Good morning, everyone. Welcome. I'm Tygant Leighton, the teacher here for new people. And this morning I want to talk about the flowers in the sky. This is from an essay by Heihei Dogen, the 13th century founder of this branch of Japanese Zen, the founder in Japan. And in this essay, Dogen talks about It's called kuge in Sino-Japanese, the flowers of the sky, or the flowers in space, or the flowers of emptiness, or we could say it's the flowering of space, the flowering of emptiness. So this is taking off from a saying by the Buddha in the Surangama Sutra, which was actually a Chinese sutra, but very popular in China.

[01:12]

And in this sutra, Shakyamuni Buddha, the historical Buddha, from about 2,500 years ago in what's now northeastern India, said, it is like a person who has clouded eyes, seeing flowers in space. If the sickness of clouded eyes is cured, flowers vanish into space. The usual understanding in Buddhism is that The vastness of the sky, the vastness of space, of emptiness. Actually, it's the same character. Ku means sky or space or emptiness in different contexts. Here, all three are relevant. But these flowers in the sky cloud our eyes, obscure us from seeing the vastness and openness of space and spaciousness. You know, one conventional way of seeing Buddhist practice is that we need to get rid of all the obscurations to vision that cloud our seeing the world and reality and ourselves and everybody else.

[02:30]

And these Chinese characters, Kuge, Also, a common word in Chinese and Japanese for cataracts. So I wanted to talk about this essay, because I just had cataract surgery on both eyes a couple months ago. And I can see you all just fine without any glasses. I need to put these back on to read my notes, though. So Dogen turns around. the usual conventional understanding of practice, that we should get rid of all the obscurations so we just have the clear sky. Dogen turns this around in various interesting ways, as he commonly does in his teachings So, Dogen comments on this saying of the Buddha that, you know, that our eyes are clouded by our, and this is a metaphor, of course, for our karmic obscurations, our patterns of greed and anger and confusion, which obstruct us from seeing the openness of reality, the spaciousness of reality.

[03:48]

But Dogen turns it around. He says, there are the flowers in space of which the world honored one speaks. Yet people of small knowledge and small experience do not know of the colors, the brightness, the petals, and the flowers of these flowers in the sky. And they can scarcely even hear the words flowers in space or flowers in the sky. So remember, in Buddhism there is talk of flowers in space. in non-Buddhism before spiritual practice, they do not even know, much less understand, this talk of flowers in space. Only the Buddhas and the ancestors who've kept alive this practice and teaching in each generation, only they know the blooming and falling of flowers in space, of flowers in the sky, and flowers on the ground. Only they know the blooming and falling, the flowering, the blossoming, and the fading and falling of flowers in the world. Only they know that flowers in space, flowers on the ground, and flowers in the world are sutras, are the words of Buddha.

[04:56]

This is the standard for learning the condition, the situation of Buddha, of awakened ones. Because flowers in space are the vehicle upon which the Buddha ancestors ride. The Buddhist world and all the Buddha's teaching are just flowers in the sky. So Dogen has turned it all around, that it's not about getting rid of sky flowers, but actually these obscurations are themselves the teachings of the Buddha. So this supposedly illusory space flowers or sky flowers are exactly where Buddhas teach. They are the vehicle upon which the Buddhas ride. So Dogen goes further in talking about this. First of all, he says, no scholars have clearly understood this statement.

[06:02]

So Dogen commonly puts down scholars. Scholars who don't actually practice. Some of us do both, but anyway. Because they do not know space or the sky, they do not know the flowers in space. Because they do not know flowers in space, they do not know a person who has clouded eyes, do not see a person who has clouded eyes, do not meet a person who has clouded eyes, and do not become a person who has clouded eyes. Through meeting a person who has clouded eyes, we should know flowers in space and should see the flowers in space. When we have seen flowers in space, or the flowers in the sky, we can also see flowers vanish in the space, in the sky. So, it's not that I want to have my cataracts put back, but somehow these obstructions to our vision are themselves where Buddhas practice, where Buddhas awaken.

[07:08]

So there's a common idea that I understand is even taught in colleges in Chicago, that Buddhism is about getting rid of all thoughts. That Buddhism is about some pure realm where there's no clouds at all, where it's just, you know, wonderful, spacious, radiant light everywhere. Well, you know, that's also one, you know, part of our reality. But our practice is exactly about seeing the flowers in space, seeing the flowers in the sky. Zazen, this meditation we do, and the whole Buddhist project is just a flower in space for Dogen. So we practice these sky flowers of these forms and this bowing and all the things we do here in this upright sitting.

