Good morning. So I'm here today, this morning and this afternoon, to talk about some writings. I've been just recently finished translating by the Japanese monk who brought Zen from China to Japan, Dogen. But first this morning, since it's the first Saturday of the month, there's a children's talk. So the rest of you can listen, but this is for the children. And this is also one of the short writings that I translated from Dogen, and it's about the moon. So in Zen and in Buddhism, we talk about the moon as something wonderful because it's round, the full moon. Sometimes we only see a little part of it, but when it's full, it's completely round. So in Asia, that kind of represents wholeness,

[01:03]

completeness, fullness. And people in Asia like to see the full moon. In fact, going back to Dogen's time 800 years ago, and still today, when the moon is full, people go out and they have parties, and they sit and sometimes have drinks or eat something, but they look up at the full moon because they like it a lot. Even today, when I lived in Japan, people would go outside when it was a full moon and sit together and look at the moon, and turn off their televisions and just enjoy looking at the moon, and maybe write poetry about the moon. So this is something that Dogen said about the moon, about the full moon in mid-autumn. So this is spring now, but in Asia, they think that the full moon in autumn is the most beautiful, and that's what he was looking at. And he said, in the heavens, the moon is round and vast as an ancient mirror.

[02:04]

In the human realm, the full moon extends over the entire world. In the dark, it rolls up to 2,000 or 3,000. In the light, it unfolds to pervade throughout seven or eight, so it's everywhere. And then he said, see the moon as like the eyeballs of Buddhas, and this produces joyful laughter. So you might try that. You might look up at the full moon sometime and see it like the eye of Buddha, looking down on the whole world, feeling the pain of people who are having a hard time, but also seeing the joy and beauty of all the people in the world. So seeing the moon like the eyeball of Buddhas produces joyful laughter. And then Dogen said, seeing it as like Yunmen's cake brings an uproar. So there's a story about this. Yunmen was an old Zen master in China, and one time a Zen student asked him, what is it that goes beyond all the talk

[03:12]

of the Buddhas and the Zen teachers? So what do you think Yunmen said? What is it that's better than all the talk of the Buddhas and the Zen teachers? Yunmen was famous for giving very short answers, and he only gave a one-word answer this time. When he was asked, what is better than all of the talk of the Buddhas and the Zen teachers and the ancestors, he said, cake. Do you think so? So you can also look at the full moon up in the sky and see it like cake. So you might try this. You might ask your parents, when is the next full moon? And you might go out and look at the moon and see what you see, because people see different things in the moon. Dogen says, having arrived at such a field, can you enjoy your practice like this or not? Can you enjoy the moon just as it is, perfect and round? Can you enjoy yourself looking at the moon? Can you see what you

[04:19]

see in the moon? So after Dogen said that, he paused for a bit. And then he said, shining on the hundreds of grasses in all the different lands, in all the different countries of the world, everywhere a toad is jumping around with vigor, with vitality. So do you know, in the West, when we look at the moon, sometimes people say they see a man in the moon. Did you ever see the man in the moon? Well, in Asia, you know what? They don't see a man in the moon. Sometimes they say they see a rabbit in the moon, and sometimes they see a frog or a toad. So this is what he's talking about. So when you look at the moon, you can see that it shines on all of the grasses and on all of the people and in all the countries in the world. And if you look closely at the moon, you might see there's a toad jumping around in the moon. So part of Zen and part of Buddhism is to enjoy the

[05:24]

natural things of the world and to see that actually everything is okay, as it is in some way. And when we see the full moon, we can feel that, and we can feel our own response to that, and we can enjoy ourselves enjoying the full moon. So you might try it. Ask your parents, when is the next full moon going to be? So sometimes people in cities don't even know when the full moon is going to be. People who live out in nature, in the world, they always know when it's a full moon, or when it's a small moon, or whether it's getting bigger or smaller. We forget about that. Anyway, you might ask your parents, the next time there's a full moon, if you can stay up late and go out and watch the full moon and see what you see. Maybe you'll see a man in the moon, or maybe you'll see a woman in the moon, or maybe you might see a rabbit or a frog even. But just to enjoy the full moon just as it is, this is why we're here, and this is what we're doing here, to try and see this full moon. So please enjoy the rest of your day for the

[06:26]

children, and see if you can remember about the full moon and try and see it sometime. So the rest of the talk is for the big kids. And that writing about the moon, and the one I'm going to share this morning, is from a long, long, long writing by Dogen called Ehe Koroku, Dogen's extensive

