Good morning, everyone. I want to speak today about a teaching from Hongzhi Zhongshui, who lived in 1091 to 1157. Hongzhi was the most important Soto teacher, or Cao Yang in Chinese, in China in the century before Dogen, who's the founder of our branch of Buddhism, now called Soto Zen. And, yeah, so Hongzhu was a very important teacher and he's a very important influence on Dogen, quoted often by Dogen. And I'm going to talk today about a teaching from this book, Cultivating the Empty Field, that I translated a good while ago online. which is excerpts from Hongshu's extensive record. So I'm talking about something from the...

[01:04]

12th century in China, but I think it's very relevant to our practice in our world today. So these are from the, I called them practice instructions, but literally hogo or Dharma words from Dogen's, from Hongzhi's extensive record. And I'm going to comment on one of these, or 57 of them, I'm going to comment on one of them. So, David Ray, would you please screen share and post this text, and I'll read it through once, and then I'll comment on it line by line. Our house is a single field, clean, vast, and lustrous, clearly self-illuminated. When the spirit is vacant without conditions, when awareness is serene without cogitation, then Buddhas and ancestors appear and disappear, transforming the world.

[02:10]

Amid living beings is the original place of nirvana. How amazing it is that all people have this but cannot polish it into bright clarity. In darkness, unawakened, they make foolishness cover their wisdom and overflow. One remembrance of illumination can break through and leap out of the dust of Kelpas. Radiant and clear white. The single field cannot be diverted or altered in the three times. The four elements cannot modify it. Solitary glory is deeply preserved, enduring throughout ancient and present times as the merging of sameness and difference becomes the entire creation's mother. This realm manifests the energy of the many thousands of beings. All appearances merely this field's shadows truly enact this reality.

[03:17]

So, David, you can take down the screen share for now. I'm going to go through it again line by line. And I believe we'll have time for discussion or comments or questions after. So he starts in this practice instruction by saying, Our house is a single field, clean, vast, and lustrous, clearly self-illuminated. So our house, you know, can refer to, well, just our body and mind, or each Zoom room that I can see, and all the people in the room at Lincoln Square. Also, house, our house, is a reference to our particular teaching tradition, so particular lineage, in this case, Sao Dong in Chinese, or Shoto Zen. And so he says it's a single field.

[04:21]

Clean, vast, and lustrous, clearly self-illuminated. This is a reference to the very first practice instruction in cultivating the empty field. This is one of the volumes of his practice instructions, or one of the volumes of Hongshu's extensive record. But in the very first one, he starts, the field of boundless emptiness is what exists from the very beginning. You must purify, cure, grind down, or brush away all the tendencies you have fabricated into apparent habits. Then you can reside in the clear circle of brightness. So this field of boundless emptiness is the starting point in some ways. This is talking about our life, our world, that this isn't how we usually live. see it but uh conventionally but this is the reality of our lives our house is a single field clean vast and lustrous clearly self-illuminated so um this he's describing the reality as

[05:43]

He sees it and Aung San Suu Kyi's vision is brilliant and one of the great masters in the whole Zen tradition. He says, when the spirit is vacant without conditions, When our spirit, our life, our mind, our awareness, everything that we are aware of is vacant without conditions, when awareness is serene without cogitation, then Buddhas and ancestors appear and disappear, transforming the world. So he's invoking the Buddhas and ancestors, all the Buddhas going back before Shakyamuni Buddha, the historical Buddha, 2,500 years ago, and all the lineage of ancestors and all the variety of ancestors. So he talks about ancestors a lot, and we can come back to that, but it's not just the particular lineage of one Buddha,

[06:48]

Zen tradition, but all of our ancestors, and all of our cultural ancestors. But he starts when the spirit is vacant, without conditions. So he's talking about what is sometimes called emptiness in Buddhism, when the spirit is vacant, when we are not clinging to any aspect of our life or the world or our mind or heart. when we just let go of all that, when the spirit is vacant, without conditions. So in traditional Buddhism, they talk about conditioned and unconditioned realities or aspects of our life. When the spirit is vacant, without conditions, when we let go of all our habits, when we let go of all the karmic tendencies we have fabricated, as he says, When awareness is serene, without cogitation, so our Zazen practice is about serenity.

[07:57]

Without all the cogitation, all the deliberations, all the discursive thinking. Of course, this is our reality too. Our monkey mind is always more or less active. But our practice, this sitting practice that we've been doing, is about serenity. So the subtitle of this Cultivating the Empty Field book is The Silent Illumination of Zen Master Hongzhe. That could be read as serene illumination as well. This is a teaching that Hongzhe mentions a number of times as a poem to serene illumination. This is controversial in Zen history and in Zen commentary and philosophy, but this is the basic practice of our traditions. other lineages attacked it, actually, as being quietistic, as being, you know, self-complacent, self-satisfied.

