Taigen Leighton, June 14th, 2003, at the Empty Hand Zen Do in Rye, New York, with a workshop on Dogen Zenji's Eihei Kuroko. This is tape four. The great teacher, Jao Zhou, or Zhou Shu, asked for instruction, and Zhou Shu said, Have you had breakfast?" And the monk said, yes. And then he said, then Joseph said, wash your bowls. So that's a, you know, that story is kind of beneath, between the lines here. And that's a wonderful story. But after a pause, Dogen said, not having washed the bowls because they have no bottoms is better than receiving a prediction from Gotama. So, I mean, this is so imaginative, you know, that he, you know, again, this is last night, all this happened. We talked before about receiving a prediction from Gotama, and here he's saying, not having washed the bowls because they have no bottoms.

[01:04]

So the bottomless bowl could be like this, you know, always replenished bowl of rice, or it could, it also to me is this reference to the bottom of the bucket falling out, just totally everything's open, everything's empty. Anyway, I wanted to read this one first, just because it's got that feeling of this kind of little story he's telling the monks, you know, this happened last night and then this happened. Okay, so I'm not even going to say anything about it, but let's go to 123, which is a very difficult one, because it's got all these allusions, and because we have to, you know, because the thunder wants to take part, but we'll see. So one sheet of dull stubbornness is three inches thick. Three lengths of upside downness is five feet long. Don't ask me what those two sentences mean. Last night, this mountain monk, Dogen, this, by the way, is the one of these, the tap that's from Kyoto, that's before he would move to Eheji.

[02:14]

This is in the first volume. So this is one of the, you know, not real early, but it's from before he moved to Eheji. Last night, this mountain monk struck the empty sky with a single blow. My fist didn't hurt, but the empty sky knew pain. A number of sesame cakes appeared and rushed to become the faces and eyes of the great earth." Hear them? So there's some references there. There's this wonderful story by Yun Men who, again, there's lots of wonderful stories, but there's this monk asked, what is the talk that goes beyond Buddhas and ancestors? And Yun Men said, cake, or sesame cake, literally. So the Zen students have trouble with that, but all kids now understand immediately.

[03:15]

So what is it that goes beyond the Buddhas and ancestors? Cake, sesame cake. So, anyway, here's Dogen, last night, I don't know if this is a dream, I mean it seems like a dream, like maybe he's telling this dream, literally, I don't know. You know, who knows where he gets this stuff. Anyway, last night this mountain monk struck the empty sky with a single blow. You hear it? So, you know, there's this kind of dharma combat style in a lot of the book of record and a lot of the koans and here he is, you know, my fist didn't hurt but the empty sky knew pain. And then it started to rain sesame cakes and they became the faces and eyes of the great earth. That's the first part of the dream or whatever. So can you see those round sesame cakes falling and they become the faces and eyes of the great earth and maybe we're going to have a hailstorm soon.

[04:18]

I don't know. Suddenly, a person came to this mountain monk and said, I want to buy the sesame cakes. This mountain monk said to him, who are you? The person replied to this mountain monk, I am Avalokiteshvara Bodhisattva, the great Bodhisattva of compassion we've been talking about. My family name is Zhang and my personal name is Li. That's like Smith and Jones, those are just like common names. The mountain monks, this mountain monk, Dogon himself, said to him, did you bring any money? You want to buy these sesame cakes? He said, I came without any money. So what seems to be going on here, you know, we already mentioned that he has, that the Bodhisattva of Compassion has a thousand eyes on all of his hands and he has eleven faces sometimes. So it seems like he wants to get his faces and eyes, right? You know, and he's looking to Dogen for the, you know, because these sesame cakes have become the faces and eyes of the great earth.

