Good morning. Good morning. This morning I'm going to start a commentary on Master Yuncha's Shodoka. Shodoka is a poem. I guess you'd call it a poem. It's a long, pretty long poem by Master Yuncha, who was a disciple of Huineng, the sixth ancestor in China in the Tang Dynasty. We have several poems like this. One is the earliest one, the Xin Xin Ming, by the third ancestor in China.

[01:10]

Sosan, Kanchi Sosan, Japanese. Which I think we're more familiar with. We're not so familiar with Shodokan. Namaskar. There are several translations.

[02:29]

So I'm using Nyogen Sensaki's translation, which is actually quite loose. It's not so literal, but whenever he translates, he always translates very loosely to give more contemporary meaning to the work. So he starts out like this. Shodokan actually means Song of Enlightenment and talks about the person of enlightenment. What are the qualities of the person of enlightenment? What does the person of enlightenment understand? He says, do you see that Zen student?

[03:39]

He has forgotten what he's learned, yet he practices easily and freely what he has learned and also what he should learn. He lives in equanimity calmly and contentedly. He is free of all care, yet acts naturally and reasonably. He neither strives to avoid delusion nor seeks after the truth. He knows delusions as baseless and truth as himself. He sees the true nature of ignorance as Buddha nature and the true body of his illusory body as the Dharmakaya, the Buddha's eternal body. I'll talk about this opening section. So he says, do you see that Zen student?

[04:49]

Sometimes we see the Zen student, sometimes we don't. Sometimes you can recognize this person, sometimes because this person's activity is so harmonious, that this person doesn't stand out. And so you don't see anything in particularly that stands out. This person is not advertising himself or herself, and doesn't do extraordinary things. And yet everything this person does has some feeling of being extraordinary. I think of Suzuki Roshi as nothing special. so

[05:59]

And when I think of my teacher's activity, there was nothing he did ever that was special. But yet, everything he did, all of his actions had some very special quality in their ordinariness. How one brings ordinary activity how one brings this quality to ordinary activity without bringing attention to oneself. He has forgotten what he's learned, and yet practices easily and freely what he has learned and also what he should learn. When we come to practice,

[07:36]

You know, we should have some aspiration. It's important to have aspiration and inspiration and to really strive hard to learn something, to find what we're really seeking. But at some point, one becomes what one is seeking. And when one becomes what one is seeking, then our effort becomes effortless effort. So, effortless, a feeling of effortlessness in one's activity, is to be one with realization.

[08:42]

One is no longer striving. But if you think that you shouldn't strive or that, you know, you should, you can just kind of pretend that you are unconcerned. That's not real. forgetting. So an old man or an old woman should do things very easily without striving. But someone young should be putting all their effort into learning how to practice and striving very hard. But we say there's no goal. How should one strive when there's no goal? But no goal doesn't mean there's no target or no vision.

[09:54]

The hardest place to be, of course, is where we are. And the goal of practice is to be totally where we are, which is the hardest place to be. So we're always going away from ourself. When we say strive or search for something, we're always thinking of out there. And we think of getting something. Going out there and getting something. And even though we've been practicing a long time, it's still hard to let go of that idea of going out there and getting something. To feel that there's a road going from you to someplace is to go further and further away from

[11:06]

what you're actually seeking. Forgetting what you learn. That's very important. We study. It's very important to study Dharma when you're practicing. And when we study, we learn a lot of things. But learning can be a hindrance as well as a benefit. Because we take the learning for the thing itself. And learning is very good when it's accompanied by practice. When you first come to practice, it's usually through reading or studying something. And when you come to practice, you should put the emphasis on practice and not on the study.

[12:14]

And then at some point, you should take up the studying again. To be free of the study, free of literature, allows you to focus on the practice itself. And then when you take a study again, the study helps to verify your practice. So you don't study to fill your head with facts. The study is to communicate with the old practitioners of the past. And you can see what their practice was and how they felt about what they were doing and what their insights were. And then you can see how that verifies your insight and your understanding and your practice.

[13:20]

But if you just use that study to fill your head with facts, that's just a hindrance. And you have to realize that the practice that you do is much more alive than the practice that you read about. Some people think that the practice that you read about is the real practice, and the practice that you do is not like that. I mean, you know, we're not in China or Japan or in the Tang Dynasty. So, it's important to have living teachers and a living practice, which sometimes looks like what they did and sometimes doesn't. And it should be that way. So Buddhist practice is always evolving, even though the core is always the same.