[09:10]

And our practice, when we do extensive practice and do this Zazen for a while over some time and sustain it uh we can settle into this field of serene illumination and it's um it's enjoyable it's blissful it's the dharma gate of peace and joy as doken later says And if we just stop there, that's not our tradition. That's not our practice. So Dogen says in this sentence, when the spirit is vacant and so forth, then Buddhas and ancestors appear and disappear, transforming the world. So our practice is not just about settling into calmness and quietness. and peacefulness and serenity, but our practice is also about transforming the world.

[10:16]

And of course, we know the world is difficult and troubled and needs transformation, and that's what this teaching and practice is about. So then, he has this wonderful sentence, amid living beings is the original place of nirvana. one of the more important sentences in this practice instruction. Not the most important, but a mid-living being is the original place of nirvana. In some ways, this is just a basic Bodhisattva or Mahayana teaching. Nirvana ultimate peace, literally cessation. So in early Buddhism, the idea of nirvana was to get free of birth and death, get free of all the suffering and all the rounds of suffering. But this radical idea came up as the Mahayana Buddhism developed and Zen is a branch of that, that amid living beings is the original place of nirvana.

[11:23]

the original place of liberation, the original place of ultimate peace, is not about escaping from all of the suffering and all of the confusion of all the living beings. It's easy to feel that. It's easy to feel that if one goes up to some mountaintop and sits for a long time and and develops peace and serenity, that that's the point. And I want to welcome Ruben back from intensive practice at Green Gulch. It's good to see you, Ruben. But actually, the original place of nirvana, which Hongzhi says here, is amid living beings. It's not spiritual bypass. It's not escaping from this world and all its troubles.

[12:26]

But we come back to this world, the original place, the fundamental place of nirvana is right in the middle of samsara, the round of suffering. what he calls in this section, the amazing living beings. So, an important sentence, amid living beings is the original place of nirvana. Then he says, how amazing it is that all people have this but cannot polish it into bright clarity. In darkness, unawakened, they make foolishness cover their wisdom and overflow. One remembrance of illumination can break through and leap out of the dust of Kalpas, all of the attachments of many ages. Kalpas are long, long periods of time. So how amazing it is that all people have this but cannot polish it into bright clarity.

[13:30]

This is a reference to another writing by Hongzhe called The Book of Serenity, which is one of our main koan collections. And Hongzhe wrote the picture, there's 100 cases in there, patterned after the earlier Blue Cliff Record koan collection. But he's referring specifically, and Hongzhe picked the cases and and wrote the verse comments about these hundred cases. And then a later great Sao Domo Shoto teacher, Wang Song in China, wrote extensive commentary introducing these cases and commenting on the case in the verse. But the basic case that Hong Shuo is referring to here the way he framed it in Thomas Cleary's translation, the Flower Ornament Sutra says, I now see all sentient beings everywhere fully possess the wisdom and virtues of the awakened ones.

[14:36]

But because of false conceptions and attachments, they don't realize it. So that's the basic case, case number 67 in the Book of Serenity, also from Hongshu. So the Flower Ornament Sutra is one of the great Mahayana sutras that Hongshu and Dogen refer to as one of the basic sutras or scriptures of our lineage and tradition. And he's quoting, for those of you who've been following, it's page 534 of the Flower Ornament Sutra in the Ten Dedications chapter. And here at Ancient Dragons Zen Gate, we do a monthly reading of the Flower Ornament Sutra. It's going to be this coming Friday. evening. It's the first Friday of every month, 7 o'clock.

[15:38]

Everyone's welcome to join in. You can join in the reading if you have the text, and we can give you the text file. But also, you're welcome to just come and and listen and bathe in the great Samadhi teachings of the very colorful and psychedelic Flower Ordnance Sutra. Anyway, in this paragraph from Cultivating the Empty Field, Hongzhi is referring back to one of the cases in that Book of Serenity that he originated, which refers back to the Flower Ordnance Sutra's wisdom. So this is a very important part of this. And this quote from the Flower of One-Man Sutra is supposedly what Shakyamuni Buddha uttered or saw upon his first awakening. He said, I now see that all sentient beings everywhere, all beings everywhere, fully possess the wisdom and virtues of the awakened ones.

[16:47]

It's quite a radical statement. All of the beings in our confused world, fundamentally, originally, are endowed with this wisdom and the virtue of all the Buddhists, all the awakened ones. Then the sutra says, but because of false conceptions and attachments, They do not realize it. So we all have these false conceptions and attachments. It's part of how it is that we are human beings. But fundamentally, basically, originally, underneath that or above that or all around that, all beings fully possess the wisdom and virtues of the Buddhist. So this is kind of where our Soto Zen practice starts. All of you fundamentally are Buddhists. And most of you don't believe that.

[17:52]

Because we all have these false conceptions and attachments. And this is part of the reality of being a human being. But to hear that fundamentally from the beginning, we are all awakened, is basic to our practice. So our practice is not to develop through lots of periods of Zazen or through lots of study or through hearing lots of Dharma talks so that eventually you will become awakened. That's just not what we're about. It's not somewhere else. Awakening is not somewhere else on some mountaintop in the Himalayas or Japan or California. Right here in the middle of the nitty-gritty of all the troubled, suffering beings is the place of nirvana.