[08:16]

So this is, you know, Dogen has a kind of sense of humor and he turns things around in funny ways. But he's also playing with our usual understanding and even the usual understanding going back to Buddhism and of Buddhist scholars. It is exactly amid the sky flowers that Buddhas awaken and produce more sky flowers. And here, Dogen is also reaffirming in a very deep way this issue of non-duality, which is part of Dogen's teaching. So usually we think of non-duality as the opposite of duality. You know, we get caught up in thinking good and bad, left and right, and men and women, and Democrats and Republicans, and all that stuff. And then we think of non-duality as kind of that which transcends all that. You know, and that we have to get past our discriminating mind, past all these dualities of form and emptiness, good and bad, so forth.

[09:26]

So we have part of our practice to recognize that we have all these dualistic illusions about reality, all these discriminations we make. But when he's discussing these sky flowers, Dogen is clearly talking about the non-duality of duality and non-duality. This non-duality is not about transcending the duality of form and emptiness, for example. This non-duality is not the opposite of duality, but the synthesis of seeing these dualities and of non-duality, which goes beyond. And then the non-duality of that. Both are included. They're not separate. Our practice is to integrate our awareness of ultimate spacious reality with the sky flowers. So space is not empty space.

[10:30]

Space is the activity of our life and the synthesis of form and emptiness. Space is not only the space between me and Nancy, but it's also the space between my ears and the space here. Everything is space. The sounds, where are these sounds? Are they in your ears? Are they in my throat? Are they in the air in between? Well, everything, all of it. So, we're not trying to get rid of duality, but actually synthesize it, actually integrate. So we emphasize a lot both the meditation practice we've just done, where we get a chance to sit upright and present, and we get a taste of something that goes beyond. We get a taste of the ultimate, of the spaciousness of the sky. But also, we have to see all of these flowers.

[11:35]

And to call them flowers, you know, sometimes we use nastier names for them. But to see all of the stuff that arises as we sit. So part of our practice is this background universal reality and getting some taste of that. But also then, what do we do when we get up from our cushion and go out into Chicago? And our lives and how do we take how do we express? This spaciousness right amid the flowers of our lives So Dogen is saying yes to everything So he says people who understand that flowers in space are not real but other flowers are real are people who have not seen or heard the Buddha's teaching and So, how do we say yes to everything? How do we cut through both duality and non-duality right in our everyday life?

[12:40]

So, there's a saying, the everyday speech of a practitioner is the whole universe in all ten directions. This is a non-duality that goes beyond our conventional idea of non-duality. This is the cosmological awakening of the natural world and the impact of space itself. So what is it like to really get to know the sky? So I'm going to read just a few more excerpts from this essay from Dogen's Shobo Genzo, Shuai Dharma Treasury, about sky flowers. So, Talking about those who only see the flowers in the sky should be discarded. They don't know the great matter after the flowers in the sky or the sowing, maturing, and liberating of the flowers in the sky.

[13:46]

They merely regard where the atmosphere is as the sky and where the sun, the moon, and the stars hang as the sky. They assume that the so-called flowers in the sky change colors, float in the air like clouds, move toward east and west, up and down, blown by the wind. to regard the four elements that create and are created, so earth, fire, water and air, to regard these four elements and all things in the material world, the fundamental enlightenment and the basic nature as flowers in the sky, is ignorant. They don't know that there are the four great elements and others due to all things. They don't know the material world rests in the condition due to all things. They only think that all things exist due to material worlds. So this is kind of common idea when people come to practice.

[14:49]

They think enlightenment is some exalted other place somewhere else. They think that if they get rid of all their thoughts, or if they do lots of good works, or if they just go along with everything as it is, eventually, if they do enough meditation, or hear enough Dharma talks, that eventually they will reach some exalted, elevated state. But Dogen is talking about the flowers in the sky. Know that a person with obscured eyes in the Buddha way is a person of original enlightenment, of wondrous enlightenment, of all Buddhas, of all the realms, of Buddha going beyond Buddha. Do not misunderstand these obscurations as illusion. Do not think that there is reality other than that. This is a lesser point of view. If obscurity and flowers in the sky are illusion, a view such as to create and be created is also illusion.

[15:53]

Everything is illusion. If everything is illusion, truth cannot be established. If there is no truth to be established, the point that obscurity and flowers in the sky are illusion cannot be established. So he says flowers in the sky are born in the sky and perish in the sky. They are born in obscurity and perish in obscurity. They are born in flowers and perish in flowers. Furthermore, flowers in the sky are just like this in other places and times. So he's really pointing at the sense of these sky flowers, these obscurations, as reality itself. And of course, metaphorically, this refers to our own human sky flowers, our karmic sky flowers, our particular patterns of greed and anger and confusion. This is where we actually practice. Just a couple more excerpts from what Dogen says.

