Good morning. I want to say something about suchness and sudden enlightenment. Suchness is a very basic way in Buddhism and particularly in our lineage of talking about reality. It's not just a description of reality, it's a practice. It has to do with, well, just meeting reality as it is. Bare attention, facing the wall, allowing the wall to gaze back at you. This suchness, this situation right now, which no description or explanation can even barely begin to encompass, how do we meet the reality.

[01:01]

How do we pay attention to the situation on your cushion or chair right now? So, suchness, I love saying the Sanskrit word, this refers to tatata, is suchness. Sometimes it's translated as thusness. Meeting this situation, engaging the situation, supporting and promoting the suchness of this situation. And we'll chant later, those of us staying for the day, the song of the Precious Marriage Samadhi, which is about the dharma of thusness and suchness, promoted by the Chinese founder of this lineage, Dongshan, Hosan Ryokai in Japanese. But today I want to talk about an utterance by one of Dongshan's students, who is very important to us.

[02:09]

He's Yunzhu Daoying, is his name in Chinese. Ongo Doyo, Daoyo Sho in Japanese. He died in 902, so he lived in the 9th century. Long time. And yet he's one of the lineage of 90-plus teachers who kept this tradition alive. So we could do this here in Chicago this morning. So one time he said, if you want such a thing, you must be such a person. Already being such a person, why worry about such a thing? The first sentence could be translated, if you want suchness, you must be a person of suchness. How do we be persons of suchness? So the longer quote, the context for that, is that one time, Genshu said, speaking to his students, one who has comprehended has a mind like a fan in winter, has a mouth growing moldy from disuse.

[03:52]

This is not something you force, it is naturally. So suchness, like enlightenment or awakening, is not something that you can get. Suchness is not a thing. You can't get it down at the corner store. Suchness is already here. Suchness is the way things are experienced. So this practice is the practice of expressing suchness, engaging in suchness, meeting suchness. So Damshan Yonji, the Dalai Lama, said, this is not something you force, it is naturally so. If you want to attain such a thing, you must be such a person.

[04:55]

Since you are such a person, or once you are such a person, Well, I have trouble about such a thing. So there's no need for me to talk about this today. I'm scheduled to give a Dharma talk some day. All of you already have been, this morning, practicing sessions, meeting sessions, expressing sessions. How did we do this? in his introduction, Tom Cleary says, realization of thusness is a matter of not obscuring it by mental construction and fixed labels. Cessation of compulsive mental habits and silencing of the mind are means to accomplish this. So we settle into being upright, being present. But what we're doing when we settle, when we see through all of our grasping and attachments and ideas about whatever, ideas of who we are, is to engage this suchness.

[06:10]

Already being a person of suchness, why worry about such a thing? There it is, suchness. And here it is again. And we inhale and exhale just this. So some of you may have been attracted to Zen, to doing the Zen practice, because you've heard some talk about sudden enlightenment, sudden awakening. This is about suchness.

[07:15]

Suddenly, immediately, right now, without any mediation, by some intricate understanding or some meditative samadhi accomplishment. Right now, suchness actually is this immediate present reality. Boom, here it is. So people hear about this and think that sudden enlightenment or sudden awakening is about obtaining some sudden flashy experience sometime in the future, and then you'll become an enlightened person. Well, we. That's not sudden awakening. That's just some, you know, that happens that we maybe abruptly realize, oh, hey, we're here. And sometimes there are these dramatic experiences, but that's not the point of Zen practice at all.

[08:19]

That's not sudden enlightenment. Sudden enlightenment is just this. Here you are, persons of suchness. How do we realize this suchness, this fullness and tenderness and fragility of reality? Right now. So you might be going along thinking the world is what you think it is and suddenly or abruptly realize, oh hey, here I am. Here the world is. And I is not separate from that at all. So that kind of experience can happen and sometimes it's dramatic, but the point is already being a person of suchness, why worry about such a thing? And, you know, you may want to experience suchness and have the fantasy that you haven't experienced suchness, or that you're not experiencing suchness right now.

[09:32]

So you may seek after that. So in Dogen's commentary on Yin Zhu Dao Ying's statement, know that one is such because one is such a person. How do we know one is such a person? We know one is such a person because one wants to attain such a thing. So, if you had some, you know, this has to do with bodhicitta, I'll come back to that, but Dogen continues, since one has the face of such a person, or a person of suchness, one needn't trouble about such a thing. Because troubling, too, is such a thing. It's not trouble. One should not be surprised that such a thing is being such. Even if there is suchness which seems strange, or weird, or mysterious, this, too, is just suchness. So there's a suchness that one need not be surprised.

[10:35]

enjoying that you are persons of suchness is that you hear about this and you think, oh, I want some of that. And we think, you know, the way our mind works is we think that suchness is a thing, whereas of course it's just the way things is, the way we meet things. But again, this idea of bodhichitta going way back in Buddhism, mind of awakening, has to do with the hearing about this and, oh, I want to be enlightened. Or thinking that there's some special experience you have to get. It's long before that, but your first thought of, oh, I want to actually, you know, I want to pay attention to the quality of my life. I want to find a way to be present in the world that's helpful, that feels peaceful and calm and beautiful and generous, not just for other people, for yourself too.

