Good evening. So, for most of you, this is the sixth class of studying this being time. For those, I invited people who wanted to drop in without having been to the previous ones to come by tonight, and so a few have, and I'm not going to try and fill in everything, but I think it'll be okay. So, we started out, I feel like we're just at this point starting to be able to study this stuff. It's so dense. Reading Dogen, particularly the kind of passages that read this text being time, it's kind of like reading a symphony or, I don't know, trying to understand an Impressionist painting or something. Anyway,

[01:04]

it's not something to understand in the usual way. We started coming to it from the point of view of time, and we talked about different ways of looking at time, and clearly Dogen is talking about expanding our capacity to be in time and to understand time and to see time from different angles, to see a multi-dimensional aspect of time. So, today passes to tomorrow, and tomorrow passes to tomorrow, and tomorrow passes to yesterday. So, a lot of it's about inhabiting time or owning our own time. And we started last week going through some of the stories at the end, starting with the story about Mazu and Shito and Yaoshan and blinking eyebrows and blinking eyes and raising eyebrows. So, I've been following that up a little bit

[02:12]

with some of the other stories, and I want to go back over some of those stories, not in as much detail as last time, and then add a few more, because I feel like it really does get to some aspect of this being time that I'm feeling this week anyway. So, we've been talking more from the side of time, and I want to kind of look at the being side of it a little more tonight. I'm feeling like one way to look at this is that Doug is talking about what is the quality of our being. How is our being? So, time is the how of how we experience our being. And what is the relationship of our being to enlightenment? I think that's what this is about, actually. And how do we be in time? So, we talked about, for those of you who've been coming to the class, we talked about doing, at the beginning of the class, doing a poem just to our response to, as a way of kind of interacting with the material, to respond to the material. And actually, Mary gave

[03:17]

me a hint about a direction for studying it this week. So, this is Mary's poem. So, it's a circle of being and a circle of time, and they're not the same, but they're overlapping, and it's now. Do you want to say anything else about it? And they are the same. And they are the same. This is a visual poem. I'll pass it around. Anybody else want to share some response? Mary? I was thinking about the stories last week. The one about the two moons. And you frequently make reference to Siddhanta and how 40 minutes can go just like that, or it can drag on forever. But, as far as my own experience is concerned, it can go just like that, or drag on forever,

[04:21]

but I can tell from my knees, and my ankles, and my hips, and my back, that it's 20 minutes. It's 30 minutes, it's 35, and it's 37 and a half, and it's 40. And that is always pretty constant, whether or not it goes quickly or drags on. So, that's how I relate to the two moons. Another thought I had a couple of weeks ago was the other story about not busy. I remember many years ago, not two, about eight years ago, I read a book called Miracle of Mindfulness. And in the beginning, it talked about this guy who was watching a toddler create a habit. And I, back then,

[05:25]

couldn't really relate to that experience. And so this guy, he was talking to a friend, and the friend said, how can you handle this? And he said, well, before I practiced mindfulness, I really didn't have very much time. But now that I practice mindfulness, I have all the time in the world because her time is my time, the toddler's time is my time. And she kind of reminded me of the not busy story. Right, so we'll go over that story tonight. Just coming in here and seeing the moon is almost full, we're having full moon ceremony Wednesday morning. I feel like the full moon, anyway, there's a story I'm going to read later that relates to the moon and as an image of being time, I think, I think it really fits. So yes, I think that story is quite the point that we can, we can kind of try and hold on to our time or we can just accept the time that comes to meet us. Be in the time of the toddler.

[06:30]

Does anybody have any other verses or verses? I did this photograph three years ago, and I always thought it had something to do with time. Oh. Well, there's light and shadow and sands being worn away. Is that clouds? It's the waves. Waves breaking and, and is she running or? She's moving quicker than the camera shutter. Right, one foot is and one foot isn't, which is very interesting. What always got me was the fact that the sandcastles were being reclaimed by the cycles of the waves or the tide.

[07:37]

Uh-huh. Shadow seems to interact. There's almost a reference to maybe an hourglass here that's dripping down into that. Sand. Sand in an hourglass. Is it all one exposure? Yeah. Thank you. It reminds me, I have a picture of time that I didn't think to bring, but I'll tell you the story of it. I was living in Japan. I was living next to these old cemeteries and some of them have large groups of stones like stupas. There were a few places where a tree had started to grow out of the bottom and you could see where it had grown enough to knock over these big, I mean, really large stone monuments. And then there was one where this tree had grown and the tree had been cut down.

[08:42]

So you could see the stone that had fallen over and the tree stump was about this big around, growing out of the bottom of the stone. So it was just like this, something that had happened over a great deal of time. And there it was. This is more fleeting. This is more being time. Great, thank you. Anybody else? Anything? Bob? Oh, great. For the time being, moon water. For the time being, moonless. Thank you.

[09:44]

Anybody else? Thank you. Moon and practice, second of the week. The last line is in French and it's in reference to Proust's work, which in English is called Remembrance of Things Past. But the French, the literal translation is Searching for Lost Time. Potent, penetrating, engulfing, absorbing. You visited one full moon night and we danced. You were not me, I actually became you. You left and here I am now, à la recherche de temps que tu. Do you want to read it again? Potent, penetrating, engulfing, absorbing.

