I'd like to speak this morning about one of the most basic teachings in Buddhism, which we can call non-separation. So we have this illusion of things as separate, of things, objects. And we think of ourselves as subjects and things out there as objects. Or we can think of ourselves as objects, too. And our whole way of thinking, our whole language is based on subject-verb-object. So most of our activity is about being subjects verbing objects out there or trying to prevent ourselves from being verbed by subjects out there.

[01:05]

There's this deep sense of separation that is part of, we call it discriminating consciousness, our intelligence that discriminates this and that and various things or objects. This is how we think. This is our human way of thinking. Buddhism, on the other hand, is about the teaching and practice of non-separation. We could also call this interconnectedness, that actually each of us and everything in the world, anything you can point to, anything that you might point to is actually not separate is deeply, deeply interconnected to everything else, that each of you is here this morning thanks to many causes and conditions and situations that allowed you to show up this morning.

[02:14]

And as we sit on our cushions or chairs, many beings are part of what is sitting on our cushions or chairs. people you've known, even people you've just barely met, of course friends and families and loved ones and so forth also very much, and also the things in your world, the places, things in your home. All of that is part of what is happening as we sit here on our cushions or chairs. We're deeply, deeply interconnected with everything. we can't actually track or trace how deeply we are interconnected and how... All the connections. So some of you are here for the first time this morning, and others of us who've been here many times. If we talk long enough, we'd find many connections that we may not have realized, places we've been,

[03:26]

in common, or people we've known, or situations we've been in, kinds of situations we've been in. We're deeply interconnected with each other and with the whole universe. So there weren't many ways of talking about this. Sometimes we talk about big mind, or mind as not just, of course, your individual particular intelligence and awareness and sensations are included in this, but that mind as the quality of all being is another way this is talked about. Or non-self. So non-self basic Buddhist teaching doesn't mean we don't have a self, we all have egos. We all figured out how to get here this morning through knowing when to stop at the red light or where the L station was or however you got here, the route to walk and so forth.

[04:38]

So we have selves, but non-self means that our self is not separate. Again, our self is deeply interconnected with many things. There is nothing, in fact, nobody and no thing. That is an independent, separate, substantial, permanent self in and of itself. We are deeply interrelated. by various causes and conditions. So there are many ways of talking about this in Zen and in Buddhism. We sometimes talk about it in terms of emptiness. And emptiness doesn't mean nothingness. It means that we are empty of some independent substantial self. Emptiness is a kind of technical term. It means there's nothing separate here or anywhere. We could talk about this in terms of relativity or interrelatedness too. One of the maybe more helpful images of this in Buddhism is Indra's net.

[05:49]

Do you all know about Indra's net? New people, do you know about Indra's net? OK, good. So I'll get to talk about it. Indra's Net is an image from Chinese Huayen Buddhism. Well, actually, it goes back to the Avatamsaka flower ornament sutra. And it's a way of describing the whole universe as a kind of holograph that in this way of seeing reality. The whole universe is this vast network And at each place where there's a node, where the meshes meet, there's a jewel. And each jewel reflects the light of the jewels reflected in the jewels around it. And each of those jewels reflects the light of all the light reflected by the jewels all around them, and so forth forever. So each particular person or thing

[06:54]

or event is a total reflection or expression of totality of the whole universe. And of course each particular jewel is particular, an individual, just like each of us has our own, each of us have our own particular way of expressing Buddha, being Buddha nature. So it's not some mushy oneness where we're all just one thing. We talk about oneness, but we also say not one, not two. In some sense, we're a particular individual, but we're not separate. And each non-separate particular entity, jewel, person, whatever, totally reflects everything. in each in its own way, each in our own way.

[07:57]

So this is all introduction to the story I want to talk about this morning. So I want to talk about a story in a writing by the 13th century Japanese Zen master Ehei Dogen, who I talk about often, who founded this branch of Zen we call Soto Zen. And in one of the essays in one of his great masterworks, Shobo Genzo, the True Dharma on Treasury, there's 95 different essays as part of that. And in one of them, he talks about a story about a great Chinese Zen master from the 800s. And many of the great teaching stories in Zen are about masters from that from the 800s in China. There's a lot going on in terms of all of this teaching. So the story is about a great teacher named Xuanzang.

