Today I should give my talk in defense of down. Actually, I do want to say something about it, because I looked into it pretty seriously. Down with plastic is rather new, I think, and though my grandmother's and great-grandmother's house had down quilts. The use of it in hiking equipment is pretty new. And I think it probably came out of the Second World War with modern plastics, nylon and things. And the East Coast, when I moved to California from the East Coast in 60 or 61, even hiking boots were pretty much unknown on the East Coast. I guess the East Coast people go, it's much more populated and people drive somewhere and park their car and walk and you don't sleep out. If you do, you sleep out fairly near. You don't have to lug. Some sleeping bags are rather heavy, cotton quilted them. And there isn't, the mountains aren't too

[01:29]

So here in California, and I suspect the Sierra Club, which promoted hiking and overnight camping, made it into... a few people always did it, you know, but to make it a large enough people to do it, to make a market for down equipment, I think is pretty recent. Maybe not much more than 10 or 15 years. So when I first came to California and found all this down equipment, and then when we got to Tassajara, I thought maybe, because I knew in Japan they have these stomach sweaters and they have little heaters, you know, that they wear. Do you all know about the little heaters? Who was it? Oh, you haven't read that Danish story and the heater in it? He has one and he doesn't know how to use it, so he's sitting there doing, what? The Dutch guy, right? And he's sitting doing that and he thinks, boy, this is incredible, this session.

[02:49]

It's burning his stomach. Sort of like the wolf chewing out that Spartan boy's insides. Anyway, they have these little heaters. The earlier forms, which you can still get, you put charcoal in and then they fit in a case and you put them in. Nakamura sensei uses them all the time. And you put them into your haramaki, your stomach sweater, or into a little band that goes around, and you put one in the small of your back and one on your stomach. And then the way Japanese clothes are made, they're rather like a little chimney, and you can control your body temperature by how you let them breathe, in through here, in through here. So, Japanese clothes, the same weight, can be rather cool in the summer and rather warm in the winter. according to how you wear them. You don't have to have so much difference between winter and summer clothes because of the way you can make Japanese-type clothes work. So they just fill this tube. There's no tight belt around the waist in the same way we have, so it's not cut off. So they just fill it full of these little heaters, heat going up and down. You're not supposed to use them in the monastery, but it's quite clear in the toilets that there's these matches around and things. People are lighting them

[04:13]

using them. More serious students maybe don't use them. And I got to see what it would be like, and I never used them. It was rather troublesome. But they also have kimonos, which are double thickness and padding inside the two thicknesses. And they have various techniques for keeping warm, plus the fact that Japanese and Chinese people have an extra layer of fat in their skin and their eyelids also have this extra protection from supposedly an ice age. Anyway, Japanese and Chinese people are warmer anyway because their skin is made to withstand cold. So knowing these things, I thought, well, I don't understand all those things, but we have down, modern down. Dan and Louise reminded me the other day, we were talking about it in the city for some reason, reminded me that I gave them a wedding present of down booties, with down shoes. When we were first down here, because we didn't sit on the floor so much, we didn't have tatamis except here, we sat in chairs and at that time I was working, you know, most all night long, every night.

[05:43]

And my feet would get awfully cold, so I had these down. When you're sitting in a chair, your feet are way down there, you know? Get kind of cold. And when I went to Japan, I had Sierra Designs. Sierra Designs, yeah. Design a special down suit for me. Pants and top. Very thin and short sleeves and big v-neck and short legs so it didn't show under a kimono to bring to Japan. I forgot all this when I was telling you yesterday. I really did forget afterwards. Afterwards I remembered, didn't I?

[06:45]

Anyway. Again, my idea was that when I got there it would be preferable to, instead of trying to take the trouble to figure out how Japanese people did it, to use this down, which would be quite, it was quite simple, you know. Actually, it wasn't so tight around the sleeves and wrists her arms. I didn't have to be so bulky. It was made quite thin. And I was planning to have Sierra Designs make lots of them and sell them to all the Tassajara students and people in Japan. But first I thought I'd try it out. And the pants definitely don't work. Definitely don't work. Legs produce quite a lot of heat in this posture, and you just sweat, and it's not very comfortable. And the top ended up not working. I used it a little while at Daitoku-ji, where my seat was in Daitoku-ji. Daitoku-ji's dendo is a long time like this and another one like that, with about 12, maybe 12 or 14 tatamis in a row, and then 12 or 14 that way.

