Good morning, everyone. This is the third day of our three-day sitting this weekend of the Sashin. This time of year is to commemorate and celebrate the awakening of our great original founder, Shakyamuni Buddha, 2,500 years or so ago. We've been celebrating that by talking about the great Zen ancestors. So for our midday service, we've been chanting the names in Sanskrit of the Buddhas before Buddha, the Indian ancestors, the names we have to represent them, and in Chinese, the Chinese ancestors, and Japanese ancestors down to Suzuki Roshi. We've been talking the last couple of days about Yunyan Tansheng, one of the founders

[01:08]

of Chinese Sutras, and Zhaodong, Dongshan is considered the founder, but really Zhaodong refers to all the ancestors between the sixth ancestor and Dongshan, and so Yunyan was Dongshan's teacher, and we've been talking, exploring his saying about the one who is not busy. Today though, I want to talk about Shidou Sichang, who was two generations before Yunyan. Shidou is the teacher who wrote the Song of the Grass Hut we've been chanting, and also the Harmony of Difference and Sameness, a very important foundational text to Soto Zen philosophy, all of Zen philosophy. So I want to focus on a story about Shidou that Dogen speaks of in his extensive record. So one day, Dawu asked Shidou, this is a different Dawu from Yunyan's brother, this is an earlier

[02:17]

Dawu, it's not Wong Dawu, he asked Shidou, what is the essential meaning of Buddha Dharma? Now, before I tell you what Shidou said, I would like to ask you all, and don't say anything, but please take a minute to think, what is the essential meaning of Buddha Dharma? Think about your answer. What is the essential meaning of Buddha Dharma? So later I might ask you to say what it is you're thinking of now, the essential meaning of Buddha Dharma. What Shidou said at that time was, not attaining, not knowing.

[03:25]

I'm going to talk about that. But I'll also add that Dawu said, beyond that, is there any other pivotal point or not? And I'll come back to that, and finish the story at some point. Not attaining, not knowing. Not to attain, not to know. Well, of course, everybody in this room is very bright, very gifted group here. Many of you have many attainments, and some of you even know a few things. So, Tianwang Dawu asked Shidou, what is the essential meaning of Buddha Dharma? And he said, not to attain, not to know. And of course, the Heart Sutra, which we chant regularly, says,

[04:31]

at the end of one of the major sections, there is no attainment and nothing to attain. And the great Japanese master, Kukai, founder of the esoteric school of Shingon, ninth century master, great figure in Japanese Buddhism, said, commenting on this sentence from the Heart Sutra, there's no attainment and nothing to attain. He said, Avalokiteshvara Kansayana smiles hearing this. The great bodhisattva of compassion. No attainment and nothing to attain. So, the essential meaning of Buddha Dharma. Did anybody think that as the essential meaning of Buddha Dharma? No? Okay. Well, you know, this is an important question. So, actually, I started my practice a long time ago in New York City.

[05:41]

We called him Nakajima Sensei, Kando Nakajima, at the New York Zen Center on the Upper West Side in Manhattan. Wonderful teacher. Very non-charismatic. You wouldn't even notice him if you saw him on the street. Anyway, I studied with him for three and a half years and did Moangche Zazen every week, and more than once a week, and monthly sittings, and a little bit like what we do here. Dokson, many weeks. After three and a half years, due to various family circumstances, I moved to San Francisco. And by that point, I had read Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind many times. And I knew that there was the San Francisco Zen Center, and Baker Roshi was the teacher there. So, anyway, before I left,

[06:47]

Nakajima Sensei said to me in Dokson, when you get there, ask the teacher there, what is the essential teaching of Buddhism, or what is the essential meaning of Buddhadharma? So I had this question that I came with. And I, of course, went straight to San Francisco Zen Center and practiced there. Well, still connected to practicing there. And Baker Roshi became my teacher, and he was actually very grateful to him for many, many things. And when I finally got a chance to ask him, what is the essential teaching of Buddhism? My Nakajima Sensei asked me to ask him. He said, I don't usually answer questions like that. But in your case, I'll make an exception. He said, the essential teaching of Buddhism is that there's no Buddhism.

