Tomorrow is the day that is usually commemorated as Dogen's birthday, January 26th. Dogen, Ehei Dogen, is the 13th century Japanese monk who founded Soto-sen, the branch of Buddhism that we practice here and follow up. And he lived from 1200 to 1253 and founded after going to Japan, founded Eheji, still the headquarters temple of Soto Zen in Japan. And I've had the privilege of translating a lot of his work. Yesterday, I spoke about his four basic teachings. On Thursday evening at our usual meditation time, 7.15, we'll have a movie night showing this new Japanese movie, Zen, which is a biography of Dogen.

[01:13]

But tonight I want to talk about just one of his writings. This is from his long, one of his two great masterworks, Shobo Genzo, The True Dharmai Treasury, which has many essays in it. I translate it with Kaz Tanahashi, and it's in his book, Enlightenment Unfolds, in Japanese, Muchu Setsumu, in English, Within a Dream, Expressing the Dream. So this is a very good characteristic example of how Dogen plays with and turns inside out conventional understandings. both conventional understandings in society, but also conventional understandings within Buddhism. So to talk about dreams, usually in Buddhism that is kind of understood as the opposite of awakening.

[02:16]

Buddhism is the study of awakening, how we wake up to this nature of awareness and wisdom and kindness that is always present, but because of our dreamy conditioned mind in our habits and grasping and attachments, we don't see it. So awakening is to actually be present and see this reality. So usually in Buddhist language and Buddhist discourse, there's this opposition of awakening to dreams. And in this writing, and I'm just going to read some selections from it and comment a little Dogen is turning that really inside out. Another context for this is medieval Japan generally, medieval Japanese Buddhism, in which dreams were considered important. And in medieval, both China and Japan, often bodhisattvas appeared in dreams.

[03:17]

one of Dogen's important successors three generations later. Keizan Zenji is considered the second founder of Soto Zen. Keizan's grandmother was actually a student of Dogen, a close student, but he followed dreams quite a lot. He used dreams as guides for where to build his temples and how to conduct his practice. So there was this idea of this continuum of awakening. As we say, our practice of awareness and awakening is not just about what happens in our formal meditation, sitting upright facing a wall, inhaling and exhaling and returning to awareness and balance of this uprightness. But we also... Zazen is also something that happens in our everyday activity. And how do we carry this awareness that we... get a taste of and zazen into our interactions and relationships and work in the world.

[04:27]

So there's a continuum. And there actually are practices for how to practice while sleeping. So in the monastery I was at in Japan, we slept on our right side, head facing the Buddha. And this is traditional. It goes back to the Buddha's death and the image of sleeping on their right side. And there are actually biological, anatomical reasons why this is considered healthy. But anyway, this is just to say that there is this sense when we get deeper into this engagement with awakening of a continuum of awareness within our mind. Awakening is not just one thing. So that is by way of preface to this essay in Shobo Genzo, Within a Dream, Expressing the Dream. And he begins this kind of indirectly, as he does in many of the Shobo Genzo essays, where he puts out something first and then comes back to his main theme. So it begins, the path of all Buddhas and ancestors arises before the first forms emerge.

[05:35]

It cannot be spoken of in terms of conventional views. The path of all Buddhas and ancestors arises before the first forms emerge. This path, this way, this process of awakening followed by the Buddhas and ancestors arises before the first forms emerge. It's not a function of creation of this world. It cannot be spoken of in terms of conventional views. This being so, Dogen says, in the realm of Buddha ancestors, there is the active power of Buddhas going beyond Buddhas. So this phrase, Buddha's going beyond Buddha's, in a way it's the definition of Buddha for Dogen. And I talked about it yesterday as one of the four major basic kinds of teachings of Dogen, this idea of going beyond, that Buddha is the one going beyond Buddha, that awakening, what Buddha is.