[08:15]

and then a big space in the center. And I sat, I think I sat right here, and no one sat there, and all around me were windows. And right there, where Linda is, there was a door, well, between Linda and Steve, there was a door which extended over to, between Sue and Peter, high as that, which was open all the time. And these windows were just paper and this door was open and the snow would blow in his endo. And leaves and everything. Rain. So it was kind of cold. So I tried that but I couldn't control my body heat with it. I would, my body would relax and then If I, we got up to do kinhin things and I sat back down, if I became chilled, it was very difficult to get warm again. So anyway, I stopped using it.

[09:23]

I thought it might be a help with the stick, too, because the stick is used much stronger, as you know, there. Four times on each shoulder in the winter. And a much bigger stick than we use. And full, full swing. But actually just relaxing into the stick is what works. Hmm. He was one of the most dramatic, brief, short-answering Zen masters of all time. Maybe the most characteristic Rinzai-type teacher.

[11:20]

His lineage actually is Soto lineage, but he founded his own school, Nmon school. But he was enlightened by Chin Son Choku. Chin Son Choku. who was a dharma brother of Rinzai, who was a rather eccentric hermit type, and every time U Mon went to see him, he threw him out and finally slammed the door on him and broke his leg. And I guess U Mon felt he didn't want to lose the other leg, so he was enlightened on the first leg. And then he went and studied with Setpo. He was sent to Cepo. And it's from Cepo he received transmission. He was with Cepo as Cepo's attendant for about seven or eight years. And Cepo, you know, was

[12:49]

Tokson's disciple, Tokson Ison. Tsepo is also the friend of Ganto who, with the story about the bulls, and he's also the husk of Millet, Luptiff Records No. 5, which we talked about. And Tsepo also I studied with Tozan Ryokai for a long time, visiting him nine different times. Tozan and Seppo and Tozan all share the Seigen Gyoshi Sekito Kisen lineage that we chant every morning. Anyway, Sepo said to his disciples, to his students,

[14:22]

Put the whole of heaven and earth on the tips of your eyelashes. Don't be hasty or impatient to understand what I mean. Find out if there's some truth on what I say and what this truth is. If you think some great Zen master, some great teacher is going to come into the world to enlighten you, you can spit in my face. You have to find out for yourself the truth. You can't find it out from words, from what you hear. his way was very direct. A monk asked, Setpo, the monk's teacher, if in a field of

[15:53]

in a level field of short grass. I hope he said it in some more condensed way than that in Chinese. Anyway, in a level field of short grass. There must be some way to express that in some short way. There's a herd of deer. How do we pick out the leader and kill it? And the monk's name, say the monk's name, was Ulysses. Ulysses asked this question. And Setpo said, after he asked it, Ulysses? And Ulysses says, yes, Roshi. And Setpo says, go there and have a cup of tea with him. This way of suppose is quite similar to whom one's to. He's, in this case, I stuck an intellectual question in Ulysses' mouth, which he wouldn't ask, and which implies something like my many selves. I've practiced and grass is short and lose order or rectitude or some

[17:23]

clarity in my mind and there's these various selves. How do I kill the leader? How do I find which self? Anyway, some meaning, some intellectual meaning like that. He meant, I've practiced pretty well. I can see the first observer and the second observer or something like that. Now, how do I get rid of the guys? just made him respond directly. Ulysses? Yes. Just that kind of response. There's a famous poem which could apply to Tassajara. It occurs in Suzuki Roshi's Zen mind, beginner's mind too. The famous misty mountains of Lushan and the rapid torrent of the river Jishan.

[18:50]

If you don't go there, you're filled with regret. It was a famous beauty spot in China. You don't go there, you've never seen it, you're filled with regret. But once there, everything is just as it is. Beautiful, misty mountains of Lushan and wide, rapid rivers. You could say that about Tassajara. I've heard of beautiful misty mountains of Tassajara like we had the first days of Sashin. But now I've been there. Just as just those old mountains of Tassajara. There's no way to express anything. If you've been to Tassajar ten years, just all you can say is those misty mountains of Tassajar.

