Good morning, everyone, and welcome. Today I'm going to share a teaching from Ehei Dogen, the 13th century founder of Soto Zen who brought this teaching from China to Japan, traveled as a young Japanese monk to China and came back to Japan and founded this tradition of Soto Zen that we follow and who I often talk about. So today I want to talk about a particular koan that he spoke about. I'll talk about it from an essay he wrote in his long work Shobo Genzo, Treasury, but also from his extensive record and his 90 cases that he commented on.

[01:01]

I'll start from there. And this is the first teaching by Dogen and first Zen teaching I heard from my first Zen teacher 40-plus years ago, which when I first had Zazen instruction and sort of first set me on the path of everyday Zazen. So the case 41 in Dogen's extensive record, the story, a monk once asked Xuanzang, who was a great teacher in the Tang dynasty, Master, you have said the entire universe in 10 directions is one bright pearl. So this was a saying by Xuanzang. He's had other sayings about the entire universe, like the entire universe is the eye of a monk. Anyway, the entire universe in 10 directions

[02:05]

is one bright pearl. How can a student understand this? And Xuanzang said, the entire universe in 10 directions is one bright pearl. What is the use of understanding? The next day, Xuanzang asked that monk, the entire universe in 10 directions is one bright pearl. How do you understand this? The monk replied, the entire universe in 10 directions is one bright pearl. What is the use of understanding? Repeating what Dogen said, what Xuanzang had said, and Xuanzang said, now I know that you are making your livelihood in the Black Mountain Demon's Cave. So the monk did not understand, or by repeating what Xuanzang had said clearly, didn't get it. So there's several, or maybe three main parts to this story. I'll just repeat the main saying that the monk asked Xuanzang about,

[03:07]

his saying, the entire universe in 10 directions is one bright pearl. It's a powerful utterance about the reality of our life and practice. And the monk asked, how can a student understand this? And Xuanzang said, the entire universe in 10 directions is one bright pearl. What is the use of understanding? That was the translation Shohaku Okamura and I gave of the version in Dogen's extensive record. There are other translations of how Xuanzang said that. One is, what is there to understand? How can there be anything to understand? Anyway, Xuanzang said, what is the use of understanding? So this is another main point here. What does it mean to understand? And what is the use of

[04:14]

understanding? And how do we understand our life? The next day, Xuanzang asked that monk, the entire universe in 10 directions is one bright pearl. How do you understand this? And the monk just repeated, the entire universe in 10 directions is one bright pearl. What is the use of understanding? And Xuanzang said, now I know you're making your livelihood in the Black Mountain Demon's Cave. So this is the basic story, an old story. So these old koans, sometimes they're described as riddles to solve or even nonsense riddles to solve. They're not riddles to solve. They're not nonsense. They are expressions of the logic of awakening. And they've been studied for over a thousand years because they tell us something about our life and our practice. And for me, when I first, so a few people here have had Zazen instruction for the

[05:28]

first time today, which is wonderful for all of us. And when I first said Zazen, I had this, this is not everyone's experience, of course, but for me, it was this sense of wholeness, this sense of somehow, in spite of everything, in spite of all my problems, in spite of all the problems of the world, that somehow everything was okay. And this saying somehow connected for me, the entire universe in ten directions is one bright pearl. So Dogen's verse commentary to this story and his extensive record, though illuminating the present, it also illuminates the past. We shouldn't question this matter with no roots or of the world with no roots, of reality with no roots. Square or circle, long or short, it has no boundary.

[06:34]

Inside, outside, and in between are no barrier. So the entire universe is one bright pearl. This is something that illuminates the present and Dogen says also illuminates the past. It includes all space and includes all time. And he says we should question this. So this also deals, goes to the question of what is the use of understanding or why bother, one way to translate it might be, why bother trying to understand? What does it mean to understand? How do you understand this? What is the use of understanding? Square or circle, long or short, it has no boundary.

