The truth of such a tragedy occurs... This morning I'm going to discuss the eighth section of Dogen's Gakudo Yojinshi.

[01:16]

And in the eighth section, he says, Dogen Zenji says, it's about the conduct of Zen monks. That's what it's called. But it's a little misleading, actually. It's not talking so much about conduct. It's talking about understanding. A little bit about conduct. in a very broad sense. He's talking about conduct in a very broad sense. He says, the conduct of Zen priests has been directly and uniquely transmitted by Buddha ancestors throughout 28 generations in India and six generations in China without the addition of a single hair or without the destruction of a single particle. Of course, this was written in the 13th century, so since that time have been patriarchs or ancestors in Japan.

[02:28]

But he talks about the ancestors in India and in China, but he doesn't talk about the ancestors in Japan because he doesn't consider so many ancestors in Japan at that time. Thus, the robe was transmitted to Zhou Xi, and Dharma was spread in boundless worlds. Presently, the Tathagata's treasury of the true Dharma-I is flourishing in Great China. Zhou Xi is, of course, the Sixth Patriarch, another name for the Sixth Patriarch, Hui Neng. This dharma is such that it cannot be attained by groping or searching about. In the realm of seeing, your knowledge perishes. At the moment of attaining, your mind is surpassed. This dharma is such that it cannot be attained by groping or searching about.

[03:39]

refers to what he said before, that Dharma has been transmitted by all these patriarchs and nothing's left out and nothing's been added. And if you, by searching and groping about, you'll never really come to it. But what he's saying here is, if you just follow in the footsteps of the ancestors, if you just practice the Dharma of the Buddhas, you can directly achieve the Dharma. So as far as the conduct of Zen monks, or people practicing, he's saying we should practice the authentic Dharma. and not grope around.

[04:45]

In the Platform Sutra, the Sixth Patriarch, he says the same thing. He says, if you just grope around following your own idea, you go on and on forever without ever really coming to it. So he encourages people to turn toward the orthodox dharma, the true dharma, so that we're not always swimming around looking for it. And then he says, in the realm of seeing, your knowledge perishes. At the moment of attaining, your mind is surpassed. He brings us all the way up suddenly to an enlightened mind.

[05:51]

It's interesting. In this section, he's throwing in a lot of things. And there are big, kind of strong juxtapositions of things that he's talking about, that he's saying. So he throws this in, he says, in the realm of seeing, your knowledge perishes. It's a very interesting statement. knowledge, true seeing goes beyond our knowledge, and our mind is surpassed in true seeing. And so both of these sentences, in the realm of seeing, your knowledge perishes at the moment of attaining, your mind is surpassed.

[06:52]

I think this is the point, you know, where we have A lot of people have difficulty in Buddhist practice, in Zen practice, leaving our knowledge behind and surpassing our mind. Because so much we're afraid of letting go of our thoughts, afraid of letting go of our thoughts, and afraid of going deeper into ourself than our mentality. And if you're a person who is very bright, very smart and depend, you depend a lot on the intellect.

[07:55]

Sometimes that kind of person will have a difficult time. But it doesn't mean that if you're bright and intelligent and smart that You can't go beyond it, but I think what I'm talking about is attachment to intellect. There are many people who are bright and smart and are very much involved with their intellect, but ultimately they're not attached. In order to sit zazen, you know, we have to let go of our thoughts and intellect and transcend our mind, our conscious mind.

[09:03]

Not lose it, but go beyond attachment to thinking mind. And I think that's maybe one of the most difficult things to do. And it's called losing our face. That's a way of talking about it. This is the sixth patriarch lost his face. I like the term surpassed. I think it's very good. He says your mind is surpassed. It doesn't mean that you eliminate your mind or that you can't think again. But he says your mind is surpassed.

[10:07]

You can cut through the barrier of your mind. Our mind is a very, we talk about this a lot, our mind is a very useful tool, thinking mind. Maybe if you close the door and lock it. But our mind can also become a barrier. So it's a big problem. Something so wonderful as our mind, we really should take care of it and use it to the fullest. But this wonderful mind, wonderful thinking mind, can also become a great obstacle and a great barrier to true understanding. So the same mind which works for our benefit can also be a great hindrance.

