I want to talk tonight about Sangha and the Temple Pillars. But before I start on the Dharma talk, I just want to dedicate our practice tonight to the people in Ukraine and to the people in Russia, including the people who are protesting and getting arrested. The last number I heard was 3,000. There's probably many more than that, risking 15 years in jail. And to the people in Europe facing Warfare and mass refugees. So may peace, may all beings live in peace. So the temple pillars. I wanted to talk about this because one of our two rooms, the room in Ebenezer, one of its prominent features is that there are along the long wall by the windows, there are large black temple pillars. And temple pillars are important in Zen. And so for the people who haven't been in the Ebenezer room who are on Zoom now, it's a very long room.

[01:07]

You can see some of the people. One side is wall, the other side is windows, but between the seats and the windows every once in a while is a pillar. So I'm gonna read a talk, one of the last talks from Dogen's extensive record from Ehei Dogen, who was the founder of our branch of Zen, was called Soto Zen, who brought it from China to Japan in the 1300s. This is a talk at his temple, the temple he founded at Heiji in 1252. And it's a short talk, but given time, I'm not sure how, I want to just focus on the first sentence, but maybe I'll say a little more. So this is what Dogen said, body and mind dropped off is the beginning of our effort. But when a temple pillar becomes pregnant, how do we discern their absence, the absence of body and mind? And I'll say a little more the thick cloud.

[02:08]

Really, I just want to talk about that first sentence. But he goes on the thick cloud matting spread over the mountain peaks is still and above the heights. The round moon shines in all directions. It stands alone eminent, not relying on anything. The lofty Buddha body does not fall into various kinds. Therefore, an ancient worthy said the sage empties out his heart The 10,000 things are nothing other than my own production. Only a sage can understand the 10,000 things and make them into oneself. At this very moment, how is it? Do you want to understand this clearly? After a pause Dogen said, the moon moves following the boat with the ocean vast. Spring turns following the sun with the sunflowers red. So maybe in the discussion, we'll get to some of the rest of it. But I think it's maybe enough just to focus on body and mind dropped off is the beginning of our effort, which is pretty funny, actually.

[03:16]

I'll come back to that. But when a temple pillar becomes pregnant, how do we start to discern their absence, the absence of body, mind? So, this talk is dedicated to the temple pillars in our Ebenezer Room. There's a story about the great master Yunmen from the 9th century, one of the founders of one of the Five Houses of Chan. A monk asked Yunmen, what is the meaning of Buddhadharma? This is the basic question. Sometimes they ask, what's the meaning of Bodhidharma coming from the West? Or they say it some other way, but really, what is the meaning of Bodhidharma? Or what is Buddha is another way of saying it. And that's our basic question. That's what we sit with. What is the teaching of Buddha? What is the reality of awakening here now? So the monk asked Yunmen, what is the meaning of Buddhadharma?

[04:19]

This is the kind of question that is so blatant that it's almost embarrassing for anyone to ask so directly. Anyway, Yunmen said, go ask the temple pillars. So the temple pillars that are Ebenezer Zendo, are, you know, the brand new Zendo, we've only been in there a couple times before this. And so they're, they're young, they're too, they're maybe they're too young to get pregnant, you know, they're just infants, these temple pillars. And yet in a temple, like a Heiji or, or Green Gulshan or Tassajara or Our old temple at Irving Park Road, well, we didn't exactly have pillars, I don't think, but anyway, maybe the temple walls, but yeah. Ask the temple pillars, what is the meaning of the Buddha's teaching?

[05:23]

So the way that the camera said, I can't see any of the temple pillars now, but those of you at Ebenezer can see them. And they have something to say. And the temple pillars and old temples have been listening to Dharma talks and sitting together with Bodhisattva students sitting upright, these temple pillars, for a long time sometimes. Eheji is still there, Dogen was. was founded in the 1200s. So, Yunmin said, go ask the temple pillars. And Dogen here is talking about when a temple pillar becomes pregnant, how do we discern the dropping of body and mind?