[07:38]

The whole universe in ten directions beyond the calculations of modern physics about parallel universes and all the different dimensions and string theory and whatever. The whole universe, everything that we can imagine or not imagine is one bright pearl. And Dogen says, though illuminating the present, it also illuminates the past. We should question this matter of the world with no roots, square or circle, long or short, it has no boundary. Is there anything outside this one bright pearl, he's saying? Inside, outside, and in between are not a barrier. Or actually one version of the extensive records

[08:46]

says are all barriers. Manzan corrected it to say they're no barrier. So just this image, the entire universe in one, the entire universe in all ten directions, ten directions is a standard Buddhist phrase for north, south, east, west, the intermediary directions and up and down, it just means everything in all directions. One bright pearl. We don't feel that way. We feel all the problems in our own lives and in our world. But Chuancha said it's one bright pearl. So Dogen has a relatively short essay in Shobo Genzo, his collection of

[09:47]

essays, Chudarmai Treasury, we talked about this in some length, I'll just read some bits of it. He says, all the universe is an unceasing process, pursuing things and making them the self, pursuing the self and making it things. So of course, this self on your seat is part of the one bright pearl, or is included in the one bright pearl. It's not outside the one bright pearl. Maybe it is the one bright pearl also. All the universe is an unceasing process, pursuing things and making them the self, pursuing the self and making it things. So in one of his other essays, Dogen says, to carry yourself forward and experience all the

[10:49]

different things is delusion. When we project ourself on the world and see everything in terms of me, that's what we call delusion. When all things arise and experience themselves, that's awakening, he says. Now that includes ourselves. When everything just is part of this one bright pearl, including you, that's what's called awakening. Not that we have to get rid of delusion and try and get a hold of awakening because, of course, both are part of the one bright pearl. He also says in that essay, Genjo Koan, that deluded people are deluded because they have delusions about enlightenment. Enlightened people are enlightened because they're enlightened about their delusions. So we don't try and grab a hold of some so-called

[11:53]

enlightenment. We don't try and grab a hold of the one bright pearl. How could you do that? So that's this, what is the use of understanding? This student came to Xuanzang and said, how can a student understand that the entire universe in ten directions is one bright pearl? And Xuanzang said, well, one version, what is there to understand? The entire universe is one bright pearl. Well, what is the use of understanding? Now, you might take that as, well, we should forget about any understanding. We should forget about trying to. Well, maybe some part of it is we should get beyond trying to figure out reality based on our limited human understanding. Well, maybe there's something to

[13:00]

that. But also, what is understanding? So this is the next part of this. Just the one bright pearl, just to kind of swallow that. But then, what does it mean to understand? Our usual discriminating consciousness tries to separate this and that and figure things out. And that's how we humans manage to function in the world. It's not that that's bad. But what is real understanding? This is a question that Dogen comes back to again and again. And he doesn't say you should forget about understanding. He says, please study this. We should question this matter of the world with no roots. In the Shobo Genzo, he says, the utterance separated in response to a monk's question,

[14:07]

when sensations arise, one is separated from wisdom, is a turning of the head or a changing of the face, a laying upon things and a seizing of an opportunity. Because of pursuing things and making them the self, 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. We can't get a hold of it. One bright pearl is able to express reality without naming it. We can recognize this pearl as its name. One bright pearl communicates directly through all time. So he says the reality and beginninglessness of the bright pearl are totally beyond grasp. All the universe is one bright pearl. We do not say two pearls or three pearls.

[15:10]

Your whole body is one authentic Dharma eye. Your whole body is the real body. Your whole body is one expression. Your whole body is a radiant light. Your whole body is mind in its totality. So, you know, in the West, we have this idea of body and mind as separate. But this practice we do, that we've just been doing, is about understanding with our body. This is a physical practice. We sit uprightly and we feel how we feel and we understand something physically, not just through calculation. We understand heat or cold. We understand some tension in our shoulder or some ache in our knees physically. This isn't something we have to figure out.

[16:13]

He says your whole body is one authentic Dharma eye. Your whole body is is an understanding of the entire universe and the ten directions as one bright pearl. Your whole body is a radiant light, he says. Your whole body is mind in its totality. When it is your whole body, your whole body knows no hindrance. Everywhere is round, round, turning over and over. Since the pearl's merit is manifested in this way, the Bodhisattvas, the great enlightening beings, Kanon, the Bodhisattva of compassion, who hears the suffering of the world, and Maitreya, who is the next future Buddha Bodhisattva, are here and now seeing forms and hearing sounds. Old Buddhas, new Buddhas are bodily manifested, preaching the Dharma. So this question here, what is the use of understanding or how do we understand or

[17:37]

is there anything to understand when the whole universe in ten directions is just one bright pearl, just total illumination? What does it mean to understand? So it doesn't exactly mean let go of trying to understand. Maybe it means going beyond how we usually understand understanding. So, Swamiji just said, what is the use of understanding? Well, what is the use of understanding? How do we use our understanding and what are the different kinds of understanding? This story may point to that too. So in the essay, in Shobhogana, he says, although its face seems to keep on changing,

[18:43]

turning and stopping, it is the same bright pearl. Knowing that the pearl is indeed like this, that itself is the bright pearl. So this pearl is turning around and around. And these images in these stories, they're sort of poetic and they're various references. So sometimes dragons are portrayed with a pearl under their chin. Dragons sometimes hide in their caves, holding the treasure of a bright pearl. This is one thing dragons can do. Also, one of the great bodhisattvas, actually a few of them, sometimes hold the the wish-fulfilling gem. This pearl might be a reference to that. The pearl that just grants whatever wish someone wants. So, whatever.