[05:24]

And he wants them. And he came, but he came without any money. So I asked him, if you didn't bring money, can you buy them or not? He didn't answer, but just said, I want to buy them. I really do. Then Dogen says to his monks, do you totally, thoroughly understand the meaning of this? do you? Oh, come on. After a pause, look and send. When Avalokiteshvara Bodhisattva makes an appearance, mountains and rivers on the great earth are not dead ashes. And also the world is not just dead objects. The world is alive. Do you see it? Do you hear it? When Avalokiteshvara makes an appearance, when we are willing to listen to the sounds of the world, when we're willing to hear the suffering of the world, when we're open to caring about suffering beings, about the storms of Rai or the suffering people of Iraq or wherever, then

[07:06]

The mountains and rivers and the great earth are not dead ashes. So do we see the world as something to exploit, or do we see it as alive? For Dogen, the mountains and rivers were not just dead ashes, they weren't objects. The forests did not exist to be cut down for some lumber company's quarterly profits. Anyway, the world is alive. when the bodhisattva of compassion makes an appearance. Because when we violate the first precept, we think the world is dead. It's just burnt away. There's no, you know, it's just there. It's dead. But when the Bodhisattva of Compassion is not there, he doesn't say this, then we might see them as just so much dead ash to use.

[08:26]

Anyway, that's one reading. That's just how I feel about it. You should always remember that in the third month, the partridges sing and the flowers open. Third month, so this is by the lunar calendar so that would be more like our April or May. So this again is like the plums blossom on the same branch as last year. So remember that when spring comes, partridges sing and flowers blossom. So after the pause, there's this beautiful poetic description of the activity of Avalokiteshvara, the Bodhisattva of Compassion, bringing the world to life, caring about all being, bringing life to life. But then there's this thing before that about this just kind of comic melodrama about Dogen punching out the sky.

[09:30]

Anyway, comments or questions? Yes. At the very beginning, it says, one sheet of dull stubbornness brings three lengths of upside-downness to five feet long. Right. What about that? I don't know. Three lengths of upside-downness. Yep. I'm lost. Me too. I just think, well, actually, I, oh, Dulce, you, please. Haven't you felt that dense?

[10:41]

And that stubborn? To me it just reflects exactly what it feels like to be totally caught in one stubbornness and one... But that sense of feeling caught... That's right, that's only one she. When it says 5, that means 500 or 5,000. So it's upside downness or topsy-turvy, it means delusion. So then there's the scene, I don't know, I mean, I don't, it's almost too literary to actually be an actual dream, but I don't know, maybe Dogen dreamed like this, you know, sort of presented that way almost, I don't know. And it has that kind of dream logic, sort of, except it's too perfect, you know, he kind of refined his dream a little bit, I don't know.

[11:48]

But I'm sure that Avalokiteshvara really did want to buy all those faces and eyes. What is it Jimi Hendrix said, excuse me while I kiss the sky? Anyway, it reminds me of that. So I forget now, I may have, it actually, I don't know if it's, I can't remember, I don't have the Chinese with me again, but whether it's ku or whether he repeated it, but sky and empty is the same character. So that may be our translation that we made it empty sky rather than just, it could be just sky or emptiness, but I can't remember whether he actually says, repeats it so that it's empty sky, but I think that's the meaning of it really. And then there's this kind of, macho bravado, my fist didn't hurt but the sky knew pain, you know, it was kind of funny.

[12:52]

Even Mike Tyson never said that. Yes? But if he, in those opening sentences, where did he come from? Doesn't say. I don't think that's not what that's not how I see it but if you see it that way that's how you see it I don't I think he's just talking about how how difficult the world is you know there's all this stubbornness and upside-downness last night I So striking the empty sky with a single blow, to me, it's like he penetrated emptiness.

[13:56]

He really saw through all of the stubbornness and all of the upside-downness. You know, that's one way I could feel about it. Well, you know, my fist didn't hurt, but emptiness, but emptiness knowing pain is, that's what Avalokiteshvara does. Avalokiteshvara Bodhisattva, when deeply practicing the Prajnaparamita, perceived that all five skandhas in their own being are empty and relieved all suffering. He understood the suffering of the world. He knew pain. And then, it's this very fruitful, functional, you know, it's this tremendous, his striking through emptiness brings forth this rain of sesame cakes. Can you hear them out there? And they become the eyes and faces of the whole world. And then, who should show up? Somebody who wants to buy the sesame cakes.

