So yesterday we finished up with Zenki and we also did Shoji, and so we have some time left to study. And Ken suggested the impossible. He said, let's investigate Uchi. When you put your microphone on, you sound very soft. It's hard to hear you back here. I'm wondering if your microphone is on. Maybe it's not turned up enough. OK. Something like that. If you keep talking, I can try it. OK. So is that better? Yes. Yes. OK. So he suggested And since we haven't really had a chance to study it, we'll probably do pretty well.

[01:06]

But we'll see how far we get. And, you know, study is just always an introduction to a subject which should encourage us to study the subject further. So that's the way I see study. So we gave each of you a copy from the Learn and Do drop, which was translated by Kaz Tanasi, and I think Dan Welch or something. I have this copy of It was translated by Dr. Abbe and Romain Lavelle.

[02:15]

So I'm going to follow this. I'm going to follow both of them, but this one by Abbe has a lot of footnotes, which makes It really helps us to understand what Dogen is talking about here, because if you don't have the footnotes, you're just kind of swimming around. So, unfortunately, you don't have them, but you couldn't supply them on short notice. So, Dr. Abbe says, and he has a little bit of an introduction, year of Nin-ji, 1240, while Dogen was teaching at the Kosho-ji, south of Kyoto. It is one of the central classicals of Shobo-genzo, and one of the most difficult. In it, Dogen investigates the normally highly abstract concept of time.

[03:21]

Although the subject of time is not one generally encountered in Zen literature, in Shobo-genzo-u-ji, or what is the same thing being time, being that is inseparable from time, is Dogen's central theme. And it is present as an underlying theme in the other major festivals as well. In Uji, Dogen uses his Zen dialectic to exclusionize the various ramifications of time from the basic, non-objectifiable premise that asserts the inseparability of time and being. in the instant present of the I. OK? So I'm just going to read that. The translations are pretty similar. You can see from this translation that you can get the gist.

[04:26]

So it starts out. Like this, an old Buddha said, quote, for the time being, I stand astride the highest mountain peaks. For the time being, I move on the deepest depths of the ocean floor. For the time being, I am three heads and eight arms. For the time being, I am eight feet or 16 feet. For the time being, I am a staff or a whisk. For the time being, I am a pillar or a lantern. For the time being, I am Mr. Chong or Mr. Lee. For the time being, I am the great earth and the heavens above. So, this I am is Dogen's big mind, of course. As his self, he includes all these factors.

[05:28]

But he's attributing this to an old Buddha. But he's taking all these, he's kind of putting this together from different places, from different things that he's read. It's a kind of various sources. The footnote says that in the quotation, what appears to have been cobbled together by Dogen from various sources in Zen literature. But in the end, he says, for the time being, I am the great earth and the heavens above. In other words, my whole body is. This is what I am. When he says, I stand astride the highest mountain peaks, that means differentiation. being time, of course. But I'll explain it a little later.

[06:32]

He says, I move in the deepest depths of the ocean floor. That's oneness, or non-differentiation. And then he says, I'm three heads and eight arms, which applies to the asura. In the sixth world, we have the asuras as the fighting demons. So he identifies with the fighting demons. And for the time being, I am three heads and eight arms. I am the eight feet or sixteen feet or foot. Eight feet or sixteen feet. Maybe it's feet. Buddha. I am a staff or a mist. I am a pillar or a lantern. I am Mr. Chang or Mr. Lee, which means ordinary person.

[07:33]

And for the time being, I am the great earth and the heavens above, which is all-inclusive. So he identifies with the whole universe as himself, basically. So then he said, I don't want to read you that whole footnote. It's quite long. The time being means time, just as it is, is being. You can't separate time from being. You talk about time, it has to be time of something. And if you talk about being, it has to be within time. So time, he doesn't say time and being are associated, he said time is being. We usually think of ourselves as being, but we don't usually think of ourselves as time. So, now and here.