[16:57]

Those who assume that flowers in the sky are not real and other flowers are real have not seen or heard the Buddha's teaching. To hear the words that the sky originally had no flowers and assume that the flowers in the sky that did not exist do exist now is a lesser view based on shallow thinking. Please think deeply, he says. And there's one story he tells, which he has lots of examples of Zen sayings about flowers and about the sky, but he tells one story. Where is it here? Oh yeah, about an old master from the Song period named Shi Men. And he was asked by a monk, by a student, what is the treasure inside the mountain? And Dogen says, this is just like asking, what is the Buddha?

[17:57]

What is the way? And Shimen replied, flowers in the sky emerge from the earth. The whole nation has no way to buy them. This statement cannot be seen as secondary to other statements. People everywhere usually discuss flowers in the sky as illusory flowers and speak of flowers in the sky as being born in the sky and perishing in the sky. There have not been people who understand that flowers emerge from the sky. How can they know the flowers that emerge from the earth? So, So Dogen is talking poetically and metaphorically about our situation. So there is the wide open sky and it's filled with clouds and flowers. One of our ancestors who wrote Song of the Grass Hut, we sometimes chant, said that the wide sky does not obscure the white clouds drifting.

[19:03]

So the sky is not obscured by the clouds and the sky doesn't obscure the clouds. How do we see these sky flowers? So when we do our chant at the end of the talk, we do the four bodhisattva vows. One of them is dharma gates are boundless, I vow to enter them. So every situation, every difficulty, every flower in space is an opportunity to savor the fragrance of the flowers of our life. Every obstruction is an opportunity to awaken. That's exactly where we awaken. So, I had this surgery done and I could have done it like six months before, but maybe I would have been able to see things more brightly as I do now, but I had other things I had to do and I didn't really have time to do the transition to

[20:15]

Well, there's still flowers in the sky. But anyway, how do we appreciate the flowers in the sky? How do we appreciate? So, you know, when we do this meditation, there's times when there are spaces between thoughts and feelings and sensations and just, we can enjoy sinking into just being present, settling deeply, being upright, enjoying our inhale and exhale, there is this calming, this openness that's available. But also, what's really difficult about this practice and challenging is not getting your legs into some funny position or whatever, but that as we are present and upright. Our thoughts and feelings come up and we start to see our own patterns, our own flowers in the sky, our own patterns of grasping and anger and confusion. What do we do about that?

[21:19]

Well, that's exactly where we awaken. It's exactly where we have the opportunity for compassion, for kindness, to ourselves, first of all, but of course, to each other. And we sit together in this way, supporting each other. So each of each person here, as we were meditating, was helping everybody else to be present and upright. So this applies individually and collectively. Individually, we each have our own patterns of, we each have our own flowers in the sky, and Dogen talks about the flowers emerging from the sky, and the flowers emerging from the ground, and from space itself. Our life is just flowers floating along in the sky of wisdom and kindness. And as we sit, we start to see our own patterns of grasping our anger, and we start to be able to not react.

[22:26]

We see our own patterns of reacting. It comes up again and again, if you do this practice regularly. And we start to, we have these precepts, these guidelines, ethical guidelines for how to be in the world based on the sky and the flowers in the sky. So to include all beings, to benefit all beings, to be helpful rather than harmful, to be respectful to ourselves and others. And we have a whole system of 16 precepts that Paula took last week and that we do formally sometimes. But there are flowers in the sky. How do we recognize them? How do we be kind to them? So again, I think this principle of appreciating the flowers in the sky, it applies in terms of our individual practice and it also very much applies in terms of our collective practice.

[23:29]

So right now the flowers in the sky may be burning up a little bit. We are suffering from climate damage. So that February, there were the highest carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere in 15 million years. And the Arctic ice is melting. Even in winter now, they're having trouble finding. There's not much ice up there. It's a very serious threat. to our life, to the flowers and to the sky. and the ocean habitats are dying. This is a really serious, urgent security issue. Before I started working full-time for San Francisco Zen Center, I used to be a documentary filmmaker. Michael Moore, who won an Oscar for a documentary he did, said that we are living in fictitious times.

[24:37]

lots of flowers in the sky. So how do we appreciate those, too? How do we transform those? So it's, you know, earth, water, fire, and air. And the water, we know the water in Flint, Michigan now is poisonous and was kind of left to be poisonous for over a year by the politicians. And this isn't just in Flint, Michigan. There's questions about the water in Chicago. There are lots of problems, and in the middle of this, in our fictitious times, there was a presidential debate last week where it was just about name-calling. They were comparing the lengths of their genitals. Seriously, I'm not making this up, for those of you who've stopped watching all of that. And they've been debating who could have the most warfare and kill the most civilians. And, you know, this is not just one party. Both parties have these problems.