[15:00]

Yes? Why do they use sesame cakes as a point of reference? I think that's because they like sesame cakes. I like them too, actually. So I guess I'm in the right lineage. So yeah, it could just be translated, top theory just translated as cake, cakes. But it's from that, it's from that same koan about young men saying, what goes beyond all this talk of Buddhism ancestors? Cake, or sesame cake, whatever. But I like sesame, so I left the sesame in. And then this person shows up and this mountain monk asks, who are you? And he tells him. I like that it's not, how can you buy them with no money, but can you buy them or not without having money. Right, right. Very good. I want to buy them.

[16:01]

I really do. That goes to the four vows that even though we have no money. I've got to buy them all. Yes. Excellent. Very good. Yes. And the mountains and rivers on the great earth are not dead ashes. You should always remember that. So, John, anything else? No, thank you. Any other comments or questions about this one? Yeah, I have a question. Good. Is that your question? Yeah. What do you think? Well, if you don't read it, if you don't read the footnotes, you're left with something kind of poetic. And then when you read the footnotes, you're back to the beginning, and it's like hard to get out of it all.

[17:03]

I'm so sorry. What you think is renewal, you know, you read spring and renewal, and then sometimes it's the summer. Well, if you put it in terms of a weed, it would be summer. We just don't think these are weeds. Because the imagery is pretty. Yes. So these are persistent. Flowers fall on our version. Weeds spring forth in our attraction. I'm so greedy I want to do lots more of these with you. Oh, let's do 434.

[18:05]

So, you know, Dogen's writings often are a kind of wisdom focus more than compassion, you know, their insight and emptiness. But this one, and actually the next one after that, we're not going to do, but he talks about the true home leavers must carry out their own family property to benefit and relieve all the abandoned and destitute. That's near the end of 483. At this very time, we first require our gratitude for the blessings and virtues of the Buddhas. But 434, the family style of all Buddhas and ancestors is to first arouse the vow to save all living beings by removing suffering and providing joy. Only this family style is inexhaustibly bright and clear. In the lofty mountains, we see the moon for a long time. As clouds clear, we first recognize the sky. So mountains and clouds, it's also at face value, but mountains is an image for teachers and clouds for students or monks. But seeing the moon for a long time, it's also true that when you go and live at a place like Eheji or Tassajara or up in the mountains doing that kind of practice for a long time, you get to see the moon for a long time.

[19:21]

You see the moon very well and you also get to really soak in, steep in, this practice of Zazen. So, you know, there is, you know, something wonderful about doing it. It's, of course, it's more advanced practice to practice like we're doing here, being in the world and trying to bring our practice to the world and facing the challenges of that. But anyway, he's talking to his monks here. In the lofty mountains, we see the moon for a long time. As clouds clear, we first recognize the sky. cast loose down the precipice, the moonlight shares itself within the 10,000 forms. So this whole, like in the punching out the sky and the sky knowing pain, it's the moonlight, the empty, you could say emptiness in form, but the ultimate and then the particulars, the moonlight shares itself with the 10,000 forms. And it's true, you know, the moonlight, you can see the moonlight everywhere in the image that, of the moon in the dewdrop, and the moon in a puddle, the moon in every bit of water.

[20:26]

Even when climbing up the bird's path, taking good care of yourself is spiritual power. So, you know, the family style is first of all to arouse the vow to save all living beings, remove suffering and provide joy. But now that you're here, All of you, in some ways, are here because you've made that vow in some way or another. Whether or not you've fully understood that, you wouldn't be here otherwise. So, you know, I just feel very clear that I can say that. First, we make a vow to save all living beings. So, in some way, even if you came here because you want to understand Zen or because you have some problem in your life and you're needing to get some solace and comfort and calm stress reduction and all that still, part of why you're here is that there's somewhere this vow to save all living beings. Having first aroused that vow, please take good care of yourself. So you cannot help anybody else if you don't take good care of yourself.