[20:22]

Sephpo went to see Tozan and bowed before him. And Tozan said, although you must put the entryway into words, although we're talking about the door, the entrance before. Although you must put the entry way into words or you must put it into action, you cannot say that you've entered it. You cannot or you cannot enter it. And Seppo said, I have no mouth. And Tozan said, You have no mouth, but what about restoring to me my sight?" And Seppo didn't know what to say. I want to give you a few more examples of a certain kind of Zen story of your ancestors.

[22:19]

Another time, Seppo was carrying a bundle of firewood, and he put it down in front or near Tozan. And Tozan said, how much does it weigh? How heavy is it? And Seppo said, no one can carry this bundle. And Toksan said, then how did it get here? And Setpo, again, didn't know what to say. Setpo is rather like Castaneda. He practiced a long time under many people, and you remember with Ganto how he thought Toksan didn't know what was going on with the bulls. the secret word, you know. Anyway, Setpo is interesting. He kept at it, though. He became one of the greatest teachers on Zen history, and many famous koans are about Setpo. But a similar type story, Huang Po and Rinzai were, of course, living together in a monastery,

[23:54]

Wong Po said, let's all go to the fields today to work. It was, you know, like morning communal work at Green Gulch. So they all started out for the fields and Wong Po looked around and saw that Rinzai wasn't carrying a mattock or any tool. So he said to Linzai, where is your medic? And Linzai said, someone else is carrying it for me. And Wangpo said, come over here closer. I have something to discuss with you. You don't know what's going to happen. And when he came over, he said, he took his own mattock which he was carrying, he said, no one can carry this mattock or raise this mattock in the whole world. And Rinzai grabbed it and said, then why do I have it? And Wangpo said, oh look, here's someone who's calling you all to work in the fields.

[25:21]

He left and Wong Po went back to the monastery and let Rinzai take care of the work. This is real transmission. And they understood each other perfectly. Tosan didn't understand each other perfectly. Seppo didn't quite understand. But Rinzai and Wongpo had perfect mutual understanding, so they could play in this way. What did they mean? No one can lift this, or no one can lift this bundle of firewood, and yet he did it. A monk came to Tsepo's monastery and Tsepo said, where do you come from? And the monk said, I come from the Monastery of Spiritual Light, which was the name of the monastery. Like Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind, Zen Mind Temple.

[26:51]

Setpo said, in the daytime we say daylight, sunlight, in the evening we say lamplight. What is this spiritual light? And the monk didn't know what to say, and Setpo said, lamplight, sunlight. I think in Zen mind, beginner's mind, the world is its own magic. The material of everything is right before you, on the tips of your eyelashes. Um Man, when he first... Um Man hid his light, you know. Um Man studied with Sepo a long time and then he was at another monastery and he took the lowest positions that he could, and so he finally ended up to be head of Mu Chi's—I don't remember exactly—monastery. And when he died, he asked Umang to be head of it, and Umang's opening talk before the emperor was

[28:22]

He said, there are no divergent ways before you. There are no divergent ways before you. in Zen Center, you know, some of the people who realized something about Zen realized themselves. To some extent, maybe you'd be surprised, some of the most incompetent-looking people in Zen Center who can't hold any position, but because of their persistent diligent effort, with no idea that they're any good, they've actually understood themselves.

[29:33]

Anyway, the material of the world, of enlightened practice, everything is right before you. People, how people feel, smiling or talking or working, trees, this is your material. If you reach it directly, it will lead you. You don't know where, and you don't know how much you can accomplish. No one will understand how you accomplish if you can realize this. You know, some people at Passahara, over the years, have quite a lot of problem with the stream. Particularly when it's noisier. It's not so noisy yet, but when it's quite noisy, you have the white sound and you can hear voices. Some of you live a short time and you live a short time. And that's created. And you're created. And your conversations and what you hear are really nothing more than white sounds. Created while you have the wish to be created.

