Good morning. Well, today is the last Today

[01:01]

A determined student of the way must first of all distinguish the right and wrong direction. Shakyamuni sat under the Bodhi tree, saw a bright star, and suddenly realized the way of the Supreme Vehicle. is far beyond the reach of Sravakas or Pratyekabuddhas. Sravakas are, as you may know, according to the Mahayana, Mahayana Buddhism criticized Sravakas, uses Sravakas and Pratyekabuddhas as scapegoats.

[02:49]

Buddha is one who has realization. or don't necessarily engage in practice, but they listen to the Dharma and are in some ways supporters.

[03:56]

And this is also kind of criticized in some way as not being completely So, and this also reflects a passage from the Lotus Sutra. The Lotus Sutra is one of the key Mahayana sutras. And the message of the Lotus Sutra is basically that all beings have the Buddha nature and have this endowment, natural endowment. It's possible for all beings to realize their Buddha nature. And... So this is... Dogen was very impressed with the Lotus Sutra, and he quoted from it quite a bit.

[05:11]

And this particular fascicle, Dogen has several quotes from the Lotus Sutra. And this is one of them, or a reference to the Lotus Sutra, in that Pracheka Buddhas and Shravakas fall short of actually realizing their true potential. That's the message here. So, he's saying A determined student of the way must first of all distinguish the right and the wrong direction. Shakyamuni sat under the Bodhi tree, saw a bright star, and suddenly realized the way of the Supreme Vehicle. Well, sitting is the key here, right? He was actually sitting under the lotus tree. And that's how he... And then when he saw the morning star, he sat all night, and he had this realization through practice. The way realized by the Buddha is far beyond the reach of Shravakas and Pratyekabuddhas.

[06:20]

The Buddha realized the way by himself and transmitted his realization to the next Buddha. And down the line, one Buddha And even though Shakyamuni realized Buddhahood by himself, since that time, Buddhahood is not exactly transmitted, but verified by another Buddha.

[07:23]

So your realization must always be verified from Buddha to Buddha, all the way from Shakyamuni. So that's why it's important in our lineage to have Dharma transmission, which is a verification of practice and understanding. But even though someone has Dharma transmission, it doesn't mean that the other students don't have verification. In some way, everyone who practices has verification through their own practice. The universe verifies you.

[08:27]

But the practice is handed down from one to another. And this is a very important aspect of Zen. So the Buddha realized the way by himself and transmitted his realization to the next Buddha down the line without interruption until the present day. So there is this term transmitted, but actually it's verifying, or you can call it entrusting, realizing that someone else has realization. transmits and a Buddha recognizes this.

[09:33]

Then he says, heading toward the way is to continue to clarify until you reach the full extent of the Buddha way. Even though one has realization, No one has realized their Buddha potential, Buddha nature. One continues to deepen their understanding. Actually, enlightenment is the beginning of practice. The beginning of true practice starts with enlightenment. And then one continues to clarify enlightenment through practice. So he says, heading toward the way is to continue to clarify until you reach the full extent of the Buddha way and understand the scenery of that way.

[10:42]

The scenery, that's an interesting term, scenery. Dogen talks about the scenery of our life. The practice is like riding on a train. And the train is moving on the track. But you look out the window and you see the scenery going by. And even though you see the scenery going by and you say, this is the world, this is the outside world, is the scenery. The subjective inner world is where we always live.

[11:44]

So we have this feeling of outside and inside. But actually, outside and inside are, although we say outside and inside, there is no outside and inside. Those are just comparative terms. But yet we feel an outside and inside. And the outside is like the scenery of our life. The scene is always changing. And the tools and the... When all that is gone, there is just subjective I. But yet, the scenery and the subjective, the objective and the subjective, exist together.

[13:03]

But the scenery is always changing. the stage on which we live as it's continually changing facade. So it's important to understand the way is to continue to clarify until we reach the full extent of the Buddha way and understand the scenery of that way. What is real and what is not? What is The Buddha way is right under your feet.

[14:20]

Being obstructed by the way, you clarify the way right here. This is a very interesting term, which Togen uses. Obstructing the way. By practicing the way is called obstructing the way. Or obstructing the way is called practicing the way. So obstructing means standing in the way, right? What stands in our way is practice. But obstructing the way means being one with the way. Obstructing the way is a term that means being one with the way. But it has some wonderful implications. It has the feeling of stopping, something that's stopping us.

[15:27]

But it also can mean engagement. So engagement, in a way, is obstruction. If you don't, in your practice, if you don't feel some resistance, then you're not really fully engaged. To be fully engaged in practice means to feel some resistance. To feel some difficulty. To feel some problem. To feel challenged. To have some ego ache. To feel, this is not right. And we do get to a certain point, you know, where we feel comfortable in practice.

[16:36]

And that's the kind of danger point, really, that we've overcome. We've come to a certain place where we can sit comfortably, where we can practice the schedule, where we can manage well, that's not bad, but it's a kind of dangerous place because we feel that there's nothing more to do. So, that's dangerous, which leads to a kind of practice complacency. Then we have to stimulate Dogen continues to talk about this. He says, being obstructed by the way, you clarify the way right here.