[09:04]

Xuanzang was, well, there's a lot to say about him, who he was as a character. But anyway, I'll just launch into the story. And Dogen tells the story, and then he comments on it. So I'm going to read the story and then talk about some of what Dogen says about it. A monk once asked Xuanzang, I've heard you have said that the entire universe is one bright pearl. How can I get some understanding of that? Xuanzang said, the entire universe is one bright pearl. What is there to understand? The next day, Xuanzang asked the monk, the entire universe is one bright pearl. What is your understanding of that? And the monk answered, the entire universe is one bright pearl. What need is there to understand? And Xuanzang said, now I know you're living in a cave of demons on Black Mountain. So it sounds like the monk repeated the statement of Xuanzang.

[10:09]

There's more to it than that. Xuanzang said, the entire universe is one bright pearl. What is there to understand? When he asked the monk about it the next day, the monk said, the entire universe is one bright pearl. What need is there to understand? So please do not take refuge in not understanding. That's not the point. Of course, we don't understand. But also sometimes we do understand. We can talk about this. So this story is important to me personally. The first time I ever heard about Dogen, I guess a couple of nights after I had my first Zazen instruction with Nakajima Sensei on the Upper West Side in New York, he talked about this story of one bright pearl. The entire universe is one bright pearl.

[11:12]

So it's not just that the monk repeated what Xuanzang said. It's that he thought that that what Schwanstra said, what is there to understand, means that, oh, we don't have to understand anything. Well, it's not that we have to understand anything. It's just that that's not the point. So I've talked about this before, that there's various ways of knowing and there's various ways of not knowing. How do we understand the entire universe as one bright pearl? without trying to get some understanding. So the point of all these teachings is not to figure them out. So in terms of talking about interconnectedness and non-separation, we can hear this as dharma, as teaching, but the point is that in our zazen, in our experience of just sitting, of being upright, relaxed and present and paying attention to

[12:17]

this body-mind, we start to not just understand or figure out or have some discriminating subject-object type consciousness or understanding of these things, we start to feel, actually, viscerally. We start to know in our bodies this non-separation, this interconnectness. Again, I recommend sitting regularly several times a week or more. As we settle into just being willing to be present in this body and mind, we realize, actually, that we're connected with each other and with many beings. And we start to actually feel this beyond discriminating understanding. The entire universe is one bright pearl. So, Dogen says about this, this comment, it's, the essence of it is this, that the entire universe is not vast and large and not minute and small, it's not square or round, it's not balanced nor correct, it's not the lively vigor of leaping fish, and it's not unbeared and distinct all around.

[13:46]

Moreover, because it is not birth and death, and is not coming and going. It is birth and death, and it is coming and going. This being so, it is the past gone from here, it is the present come from here, from this one bright pearl. The entire universe is one bright pearl. So this is the kind of ultimate saying or utterance that you can, if you wish to sit with this, the entire universe is one bright pearl. Zen has many of these ultimate utterances or utterances of the ultimate, but anyway, this one is pretty good. So then Dogen, well he says, the entire universe is an unceasing process, pursuing things and making them the self, pursuing the self and making it things. This is the process of this one bright pearl of this entire universe.

[14:51]

And then he refers to a story, a monk once asked, I've heard that when sensations arise, one is separated from wisdom. than when thoughts stir, when it's separated from the substance. But what of the time before sensations arise?" And the teacher said, separated. So, you know, there's an impulse and practice to try and put aside or even push away sensations, sounds, visual sensations, and thoughts. And there's a common thought that, oh, if we get rid of all thinking, that would be it. And that's not a good question. So in the story, the student asks, I've heard that when sensations arise, one is separate from wisdom.