[14:22]

The ocean is always the ocean, and yet the waves are always different. And this analogy is used in many various ways throughout Buddhist practice to illustrate It's probably one of the most fundamental analogies that we have, is the water and the waves. The waves. Do you hear the waves? Don't be bothered by them. Do you see that, Zen student? He has forgotten what he's learned. And yet he practices easily and freely what he has learned and also what he should learn. So he doesn't go by learning because there's a place called the place beyond learning in Buddhist practice, which one has to be very careful about.

[15:38]

Because you may think, well, I have nothing more to learn because I'm enlightened. Going beyond learning doesn't mean that one stops learning. It means one always continues to learn. But one's confidence in understanding is beyond any kind of learning and teaching. It belongs to them. When you have realization, your understanding belongs to you. And no one can take that away from you. And you know who you are, and know where you're going. I don't know what all this airplane stuff is. Then he says, this person lives in equanimity, calmly and contentedly, and is free of all care, yet acts naturally and reasonably.

[16:52]

Do you know anyone who is free of all care? We're all worried. We all have these deeply embedded worries and cares. But this person is not. Because what makes this person free is the fact that this person is no longer bound by self-centered desires. No longer has nothing more to do, actually. That may sound lazy, you know. This person has nothing more to do. In the literal translation, This is the person who has nothing more to do. Leisurely goes about their life with nothing more to do. But because this person is a Bodhisattva, even though he has nothing to do, everything he does helps people.

[18:10]

My old teacher used to say, it's very hard to help people, in a true sense. And if you try helping people too much, you may end up hindering them. But if your practice is true and genuine, and you have realization, you don't have to try to do anything, because everything you do will be to helping people in a true sense, just by being yourself. And I could see that in my teacher. He didn't really try to help people exactly. I mean, he did not help people, but he was just being himself and doing what he had to do. Thousands of people were helped and even more thousands of people who no one even knows about were helped and are helped just by him being himself.

[19:37]

So, free of all care doesn't mean that he's not concerned about people, not concerned about society, or not concerned about suffering. That's not what free of all care means. Free of all care means that one is no longer self-absorbed, or worried about oneself. Because there's no self to be worried about. Greed, anger, and delusion, the three poisons, are no longer present. So when greed, anger, and delusion are no longer present, then there's no self. A self arises through wanting too much, through aversion, and through delusion or ignorance.

[20:53]

These are the factors which cause a self to arise. And when they're no longer there, there's no person. There's no self. There's a person, but there's no self. No self-centered activity. So, this means what has to be done is done. When the self is no longer substantial, then everything is done. It has to be done. And one is free to just help people. So this is the Bodhisattva's way of activity. without self-concern, just turning yourself over to what's in front of you, without any ego involved at all.

[22:01]

What's in it for me is not even a question. Just responding to circumstances, to whatever has to be done. without hesitation. So this is the nature of this person's activity. He lives in equanimity, calmly and contentedly. He is free of all care, yet acts naturally and reasonably. Naturally and reasonably means responding to circumstances without self-centeredness. He neither strives to avoid delusion nor seeks after the truth. Avoiding delusion is what we're always trying to do by seeking after the truth. We come to practice as truth seekers, which is very good. But when you run up against the wall, you realize that if you seek to get rid of delusions, that as soon as you cut off the head of delusion, five more heads spring up.

[23:19]

The Greeks figured this out. And trying to strive after truth means that you think you know what truth is, or you think it's something that you can grasp and hang on to. He knows that delusions, he knows delusions as baseless, and truth as himself. Buddha nature is truth. All beings are Buddha nature. So if we strive after Buddha nature, Buddha nature has no special shape or form. There's no thing you can identify as Buddha nature. In India, in Buddhist times, people felt that there was an entity, an identifiable entity called a soul, and that soul was inside of each person, and that soul was eternal, and that body would appear in each rebirth around that same soul.