[07:53]

That's pretty good. Did any of you think that was the essential meaning of Buddhadharma? Okay, nobody. As it happens, at that time, again, I was a student of Baker Roshi's and appreciated it, but he wasn't around so much because there were three big campuses, Tassajara and Green Gulch and City Center, where I was. But Reb was at the time at Green Gulch, Reb Anderson, who became my ordination and Dharma transmission teacher. So I actually saw him. He was really my teacher, along with Baker Roshi, very much from the beginning. I saw him much more frequently. So before I saw Baker Roshi, even when I had my first practice discussion with Reb, I told him that I'd been asked to ask this, and I asked him, what is the essential teaching of Buddhism? And he said, don't you already know? Did anybody think of that as the essential meaning of Buddhadharma?

[08:58]

Anyway, I've been studying this don't you already know for more than 30 years. It's pretty good. What is it that we already know? Anyway, these are some other answers. Oh, actually, I'll add Dogen's answer, a little more involved. So this is in a talk that he gave, and he said this to one of his favorite students, a nun named Ryonen. He had many women disciples, but he said to Ryonen, actually it was in a letter, he said, without begrudging any effort in nurturing the way for you,

[10:02]

I will demonstrate the precise meaning of the ultimate truth of Buddha. That is, if you do not hold on to a single phrase or half a verse, a bit of talk or a small expression, in this lump of red flesh, you will have some accord with the clear, cool ground. If you hold on to a single word or half a phrase of the Buddha ancestors' sayings or the koans from the ancestral gate, they will become dangerous poisons. If you want to understand this mountain monk's activity, do not remember these comments. Truly avoid being caught up in thinking. So, for Dogen, at least in this occasion, the ultimate teaching of Buddhism was to not hold on to a single phrase, to not even remember anything you hear in a session. Of course, now that you've heard that, you've got a big problem,

[11:06]

because you might remember it. But if you don't remember it, you might remember other things anyway. So there are various answers that can be made to this wonderful question. What is the essential meaning of Buddhadharma? The great teacher Sutta said, not attaining, not knowing. So, there's a lot to say about this, although there's nothing to know about it, and there's nothing to attain. So, as Bob Dylan says, there's nothing, really nothing, to turn off. There's nothing to win and nothing to lose. One of the founders of the five houses of Chan, though,

[12:11]

the Fayan school, Fayan, when he was a monk and finished his study with his teacher Duzang, I was going to go off on pilgrimage, Duzang is Chinese for Jizo, so this teacher was named after the great Bodhisattva Jizo, whose large picture is in our library. So he went to see his teacher Duzang and said, I'm going off on pilgrimage. He was going to go off and visit other teachers. Check out himself and Chan. Duzang said, oh, what's the purpose of your pilgrimage? And Fayan, who again later became the founder of one of the five houses of Chan in China, Fayan said, I don't know. And Duzang said, not knowing is most intimate. So this is kind of,

[13:22]

see, Fayan was a little bit later than Jizo, but this is kind of confirmation, not knowing. Not knowing is nearest, not knowing is most intimate. On the other hand, the great teacher Zhaozhou once asked Nanshuang, what is the way? Nanshuang said, ordinary, everyday mind is the way. And Zhaozhou said, oh, how do I get to that? Nanshuang said, the more you try and approach it, the further away you get. And Zhaozhou said, well, how do I know it's the way or not? So people regularly come and ask me a question like that. How do I know if I'm doing it right? And Nanshuang said, knowing is just a fabrication. Not knowing is indifference. When you reach the true way beyond doubt, it's vast and open as the sky. How could it be a matter of affirming or negating it? So if you set up not knowing as some attainment,

[14:29]

that's not it either. Not to attain, not to know. What is the essential meaning of the Buddha Dharma? This is a good question to consider as we honor the great awakening of our founder, Shakyamuni Buddha. Of course, he didn't stop practicing when he awakened 2,500 years ago, more or less today. We celebrate it on December 8th. We don't know. Actually, it's probably in the spring. But anyway, what is the essential meaning of Buddha Dharma? And after his attainment, after he awakened, of course, the Buddha didn't stop and go back home and take it easy. He continued practicing, continued sitting in Zazen every day.

