Well, today is our seventh day of our Rohatsu Seshin, commemorating Shakyamuni Buddha's enlightenment day. So we've been sitting continuously, most of us, for seven days. My talk today is a kind of continuation of what we've been talking about during this time. So if you haven't been here or are fairly new to the practice, I'm not addressing you exactly, so I just want to let you know that I'm continuing what I've been talking about, and I hope you understand.

[01:16]

In other words, you haven't had the preparation. that you may not have the preparation, but it's okay. It's not so difficult to understand. So one of the subjects that I presented was the idea of following the cosmic order that our practice

[02:21]

Don't worry about her over there, just pay attention, that our practice calls what we call following the cosmic order. In other words, you know, we all want to find our place in the universe. I think that's what conscious people do, whether we're conscious or not of it, that basically what we do is finding our place in the universe moment by moment. So there is the macrocosmic universe, which is beyond our comprehension, and then there's the microcosmic universe in which we focus our attention. So an astronomer will focus his attention on the macrocosmic universe, and a practitioner will focus, or other people will focus on the microcosmic universe, the universe that is within our comprehension and within our reach.

[03:36]

Our planetary system, in what we call our universe, revolves around the sun. When I was in Bhutan some years ago, in the monastery there, the whole monastery is like a tattoo. All the walls have paintings and mandalas showed a cosmic plan where the Earth is the center. And so I said to somebody, you know, it's funny that you still have the Earth as the symbol of the center of the universe. And he said, yes, we do. And then I thought it was kind of strange because almost everybody

[04:42]

knows that the earth revolves around the sun. But he said, no, this is the way it is. But I don't think that he believed that. I think that this model was there as a kind of relic of the way people thought at one time. So I didn't, you know, press, you know, try to convert him to thinking otherwise. They probably know this, I'm sure. So an astronomer has one way of studying the universe, or relating to the universe, and a physicist has a way of relating to the universe, and in a religious way, we have a way of relating to the universe, and if you mix them up, you have an argument. So it's best not to mix them up, but to respect each one's discipline, and what the meaning is in each discipline,

[05:44]

and then we can have peace among the three disciplines. So what do we mean by the cosmic order of our planet following the cosmic order of our universe? Our practice here is very narrow and also very wide. I remember when I used to watch my teacher, when I first went to Sokoji Temple in San Francisco, which was where our practice started in 1960, 59. I started in 1964. And it was very unusual what was happening there. The place looked something like this, with cushions and so forth, and the practice was to sit on those cushions and do a meditation practice, which we called zazen, and then we'd get up and we'd bow, and then we'd chant a sutra called the Heart Sutra, and then we'd bow again and leave.

[07:08]

That was our practice. This is a very narrow kind of practice, microcosmic practice, which follows our cosmic order. The teacher would come out into the room, bow, light incense, and take his seat. And we would all be seated, and then at the end, we would do this, what we call service, bowing and chanting. And then at the end, he would leave, and we would all bow to him on the way out, and that was it. And every day, he did the same thing, twice a day. And I thought, that's really interesting. I've never, because my way of thinking, I've talked about this before, my way of living was to never do anything twice the same way.

[08:15]

So this is more like a Japanese way of ordering their universe, but there was something really interesting about it, and after a while I realized You know, the cosmic order was the teacher was at the center, the altar, the teacher, and the teacher's relationship to entering, and his movements were the same every day, even though they were never the same, it had the same pattern. And then, some time later, I realized that his whole way of thinking, I mean, of movement, was, the Zen Do was a kind of cosmos.

[09:23]

You know, often he would say, this room is our whole world. At this moment, this room covers the whole universe. This particular space covers the whole universe. We don't have to fly out to the moon in order to get perspective on the universe. We don't have to peep through a little tube in order to get a perspective on the universe, because you can study the whole universe in this narrow space. As a matter of fact, sitting Zazen is the most restrictive posture that you can take. You fold up all your whole body and you open up your whole body. You take the most restrictive posture and you open yourself up completely. So these are the two polarities of this activity. One is the most restrictive posture in which you don't move. You can move if you want, but you don't.

[10:26]

And you open yourself up completely. as an offering to the universe. And then the universe expresses itself through you. Matter of fact, the universe is expressing itself through us all the time. But we don't have that awareness, necessarily, because we're always acting according to our self-centeredness with each other. And we have, the result is what you see today in our world, the world of conflict. Because we don't really understand or we don't really attune ourself to the cosmic order. We don't pay attention to that.