[07:26]

record, which I just finished translating with Shoha Kurokumura over three and a half years, and I'm probably going to send it to the publisher Monday or Tuesday. It's almost ready. So I'm here going to be doing a workshop this afternoon about this writing, and so I wanted to say a little bit to introduce it before I talk about one of the writings this morning, just that Dogen again has lived in the 1200s, and he was a Japanese monk, and he went to China, and he brought back Zen from China to Japan, and introduced it to Japan, and established it in Japan. And some of you may have heard of Dogen and may have read some of the writings that have been translated by him from a writing called Shobogenzo, which means true dharma, I treasury, but the work that Shoha Kurokuma and I translated, actually a lot of it we translated upstairs in Shoha Kurokuma's room, because he was living here until recently. And this is from

[08:30]

later in Dogen's life, when he moved to the mountains and set up a temple called Eheji, far in the north of the capital of Kyoto, and way up in the snowy mountains. So even though in the West now, and in America, and especially amongst Zen students, we study Dogen's writings a lot. His writings weren't studied so much until the 20th century, and what was really, what he did that was really more important was to train a group of students, a group of disciples who spread Soto Zen through the countryside in Japan, in the couple centuries after Dogen. And this writing that we translated, most of it is very short talks, like the one I just told the children, the little children, about the moon that Dogen gave in the Dharma Hall to his monks. So these show his mature

[09:34]

teaching when he was training the monks who actually did spread Soto Zen in Japan. And they were in the Dharma Hall, and he was sitting up on the altar, and different from this kind of Dharma talk, because all the monks were standing. So maybe that's why they were short. But the one I want to talk about today, this morning, as I said I'm going to be doing a workshop this afternoon, which you're welcome to come to from 2 to 5 here in the Art Lounge. But the one I want to talk about this morning is from earlier in his career when he was still in Kyoto, and this is called a hoko, or Dharma words, but they're actually, it's actually from a letter that he wrote to one of his students. So I'm going to talk about part of it. And one of the things about Dogen, and one of the things about these teachings, is that a lot of them feature these what we call koans, these old teaching stories from the Zen tradition in China and Japan. And some of

[10:39]

them are old teaching stories from the time of the Buddha too. So he knew this literature very well, and he talked about them and commented on them, on these stories a lot in these talks. But in this particular talk, he says all these ancient teachings and old stories are not caught up in the stages from living beings to Buddha, and already transcend the boundaries of delusion and enlightenment. Only when one releases these handles without retaining what has been glimpsed, is it perfectly complete right here, and can fill the eyes. So these teachings are like the full moon, but he says somewhere else, please forget what I've said today, don't hold on to it. So the point isn't to remember particular teachings in Zen, the point is something deeper. So he says

[11:40]

behind the head, the path of genuine intimacy opens wide, in front of the face, not knowing is a good friend. So our practice is just to sit and face the wall, and we don't know what we'll see. And what we see often is that we don't know who we are, and that thoughts and feelings come up. And this practice of meditation that we do is about being present and upright, and calm, and watching and listening, and being willing to face ourselves, this body, this mind, this confusion, this greed and hatred, whatever it is, whatever our condition habits are, to be willing to be upright and settled in the middle of that, and just be there without trying to get anywhere. So this is what Dogen is talking about in this teaching, and he talks about it in terms of three things.

[12:43]

He says within this true Dharma there is practice, teaching, and verification. So practice is like our sitting practice. Practice is cultivation, practice is trying to be more fully ourself, trying to be, to express more fully this Buddha that we can find within us, without us, through us. So that's the first one. Then there's teaching, the Dharma. So that's maybe what I'm doing now, but it's also all of the sutras, all of the many stories, vast libraries full of teaching. And it's also the teaching that we can experience when we see a flower, or a child smile, or enjoy our breathing. The third thing, we translate it here

[13:44]

as verification, but it's one of the three Chinese characters that means enlightenment. So you've probably heard this horrible word, enlightenment. And there's three different ways that, there are three different Chinese characters that are used to mean that. One of them means just awakening, another one means kind of a transitory or awakening experience. But the one he uses here means verification, a completion to really be authentic. So it's a word for enlightenment that means to verify our life in our practice. So he says within this true Dharma there is practice, teaching, and verification. This practice is the effort of Zazen, our sitting meditation. It is customary, he says, that such practice is not abandoned even after reaching Buddhahood, so that it is still practiced by Buddha. So