[10:51]

You visited one full moon night and we danced. You were not me, yet I actually became you. You left and here I am now, à la recherche de temps que tu. Coming back to tomorrow, I'm kind of missing you. I was thinking of you. You mentioned someone say that time as a lover or something like that. Who was it? I don't remember that exactly. Was it Joanna Mason? Is it Time as Love? She has a book, World as Love or World as Self. But she also talks about deep time, including all of time in this moment.

[11:57]

Seeing time. I've been working with her on her project for Nuclear Guardianship to try and see the range of time involved in something like that. And not try and block out the past and future, even though it's only right here. Well, I saw it as kind of an intense, intimate experience and a memento of the past. Yeah, so we talked about not ignoring cause and effect, not being blind to cause and effect. So to be connected, to be fully present means to be connected in time also. Anybody else? Well, I have a couple. One that I wrote when we were starting out, I was studying this, Reb's Peace Group was studying this. So this I wrote a few months ago.

[12:59]

Ten thousand images reclaiming past, staking out future, totally exert every incompleteness, all together in the splendor of being, this magic moment. This one I wrote today or yesterday. One of those days. Also borrowing a little bit as Robert did. Time has come today. Even the one who is too busy, visually enjoys blackouts and thunderbolts, short naps and calls on hold. You should tell your folks about music. Time has come today. This magic moment. So, yeah, Rick was in here before, playing these beautiful Bach things on the guitar. That would kind of be a perfect background for this.

[14:01]

So, I want to kind of go over this material. There's this wonderful passage in the end, which I want to get to before we finish, about reaching is impeded by reaching. This whole thing about impeded or being blocked or overwhelmed or obstructed. And impeding impedes itself and sees itself. Impeding impedes. Impeding is time. So that's kind of what I want to get to by the end of the class. I've been thinking about this being time this week in terms of completeness and incompleteness or partiality. So he talks about that in terms of a misbeing time. There's that passage earlier on that we talked about some, which still, which I think stays. Okay.

[15:19]

Oh, yeah. Just investigating exhaustively all time is all being. There is nothing left over because leftovers are leftovers. Even the being time is the exhaustive investigation of half being time. So I feel like Dogen's playing with the way we make judgments, with the way we see our time and our being as complete or full or happy or enlightened or deluded or the way we make these discriminations about our quality of being and our quality of time. And he's playing with that and he's kind of saying it's all being time. And yet he doesn't kind of let us off the hook. There is this completeness and incompleteness. So it's this, our continuing gaze, our continuing observation of the full moon

[16:23]

or the crescent moon we're going to get to or one moon or two moons. Our way of seeing our being in time as full or not full, as complete or incomplete is one of the themes that's here. There's so much in this text. I just keep finding more and more and so it seems kind of endless. But I think that's a useful one to kind of complete this cycle of studying it with. And even though he doesn't mention it specifically in this text, there's all these stories about the moon that kind of come up around this. We went over this last week and we're going to go over it and see where that leads us. So the first story we mentioned last week is about Yaoshan and Shito and Mazu. So there's the chart over there again. So these are people in our lineage,

[17:25]

some of them, and the ones that aren't in our lineage officially are also in our lineage because they're all quite related. So this story that begins the last third of this being time text. One time at the direction of the great master Shito, Yaoshan went to see Mazu. So Shito and Mazu were the great masters of their age and Yaoshan, the story I mentioned last week, begins in a different, Dogen has it in a different chapter. Yaoshan shows up at Shito's and says, well I've been studying all of the texts of Buddhism and I understand the Buddhist canon very well but I hear that you have this thing, you have this direct pointing at the mind, direct experience. He says, I've heard that in the south they directly point to the human mind,

[18:26]

see its nature and attain Buddhahood. So he'd been studying all this stuff but what about actually really being it? So he's talking about the quality of being here and he's asking Shito who's one of the great teachers of the age about this and Shito says, it cannot be grasped as such, it cannot be grasped as not such, as such or not such, it cannot be grasped at all. What about you? So we can see suchness as, suchness and not suchnesses, do you have it or do you not have it, is it complete or not complete? So Steve Weintraub was talking in this lecture a couple of weeks ago about perfection doesn't mean like perfect as opposed to without error, it means complete, full, perfect like the full moon, complete, total. So, Shito who's, in Japanese we say Sekito,

[19:28]

he's the one who wrote Merging of Difference and Unity that we chant frequently here, said it cannot be grasped as such, it cannot be grasped as not such, either as such or as not such, it can't be grasped at all. What about you? So all of this writing is about how do we actually, so Dogen talks about this too, it's my being time or it's one's own being time being time is yours, it's not, time is not some container, being is not some container outside separate from you, time doesn't, there is the clock and we do take care of that kind of time, but how do we actually take on our own being time? What about you? Yaoshan didn't get it, the story goes, so Shito sent him to Mazu and that's where this story and being time picks up,

[20:28]

he asks him the same question, he basically says, I've studied all the teachings and I really, you know, I understand the principles of Buddhism, but how do we point directly to the mind, how do we experience it for ourselves? He says, what about the meaning of the phrase, I let him raise his eyebrows and blink his eyes, for the time being I don't let him raise his eyebrows and blink his eyes, for the time being my letting him raise his eyebrows and blink his eyes is not right, so that can be read as correct or not correct or right or not right, but I think we could also see it as right on, not as opposed to or it doesn't. So this image of raising eyebrows and blinking eyes,

[21:29]