[15:31]

He continued awakening every day. That was just the beginning of Buddhism. So there's this other story about Songzhao, about Ashita, which relates to a great Chinese master, Songzhao, who was a great early translator of sutras into Chinese. There will not be a test, by the way. You don't have to remember any of this, please. But anyway, this is another story that one day... So in a text Songzhao wrote, only a sage can understand the 10,000 things and bring them into the self. And Ashita, before he wrote the Harmony of Difference and Sameness,

[16:33]

the Song of the Grasslands, he read that and he had some epiphany, and he said, ah, the ultimate, the myriad person is empty and hollow, with no form, yet of the myriad things there is none that is not his own making. Who can understand myriad things as one's self? Only a sage. Oh, no, actually, that's the longer version of what Songzhao wrote. I'm sorry, that's what Songzhao said. And Ashita read this and awakened and said, a sage has no self, yet there is nothing that is not himself. In the Empty Song of the Grass Hut we've been chanting, he writes, the hut is small, but it includes the entire world. So we've been talking about the one who's not busy, that Xuzhou's student, student Yunyan, talked about.

[17:35]

The one who's not busy also encompasses the 10,000 things. How do you be not busy in the middle of sample cleaning, in the middle of eating your midday meal, in the middle of preparing a meal, in the middle of answering the phone or responding to email or walking down the street or dealing with the 10 things that you have to do right now? Where is the one who's not busy? And yet the 10,000 things are not somewhere else. This practice is not about you. It's not about me. It's not about just the person on your cushion or chair right now. Of course, it's not about that. So please appreciate, enjoy, breathe into and out

[18:38]

of the body and mind on your cushion or chair right now. And yet we don't practice just for ourselves. It's impossible. But I didn't finish the basic story. So what is the essential meaning of Buddhadharma? Maybe I should ask that question again. So if you can, remember what you thought when I first asked it. And now that you've heard all these other answers, do you have some answer that's not one of the answers that I've mentioned? What is the essential meaning of Buddhadharma? I'm asking you. Don't say anything yet. I'll call on you later. What is the essential meaning of Buddhadharma? So that's how I should know that.

[19:38]

And she just said, not attaining, not knowing. And then that was said beyond that, is there any other pivotal point or not? And should I say, the wide sky does not obstruct the white clouds drifting. The wide sky does not obstruct the white clouds drifting. Dogen says about this whole story, not attaining, not knowing is Buddha's essential meaning. The wind blows into the depths, and further winds blow. The wide sky does not obstruct the white clouds drifting. At that time, why do you take the trouble to ask? So why have Zen people for,

[20:43]

well, Sato lived in the 700s, why have Zen people been asking this question? What is the essential meaning of Buddhadharma for all these centuries? The white clouds do not, the wide sky does not obstruct the white clouds drifting. And Suzuki Roshi said, to give the cow a wide pasture. So as we've been sitting here the last few days, it's possible that as you've been sitting and feeling the spaciousness of emptiness, of the wide sky, the word, the Chinese character for sky also means space or emptiness. So Kachri's other name is Kusan. Empty mountain, space mountain, sky mountain.

[21:46]

The wide sky does not obstruct the white clouds drifting. As you've been sitting here, in this spacious sky that's included in this little room here, you might have had some clouds drift by. Thoughts, feelings, sensations. Probably even you have had a few of those clouds drifting by. Does the great, wide, open spaciousness of panoramic awareness in Zazen obstruct the clouds drifting by? Try and do that. It's not recommended. You can try and hold the cloud in one place and fix it, write a description of it or an outline form

[22:48]

or do a picture of it and put it on the wall. Clouds don't work that way, sorry. And the wide sky does not obstruct the drifting clouds. The wide sky is not hurt at all by the clouds. Sometimes you can go out and see a clear sky and it's beautiful. Clear blue sky, no clouds. Sometimes you might see a sky with various clouds in it. Actually, we tend to appreciate those. They make for more colorful sunsets. For example. So, you know, I don't think the sky minds that there are clouds in it. The sky is not harmed by the clouds. It may be harmed by various other emissions, but clouds are, you know, clouds form and sometimes they rain.

