So yesterday we finished our study of the Dogen Zenji's Genjo koan. So today my mind is having given successive talks, my mind is bouncing around with the Dharma, freely associating with all the Dharma points, and every five minutes I'm starting at a different point. So my talk will... I'll just start wherever I happen to be at the moment.

[01:04]

So, Bodhichitta Energy's Ginjo Koan all boils down to how we live our daily life in enlightenment, moment by moment. That's what it's about. We call it the way of everyday life. But of course, Dogen is very deep. And often we don't live our life in such depth. So he gives us pause and a lot to work with. So yesterday, a question came up about enlightenment. Of course, Dogen is talking about enlightenment all the time. How to live an enlightened life. A question came up about, not suddenly gradual, but dramatic episodes of enlightenment and more ordinary seemingly enlightenment.

[02:15]

And when you read the books, the books all talk about extraordinary enlightenment experiences If the books talked about ordinary life, nobody would read them. But they do, because Dogan is always talking about ordinary enlightenment, and people read him, but it's so difficult. So, it's not true that All of the stories and the koans that we study illustrate dramatic enlightenment. As a matter of fact, mostly they illustrate ordinary life. Mostly. But when we think about Zen, we think about the extraordinary.

[03:19]

But we have to realize that the extraordinary is the ordinary. All the extraordinary experiences bring us down to the ordinary. If an extraordinary experience keeps you up there in the extraordinary realm, it's not enlightenment. Enlightenment is realizing and living the extraordinariness of the ordinary. Nothing special. Nothing special is the most extraordinary. So here is a koan for us to ponder. A monk asked Hyakujo, Hyakujo lived in China in the Tang Dynasty.

[04:25]

He, Hyakujo, that's a Japanese name, codified the monastic rules for Zen monks in China. lost in time, but the elements of it still continue and trickle down to the present day, actually. We're actually practicing in the shade of Yakujo's monastic requirements. So I'm going to ask Yakujo, what is the most wonderful thing, you could say extraordinary, What is the most extraordinary thing? The most wonderful thing? And Joe said, I sit alone at this great sublime peak. I'm not going to bow.

[05:28]

And Joe said, boom. You want something extraordinary? That's extraordinary. I told you something really extraordinary. Just this, just sitting here on this great sublime peak is the name of the mountain, actually. So it's a kind of pun on his name. As you say, just sitting on this worn out old seat of ultimate truth, whether it's Koan Zen or Zazen, Shikantaza, it's just sitting.

[06:39]

There are different methods of awakening, but they all point to one thing, and it's called Shikantaza. So what is Shikantaza? Shikantaza is what we consider our practice. We don't use the term so much anymore, but that was the term that we always grew up with. Shikantaza. We're doing Shikantaza as opposed to Shikantaza means just this, just sitting. But more than that, it means sitting in the center of enlightenment. Just sitting in the center of enlightenment, just sitting on Thakurjo's seat. Master Aung Dyr, in his Sung Dynasty, whom Dogen was very much influenced by, he coined the term silent illumination.

[08:02]

And in one of his talks he said, just step into the center of the circle where light issues forth. Step into the center of the circle where life issues forth. This is Shikantaza. This is Zazen. It's called sitting in the midst of enlightenment, on the enlightenment seat, without trying to get enlightenment. If you try to get enlightenment, it's like putting another head on top of your own. It's like gilding the lily. Painting a lily. Gold plate. Gold plate the lily. You don't need to do that. Just appreciate the lily as it is. Shikantaze is just appreciate yourself as you are. Just appreciate zazen as it is without trying to get something extra.

[09:11]

This is Shizukuro. She's constantly refraining. Nothing extra. Nothing extra. We also brought up the question of faith. So I want to enter that into the equation. Faith and doubt. We sometimes associate faith with Shikantaza. which is, it is, and doubt with constant. Faith is, I mean, yeah, there are two minds. This is my model. I'm creating a model. It may not fit your model, but we have two minds.

[10:18]

and this mind. This mind here, the solar plexus, ahara, so to speak, is the mind of faith. It's intuition. Faith is intuition. Intuition is faith. Mental, the thinking mind is Discrimination. The purpose of the thinking mind is to discriminate. That's its function. So it's continually going on and discriminating, which is great. We developed the discriminating mind in order to operate in the world in a discriminating way. But the source is this mind, the intuition and faith. So, the trick is to coordinate these two minds so that they work together, because they're really one mind, divided in two, called duality.

[11:38]

The oneness of duality is to bring the discriminating mind the intuitive mind so they work together. The intuitive mind brings up reality and the discriminating mind dissects it and verifies it and uses it. So this is pure raw material which draws from the whole universe. The whole universe is informing the intuitive mind and the discriminating mind uses it. So this is called small mind. It doesn't mean it's not good, it's great. This is big mind. Big mind is intuition before thinking.