[06:27]

So, This practice is not abstract or theoretical. So the people who've been yearning to sit together in person and who are sitting in Ebenezer now know this, and that this is a physical practice. And the temple pillars sit with the people who are sitting. And the temple pillars know something in some way. So what happens when a temple pillar becomes pregnant and is ready to burst forth with the Buddhadharma and share it with all the other pillars and upright sitters in the room? So one of the things that I like most about the Ebenezer Zendo is that it has these temple pillars.

[07:30]

But I want to say also that in our Zoom Sendoh, in some way, I think there are temple pillars. We've been sitting like this just on Zoom online for two years. And now we have this strange situation, which we talked about yesterday. We had a Sangha meeting yesterday morning that some of you were at. And yeah, the It's a funny situation because it feels like we're sitting in two different places. But there are temple pillars on Zoom. They're maybe harder to see. Maybe they're the lines between the boxes. Or maybe they're the lines within the boxes. But there's something physical that happens, even on Zoom. And now we have this challenge As a Sangha, how do we sit together in both rooms?

[08:33]

And, you know, people are concerned that the people at the Ebenezer Zendo can't see all the people in the Zoom Zendo, and the people in the Zoom room can't see all the people in the Ebenezer room. But actually, that's the way it always has been. at Irving Park Road, which some of you attended in our old Zendo way back in the old days. You know, if you're sitting in along one row, you can't see the people in the same row a few seats down. And you can see the people across the Zendo, but maybe not as well as we can see each other on Zoom. So in some ways, Zoom has spoiled us. We are face to face on Zoom in a way that we can't be actually at the Ebenezer's endo. And that's OK. So we are working within different kinds. We are working in various situations.

[09:36]

But in all these situations, we should ask the temple pillars. We should see what it's like when the temple pillars become pregnant. And that may take a while in our Ebenezer Zendo. And eventually we will have a larger full-time temple building. But I think it's good that we have pillars in the Ebenezer building to look up to. And of course, there are many Sangha pillars. and I'm grateful to all the people who are at Ebenezer. And yeah, so here we are, and it's not, again, it's about listening to the temple pillars. It's about listening to the space in the room. It's about listening to the space between the seats. It's about listening to, this is, it's maybe more difficult on Zoom, but listening to the space between

[10:37]

your square and the person next to yours in their square. And actually, it's funny because all of you on Zoom see a different configuration. I always see myself in the top left, but maybe, but other people don't see me there. And you probably see each other in different ways. So it's a moving situation. So how do we learn about dropping body and mind from the temple pillage? Again, it's not about some analysis, although it's okay to do that, you know, if you want to study the Buddha Dharma, but the point is to bring you back to the temple pillage. How do we experience the physical reality of sitting upright, inhaling and exhaling. And then this thing about dropping body and mind. So going back to Doggett's text, he says this very unusual thing.

[11:45]

Beginning of this text, if I can find it again. Yeah. So he says, body and mind dropped off is the beginning of our effort. But when a temple pillar becomes pregnant, How do we discern their absence? How do we discern the letting go of body and mind? So, will we sit at Ebenezer long enough for some of the pillars there to become pregnant? I don't know. But this dropping body and mind, in Japanese, is an important term in Zen. In Japanese, or Sino-Japanese, it's shinjin dasu raku. Literally, body-mind falling off or dropped off. This is a very important term for Dogen. He talks about it. He mentions it many, many, many, many times, more often than he talks about Shikantazan, just sitting. And this term, Shinjin Datsuraku, is for Dogen a synonym for Zazen.

[12:55]

Zazen is just dropping off body and mind, letting go. Not getting rid of, but letting go of. thoughts, feelings, physical sensations, doesn't mean we repress them or didn't ignore them, but just not being caught by body-mind, by the thoughts and feelings and physical sensations that arise as we sit upright like the temple pillars. So the temple pillars are like Buddhas sitting for us, showing us what it's like to be upright. And Shunjin Datsuraku is Dogen's term for Zazen. It's also Dogen's term for Anuttara Samyak Sambodhi, Complete Perfect Awakening. So to let go, to drop off body-mind is I hate to say the goal. It's the purpose and meaning of Buddhadharma.