[14:44]

sometimes we may think that we sit in meditation and do this practice to get something, to have some deeper understanding, or maybe even to get enlightened. But Buddha's awakening was not the end of Buddhism. It wasn't like he meditated until he got enlightened and then he could quit and go home. Actually that was the beginning. So it's, Dogen says, even after reaching Buddhahood, this Zazen, this meditation, is still the practice of Buddha. Teaching and verification should be examined in the same way. This Zazen was transmitted from Buddha to Buddha, directly pointed out by the Buddha ancestors, and only transmitted by legitimate successors. Even when others hear of its name, it is not the same as the Zazen of Buddha ancestors. This is because the principle

[15:48]

of Zazen in other schools is to wait for enlightenment. For example, some people practice as having crossed over a great ocean on a raft, and they think that upon crossing the ocean, one should discard the raft. So you may have heard that, to not keep the practice after you reach the other shore, that we don't need the raft anymore. Anyway, what Dogen says about this tradition that we practice here at San Francisco Zen Center that comes from Dogen, the Zazen of our Buddha ancestors is not like this, but is simply Buddha's practice. We could say that the situation of Buddha's house is the oneness in which the essence, the practice, and the expounding, or teaching, are one and the same. So I think our usual way of thinking is that we think of these as separate. We think of

[16:50]

practice as one thing, the things that we do to maybe to feel better, to be able to more fully see the moon. And we think of enlightenment as maybe that's the moon up there, or the other shore, or something we have to get to. Here Dogen's calling it the essence. And then expounding is something that maybe officially is done by authorized teachers, so that's what I'm doing up here. But actually that's not what Dogen says. He says that the situation in Buddha's house is the oneness in which the essence, the practice, and expounding are one and the same. The essence is the verification of enlightenment. Expounding is the teaching. And practice is cultivation. So again I think most people come to meditation practice hoping for something, trying to cultivate some

[17:54]

positive possibility within ourselves, within our life. This is very natural that we think of meditation this way. But Dogen says even up to now these three have been studied together. We should know that practice is the practice of essence, or the practice of enlightenment, and the practice of expounding. So this character which we translate as expounding also just means to express. So even if you may think that expounding, the teaching, is something that only Zen teachers do, actually from the very beginning we are expressing our practice and we are expressing enlightenment. So how many of you are here for the first time today? Okay. And how many of you had meditation instruction for the first time this morning? Oh terrific. Well what we say is that the very first time that you sit and

[19:02]

do Zazen, already you are expressing this practice completely. You're expressing yourself completely. You're expressing enlightenment. So it's not that we don't maybe deepen this expression as we settle into our practice, but it's not about reaching some higher state of being. It's not about becoming some other person. It's about seeing how it is that already we are expressing this possibility of Buddha, this possibility of awakening, that we all already have some connection to. So you would not be here now in this room if you did not have some connection to this possibility of awakening. Some part of you that is interested in, that is drawn towards this practice of awakening, this practice of

[20:07]

expressing your practice and expressing your awakening. So these all come together. It's not about practicing for something else other than just this practice of expressing and awakening. So again he says we should know that practice is the practice of the essence and of expounding. And expounding is to expound the essence and practice. And the essence is the verification of expounding and practice. So enlightenment is just the enlightenment that we express and practice. It's not some other strange thing that happens only up in the moon or in the deep mountains or, you know, in some Asian monastery. He says if practice is not the practice of expressing and is not the practice of

[21:10]

verification of enlightenment, how can we say that it is the practice of Buddhadharma? It can't really be the practice of Buddhadharma, the practice that is done in Buddhadharma if it's not already expressing and awakening. If expounding or expressing is not the expounding of practice and is not the expounding of verification, it is difficult to call it the expounding of Buddhadharma. If verification is not the verification of practice and is not the verification of expounding or expressing, how can we name it the verification of the Buddhadharma? So enlightenment doesn't exist, you know, somewhere up on a picture in a frame. Enlightenment is only the enlightenment that is actually practiced, that is actually expressed. Otherwise it's not. It's not anything. So we emphasize in this

[22:16]

branch of Buddhism to see the connection of our practice with awakening, to see our practice as the expression of awakening, to see our expressions as the awakening of practice, to practice expressing all the time. And in fact we do that. So we emphasize posture in our meditation instruction because in your posture already you are expressing completely who you are. And we emphasize being upright and centered and balanced but relaxed. And sometimes actually the verification that we express is tension and tightness or fear or stiffness or pain in our knees or whatever. This actually happens. But it's not that the practice that we talk about as the ideal is an ideal practice. Actually it's the