[11:12]

So he says, once a face is lost at Mount Huangmei, he's talking about 6th Patriarch. Once an arm was cut off at Xiaoyun, he's talking about Taishou Heiheng, who, as the legend goes, cut off his arm and offered it to Buddha to burn it. It was interesting. I think they're kind of symbolic gestures, you know. Most people don't feel this. It's just that the second picture I get is cut off again in the actuality. Cutting off again is like going beyond it, not offering something, offering body, not the dharma. So he says, by attaining the marrow and turning around mind, you acquire refined life.

[12:26]

By bowing formally and stepping inwards, you stumble into the realm of great ease. How nice. Great. You stumble into the realm of great ease. However, in mind and body, there is no abiding, no attacking, no standing still, and no stagnating. How do we get this very, very quick? In mind, you can talk about it as in mind and body, there is no abiding. And, you know, the point of Buddhism, the point of our understanding, is to find out where abiding is. Where do we live? Where do we abide? And who is it that abides? In mind and body there is no abiding. There is no abiding in mind or body.

[13:34]

There is nothing. No attention, no standing still, no stagnation. And then he says, to go through the first month's process, or month F, And joshi requires mood. Mood means nothing. It means no, nothing. But I see a meaning of mood. Joshi's mood comes from... I think it has a different meaning than self-knowledge. So, we always have to find out what means, what is supposed to mean, what is supposed to know mean. And then he says, beyond this word nothing, or move, can you measure anything or grasp anything?

[14:43]

There is entirely nothing to hold on to. Please try releasing your hold. And releasing your hold is good. What is body and mind? What is conduct? What is faith and guilt? What is Buddhadharma? What are worldly phenomena? What, in the end, are mountains, rivers, earth, human beings, animals, and houses? When you observe thoroughly, then it follows that the two aspects of motion and stillness do not arise at all. Though motion and stillness do not arise, things are not fixed. People do not realize this, and those who lose track of it are many. You who study the Way will come to awakening in the course of study. Even when you complete the Way, you do not stop. This is my prayer indeed."

[15:44]

Then he talks about motion and stillness. Because when you observe the way, I think it's the practice of the job of people who practice the way, it's to observe this kind of life. What is it? To find out what is it. To really investigate. To really investigate that. not to take anything for granted. But to constantly be investigating. And he says, when you thoroughly investigate, when you really investigate, when you observe thoroughly, then it follows that the two aspects of motion and stillness do not arise at all.

[16:47]

Motion and stillness can also be interpreted as birth and death. And we have two ways of thinking about birth and death. We think about birth and death on two levels. One level that we think about person death on is when a person emerges from the womb. And death is disintegration of the body and mind. And it's no longer integrated as a person. I mean that we're held together. But the other level, and this is a level that we usually think of, or act out, or like it, just to convene the subject.

[17:55]

That's the level between birth and death, death, birth, and death. We're always trying to make sense of this life. Trying to figure out what to do next. And worrying about ourselves and our others. And inventing our universe. Inventing our world. Creating our world out of bricks and stones. And then we go up into the stove and burn with our prayers. And then we turn our prayers into advance and oppose. But the process is the same, it's just that we're creating a world out of dreams. And the other view of birth and death is to see birth and death as it really is, moment after moment.

[19:08]

not as two sides of a polarity, what we call a dualism, but the true oneness of faith and death. That's the other level of seeing faith and death. to see birth and death of each moment simultaneously. So you can take your first, you know. You can say, this is the world of life, or you can say, this is the world of death. You can say that. Depends on whether you're looking forward or backwards. If you look this way, you can say, this is the world of life. And if you look this way, you can say, what? This is the world of death. Because where we exist is at that moment in the process of death.

[20:20]

Right on the pinpoint of death. So, for instance, as we continue in the process, And this birth and death is a continuous kind of process. There's really no abiding birth. You can't really abide in life. And you can't really abide in death. This is the big problem of our life. Where do you abide? At the same moment that this body is being born, this body and mind is being born, it's also abiding. because on this moment it has been completely burned, and on this moment it has completely died.