[08:37]

Here and now is space and time. Here is space, or being, and now is time. So, here and now, everything is, here and now includes everything. So if you think of stepping outside of time, maybe. If you think of stepping outside of here, well, maybe. But I don't think that's quite possible, but we like to think it is. Have you ever seen the movie about the time machine? place twice, but you can't visit the same time twice. We come here every day, so to speak.

[09:41]

You visit the same place, but it's always at a different time. But at the same time, not actually the same, but there is an element of sameness. Yeah. So the time being, quote, means time just as it is, is being, and being is all time. The 16-foot golden body mentioned above is time. Because it is time, it has time's glorious golden radiance, komyo. you must learn to see the glorious radiance in the twelve hours of the day." I think what he means by that is, he mentioned that in thinking as well.

[10:47]

In other words, you should see Buddha nature, the radiance of Buddha nature in the twelve hours of the day. You must learn to see this glorious radiance in the twelve hours of your day. The demonic asura with three heads and eight arms, as above, is time. Because it is time, it can be in no way different from the twelve hours of the day. Although you never measure the length or brevity of the twelve hours, their swiftness or slowness, you still call them the twelve hours. As evidence of their going and coming is obvious, you do not come to doubt them. But even though you do not have doubts about them, that is not to say that you know them. Since a sentient being's doubting of the many and various things unknown to him are naturally vague and indefinite, the course his doubtings take

[11:58]

will probably not bring them to coincide with this present doubt. Nonetheless, the doubts themselves are, after all, none other than time, or being time. So, Junrochi, how does that connect to what you were saying yesterday about faith and That's not what he's talking about here. I don't know. I mean, I could figure out something to say, but it's a different subject. So here, doubt is not being conveyed as, say, the opposite or distinct from faith? Well, people have doubts about things. It's not the fundamental doubt.

[12:59]

It's not the great doubt. It might be more like a skeptical doubt. No, it's not that doubt. It's kind of like the doubt you have when you see a 10-year-old and you say, my, how you've grown. Isn't that the kind of doubt he's talking about? Every once in a while, it kind of shocks you that time has gone by. And so you doubt it. Or you can't believe you're 55 because just a minute ago you were 35. Well, it's more like that kind of doubt, but here's his footnote about it. He says, the nature of an unenlightened person's doubt concerning his own time or being itself is present doubt. He should call it into question, but even while he does not and remains in delusion, that does not alter the fact that he doubts, like everything else. that his doubts, like everything else, are part of being time.

[14:01]

So the point here is not what he doubts, it's more like it itself is being time. That's his point. So it's not so much what he doubts or that he doubts, but the fact that he doubts is just being time. That's the point. Everything. So just pointing out things that are being time. that we generally don't think about as being time. So, you know, enlightened thoughts are being time, deserted thoughts are being time, everything is being time. So we're just using them as examples, but not going into what they mean. So we set this We set the self out in array and make that the whole world.

[15:01]

His footnote for that says, the self, or I, is the true self, not the self. The self in its suchness. From the standpoint of this self, that is, as being time, all things are manifestations of itself. Thus, what we actually see when we look at the world is our self set out in a ray, a projection actually, I would say, except where reference is clearly to the unenlightened self, the words self or I are synonymous with being time. So this is a little strange. We set out the self in an array to make that the whole world.

[16:08]

We must see all the various things of the world as so many times. These things do not get in each other's way. We set the self out in an array and make that the whole world. We must see all the various things of the whole world as so many times. These things do not get in each other's way any more than various times get in each other's way. Because of this, there is an arising of the religious mind at the same time, and it is the arising of time of the same mind. so it is with practice and attainment of the way. We set ourself out in an array and we see that, such is the fundamental reason of the way, that ourself is time. For example, a bamboo is a bamboo, or a bamboo time.

[17:16]

We don't usually affix the word time to events, like, I'm sitting here, time. Or, I'm eating time. We do eat time. Actually, time eats us, and we should be eating time. So, as the self's being-time is totally independent and complete in itself, and at the same time contains with it the whole world, at all time, when the self gives rise to the mind that desires enlightenment or engages in practice or attains enlightenment or anything else, at that very time, in that very being-time, the whole world does as well. So basically, this moment of time contains all time. Because this moment, this brings up the question of what is a moment?

