[31:11]

Oh, I thought I was doing it every day. I'm not sure. [...] To turn it off is okay. You can do that. Just start turning it off without figuring out why the radio is on in the first place. Are you edgy?

[32:26]

Are you edgy? Are you edgy? We could practice Buddha's way here. This is the same practice that Buddha, the patriarch, did. You practice in this way. You know. There's no past or future. You know what it is to be a Jehovah, a Bhagavan, a Buddha. You know what it is to be a Jehovah, a Bhagavan, a Buddha. There's no need to get upset by little things.

[33:31]

It's enough. There's space beyond doing and not doing, living and dying. It takes care of everything. Everything you said is true.

[35:11]

Everything you said is true. They're all separate. The way you put them all together is... It's true. We say, don't worry about them. But that doesn't... isn't coupled necessarily with just do sadhana and just chant. Don't worry about things as much as just do sadhana and do something else. Tie them together in the way you did here. Some thought you were getting a picture. Don't worry about not doing sadhana, too. Don't have any guilt problems. You probably should just try to sit still.

[36:13]

Anyway, you've got several things and you're trying to put them together and make some sense of it. But there's some bigger things outside those things. All those things you say are okay. Let's not reduce them to some solution. All right.

[37:08]

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