[21:31]

Compassion is not about selflessly going out and doing good and helping others. It's not separate. So first we have to arouse the vow to save all living beings. And then we take, and to do that, please take good care of yourself. That's a reference, Dong Shan, the founder of Sutra Zen talks about the bird's path. The bird's path is, you know, if you look at birds flying in the sky, most of you probably cannot see the path they leave. If one of us were to go out and walk in the mud, though, the rest of us could probably go out and follow that path. So Hongzhe says somewhere, you know, that all of the teachings left behind by the ancient Buddhas and ancestors are just

[22:34]

tracks on the path. But climbing up the birds' path, anyway, even if you can follow this path of transcendence, even if you can see the path of the birds, take good care of yourself. That image of the birds' path is used in a variety of different ways. Dong Shan particularly talks about it. Comments or questions on this one? I was struck by the, in my study with Sam, the decree of all sentient beings to take care of themselves. I'm glad to hear that we have a force to take care of itself. And what I was doing with Sam this afternoon is, as we were reading these comments together,

[23:41]

Good. That's your job as a Zen student, yes. All of this stuff is not about something else. Okay, let's close with one that's a little more tricky and dense and elaborate and has more depth. Number 266. And I like this one a lot because it's... Wait a second, am I on the right one? Yeah. This is one where you see him consciously

[24:50]

talking about and thinking about how he's teaching these monks who are going to produce sattva-zen. So this is very kind of, on some one level anyway, this is kind of a self-conscious, you know, discussion of Dogon's teaching methods. And so there's a lot of stuff, a lot of technical things that I need to kind of explain about this one. Actually some of it's in the notes, but anyway, So I'll just start. Sometimes I, Ehe, enter the ultimate state and offer profound discussion, simply wishing for you all to be steadily intimate in your mind field. So first of all, a number of things. First of all, there's like four different modes of teaching that he discusses in this first paragraph, and he starts always with sometimes. Now that's the same sometimes, arutoki, that is also uji. So some of you who've read Dogen may have read this essay by him and Shobo Genzo called Being Time, or the Time Being, in which he talks about the multidimensional directions of time and how all time is here.

[26:03]

So I was sort of referring to that before some of the discussion. But anyway, so that's not so much the point of this, but this sometimes, he introduces each of these sentences with, is the same as being time. So at some time of being, I enter the ultimate state and offer profound discussion. time again is being for Dogon. There's no time outside of our practice, outside of our activity, outside of our enlightenment and expression. But anyway, here he says, sometimes I enter the ultimate state. So this is opposed to, as opposed to, you know, there's the ultimate and there's the phenomenal. So sometimes one takes care of the things, as you were saying, Keechan, the practical stuff. And then here he's admitting that sometimes he enters this being in the ultimate, in the universal, in this seeing through the emptiness of all things. And he offers profound discussion.

[27:04]

But then he also has this awareness of the effect of that on his students. Simply wishing for you all to be steadily intimate in your mind field. So he feels that by expressing this the depths of this ultimate reality that his monks there can become steady and familiar with their own mind field. So again, this is just my reading of this, and there's lots of ways to read this, I think. But anyway, next. Sometimes within the gates and gardens of the monastery, I offer my own style of practical instruction, simply wishing you all to disport and play freely with spiritual penetration. So this is kind of the other side, within the particulars of the temple grounds, in the gardens, within the gates, he offers practical instruction. So he was at Heiji writing the Ehe Shingi also, the Dogen's Pure Standards of Zen Community, talking about, and he does in many of the places in the Ehe Koroku too, talk about the specifics of taking care of the monastery, of how to

[28:15]

practice together in community of responsibilities for the Tenzo and how the Tenzo takes care of feeding everyone and goes into great detail about that. So sometimes I offer my own style of practical instruction simply wishing you all to disport and play freely with spiritual penetration. So to play freely, to practice, to disport, this is the practice actually of Sangha and of life and to take care of all the things of the monastery or your life, the world, your home, your family. So that's the second one. And the third, sometimes I spring quickly, leaving no trace, simply wishing you all to drop off body and mind. So there's this abruptness, which you've already seen in some of these. And please drop body and mind. Sometimes I enter the samadhi of self-fulfillment, simply wishing you all to trust what your hands can hold, So this is a technical term. This is from Bendawa, which I translated with Shonraku in the book The Wholehearted Way.