[31:23]

And it's as fluid and flexible as white sound. Those voices change. And if you know how to participate with this fluidity, which we all are, you don't have to create special symbols for it. Just these misty mountains. Just what's before you. It's all been handed you, sunlight, air, water. These are all the tools of our mystic practice. Sunlight, lamplight. Dogen Zenji, you know, visited many teachers and he always asked, his big question was, if everything has Buddha nature, is Buddha nature, why do we have to practice so darn hard to realize

[32:57]

Why do we have to do zazen so much? Et cetera. And no one could answer this question. And Eisai, who's founder of Rinzai School, who your lineage also goes through, gave him best answer. He said, all the Buddhas and patriarchs don't know anything about the Buddha nature, but those of, I don't know, it's unclear whether he said animals or those of lesser natures don't know, do know. So Dogen studied with Esai, but Esai died next year, the next year. Not absolutely certain they met, but looks like they met and had that interchange.

[34:03]

And his successor was Miao Zhen, who wasn't so much older than Dogen. And they studied together eight or six or seven years, I don't remember. Then they went to China together. And do you know most of these stories about Dogen and his first visits to China? No? Some of you know? Okay. When the boat came to China, it was, of course, a very difficult time, very difficult to cross the Japan Sea to China in those days in some small sailing boat. And the boat was in the harbor and he stayed on the boat for a few days, I guess, or longer, not knowing where to go in China. He just waited till he knew what to do.

[35:04]

Dogenba, you know, was an aristocratic family. His father was Michinaga, and his father, I think, tried to overthrow the emperor and then committed suicide on Lake Biwa when he was three years old. And his mother died when he was about six or eight, and his mother was a Fujiwara. So he was related to royal family and et cetera. So I think his experience was rather limited. China was much more vast country and Dogen wasn't concerned about being a Fujiwara or not, but in Japan those people had more opportunity. And opportunity was more dispersed because of their system. And so he was surprised at a number of things which strike me as being someone who's rather inexperienced with the world. Anyway, a monk came aboard the ship, quite an old monk.

[36:32]

was buying Japanese mushrooms and Dogen asked him, Why? Where are you? What monastery are you from? He told him. How far away is it? He told him it was six or seven miles or so. And when did you leave? And they had some conversation. Dogen rather wanted to continue the conversation, and he had to go back. He said, I have to go back and prepare the meal. I'm the Tenzo. And this was a large monastery, and monasteries in those days were large. I mean, sometimes several thousand monks. It was quite a famous monastery this man was from. So he said, Dogen said, my goodness, you're the Tenzo. Isn't there someone else who can take care of the evening meal? And he said, no, I have to go back there and take care of it. And Dogen said, you know, you have to do the shopping and take care of the meal for such a large monastery. Why don't you concentrate on Zazen and Koan study? And Lutenzo said, oh, you don't know anything about Buddhism, do you?

[38:02]

are a foreigner and a foreigner to Buddhism. And you don't know what the essential meaning of Buddhism is, meanings of Buddhism are. And Dogen said, What are they? And Tenzo said, If you can understand your question, you'll know the full meaning of Buddhism. Dogen still had this idea of zazen and koan study, etc., is like, is the road to enlightenment, like Baso sitting zazen and Nanaku making fun of him by rubbing a tile. How can you turn a tile into a jewel? You know, right now, each moment is. You don't discriminate. Until you can face each moment, maybe you need lots of zazen. Zazen is quite helpful, and zazen becomes our deepest expression itself.

[39:31]

If you try to seek for something in Zazen, you will miss it altogether. nonsense that if you approach it with intention, you'll miss it. Mary asked yesterday about why not, why, what about, who cares about transcendence? Why not just as we are now? And if you can be just as you are now without any divided mind, or ambivalent feelings,

[40:34]

or accept your ambivalent feelings, there's no problem. If you can just understand what you're doing this moment, Dogen's question, what are they or what you are doing just this moment, you can understand Buddhism and yourself and everything completely. Dogen then went to Genjai Mountain and was there for quite a while. And I guess he had a thing about Japanese mushrooms because he ran into the Tenzo there, who was also doing something with Japanese mushrooms. Japan has some fantastic mushrooms. But I don't know. It's a big deal. The word spreads through the neighborhoods. Such and such a mushroom is out. Everybody rushes down. Some of them are incredible looking.