[11:58]

But, you know, part of it is seeing that suchness is not about separating your mind and body or yourself and others. How do we meet suchness? How do we give ourselves to suchness? How do we receive the suchness that is right now? And again, just the fact of your considering such questions and deciding that you want to take on spiritual practice. Some of you started meditation practice by showing up at Ancient Dragons. Some of you have been to various other Zen places or other kinds of spiritual places, and here you are this morning somehow. That's great. Either way, something brought you here. You could have slept in, but you didn't.

[13:01]

Here you are. So, congratulations on being persons of suchness. And yet, part of the suchness is paying attention to that we imagine there's something we need to get or to understand or to, you know, anyway. Some experience, some sudden flash, some pebble hitting a bamboo or something happening that, oh yeah, when I get that, when that happens, then everything will be wonderful. Everything is already wonderful. And it's also terrible. There's suffering in the world. Part of suchness is not just, oh, great, suchness, yay. But we actually continue practicing suchness.

[14:01]

How do we respond to the suchness of the suffering of the world, the people around us, and the difficulties and challenges of our society, and so forth? So it's not enough to just have some intellectual understanding or even some deep experience of suchness, Buddha nature. Here it is. Everything's okay. Everything is okay, and yet attention must be paid. Something is required. Each of us in our own way and all of us together have an ability to respond to suchness, and the world of suchness, and the suchness of suffering, and so forth. So how do we take on this responsibility, each of us individually and together? So there's a story about Yen Chu that relates to this. So this is a story about when Yen Chu was studying with Dong Shan, who wrote The Precious Mare Samadhi.

[15:07]

And one day, Dong Shan said to the assembly, Who is this person who, even when among a thousand or ten thousand people, does not face a single person and does not turn his back on a single person? Wonderful question. Who is this person who, even when among a thousand or ten thousand people, does not face a single person and does not turn his back on a single person? Do we meet this person, maybe the person closest to you, in the center or in your life, without making them into a thing? So Jeremy might get all excited because he's sitting next to Dawn, and Dawn is obviously such a person of suchness, oh my!

[16:11]

And it could be very agitating and confusing for Jeremy, but it's not about facing a particular person. Actually, Dawn is just a story we tell, and everybody she knows tells about some energy that's now manifesting, sitting on her cushion. So you don't face a single person, and yet, you don't turn your back on a single person. How can we include every single person in the world? So even the person you have the most difficulty with in your life, or this week, how do you patiently, responsibly, meet the suchness of that person with kindness, but without ignoring the difficulties that you are having, or you think they created, or that is going on around that. How do we... It's an amazing question. Who is this person who, even when among a thousand or ten thousand people, does not face a single person, and does not turn his back on a single person, or her back?

[17:20]

So Dongshan said that to the assembly. And Yuanzhu got up, So, back then, we have a zendo now that's also our dharma hall. It's like we give dharma talks here. It's also our buddha hall because we do ceremonies here. We'll have a service later here in the same room. But all fancy temples in China and Japan, they had a separate meditation hall. And actually the monks slept in the meditation hall as well as taking food there. And then they had a Buddha hall and they had a Dharma hall. So I imagine this happened, this event, Dongshan's statement happened in the Dharma hall. And people were all sitting there. And Yanju got up and walked out and said, this person's going to the hall to practice. So he went off and went to the meditation hall to sit. This was his response to not facing a single person and not turning his back on a single person.

[18:24]

So we practice. And satsang is not just about sitting in the meditation hall, but it is about that. We come back to this sitting practice as a way of connecting to suchness, reminding suchness that we are suchness, seeing suchness. We have to remind suchness. We create suchness through our practice. So Yunzhu understood and went and said, OK, this person is going to the hall of practice. That was his response to Dongshan's question. And later on, Yunzhu said, if you want such a thing, you must be such a person. Already being such a person, why worry about such a thing? So when Yunzhu got up from, you know, you might think that's rude and, you know, it happens sometimes that, you know, in the middle of the Dharma talk here, somebody gets up and walks out or leaves or goes to the back or something.

[19:26]

That happens. It's okay. But Yonju just left and said, this person is going to the hall to practice. That was his response. Now, he might have said, oh, I'm going, this person's, you know, I mean, he was living in a monastery and that's what they did, but you might say, oh, I'm going to go to work to practice, or I'm going to go be with my family to practice, or, you know, all of the other ways that we practice in the world, not living in a monastery, but being in a monastery of Chicago in our lives. So Dogen comments on this, Yonju leaving and saying, this person's going to go to practice. Dogen said, when you can see like a person of suchness, then all the Buddhas appear in the world. And this person goes to the hall. And then also, eating gruel and rice. We'll have, I don't know if we're having rice for lunch.