[11:29]

We simply think that we're isolated from the cosmos, basically. If we're waiting for some sign from the universe, is there anybody else out there? I don't know, I thought I heard something from outer space, but inner space is outer space. We make a big distinction between inner space and outer space, and so we go to the moon, we go to Mars, Mars is next. When you see these movies about space, it's always one person, not always, but often, it's one person in a spaceship that they didn't build. It's an enormous spaceship with all this stuff, and they're the driver, and they're plowing through space for years in this lonely, lonely space is so isolated and lonely.

[12:36]

Actually, the further out you get into space, out there, the more lonely it gets. So we're really earth people, but we need to expand ourself, you know, we really need to open ourself. I'm not complaining about this or criticizing it. But it's just the way human mind and idealism works. We can only get to the moon. We got to the moon, and it's just like, you know, nothing special up there. We are the moon, actually. It's just a piece of a little satellite. Anyway. The two terms we use, which I've talked about before, yoji and dokkan, Japanese terms for practice. Yoji means continuous practice.

[13:40]

In other words, it's not like I come to the zendo and that's my practice, and then I go home and that's something else. Continuous practice means that our practice is is not separate from everything that we do. When we have a practice, everything we do is our practice. So the other term is dokkan. Dokkan is how we actually do a specific thing. So when I came to the Zen Do in San Francisco, My teacher was doing a specific thing called doka, which it was kind of like moving in a kind of cosmic space.

[14:43]

And the cosmic, because he would do that every day, there was a terrific power in it, because his mind was not scattered. He was not doing other things. He didn't do it for any special purpose. He just did it, which is totally remarkable. It's like the universe. The sun is there, but it doesn't have any purpose. It just does what it does. The planets, they just do what they do, but there's something, a kind of order that keeps everything in place. Sometimes it gets out of place, and then you have a big crack up, but for a long time, according to our way of calculating, may not be a long time, maybe just a blink, but according to our way of calculating, it's a long, long time. The planets have been doing this, and they know each other intimately, and the order has a certain power, and the sun has a great power.

[15:50]

was the center of that universe. And the teacher has set the example of how to create a space that is not driven by self-centeredness. Although the teacher is the center, The teacher cannot be self-centered. The teacher has no ego because the teacher's not doing something for some special purpose, but it's only a wheel or a cog in the wheel. and sets an example for all the satellites, for all the planets.

[17:02]

Our body is also a cosmic system. The sun is here, and all the appendages are planets that move around the sun. You call it the solar system. The solar plexus, it's a little bit above that, but I like to think of it as solar. The sun plexus, right here, and the energy and light flow out of that. The motivating light flows out of that. So it's the same with our Zendo practice. each one of us is a part of that solar system and the light flows out from within the system. Each person's light flows out.

[18:04]

It's not something, as soon as you say, oh, I see that light, it's no longer there. This leads me to talking about intuition. Intuition is to be Thinking is to see. Seeing and being have some relationship. Sometimes seeing is being, and sometimes being is seeing. But being is no separation. Seeing, in order to see, we have to have some separation. So seeing is always, has a dual function. Seeing is seeing something. Sometimes we can close our eyes and we say, I see, but it doesn't mean the same as ordinary seeing. It means inner vision, which can be the same as being.

[19:09]

But actually, we can be it, but we can't see it. If we be it, we can't see it. And if we see it, we can't be it. So seeing it separates us from being it. You understand? That's called duality. So our practice is to be it, but sometimes it's also to see it. But we shouldn't confuse the two. Confusion is when we think that seeing it is being it. This is just ordinary, plain Buddhism. Zen. So as soon as you start to peak from being it, you lose it. So that's why we talk about it's beyond our understanding. When we be it, it's beyond our understanding because we want to see it and then it's not there.

[20:17]

Suzuki Roshi, our teacher, would talk about Buddha nature. We can talk about Buddha nature, and we are Buddha nature, but when we try to open it up and see it, it's not there, because we can only be it. We like to take a peek, but it doesn't work. Peeking makes it disappear. It's like our eyes. We can see through our eyes, but we can't see our eyes. We can't see the back of our head, but it's there. And our eyes see. But what we see is always a distance. In order to play ball, there has to be a distance. So in our relationships, there's always this distance, even though we are one being.

