I've been reading recently some teisho or teachings of Deshimaru Roshi lately. Deshimaru was the teacher in Europe from Japan who was a kind of maverick priest. as were all of the teachers who came to America, or left Japan to teach. And he… started the practice in France, and then I went to Italy and Spain and various other countries in Europe, and he died 20 years ago or something.

[01:28]

So his students published some of his talks, and there's one talk where he lays out seven aspects of Dogen's practice, actually eight, and I think these are important. They're all aspects that we already know about. I mean, I think we know about. Maybe we don't always think about them, but I want to enumerate them, talk a little bit about them. because they're important to remind us of what our practice is really about. And his students entitled this book, The Ring of the Way, which is a kind of phrase in Soto Zen, the way ring or the ring of the circle of practice.

[02:33]

that practice is continuous, but it's continuous in a circle. Suzuki Roshi used to talk about this without saying, ring of the way, but he always used to say, back and forth. Back and forth is a kind of line, but the ring of the way is you start out here and you end up here. moment by moment. We always think in terms of circles in Buddhadharma. Even though we say life itself is continuous, it's not a line, a straight line going to infinity. like birth and death are a cycle, which is continuously cycling.

[03:40]

And Shakyamuni Buddha says, the thing to do is get off the wheel. Not the wheel of birth and death, the wheel of birth and death, actually, so that we're not attached to birth and death, and that we understand the meaning of birth and death. So this is called the Seven Principles of Dogen's Zen. The first one is called shusho ichinyo, which means practice and enlightenment or satori are not separate. That the thing to understand about our practice is that we are not practicing to gain enlightenment. but that practice itself brings forth enlightenment.

[04:45]

When there's one inch of practice, there's one inch of enlightenment. When there's one day of practice, there's one day of enlightenment. When we have three days of sheen, there are three days of enlightenment. Nirvana, with pain and pleasure. So, in our practice, we put our emphasis on practice. There's practice, and there's study, and there's searching for something. But in our practice, we're not searching for something. It's like our spade has already hit the treasure box, and practice itself opens the box up.

[05:56]

So, we have everything that we need. All we need to do is open the box, let go of self-centeredness, and satori rises out of the box. It's already our basic nature. So, sazin is simply returning to our basic nature without interference. So as soon as we begin to practice, there is satori, but we don't realize it. So there's a difference between satori or enlightenment and realization. When our practice becomes mature, or when we have realization, then our practice is the beginning of maturity.

[07:01]

So we can practice for a long time without having realization, even though our practice is filled with It's just that we don't see it or recognize it. So the important thing in our practice is not to search for something, simply single-minded devotion to practice. People used to say, your teacher Suzuki Roshi never talks about enlightenment. He did, of course, all the time. But he didn't say, we're striving for enlightenment. Or, if you work hard, you will get enlightenment. Or, you should work real hard in Zazen to get enlightenment. He never said anything like that. He always said, if you sit Zazen, you will sit Zazen. But, realization is already present.

[08:09]

within the activity of Zazen. Then you may say, oh, I didn't, I don't remember that. But something happens, and you know that. But as long as we're longing for something besides what's in front of us, we miss it. we can be walking over and around it all the time. It's like, I remember the first title of Gio Kennett's book was, Sailing Water by the River. You don't need to, anyway, I won't explain it. The second one is called Shobutsu Ichi Nyo, which means sentient beings and Buddhas are identical, same thing.

[09:17]

Ordinary person and Buddha are the same. Buddha is our essence of mind. So we're not separate from our essence and mind, we're not separate from ... we are the functioning of the essence. So in Zen we talk about essence and function and when you read the koans, the koans are almost always talking about essence and function in a non-dual way. So essence is Buddha. And essence is the closest thing, is closer than hands and feet. And our ordinary self is the functioning part of Buddha nature.

[10:26]

So Buddha nature permeates everything. And the activity, the cosmic activity of which we are a part is its function. So if we want to understand or see emptiness, we study it through form. Master Chino in Korea, his practice was to trace back the light to its essence. But how do you do that? There's no place to go. There's no back to go back to. If we want to understand, you have to be just present.

[11:27]

So, Buddhadharma is different than most other religions, because most other religions are seeking something, are supplicating to some being outside of themselves. Buddha is within ourself. Matter of fact, we are identical with Buddha. You could say, if we used God as a standard, you would say we're identical with God. We don't use God as a standard. But if you wanted to use language loosely, you can say we're identical with God. God is not something outside of ourself. We simply reveal what is inside, even though there's no inside or outside.