[21:21]

So when we think about birth and death, we have to investigate our very purpose. And when we start to investigate, when we wake up to the fact and start to investigate what's called practicing within enlightenment. So we go from practice, excuse me, we go from enlightenment to practice to study. Usually, People think about it the other way around, that there's firstly study, and then there's practice, and then there's enlightenment. But perhaps it's not so. You start with enlightenment, and it feeds through enlightenment to practice.

[22:25]

Because we have enlightenment, we can proceed to practice. And so practice and enlightenment become one thing. And then we study to find out what it is that we did. Or to find out what it is that we to clarify our understanding. We need people and some ideas for philosophy. You can learn something. Definitely, you can learn something. But when we Maybe it could be verifying your own consciousness and your own understanding.

[23:38]

And it's a very strong practice, Mr. Church, with a very vibrant place. Mr. Church has come alive. You make the Sutra come to life. And of course, the Sutra is making you come to life as well. The Sixth Patriarch, Hui Nong, talks about sometimes the Sutra turns you, and sometimes you turn the Sutra. If you depend on the Sutra for your understanding, then the Sutra is turning you, just turning you around, because you don't have anything to your own understanding.

[24:47]

But when you have practiced realization, and you read the sutra, recite the sutra, then you're turning the sutra. So, best understanding, best way, you know, is you turn the sutra, and the sutra turns you. how it should be. You turn the sutra and the sutra turns you. So you bring the sutra to life and the sutra wakes you up. And through the sutras, you know, you can feel some bond with all of the ancestors. whose practice is just like yours, whose understanding and practice is just like yours.

[25:59]

So when we talk about motion and stillness did not arise, It has the feeling of within birth, there's death, and within death, there's birth. And within stillness, there's motion, and within motion, there's stillness. So actually, instead of talking so much about birth and death, we can talk about stillness and motion. stillness and activity. When we sit zazen, and become very still, really still, you know, the purpose of sesshin is to help us become very, very still, just as still as

[27:23]

you can feel true stillness. But within that stillness, that stillness is filled with great activity, great dynamic activity. And you can't say what it is. You can say this is very still, but that stillness is a very powerful stillness. and a very potent stillness. And when we're in the midst of great movement, no matter how dynamic the movement, we should be able to feel the stillness within that movement.

[28:26]

So in a sense, we can say stillness and movement do not arise. There's just the total, as Dogen says, total dynamic working, the zenki, of our consummate life. This life, which includes death. birth and death. So we can call the whole thing life, say life. Birth and death are two polarities.

[29:37]

So we can say life includes everything, or we can say death includes everything. So then he says, though motion and stillness do not arise, things are not fixed. Nothing is fixed. This is the point. Nothing is fixed. So we really need to investigate. And how we investigate is by sitting Zazen extending that zazen into all of our activities, extending the zazen mind into all activity.

[30:40]

So zazen mind, which is the fundamental mind, which doesn't arise or doesn't come or go or stay, or you can't describe it So Zhouxu's Mu, Dogen uses this, Dogen's Mu, as his example. And Mu is always, you know, Dogen, Zhouxu's Mu is, in koan study, Mu is the first koan, always the first koan. If you can penetrate Mu, if you can understand Mu,

[31:46]

then you can understand where you're going in practice and how fast it's going. Mu is, you can substitute Anything for, does a dog have buddha nature? You can say anything you want. You know, we know that in our big mind, you know, that we include dogs and cats and trees and rocks and pebbles in our mind, in our big mind. We say they all have buddha nature. So where does Joshu get off saying that a dog doesn't have buddha nature?

[32:55]

But Joshu doesn't say so, you know. One time a monk asked Joshu, does a dog have buddha nature? And he said yes. And next time someone asked Joshu, Does a dog have Buddha nature? And he says, no. So we have to be very careful here. Now, where is Joshua coming from? He says yes one time, and he says no another time. So how do we deal with a koan like mu?

[34:15]

How do we deal with no, nothing, no buddha nature? If you have to, if you had the koan mu, you would just say mu, mu, like a cow, mu. You just concentrate on Mu, on Joshu's answer, Mu, all day long, or for six years or ten years, or maybe shorter, until you penetrate Mu. And it's not... Mu means nothingness, nothing, but It doesn't mean the opposite of yes. Mu means nothing, but it doesn't mean the opposite of something.