[29:21]

I don't know if I've spoken about that here. Anyway, it's this Samadhi of Self-Fulfillment is another name for Zazen, and it means, he calls it the criterion of Zazen. So what he's talking about, when you just sit once, all of space becomes enlightened. He talks about it in that context, that this meditation or Samadhi of self-fulfillment, self-realization, self-enjoyment is, you know, when he says to study the self, it's like that, but it's trusting that, it's knowing that actually our practice does enlighten all of space, that in our practice we are helped by outside as well as inside. It's not that it's just inside. that all of, that there's this mutual influence that we support each other to siddhas and that the world supports us and we support the world and it happens in this, there is this kind of, in that section of Bhandelwari talks about hidden assistance or mysterious guidance and this is a term for how the bodhisattvas help us from outside, but only outside.

[30:40]

But the samadhi of self-fulfillment, the etymology of it, it's literally GGU in Japanese. G is self, GU means to fulfill or to enjoy or to complete, to realize. But separately, the two characters mean, it's the self receiving, it's the same G as in Jukai, receiving or accepting its function. So This self-fulfillment happens when the self can accept its position, receive its function, when you can be willing to be in this body and mind, sitting on your cushion, and just do your job. So in the monastery there are assigned jobs and everybody, you know, for a practice period or for some period of time, one takes, one's the tenzo or one works in the kitchen or works in the grounds, and just to take your position, just to fulfill your function is self-fulfillment, is self-enjoyment. So all of that's implied by this. Sometimes I enter the samadhi of self-fulfillment simply wishing you all to trust what your hands can hold.

[31:44]

So again, the image of the many hands and all of the different implements, whatever it is that you are able to do, reaching back for your pillow in the middle of the night, to trust that. So anyway, this first paragraph here is very, this very dense kind of description, and to me it's amazing that he can say it, that he has such a sense of the different qualities of his own teaching that he's training these monks with. There were some monks there too, by the way, I should say that. So these aren't exactly teaching methods, but this is his different modes of being there with his students and he's aware of the impact of his teaching. So having said all of that, which would be enough for me, it's totally remarkable, then he says, suppose someone suddenly comes forth and asks this mountain monk, what would go beyond these?

[32:50]

I would simply say to him, scrubbed clean by the dawn wind, the night mist clears, dimly seeing the blue mountains form a single line. And he's up there on the mountains, you know, and it's true if you've ever been in the mountains in the morning as the mist is clearing, dimly seeing the blue mountains form a single line. But it's also an image of the particular in the same So I really like this one. I don't know, comments, questions, responses? We've done a lot today, so it's probably kind of all saturated. And I apologize again for giving you so much in one day. We could have just done one of these and it would be more than enough, but we'll see. Yes, good, yeah, thank you, I like that, yeah.

[34:14]

The night mist clears, yeah. Scrub clean, so there's an image of practice there, scrub clean. There's the monks cleaning in the monastery, but also what's in the dawn wind. So they're sitting early in the morning, right? What's that? Thank you. Great. So do any of you have questions about the different, his different modes of teachings or responses to them or just, you know, comments or reflections?

[35:16]

I love there's a saying, there's a dialogue or saying by Joshu Jojo that I do not take, I do not take refuge in clarity. So, you know, don't worry about understanding. Is that related to the hazy moon in a way? Yes, right, exactly, good. He's talking about the monks too, yeah. There's a line. And he's praising them by calling them Blue Mountains. But it's also, I don't know, if, you know, maybe on the way from the monk's hall, meditation hall, to the dharma hall, he looked out over the mountains and saw that.

[37:14]

you know that's how we how for us to imagine you know for us to see this how how we see it is the point and it's all kind of food for your zazen So any comments or questions about anything?