[12:38]

So then there's Shodan Nobupo. This is a truly transmitted Buddha. For Dogon, Zazen is Buddha Dharma. If there's no Zazen in the practice of Buddhism, it's not complete. We can study Buddhism, we can chant Buddha's name, we can do all kinds of things that are Buddhism, but actually Zazen is beyond Buddhism. It's dharma beyond dharma. In other words, everything is gone. Buddha is gone, dharma is gone in zazen. It's beyond all ideas and concepts. When we say Buddha or God or whatever, these are concepts.

[13:52]

This is the way we construct our intellectual, our mind, to embody an idea. but we have to go beyond the idea. So sometimes we say, if you meet the Buddha on the road, kill the Buddha. That means putting something, some idea, we have to go beyond our idea of Buddha, which is called Sazen, which means letting go of everything and letting Buddha nature appear. Then, of course, there's ji-ju-yu-za-mai, which we usually call chikantaza, just doing. Ji-ju-yu means self-joyous or self-fulfilling.

[14:56]

Samadhi is being one with the essence. when we are one with the essence, then that's called samadhi, and then we feel joyful. You may say, I've never felt joyful in zazen. I just feel pain. Zazen itself, you know, is the reconciliation of all opposites. When I was first practicing zazen, it was so painful. My teacher just said, don't move, don't move, don't move. And by not moving, I could go beyond

[16:03]

being caught by good feelings and bad feelings. Zazen is the place where all opposites are reconciled. Then you can sit comfortably in the center of your nature. This is what Zazen is, to sit comfortably right at the center where there's no such thing as opposites. Good brings up bad. Bad brings up good. Like brings up dislike. Dislike brings up liking. In zazen, it's all gone. In true zazen, it's all gone. There's only just this, which is sitting in comfort. Then, there is what he calls Kyogyo Sho Ito, which is teaching, practice, and realization do not exist separately.

[17:34]

teaching, practice, and realization don't exist separately. So teaching should lead to practice. Practice brings forth realization. So within realization there's teaching and practice, and within practice there's teaching and realization. If we only have teaching without the practice, We may think that it's enough, but it's not. So a lot of Buddhists settle for teaching, but it's not our practice. Sometimes I think maybe we shouldn't have so many classes because it's easy for people to substitute that teaching for practice. I'll just go to class and learn about Buddhism, so then I won't have to go through the discomfort of practice.

[18:49]

There were teachers in China and also in Japan who would never let their students study anything, only practice. So study is good when you have a firm practice. But if you don't have a firm practice, study can easily become a substitute. There is one other practice of Dogen. which is called Butsu Kojo no Homon, finding Buddha within ourselves. So this is very important, not looking outside, but finding the Buddha within ourselves.

[19:56]

In Buddha Dharma we talk about faith and a lot of people think, well faith belongs to religion like Christianity or something, but faith is actually the most important aspect because faith actually is enlightenment. verifies faith. And faith is like the lamp, the light that eliminates our life. But we don't have faith in something, it's not that we have faith in something outside of ourself. There is nothing outside of ourself. There is nothing outside of ourself.

[21:15]

True human body is the cosmic body. So, when we have faith in ourself, there's no place else to go. When we have faith in our self, which is the cosmic body, when we let go of body-mind, Faith fills our whole body mind. There's no place to backslide to when you know who you are or where you are. Actually, we never know who we are. We know who we are, but we don't know who we are at the same time. Understanding is very limited. So true understanding is beyond our idea, beyond our thinking mind, beyond our emotions and feelings.

[22:18]

So faith is actually the most important aspect of our practice. We may question faith, but if you continue to practice, you already have faith, or you already are faith. It's not something that you have, necessarily, it's something that you are. Some people have faith in the dollar bill, even though it fluctuates. But, you know, everything that we do is built up on faith. whether it's faith in this or that, and we run around looking for it. So it's interesting how we look for it outside of ourself in various ways.

[23:25]

Careers, family, friends, dope, internet, whatever, automobiles, society, But it's never really satisfying. So how do we find true satisfaction? When we find true satisfaction, then faith is already there. Faith is the essence of both practice and enlightenment. So the seventh one is shin jin ichi nyo, which means body and mind are not two. We talk about our mind, we talk about our body, and we kind of separate the psychological aspect and the form aspect.