[35:18]

What is it? What is it? The only way you can penetrate mu is to become mu. And the only way you can become Mu is to get through your thinking mind. Your thinking mind is a great barrier to Mu. The biggest barrier to Mu is our intellect, which wants to divide everything up into little pieces. So our intellect is our discriminating consciousness, which wants to divide up everything into yes and no, dark and light, heavy and light, good and bad, right and wrong, and so forth.

[36:35]

But to become one with Mu is to bring everything to Mu. and become Mu. Everything becomes Mu. But you don't have to use Mu. You can use breath. In our practice, we use our breath. In Zazen, we say, one, two. Now, usually, we use numbers to think with. That's what numbers are for. We have 1, 2, 3, and we add 1, 2, 3, 4, or we divide them, or we multiply them, or we divide them. But in Zazen, 1 is just 1.

[37:39]

And there's nothing else in the world except 1. And you must become one with one. And then when there's two, there's nothing else in the world but two. There's no one and three and four. There's just two. And you must become absolutely undivided from two. And when there's three, it should just be completely, everything is three. So that's the same as mu. And when we sit, you know, in zazen, our whole body becomes mu.

[38:40]

body and mind. Mind is focused on the body, so that the mind and the body is completely indistinct as to which is which. You cannot divide the mind from the body in Zazen. And this is Mu. So just keeping posture, keeping your posture without losing track. Becoming one with your posture in zazen is mu. And when you walk qian yin, just one step at a time, just concentrating on just taking a step, is mu. And then when you Leave the zendo and go about your activities without losing mu.

[39:51]

You do everything as mu. But you don't call it mu. You call it cooking breakfast, washing the dishes, walking down the street, talking to somebody, answering the telephone, being confused. being unhappy, crying, laughing. Whatever you do is Mu. We call it mindfulness. But Mu is more than just mindfulness. It's being undivided. If you practice like that, you'll always have your imperturbable mind. Imperturbable because it's not two sides vying for dominance.

[41:00]

No matter what happens, you always are sitting zazen, not with your legs crossed. Your mind is zazen. Mind is zazen. So in order to really penetrate this, we have to sit very hard. We have to practice hard and sit hard. But I mean, sit hard. I don't want to make it sound hard. We have to put our whole body and mind into what we're doing. And we have to be alert enough not to get carried away. When you see a strong Sangha of Buddhists practicing, their practice seems very alert, and people are always focused on what they're doing.

[42:32]

If you focus, if you're completely at Mu with whatever you're doing, then when you turn to do the next thing, you're also at Mu with that. You don't have so much hanging that you're pulling along with you. You know how to cut. This is Manjushri's sword, you know, which cuts the entanglements. You just hear. This is the whole universe right there. And then, and this is the whole universe. You know, If we try to be everywhere at once, we really can be nowhere. The only way we can really do something well is to just be right here. This, when we're right here, we're everywhere.

[43:40]

But if we try to be everywhere, we're nowhere. So that's In order to really practice, we have to limit ourself, limit our activity. When you can limit yourself enough, then you can really concentrate, you can really become Mu with the tiniest thing. But when you're really Mu with that tiniest thing, then You're everywhere. We don't have to get tangled up with everything. You know, all creatures live out their lives in some limited sphere.

[44:43]

And if we know how to live out our life in moment to moment in our limited sphere, then our life is very expensive. Very expensive, because we're totally used. Totally used. No space for boredom. So as much as we can open our eyes to our present situation, when we turn to the next moment situation, our eyes are also open then. Moment to moment is our life. from birth and death by each moment, moment to moment.

[45:53]

In bringing our life to life, we say, just light up your own corner. Just don't neglect your own corner. A monk's life in a monastery in Japan is so completely rootless. Just a three by six tatami mat, that's your home. A 3 by 6 foot grass mat is your home. And you have to take care of that space.

[47:01]

If you can't take care of that space, what can you take care of? So, you know, we don't ask you to live on a 3 by 5 mat, a 3 by 6 mat, but When you practice, you should limit your activity. Know what your limitations are. And the biggest problems we have are when we get pulled out by so many things that we can't really pay attention to our practice together. So Zen practice is always associated with discipline. Discipline is the basis always of Zen practice. Knowing how to limit yourself and knowing when to do something and how and where.