I think we shouldn't hold on to any particular interpretation of that, but I think it's a very rich way of talking, it's a kind of image that, so there's the aspect of letting the teacher, letting the student blink or not, but it's also, do I let myself blink or not, do I let myself raise my eyebrows and look fully at something, do I blink, do I let myself blink. So, a lot of this image and letting and not letting also has to do with this fullness or not fullness, completeness or not. And it's all the time being, it's all sometimes I do this, sometimes I don't, sometimes I do that. They're all equally being time, they're all equally some time. So this is kind of the background, Dogen's been talking about

[22:31]

this in this essay enough so that we kind of see being time in everything. Being time is the top of the highest mountain, that's the bottom that makes his eyebrows and make his eyes. And being time, if it's right, being time is not right. So Yaoshan heard this and was greatly enlightened and he said to Mazu, when I was at Shuto's it was like a mosquito biting an iron bull, he just couldn't get it. So we were talking about this the other night. So, mountains and seas, because mountains and seas are eyebrows and eyes. Within this letting him raise you should see mountains, within this letting him blink you should make essential the sea, realize the essence of the sea,

[23:32]

of the ocean. So there's this, there's an English pun there about sea as ocean and sea as seeing, which wasn't in the original. Mountains are time and seas are time. If there were not, there would be no mountains and seas. So you must not say there is no time in the immediate now of mountains and seas. If time is destroyed, mountains and seas are destroyed. If time is indestructible, mountains and seas are indestructible. There's no time outside of the physical world. There's no time outside of the mountains and seas, outside of whether we're on the mountaintop or whether we're in the bottom of the ocean. So we can see that as form and emptiness too, the ocean. Sameness or the mountains are kind of differentiation. It's another way that image is used in Zen. So, again, don't hold on to any particular

[24:35]

interpretation or explanation but I think most essential is kind of playing with the images. So to see the different ways the images work and to see the different symbols that come up is more to be in the mode of listening to the symphonic aspect of this. We can understand it in a certain way but the understanding of it is not as important as allowing ourselves to blink our eyes and raise our eyebrows there's a series of stories that follow from this story and I started with them last time and I'll let's continue on with them because I think they are to the point. So, Yaoshan studied with both Shito and Mazu. His students, Yunyan and Dawu, were actually brothers in China.

[25:40]

And Yunyan and Dawu studied first with Baizhang who was Mazu's student and he was the grandfather of Rinzai in his own lineage. And the story is, I mentioned last week, Dawu and Yunyan, Yunyan was Baizhang's jisha, his attendant for 20 years and didn't understand. He's a little bit like Ananda who was Shakyamuni's student and he's kind of, he was slow, you know, this charming character in our lineage. And there are these stories about Dawu listening in to the Doshan riddle and just shaking his head with frustration because Yunyan was just not getting it. Anyway, finally they went to study with Yaoshan and eventually Yunyan took over that lineage. And there are many koans

[26:42]

actually with these two brothers, Dawu and Yunyan. So one day Dawu came up to Yunyan, saw Yunyan was sweeping the path like we do during Soji and Dawu said, too busy. And Yunyan said, you should know there's one who's not busy. And Dawu said, you mean there are two moons? And Yunyan held out his broom and said, these two moons are busy or not busy. And you should know there's one who's not busy. This week I've been working with you should know there's one who is busy. So this busy and not busy is also about time. How do we, do we use our time or are we used by time? How do we be in time? Is our time complete or not? And this thing about the moons and the usage of one moon and two moons I think works also in this way.

[27:43]

So there's the, so maybe more for those guys back in China and Japan than moon was time. We do a full moon ceremony once a month but we also have electricity usually, we have clocks and so it's easier for us to not notice whether the moon is full or gone and where it is in between. I think to these people it was part of their everyday awareness, they knew what part of the moon they were in. So the moon is time and sometimes it's full and sometimes it's not. And sometimes we feel like we're really here, we're really, our quality of being is really you know, we feel good and sometimes we don't. So the next story is, so I'm going through this

[28:46]

rather quickly. So far we've done, we did this last week but any other comments on this? Questions? Am I going too fast? Did you follow that? Yeah? Okay. So there's this other story about two moons that I mentioned also last time. Dogen, who is in the Soto tradition later who wrote this, after this was written, after Dogen's lifetime, Keizan Jokin who was three generations later had a student named Gassan and Gassan apparently was also this difficult student who was very diligent and kind of pushy and anyway Keizan and Gassan were out looking at the moon one night and admiring you know there are two moons and Gassan said, what do you mean? Keizan said, oh if you don't know there are two moons you can't get the Soto teaching

[29:48]

you can't really understand the Soto teaching and Gassan was quite upset and the story goes that he sat like an iron pole for years trying to understand these two moons. You know this one is not busy and then he's saying you mean there are two moons? So are these different? Being busy and not being busy? Are those two separate moons? Is this duality? Are we kind of getting caught in distinctions here? This is Dawu's response to Yonyan and then Yonyan holds out his broom and says which moon is this? Then later on we have Keizan after this was written and Gassan didn't get it and one night some years later Gassan is sitting there like an iron pole late at night and Keizan walks by and says Keizan walked by

[30:55]

and said sometimes I let him raise his eyebrows and blink his eyes sometimes I don't let him raise his eyebrows and sometimes letting him raise his eyebrows and blink his eyes is not correct same thing that's in here and Gassan was greatly awakened So we must know there are two moons and yet they're both being time and we don't get this is like raising our eyebrows and blinking our eyes do we get it or not? So this isn't something we can see it that way or something we can play with and I'm particularly fond of that story because Gassan's student does anybody know Gassan's student's name? Keizan, Joe, Kim, Daisho Gassan, Joe, Seki, Daisho