[18:23]

Because there's past and future. And then there's present, right? This moment. But this moment is ungraspable. because this moment of movement is ungraspable because as soon as you experience it, it's gone. So the past meets the future in the present. So where does the past end and where does the future begin and where is the present So the past and the present come together. And when the past and future come together, it's called the present. But is the present a line? Is something jagged? Or mushy?

[19:28]

Or straight? It reminds me of astronomy. When you look at a star that's so many light years away, that means that, so to speak, the light bulb went on that many years ago. So, if you imagine they're also looking at us and our sun and its light bulb having turned on, it's impossible to say whose past and whose future are communicating with each other through that light. Presupposing there are creatures out there doing that. Well, the thing about light from the stars is that we're looking at light that happened a long time ago. Right. And yet we can communicate in the present moment through the light. Yeah. I don't know about communication, but there's...

[20:34]

The light that comes from that star, although I'm not an astronomer, so I don't know all the details, but we still see it. So it's in the present. For us, it's in the present. So this is past-present tense. Because this is an example of how the past exists in the present. One example. Because that old light, pretty old, according to our idea of time, I don't know if it's old or not, but according to our idea of time, our dualistic idea of time, it belongs to the past billions of years, but it also belongs to the present. So we experience the past and the present as a direct experience. Well, with regard to this example though, we're seeing our eyes are registering light in the present, and we're kind of guessing that it has to do with this thing that's very far away, but that thing, as we know, may be gone by the time we see the lights.

[21:58]

Yeah, that's right. time, what's going on is the thing, whatever it was that sent the light signal out is still there maybe, but the light that's traveling, because it travels at the speed of light and has no mass, actually does not have any time. They're like photons that are traveling all together. There's a bunch of them. And for them, it's literally no time seems to be passing. It's all good. It's a famous example of the rocket ship.

[23:00]

Two twins go out into space and one of them travels at the speed of light and comes back. you know, the other one's dead now, but the one that's on the ship experiences that you're still the same age. It's called the twin paradox. Yeah. So there are those things, you know. But I think that what we're, what we where our area of investigation here is within our atmosphere. And it actually was until the 19th century that mathematicians really understood continuity in any way that made sense.

[24:29]

Yeah. Well, you know, I think that as Doge goes on, we recognize that time is something that we make up, even though it's something we experience. We also create time, right? So there's short time and long time, which are simply not real measurements. They're just a way of expressing our experiences in space, our space. But those are interesting things to think about, but that takes us a little bit away similar subject. This eighth footnote says, since in the self's time there is nothing that is not the self, nothing apart from the self exists for it to see, to realize this way of seeing is enlightenment.

[25:44]

The fundamental truth of the world's suchness So this is his standpoint. Since in the self's time, there is nothing that is not the self. That's talking about, for the time being, I am the great earth and the heavens above. That means there is nothing that is not the self. For the sage, there is nothing that is not the self. Since in the self's time, there is nothing that is not the self. nothing apart from the Self exists for it to see, so there's nothing outside. To realize this way of seeing is enlightenment, the fundamental truth of the world, suchness. So then he says, since such is the fundamental reason, we must study and learn that myriad phenomena and numberless grasses, things, exist over the entire earth, and each of the grasses and each of the forms exists as the entire earth.

[26:53]

So his footnote to that says, that is because the self's time is like this. Limitless dharmas, that is various forms of grasses, are being manifested throughout the world as the self set out in a ray. At that time, each and every one of his dharmas contains the whole world. So that's more like his point. The self, really, I think he's talking about big self. The self, big self, sets us out in a ray as dharmas. So whatever dharma we encounter actually contains the whole self, the whole of the big self. So these comings and goings are the commencement of Buddhist practice. When you have arrived within the field of suchness, it is a single grasp, a single form.