[24:36]

But form and mind, body and mind, are one piece. And in Zazen, body, mind, and breath are one with the cosmos, which is our true body. So body and mind, well, what are the parameters of body and mind? This is not my body. This is not my mind. But whose body and mind is it? It just keeps getting older and older. I don't have anything to do with it. Breathing just keeps going on. I don't have anything to do with that. The blood just keeps running. Whose blood is that? We eat and we defecate. You say, I am now eating. Now I am now sitting on a toilet. Really? Who is that? Everything is simply, all phenomena are simply the activities of Buddha nature.

[25:48]

We have some free will, you know, we have some, we can modify things and nuance them, but actually, it's not my body and that's not my mind. although I say it's mine. So it's a kind of double thing. Yes, it's mine, but actually it's not. So in a small sense, in a phenomenal sense, small sense, we can say, yes, this is mine and this is me. But in a more truthful sense, it's not my body or mine. So my body and mine are one with Buddha nature. And the mind and the body work together. The thinking mind and the body work together. So the last one here is called shin-shin-tatsuraku, which means dropping body and mind.

[26:59]

And this is Dogen's main teaching, is dropping body and mind, letting go of our idea of me and mind. This is me and this is mine. This is my mind, this is my body. So he calls it living by vow instead of living by karma. Karma is our activity. Karma is our actions of self, our self-created actions which lead to are destinies. Destiny is not fate, but destiny, which means destination.

[28:00]

Where am I going? I'm going toward my destiny. I'm going to the place where I'm destined to go because of my actions. So, living by vow or intention is to not be caught by karmic consequences. When we sit in zazen, although we may be creating karma, it's the place where we're not creating karma. Karma comes through reacting to the world. Karma is our volitional actions which create fruit, fruition. All of our actions are ... all of our karmic actions create seeds which are deposited in our storehouse consciousness.

[29:13]

And when the seeds are watered, our actions sprout. Seeds sprout and create the same habit energy, habit patterns over and over again. So we get caught in our habit patterns and we get caught in our conditioning. The older we get, the more conditioned we are as children, although we have potential for conditioning and we're genetically wired in some way, but how we respond to the world around us is what creates our persona. and then more and more we become conditioned and act out of habit. Zazen is letting go of our conditioning so that we resume our unconditioned body-mind.

[30:27]

But, you know, by the time we do start sitting Zazen we have already formed our persona in many ways. So it's difficult. And we have our fears and our propensities and our reactions and the way we respond to things, the way we react to stimulus. So it's very hard to sit in Zazen to begin with and maybe even to end with. But we know that the hard work of zazen is being able to accept what's present and to not get caught by duality. Duality means wanting the opposite of what you have.

[31:33]

If we have pain, Then we say, I want pleasure. If we think this is bad, we want something good. As long as we get caught by those concepts, we feel uncomfortable. So dropping body and mind, is to let go of dualistic thinking, letting go of our conditioned reaction, just being present with what's there. And then we begin to see, oh, this is my self-centeredness. This is my ego. This is who I think I am. So it's just taking off the covers, the coverings, taking off the mind covers, and just sitting in nirvana, which is samadhi, which is directly touching.

[32:59]

So these seven practices, seven aspects of Dogen's practice, are really all the same. They're just different aspects of the same thing, and each one contains all the others. So living by karma is ... it's easy to get caught. Living by vow means that you always know where you are. You may not always know where you are, but you always know where to come back to.

[34:18]

You may stray from the path, but you always know where to come back to. And it's the steady place. Living by vow is the steady place, that no matter what happens, you find your stability. Living by vow is living in the center of the universe. The center is like the quiet place, the still place, the eye of the hurricane. And all activity comes from there. And you can also let go of everything. You can let go of everything and still feel true security. So our life, you know, is very busy, and to maintain that life of vow or life of intention, practice, is not so easy.

[35:44]

Not so easy. There's so much that we have to attend to, or that we feel that we have to attend to, or that pulls us away. So in order to really practice, we have to keep that intention and keep renewing that intention. We renew that intention every time we sit Dzogchen. We renew that intention every time we sit Sashin. There's a wonderful thing about Sashin. that it's a very, it's not just something, some other practice, it's an essential practice. If essential activity in our practice, of our practice, is sitting Sashin, because Sashin would give you that really, allow you to sit long enough so that you don't have to try to give up something.