[12:43]

Before thinking. But we have the problem of the split. So the question came up the other day. Why do we suffer so much? How come human beings are so problematic, so to speak? Why are we so problematic? Because our intuitive mind and our thinking mind are split. And without the intuitive and without the informed But without the information of the intuitive mind, the thinking mind just does its own thing. And when it does its own thing, it becomes cunning, it becomes greedy, angry, deluded, because it doesn't have a basis. And so it just creates thoughts and ideas and acts on them without being grounded.

[13:46]

And if you look at what's happening to our world, that's what's happening. All this ungrounded thought is creating all these problems. So intuition is fundamental. When we sit in satsang, the discriminating mind takes a back seat. is called bliss. But I don't like to call it bliss because when you say bliss, we think that bliss means no pain. You have to experience the bliss through your pain. So, nothing is a great equalizer. Everything becomes equal.

[14:51]

pleasure, pain, whatever, it's all equals, all the same. See, it's not all the same because those are different aspects, but they are all equals. Because the mind is not, the thinking mind is not discriminating. him. What is the meaning of bodhidharma coming from the West? In other words, this is a great question in the Tang Dynasty. Everybody's asking, you know, it's a kind of trick, not a trick question, but a provocative question.

[15:59]

What's the meaning of the dharma? And Hsuan said, sitting long and getting tired. I'm reading my footnotes here from a long time ago. It says, Zazen is like a steady flame. When we sit really still. Don't move. No matter what's happening. Just very still. Just one breath. Inhaling. Exhaling. Inhaling. Exhaling. Pains, bliss, whatever. Just one breath at a time.

[17:01]

Just like a steady flame. And nothing can disturb it. It's called The Patient Endurance of the Uncreate. This is a phrase from the Paramita Sutra. So this is what we call deep samadhi. To be totally it. Not in touch with, but to be it. To be, if you say, I'm in touch with, means it's something that you're touching, but you are being it because you're letting go of discriminating mind and simply expressing, allowing light to be expressed.

[18:03]

But enlightenment, what does enlightenment mean? If you want to use that term, you may not like it, it may not be a good term, but it expressing light, of course. It could be used as a metaphor for something, but I think it's direct. But as Gauguin says, don't think that what you see as your discriminating mind sees as light is what light is. That's just a discriminating way of seeing light. Light is also darkness. Light is your nature, Buddha nature. In Sanskrit it's palpable.

[19:30]

So when you're sitting very still, and let everything happen without discriminating it, although there's awareness of breath, everything turns to light. When Psilip Kaplow was with his teacher, they were discussing a koan or something, and suddenly everything kind of fell away. This is dramatic. Everything kind of fell away and the whole room turned into light. And then he Came back and there was his teacher again. They both laughed. No. We do that every time he says nothing. Don't you?

[20:32]

Do you have any questions? My teacher once gave a series of lectures on the Heart Sutra. And the first lecture was on the first sentence. And it's just... In our agenda, the version is, Avalokiteshvara Bodhisattva, when deeply practicing Prajnaparamita, clearly saw that all five aggregates are empty. And she pointed out that well deeply practicing, that is enlightenment. And it's a verb, it's not a goal or a place. And it's also Avalokiteshvara in the Wisdom Sutra, the epitome of compassion, which is enlightenment.

[21:43]

I thought that was about the most beautiful thing I ever heard. Yes. The Kanze translates it as coursing in a deep prajnaparamita. Compassion is the activity of wisdom. Wisdom is the source and compassion is its activity. So, of course, compassion is enlightenment expressed. Wisdom expressed as compassion. Absolutely. Which is enlightenment. So, you know, we often tend to think, you know, striving people, striving for enlightenment, striving for enlightenment, And in Buddhism, you should think the thought of enlightenment and strive for enlightenment.

[22:54]

But actually, that's okay. We should strive for enlightenment until we get to the point where we realize, what am I doing? There are many barriers. And then we come up against another barrier and it struggles up and the priest says, hey, you know, it's just barriers, it's a piece of paper. I think this barrier is some big concrete wall, but actually barriers are just pieces of paper. You can walk through them, but you don't know that. You don't know that. And so we think they're big thick walls, but they're really just pieces of paper. We just let go. What a barrier is ourself. What we think of as a barrier is not something out there.

[23:56]

It's just ourself. We're the biggest barrier to ourself. When we have realization, that's what we realize. When we have enlightenment, we realize, I'm just my own barrier. What am I doing? Why am I always thrown This is what most of us do. They always... Someone will come and talk to me and I'll say, well, why don't you do this? He'll say, oh no, we can do that. No, no, no, I can't. No, no, no. You're just throwing a barrier. Yeah? I have my own way of doing things.