[48:10]

You always know what you're doing, and you always know where you're at. It's a great challenge to live like that. But as soon as we get a little bit comfortable, you know, then we forget all about it. And we start to fill our lives with all kinds of luscious things. You know what it's like when you're sick, and then when you get well, you've been in bed for five days, and then you get well, and you get up, and the air is real fresh, you know, and you go outside, and the sunlight is so wonderful, and you really feel good, you know, and you say, what'll I do now? You should do just what you were doing before.

[49:21]

But we always want to do something radical. And it's so easy at that point to get lost. It's the same with our practice. We come to practice, and we have some kind of refreshment through practice. And then we start to take it easy. Because we feel good, and so much is released in us. we're so receptive, become receptive again, that we start to get lost in the world. And we can't really keep our concentrated movement. So for a Zen student, the most important thing is to keep that concentrated Mu mind, undivided mind.

[50:27]

Do you have a question? Yes, I thought you'd have a question. You suggested that enlightenment practice and study reversing that order. In that case, if those are sequential, Would you explain how enlightenment takes place? Well, enlightenment is our... You know, we say, well, what are we enlightened to? Right? Enlightenment isn't a thing, or an event, actually. So we say, how does enlightenment take place? It's not really an event. although we speak about events in which we are enlightened.

[52:00]

So if we want to talk about light, we use the example of the light in the clouds. The sun is shining, but we don't see it on a cloudy day. So when we lift up the clouds, then you see the light. But the light is always there. So when we start to practice, or we begin to practice, because we are aware of that light, we begin to practice. So the enlightenment is already there. And it's our guide, actually. Our enlightenment is actually what's guiding us all the time. So because we have that enlightenment as our guide, we proceed to practice. So enlightenment is seeking enlightenment, you know. And practice helps to make us more and more aware of that light.

[53:09]

So practice is the activity of enlightenment. And enlightenment is the essence of the practice. And so before really studying, we always get together practice and enlightenment and realization first so that we don't have some misunderstanding or cloud our mind again. It's so easy to cloud our mind with understanding or with knowledge. you know, we begin to formulate concepts which are, come from outside. But when we have, when our, the dynamics of activity and enlightenment are working together through practice, then we start to study about it.

[54:24]

So the first thing is actuality. Then the second thing is study. Then comes study. We always recommend study afterward. For 10 years, we didn't study anything at Zen Center. Tsukiyoshi never said, you should study this or that. He said, sit down. Always just sit down. Of course, we had a little library there at Zen Center. And we were always encouraged to read. But Suzuki Roshi never made a point of study, of us studying. He felt that we would study later, which we did. Actually, after he was gone, we had to study. It's like when you have Buddha around, you don't need study so much. And that's the way it was.

[55:28]

That's the history of Buddhism. When Buddha was around, people didn't need to study. But after Buddha was gone, then they needed Buddha statues, and they needed sutras, and stupas, various paraphernalia of religion. As much as possible, we should put our emphasis on just practice. But in America, we need to study. And we should also study. We really put a lot of emphasis on studying. Not so much, you know, because there's always that kind of, you don't want to study too much. But I think we need to. But before we start studying, the things that I always recommend for people to study are always the most basic, simple things. to have a good foundation before you study things that are more complex and intellectual.

[56:32]

But, you know, you can enter study anywhere. In Buddhism, you can really enter study anywhere. You don't have to start at some beginning. Anywhere you enter is okay. If you enter here, then you have to study back to here and ahead to there. And if you enter here, then you study back to there and ahead to there. But it's really all possible. You don't really have to study from the very beginning and go up to the end. Because Buddhism isn't like that. It's all there in wherever you're studying. It's just that there are different ways of expressing it. And that's what's so interesting about studying Buddhism, is that you find all these wonderful ways of expressing it, that it's been expressed. But whichever, wherever you look, it's expressed. So any sutra you pick up, there it is.

[57:35]

Any commentary you pick up, there it is. You pick up, read any case in the booklet record, and the whole thing is there. But we read the different cases, because they're all saying something unique, but they're all saying the same thing. That's what's wonderful about Buddhism. Every chapter of a sutra is saying exactly the same thing, but in a different way. And it's all different and interesting. Thank you.

[58:20]

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