[31:55]

Taigen, so she is Gassan's student anyway so there's this other story though going back to Yunyan and Dawu that gets into it even more this thing about being complete or not being complete or how, what is the quality of our time or what is the quality of our being this is from the book of Serenity case 37 and I'm not even going to read the case there's a story about that includes Yunyan and Dawu that is a commentary on one line on the verse well I'll read the whole verse one call and he turns his head do you know this self or not vaguely like the moon through ivy a crescent at that the child of riches as soon as he falls on the boundless road of destitution has such sorrow

[32:56]

so I think it's vaguely like the moon through ivy a crescent at that is about being time how do we fully or not fully how do we be time how do we experience our time apart from our judgments about it but also fully being present so this there's a comment on this Yangshan and Shandao of the stone grotto were gazing at the moon when Yangshan who was the teacher asked when the moon is a crescent where does the round shape go and when it is full where does the crescent shape go Shandao said when it's a crescent the round shape is concealed when it's full the crescent shape remains so we might say

[34:01]

that's a little cynical he says when it's a crescent moon the round shape is gone so when we're so we could I don't want to explain these images too much or kind of limit the interpretation too much but we can see round is fullness and the crescent is kind of partial so when it's a crescent moon the round shape is concealed we don't see the fullness so that's probably most of our everyday existence we're whatever we're doing in our everyday existence we get caught up in busyness and we miss the full moon we're busy with the little part that we're involved in but it's interesting because concealed implies that it is still there right, good, yeah but we don't see it because it's concealed by our busyness by our judgments

[35:01]

by our feeling of incompleteness yeah, good, yeah and he says when it's full the crescent shape remains that's interesting even when it's full there's still this kind of sense of the partial so that's what Shandao said about it so then there's a comment by Yunyan and Dawu Yunyan again is the one who said you should know this one who's not busy and he says when it's a crescent the round shape remains when it's full the crescent shape does not exist so maybe that's when it's a crescent the round shape remains actually we can see that when you see a crescent moon you can see the kind of outline of the full moon you can kind of make it out so it's like the crescent the round shape is concealed

[36:02]

you were saying it's still there it's just we're not seeing it he's saying it remains he's kind of emphasizing this side that even when we're stuck so this is like Dogen talking about even a partial being time a partially how does he say it a partially investigated being time is completely a partial being time or completely a half being time so when it's a crescent the round shape remains when it's full the crescent shape does not exist so he's kind of taking the side of fullness that actually that's the way it is this is like there's one who's not busy Dawu said when it's a crescent yet it's not a crescent when it's full it's still not round so when it's full it's still not round yeah what do you think when Donald throws your body in line

[37:04]

do you understand that something is missing yeah I don't understand that no I think that's exactly right what you just said well when you feel when you're feeling most full when you're feeling like your life is most juicy and complete and all this stuff is happening you know like a couple weeks ago when you were going through all of that I mean it must have felt full yeah and yet there was something kind of orbiting around or I don't know how did you feel I didn't well I just was stunned actually that's a pretty normal reaction to going through all of that or was there something missing was there a lack of stunnedness missing

[38:07]

or was it just completely stunnedness I wouldn't say I was conscious of anything missing I was not very I mean I felt some sense in which I was completely conscious and then some other way I was rather unconscious I wouldn't say I don't know I don't understand it then but I'm struck by it but I don't understand it I resonate with it but yeah Stuart that's I think the point the moment you hit it it's sort of knowing but not understanding yeah if that's what's missing it's the understanding or maybe not being able to articulate it this is the next story

[39:09]

exactly leading to the next story in Uji the next quotation in Uji is exactly about not being able to articulate it but we're not quite yet finished with the crescent moon and the round moon yet but just kind of flag that so by the way my asking Mary that it's not that there are right or wrong answers to any of these questions all of this is what about you so it's not like it's round or it's full these answers are not it's not like we can grade these answers like when it's a crescent the round shape remains when it's full the crescent shape does not exist it's not that that's more or less correct or incorrect how are you being time but what about you this is the point in this how do you where are you coming from or going to how are you being time how are you experiencing experience

[40:12]

or how are you being yourself in this being time but yet there's this kind of when I started looking at this moon imagery more I felt like this was really kind of underneath all of the stuff in being time in Dogen's writing because he's talking about complete and incomplete complete being time or partial being time missing it or not missing it and he's kind of saying they're all being time and yet he's kind of making us look at it and saying well what about you how do we actually take on our being how do we each experience what is the quality of our time or of our being how do we enjoy our being I don't mean enjoy necessarily like positive like you might enjoy being miserable I mean how do you fully be there with it whatever it is

[41:12]

sorrow or happiness fullness or crescent moon but I think the thing about when Dharma fills your body and mind completely you realize there's something that's missing that realizing that something is missing is kind of like that what about you there's like a question in this there's kind of an edge part of Dogen's part of this text being part of it being ungraspable is this kind of edge he's like pointing you at well what about you he's not giving you something that you can kind of digest and feel like you've got it and then kind of put it aside he's kind of putting it's like a mosquito biting an iron bull and the mosquito doesn't go away the mosquito actually does