[18:59]

So I'm going to read a little bit more from Wansong's commentary to that case of the Book of Serenity. He says, this is the opening up the source of the nature of beings. And then he quotes another chapter on the manifestation of Tathagatas in the Flower of the Sutra. It says, O children of Buddha, there is not a single sentient being who does not fully possess the wisdom of the awakened ones. It is only because of false conceptions, error, and attachments. They do not realize it, so that's what's quoted in the basic case. If they give up false conceptions, this omniscience and spontaneous knowledge and unhindered wisdom can manifest. So this is a kind of instruction and reassurance to us.

[20:04]

I want to quote some more of Wang Zong's commentary. Again, he's quoting the flower ornament, Avatamsaka, in Chinese Huayan and Japanese Kego and Sutra. It says, then the Buddha observed all the beings of the cosmos with his pure, unobstructed eye of wisdom. So this is right after his awakening, supposedly, according to this tradition. And he observed all the troubled beings, all of the deluded beings, and all the awakened beings, and he said, how wonderful, how wonderful, how is it that these beings all have the wisdom of the awakened ones, the right path to make them abandon, I'm sorry, how they all have the wisdom of the awakened ones, yet in their folly and delusion, and our folly and delusion, they do not know or see it. I should teach them the right path to make them abandon illusion and attachment forever.

[21:11]

so that they can perceive the vast wisdom of the awakened ones within their own bodies and be no different from the Buddhists. So this is what the Buddha said when he saw that there were suffering beings out there who didn't realize that they had the wisdom and virtue of the awakened ones. So this is our practice. This was Buddha's practice to try and help everyone see this. Anyway, there's more in that case that is wonderful. I want to go back to this passage from Hongshu. So after saying, so he says, how amazing it is that all people have this but cannot polish it into bright clarity. In darkness, unawakened, they make foolishness cover their wisdom and overflow. One remembrance of illumination can break through and leap out of the dust of Kelpas.

[22:12]

So just to have a moment of settling into this serene illumination, we can break out of all of the foolishness, all of the dust of Kelpas, all of our confusion. And when one does see this and feels this serenity of this illumination, that's not necessarily the end of practice because we keep on living. So we keep on seeing the living beings and their troubles. And we need to continue to help polish this awakening, to put it that way, so that we can help beings. So continuing in this passage from Cultivating the Empty Field, Hongshu says, Radiant and clear white, the single field cannot be diverted or altered in the three times.

[23:14]

The four elements cannot modify it. So this radiant, clear, empty, illuminated, serene field of awareness and of all beings is... Hongzhi says, cannot be diverted or altered in the three times, past, future, and present, or in the four elements. The four elements cannot modify it. Four elements, traditional Chinese teaching, earth, fire, wind, and water. Anyway, they can't modify it. This right field is here. And even if we don't see it or believe it right now, doing this practice of settling into serene illumination over some time, it unfolds. So he goes on to say, solitary glory is deeply preserved, enduring throughout ancient and present times, as the merging of sameness and difference becomes the entire creation's mother.

[24:21]

This is another amazing sentence. Solitary glory. So, you know, we have to see this on our own. I cannot tell any of you how to be Buddha. Each of us has this wisdom, this field. So each of us has to settle into this possibility and unfold it for ourselves. This is our Zazen practice. It's glorious. It's solitary, but it's solitary that it's a solitariness that includes everything. Emptiness is about interdependence. We are all deeply interconnected with every being in the whole world and in other world systems and so on. So solitary glory is deeply preserved, enduring throughout ancient and present times as the merging of sameness and difference becomes the entire creation's mother. So Hontra is here referring to one of the basic texts of our

[25:26]

Soto Zen tradition, or Cao Dong in Chinese, and that's from Shuto Shichan, or Sekito in Japanese, and we will be chanting it later. This morning, this is one of our basic chants, the merging of sameness and difference, Sando Kai in Japanese. So it's in our chant book, and we chant it. It's one of the regular chants that we do. And that is about the merging... is how I translated this in this case, but maybe more accurate to say the harmonizing of difference and sameness. So these are two fundamental aspects of reality, sameness and difference. Sameness is like emptiness. We are all one. We are all the same. Dogen, when he came back from China, was asked what he learned, and he said, eyes horizontal, nose vertical.

[26:31]

So this is everybody I can see here on Zoom and everybody in the room, I'm sure, has that. Eyes horizontal, nose vertical. There is this sameness. There is this basic completeness to all of us. And again, as I translated it in this section of Hongshuo, there's the merging of sameness and difference. It's not that they become, well, I talked about this a couple weeks ago. Nonduality is not about nonduality as opposed to duality. It's not about sameness as opposed to difference. It's the nonduality of duality and nonduality. It's how the interaction, the harmonizing of these two aspects of our reality. We're all the same.