[15:55]

When thoughts stir, one is separate from the substance, from the essence. What of the time before sensations arise? So it's possible in sitting. and just sitting and settling in to being present, to actually be there in the spaces between thoughts and feelings and sensations arising, and also to witness thoughts and feelings and sensations and perceptions arising. But the teacher said separate, even before, separate. This separation, this sense of separation is very deep. So Dogen says about this, the utterance separated in response to the question when sensations arise one is separated from wisdom, is a turning of the head or a changing of the face, a laying open of things, and a seizing of opportunity. Can you see through this deep fundamental sense of separation and into this non-separation that is happening even when thoughts arise, even when we hear a sound or see a color.

[17:05]

So this is Dogen turning this one bright pearl. He goes on to say, because of pursuing things and making them yourself, the universe in its entirety is unceasing. because its own nature is prior to such activity, it is ungraspable, even in the essence of the activity. So, the entire universe is one bright pearl. What is there to understand? What is there to grab? The entire universe, including your efforts or impulses to try and understand or grab things, It's just all one bright pearl.

[18:15]

Tolkien has more to say. He says, one bright pearl is able to express reality without naming it. And we can recognize this pearl as its name. One bright pearl communicates directly through all time, being unexhausted through all the past, it arrives through all the present, right now. In fact, the entire universe is one bright pearl. And then he turns it some more. The stalk of grass. This tree is not a stalk of grass. It's not a tree. The mountains and rivers and the prairies and lakes of this world are not mountains and rivers and prairies and lakes of this world. They're all simply the one and right thing. So he says a lot more about this, but I'll just read a little bit.

[19:33]

When the pearl is thus, when this one bright pearl is like this, is such, it hangs suspended in emptiness. It is attached within the lining of clothes. It is found under the chin of dragons and in the headdress of kings. all as the universe encompassing one bright pearl. He's referring to a couple of stories here about pearls or jewels, all of which are just hanging suspended in emptiness, which is this field of interrelatedness and non-separation. So he says it's attached within the lining of clothes. This is a story of a parable from the Lotus Sutra a man who went to visit a friend, a very well-to-do friend, and they spent the night drinking.

[20:35]

And then the host was called away, and his friend was sort of out of it. And the host wanted his friend to be okay and not in need, and so he took a jewel. or a light pearl, and sewed it into the lining of his clothes so he would have that when he was in need. Years later, they met again, and the person who had been the guest was in very bad shape, and having had a very hard time, and the host said, oh, what happened? I gave you that big jewel to take care of you. And he said, oh, I don't know. And he felt, and there it was. in line and it was closed. Anyway, this is one story about a bright pearl. Tolkien says, it is found under the chin of dragons. So there's a story about dragons. There are many stories about dragons. We've talked about some of them, but dragons, and this is, you know, I don't know if there's a different species of dragon in Europe.

[21:40]

In Europe, the dragons were sort of a little malevolent. In Asia, dragons are, you know, fly around and they're very wise. awakened and helpful beings. Anyway, it's said, I think, for both European and East Asian dragons, that they have a jewel under their chin. Actually, dragons sometimes have caves where they keep many jewels. So dragons have great resources. And again, if you swim through the dragon gate, you can become a dragon. Anyway. So in the headdresses of kings, so there's also a story about jewels in the top nocks of great Bodhisattvas or kings. Anyway, Dogen says about all of these stories that they are pearls hanging suspended in emptiness and that the whole universe, the entire universe is this encompassing bright pearl.

[22:46]

Although its face seems to keep on changing, turning and stopping, it is the same bright pearl. Knowing that the pearl is indeed like this, that itself is the bright pearl. I'll read that again. Knowing that the pearl is indeed like this, that itself is this one bright pearl. In this way, the colorations and configurations of the bright pearl are encountered. So the entire universe is one bright pearl, but it's not that we can't meet its configurations, its colorations, its qualities. When it is thus, there is no reason to doubtingly think that you are not the pearl, because you perplexively think, I'm not the pearl. perplexing thoughts, doubts, questions, and are accepting or rejecting are but passing trivial notions.

[24:00]

Of course, the entire universe is one bright pearl. All of our skepticism is just some trivial notion. It is, moreover, only the one bright pearl appearing as a trivial notion. So Dogen plays with this pearl to show us how all-encompassing it is. He says at the end of this essay, even when you are perplexed or troubled, those perplexed or troubled thoughts are not apart from the one bright pearl. So of course we have many reasons in our life, in our individual lives, in our difficulties with people around us, and in the terrible difficulties we have now in our society, as well as in the wonderful things that are happening in the world.