[42:13]

bite the iron bull it's kind of this you can't feel from there's something that's missing there's kind of we can feel totally complete and yet when it's full it's still not round there's always I was thinking about it before about something about that there's always the what some people call the unsatisfactoriness but another way of putting it is that there's always I like what you were just saying better there's always some some question there's always this mystery what is it what is this what is this what is this that this tells or as Rev said in the talk in the last session well if you don't have any problems other people will give you theirs there's always something

[43:16]

if you don't have any questions someone will come with a question and then you'll have some so there's another one after Udawu said when it's a crescent yet it's not a crescent when it's full it's still not round then it says a poem by Lo Pin Wong I don't know who that is but anyway it says since it can be round as a mirror why should it be bent like a hook why should it be bent like a hook there's a hook in there I mean he's talking about the moon and the shape of the moon but also I think we've all we all have some experience of when our life feels round and complete or full or we've all had occasionally felt whole maybe just by forgetting ourselves and enjoying walking down the path

[44:21]

but then there's also it can be that way sometimes in being time why is it bent like a hook Stuart well I'm just remembering the illusion where the hook was meaning I mean the hook as in something that grabs you grabs your attention well there's another place in the book of Serenity where they talk about catching fish with a straight hook so I think it means like a fish hook but it also is like the crescent shape of the moon it's a hook so it's using these I mean this is a lot of this Koan language and the language that Dogen uses uses these images and it's not that it has one meaning you know you can't reduce it so it's just playing with the resonances and the different overtones so it's kind of poetic and when we can use

[45:23]

when we can kind of feel the different aspects of the images then we can kind of not understand it but more important than understanding it we can kind of play with it so to hear when it's full it's still not round and respond with when Dharma fills your body and mind if you still feel that something is missing this is kind of working with these images so there's a kind of language here and once the more you kind of play with it the more you can kind of get into you know a lot of it comes from Chinese poetry and just Chinese symbolism but you know we can also use rock lyrics as Steve did with the Dylan song a couple Sundays ago then there's a little comment less dialogue here

[46:23]

the Huayen school calls this the gate of so this is talking about this whole dialogue about series of dialogues about round and crescent moon the Huayen school calls this the gate of secret concealment and revelation existing together secret concealment and revelation existing together also in the teachings it says that bodhisattvas of the tenth stage see nature like looking at the moon through a gauze net yeah let me read this whole section also in the teachings it says that bodhisattvas of the tenth stage see nature like looking at the moon through a gauze net so in Japan they have these moon viewing parties and people actually still even today go out when there's a full moon and they kind of sit out under a tree or they sit by a pond and they look up at the moon and drink sake and appreciate the full moon and there's certain and there's different quality

[47:24]

to the different moons like the October moon is really the the October full moon is particularly to see the full moon kind of in a bare sky is not as as poignant and as full and aesthetic experience as to see it with like through like a branch or something like that with something obstructing it so there are many pictures many Chinese and Japanese paintings you see the full moon and there's maybe a a leaf or a flower or a bird or something over it this sense of to see of bodhisattvas of the tenth stage which is the highest level of bodhisattva practice basically the same as the Buddha seeing nature

[48:26]

seeing all of nature like looking at the moon through a gauze net this is also this kind of something is missing there's this kind of haziness there's still some question there's still what about you there's still something more and that too the actual nature of the moon is that there is a gauze net there we don't need to put one in front of it yeah, I think that's right then it says to call the vaguely seen moon a gauze moon is also alright but a poem by Lebo says there is the moon through the ivies crossing the mirror of morning a wind in the pines strumming the harp strings of night so the sense of the word

[49:33]

ivy is stronger Chantong Hongzhe who wrote the verse uses the vague indistinct new moon now hidden, now shining in the misty ivies though not full and bright already showing its tips to versify how the monk is half light, half dark seeming to be there seeming to be absent so I think this is very much related to what Dogen is talking about in Being and Time maybe this isn't the whole thing but anyway, this part of it struck me this week this sense of completeness, incompleteness and how are we in that I have no questions I'm just curious in the Shogogenzo what page you were reading from In the Book of Serenity?

[50:33]

No, in Shogogenzo The thing we're reading now actually may have No, when you read it before The first part of the story of Yangshun is in the Imo or such is the name of that essay in Shogogenzo the first part of the story says the first part of the story about Yangshun and Shuto it cannot be grasped as such it cannot be grasped as not such is on page 55 of this book what about you? and that's directly that's part of the same story and then Yangshun sends him to Mazu and then that part of the story is in Shogogenzo Uji in Being and Time are there any other questions or is it so the next part of so we're actually

[51:35]

basically almost at the end of this long essay and as I said in the beginning I feel like we could start all over again with it and really get into it in a deeper level having gone through it once but anyway next question is that Master Guisheng of Shoushan so I'm reading from the for those of you who have been taking the class from the Waddell translation was a Dharma descendant of Linji and a direct Dharma heir of Shoushan he's a very interesting guy I could tell you some other stories about him if we have time once he instructed the assembly he was a very strict teacher once he instructed the assembly of monks for the time being the mind reaches but the word does not for the time being or in being time or sometimes the word reaches but the mind does not so in being time the mind reaches

[52:36]

but the word does not in being time the word reaches but the mind does not for the time being the word that is translated here as mind could also be read as intention. It's not the regular shin character of mind, it's a slightly different character. So our intention sometimes reaches, sometimes it's full. So reaching here also means to understand or to attain or to get it. And word, we could also read as expression or how we articulate things. So sometimes our intention is there, our understanding is there, but we can't express it. But sometimes the word reaches, our expression is there, but our intention isn't there or our understanding isn't there. Sometimes we can say something and it's before we start, before we can think it or before our mind somehow. Sometimes or in being time,