[27:34]

We're all one. And there's difference. There's differences. There's differences. There's, um, Chicagoans and, uh, I see Nathan from Michigan. There's people from different places. Uh, and Marcus is in New Mexico. And, uh, anyway, um, and Dylan is on it, is, has joined us and he's on a train back from practicing at, at, uh, intensively at Green Gulch. I don't know if you can hear me, Dylan, but, uh, anyway, um, So there's the sameness, and there's also differences. To put it another way, there's the universal and there's the particular. In the harmony of difference and sameness that we'll chat later, Shatov says, merging with sameness is still not enlightenment. So reaching oneness is not the goal.

[28:38]

It is the goal in many spiritual traditions, Buddhist and otherwise. But just finding sameness, realizing sameness, realizing how we are all one is not the point. That's not enlightenment. That's not awakening. It's the harmonizing, the non-dualizing, non-duality. I want to make non-duality a verb. The non-dualizing, I don't know how to say that. But anyway, it's seeing through our strong tendency. It's in our language. subject-verb-object. We think of ourselves as subject-verbing objects out there, or maybe we think of ourselves as objects who might be verbed by subjects out there. But we're all constantly dancing in this harmonizing, in this interaction of oneness and difference. So we know that only seeing differences is not the point.

[29:43]

And we have plenty of examples in the world of deluded beings of people, you know, emphasizing differences, saying those people out there, people of different races, of different nations, of different religions, they're not really human. They're not one, you know. So differences... And embracing difference and intensifying and enforcing difference is a tool that's been used for oppression throughout the history of the world. Difference is not the point. That's where we start from in a way. As we grow up from maybe infancy, everything as one and together, but as we grow up, as we learn to be human beings, as we develop our ego, to use that word, we make discriminations, we make distinctions. Us and them, subject and object,

[30:47]

So this is the world of differences. And, you know, politicians then turn that into hate. And, you know, we have to hate the others. And they totally ignore the sameness of all of us. And not just of humans, but of all sentient beings. Of animals and plants and mountains and rivers and We're all intricately involved in this. So this is what Hongshu is referring to in this sentence. One of the more important sentences in this particular practice instruction. He says, just to read the whole sentence, solitary glory is deeply preserved, enduring throughout ancient and present times as the merging or harmonizing of sameness and difference becomes the entire creation's mother.

[31:56]

Sometimes, Prashnaparamita, the goddess of sameness, Transcendent wisdom is called the mother of all Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, and we could say of all beings. Here, Hongshu is saying that the harmonizing of sameness and difference, this chant that we're going to do later this morning, is the entire creation's mother. This is the basic philosophical background of Soto Zen. or, yeah, I could just say of Buddhism, that there's this harmonizing, this interactivity of sameness and difference. Difference isn't it, obviously, just embracing differences. And sameness isn't it either. Merging with sameness is still not awakening, Shito says. So how do we see this dance of the interactivity of sameness

[32:59]

The universal, the ultimate oneness of all things, of all beings, and the distinctions. So the universal does not exist outside of particulars. All of us came to practice. Well, okay, I shouldn't speak for everyone, but myself and everyone here I've talked to and talked with came to practice because of dissatisfaction with all the differences and with all the particulars and the suffering created by that in this world. So the universal arises, the ultimate arises, oneness arises out of dissatisfaction with only seeing differences. So, you know, this is supposed to be the, according to the Flower Ornament Sutra, which we'll be reading again next Friday morning, next Friday evening, you're all welcome, is this harmonizing of difference and sameness, seeing how the universal is expressed, maybe only expressed in the particulars,

[34:29]

There's not some absolute ultimate realm up on some mountaintop. And it's not about getting rid of our confusion because of the particulars. Our practice isn't about that. So right after Shakyamuni proclaimed this, he tried to see how to help awaken suffering beings and he proclaimed the Four Noble Truths and all the many other teachings, teaching of emptiness, teaching of suchness and so forth. But basically, here, Hongshu is saying this is the entire creation, all of creation's mother. So we don't have the idea of a creator deity in Buddhism. Monotheism is based on, and our Western religions are based on, a creator deity who created all of this, and we think that he's watching over. Usually it's a he, right? He is sitting up there on the clouds with a long white beard, longer than Ed's beard, and all the other beards I can see.

[35:37]

And And he's got long white robes and he knows everything and he's watching each of us and we each can petition him to help us in our own particular situation. Well, in Hongzhi's perspective, it's this harmonizing of difference and sameness that becomes the mother of harmony. The entire creation. So this word creation, some people have trouble with that because they think of it in terms of monotheistic ideas. I like the word creation. All of creation, everything is created. That includes everything, everything, everything. On this world, on this planet, and other planets, so forth. So Hongshu is saying this startling radical thing. I mean, this is really, he just says it and you can read it, but it's, you know, if you really consider what does it mean that the merging of, the harmonizing of difference and sameness is the mother of all creation?