[23:51]

So as you're sitting, please, as Sugiroshi said, give the cow a wide pasture. Allow the clouds or the cows to float around and drift in and out. Don't try and hold on to them. Don't try and control them. Don't try and manipulate or manage them. Although there is this phrase, and Sugiroshi used it too, he talked about how he was a cloud driver. Because clouds also refers to Zen monks. Zen practitioners are called unsui in Japanese. Clouds and water. Drifting along, visiting different teachers, seeing different things. Anyway, the white sky does not obstruct the white clouds drifting. But I'll ask another question. Are clouds obstructed by the sky? So, you know, in Zen we talk in terms of these

[25:02]

nature metaphors and images often. I'm not saying that Shuto was thinking about Huayen Buddhism when he answered Tao. I'm sure he wasn't. And yet he was steeped in it, actually. And so in the Chinese Huayen Buddhist philosophy there's this idea of the fourfold Dharmadhatu. Dharmadhatu means everything. The whole universe, the whole phenomenal universe. The Dharma realm. So it just means the phenomenal universe. It also, you know, has this other side that it's the whole universe informed by Dharma, informed by reality and the teaching. But anyway, in the Huayen fourfold Dharmadhatu there's the phenomenal truth. There's the universal truth. We can imagine that as clouds in the sky. Then there's the mutual non-obstruction

[26:05]

of the universal and the phenomenal. So this is like the sky not obstructing the white clouds. Or the white clouds not obstructing the sky. And then the fourth part is that phenomena and phenomena don't obstruct each other. The mutual non-obstruction. So this is a philosophical way of talking about this. But, you know, in terms of what Shuto is saying we could say clouds don't bother each other. They don't hinder each other from being clouds. Of course, sometimes clouds come together and there's rain. So clouds do interact. But they don't get all upset about the other cloud a little ways to the east or west. I don't think clouds do that. And as they drift, they may drift by other clouds or they may drift into other clouds

[27:06]

and various things happen. But it's okay. So in our sitting, can we not grasp after some attaining or some knowing? More than that, can we even not realize some attaining or some knowing? This is what Shuto is encouraging. This basic practice, this basic teaching, the essence of it is nothing to attain, nothing to know. No attainment with nothing to attain. And especially when you know something

[28:10]

or especially when you do attain something. Sitting here sometime this afternoon, suddenly the bottom of the bucket falls out and everything, and lights flash, and whether or not the people next to you realize it, all this stuff is happening. That kind of thing happens sometimes. It's not a big deal, really. When the bell rings for kinning, you've still got to get up and do walking meditation. But, you know, you can enjoy it if you want. So how do we, even in the middle of attainment or knowing something, also see this background, this ultimate balance, the one who's not visiting, not attaining anything, not knowing anything. And as we see the wide sky,

[29:10]

can we allow the clouds to drift by in the middle? And if you get stuck on some cloud, you know what happens? The person next to you, it might be actually a thought cloud from the person next to you, and it might say, get off of my cloud! But anyway, still, the clouds drift. It's okay. What is the essential meaning of Buddhadharma? You know, there are many ways to turn this. Bob Dylan asked, are birds free from the chains of the sky? Maybe he could have asked about clouds, too. Are clouds free from the chains of the sky?

[30:14]

Well, our atmosphere is limited in danger, but we can't be other than in this place, this Dharmadhatu, this universe, these phenomena. So please occupy your Dharma position. Please occupy your Kushner chair. Please occupy the situation and the problems of your life. The chains of the sky can be kind of gentle. We're not fighting against them. The clouds drift by. So for those who are here for the day,

[31:18]

there will be a shosan questioning ceremony later today. But for those who are here just for the talk, but also for all of you, first of all, can someone, would someone say, when I first asked, before I started talking about what shosan, what were you thinking of as the essential meaning of Buddhadharma? Anyone? Jeremy. I said non-separation. Non-separation. Yeah, that's what Ka said when he was here. That's good. Yes, Deborah. To be with all the lives within and without. Say it again, please. To be with all the lives within and without. Yeah. Yeah, in his song on the grass hut, Shatot says not stuck to inside, outside, or in between. To be with all the lives within and without. Yeah. This is to recognize our connection to all beings

[32:26]

and to ourselves and all the beings on your Kushner chair. Good, thank you. Anybody else? Yes, Josh. My back hurts. Yeah. Good. Yes, the essential meaning of Buddhadharma. Josh's back hurts. Jenny. Relaxing. Yeah, but you heard that somewhere. But yeah, Shatot says that in the song on the grass hut. Let go of hundreds of years and relax completely. So, you know, different times he may have said different things as the essential meaning, right? Yes, Jen. No enduring self. But please don't ignore the self that seems to endure. Yeah. Even though we know it's not.