[13:59]

It's the meaning of this practice that we do in Dogen's tradition. And then Dogen, in the rest of the talk, has these poetic expressions about how this works in nature. This is not... Again, this is not some abstract philosophical proposition. This is not some theoretical idea. This is the reality of the subtle art of letting go. That is one of the ways to talk about the heart of Zazen. And when we drop off body-mind, it doesn't mean that we mutilate our body or that we try and get rid of all the thoughts and feelings, but just to let it go, like the temple pillars do. And when we let it all go, when the bottom of the bucket falls out, another expression, and when we just sit upright,

[15:08]

inhaling and exhaling, enjoying our breath, facing the wall, or I guess the people at Ebeneezer who are on the window set, are you facing out the window or is the window higher? Anyway, I'm gonna find out, I'll be there this Sunday. How is it? How is it to just sit, letting go of sensation, physical sensations, and are not being caught by physical sensations or all the thoughts and feelings that arise naturally in this upright sitting. So how do we learn from the temple pillars? How do we create the Buddha body on our own seat? So it's not about creating some theoretical Buddha mind, it's this Buddha body.

[16:10]

The Buddha work is to create the body of Buddha as our own body. Each of us has our own way, our own particular expression of the whole of the Buddha body. So how do we appreciate our particular, it's not about everything becoming merged into one thing. It's all, it's about how together sitting in our Ebenezer Zumzendo, sitting in our multifaceted situation, we all come together and each one of us can let go of body-mind, drop off body-mind. This is what's actually happening in Zazen.

[17:13]

And so our practice is not to figure something out, not to reach some state of higher being or some exalted mental state, but to just be fully here as we is, each one of us. So, again, there's much more to say about all of this. There's the whole digging into the aspect of relationship. We are all deeply interconnected in this quality of dropping body and mind. We each actually have awareness when we drop body and mind. It doesn't, again, it's not getting rid of thoughts and feelings, but, and it's not a vacancy or numbness.

[18:19]

It's fully being present without being caught by all our ancient twisted karma without ignoring our ancient twisted karma. So, um, I could talk a lot more about some of the rest of the things in that, in Dogen's talk that I just quoted, but probably I'll just read it again and see if something else comes up. So body and mind dropped off is the beginning of our effort. And that's, you know, kind of funny because sometimes people think of Shinjin Datsura was the culmination, the goal, the great awakening, and it is. but it's just the beginning of our effort, Dogen says. But when a temple pillar becomes pregnant, how do we discern this absence? So we should pay attention to the temple pillars.

[19:20]

We should pay attention to the temple pillars along the window at Ebenezer and the temple pillars in the seats near us, on the seats near us, on our own seat. The thick cloud matting spread over the mountain peaks is still. And above the heights, the round moon of awakening shines in all directions. It stands alone, eminent, not relying on anything. The lofty Buddha body does not fall into various kinds. So in some sense, there is just one Buddha body, the Dharmakaya, that includes all of us. So an ancient worthy said, the sage empties out his heart. The 10,000 things are nothing other than my own production. Only a sage can understand the 10,000 things and make them into oneself. How do we see that everything is right here on your seat, in the Ebenezer room, in our Zomo Zendo?

[20:31]

At this very moment, how is it And then Dogen, you know, sometimes he's kind of tricky. He said, after talking about the temple pillars understanding, he says to his students, do you want to understand this clearly? And often, and Dogen's extensive record after the end of such a short talk like this, there will be a pause. Do you want to understand this clearly? Then Dogen said, the moon moves following the boat with the ocean vast. Spring turns following the sun with the sunflowers red. So that's how it is. And the temple pillars witness all of it. And here we are. So questions, comments, responses. Yes, Ken, hi. Yes.

[21:36]

Dogen says that the dropping off of body and mind is the beginning of our effort, which sort of begs the question, and I think I know the answer, but what is the rest of our effort? Yes, this is the rest of our effort. The rest of our effort is just continuing to show up. So this practice is, you know, some people think of Zen or Buddhism or spiritual practice as something you do until you reach some wonderful higher state or something, and there's some goal to achieve. But really, this is just a way of life. So dropping body-mind is the beginning of our effort. Of course, the dropping of body-mind can open and flower and develop over time. So the most important thing in a way is to just keep showing up, to keep coming back to Zazen, to keep facing the wall and ourselves and our world and breathe into it and breathe out into it and just keep doing this day after day.

