So, today is a remarkable, auspicious day in all of East Asian Buddhism, Marigold Spray in Chicago, New Mexico, and Canada. Today is celebrated as Shakyamuni Buddha's awakening day, 2500 years ago more or less. Today or someday like it, Sarasvatthama sat down under a tree. He was concerned about the suffering of the world. There were wars in effect then. He was concerned about the suffering of the world, wanted to understand, feel, how to

[01:26]

overcome and respond and settle with the reality of suffering. The first noble truth is that he taught later is that there is dukkha, suffering, dissatisfaction, unmeans, whatever you want to translate it. And this was the first noble truth. It's a noble truth because we can sit and face it when we face the world, we are facing the world, the whole world, everything, including all the stuff within this body and mind, all of everything. And at some point he looked up and saw the morning star, Venus, and something happened

[02:45]

as they say. And he touched the ground, sat on the earth and touched the ground. And an unsurpassed, complete, perfect awakening arose in his body, mind, and all the beings nearby and in the whole world around him. It's not that it wasn't there before, but he deeply realized it. So, later in the 1200s, A.H.

[03:48]

Ogien, the founder of our Japanese Buddha lineage, our branch of Buddhism, of awakening, also said that the main point is just to respond to suffering, to the suffering of people in the world and in our own body, mind, and to bring joy. So today, since you left a little bit, we sit silently and quietly here on the third day of our first Rohatsu Sesshin, 2019, and it looks very serious and somber. But really, the point is just to play in the fields of Oregon, to witness this body, mind,

[04:54]

this chakra, all chakras, to support each other, to see how, to ask the question of how, to respond to the suffering of the world. To do that, right? There are lots of stories about what happened next. One story from the wondrous flower order, the Tamsaka Sutra, which we've been reading for an hour and a half each month for three years. I don't know, two-thirds, three-quarters, we're on the way. The story, one story goes that he spent 49 days just settling into and enjoying this teaching.

[05:58]

At the end of that, he felt like, well, nobody's going to get this. Nobody's going to understand this. If you read the flower sutra, there's no instruction. There's no techniques. There's no way. It's just an unfolding, an explosion of one unit. That's how deep and wonderful reality is, in spite of, in context of, how do we take care of it? How do we take care of this world, this body, this mind? How do we take care of each other? But then he was persuaded to share this with other beings.

[07:19]

And then he started with a talk of what truth is. Truth is suffering. Truth is the cause of suffering, trying to grab the things you want. The truth that there's an end to this, that we can't enjoy even this physical world. And then the Eightfold Path, which was the beginning of his description of how to do this. And then there was the precepts and practices and this teaching. It expanded through Asia over centuries. Somehow, through the kindness and dedication of Sliky Russian,

[08:25]

he came to California in modern terms. So we've been looking at this Soto Zen expression of what it was that Buddha saw and taught and appreciated in this text from a great disciple of our great founder in Japan, A. A. Nogin. So we've been playing with the womb of radiance, the body, settling into this sitting awareness and breathing the air of this settlement into radiance.

[09:36]

The primordial, the inconceivable, our sponsor, the background to all of this, that we can get some taste of communion. We had a wonderful discussion yesterday afternoon here, inspired by Aishan's question. All of these events, all of this, all of this talk about what? Radiance. What good is it? How does it help all of the difficulties in our world? So,

[10:52]

he also wrote down a lot of Dogen's teachings for us to listen to Dogen deeply. So I'm just going to take a few passages from the excerpt that we're chanting in the evening that gets a pull from this text, just as a way of looking at, well, what's the point? How do we commune with this wonderful event, this awakening of Buddha, this reality that he awakened to? And it's important to say that when Buddha had this great awakening, touched the ground and the earth's witness to him, that wasn't the end.

[11:53]

So, I don't like this word enlightenment. I'd say awakening, because that's what it means. It's not something you can get. It's not something you can figure out, decipher, understand, or deeply experience. It's just being awake. Here we are. But Buddha spent 40 or 45 years, must count, talking about this because people coming and asking him, well, what's it all about? And so we have this huge body of teachings, and they're all wonderful each in their own way. Anyway, continue. So, part of what Kroeniger wrote, inspired by Dogen writing a little bit about this Samadhi of greetings,

[13:03]

Kroeniger said, I humbly say to people who are real seekers, who have the same aspiration, do not cling to one device, or one state, or technique, or one awareness. Do not rely on intellectual understanding or brilliance. And then do not carry around what you learn by sitting. When we sit, we just sit. Sometimes it's called just sit. We sit and we bathe in wisdom. Ah, reality that is here even amid all of the arts and atrocities in our world. In response to that, in some way, Kroeniger continued, plunge body and mind into the great treasury of radiance without looking back.

[14:14]

Sit grandly, come to the ease. Sit grandly in this hall, or wherever you are out there in appearance. Without seeking or looking, without trying to get moved, without aversion to the arisen thoughts, so don't try and get rid of thoughts. But how do we respond to them? How do we enjoy them? How do we let them go, or come back? Or maybe they work for a little while. Maybe you'll have this experience that isn't just being present with the humming on their own reality. Undeterred by the sounds of the cars driving by.

[15:22]

Undeterred by aches and pains, or long leaves, or wax, or whatever. It's not just simply a run up and play in Samadhi. It doesn't mean you have to wiggle around or jump around. Here he is, sitting calmly. Amid the turbulence of thoughts and feelings occasionally, very frequently. And as I say in the morning, enjoy, inhale, and exhale. Our breathing is a wonderful conduit to this arising wonder.