[25:00]

Yes? We frequently talk about the mind-body connection, and sometimes we just use the term body-mind, since they're essentially the same. Does the body play any role in faith and doubt? In faith and doubt? Faith and doubt are discriminated against. The body doesn't discriminate, the mind discriminates. But the mind is the mind of the body. And the body is the body of the mind. If you want to speak in those terms, you can construe it in different ways. So we do say body-mind. The mind doesn't exist independently of the body, although we can take a brain. This is what happened to Think of brain and put it in the under glass. Controlling the country. Brain and mind. Two different things. Brain, body and mind. Trio. This is mind. This is body and this is brain. Excuse me, I thought the brain was part of the body.

[26:18]

Everything is part of everything. It's just as ear, right? Mind, body, brain and ear. Yeah. No, I know ear, no body. The saying no confirms yes. The reason why the Heart Sutra says no body, no mind, no this and that is to confirm there is a body, there is a mind, and so forth. So that you don't fall into dualistic thinking. The nose is not a nose. We just call it a nose. Anyway, but body-mind, they're not separate things. We talk about them separately in order to talk about, in order to discriminate them. In order to talk about discrimination, it's OK. But we should understand how to use it, not be used by it.

[27:19]

I think about faith in Buddhism. I think Buddhism doesn't really ask us to believe in ridiculous things. Believe in anything. Yeah. I shouldn't say ridiculous things, I'm sorry. But that faith and affirmation kind of go like left and right foot? Yes, faith is affirmation. But faith needs doubt. Doubt needs faith. Faith and doubt are the two ends of a loaf of bread. It's like, this is faith and this is doubt. So they're both necessary.

[28:23]

If there's only faith, then it's like a rocket just going like this. Doubt is the tail that controls how it goes. So doubt is not necessarily, I doubt that. It's simply, doubt is maybe not the right word. It's more like discernment. you know, how to do something correctly, how do you use, how do you use the power, rather than, so it doesn't just blow everything up. This is powerful. So the discerning mind, discriminating discerning mind, gives control. So it's a balance, like, And the discerned mind needs the intuition or the faith so that it knows where the faith is.

[29:24]

So how to create harmony with the mind and the aura, this is a practice. This is called precepts. How to follow precepts means how to balance intuition with discernment. Just a minute. I think it was Jerry? Well, actually, it's interesting that that's the question I was going to ask you, because it seems to me that discernment is different from discrimination. Yeah. That actually, with wisdom, you go from discrimination to discernment. And that's a different process. That's right. That discernment means consulting both of those things. Yeah. How do you make things work? Yeah. You often use the word intuition and associate it with faith and so I've been thinking about the word intuition and when I think of intuition I think it's maybe a dangerous thing for me to

[30:39]

use that word because I associate it with self-fulfilling prophecies for myself. Well, that's the exaggerated understanding of intuition. You know, like the magical fairytale. Right, that part. True intuition. But there is a gut level of rightness maybe? Intuition is like your true power. The true power source. The true energy source. And you can be directly in touch with that without going through this. But then you have to come back and use this. That's why we can't stay in Zazen all the time.

[31:43]

We have to get off the cushion and use this. But if we're using this, but this is the source even though you're off the cushion. But our this kind of has to look at that. It's called harmony. So how to create the harmonious without... unless you have faith. Faith is the engine of practice. Faith in what? Faith in our nature. Well, what's our nature? We sit on it. We sit right in the middle of it when we do Zazen. It's called light, or whatever. So, you know, we are, our whole body-mind, body-mind, is, I often describe as like a solar system, because we are a model of the solar system.

[32:58]

Each one of us is a model of the solar system. This is our sun, the solar, solar plexus, right? That's what I call it. solar plexus. And all of the planetary system revolves around our solar plexus. That's the center. This is like, you can describe it as a tree. This is the trunk and these are the branches. These are the roots. This is the crown. The crown is where the trunk and the roots meet the earth. And that's And this is where the energy comes from, to go this way, and to go this way. That's what's in it. That's why we hold, this is the cosmic mudra. We contain the whole cosmos in this mudra. Form, emptiness, right? It forms. So we're holding form, we're holding emptiness, but not form.

[34:00]

It's beautiful. We can sit there all day. And hold it right here at our heart, at our solar plexus. And then we're totally radiating light from the solar, from the sun. So in Christianity, in Judaism, Christianity, Western, you know, Buddhism is not a God-centered religion. in Judeo-Christian, I can't remember which one it is, but as you know, a person is created in the image of the deity. And the deity is created in the image of the person. That's an anthropomorphic, we have an anthropomorphic God, which is created in our image. It goes both ways. We are, in the same way, similar way, we are created in the image of the cosmos.