[53:40]

both intention and expression, both reach, both are effective. And then also in being time or sometimes neither mind nor word reach. So this seems to exhaust the possibilities, but he's pointing at this. I think the problem we're bringing up of sometimes we understand or we feel like we understand, we can't say it. Sometimes we can say it, but our mind's behind it sometimes. So all of those possibilities are there. A little bit useful in being able to express a situation. Or just to respond. So he says the word, so he's talking about verbal expression, but I think we might even take it as just to respond sometimes. Our heart's there, but we don't know how to respond. Sometimes we can respond, but we don't

[54:45]

understand what we're saying, we get caught. I think we could see it that way too. So this is a quotation from this teacher. And then Dogen reads, Dogen says, the mind and the word or our understanding or intention. So I think intention is interesting there. I mean, it has all those meanings. It means our understanding, it means our heart, it means our intention. Sometimes, so it says the mind and the word are equally being time. Our intention and how we express it are equally being time. Their reaching and not reaching alike are being time. Even when the time of their reaching is not yet over, the time of their not reaching has come.

[55:46]

Huh. So in the time when both our mind and word reach, and word, when our understanding or, I don't know if understanding is so much the point, it's our intention or maybe spirit, I don't know. At the time when they make it, when we feel on, when it reaches, even before that's over, our not reaching arrives. That's what he's saying. Even when the time of their reaching is not yet over, the time of their not reaching has come. So first he's saying both reaching and not reaching are both being time. It's all being time. It's all time of being. It's all our experiencing of time. It's all the quality of our being, of our presence. And so even, but even when we understand or even when we can express it,

[56:56]

or both, our not expressing, our not understanding appears right in the middle of that. It's like something is missing. Then there's this quote I think from Rinzai, from Rinji, the mind is a donkey, the word a horse, making the horse a word and the donkey the mind. So again, this is this allusion to a saying by Rinji, or no, it's not Rinji, it's Lin Yun, I'm sorry, it's somebody else. A monk asked, what is the essence of the Dharma? And Master Lin Yun said, the donkey's not yet gone and the horse arrives. So that's kind of the opposite. That's like, still we've got this donkey and yet there's the horse there too. It's kind of a positive, the opposite, because it's kind of positive. Even when we're still an ass, you know, this horse has arrived, the thoroughbred has come in the middle of our being and asses. They're both there. Both are being time.

[57:58]

And just the opposite too, where you're the horse and the ass is gone. Yeah, right in the middle of it. So he plays with the words of this, reaching is not coming, not reaching is not yet. This is how being time is. Then there's this passage, which somehow we have to deal with. And I think it's difficult. And I think it's also pretty rich. So let's see if we can get caught by it or impeded by it. Reaching is impeded by reaching and is not impeded by not reaching. Not reaching is impeded by not reaching and not impeded by reaching. Mind impedes mind and sees mind. Word or expression impedes word and sees words. Word. Impeding impedes itself and sees itself. Impeding impedes impeding. That is time.

[59:01]

So this is what does translation theory says blocked. He says the same thing, but he says being blocked, blocks, blocking and sees itself. Cause and moon and a dewdrop says overwhelmed. You read that version of the same thing. Arriving is overwhelmed by arriving, but not by not arriving. Not arriving is overwhelmed by not arriving, but not by arriving. Mind overwhelms mind and sees mind. Words overwhelm words and see words. Overwhelming overwhelms overwhelming and sees overwhelming. Overwhelming is nothing but overwhelming. This is time. Is everybody overwhelmed? Well, I think that again, I don't want to, and I couldn't explain this. I can

[60:20]

say something about it and I'm not sure how, you know, what is useful to say, but I think this relates to the idea, which you talked about before, which you referred to before about just being in your place, your dharma position. So mind is just mind and mind is, is obstructed or blocked or caught up in being mind and expression is caught up in being an expression and they're not, they don't, they don't catch each other. So, uh, Walter impedes, Walter. Um, Taigan impedes Taigan. It's not, it's like, I can't, I can't stop you. You can't stop me. We just, we completely get caught up. We get blocked and obstructed by ourselves. That's to fully be ourself. So there's a way in which this impeding is, is, or this overwhelming or this obstructing, uh, Stephen Hein and other translations is obstructing.

[61:23]

So those are all ways of translating this. Being obstructed is nothing but being obstructed. This is time. So we are to fully be in our time. Um, so we were talking before about being completely being there, partially being there. I think he's talking about what it's actually like to be there, whether it's complete or partial, we get, we're caught by ourselves, which we're kind of stuck in fully being where, where and who and when we are. And that's how, and that's being taught. That's so I, he's not talking about a delusion now. In fact, I think he's talking about being free of delusion is to fully be stuck in where you're stuck. When you say stuck, you're talking about, uh, the condition of, uh,

[62:31]

not understanding. It's not, it's not, it's not even a matter of understanding or not understanding. It's just, that's where the, so, um, so Lorraine can't stop Walter from being Walter. Only Walter can stop Walter from being Walter. And Walter is the one who is being Walter, being, being overwhelmed by Walter. Yeah. And that's fully, that's Walter fully being Walter. Mm hmm. And that's, you know, for each of us and for everything. That, so he's, so he ends up saying, uh, this is, that's what time is. That's what our being is. He doesn't say this is being, he says, he doesn't say this is being time. He says, this is time. Impeding, impedes, impeding. Hope I need to hear it again in another way, but, um,