[22:51]

And then we get up and go out into our world how do we share or express this wonderful situation of the temple pillars? And there's not one right way to do that. So it's the beginning of our effort, and it's the beginning of our effort every day. And there's a word bodhicitta in Sanskrit, which means the mind of awakening, and it sometimes refers to the first thought or inspiration towards spiritual practice or towards sitting towards doing this practice. And right in that first inspiration, There is dropping body mind somewhere there. And we don't necessarily realize it or see it or feel it. But as we sustain this practice, as we find the sustainable effort, it can open and flower and develop.

[23:56]

And the point is to enjoy our practice, to play in our practice. to enjoy our inhale and exhale, but continue just to show up and allow it to open. Follow up question, Ken? Nope, okay. Niazan, hi. Hi, I'm just following up on Ken's question and your comment. You more or less said this, but I'm just gonna spell it out a bit more. you know, there is this idea of bodhicitta as being sort of this initial flash of awareness that you in fact can live your life differently. You can address yourself to the project of awakening. But there's this whole other way of talking about bodhicitta in which the entirety of the Buddhist path is given in that moment.

[24:58]

You know, so it's, You know, I think there are many questions that could continue to be asked about it, but as in this first line by Dogen, it is the beginning, but it's also, you know, there's a lot more to do. You could even, not to labor the point, you know, but as I say this, I'm reminded again of Suzuki Roshi's, you know, And again, there's a kind of a structural parallel, you know, you're perfect as you are, and you've got this whole life ahead of you. So that's it. Good. Yes. So, you know, the thing about the temple pillars becoming pregnant, you know, we sit upright and still and aware without, you know, running after the thoughts or feelings, just, you know, here they are. But it's like, there are many phrases like this in Zen.

[26:04]

When the wooden man begins to sing, the stone woman gets up to dance. It says in our song, our school song of the Jomar Samadhi. Or the old saying about a dragon howling in a withered tree. So in this stillness, in this settling that we do, And, you know, if you need to, so I say, you know, for people at the Ebenezer's Endo sitting together physically in a way that we're not exactly doing in Zoom, if you need to change your leg position in the middle of a period, that's fine. And I think that's Michael who I see with his knees up. I don't know, maybe it's somebody else. But anyway, Yeah, it's not about self-flagellation or something like that. But this stillness that the temple pillars show us allows something to happen.

[27:12]

Something germinates. Something is pregnant. Something comes to life out of stillness. So Phyllis has to leave. I missed her, but I was glad that she was here. So other comments or response? Anybody in Ebenezer? Give them a turn. Wade, can you call? Somebody's raising their hand. Go ahead. Yes. So one thing that presents... I'm sorry, who is this? This is Mike Greenker. Okay, good. One of three. Yeah, we got a lot of mics these days. Yeah, I need to take two guys so I can have a dharma name. One thing that presents itself, when a temple pillar becomes pregnant, what would it be pregnant with?

[28:19]

I think if we're being strict taxonomists, the only thing a temple pillar can be pregnant with is another temple pillar. So there's a sense in which the pillars at Ehai-ji are ancestors of these pillars in that a lineage, and these pillars in turn may be the ancestors of future pillars, future spaces where people sit. Well, I like the first version of that. When the temple pillars become pregnant, they give birth to more temple pillars. So maybe our Zenda will get bigger and bigger. But anyway. Yeah, so these are metaphors, you know. And yeah, one of the things that happens is that when we actually settle into this space of stillness and allow things to come forth, it's encouraging to others and to ourselves.