[24:45]

Buddha said, this is not so. That there is no permanent entity which transmigrates from one life to another. The Buddha nature, but Buddha nature is not an entity. Buddha nature is everywhere. And each entity is an expression of this, of Buddha nature. Buddha nature is like the ocean, and the expression of the ocean is the waves. The waves are the activity of the ocean, just like human beings and all created things are the activity of the ocean of Buddha nature. Each one is a wave that has its own peculiar shape and form, and appears and goes back

[25:50]

into the shape of the ocean again. And the waves of the ocean keep changing. And each one is different, even though they're all the same. They're all waves. Delusion means not knowing, not realizing that the waves are the activity of the ocean. and thinking that waves are what they're not. We live in the... and have our existence in the realm of the waves. Everything has its wavelength and its tonality, its vibration. But when you really take everything apart, you realize there is no inherent nature to any of the waves.

[26:58]

Simply aspects and expressions of the ocean. So, then he says, he knows the delusions as baseless. And he knows the truth as himself. Each one of us is the truth itself when we realize Buddha nature. Then he says, he sees the true nature of ignorance as Buddha nature and the true body of his illusory body as the Dharmakaya, the law body of the Buddha, the uncreate energy of life itself. He sees the true nature of ignorance as buddha nature and the true body of his illusory body, this body, as the law body, the dharmakaya, the eternal buddha body.

[28:08]

This body is the eternal buddha body but only in essence. This wave is exactly the same as Buddha nature. This wave is exactly the same as the ocean. So when we look, when we look around us, Bodhisattva sees Buddha nature as well as the illusory aspect of nature. The Bodhisattva sees the true body and the illusory body at the same time, and knows this is the true body and this is the illusory body, and acts in the world of delusion, based on reality, based on understanding of the true body.

[29:12]

ignorance, and is, you know, Buddha nature is both the illusory and the true. In Western religion, there's, we say, how can God do something like be mean. But the understanding of Buddha nature is that Buddha nature is both good and bad, both right and wrong. Buddha nature is also the nature of the illusory body, the illusion of the illusory part of our life.

[30:31]

It's also Buddha nature. Otherwise we have two natures. The good nature and the bad nature. But good and bad are just according to our like and dislike. Good and bad have nothing to do with reality. Ultimate reality. good and bad, right and wrong, are both the same, have the same nature as Buddha. So it's like putty. You have this big piece of putty, and then we make this shape out of it, we make that shape out of it. So we can make any shape out of it we want. Since our nature is Buddha nature, we can shape it any way we want. So we say that human beings are self-creating. This is a fundamental understanding of Buddhism, that we are self-creating.

[31:36]

We're continually creating this life. And we can create it this way, or we can create it that way. And the law of karma is intrinsically tied to this. As Buddha says simplistically in the Dhammapada, mind controls everything. And when you think good thoughts and act in a good way, so to speak, then things follow in that way and people are happy. When we think and act in detrimental terms, in a bad way, then it follows that things go that way and people are unhappy. We can argue that you can't pursue happiness.

[32:39]

But if you act in a certain way, happiness follows. fundamental law of karma. So we can shape our lives, and we can change our lives also. We're not stuck. In Buddha's time, a lot of people felt that we were controlled by fate, and that our lives were predetermined, and that really nothing you could do to change that. But Buddha said, that's nonsense. There is nothing fixed. The karma is the effect of your volitional actions, which is karma, is determining the path of your life. But you can change that anytime. You can change the path of your life anytime. You will also have residual karma, karmic effects from the past, which will influence your life.

[33:48]

And it's not always easy to turn your life around, but it's possible, always possible, at any time, to turn your life around and change your path. If one wants to really change their path, they can do it, because nothing's fixed. Buddha nature, it's putty, and you can shape it any way you want. You can shape it into delusion, or you can shape it into truth. So, he says he sees the true nature of ignorance as Buddha nature, of course. It's just an aspect of Buddha nature, shaped in that way. And the true body of his illusory body, which is this body, I say this is the illusory body because it's not fixed. It's just a wave on the ocean of Buddha nature. And it's the Dharmakaya. He sees the illusory body

[34:52]

as the eternal Buddha body, but not in this particular shape. Although, yes, it is this shape. For this moment, this is what Buddha nature looks like. But you cannot see the shape of Buddha nature, but all shapes are the shape of Buddha nature. because buddha nature has no particular form or shape. That's called emptiness. Everything comes out of emptiness. Otherwise, everything would be fixed. The ocean would be frozen. All the waves would be frozen. And then he says, when one realizes completely the Dharma body, he sees no object.