[28:00]

The forms are understood and not understood. The grasps are grasped and not grasped. So comings and goings, even though remember we talked about no coming and no going, but here he's talking about comings and goings. presumably refers here to the manifesting of being-time described above, the dynamic all-is-one, one-is-all relation of forms and grasses, the whole earth and the Self. Practicing with the Self, or the whole world in this way, is the commencement of Buddha's practice. So we say, I'm saying that The whole universe is your true body. The whole universe is your true mind, body-mind. Your body-mind is not limited to this five, six, seven form or whatever it is.

[29:02]

So that is in the realm of attainment, When the self-practices, in concert with the whole world and all dharmas, are seen and realized in their true aspect as being times, understanding and not understanding this, both belong to the person's discrimination. They are separate but equally manifestations of being time. So then he says, as the time right now is all there ever is, the time right now is all there ever is. That's an assumption. Each being time is, without exception, entire time. A grasp being and a form being are both times. Entire being, the entire world, exists in the time of each and every now. Just reflect on this. Right now, is there an entire being or an entire world missing from your present time or not?

[30:20]

So in his footnote he says, that is, there is only the immediate present in which all time and being is encompassed. This is true of me and of all dharmas as well. And he says, it is not, of course, missing from any now. Dogen is exhorting students to make the truth of being-time their own realization. Without this realization, being-time is a hollow phrase, and they are cut off from the whole world and all time, the authentic mode of being-time. So he wants you to apparently experience this for yourself and not just take his word for it. In spite of this, a person holds various views at the time he is unenlightened and has yet to learn the Buddha's Dharma. Hearing the words, the time being, he thinks that at one time the old Buddha became a creature with three heads and eight arms, and that at another time he became a 16-foot Buddha.

[31:26]

He imagines it is like crossing a river or a mountain. The river and mountain may still exist, but I have now left them behind. And at the present time, I reside in a splendid vermilion palace. To him the mountain or river and I are distant from one another as heaven and earth." So in other words, the unenlightened person crosses the mountain and he sees that I left the mountain and now I'm here. I've left the mountain behind and now I'm here at a different time. So, I have now left the mountain behind and at present time I have resided in a splendid vermillion palace. To him the mountain or river and I are distant from one another and seven from earth. That's what it's saying in your copy.

[32:28]

So, this paragraph presents the ordinary view of time in spite of this. the fact that all time and being are included in the present now. The creature with three heads and eight arms, illusion, contrasted to 16-foot Buddha that follows. Likewise, crossing the rivers and mountains suggests the path of practice leading to enlightenment. The unenlightened view with its dualistic understanding will thus see practice and enlightenment merely as different stages, and time as something that comes out of the future and disappears into the past." So this is why people often say, of time, the future is time in the future, the present is time now, and the past is time past. So that's ordinary view.

[33:31]

You see, time is coming up in the future and passing through and going away. Time travels. But actually, that's one view, which is not very astute. But time doesn't travel. Time doesn't come or go. So we can talk about future time, present time, past time, but actually you don't come or go anywhere. Time is always now, whatever time. We designate, we give attributes to a time. Basically, time doesn't correspond to these attributes. They're just our way of thinking. Moshe, how does change factor in? If there is nothing unchangeable, how is change measured, if not from one point in time to another? Well, we do measure that way. in time that we measure according to our experience.

[34:59]

to the actual. So in actuality, there is no change? Well, things don't change from one thing into another. There's nothing but change. But what we say, we think that time changes. But if you look at it in a different way, you can see that everything is so-called changing. We see it as changing because we're involved with movement. So change is movement. And so we associate time, the changing of time, with that movement. But you can just as easily say, things change but time stands still. But we usually think time's going by and we're standing still. So you can just as easily see it the other way, that everything is changing on the face of time which is standing still.