[36:57]

your conditioning just falls away. This is a kind of, seems like, kind of a pitch for Sashin. This Saturday, Sunday, and Monday we're having Sashin. And it's very hard for us, not for everybody, but for most people to take that much time away from their busy life. Very difficult. And then people work during the week, so it's hard to take off time during the week. we say that you should do the whole sashim if you sign up.

[38:03]

But I'm thinking that if you have to work on Monday, Monday's a holiday, President's Day, but if you have to work on Monday, you can still sign up for sashim for the weekend and go to work on Monday. I think I'd like to give that allowance But I think it's important. You know, people say, we should have more three days as sheens. So that's what we're offering to you. Do you have any questions? Yes. The person who's eating or sitting on the toilet, we think it's us, but... No, this isn't going to be a joke about the toilet.

[39:11]

This is a very serious question. I'll tell you what I was... Oh, okay. Thinking that. Oh, gosh. I actually forgot the then part. I'll supply that. All right. I hope I get another chance because I'm quite excited about the question. It's like eight minutes ago. Well, it's like, you know, we eat, right? So we take in food and we say, I'm hungry. It's true. But what is, if you analyze that, what does it mean, I am hungry? There's some part of your body that's that's giving you some kind of a message about sustenance. And so you say, I am hungry.

[40:12]

But actually, that may be so, but we're always taking stuff in regardless of whether It seems like it's up to us, but it's actually not. It's a conditioned reaction. The universe is saying, you need something to sustain you. Wait a minute. But that doesn't stay there. we say this is this and that, you know, and as it goes down it all breaks down into chemical reactions and so forth, and then what's not necessary goes out, right? So earthworms, we're sort of like an earthworm who eats their way through the earth and leaves a trail, right? So we're simply a kind of husk that's ingesting and leaving a trail. That's what I mean. It's wonderful if you don't have any problem with it.

[41:24]

I remembered the other half of the question. You always describe karma as volitional. So who's got will? That's a good question. That's a good question. Is there such a thing? Is there? Well, who? Yeah, the question is who? You can say various things. You can say, it's me. It's my will. Or you can say, it's God's will. Or you can say, you know, anything you want. Depending on how you think about it. And karma starts to look like, you know, just moving like an earthworm too? Well, um, yeah. In a sense, it is, but karma is ... See, there are two aspects. One is the you aspect, and the other is not you aspect.

[42:30]

So, the ego is creating karma. But then there actually is no ego, fundamentally. So it's not so simple. It's a yes and a no. Yes and no are opposites. Myself and not-self seem like opposites, but actually they're the same. What is myself is actually not myself, and what is not myself is actually myself. If we can't hold that, then we're thinking about who's me and who's not me, and we fall into... So, what is myself is made up of all the things that are not myself.

[43:33]

And what I think of as not myself is really myself. And then we have volition, we have will, free will actually. It's not that we have, we are free will. We are self-creating beings. That's the point of being, the whole point of being and not being is that we're self-creating, creating ourself all the time. and yet there's no substantial person who is doing the creating. Buddha says it's just phenomena rolling along, creating a self. continuously creating a self.

[44:41]

This is why we say no birth, no death, because there's simply transformations going on all the time. And then we say, well, this is my part of the transformations, because our persona is self-creating. But at the same time, there's no self. no substantial self. But if you say there's no self, then that's not quite right. And if you say there is a self, that's not quite right. So it falls in between. Yes, but. This is what Suzuki Roshi said, not always so. What he really meant was not necessarily so. He wasn't Gershwin. He what? He wasn't Gershwin. He wasn't Gershwin.

[45:44]

He wasn't George Gershwin. It ain't necessarily so. Well, you know, it's also row, row, row your boat. So we're dreaming, you know. When we wake up from this dream, you know, we'll say, oh my God, I'm dreaming it. But it hurts, right? Yeah, life hurts. That's how we know that we're alive. In which case, from that point of view, I think that maybe that means, from that point of view, there's no such thing as suffering.