[19:46]

So imagine being this bodhisattva who is, Jizo is commonly the bodhisattva who goes down into hell and helps beings in hell realms. All the suffering beings in our world now. All the beings who are being oppressed by our government and other governments. Imagine the bodhisattva who goes to them with this bright pearl and says, what do you want? Whatever it is you wish for, here you are. Like a genie or something. What is this bright pearl? How do we understand it? What is the use of understanding it? 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. In this way, the colorations, the configurations of the bright pearl are encountered.

[20:52]

When it is thus, there is no reason to doubtingly think that you are not the pearl, because you perplexedly think I'm not the pearl. Perplexing thoughts, doubts and our accepting or rejecting are but passing trivial notions. It is moreover only the pearl appearing as a trivial notion. The image of the one bright pearl itself, the entire universe in ten directions is one bright pearl. There is the question of how does a student understand this? What is the use of understanding it? What does it mean to understand or not understand? How do we use our understanding? And then there's this question about this student who just repeated what Xuanzang had said and Xuanzang said, now I know you're just making a livelihood in the Black Mountain Demon's Cave. This is for a place where students, people give up on themselves and the world.

[22:04]

Feel like the world is too overwhelming and hold on to some slogan and think that that's what they can rely on. But here, Dogen is saying, when it is thus, there's no reason to doubtingly think that you are not the pearl, just because you perplexedly think I'm not the pearl. Perplexing thoughts, doubts, and our accepting or rejecting are but passing trivial notions. It is moreover only the pearl appearing as a trivial notion. And he ends his essay about this, 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 bright pearl. So there are a number of issues in this story and in Dogen's response and he encourages us to keep looking at this, to keep turning the pearl.

[23:10]

So as I said, this was the first story and first teaching from Dogen that started me doing this does and practice a long time ago and I'm still looking at it. How do we see our lives? How do we see the world? How do we see the preciousness of the world, including all of our problems, each of us, and all the problems of our world and all of our efforts to resist the oppressions in the world and respond to the difficulties of the world, all as one bright pearl. How do we understand our understanding or lack of understanding? How do we see what does it mean to understand? What is the use of understanding?

[24:24]

How do we keep questioning? Sometimes we think we understand, like this student in the story who's kind of stuck because he thinks he understands or he thinks he doesn't need to understand or he thinks there's no such thing as understanding and maybe some understandings are not worth understanding. So Dogen's verse says, though illuminating the present it also illuminates the past. We should question this matter of the world with no roots. Square or circle, long or short,

[25:36]

it has no boundary. Inside, outside, and in between are not no barrier. So this is this elaborate strange story that is about how do we actually look at our life and the world? How do we use our practice and our experience of just being present and upright and enjoying our breath and facing ourselves and facing the world to appreciate the wholeness and brightness of reality? And then, well, what does that mean in terms of how we act in the world, how we respond in the world, how we use our understanding of this, how we see that we can't get a hold of it actually,

[26:41]

and yet it keeps turning. The pearl keeps turning. Our lives keep turning. We are caught in this process of not being able to get, to catch, to grasp. How do we be patient with this? So there's a teaching about patience. Patience not as a passive practice of just sitting and waiting passively, but as attentive patience. And it's a Sanskrit phrase that I like to say, anutpataka-dharmakshanti, which is considered the ultimate patience, which is equivalent to enlightenment itself. It's the patience with the ungraspability or maybe the unknowability, the un-understandability completely of all things. How do we be patient with that,

[27:49]

with our not being able to totally define and capture and explain everything? How do we understand that? And how do we keep paying attention to our lives and the world in the middle of this pearl turning, which is our lives and our reality? So that's an ancient story, and I could keep babbling about it, but I'll instead throw the pearl out there, see how it bounces around. Does anyone have any comments, responses, reflections from inside or outside or the pearl or in between? Please feel free. Aisha? Is there a difference between understanding and accepting?

[28:52]

It depends on what you mean by accepting. If you get stuck in an accepting that feels like there's that you're finished, then you're stuck in the black mountain demon's cave, which is also within the one bright pearl. So what do you mean by accepting? Ongoing. Okay. And what's the use of accepting? How do you use your accepting? Okay. Okay. Actively accepting and re-accepting. Miriam? No, I've been doing bonsai for 25 years, and I'm only beginning to understand what it means.