[38:28]

You can just sit for a moment. Yes? Right. And the third one is to try and become enlightened by doing good works. Not that you shouldn't do good things and not help people, but that's, that alone isn't it. And then the fourth one is to try and practice by getting rid of all desires. So this is in the Complete Enlightenment Sutra, so this is a Chinese Mahayana. What did you call it? Poor sicknesses of practitioners, diseases of meditators. Okay.

[40:15]

Let's close with 526. So this is also in the context of talking about causation and causes and conditions and it doesn't specifically refer to precepts but that we have to practice in the world of causes and conditions and respect causes and conditions and not get stuck in some idea of emptiness or transcendence. He says, you should know that becoming a Buddha is not something new or ancient. How could practice realization be within any boundary? Do not say that from the beginning not a single thing exists.

[42:10]

So this is a famous saying of the sixth ancestor. He says, don't say that. This is one of his very last teachings in Ekoroku. The causes are complete and the results are fulfilled through time. Great assembly, please tell me why is it like this? So, you know, we come to practice through causes and conditions. So in addition to being grateful for, you know, formal teachers, each of us has various circumstances, you know, teachers, parents, siblings, family, you know, it's through karma, through causes and conditions that we can come to practice. So that's where we live. We live in the world of causes and conditions. It's not about escaping from ourself or becoming some other person or you know, that it's actually through the situations of this body and mind that we find practice realization, practice enlightenment. The results are fulfilled through time.

[43:15]

So we exist in a particular place and time in a particular body and mind. So, you know, in terms of gratitude towards teachings, we could, teachers, we also could be, could feel that towards all beings, really. Everything in the whole universe allows you to be as you are right now. It's always so. So he says, Great Assembly, please tell me why is it like this? After a pause, Dogen said, Opening flowers will unfailingly bear the genuine fruit. Green leaves meeting autumn immediately turn red. So don't say from the beginning not a single thing exists. You know, in some way that's true. But actually, from the beginning, every single thing exists just as it is. That's what it means that not a single thing exists. Comments or questions?

[44:24]

Responses? Because it's hard for me, being relatively new to this practice, to recite Dr. Parmita, So, in the Heart Sutra it says, form is exactly emptiness, emptiness is exactly form. That which is form is emptiness, that which is emptiness is form. Emptiness doesn't exist anywhere. Emptiness is not... Emptiness is the way things is.

[45:34]

Emptiness, we only can see the emptiness of things in things. Emptiness is form. Of course form is emptiness too. But there's no... So this is a problem when you... start chanting the Heart Sutra because we start to think there's this thing called emptiness. Emptiness is not a noun, emptiness is a verb. Or an adverb. Emptiness is how forms form. So we only meet it in forms. So that's why, as C.J. was saying, when we start to settle into perfection of wisdom, we start taking care of things in a different way. We relate to things in a different way. So this is why precepts are important. It's not, hey, whatever, man, everything's empty. It's like we take care of

[46:39]

the world and ourselves and our family and friends and so forth, you know, how we see values in the world, you know, makes a difference. And then our expression of that makes a difference and we have a responsibility to that. not to be afraid to express the truth as we see it, in the particulars of the forms of the situational realm. So our practice is actually expressed, we actually help beings, we actually take care of ourselves in time, as the particular beings we are in the particular situation we're in.

[47:50]

Yes? In the line, the causes are complete and the results are complete in time, would you say something about cause and effect? Yeah, flowers when they open, they're fruit. As our practice blossoms, there is an effect. The genuine fruit, not the fruit. Enlightenment is not what you think it is. Even though you are practicing your enlightenment right now, it is not limited by our limited human consciousness and faculties. It is beyond how we see it. It doesn't happen the way you expect.

[49:00]

Nothing ever does. So this playshop today is not the playshop you expected, I'm sure. It's not the one I expected, or even Susan expected. And yet here we are. And so this happens through time, and it's fulfilled through time, and it's time for kinhip.

[49:27]

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