[06:38]

It's not something that happens just once. It's not, the point isn't to have some, to get some understanding or even some, dramatic or less dramatic or whatever experience of awakening, but this sustainable, ongoing Buddha going beyond Buddha, not to hold on to the Buddha that you may have realized or expressed yesterday, or today, or in the middle of Zazen a little while ago. So Dogen is always talking about this going that many of you have heard me talk about that he uses in another one of his essays where he says, just experience the vital process on the path of going beyond Buddha. So this idea of going beyond is part of, is the context, the background for his talking about dreams and expression. So again, Dogen is not primarily interested in finding some understanding or experience, but he's interested in how do we express this

[07:42]

How do we make it real? How do we actualize it in our lives, in the world? So, he says, thus the dharma wheel has been set to turn since before the first sign of forms emerged. Just a note on this, I'm teaching undergraduate Introduction to Buddhism, and I always get asked about, you know, God and Buddha, and who wears God in Buddhism, and the idea that so, central to Western religion of God as the creator, it's not an important issue in Buddhism. I'm not making any judgments about any particular perspective, but just to say that Dogan and Buddhism say that the Dharma wheel has been set to turn since before the first sign of forms emerged. This is something more foundational, more fundamental than just this array of forms. in this universe, in this world.

[08:44]

Of course, the point is, how do we express it in this world? So he says, the great merit needs no reward and becomes the guidepost for all ages. So these Bodhisattva precepts that we talk about here and that some of you have formally taken, but that is part of our basic practice and teaching. become this great merit. It needs no reward. We don't need to get something from it. That would be diminishing it, actually. It becomes a guidepost for all ages. What are standards, not from our conventional way of thinking, but from awakening? And we have things like supporting life and not harming and speaking truth and benefiting all beings. This is very radical in our age and maybe in all ages, but this is the dream that we have to express here.

[09:50]

So, okay, here it begins. Delgad says, within a dream, this is the dream you express. Because awakening is seen within awakening, the dream is expressed within a dream. Because awakening is seen within awakening. The dream is expressed within a dream. And he says, the place where the dream is expressed within a dream is the land and the assembly of Buddha ancestors. So, this is so, you know, from some point, from some Buddhist point of view, this is kind of radical and controversial and inside out, but really Dogen is getting at something very deep here. as he does when he turns language and turns usual ways of seeing things inside out. The land, the Buddha land, and the assembly of the Buddha ancestors is the place where the dream is expressed within the dream.

[10:57]

The Buddha's lands and their assemblies, the ancestors' way and their seats, are awakening, throughout awakening, and express the dream within a dream. So, here we are in this dream of ancient dragons and geese. Here we are in this dream of North Central Chicago, 2000 and, what is it, 2010? Yeah, so we have this dream, we have this world, and with all of its problems, which, you know, we all know, and this dream of our own lives, each of us sitting here tonight on our cushions. Well, is that kind of derogatory to call it a dream? Well, I would say from the point of view of awakening, it's just kind of confessing our true situation, that we are human beings with attractions and aversions, thoughts and feelings with various things that probably, you know, images or song lyrics or laundry lists or, you know, whatever it was that those thoughts and feelings that floated through your head in the period of Zazen we just said.

[12:18]

This is the dream we are in. And what Dogen emphasizes is expression. How do we express this dream within a dream? The character, Setsubo, which is translated here as expression also, well, could be translated as explain or expound, but how is it that we bring to life, how is it that we each express this dream within the stream that we're in? This is the way Dogen is talking about our practice here, and I think it's provocative and helpful. So I, you know, often emphasize the expressive quality of our practice. That in our everyday activity, in our various modes of expression, through music, through art, through athletic endeavors, through helping others and listening to others, through parenting, through various organizational activities, we are expressing this dream within a dream.

[13:26]

We are expressing I don't even want to say from the place of awakening. He's saying that awakening is about expressing the dream within the dream ring. The Buddha's lands and their assemblies, the ancestors' ways and their seats are awakening throughout awakening and express the dream within a dream. So in the Genjo Koan, one of his basic writings that we just chanted, he talks about being in awakening throughout awakening and being in delusion throughout delusion. It's not a matter of awakening as opposed to a dream. We awaken within a dream. And there's a logic here that is fundamental to Bodhisattva Buddhism. That in early Buddhism, they saw that we were in samsara, in this world of suffering. That through our grasping, through our desires, through our fundamental affliction of ignorance, we create a world of suffering. We grasp at things.

[14:29]

We're not quite satisfied with all the wonderful things we do have. We want more, or we want to get rid of some of the things that are a little yucky. And we have this dis-ease. This is the nature of this dream that we're all in. And the Buddha realized this, and so he taught about samsara and nirvana. Samsara is this cycle of birth and death, which happens lifetime after lifetime. and also happens maybe day after day, problem after problem, job after job, relationship after relationship, city after city. We move around in this world of change, in this world where we're trying to, sometimes in very wholesome ways, trying to make things better. And it's not that there's anything wrong with that. Well, in early Buddhism, the idea of escape from that was this idea of nirvana as cessation, actually extinguishing all desires, extinguishing all preferences, getting rid of, purifying ourselves of all discontent.