[23:22]

practice of real people expressing this practice. So the point is to yourself, to be the most beautiful and beautiful version of yourself that you can express. And actually you're already doing that. But how can we settle into that and deepen that and open that up? This is what this practice is about. So again Dogen says, if verification is not the verification of practice and is not the verification of expressing, how can we name it the verification of the Buddhadharma? You should just know that Buddhadharma is one in the beginning, middle, and end. So our sitting is just our sitting and our awakening is just our awakening. In the beginning, the middle, and the end. And our expression too. And then he says, it is good in the beginning, middle, and end. And then he says, it is

[24:28]

nothing in the beginning, middle, and end. And then he says, and it's empty in the beginning, middle, and end. And this Chinese character that means empty also means that it's open and vast as the sky. So we can't understand enlightenment or verification. And we can't understand how wonderful this practice is. And we can't understand how it is that we are expressing all of that with our limited human consciousness. And yet in some way, just like looking at the full moon, we can feel the wholeness of this. This is what brings us back to the sitting cushion and brings us back to our own way of expressing this again and again. So then Dogen says, this single matter never comes from the forceful activity of

[25:30]

people, but from the beginning is the expression and activity of Dharma or the teaching. So this single matter, he says, is a reference to something in the Lotus Sutra, one of the scriptures that Dogen most talked about. And in it, it says that the single matter, the single great cause for Buddhas to appear in the world is just to help other beings onto their own path towards awakening and towards helping other beings onto their own path towards awakening. Just to help people enter into and express themselves and their awakening and their verification and their expression. So in fact, if there were no suffering beings, if there was nobody who didn't know they were Buddha, then we wouldn't need this Zen Center. And fortunately or

[26:35]

unfortunately, we have plenty of job security in the world today, and there is plenty of suffering. But this is the starting point, actually, of this verification and expression and practice that we care about, and we care about, and we care about, the suffering of beings in the world. So this is the single matter, but it never comes from the forceful activity of people, but from the beginning is the expression and activity of Dharma. He says, we already know that there is teaching, practice, and verification within Buddha Dharma. A single moment in a cultivated field always includes many times. So we translated it that way, but actually, literally what Dogen says, and Dogen is very tricky in the way he uses words, as you may have already gathered from some of what I've

[27:37]

read. In this sentence he says, a single moment in a cultivated field, in a field of practice, in a field that's expressing itself, in a field of awakening, we said always includes many times, but literally he says, does not include a single time. Every single moment everything is included. No time is left out. So when we really meet ourselves, when we are really willing to express the verification of ourselves, everything is right here. So you may have heard Ram Dass' old slogan, be here now. It doesn't mean that we try and avoid the past or avoid the future. It means that everything is here right now. How do we bring the vitality and life of our practice, verification, expression? How do we bring the vitality of the toad jumping around in the moon to all times right now? So this has

[28:44]

to do also with being aware of the suffering of the world and caring about that, and responding as we can. So Dogen concludes this by saying, in this particular writing, the teaching is already thus, the practice is also thus, and verification is also thus. So it's already right here. And we may not understand it or know it, but what's important is just to jump into it, to actually allow ourselves to express the practice that we are already expressing and practicing and verifying, and to allow ourselves to verify the expression that is being practiced. He adds, as such, we cannot control whether or not we ourselves

[29:46]

can control the teaching, practice, and verification. So this is our human tendency. We want to be able to control ourselves and the world. And if you sit and meditate and try and face yourself, you see that we cannot control it. We cannot even control all the thoughts running around in our own mind most of the time. And there are special practices that one can learn to do that almost control it, but then we can't control the world around us. So it's not something that, it's not about having control and having everything settled and fixing it all. And yet we express and practice and verify this truth all the time. So he goes on again, he says, as such, we cannot control whether or not we ourselves can control the

[30:46]

teaching, the practice, and the verification. But wherever they have penetrated, how could there not be Buddhadharma? So this possibility of awakening or verifying ourselves and this possibility of practicing and this possibility of expounding or expressing all of this is always right here. And often what's needed most is just to stop and breathe and feel how it feels to be here and be willing to feel our own confusion and pain and fear and happiness and forgive ourselves for being human and wanting to control things. But wherever