[41:53]

Anyway, the same Japanese mushroom was being taken care of by the Tenzo, working in the hot sun. And he said, Dogen came by and said, what is your Buddhist age? And he said, 68. And Dogen said, isn't there, again, same kind of question, isn't there someone else who can dry these mushrooms for you in the hot sun? It was very hot and midday sun. And he said, I have no other time to do it. Who will do it? And he sort of brushed Dogen aside. Dogen had some pretty deep feeling about Tenzo's job from then on, which carries to our practice. It was also at that monastery where he saw the okesa put on the head in the morning. the way of treating it with respect and we continue that today. The abbot, the next abbot of Tendai, the Tendai Monastery, was it Tendai? It was a monastery on Mount Kyanjai, I believe, and was Nyojo Zenji, Juching.

[43:23]

And he studied with him quite a while. And when Juching was doing Jundo in the morning, like I do, morning greeting, he walked by and one of the monks was sleeping. And he interrupted his morning greeting and said, what are you dozing for? You're supposed to be dropping body and mind. And Dogen was sitting next to him and Dogen was enlightened when he said this. So Dogen immediately, maybe an effort is you immediately have toes on set. Although you can't enter it or can't say, you must put the entryway into words or into action. Maybe it means you immediately offer your experience to others, and you start with your teacher. And Dogen immediately went to Nyojo Zenji's room and offered incense. And Nyojo Zenji said, what is the meaning of your coming here?

[44:45]

And Dogen said, I've dropped body and mind. And Myojo Zenji said, yes you have. And Dogen said, Dogen was quite alert person and he'd had many people acknowledge him and he felt it was too easy. And he said, don't, not so quick. I just, just now had this feeling and Please don't be so quick." And Nyocho Genzi said, you have dropped body and mind. And he stayed, Dogen stayed for two more years or so and then was sent back to China, to Japan with an ancient robe and various things he gave to him to bring the Dharma to Japan. And when he arrived, he was asked, what is the great teaching you brought back from China? He said, my eyes are horizontal and my nose vertical.

[46:08]

Hmm. Barely started. It's already late. I've been watching you watch the clock. Maybe intellectual understanding or effort is necessary to

[47:21]

acquaint ourselves with Buddhism and to get rid of our, as an antidote to our intellectual ideas and process and attitude, but how to actually enter practice, how to actually enter your real existence. with the full power of your energy with everything there must be no there can't be any subject object or intellectual or observer some way to act That's exactly the same way as you've always acted. Except there's some difference. I don't like to say some difference.

[49:00]

We're not talking about your place in ultimate reality or some philosophical structure you feel yourself in the midst of, some great meaningful scheme which you've realized. If we had to give it some word, afraid we'd have to say something like love or affection or some kind of loving, affectionate understanding of this, not based on desire or likes or dislikes, but deep realization of our situation together. You can't understand things without that kind of feeling. You can't fake it, you know, you can't create some special feeling, but you can stop looking

[51:08]

in areas where you're quite sure it's fruitless intellectual understanding or some subjective personal effort. the materials of the whole cosmos are right at your hand all the time, ready for your use, ready for you to manifest what in Buddhism is called great function or great activity, that action which, like Not much, I can't say much, you know, like Tozan, like Rinzai and Huang Po playing with the mattock. Knowing that point at which it matters, or there's no escape from it matter,

[52:51]

or it matters so widely that you can't care anymore. Just you find out how to act on your impulse without dissembling. Just take care of each other as long as you can. For what reason should you do anything else? If you really do this, you know, we can say Buddhas and Patriarchs will greet you everywhere you go.

[54:09]

My words are not true, and I can't express what I mean. But when I look at you, each one of you, the proof of Buddhism is there. I wanted to give you a suggestion on breathing. One way to breathe, which I haven't mentioned before, is a kind of two-phase breathing. When you count, you exhale. Counting is, as you know, beginner's practice and advanced practice both.

[57:41]

Very pure, simple practice. But you exhale, and when you reach the bottom, you, in another little push, you push. When you inhale, and you reach near the top, you make, it stops, it tends to stop, you make a little effort. I don't mean to breathe this way all the time, but this kind of breathing in which there's effort involved will give you some different experience of breathing if you do it, maybe for one period. But this kind of breathing in which you make some effort is not good to do all the time,

[59:06]

Sometimes you may find it's good to start a period of Zazen with such breathing or during a Sashin to do it at the beginning of the day or early in the evening or something. Anyway, it gives you a little different feeling for your breathing.

[59:24]

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