[21:23]

So we talk about, in Buddhist understanding, Buddhists like to use numbers, the three of these things, and the four of those things, and the five of these things, and the 10 of these things, kind of enumeration, because there's an aspect of Buddhism which is analytical. Buddhists like to analyze and they categorize things in numerical ways. So we have the three natures. But when you go to study the three natures, it's confusing. It can be confusing because there are different three natures, even though they're all called the three natures. So it's the nature of things as they are, as it is, which is what we call the fulfilled nature of seeing the reality of what something actually is.

[23:17]

And then we have the nature of imagination, of representation. I talked about this yesterday. where instead of seeing something as it really is, we create a picture of it, which is the representation. And so we take the representation for the thing itself. As soon as we name something, it creates a representation. And so we live our life a lot in the world of representations instead of as it is. And then there's the realm of imagination, which is simply things coming up in our mind which we imagine. Now, these three are not, there's nothing bad about any of them. They're all necessary. But we should not mistake the representation for the reality, as long as we know this is the representation and this is the imagination.

[24:26]

but it's hard to stay with the reality of what something actually is. And then another three natures is the same, except that the second one is the nature of interdependence. Interdependence is the way things are. There's nothing that exists, this is basic Buddhism, there's nothing that exists independently. Everything is dependent on everything else. And when we understand this thoroughly, then it's not so hard to see things as it is in their actual reality. So our practice is to realize the interdependence of everything.

[25:29]

This is called emptiness. Emptiness means, in this understanding, interdependence. We talk about emptiness a lot in Buddhism. Emptiness means interdependence, that everything is empty of an inherent nature and is always changing, so there is nothing that exists this moment that's lasting. Everything is history. So I just wanted to clarify that. In medieval times, or in the West, or during the Renaissance, in music, there were theorists who talked about the music of the spheres, which I thought was very interesting, how to align music with the cosmic system.

[26:45]

And they made diagrams. you know, of beautiful diagrams of how the planetary systems, what is the music of the planetary systems? You know, if you cross the Golden Gate Bridge, the stringers, the supports for the bridge, the cables, there are four or five cables together And in the wind, you can hear them singing, and it's great music. And we also talk about the dragon singing in a withered tree. Let's then go on. The dragon is singing in a withered tree. Dragon is singing in a withered tree. I won't go into that.

[27:50]

Anyway, our talk should be short today, because we have stuff to do already, and our session is not over, and we should, I wanted to encourage everyone to continue as, until the end, as we have been, or more than what we have been. Can you say something about the ceremony that's about to follow? Following this we have a Buddha's enlightenment ceremony where we make an offering to Buddha on the altar and basically we chant the Prajnaparamita Heart Sutra and we circumambulate the zendo, tossing flowers. Not everyone.

[29:01]

Yes, everyone's invited. This is Vimalakirti's room. You know, in Vimalakirti's room, it's six feet square, but thousands and thousands of people enter to find their comfort there. There's plenty of room. Raghav. To be. To be, yes. Just to be. Just to be. And not to see. and not to see. When is it okay to see? What is okay to see? Just to be is to see. But if you try to see, you don't see. But if you just be, you see.

[30:06]

Right thinking is no thinking, and no thinking is to think. Our problem is that we always fall on one side or another, and we can't get out of it. I've heard it said that I am the center of the universe, and I've also heard that you inspiration for that? Maybe, you know, the center of the universe is everywhere. If you say, I am the center of the universe, you are the center. If I say, I am the center of the universe, it's true and it's false. I as an isolated person

[31:25]

as the universe, I'm the center of the universe, because there's no I that is not the whole universe. But I don't know whether they thought that or not, and I don't want to speculate. My teacher said, were you there? I started to describe a place that I'd never been. And he said, oh, were you there? That was a satori for me. It's okay. You're talking about things as it is. Yes. Wave and water?

[32:40]

Wave and water, or wave and sea? Wave. Wave. Wave and water. Wave and water. Yes, you can say wave and water, yeah. Are you saying as it is, is water, or? As it is, yeah, as it is, I'm not The problem is we're getting too analytical. Wave is water, and water is water. Water is wave, wave is water. So we just, wave is the activity of water. That's all. Things and thing, Water is thing. Wave is things. Waves are things. Water is water.

[33:43]

Water is singular. Waves is plural. Things as it is. It is singular. Waves is plural. Things as it is. It is not a mistake. No, we have to move, right? Yes. Sorry, John.

[34:15]

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