[25:13]

There is the opportunity for perplexed or troubled thoughts. wondering what to do, wondering how to help a particular friend or family member, wondering how to engage together. Of course, this is part of our thinking. But again, Dogon says, even when you are perplexed or troubled, those perplexed or troubled thoughts are not apart from the one bright pearl. As there are no deeds or thoughts produced by something that is not the bright pearl, both coming and going in the Black Mountain's Cave of Demons, are themselves nothing but the One-Eyed Pearl. So that's the story about Xuanzang. When the monk just repeated what he said and seemed to think, oh, he didn't have to worry about understanding anything, because what is there to understand? And Xuanzang said, oh, now I know you're practicing in the Cave of Demons on Black Mountain.

[26:15]

But at the end, Dogen says, both coming and going in the Black Mountains cave of demons are themselves nothing but the one bright pearl. So this is a way, this story about the entire universe being one bright pearl is a way of seeing this fundamental wholeness that we actually meet when we're willing to settle into just being present and upright. the entire universe is one bright pearl. What is there to understand or worry about? And yet the entire universe is one bright pearl, including your thoughts and your worries and your sensations and your perplexity. Now, he talks about this black demon's cave. This is a kind of Zen slang for one way we can really misunderstand that the entire universe is one bright pearl.

[27:19]

These kinds of utterances, these kinds of sayings, you know, can be deeply comforting. Even your confusion and misunderstanding is part of totality. is part of this deeper wholeness, is an expression or a reflection or a facet of this one bright pearl. What's there to understand? It's not a matter of figuring something out. And yet, there's this idea of practitioners holding on to that in a way that they fall into the demon's cave, et cetera. This is a kind of Zen slang for one thing that can happen if you meditate a lot, which I encourage you to do regularly, in a way that you can sustain, to sustain a practice of being present and upright.

[28:23]

But sometimes you may feel like, oh, the entire universe is one bright pearl, and you may feel great relief. and you may feel great comfort and you may feel the great radiance of the One Bright Pearl sitting on your cushion or chair. And that's great if you do that. But then the danger of that is that we can become attached to that. We can bliss out, it's possible. It's actually, you know, practicing like this in an urban Storefront, Lei Sanga, you know, as a kind of antidote to that, because you've all got to go out into the world of Chicago and meet various people and do various things. And so it's hard to hold on to some attachment to emptiness. The most dangerous attachment, according to the great teachers of non-attachment, is the attachment to non-attachment. So this is what Xuanzhou was referring to.

[29:24]

So I think it's OK for you to hear that the entire universe is one bright pearl. But just don't think that that means that you don't have to take care of your life, that you don't have to respond to the world and the people around you. And so we have the Bodhisattva Precepts as guidelines to how to take care of the awareness of the One Bright Pearl when you're out there in the world. Gotta be careful out there. how to take care of the one bright pearl. And yet, please enjoy the reality that the entire universe is one bright pearl. And the entire universe is not at all separate from the entire universe sitting on your cushion or chair right now. So there's a way in which Zen teaching, Dogen's writing, and the practice of Zazen is deeply comforting.

[30:35]

We can connect with wholeness. And part of that connection is then, okay, how do we take responsibility for how we express that? So after this, we will have temple cleaning to take care of the space. And after that, when you go out into the world, or go over to Ribfest or whatever, how do we take care of ourselves in that situation? The entire universe is one bright pearl. What is there to understand? So, questions, comments, responses about this or anything else, please feel free. I think there's a lie in the Heart Sutra to some extent that form is not separate from emptiness.

[31:40]

Emptiness is not separate from form. Exactly. And so is it that contradictions are indivisible, or is it just that there's another alternative that hasn't been considered? Contradictions? Yes, and that's exactly what the Heart Sutra is trying to counteract. So emptiness is not yet another thing that you can get. Emptiness is not something outside of forms. Emptiness is not blank space. Emptiness is not other than form.