[16:29]

It is an outgoing breath, an incoming breath, the essence of hearing, and the essence of feeling, without conscious knowledge, and subjunctive discrimination, are utterly shining light, shining radiance, in which body and mind are one such. So, you know, we're trained, and we have this habit of discriminating, of seeing this and that, and good and bad, and all of the different distinctions that our human-type consciousness is good at making. And that keeps going on, you know, it's large, it's thinner, it's light, it's dark, you know, we make these distinctions. And yet, we don't need to, well, we don't need to grasp after them.

[17:37]

This shining radiance, in which body and mind are one suchness, it's right here. We don't have to do anything about it, you know. I mean, all of us here in this room, at home, or on the internet, actually make a point of showing up, so thank you, here we are, how wonderful. Let me go and stop it. You could be out doing all kinds of other things, I'm sure. But here we are. Go on, Andrew, it continues. Therefore, when called, there is an immediate response. This is so important.

[18:43]

All in response, we're dealing with Bodhisattva precepts, and that's what we're staring at. Somebody calls out, teaching, or precepts, or Thankful Buddha, or Bodhisattva, or whatever, and we respond. Hey, Mike! We visibly respond, I'm sure. Sometimes we're able to respond to it. So, you know, this business of how do we take care of the world, how do we take care of responding to all of the difficulties and suffering in our life, and in our world, it's a matter of this kind of response, an appropriate response. And there's no easy way to figure that out. So, you know, the point of hearing about this wondrous settling, smotheing, of the womb of radiance, is just to connect with that, and to, you know,

[19:58]

Sugiroshi said, we're all continuously losing our balance against the background of perfect balance. So, Sashin, Sasan, is a time to just kind of connect to this background. Primordial, the inconceivable, radiance. You know, whatever we say about it, isn't it? I mean, let's just start talking. But something, something, something serves us in the background, and serves all beings in the background. And we forget it, and we get into hassling about this or that, and we look at wars, horrible things, but it's still there. Even when we forget it, losing our balance against the background of

[21:01]

perfect balance. So, therefore, when called, there is an immediate response. A great Chinese master, young man, said all of Buddha's teaching is just about an appropriate response. What's the way of responding to whatever present situation? That is helpful. Appropriate means. What is helpful? And we struggle with this, and we don't know. There's no instruction manual for this. It comes out of this deep, primordial, conceivable, radiance reality. And, you know, sometimes it doesn't look like it's helping at all. And we all know that we're in this climate chaos and mass extinctions, and this world is changing. This world is a reality, is in transformation.

[22:07]

How do we continue to pay attention? Maintain awareness to what we can see in our field of awareness. Keep awakening, like Chucky and the Buddha did every day. This is the radiance, and which the ordinary and the sage, the diluted and the awakened are one suchness. So, all those distinctions we make between whatever, Palestinians and Israelis, or whatever you want, oil barons and environmentalists, how do we support? Awesomeness helps us with all these distinctions. This is the radiance in which the ordinary and the sage, the diluted and the awakened

[23:11]

are one suchness. Even in the midst of activity, it is not hindered by activity. So, we sometimes wonder, what's the use of all this stuff we're doing? You know, this lovely Kasali here, which you are all one with, well, many beings here are doing all kinds of wonderful things to help doctors, lawyers, social workers, chaplains, martial arts teachers, therapists. You know, how do we each find our way, our part, in expressing this Samadhi of the Nirmala radiance?

[24:15]

How do we share it in a way that we can alleviate the suffering, bring joy to the world? And, you know, and often when we are working to do that, it doesn't look like anything slow is happening, but each little pool of awakened communities, little district, otherwise, sends out ripples in the world. It's true. And people come and go. And sometimes there are some good people we haven't seen in a while.

[25:21]

Okay. So, even in the midst of activity, Koanesho says, it is not hindered by activity. The forests and flowers, the grasses and leaves, people and animals, great and small, long and short, square and round, all appear at once, without depending on all the discriminations of your wants and intentions. This is here, always, it's available. How do we commune with it? How do we find it as a resource for our lives? For our world? For our enjoyments? So, just a little bit more from Koanesho. He says about this radiance, this inconceivable

[26:41]

wonder, it is not more in Buddhism, not less in ordinary beings. This is the reality of Javakaya Buddha, the awakened reality. When you die, the light is not extinguished. It is not more in Buddhism, not less in ordinary beings. It is not lost in condition. So, of course, we all, and it's not awakened by awakening. It was never before we were taking it. It has no location, no appearance, no name. It's simply the totality of everything. It's hard to believe. If we start thinking about it, what? That's rubbish. What? The totality of everything? Koanesho says it cannot be grasped. It cannot be rejected. It cannot be attained.

[27:49]

While unattainable and inconceivable, it is, in effect, throughout the entire being. So, this is what we're kind of playing with, settling into, this is a shame, and wondering about it, questioning it. What's it all about? How is it helpful? And those are all appropriate questions. And what is our response to the call of this moral gradients? And it's different each day. Maybe it's different with each breath. It's different with each of us. And yet, here we are doing it in the self. We have a little more time for the people here in the session, in the room, or online. We'll have a discussion this afternoon. But if anybody has some comments,

[28:53]

or response, or question, or reflection to share, ask the kitchen please to help feed us. March. Please feel free, online or in person, any charity, you can help me see people here, and later on you can help me see people online. How do we enjoy this? How do we play with this? How do we handle it? So

[30:08]

there's not really much to say about it. With all these discourses, with all the work. How many pages is the episode that we did? It's done, Barney. Yeah. Clear traces. All those words. All our troubles as she is supposed to open up to, settle into, and question. Response to this possibility. This primordial gaze.

[30:55]

@Transcribed_v004ct2
@Text_v005
@Score_83.93