[15:45]

And that is one way to do it. But in the Bodhisattva idea, one comes back. into this world of suffering and all the problems that we have in our lives and in our world and our society and tries to help. So how do we express this dream within the dream? How do we make it real? As a dream, this is what Buddhas do, Dogen is saying. So let me read some more, a little bit more of what he says. This is a longer essay than I'm going to read all of tonight. He says, every dew drop manifested in every realm is a dream. Anything you can think of is a dream. Any form you see is a dream. And then he says, this dream is the glowing clarity of the hundred grasses, of the many things. At this time, there are dream grasses, grasses within, expressive grasses, and so on.

[16:48]

When we study this, then roots, stems, branches, leaves, flowers and fruits, as well as radiance and color, are all the great dream. Do not mistake them as merely dreamy. So he's not talking about dream as something that's kind of fuzzy and, you know, groggy and sentimental or whatever. How do we bring How do we express our true heart in the dream? He says, when you say within confusion is just confusion, still you should follow the path in the vast sky known as delusion throughout delusion. Just this you should endeavor to investigate thoroughly. And then again, he says it very strongly, the expressing of the dream within a dream is all A very strange thing to say.

[17:50]

The expressing of the dream within a dream is all Buddhas. Or you might read it as all Buddhas just express a dream within the dream. To express the dream within a dream is the ancient Buddhas. It is to ride in this treasure boat and directly arrive in the practice place. all things emerge and all things arrive right here. As he says in Gedjah Koan, here is the place, here the way unfolds. This being so, he says in this essay, one plants twining vines and gets entangled in twining vines. This is the characteristic of unsurpassable enlightenment. The enlightenment the Dogon is concerned with, the unsurpassable enlightenment, is not some escape, it's not some you know, distraction or way of escaping from ourselves and from our world and from this dream. He says, just as expression is limitless, sentient beings are limitless and unsurpassable.

[18:56]

Just as cages and snares are limitless, emancipation from them is limitless. So the way to be free within the dream is how do we express this dream? What is it we bring? from our own particular mode of expression. How do you, in your activity, express this dream within a dream? Just one last passage I'll read. There are inner dreams, and this is, well, this is typical Tolkien. He turns, a lot of times he'll go and take apart the language and say all the things that all the ways you might misunderstand it. Anyway, here he says, there are inner dreams, dream expressions, expressions of dreams, and dreams inside. Without being within a dream, there's no expression of dreams. Without expressing dreams, there's no being within a dream. Without expressing dreams, there are no Buddhas.

[19:59]

Without being within a dream, Buddhas do not emerge and turn the wonder star on a wheel. So this is a little bit like the Lotus Sutra where it says the only reason for Buddhists, the single great cause for Buddhists to show up in the world is because there are suffering beings. And Buddhists show up to help beings onto this path of awakening. Buddhists appear in dreams. They can only appear in dreams. In this world of causes and conditions, in this conditioned world of suffering, this is where Buddhists show up. They're not hanging out in some you know, paradise up in a cloud somewhere. So he continues, without being within a dream, Buddhas do not emerge and turn the wondrous dharma wheel. This dharma wheel is no other than a Buddha together with a Buddha and a dream expressed within a dream. Simply expressing the dream within a dream is itself the Buddhas and ancestors, the assembly of unsurpassable enlightenment.

[21:01]

Furthermore, going beyond the dharma body is itself expressing the dream within a dream. So this phrase, to express the dream within a dream, is challenging. One other place it says, the expression of the dream within a dream can be harassed by both ordinary people and sages. Moreover, the expression of the dream within a dream by both ordinary people and sages arose yesterday and develops today. So this is this ongoing, Buddha going beyond Buddha, that we admit the dream we're in and we say, yes, and then how is it? What is the most beautiful way to express this dream that we're in together within a dream? And we each have our particular bandage point on the dream. And we each have our own particular gifts and talents and ways of expressing this dream within a dream.