[32:41]

Emptiness is the way forms is. They're not separate. There's no emptiness outside of forms. Emptiness is the expression. All forms are empty because they're not separate. And forms are all characterized by this quality of emptiness or interrelatedness. But then you talked about contradictions. And you said contradictions are not indivisible. What did you mean? Well, usually something that's true and something that's the negation of that are distinctly separate. And if they're true at the same time, have to resolve it by saying that there's really yet some other, there's a why, there's some other thing that somehow resolves the two of these apparent contradictions.

[33:43]

Yeah, so that's the way of thinking in discriminating consciousness, that there's x and y, and then there's some synthesis of that. That's kind of dialectical thinking. That's part of Buddhist philosophy. But I don't like the word contradictions in terms of Buddhism, because contradiction means that there are contrary dictums. There's one dictum over here and one dictum over there. This isn't about some ideal or idea or doctrine. This is about practice, and in practice any teaching is not, these teachings are not theoretical. They actually are about our experience and our experience of sitting. in the lodge, so all of these koan stories, all of this Buddhist teaching is about this deeper reality of the entire universe as one bright pearl.

[34:47]

And in that sense, you know, maybe we can talk about paradox, because it is paradoxical to our usual way of thinking. So I prefer that word. But the point is that, yeah, that of course, X and not X are part of the same thing. We couldn't have warmth without cold. We couldn't have goodness without harm and vice versa. Everything is defined in terms of something that seems to be, X can only be defined by that which is not X. So there could not be Tom in the world if there wasn't all the things that are not Tom. In fact, Tom is, by definition, the totality of all the not Tom. All of the not Tom in the entire universe allows you to be sitting there this morning. So in terms of the logic of awakening,

[35:52]

which is what we're here to study and practice and experience and express. There's no contradiction, and I would say even there's no paradox, although it's, of course, to our usual way of thinking, it seems paradoxical. And that's, you know, it's a good question, because that's the question that we have when we hear that the entire universe is one by pro. Well, what about, you know, The difference between, I don't know, beer and wine. They're not the same. Take any two things that we think are different. And yet, the entire universe is one bright pearl. So this deeper logic form is empty. And emptiness is in forms. It's not somewhere else. It's not yet another thing. You can't go down to the store and get a six pack of emptiness. It doesn't work that way. So thank you for your question. Other comments, questions, responses? This is a little different.

[36:56]

It's an interesting book written in, I think, the 70s, maybe the early 80s, when a lot of us were understanding ecology a little different. And it's called Lives of the Cell by Louis Thomas, who was an ecologist but a physician. Yes. And he looked at the world and all the various parts of it, including people. Conclusion at the end of this lovely little book is that it operates just like a cell, like one single cell. And every single part had to do with the functioning of the cell. And of course, cells are part of organisms. This is a biological take on the same, the world of the universe is one bright pearl. It's very well written and very insightful and humorous and sort of deeply felt. And so I recommend it if you're struggling. It helped me a lot. about this blindness. Yes, I like that book very much too.

[37:59]

Lewis Thomas, Lives? I think it's called Lives of the Self. Yeah. It's Lewis, L-E-W-I-S. Good, thank you. Yes, wonderful book. I recommend it too. And, you know, there are various ways of seeing this. So there's also this idea of Gaia. that this planet is a living system. It seems to me in some sense kind of obvious that we are affected by the quality of the ocean and by the damage that's happening to the ocean now and the forests and the mountains and the rivers and the lakes. Everything actually affects each one of us and vice versa. We have a responsibility because we're not separate and that the whole planet geologically, biologically, I don't know. In some ways, is this one living system? Now, in some ways, Schwantzschild goes beyond that. He says the entire universe. So, you know, can we extrapolate to this solar system or this galaxy or all the galaxies or anyway.