[17:43]

Being obstructed by enlightenment, you completely become yourself. Therefore, even though you may have perfect understanding, you fall into half-enlightenment. This is the manner of heading in the direction of the way. even though you may have perfect understanding, you fall into half-enlightenment. The meaning here is, no matter where you feel your understanding is, or how far you have progressed, it's only halfway. There's a saying, Shakyamuni Buddha is only halfway there. There's this story in the Lotus Sutra about the Magic City.

[18:51]

And this may be a kind of reference to that, a subtle reference. The Magic City is this place an imaginary tale. Like Shakyamuni Buddha is the guide, and he knows the way, and he knows all the treacherous paths, difficult places that have to be traversed going up this mountain. People are following him as the guide. But they're getting very tired, and they're getting very worn out, and they're getting discouraged. And he says, just over the bend is this wonderful place. That's it. And so they all get encouraged again, and they put on all their second wing, and they get to this place, and they take a breather.

[20:01]

which reminds me of in the 70s, 60s. Now people practicing the way these days have not yet understood what the way is, these days meaning the 13th century.

[21:27]

And they yearn for a reward that can be seen. They want something tangible. Some sign of having practiced, some reward, some visible accomplishment. He said, people practicing the way these days have not yet understood it, and they yearn for a reward that can be seen. They don't understand that practice is the reward. They don't understand that just what they're doing, in every step of the way, is the reward for what they're doing.

[22:37]

In other words, the result and the action are the same thing. The most important part is to appreciate your practice, not to think that you're going to get something. If you think that you're going to get something, no matter how spiritually advanced you are, or no matter what kind of spiritual reward you think you can get, it's simply a materialistic desire. All spiritual rewards or expectations are simply materialistic desires. Which brings us down to the practice is right under your feet. So we don't really see that. It's hard to see that.

[23:38]

And so we want something better than what we have. Something different. There must be something different, better. It's hard to realize that This is it. To be able to accept things just as it is, is our great reward for practice. appreciate this moment, no matter what it is."

[24:44]

And then you feel, how can I appreciate this moment when it's not what I want? That's because we're always in the realm of desire, caught by the realm of desire. And then he says, you are the one who is responsible for making this mistake. and you will be like a person who discards his parent and his treasure and wanders here and there in poverty, even though you are only the son of a millionaire. You are not aware of this and have been acting like a poor employee for a long time. This is a matter appreciate his home, takes it all for granted when he's young, and leaves home and wanders around the world.

[26:02]

But it's very unsuccessful, actually. He can never find what he's looking for. So he wanders And his father has become this wealthy, dazzlingly wealthy person. And he comes to the palace of the father and he looks in and he sees all this wealth and high living. So he decides, I can't stay here. But when he looks in, his father sees his face and recognizes him. But he doesn't recognize his father. So then he starts to leave. His father gets these two attendants and he says, go convince him to come back.

[27:03]

So the two attendants go and they offer him this job working in the stables and pitching manure. And his father gives him this job. And little by little, he keeps promoting him. But he still doesn't recognize his father. But the father keeps promoting him. And until finally, he gets to the point where he's a manager of the whole estate. And then his father reveals to him that he's his father and so forth. And he says, you inherit this whole estate. and coming back and practicing.

[28:08]

And finally... which is our natural gift. So we have to be obstructed by practice and obstructed by enlightenment and grapple with it, grapple with practice and grapple with enlightenment. to let go of any trace of enlightenment.

[30:01]

If you have enlightenment, if you try to hold on to some great awareness or some holding on will simply drag you down. You become a great weight, a millstone. So one has to keep freeing oneself from these kinds of conceptions. Practitioners of the Way away must believe that, one, the self is within the way from the beginning, and that you are free from delusive desires, upside-down way of seeing things, excess or deficiencies and mistakes.

[31:24]

It's not that you should believe that you are free of them, but that originally you are free of them. Arousing the mind of faith, clarifying the way, and practicing, comprise the foundation of learning the way. So these three things. Arousing this kind of faith, clarifying the way,

[32:28]

If one really has faith in the Way, that's enlightenment. If one has faith in Buddha nature, faith in Buddha nature is enlightenment itself. So it's very important. And Dogen is always saying that unless one has faith in buddhanature, practice doesn't amount to anything. But through practice, one gains faith. you should accept blindly.

[33:52]

But once you realize you're blind, then your eyes are open. Once one has faith And then he says, we do this by sitting and cutting off the root of the discriminating mind, turning away from the path of intellectual understanding.

[35:22]

This is a skillful way to lead beginners. If we try to attain enlightenment by getting rid of delusion, that's simply a dualistic understanding. To set up a delusion against enlightenment and enlightenment against delusion is dualistic. Just sit down here.

[36:38]

So he says, this is a skillful way to lead beginners. Next, drop off body and mind and throw away both delusion and enlightenment. This is the second stage. Truly, it is most difficult to find a person Only if you believe that you are really inside the Way will you naturally clarify the scenery of the Great Way and understand the origin of delusion and enlightenment. Try to sit cutting off the root of discriminating mind.

[38:13]

Eight or nine out of ten will be able to to sit without discriminating, cutting off the root of the discriminating mind. I hope you're loving it.

[39:41]

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