[36:46]

That's quite a startling radical statement. So this is a very important sentence. It's not the most important sentence in this message, but it's, again, solitary glory is deeply preserved, enduring throughout ancient and present times in the merging or harmonizing of sameness and difference, as the merging or harmonizing of sameness and difference becomes the entire creation's mother. Then, Hongzhi says, this realm manifests the energy of the many thousands of beings, all appearances, merely this field's shadows. So this realm of harmonizing duality and non-duality, sameness and difference, manifests the energy, the spirit, the creativity, of all the thousands of beings.

[37:54]

He doesn't even say, he doesn't say human beings, just all the many thousands of beings, all appearances, nearly this field shadow. So again, the appearances is where we see the distinctions. Each of you, I can see, I can, see, you know, how you are different from each other. Of course, all of you have eyes horizontal, nose vertical as Dogen said. But this realm manifests the energy of the many thousands of beings, all appearances. Merely this feels shadows. So all of the particulars, all of the differences, are the shadows of this realm of wholeness and distinction of the universal and the particular, the universal or the ultimate and the phenomenal, and how they interact. So then there's one more sentence, and this is the most important sentence in the whole passage, in the whole practice instruction.

[39:02]

Aung San Suu Kyi says finally, truly enact this reality. He doesn't say how to do that. He doesn't say that here. Other places he gives some hints, but there's not some instruction manual about how to do that. But truly, deeply, fully enact this reality. This is his practice instruction to each one of us. And so then our practice is about how do we do that? How do we express and enact and share this ultimate reality with all the suffering beings? That's the point of this. That's the most important sentence in the whole practice instruction. Truly enact this reality. In this life, in this particular life that each of us is engaged in right now, how do we enact this? And there's not one right way. There's not one instruction manual about how to do that.

[40:08]

Our whole life of practice is about that. All of you that I can see are doing this. You are. In fact, we are doing this, but how do we do it? Truly, Hongzhi is asking us, please, can you express and act this ultimate reality of the harmonizing of the universal in particular, the harmonizing of sameness and difference. So, maybe that's enough for me to say this morning, but I'm eager very much for any of you to Ask questions, comments, reflections. Janet has a question.

[41:12]

Apologies for my fright wig, but a couple of things really stood out. In fact, I found this lesson by Taigen so exciting. that I could feel it in my body. I mean, I was just really stimulated by this reading and the things Taigen said about it. And so I have a couple of really trivial things to say because the overall picture is just too universal or something for me to make a comment. But I've always wondered... Can I just say that... Part of what this is saying is that there is nothing that is trivial. Each particular piece of trivia is completely an expression of everything. So go ahead. I've often wondered what happens in the brain of a wild horse when it is tamed.

[42:17]

And my son has a dog that is extremely obedient and patient. follows him everywhere or goes with him everywhere. The dog is not a good follower. It's a herding dog and doesn't like to follow. So that's one way that it has not been able to change as far as I can see. Uh, but it's very, very obedient. Um, when I took that dog walking in a neighborhood with roads, I could leave it on one side of the road and say, stay, stay. And it would stay until I said, okay, come on. And then it would cross over to where I was. I never had to worry about it being run over by a car or anything like that. Because so I wonder what goes on in the brain of an animal that when it is domesticated.

[43:19]

And I wonder the same thing about horses, because wild horses are tameable. But there are animals that nobody has ever tried to tame because it just doesn't work. And I don't You know, I really don't have any idea what happens in their brains. But in my case, as a human being, I was very, very obedient from the beginning. And later on in my life, I became disobedient. It's just, you know, I don't get that. And so that I guess you could say is a question. And the second thing I want to question that Taigen said, and I'm afraid I kind of disagree, that he... Maybe you won't like it. I disagree with the thing of trying to help others.

[44:21]

Because... because that was a problem of my obedience. I was always trying to help other people. And I noticed with certain children, not children, but teenagers, that I was teaching, the ones who tried to help others the most had constricted lives. Whereas the ones who didn't try to help others were more free and were able much better to develop their own personalities. So, you know, I have stories about people who tried to help others. One is a fiction story. To be really short about it, he was very, very helpful. Everybody loved him. And this is really terrible. He tried to find somebody that would kill him. And nobody would kill him because he was so kind and valuable.

[45:23]

But he was extremely depressed. And that was a fiction story. I don't know if it was true. But these are questions, these two questions about what happens in the brain of a wild person that is tamed. And what happens to people who are taught way too early in life that you should be helping others all the time. You know, your life is to help others instead of just to develop yourself. And I believe that, um, that being a buddhist and practicing as best you can is the best help you can give to others but it's really not help it's self-development stop i'm done okay thank you yeah so those are two very different questions and uh so first of all about animals and, um, and domesticating animals and how animals perceive. I did a talk that's on the website, um, I think a couple of weeks ago talking about the perception of, uh, of, uh, different beings.

[46:34]

And, uh, so different, different beings have a sense world that's very different. Dogs, uh, are aware of the world in terms of smell, much more than other senses. If you walk a dog, you can tell they're smelling who's been around, wherever that is. There's a Dharma talk that's on the website, you can find it. I can try and see. Well, I heard it. Okay. But that's very important. And this is something that Dogen talks about a lot in Genjo Koan, for example, that different beings have different sense apparatus. So this is important for us as human beings to be aware of how limited our sense world is. And so anyway, that's so you can listen to that, too, for a response to that question about, you know, and domesticating animals is a different different aspect of the question.