[33:28]

Yes, Carla. Very good. To stay in the process without attachment to the outcome. Yeah. I've heard that before, but that's good. Stay in the process without attachment to outcome. Yeah, that's... If you can practice that for this lifetime, you will not be wasting time. Yes, John. Me too. The writing of that song. Yeah, well, I was just, you know, having fun. Tangling with Dogan and, you know, trying to share that.

[34:33]

I don't know if that's... If you would call that an attainment. It's just something I did. I enjoyed it in both cases quite a lot. It took a lot of work. So, non-attaining, not knowing, is something that sometimes takes a lot of work. But also, we shouldn't get attached to non-attachment. You know, that's the most dangerous attachment in the world, is getting attached to non-attachment. Like, oh, I should just breathe and not do anything else. And sometimes then students, you know, get so blissed out from tsa-tsang that they imagine that. Terrible. The one who's not busy engages the world. Yes, Roy. Yeah, that's Yunmen's answer to a slightly different question. Maybe not. What is the teaching of Buddha's whole lifetime?

[35:39]

Pretty similar to what is the essential meaning of the Buddha Dharma. Yunmen said, he said an appropriate statement referring to teaching. But I think the essence of the Buddha Dharma, the Buddha reality is, yes, an appropriate action. So, Nyozan, after I asked you the second time, you wanted to say something. At the risk of being too long-winded, I'll say it again. Thank you very much for your eloquence. So, any other, whether or not it's about any essential meaning or inessential meaning, any other questions or comments? We have a couple minutes, if anyone has anything else to say. Jenny. You know, when you read it the first time, and I heard you say Shakyamuni Buddha's answer was, not, non-attainment of not knowing.

[36:43]

I don't think that's what I said, but okay. Say it again. Not, no attainment of not knowing. Well, that too. And I thought, oh, damn. You've been trying to not know all this time. You know, that was one thing. You know, pass that on. But I did think that after, because that's when she was practicing, just everything falls away. You just don't know anything. And then you realize even the stuff you didn't know, you don't even know what you didn't know. Stop bragging. At least I've attained that. I am attaining not knowing. And I was kind of, I mean, I was kind of laughing at myself, but then I realized, oh, I can't even do that. Yeah, Ashutosh says, no attainment, the essential meaning of Buddha Dharma is no attainment, no knowing. Period. You can't even know non-attainment.

[37:49]

John. Is there a comma between no attainment and non-attainment? He's an English professor, you know. And there's no commas in Chinese. It's one of the challenges of translating, is that often there's no period either, and one phrase might relate to a previous passage and be part of the previous sentence or the following sentence. So I can tell you what the translators said. The translators wrote, Ashutosh said, comma, quote, not attaining, comma, not knowing, period, quotation mark. That was just the English translators. But you were lay-ordained by the other ones. But actually, okay, do I have the original?

[39:01]

I have the original somewhere. In the Chinese, it's clear. It's actually, even though there's no commas, it's not attaining, and it's not knowing. I actually, you know, I think the translators got it right. I wasn't questioning that. Yes, not attaining, and not knowing. So please enjoy the white clouds drifting by. Please don't try and obstruct the white clouds drifting by. Please don't get caught up by the white clouds drifting by. If you find yourself riding a cloud, enjoy it, but then, you know, you can let it go. Yes, Asha. We don't discriminate here.

[40:05]

Enjoy it. Enjoy the black clouds, too. Especially. Especially enjoy the painful stuff. When I say enjoy part of that word, and you can correct me if I don't have the exact definition right, but I think part of enjoy means to bring joy to it. How do we bring joy to the black clouds? And in our practice, that means not to obstruct them, just to pay attention. Don't run away from yourself. Don't run away from your sadness. Don't run away from your fear. Don't run away from the difficulty of being a white cloud or a black cloud.

[41:09]

Pay attention, and be kind to all the cows, all of the different beings, and all of the beings in class on your own cushion. And good luck.

[41:28]

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