[39:02]

But, you know, that's maybe not relevant to us. What in practice, you know, how in practice do we take care of this world and each of our worlds? associations and people and activities here in Chicago. So yes, thank you very much. It's a very, very much comparable idea. Yes, hi. Sometimes when you get really worried about something, or that mess of Dexter, you're working out some issue with somebody else, It is sort of comforting to realize that maybe my practice is getting a little weak because I can't cope with this, or handle this, or I'm not responding appropriately. And then you realize that is practice. And so in a way, you never really have a time when you're not in practice. It's all, it's just walking around on the floor.

[40:03]

Yes, good, Jimmy. Yes, yes, yes. And as Dogan suggests here, in our perplexity, right in the middle of our problems, is this is the One Bright Pearl. So, in some sense, we need our problems. That's how we see that it's all One Bright Pearl. That's how our practice grows. These questions and this questioning and the difficulties we have are great opportunities to express the One Bright Pearl. Here's one. You spoke earlier about the sort of function of our mind as colored by our language about creating subjects, verbs, and objects. Yes. And this kind of quality of discriminating consciousness.

[41:05]

And I don't know, I've just been experiencing lately through maybe this foundational practice that, well, maybe the book is for four or two, that we're all birds, and it's one of these books. So I was just doing some training there. I just looked at it, and I saw this kind of blossoming world, all the trees and the plants, and everything's in full time, bigger of the season. And it just seemed like trees were treeing. It's even actually in our languages we're living, and building is our building in English. It's already there. We don't need to add anything. I was thinking about this as I was looking at that building. It's coming. Buildings are coming and being, and they're going out, and trees are moving. Anyway, I just had a very physical sensation of this contrast between when we think of ourselves as an object and these other objects, and it feels kind of fixed and rigid.

[42:09]

And there's, like, actually space between things. But then when you start experiencing the firmness of things, it all feels much more like a new moral practice is Tai Chi. In Tai Chi, the teachers take a field, and the air, like, blasts us with water. And that's another indication. What the actual physical feeling, I think, of it is still just coming out of practice, I think. I was just thinking about all these things. Yeah, so thank you. Yes, it's a basic Buddhist teaching that all nouns are actually verbs. That everything is flowing and active in process. And actually, Japanese is neat because you can take almost any noun, maybe any noun, and put a suru after it. So whatever cup, cup suru means picking up the cup. Any noun can become a verb in a Japanese language. But actually, things are in process, that's the whole point. So to think that the entire universe is one bright pearl, and to think the one bright pearl is some dead object, that's not it.

[43:15]

The one bright pearl is alive, and flowing, and shifting, and dynamic. So thank you. Josh, you had anything? Yeah, I was going to say, I can't seem to remember if Kezan said that, but this idea of the pearl on the cell, doesn't quite fit either, because it presents sort of a limit on the universe, right? And so maybe if you think about Mars and Earth in the universe, in the act of becoming a bright pearl, or in the act of being as itself, I guess my image of a pearl, I think of a boundary, a limit, That's a really interesting point, yeah. Yeah, the pearl is pearling, it's becoming a pearl. Yeah, so, I don't understand physics.

[44:19]

Are there any physicists here? Pearls are dynamic. Pearls are being created. Pearls on a necklace just sit there. Pearls are actually natural biological products from oysters, and they're caused by irritations. Yeah, pearls can grow, and then there's those pearls that aren't perfectly round. But still, the idea of pearls as bounded, and from what I understand, the view of Einstein and modern physicists is that the universe has a boundary. And I don't, so that was. Well, yeah, I don't think, yeah, my first conversion experience, my first awakening experience was lying on the grass when I was 14, looking up at the skies, and somehow I had this visceral sense that it must be infinite.

[45:30]

How could there be some edge or end to that? And therefore that was true in time too. And so I converted to atheism because I realized that the idea of a creator deity just didn't make any sense to me anymore. I still feel that way. People who actually have faith in God, God can be understood in lots of different ways. But anyway, the idea of some limit in time or space, I have to agree with you, doesn't make sense to me. So all of these metaphors are just that. But yeah, pearls can grow. But yeah, I appreciate your calling attention to that sense of boundary. And maybe Einstein's right, I don't know, maybe the universe has some edge, I don't know what that means, I can't imagine that myself. Anyway, it's getting a little past time, we can continue this discussion later.

[46:36]

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