[29:39]

It's, you know, I said, what comes to mind is Tom Sawyer painting a fence and enjoying it so much that he gets everybody else to help him. You know, it's like, we do this together. So this is about Sangha, this story of the temple pillars. How do we, each of us as temple pillars in our own way, spread, this awareness. So it's not enough to just have the idea of this. I want to just emphasize this, this aspect of it. He's talking about the temple pillars becoming pregnant. It's not about figuring out something or having some fancy experience. It's just that we keep sitting and support each other. So this is this is in a way about Sangha activity. And You know, there was discussion at the meeting yesterday about the challenges and difficulties of some people being on Zoom and some people being at Ebenezer and so forth.

[30:48]

I think it's... It is a challenge but I think it's wonderful that we have this multifaceted sangha event and that both are important and that I want to see how Ebenezer can support Zoom and how Zoom can support Ebenezer and vice versa. Other comments or questions? Anybody else said Ebenezer? No other comments? Anybody on Zoom? Matt from Minnesota, did you have any comment? Yeah, I do, Taigan. I was just going to click raise hand. I'm on my phone tonight because Minneapolis teachers are on strike and I can't use my computer. That's work property. So I'm going to have to set my computer aside. Oh, that's settled. Yeah. So they said don't use any of that technology. You know, I've heard the pillar analogy before.

[31:51]

You know, you kind of just said the word support, you know, pillars support the Zendo. They support the meditators. They support the Sangha. And also pillars are behind the scenes. You know, they're not really talking. A lot of times they're forgotten. And, you know, the more I practice, I love this idea of Dogen's idea of no trace and really doing your work and not, you know, making a big old mess behind yourself. You know, you can help the world, but in some ways it's almost more liberating to just kind of go through the world and, you know, not have to be noticed all the time. And that's kind of what I think about with the pillars. So thank you for your talk. Yeah, the pillars, they all look alike. The pillars at Ebenezer, they're all black and rectangular and solid looking. The pillars on the cushions at Ebenezer and in the Zoom room, you know, we all look a little different. I mean, only a little, still eyes horizontal, nose vertical, but here we are.

[32:52]

So thank you, Matt. Yes, and good luck with your strike. I don't know if Bo or Alex Bernstein is at Ebenezer today. today. Bo was there yesterday. But we have some school some school teachers here in our song, too. And this is really, you know, along with the war in Ukraine, you know, there's a lot of things to consider in this world. And one of them is how teachers, one of the most essential, you know, Livelihoods, possible, special grade school and high school teachers, we have college teachers here too, but are amongst the worst treated. And essential workers in our society are amongst the worst treated in terms of pay and anything. So, it'll look on your strike map. So maybe it's time to close, but you're welcome.

[33:56]

And keep me posted on that. You can email me. Any other comments? Somebody else has their hand there at Ebenezer. Hi, Sagan. It's Dylan. Who's that? It's Dylan. Hey, Dylan. Yeah, thank you for the talk. It's making me think about objects or beings that could be pillars in the future. Or maybe the Flower Ornament Sutra would say that they will most definitely be pillars in the future. That any given body, object, being, could be a pillar, if not now, later on, or depending on how you're thinking about it, maybe it's a pillar now. I'm thinking about the table from my altar

[34:59]

at home. When I got it off Craigslist, I asked the guy who I bought it from, because it's a beautiful table, and I asked him what it was, what he was using it for and why he was selling it. And he just said, Oh, it's been just sitting here in this room and we've just been putting the mail on it for the past couple of years. And he sold it for like $15. And I just felt like this table had this new life ahead of it of being an altar, being a pillar. So yeah, just this thought that anything, if it's not a pillar now, it could be at a different time. Or maybe it was in the distant past. Right. Yes. Your table was a tree that nourished being surrounded in the forest. Exactly.

[36:02]

Yeah. So yeah, so this is an important part of our teaching. Dogen also presents the Sutra of Mountains and Waters and talks about the mountains moving and the waters supporting life. Anyway, yes, so to see the whole of our environment, the whole of our world, of course, including other people, even, you know, people in Russia or Ukraine or wherever, in Yemen, as as temple pillars, but also to see the cushions and chairs and pillars and bells and, and everything everything in our world as supports, so that we actually, it's not enough to just have some idea of this or know about it, we have to, you know, put it into practice. Ben talks about practical realization, we have to actually make it real.

[37:02]

So thank you, Dylan.

[37:03]

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