[47:49]

And you may have heard in the background that. We have a puppy who's in the process of domestication, but is also sometimes yippy and jumpy. She's very sweet, but she's sometimes also unruly, very different from the dog you described, Jan. Anyway, one of the animals in this house. Anyway... Yeah, so that's an interesting question. It's worth a lot of consideration. So check out that article, that talk I gave a couple weeks ago about helping beings. That's not exactly what Hongzhi is saying here. So this is a kind of problem, and especially a problem for many Buddhists. So we have in our Sangha many chaplains, for example. or schoolteachers, or people who are actually helping beings. But it's not that the people who are helping are better or wiser or whatever than the beings they are so-called helping.

[48:58]

I mean, Hongzhi doesn't say you should help beings. He says share this. Share this awareness. And how to do that includes expressing it in yourself, for yourself. So zazen is not about, you know, zazen is the practice. Our basic practice is about seeing our own confusion and delusion and seeing through that, cutting through delusions. Not destroying delusions. It's not about destroying samsara. So Aung San Suu Kyi says, the original place of nirvana, of ultimate peace and liberation, is right amid... Struggling beings. So, yeah. So this is subtle, actually. And there are many people in our Sangha, chaplains and therapists and teachers who are, we might say, helping other beings.

[50:03]

But if you think of yourself as up here helping all these, you know, deluded beings down here, that's not it. Our practice is to see through our own delusion, not to get rid of delusions, not to get rid of our own delusions or other solutions. So this is a subtle thing. And thank you for bringing it up, Jen. It's not that bodhisattvas are helping inferior beings. We're all bodhisattvas. And everyone doing this practice, we're doing bodhisattva practice. And we need to help each other. And we need to be helped by bodhisattvas. And the people who are in helping professions, to put it that way, social workers, hospice workers, teachers, therapists, are also benefited by the people they're sharing this with. So what Hongzhi is saying is please share this awareness.

[51:05]

Please enact this reality. But that doesn't mean that you are, you know, great helpers helping others. So thank you for that question, Shan. Other people, comments, questions, perspectives. David Ray. And I wanted to ask you about creation's mother and that term. I know you referenced Prajnaparamita, but as you also know, I'm studying the Tao Te Ching this week for a course, and I've been learning more about that goddess called the Western Queen Mother or the Western Ancestor Mother, and she's so amazing and powerful and ancient, and she's a tiger spirit, and she's a demon and a wild woman, and and an empress, and the goddess of birth and death and immortality. So I wonder if that's part of the cultural resonance that's in Hongzhu's expression there, the creation's mother. Yeah, there is the creation mother in Taoism, but I think that's not what he's saying.

[52:06]

He's not saying that there's this great... Mother goddess, you know, there are goddesses and gods in Buddhism, but many, but multiple, not one. And the Flower Ornament Sutra has pages full of their names. But what Hongzhi is saying here is this process, this practice of harmonizing, Oneness and difference, sameness and difference, of harmonizing the universal and the particular. And this is a basic philosophical background in Zen, and in Soto Zen we have the five degrees, or sometimes called the five ranks, which is this process. There's a process that's described in this philosophical background of how the ultimate and the particulars interact and harmonize each other. So that's a kind of background philosophy of Soto Zen. But it's not that there's some being who's doing all this, or it's that being with all the other beings.

[53:12]

It's the process of harmonizing. sameness and difference, oneness and universal in particular, that creates, that gives birth to, that is the mother of all of creation, all of reality, all of the phenomenal world, according to this passage from Hongshin. And of course Taoism greatly influenced Zen particularly, Buddhism in China, along with Confucianism. Thank you. Questions, comments, perspectives, please feel free. People at Lincoln Square and on Zoom. There's a question, yes? Well, I promise. Can you say your name, please? Because I can't see you. Hi, Kathy.

[54:15]

Hi. I was just, you know, it's like I was introduced to Taoism before I was introduced to Buddhism. Can you hear me? Yes. And this takes me back because Tongzhi was one of the key people that we studied. And I was thinking about the differences that I was introduced to, the differences between that practice and this practice, and that there was a focus on nature, on the natural, and the idea that things are, you know, nature is a wonderful thing to look at in that Animals, trees, plants, air, it all interacts in a natural way. It does what it needs to do to be, to survive.

[55:16]

And that there is something about the lack of attention, the lack of intention. Allowing yourself to relax and be natural, that is part of harmonizing. And I was just thinking about sometimes I think we work so hard at understanding things intentionally that we sometimes miss the practice of . So I wondered if you have any comments about that. Yes, well, I'll try and restrict my comments because I could give a whole series of Dharma talks on that, but yeah. So Zen Buddhism in particular, Buddhism came from India to China, and in all the different cultures and countries that Buddhism moves into, it adapts

[56:25]

and transforms the native spiritual tradition. So in China, Taoism and Confucianism very much, our whole emphasis on ancestors, you know, we can say comes from Confucianism. In Japan, was sometimes called Shintoism and sensitive in that natural world as having spirits. And now in American Buddhism, of course, Western psychology, Western social justice action, Western you know, Western religion, all are influencing, and many other things are influencing what is emerging as American Buddhism. But Taoism in particular, yes, emphasizes nature and the natural and And also Taoism influenced Zen in terms of poetry, the wonderful Taoist poetry.