[36:15]

He himself is the source of all things, and his true nature is another name of the eternal Buddha. Material things and mental phenomena come and go like clouds in the blue sky. Greed, anger, and ignorance, these three foams appear and disappear like a mirage on the ocean. This is just extending more what he's saying. When one realizes completely the Dharma body, he sees no object. We tend to see things. We tend to see ourself as a subject as opposed to everything out there as objects for our subject. This is what the Third Ancestor wrote about in the Xinqin Ming. There's always a subject for an object, an object for a subject.

[37:19]

And he says, when one realizes completely the Dharma body, he sees no object. There are not objects out there. Everything is one self. All so-called objects are one self, although it's important to see things objectively and separate from yourself. The self, that's very important. But you know, the baby doesn't. The baby doesn't distinguish things that's separate from it. So he put everything into his mouth. And he realizes as he grows up that some things fit and some things don't. And there's the world of relationship which grows up. But really, the world of relationships which develops is the world of relationships of yourself. Everything you relate to is yourself, just like the baby.

[38:30]

Everything the baby relates, even if the baby doesn't understand yet, it has no development to distinguish how to harmonize with things, with himself, with the other aspects of himself. So he just eats everything, you know, or everything's the same, sort of. And then he, and as we grow older, we divide ourselves into many parts called objects. And then we see the world of objects. We forget that it was once all one piece. And still is one piece. And we're always relating to the various parts of that one piece as ourselves. And as we grow older, we tend to protect this part of ourself.

[39:38]

We tend to protect this ego part which we create. And then we become more and more distant. big self, true self, Buddha nature, and relates to everything as parts, various aspects of itself. And yet, there's a distinction which we must keep. Otherwise, we fall into the sickness of thinking of no distinction. That's a kind of mental problem, to not see the distinctions, but to see the distinctions at the same time to realize the unity. And then he says, he sees himself is the source of all things and his true nature is another name of the eternal Buddha.

[40:51]

To see yourself as the source of all things is an interesting statement. That can sound egotistical, but when you say himself, it means not the person, ality, but the person's true nature is the source of all things. And of course, in another sense, You are the source of all things in that you're self-creating. You're creating your happiness and you're creating your unhappiness. And you're creating your world, actually. So that's quite true. Each one of us is creating our own world. But we think that things are happening to us, often. And they are, of course.

[41:54]

Things are happening, but the way we relate to the way things are happening determines our happiness or unhappiness. But we like to think that it's coming from outside. They're doing this to me. They're making that happen. You're doing that. You're making me unhappy. It's the way you respond to what happens to you that makes things go around. We can be a victim, or we can be the boss. And it doesn't matter what situation it is. The most terrible kind of situation, we can always be the boss. And in any situation, we can always be the victim. It just depends on how you respond. You know, there was a famous teacher who the emperor heard of, lived up in the mountains.

[43:13]

This is in China. And the emperor invited him to come and heal his daughter who was sick. He said, I'm not a physician. I'm a teacher. And he wouldn't come. So the emperor asked him a couple of times. And finally, he realized that he was going to send his messenger. He said, if you don't come, I'll cut your head off. That's what the emperors always say. If you don't come, I'll cut your head off. And he came down from the mountain knowing that the king's messenger was coming. And the messenger said, how come you came down from the mountain to meet me? He said, I don't want to get blood all over the floor of the meditation hall. So if you want to cut my head off, please do it now. Here. So this is kind of it.

[44:18]

I don't know if this is true, but There are many stories like this actually, and very likely it is true. Was he happy or unhappy? Was this creating happiness or unhappiness for himself? When you are in this position, you can decide. how to respond. And you can respond in a way that you feel a victim, or you can respond in a way that you feel that you're not out of control with things, that you're harmonizing with life itself. That's called being the boss.

[45:21]

Suzuki Roshi, my teacher, used to say, in every situation, you can always be the boss, no matter what's happening. So then he says, material things and mental phenomena come and go like clouds in the blue sky. Greed, anger and ignorance or delusion, these three foams appear and disappear like a mirage on the ocean. We're having a three-day machine today, so Kings are numberless.

[46:35]

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