[31:51]

these have penetrated, how could there not be Buddhadharma? So I wanted to conclude by saying a little bit about the situation of practice and verification and expression that we find ourselves in today. So one other, I wanted to just add a little bit of one of the other teachings, short teachings of Dogen. He says this thing that may surprise you that he says, actually he says, true home leavers, but we might say just true Zen students, must maintain the commitment to strength and intense determination and should erect the banner of diligence and fierce courage. So to actually just be yourself, to actually just be present in this world as it is, actually demands diligence and courage. Finally, he says, they must hold forth the key of Buddha ancestors, open the barrier of going beyond and carry out their

[32:55]

own family property to benefit and relieve all the abandoned and destitute. So we actually have to pay attention and help and relieve the suffering of the abandoned and destitute, including the parts of us that feel abandoned and destitute. At this very time, we first required our gratitude for the blessings and virtues of the Buddhas. So in the 1200s, Dogen was importing this Zen teaching from China to Japan. And here now in the United States, many people are importing Zen and other forms of Buddhism to the United States. So it's a kind of creative, fresh, and difficult time. For me, seeing how Dogen tried to express this to introduce what he felt was the true teachings to Japan is very interesting in

[33:58]

terms of seeing, well, what are we doing here? So Zen Center has been here for quite a while now, it seems. How long is it, Michael? Thirty years? Thirty-five years? Yeah, so since 1969, we've been in this building. And still, it's pretty new. So how many of you have parents who are Buddhists? A few. And then, of course, there are the Asian American communities where there are more. But for most of us, this is brand new. So we have to recognize that we don't know what we're doing, that we can't control it, and that we're trying to do the best we can to meet this verification and teaching and practice. So as Dogen says, to be true Zen students, we must leave and be abandoned and destitute. So the starting point of Buddhism, the first noble truth, is to be aware of the suffering

[35:02]

in the world. So part of our practice is, maybe all of our practice, whether we're sitting in meditation in the mountains, down in the monastery in Tassajara, or trying to sit and practice while we live in the city in San Francisco, is about just responding to the suffering in ourselves and in the world. And that means also trying to see how to respond to the sources of suffering in the world. So we can talk about this in terms of enlightenment and practice and expression. Sometimes we talk about it in terms of Zazen and precepts. So along with training a very wonderful group of monks to continue the teaching in Japan, Dogen also emphasized the precepts, that we have to take responsibility for how we are and how we express ourselves in the world, and what is going on in the world.

[36:04]

So most of the teachings that I'm going to talk about this afternoon were up in the mountains. So Dogen left the capital. He decided there was no way that he could have an impact on society of the capital in 13th century Japan, and what was happening in the world. And he left, and he went to the mountains. And he did manage to train students to keep this tradition alive, and now we have it, and we have his writings. It's very wonderful. And actually, that's a lot of how Buddhism in Asia engaged society, by keeping alive this possibility of awakening and practice and expression. So you know, I think sometimes now that perhaps we will also have to all go down to the mountains and forget about doing anything to help the suffering of the world, and just try and keep alive the teaching and the practice for future generations after these dark ages that we

[37:09]

are living in. I still, I think of that sometimes, that we may have to do that at some point. And in some ways we're already doing that, just by our own practice and study and trying to express this. And yet, we have something here that Dogen didn't have, which is at least the remnants of the idea of democracy. So we still may have a chance to transform our society, to bring awareness to what's going on in the world around us through speaking out. So as Buddhists, we try to see how to respond to suffering from our own experience of expression and practice and verification. And we know that we don't know all the answers, and that we can't control what is happening in the world. And yet we can still bring our awareness to what is going on and try and look at it and share information and talk about it and speak out. And that speaking out can have

[38:14]

a tremendous impact still in our society, in this world. So I have to say, sitting up here, that it seems to me, and to many people I know, that we have massive and shameless corruption in our national government and in many of our national institutions in this society now. And that our national government is involved in very reckless and dangerous policies and preemptive wars, and there may be many more of them. So we don't know what to do, but I feel like our practice and expression and verification is about being willing to face this as we face the law, to try to talk together about what can we do, to respond, each in our own way. There's no one right way. So sitting diligently in a monastery in the mountains may be a way that actually helps our society. We each have our own ways, and we should respect

[39:20]

the different ways of doing that. So this is part of our practice too, to see the suffering within us, but at the same time to see what's going on in the world around us and to try to see how to respond, how to speak out, how we can have some impact to bring awareness to what is going on. So I look forward to your comments and suggestions about Dogen or about how we can practice here in this confused world. So there will be a discussion after. Thank you all very much.

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