[57:28]

So, yeah, that's part of our practice and tradition and philosophy. I would say that the difference... Well, one difference is that Taoism emphasizes connection with nature, harmonizing with nature as one priority, and that's true of our Zen practice too. But it also, one of the goals in Taoist spiritual practice is immortality, sometimes taken literally, longevity, and Taoist meditation practice, which is really wonderful and helpful. There are Taoist meditation practices that I speak of just to some people. But the goal, ostensibly, is immortality, longevity. The goal of Buddhism and Zen Buddhism is liberation, universal liberation.

[58:32]

So it's a little different. We are practicing to share, to enact this reality, to share awakening in our lives amid living beings. So those are not totally different, but that's one way in which Taoism and Buddhism aren't exactly the same. But Zen Buddhism particularly has benefited so much from Taoist background. So thank you for that, Kathy. I don't know if I could keep talking about it. We could do a whole practice period on the relationship between Taoism and Buddhism, but I'll pass on that for now. Other comments, anyone? There's a question in the chat from Dylan, and it says this. Question for Taigen. What is the role of the true body of faith when we engage this question of truly enacting this reality, the true body of faith?

[59:34]

Yes, thank you, Dylan, and welcome. Dylan's on his way back from intensive practice at Green Gulch. I think you're on a train right now, Dylan, anyway. Yes, the true body of faith, is that the question? Yeah, so this is a reference to one of Dogen's teachings that we also chant sometimes, which is wonderful. And yeah, this practice is not some, you know, I think, anyway, some people think it's some intellectual, you know, theoretical teaching. No, no. No, no. It's about how do we find our trust in this process of the harmonizing of difference and sameness, to put it that way. The harmonizing of duality and non-duality as the ultimate non-duality.

[60:37]

So this is something that requires faith. And faith, you know, as a translator, faith is a difficult word in English. But I use it in some translations because there's a... The character in Chinese that's translated sometimes as faith is shin in Japanese, and it's a person next to a word. So it's a person standing by their word, or by the word, or by words. It's... But I would say it's not faith in something else. So in Western religion and philosophy, faith has to do often with belief in some deity, in some teaching, in what the Bible says, or so forth. Faith in Buddhist practice, the true body of faith, is about showing up, taking your seat,

[61:44]

doing this practice regularly. So the true body of faith, you know, this practice does require faith in the sense of trust, trusting yourself, conviction, actually, you know, being willing to show up in your life, in your body, in your heart, mind, as confused as that might be at times. So the true body of faith is just, here we are, and we show up. And I see that Nicholas has his hand up. Nicholas, hi. Hi. Yeah, I was thinking about the phrase enacting truly this reality as well. And I was wondering if, and then I kept thinking about the expression that Zen is transmitted warm hand to warm hand. So I'm wondering if you could talk about a relationship between those two ideas, if there is one.

[62:49]

Sure. Thank you. So we enact this reality. by hearing about this reality. And many people come to practice, I see a few people here who I know this is the case of, through reading about Zen, through reading great Zen books like Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind, I was going to say Zen Flesh, Zen Bones, I'll include that, and Gary Snyder's Practice of the Wild, fundamental Zen books. So there are people who study the teachings And then show up and experience warm hands. So, you know, the true body of faith, to go back to Dylan's comment, is about a warm hand to warm hand. It's about how do we welcome each other into sangha, into community, into practice world. How do we care for each other

[63:50]

It doesn't mean we don't sometimes have differences or different opinions about things. That's fine. We need differences as well as sameness. But the point is, how do we listen to each other? How do we hold out a hand? Not to help others because they're deficient and we have all the truth, but together. So we do have teachers and students. But as a teacher, I'm always learning from all of you. So teachers need to continue. This is a lifelong learning. This is a lifelong practice. This is lifelong study. So, yeah, and it is warm hand to warm hand. It's personal. So we are very fortunate that we finally, you know, we've all been damaged in some way by the pandemic. I just, well, maybe I shouldn't speak for everyone, but it was a traumatic event in our society, in our life, in our world.

[64:57]

And for our sangha, we lost our wonderful storefront zendo on Irving Park Road. And for a while, we were in this zendo way up on the third floor of the Ebenezer Church. Now, some of you are hearing this from... our new Ancient Dragon Zen Gate, Zendo. And it's wonderful to practice in person. And it's also wonderful that we have this Zoom tool so that people from Michigan and New Mexico and Indiana, those are people I can see on this Zoom now, can join us. So we have both. So that's a kind of... benefit we've had from this pandemic, but it's complicated, and to actually practice together and sit together in person is wonderful. So for any of you who can come to Lincoln Square sometime and join us in our Zendo, please do.