[47:07]

Suffering is part of the dream. You can't suffer unless you're dreaming that you exist, because you're suffering. That's right, yeah. That's the idea. So that's what's meant by that phrase, there is no suffering. Well, about this phenomenon of rolling along, my first thought is, what's it rolling along in? And then I'm thinking, I was thinking last week about, actually I was not here, and I was thinking about the difference between self and not-self, strictly in physical terms of ingestion and elimination. And I mean, what's the difference between me and the apple and the, you know, and the fertilizer in the backyard and so forth and so on? But there does, you know, from a, what do I want to say, a psychologically real politic point of view, there's definitely a need.

[48:13]

Why do we have such a strong sense of self if it's such an illusion? there is a need to find an identity in order to relate to the rest of the world. So, there's the phenomenal reality and the essential reality. those are two things which we have to understand. This is how Buddhism explains this. There's the phenomenal reality of you, me, and all these things relating, and then there's the essential reality that it's all one piece, and there are no, all the separate pieces are just wiggles of the one piece. So yes,

[49:14]

You know, you have to take care of yourself, I have to take care of myself, we have to take care of each other, we have to harmonize, and all this. That's our task. This reminds me of something I asked you 20 years ago, which was comparing Big Mind and Little Mind, and I said, you know, Big Mind obviously sounds so much preferable. What's the point of Little Mind? I don't remember what you said, but I mean, you're stuck with it. Well, you know, as Suzuki Roshi used to say, small mind is an expression of big mind. So this is function and essence, you know, for better or worse. This is where I am, right? Somebody, I read something the other day, somebody said, well, you know, how come This is what I was, how come this is what I got, you know? Of all the things that could have happened, how come this is what I... But that's the way it is.

[50:23]

So, whatever we got, that's what we had to work with. When you were saying, a pencil. And you know, if you take a big pencil, you can't write through the whole thing. But if you sharpen it to a point, at that point, that's where the writing comes out. So you have to sharpen your So, you know, the point is, through practice, we harmonize with ourself.

[51:31]

In other words, we harmonize with everything. That's the point of practice, is to harmonize with everything, given our self-identity. But not buying into our self-identity. To have a self-identity and realize what it really is. So the problem is, we have a self-identity and then we see only our separateness, but we don't see our oneness. That's the problem. That's what we mean by ego, it's different than psychological ego, but it means a sense of self, which is separate. There is separate, but it's also identical. opportunity for the first time in like more than 10 years to maybe have a part-time job.

[52:58]

But in order to get this job, they ask you to work for them for five weeks and learn how to do the job. And it's really intensive. And so this week I haven't been coming to Sydney because I find myself working And I lose all track of time. And I think, oh, you know, if I'm going to go sit, I should be in bed by a certain time. So I should be awake and get up and get here by 5.30. And I lose track of time. And so I thought, what's going on with me? It's kind of a little bit like Zazen in a way. Because when I sit Zazen, that's And then I'm going to do this, and then I'm going to do that, and I want this, and I want that, and I am this, and I am that.

[54:00]

And as I prepare for this, as I train, I find myself losing that very same thing. I'm no longer thinking, I am this, I am that, I'm going to do this. I want this job even. I'm just immersed in what they're asking me to do. And so I'm kind of struggling because I'd like to come sit, and at the same time I lose track and then I think, am I sitting? And also there's like these real similarities, like, you know, you sit Zazen and your body starts aching because you're sitting in the same position. And when I'm training, I'm sitting in the same position and I find that when I get up my body's aching sometimes in the very same places.

[55:04]

Well that's called continuous practice. The question is how do I make both work at the same time? How do I come and sit at 5.30 and yet have the time and alertness to do this training that I really want to do well so that maybe they can give me this opportunity. And how can I still work really hard and yet not get so invested that if they don't give me the opportunity, I'm not crushed? Well, just concentrate on doing the work and don't think about that. Just do the work. When you come to sit, just sit. When you go to work, just go to work. And in between, you buy an alarm clock. Oh, I see what time it is now.

[56:10]

Yeah. You probably have one already. Oh, he said it for five. I mean, it's still working at two. And then I woke up and, gee, it's two o'clock in the morning. In three hours, two and a half hours, I should be up for Zagreb. Oh, you mean you go to bed at two o'clock in the morning? You have to go to bed earlier. That's the problem. We're identifying the problem. I think going to bed when it's before the next day. Yes, well you need discipline. Discipline, that's practice, the discipline. So I urge you to discipline. It's hard to discipline yourself.

[57:10]

It's good to have, so I'll keep disciplining you. Yes. Oh, you want to quit? OK, we'll quit.

[57:27]

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