[30:29]

Understand what? It's only beginning to understand what it means. Ah. So all you hear is, in the end, she was like a flawless performer, but deep in the meaning of the music, she was kind of just catching on to it. So I think that's part of our understanding. Wonderful. Thank you. Yeah. So I've been studying this story and other writings from Dogen for 42 and a half years, and maybe I'm starting to understand a little bit. Thank you. Yes, Joe? I don't know if you know the root word of understanding. But under does not mean so much direction as above and below, but it means more of among or

[31:33]

this. The body, I think it also means attested. It's correlated with the body, which you mentioned earlier. It's a body practice. Yes. Oh, thank you. Yeah. So it's not about standing under or above. It's standing in the guts of. Or among each other. Yeah, together with. To get standing together. Amid, among. Yeah. Interesting. Thank you. Yes, Howard? If the universe is one bright pearl, then why does it need so much polishing? What do you think? What is it you want to polish? Yes, you think that.

[32:33]

The dust is also part of the one bright pearl. And our wanting to polish it is part of the one bright pearl. And you're thinking that it needs to be polished as part of the one bright pearl. And yes, if you think that, you better polish it. And, you know, and of course, there's also that part of seeing the one bright pearl is that we have our bodhisattva precepts, which is to try and be helpful rather than harmful, and that we and the bodhisattva of compassion, here's the suffering of the world. So when we see people being people having a hard time or people being oppressed, we try and help. Now, is that polishing the pearl or is that the pearl itself? We might ask. Just seeing that there's one bright pearl and thinking that's all there is to it

[33:45]

is kind of the issue here. What is the use? How do we... So, going back to Joe's gloss of understanding, being in the middle of... I'm not sure I totally got what you were saying, but being in the... In the midst of the one bright pearl, then how do we function as the one bright pearl might include that we are responsible for taking care of it as the one bright pearl. I don't know if that's polishing it to make it more the one bright pearl. That's just the function of the one bright pearl. I don't know. But you might, you know, think about that, question that. Yes, hi. I don't know if you can hear me for real long, but... So, polishing is part of the one bright pearl.

[34:46]

Not polishing is also part of the one bright pearl. So, oil polish is what we might want to talk about. Well, there might be a time for not polishing it. For just sitting back and saying, wow, one bright pearl. Maybe sometimes that's, you know, that's what we do. We just sit, face the wall and take another breath. But then we step out into the world and see, or, you know, it's time for temple cleaning and we see dust on the floor, you know. It's not exactly that the dust is not the one bright pearl, but our part of the one bright pearl is to take care of the dust. I don't know.

[35:51]

So, this is something to, you know, to look at. Yes, Jim. Now, you said that we're in the midst of the one bright pearl. Okay, yeah. How would you understand the word is... Hunter means among, but stand, how would you understand stand? Just sitting. And lying down and walking and also standing and... Uprightness. Uprightly. So, if you're going to slouch, please do that uprightly. M. Yeah, yeah.

[37:14]

You have to... So, we find our roots when we settle and sit uprightly and, you know, we are connected. We sit on the ground. We connect to the ground. But also, sometimes, you know, we get on the L and we ride along the tracks. But also, how do we... So, finding our way is a matter of seeing how the one bright pearl moves. I don't know. I might be getting lost in translation. So, the point of these stories and the point of these images is not to get a hold of some

[38:15]

right understanding. It's how do we turn the pearl and play with it and use it to see how to find our practice in our lives. Time for one more comment if anyone has a question or comment or other reflection. Okay, two more comments. Brian. This business of understanding and what is there to understand and all that, I wonder whether understanding in the sense of this story is experiencing. That when we experience something fully, we're not understanding it in the sense of defining it or...

[39:17]

It's not fixed because experience is constantly evolving and whatever we're experiencing is in a process of evolution. So, to understand the one bright pearl is to experience reality as such, maybe. And to try to understand it is like trying to understand our fingernail or something. Trying to understand the feeling of pain in our finger rather than experiencing it. Good, yes. Experience is a process. To understand as a way of finishing something, defining something so that we can put it up on the wall and bow down to it and then we don't have to deal with it is not the understanding that's being spoken of. It's continuing the process, continuing to turn the pearl, experiencing and ongoingly. So, not being... Not to understand as a way of closing down.

[40:20]

To open up our experience. So, thank you all for helping to open up this story. And we'll continue to turn the bright pearl here.

[40:38]

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