[25:41]

Anyway. I think just as we need to face the flowers in the sky in our own lives and learn how to be kind to ourselves and be kind to the other flowers in the sky as we see our own patterns of grasping. I think for humans, for Buddhas of all kinds, to see the flowers in the sky to, you know, it's not helpful to name call or hate people who name call on hate. How do we see these flowers in the sky? How do we turn? So, the beginning of the Zen tradition supposedly was when the Buddha held up a flower. at Vulture Peak. And thank you for that smile.

[26:43]

Mahakasyapa, the first Zen ancestor, smiled. And Buddha said, oh, you have the true Dharma I treasure. You have the wondrous mind of Nirvana. So how do we see these flowers in space, flowers in the sky? How do we take care of them, act beneficially in the midst of sky flowers? This is a problem not for us individually and also for all of us as Sangha, as community, as people in the world now in this really interesting year. So our practice is to pay attention. And not to just, you know, we don't tear up the flowers in the sky like so many weeds. We appreciate the weeds. We appreciate the flowers growing out of the sky and growing out of the earth. Suzuki Roshi in Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind, talks about mind weeds. So as we sit, thoughts do come up. And when we can face them, when we can face these sky flowers, he talks about composting them.

[27:50]

When we see that by paying attention to the weeds, maybe we pull them up, but then we allow them to be part of that which supports our mind to grow. And so I think for all of us to pay attention to what's going on and to try and respond from our guidelines for kindness and helpfulness rather than harm, but pay attention and speak truth. Maybe that's all. I will say, I could read more of Dogen's essay, but you get the idea. So, we have some time. Comments, questions, responses? Yes or no? Good, yeah.

[30:58]

There is a crack in everything. That's where the light comes in. Yeah. Yeah, and of course, this is not a practice for, you know, for super beings and special, exalted, glowing, radiant beings, you know, and only those beings walking down Irving Park can come in. This is a practice for human beings, so yes. And yeah, we practice in delusion. There's a line in one of Dogen's essays that deluded people, He defines deluded people as people who have delusions about enlightenment. Enlightened people are those who are enlightened about their delusions. So, yeah, we study the flowers in the sky. We see our thoughts and feelings. We, you know, don't try and manipulate them because the point isn't to manipulate things. Sometimes if we can fix a problem, we should. And there have been wonderful movements of many people, like the climate awareness movement and the Black Lives Matter movement, that have made changes already in our world.

[32:10]

So it's not about just accepting everything passively, but how do we see what's going on without name-calling and all that? Other thoughts or responses or comments or questions of any kind? Hi, Joan. Yes, thank you for that.

[33:13]

Yeah, so it's also the flowering of the sky. So all of this is, so our practice is the flowering of the sky flowers in our own lives and in our society and how do we... I appreciate that and one of the reasons I like Japanese Buddhism particularly is that Japanese culture especially appreciates, not only appreciates flowers, but appreciates their fading. In the volumes of poetry about cherry blossoms, the most beautiful time is just when they start to fade. So we're all changing and fading and flowering and we're all in that process. And so particularly, so Dogen is partly getting this from Japanese culture, partly from Mahayana Buddhism, but it's not that you get rid of the flowers in the sky, it's you appreciate impermanence and change and difficulties and challenges and how do we respond.

[34:14]

So, you know, there are people who've been talking about how horrible climate damage that we now know was knowingly perpetrated by the fossil fuel companies and knew about what was going on in the 70s and just and funded disinformation. But if we actually address this, this is an opportunity for humanity to grow and flower in a different way. And it's not hopeless. There are things we can still do. Right, my favorite koan. Yeah.

[36:10]

So, yeah, the point... But it's always going to be a flower in the sky. Right. And, yeah, the point of this practice is to relieve suffering, period. And to help beings to awaken to the way to do that. Well, you know, I don't know. I don't really know. Theoretically, maybe someday there'll be no more suffering anywhere in the whole universe. You know, and there'll be no more need for Buddhas and Bodhisattvas. But I think in the meantime, there's good job security for Bodhisattvas. Other questions, and you people too, if you have just basic questions, feel free. Or just any other comments or responses. Yeah, our life is dynamic, and the world is dynamic, and feeling overwhelmed or hopeless is not realistic, actually, because things are changing.

[37:41]

Okay, well, thank you all very much.

[37:50]

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