[66:04]

And we're also looking for, you know, we're in the process of looking, searching for a building for a long-term temple in Chicago. So where we can practice together, warm body to warm body, but even across Zoom for some of us. Some people are allergic to Zoom and I respect that and I've heard that and I understand that. Some of us can appreciate that I can see Nathan in Michigan and Nicholas in Indiana and Mark in New Mexico. Anyway, here we all are. So this is about welcoming each other, listening to each other, appreciating each other. So thank you for the question. And we're a little bit over time, but I want to, you know, if anybody else has something to say, some questions, some response, some perspective, whether you're in Lincoln Square or on Zoom, please. Can you hear me?

[67:06]

Yes. Who is this? Asian. Hi, Asian. I can hear you. You can. Yeah, can everybody else on Zoom here, Ishan? Yes, yes, yes. I wanted to respond I think partly to what Jan was saying specifically, but maybe this is more general as well. I see the lives of all creatures as being run by anxiety. You know, at the very basic level, it's like kill or be killed. And as people, we also have that anxiety that's with us. And our practice, I think specifically, we all have strategies. I mean, all preachers come up with strategies to cope with that anxiety, whether it's, you know, to develop relationships with others and trust them, or whether it's to dominate, whether it's to submit.

[68:14]

It's a lot about with anxiety and I think our practice gives us a way to live our lives beyond anxiety that when we cultivate things like our ability to recognize that everything is, is, you know, non-neurality or oneness. When we, um, practice awareness of impermanence and acceptance of impermanence. And when we sit with whatever, you know, physical or mental states are arising through over time and learn to, you know, kind of figure out practice acceptance and relaxation in that, in that situation. I think it, that's part of what naturally helps us to all of those things. The part of what naturally helps us to be able to, reach out to others from a helpful space because we lose some of our fear and suspicion of others as being others.

[69:23]

We accept our own impermanence and recognize that while we are impermanent in this body, we're still part of everything. And I think our practice goes a long way towards helping us to move past that. And I think that that's true for what was GMO saying. I think that's true for animals as well. I lived with a cat who was a hero when we got her 11 years ago. Over time, I've just watched her learn or forget to be anxious in situations. But I think that's a lot of what we do with our practices. We sit with things, and they don't make us anxious anymore. We forget to be anxious in situations. And it helps us to open our hearts and minds toward the world. So if you can find a way to send practice to your preachers, that might help them. But I think that's kind of, you know, I'm a psychologist, so I see that in psychological ways.

[70:29]

But I think that anxiety has a lot to do, and you were saying that, has a lot to do with how we are in the world. Yes. Thank you. And to talk about anxiety is one way to talk about how we feel separation, how we feel Differences. Yeah, everything you were saying about how anxiety is a way of talking about that is part of what Hongzhi is addressing here. In the world of differences, yes. We have fight or flight. We have do unto others before they do unto us. We have all of this anxiety about being verbed by subjects out there and so forth. That's the world of particulars. And yes, our practice...

[71:30]

practice of Zazen, not just formal sitting Zazen, but how that permeates into all of our lives, the whole of our lives, this sense of wholeness that's available in Zazen as we settle and we find some serenity and illumination and calmness, informs how we deal with in ourselves and others. So yes, that's a useful way for us to talk about this. And then the practice is harmonizing that sense of difference and differentiation and harm that comes from that. And with this sense that we all get in some way from Zazen, there's some, we may not recognize it, And in the statement from Buddha, he's concerned with beings recognizing, realizing this. And the longer we sit, it sort of permeates our body of faith, as Dylan was calling it.

[72:42]

So, yes, how... Yeah, this is part of the process. So it's not that... It's not that we reach some ultimate illumination and then we're finished with anxiety. It's actually the process of bringing together our sense of wholeness with... The reality that you're describing very well, Ishan, of anxiety and fear and, you know, flight or fight and so forth. How do we harmonize that, see that they're both part of reality? First, we have to have a glimpse of wholeness, a glimpse of sameness, a glimpse of the universal or the ultimate. And I believe firmly that... Zazen offers that. It's available. And what this teaching from Hongshu is saying is that it's here from the very beginning.

[73:48]

All of us have that, are that. But we don't realize it because we're caught up in all the anxiety of difference. So what Hongshu is asking us to do is to truly enact this reality. Not the reality of oneness or sameness, but the reality of this harmonizing. And this is a lifelong process. So thank you, Aishan, for helping to define some of this. And it really is time for me to stop, but I'm tempted to... Nyozan, did you want to say something? No. Okay. Excuse me. I have to depart. I'm sorry. Okay. Take care. See you. And see you tomorrow evening. Tomorrow. Yes. Good. Okay. So, Ruben, did you want to say something or are you just waving goodbye? Okay. So, David Ray, if you would. We will have our closing bodhisattva vow chant and then announcements, and then we will have service for the harmonizing of difference and sameness.

[74:59]

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