[63:43]

well, let me read clearest because it's, it gives another, um, arriving is not coming. Not arriving is not yet to come. This is the way being time is arriving is blocked. So he says arriving instead of reaching the same thing. Arriving is blocked by arriving, not blocked by not arriving, not arriving is blocked by not arriving, not blocked by arriving intent or intention blocks intent and sees intent expression blocks expression and sees expression. So when we fully are blocked by ourselves or when our, when our forget about self, when our words are fully blocked by our words, we can see our words. When our, when our mind is fully blocked by our mind, we see our mind. This is what he says is well, I guess I'm looking at it more expanded, but you don't know good until you know evil. It's the same idea. The opposites define each other necessarily, but I think he said,

[64:55]

I think that's there too, but he's saying also that the, the meaning, the thing itself to find block. Um, so, well, in essence, in essence, I see that resistance helps to find it. Yeah. Resistance is another way of talking. Resistance would be another synonym for this, wouldn't it? So, um, our words are resisted by our words are trying to express something resists is resisted by our expression. And that's how we see our expression or our intention is meets the resistance of our intention. And that's where we see our intention. And that's one way of, I think resistance is some, is it kind of a psychological way of talking about this that maybe is more resonant for us. And, and, and yes, I think both, they, they, they also block each other, but he's pointing out the, the side of blocking of, of, of the thing blocking itself,

[65:56]

whether it's ourselves blocking ourselves or our intention, blocking our intention. Well, by creating the concept, you define and limit the concept. Blocking, blocks, blocking. Okay. Limit. Okay. Limits another good one. A limit. I think we could, there's a sense in which limiting would be another synonym for this. So I think this, I think resistance limiting, we see ourselves in our limitations. That's how we see it. I think he's saying, see, no, I think he's not saying that just in terms of that. We only see, I think he's saying we actually fully become aware of ourselves in our limitation and our limitation is limited by our limitation.

[66:59]

The limitation itself is what is there. And that's how we actually understand. But I think he's giving, it's a very positive. So these words all sound negative, impeding, blocking, overwhelming, resisting, limiting. He's taking them in a very, very positive sense. It's hard to see that, I think, but I mean, our limitations are what allow us to be time. Is it like a parallel to that? We see ourselves through our projections. Not that that's the same, but that that's sort of parallel. Yeah. I think he's not, I don't think he's talking in the, you know, in a way, yes, but in a way he's not talking about, like,

[68:01]

it's like a lot. I think he's not talking about psychological limitations. He's talking more on an existential level. That fully being time involves allowing the obstructions to that, allowing the things in front of the moon to fully be themselves. And that's actually how we are being time. How each particular, so he's talking about the particulars. He's talking about how Mary is Mary and Stuart is Stuart. And each one of us is fully being ourselves precisely in the ways in which we are blocked, overwhelmed, limited, impeded in our own. That is our expression. That is our understanding or our heart. Yeah. But he's saying that's actually being time. He's saying that's actually the point. I'm letting go and he can't really,

[69:12]

because that's a trap. Yeah, but there is letting go. And then the trap becomes a trap. But there's a, but he's kind of, he's trying to turn that inside out. So the idea of projection, he's kind of turning inside out, as you said. So I don't know if this will help, but Waddell's footnotes says, impeding is analogous to self-affirmation, the affirming of true subjectivity. Thus impeding, which as itself being time is the entire world and entire time means individuality or selfness is affirmed and preserved. Otherwise there would be a one-sided fall into undifferentiated oneness. So he's kind of, he's saying being time is not kind of some abstract kind of realm where it's all one. It's like each thing fully being itself in all of its limitations, obstructions, that's being time. That's how we experience ourselves. That's how we fully

[70:21]

express, experience our being. So he's cutting through judgments about the quality of being without kind of, you know, without kind of negating them. I mean, they're still there. We still can see their full moon and the crescent moon, but the crescent moon is completely the crescent moon. The round moon, the full moon is completely the full moon. That's how it is being time. Right. So now being time. So to fully express ourselves right now means being in this particular limitation. I mean, I'm sitting up here trying to say something about all this and I'm thoroughly instructed by words. While you were talking, an image came to me about, you know, just looking at like the texture of the cloth and how there's texture in knots and it's not just one smooth, transparent, you know,

[71:28]

plastic wrap or something like that. The quality of it is what makes time, you know, if you look at in terms of, you know, a web of things interweaving everything together, it's all the nubs and bumps and that's what it is. And if it weren't that, it wouldn't be that. Hmm. Yeah. Yeah. Right. Very good. Yeah. No, you just did it very beautifully. See, the expression reached and the mind didn't because she thought she had it. That was beautiful. Yeah. To fully be time, to experience our being means to fully be, accept, you know, maybe we could say accept as an acceptance for impede here too.