[22:02]

So this is not dream as opposed to awakening. This is the inner life of awakening. This is what he's saying. This is pretty tricky stuff. This is advanced Zen teaching, if you want to think about it that way. But really, it's just this is how we bring our lives to life. This is about how do we really find what is important in our own life, and how do we express that? How do we face it without escaping into dreamy dreams, but saying, okay, here's this dream I'm in. Here's this dharma position. So I talked also yesterday about one of Dogen's main approaches to teaching, abiding in your dharma position. Maybe we could read that as hanging out in your dream. And then, really taking it on. What is it that I have to express in this dream, of this life, in this lifetime?

[23:07]

So I'm really happy to be here with you today and this week, celebrating Dogen. This is my way of, in the last week, I celebrated my 60th birthday and my 35th anniversary of sitting Zazen every day. So, you know, it's great to be here just rapping about this weird Dogen cat and this weird dreamy talk. This is challenging. How do we express the dream within a dream? So, please, bring it on. What do you have to say? Dawn. I'm trying to get the dream. Is the dream delusion? Is it the same as delusion? It's not different from the delusion that we're in now. It's delusion throughout delusion, it's awakening throughout awakening.

[24:14]

It's what it is. There are many dreams, it's not one dream. But the Buddhas and ancestors can hang out in all of them. All of the different aspects of the suffering of our world. The poor people, you know, waiting for water and food in Haiti. Right now, you know, let's include that. and all the people you've ever known, and all the people you care about in your world. This is the dream we are in. So it's all a dream? But to say that it's like, if it's all a dream, it's like, the way you said that last thing sounded like you thought dream was less than something else. No, no, it's all a dream. How do we embrace this dream? How do we celebrate this dream? Maybe it would be okay to translate it as celebrating the dream within a dream. Seeing the dream we're in and, okay, what do we do to bring it alive?

[25:19]

Yeah, David, cut to you. So it seems like the self that we posit or impute on Yeah. Well, not just the self. It's not just personal karma. There's our collective karma too, you know. There are various, you know, so it's an interactive process. It's not just you. It's this interactive... It's a self-diposit here, too. My idea of David is a little bit of a dream, too. Of course, yeah. And if you weren't doing that, we couldn't appreciate David. Okay. One implication of this is that our idea of waking up, we think as good Zen practitioners we should wake up and be awake and be like Buddha or something.

[26:26]

But that doesn't happen separate from the nitty-gritty of cleaning the temple, making tea, brushing our teeth, going to the bathroom, meeting with our friends, taking care of whatever our work is, taking care of our situation. How do we take care of our dream? And of course, Dogen is being very playful. Maybe we could say, within a dream, play with a dream. How do we play with this dream? But in a way that's very gentle and appreciating that this dream is a treasure. I guess there's not many thoughts. Well, well, well, you don't. Gently down the stream. Merrily, merrily, merrily.

[27:29]

Oh, what's that song? Goes way back. Yes, Nathan? So I was thinking, First of all, thank you for a wonderful talk. I was thinking in your talk about the dream and the body. Yes. And earlier this month I saw the movie Avatar. Oh yes, me too. And of course there's also the movie The Matrix. You know, there are all these movies about dreaming and the body and the relationship between No, it's a very important point. Dreams aren't just some theoretical head trip. Dreams happen in, they're embodied. You know, dreams happen in a body. We have, you know, yeah, we move around in this dream.

[28:37]

Dreams are physical. So, you know, in thinking about actual dreams that happen when you're sleeping, Do any of you ever smell things in dreams? I'm not sure I have. I don't have a good sense of smell. Have you ever heard something in a dream? Or seen something in a dream? The sense world is there. There's a physicality to dreams. I mention movies because movies are a kind of incense of... You know, when you see a movie that's about the relationship between dreams and bodies, there's a way that movies are kind of a metaphor for dreaming. When you go into a movie, it's like a real version of that inner screen that you've got inside. Yeah, being a former filmmaker and being a movie devotee myself, I, you know, yeah, there's a way in which you, there's some interesting literature about this, but that you go into the movie theater and it's like entering into a dream space.

[29:50]

And we, and it's, so it's this modern, great modern art form that brings us dreams. And, you know, I thought about how do we take on the dream. So part of the fun for me of going to a dream is talking with people about the dream afterwards, about the movie afterwards, or reading what the critics said, or actually engaging in it myself. I like movies that I have to think about afterwards.

[30:19]

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