[36:26]

As a matter of fact, that's what a clock is. The hands are going around, but the clock is standing still. But the hands are not going around. But they're going around the clock. They're rooted in stillness. And they have a pivot, right? And then 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. So this is discontinuous time on the face of continuous time. Because you take away the hands of the clock. And nothing changes. I mean, things change, but basically there's no discrimination anymore between sections of time. So when you look at the clock that doesn't have any hands, that's called now. So there are two aspects of time in that sense.

[37:31]

The time of now which is always just now. And it's eternal time. Kekan, which means just, it's always now. It's always the same time. And the same time includes all the other times. The same time includes past and future. The present time includes past. That's how the present time includes past and future. As much as you can say then and now, then is included in now, because now is total time. So the total time and discriminated time. In total time, it's always now. In discriminated time, it's then.

[38:34]

But what we are always concerned with is discriminated time. We eat lunch at 12 and so forth. We need that. But we create the time. Not everybody in the world has 12 hours in the day. I mean, there is cosmic time. We kind of base our time on cosmic time, you know, so that's necessary. But underneath that, the background of cosmic time change is total time. So in your particles, right, there's no like at the speed of light, it wouldn't move.

[39:56]

Each time wouldn't happen. Yeah. But that doesn't mean no time. It's simply total time, rather than discriminated time. Because something exists, it has to exist in some kind of time. Even if it's total time. If you were to look at it from a different perspective, you say, like, coming here, it's like, oh, this light traveled for billions of years. But as far as the light's concerned, it's kind of traveled in. From the light's point of view. It's just now. Right. That's it. Yeah. So I really enjoy this reading.

[41:00]

And also, each moment is the universe, my category. Oh, yeah. Yeah, he talks about this. But I'm wondering how do I, is it just a fun intellectual exercise? Or how do we, I mean, there's kind of a big so what for me in terms of practice in my life. Yeah. Well, the way that you experience this is, if you really sit down and correctly Sit zazen, correctly. If you sit zazen with your whole dynamic body and mind. Shikantaza, just this, which includes past and present, future. just the present moment otherwise. Although it is possible without any discrimination.

[42:10]

That's why the only way we can really sit well is to just let go of discriminating mind. So when you let go of discriminating mind But it's not easy when you're doing other activities, because other activities imply discrimination. But you can still do that within discrimination. That's called clear mind within activity. Thank you. This reminds me of the mantle about the tool lending library. It says measure twice, cut once. I was thinking about, like, if you want to do something, you have an idea of the future, how you want something to turn out, and then there's the thoughts and conditions of what your training is.

[43:23]

Just like if you go into a relationship with somebody, this is the kind of relationship I want to be in with this person. I have history with relationships with people, so that these two past and future, but it's cut once, it's just here I am now with this person, here I am now with this matter at hand in front of me. So it's like there are these two ideas of time, but we actually just have You should be careful in the Monday and the Super Monday, right? Be careful for cutting and be careful in relationship. But yes, if you are very careful before you step in, it's more likely to work. Because you can't cut the board twice.

[44:26]

Yeah. It's a good sign. I like that sign a lot. I've always thought of it as a great practical sign, but in light of Dogen's teaching there, there's a relationship between how we want something to turn out and what our conditions are in the history of this is, and how do we reconcile. I think what Dogen would say, Just make the right cut for the sake of the right cut. Or I would cut the can in one. Well, think twice. If you've ever done carpentry, you know that it's really good to measure twice. Before you make that one cut. But once you make that one cut,

[45:32]

That's it. Yeah. So, Siddhagyan is really talking about practice. When he's talking about being time, he's talking about practice. So, how do you use time, basically? There's a famous quote from Joshu, he's talking to the monk, you know, and he says to the monk, you are used by the 24 hours, I use the 24 hours. So how do you use the 24 hours and not be used? Used by the 24 hours is being driven by time. So being driven by time means that you're not really one with time. I remember Tsukinoji said to me one time, don't do something ahead or behind.