[35:08]

We are little cosmic beings, running around, looking at each other in a cosmic way. But we think we are in some kind of heaven, you know. I've been thinking that it feels like we're in this practice and part of that even though we don't have a goal, that there is this sort of direction of participating in a more peaceful environment. And I was in a country recently that's 80% Buddhist. And people were just really different there. And it didn't seem like it was just culture. I mean, people would drive around, the cow and the dog, and they would just drive around them.

[36:12]

And, you know, and here, it's like we, you know, go and yell at the owner. We'd left home and we'd go yell at the owner. And I'm wondering, because they have minds, and they have intuition, and they have bodies, and we do too, but it's like, we're like five-year-olds compared to, and I, I mean, we're not different. But so why is it that their historical Buddhist culture, I mean what is it that, why is it so different? They haven't become as advanced as we are. to be non-dualistic here. It's also the place where that Buddhist culture just practically wiped out the Tamil minority.

[37:17]

That's true. Here's the problem. Life is complicated. Life is complicated. You can't answer that question really. We have a really great opportunity at this moment because we're not in cahoots with the government. We're totally independent of any government. We can do whatever we want and just simply practice. Of course, we do influence the government, but we're not part of the government. In all those countries, the Buddhists in all those centuries have been in favor with the government. And so there's a lot of corruption. And they've gone through so many stages of enlightenment and delusion and corruption.

[38:20]

It all needs to be redone. It needs to be redone. It needs to be reformed. Linda? This is going back to another topic which we were on earlier about the body. When you said that the barriers, we conceive of them as if they were big and concrete walls and they're paper. We could walk through them and we make our own. And you know, sometimes I experience that. We were talking yesterday and it was very, very light. So just to come back to the inseparableness of the body and mind or whatever we use words for. Actually we've been building these barriers in the form of muscles and electrical charges.

[39:26]

So actually what we experience as barriers, I mean, if we tuned in to our body, actually electric fences are going up, buzz buzz buzz, and muscles are hardening into concrete-like material. So, what do you think of that? That's a really good question. The answer is hang loose. But to get up to the answer of hang loose, We are formed, our postures are formed by our fears, our delights, our anxieties, our work, the way we think of ourselves. That's what forms our postures. Very few people you see, you know, standing up straight and without any posture. Although standing up straight could be construed as posture. That's interesting.

[40:28]

Standing up straight without any barriers, that guy's posturing. But actually, that's normal. By saying normal, I mean the norm. But mostly, our postures are formed by our environment and the way we read it. So, Zazen is the unconditioned posture. Our postures are all formed by conditions. So when I sit down then, you say, sit up straight. Oh my God, that's so hard, my back hurts. Oh, it's my shoulder, you know. To actually sit up straight means to let go of all of your conditioning. So we can sit. Satsang is to let go of all your conditioning. To be able, I can do that, because you don't need to drag anything into it. But we do, we drag all that stuff into it. I'm going to get this guy's posture, right?

[41:36]

Yes, it's like that. It's just like a stone wall. Stone wall. Then I take the stick. Bam, bam. But I don't. Somebody will sue me. They think I'm their father. But there are Buddhist mindfulness practices that really encourage you to pay attention to where those blocks are, and to work with your breath, and to work with your energy, and recognizing that your personality, you can feel hate, you can feel anger, you can feel all of this stuff in your body. You know, there are those practices. Zazen includes all those practices. Zazen itself includes all of those practices, if you really pay attention to opening yourself up.

[42:38]

It's all there in Zazen, if you do that. So, I'm always saying, whenever you sit down to sit, give yourself Zazen instruction. So the more you know about what is Zazen instruction, pay attention, the easier it is for you to do that. So if you're always giving yourself Zazen, every single time you sit, you give yourself Zazen instruction. Back, ears, nose, mudra, loose. Tension? No. Tension here, tension there. Let go of the tension. Is my body flexible? Can I move my elbow? Can I move my head around? If I come up behind you and straighten your posture, you should just go... Like a ragdoll. A ragdoll that has good structure, so it doesn't fall apart.

[43:45]

A ragdoll that is perfect. Not perfect. Good structure. because you're working with the fundamentals. And so you find a place where there's the least amount of effort to do the most work. That's what you should be looking for. Well, where is my support? It's not in my shoulders. Why am I holding my shoulders like this? That doesn't help. Just let go and find the place, the exact place where you're held up. and it's longer back. All the rest is just balance. If you do that, you can let go of all those pains and aches. Sometimes my back hurts, you know, but I don't, you know, I just, okay, well, how do I let go of that?

[44:51]

Because it's something maybe I'm holding on to. How do I let go of it? Maybe breathe into it? And then pretty soon it's gone. So you know that there's something being held and it's me who's holding it. Micromanaging. Micromanaging your posture all the time. That's why, you know, we say really have a good posture. Really work on having good posture because good posture means good balance. The straighter you sit with energy under your spine, the more you can let go of.

[45:56]

and it's just all balance. Then it becomes bliss.

[46:08]

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