[72:30]

To fully be blocked by and accept the texture that we're in right now. Feel a block. Yeah. To fully, to not try and get away from the blockness that we are. The exact way in which we are blocked is how we are being time. So perfectly in this class, we won't have anything to say or want to say. Oh, well. Well, we could do that anytime. Although, you know, we could maybe honor the clock and wait till nine o'clock. Well, actually, it goes a little further. And we're all still overwhelmed and blocked and impeded and obstructed by this, by this blocked and overwhelmed and obstructed and impeding this, but

[73:35]

impeding impedes impeding. That is time. Although impeding is employed by other dharmas, there has never yet been impeding that impedes another dharma. So each of us is, is totally blocked by the things we're blocked by. You know, I can't do, I can't do anything to block Bob, you know, he's going to do that himself. You know, I encounter a man, a man encounters a man, I encounter me going forth encounters and going forth. But if they don't get the time, it cannot be thus. So we do meet each other, but we meet each other as ourselves. So there actually, this is what this is saying by Dogen at the end, so we should have to have to at least look at that. Moreover, the mind is the time of the immediately present ultimate dharma. Cool. The mind is the time of the ultimate, immediately present ultimate dharma.

[74:46]

The word is the time of the key to higher attainment. So that's actually a pretty heavy statement. He's saying here, words are the way we do it. I mean, we actually function and think and, you know, encounter and meet ourselves and each other in words, even silently, you know, there are words that are kind of, that are part of how we respond, even when we don't, we're not saying them. The word is the time of the key to higher attainment. So this whole essay, Dogen has been turning words inside out and playing with words and throwing them around and, you know, un-wording us and, and taking away our usual relationship to words and putting them back together again and making us look at what that is in the same way as looking at time. So words are being time. Reaching is the time, so the word is the time of the key to higher attainment. Reaching is the time of the body

[75:51]

of total emancipation. Not reaching is the time you are one with this and apart from this. Huh. To be both one with this and apart from this. You should attest and affirm thus. So all of the above, you should attest and affirm thus. You should being time thus. He uses being time as a verb. So, so we should be time in this way where we see our minds and words this way. We have seen, this is his concluding comment. We have seen above how the respected elders have both spoken. Yet is there not something even further to utter? So this is Dogen's comments. First on Masu, or first on this other, this last guy, Sheshen. For the time being, mind reaches but word does not. For the time being, word reaches but mind does not. Dogen says, we should say

[76:54]

half reaching of mind and word is also being time. Half not reaching of mind and word is also being time. So this is kind of his inclusiveness. It's all being time. Half reaching, half getting it with our mind and with our expression, with our intention and expression is also being time. Half not getting it, it's like is the glass half full or half empty? Half not getting it is also being time. So that doesn't kind of, doesn't contradict anything that Guixiang, Sheshen said. But kind of, it's kind of Dogen's twist to it. Half reaching mind and word is being time. Half not reaching mind and word is also being time. The investigation of like that. It's like he doesn't stop turning it. Then the last thing, letting him raise his, so this is Dogen's comment on the eyebrows and blinking eyes. Letting him raise his eyebrows

[77:58]

and blink his eyes is half being time. Letting him raise his eyebrows and blink his eyes is a wrong being time. Not letting him raise his eyebrows and blink his eyes is a half being time. Not letting him raise his eyebrows and blink his eyes is a wrong, wrong being time. So this is also the partial, the sense of the half. It's like he's accepting the crescent moon. The crescent moon is also being-time, a half-being-time. And then there's this wrong-being-time. What does he mean by half-being-time? He talks about that earlier. There was a passage about even if you're partially investigating, partially, even if you're half-heartedly doing your life, that's completely a partial being-time.

[79:05]

Yeah. So he's playing with this idea of, I think the image of full moon and crescent moon kind of captures some of it. He's playing with this idea of fullness, our sense of being there completely, being fully completely who we are. We all have this sense, this is maybe more a function of our culture. We have this sense of wanting to develop our capacity, wanting to fully realize ourselves, wanting to be, what is this, be all that you can be? We all have that sense and it's part of our culture to kind of develop ourselves. This idea of evolution is part of our Western culture and development. It's in our culture that we talked about ideas of history in the beginning, the first class. As in our culture, we have this idea of things developing and getting better and science will eventually get all the answers and technology will make everything wonderful. And everything permanent.

[80:06]

And then there's this other side, which is kind of more where Duggan's coming from, just this is being-time. It's not saying we don't develop, but also undeveloped, incomplete, partially realized Walter is completely Walter being-time. So there's a side of this that's very reassuring and yet he's not kind of letting us off the hook. We still have to, what about you? We still have to see where we are. We're blocked by who we are, where we are. We're blocked by our partiality or fullness. So the question, what about you, is really looking for the response from you. So, where are you? So he talks about this wrong being-time and the note says mistake and Cleary says, having

[81:13]

him raise his eyebrows and blink his eyes is half being-time, having him raise his eyebrows and blink his eyes is amiss being-time, amiss as in gone astray. And I'm reminded of, there's the, a lot of you know the merging of difference and unity. There's a line in there that our translation, not the merging of difference and unity, I'm sorry, the Dongshan's Song of the Jewel-Mirror Samadhi, the way we, the Cleary, the translation from Timeless Spring that we chant says merging is auspicious, do not violate it. But actually that word that is translated there as merging could also be translated as mistake, making a mistake is auspicious, do not violate it. So I think that's part of the sense of this wrong, wrong being-time. So not letting him raise his, so letting him raise his eyebrows and blink his eyes is a

[82:18]

mistake in being-time. So that's exactly where we're blocked. That's exactly our opportunity for awakening, for fully realizing who we are. So a lot of Zen koans as well as some Dogen's writing, what seems to be negative is not necessarily, this is our opportunity. And the last line, he says, such investigations in thoroughgoing practice, reaching here and not reaching there, that is the time of being-time. So, thank you for sharing being-time, for the time being. Question? Stuart, or were you just? Okay. Thank you. [...]

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