[46:38]

Just be in time. Just be in time. So that's what Dogen is talking about. So if you want to practice it, just be in time. You don't have to push time, and you don't have to let time push you. so that you harmonize with your true body, which is the whole universe. That's what he's saying. You harmonize with your true body, which is the whole universe. So whatever you meet, you harmonize with, in one way or another, in time. So don't get ahead and don't lag behind. That's the secret of practice. The hardest. Huh? The hardest. The hardest. It's really hard.

[47:40]

So he says, left entirely to the being time of the unenlightened, both enlightenment and nirvana would be being time that was nothing more than an aspect of going and coming. no nets or cages remain for long. All is the immediate presence here and now of being-time. And this seems to mean that in spite of the unenlightened view that would make being-time merely an aspect of coming and going without the pivotal ever-present, The entire world is always immediately manifesting itself in the present as being time totally unencumbered by nets and cages. The various mind-made limits and restrictions our illusions construct around us of any kind. So, in other words, not to be caught by your own mind. What does that say?

[48:47]

Is it time? Well, you could take more time. We're traveling at the speed of light. Well, I'm just going to give it a little bit of time so that it's a compromise. You must not construe this in deva multitudes, actually presencing to the left and right, are even now being time. That puts forth my total exertion. So it talks about the total exertion of one dharma. That's one of its key things.

[49:50]

The total exertion of one dharma means when you meet one thing, you totally exert yourself to meet that one thing in time. The deva kings and deva multitudes actually presencing to the left and right are even now being time that puts forth my total exertion. And everywhere else in the universe the hosts of being time in water and on earth are now immediately manifesting themselves in the full power that I exert. Entities of every manner and kind being time in the realms of darkness and light are all the immediate manifestation of my full exertion, all my full exertion making a passage. One must learn in practice that unless it is oneself exerting itself right now, not a single dharma or thing can either immediately manifest itself or make a passage."

[50:52]

So this is Dogen's attitude. And this is the attitude of our practice. When you meet one thing, you exert yourself fully to meet that one thing. So, how do you practice in the world? Well, you become one with your activity. That's what Suzuki Roshi taught. You just become one with your activity. You don't need to think about... When you leave the zendo, you don't think about the zendo. You just exert yourself fully in each activity. When you come back to Zenda, you just exert yourself totally in that one activity. I just couldn't read the footnote there. The various forms of existence or being appearing everywhere in the universe appear and can only appear as my being time totally with nothing left out exerting itself.

[52:03]

The time, my time, instant by instant manifestation of my being is the instant present, in the instant present, includes all other dharmas, just as I am included in the being time of all other dharmas. Without this interaction or reciprocal interpenetration, nothing can pass or what is the same thing be manifest. So it gets more and more interesting as it goes along, because it's not just stating facts. He's talking about practice, how to practice in time with your whole being. Yes? Just also that connecting to what I heard Alan speak to. What's coming up for me is, and also what I heard Ross speak to, this intimacy and relationship. For me, how that point plays out is, so I'm being intimate with somebody where, let's say, there's a difference of view.

[53:15]

That's a nice way to say it. Another way to say it is there's a conflict or an impasse or something like this, a failure to communicate, so to speak. And so I have the experience that I'm intimate with that and I don't know what to do. So, you know, I come back to the breath, I notice my face is getting red, I can feel it, and so on. And I'm just wondering, where's the juice in meeting that moment? The juice is in your calmness of mind. You know, it's like, settle down. Settle down. And let the universe move you. Open yourself up to a big mind. What will a big mind do?

[54:15]

What will my big mind tell me to do here? In other words, we're just easing our little mind to claw around and find the way, which it can't do, because it doesn't know what it's doing. It's full of emotion and stuff like that. So we have to learn how to calm down. Not, don't know is really the best. I don't know what to do here. But what that does is clear your mind. When you say, I don't know, and you mean it, that clears your mind. And then, when your mind is open, something will come up, because that's called faith. You trust that your big mind will say something. That's it. Otherwise, we're depending on our wits.

[55:23]

We can go so far with our wits. Turn your wits over to Big Mike. So someday we'll have a class or something in that classical art.

[56:16]

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