[20:26]

Oh, we are having rice for lunch. OK. So eating your rice, speaking one phrase, coming from within, the universal and particular, are all this person going to the hall. So Dzogchen talked about the inter-action and inter-merging of ultimate truth, the ultimate suchness, and the suchness of eating the next spoonful of rice, or talking to our friends, or co-workers, or whatever. coming from within the universal and particular are all this person going to the hall. And that you should be like such a person is also this person going to the hall. How could you say a phrase that is not practicing together with yonju? Good. We are all practicing together with yonju. That's wonderful. I'm so happy.

[21:27]

So Dogen paused and said, all of you monks, go to the hall and practice. So I should stop and ask Dante to bell us, and we should start sitting zazen now, but I'll say a little bit more first. So one of the issues, you know, so to call this sudden enlightenment, I think is right. It is right in terms of the Buddha Dharma. And that's a little bit austere. It's a little bit stark. It's a little bit, well, wait a second. Don't I have to do all these things to get to suchness? I mean, just this is it? Well, it is, but you know, within Buddhism, there are And even within Zen, there are systems of stages of practice and different kinds of, you know, we talk about the 10 paramitas.

[22:36]

Those aren't exactly stages. Patience and skillful means and meditation and vow, they're all kind of together. It's not that you do one until you finish it, then you do the other, but people think that way. So how do we offer people stages of suchness? Sometimes it's helpful. Sometimes we think we have to pass through some curriculum of koans or whatever to get to suchness. But again, suchness is not something that we can obtain. It's just the way things are. It's already here. So, in another discussion that relates to this, Dogen once said, studying the way has been difficult to accomplish for a thousand ages. How difficult is this? And then he goes and talks about these systems of stages. Ordinary people cannot be compared to the seven wise and seven holy ones.

[23:37]

The seven wise and seven holy ones cannot be compared to the ten holy and three wise ones. The ten holy and three wise ones cannot see the great way of all Buddhas, even in their dreams. Seeing it this way, one person, and this is referring to Yangzhu, immediately said, if you want to attain such a thing, you should be such a person. Already being such a person, why worry about such a thing? So we have stages of practice and different kinds of practice you can do. And if you come and ask me about it, I can give you one that will occupy you until you're willing to just be present in suchness and express suchness. So it's OK to get involved in those things. But the way we get involved in those things is from the perspective of suchness. Dogen said, can you say such a thing or not? If you can say this, the statement of Yungjus, you attain the skin and marrow.

[24:40]

So this refers to Bodhidharma, who's on our altar on the left there, my left, who was the founder a number of generations before Dongchuan came from India to China and founded Chan or Zen in China. And when he asked his students about their understanding, and to one of them he said, you have attained, well, one of them he said, you've attained the skin, another one he said, you've attained the marrow. Dogen makes the point that, you know, it doesn't matter if he had more than four students, he would have talked about attaining their kidneys and liver and so on. But anyway, here Dogen says, can you say such a thing or not? Can you say what Yonju said, if you want to attain such a thing, you should be such a person. Already being such a person, why worry about such a thing? And Dogen says, can you say such a thing or not? If you can say this, you attain the skin and marrow. Then Dogen goes on, he says, if you cannot say this, still you attain the skin and marrow.

[25:43]

Put aside for now whether you can say this or not, and whether you attain skin and marrow or not, how is this suchness? How is this? How does it feel? Right now. Dögen ends his discussion by saying, Vipassana Buddha early on, Vipassi Butsudaya-sho, kept this in mind, and up until now, has not grasped this mystery. So Vipassana Buddha, to explicate this, is the first of the seven Buddhas before Buddha. So as part of when we chant the lineage, which we'll do in our three-day sitting in December, we start with Vipassana Buddha, and then the seventh is Shakyamuni Buddha. So these are Buddhas in different ages, maybe different big banks. I don't know how to put it in modern scientific terms. But even Vipassana Buddha, the first of the seven Buddhas before Buddha, kept this in mind early on, and up until now has not grasped this mystery.

[26:55]

So already suchness, persons of suchness, you can't get a hold of it. Suchness is alive. As I said before, suchness is fullness and tenderness and fragility of reality. So we need to keep practicing. We need to keep expressing and engaging and promoting and responding to and from suchness. It's not something, you know, just hearing Yunga's statement, that doesn't mean that, okay, well then I don't have to ever pay attention to my life again, or to the suffering of the world. This is the engagement with suchness. When we see suchness, as you all have, because you're here, Then how do we express suchness in each situation?

[28:00]

Not facing a single person, but not turning your back on a single person either. So please enjoy suchness. Enjoy your inhale and exhale. We have this endless responsibility, but it doesn't have to be burdensome. Of course, the world sometimes provides us with burdens and difficulties. Just because the election is over doesn't mean we don't have to pay attention to what's going on in our country. The world's heating up. How do we take care of the suchness of our climate?

[29:06]

So, Bodhisattvas have endless job security. We have many, you know, if we don't turn our back on a single person, there's lots of people out there. Just in north side Chicago, we don't have to even go further than that, but you know, there is a world beyond that. Yes, I come from the south side. Thank you. Glad to be here. So I could stop now, but there's another story that in his discussion of this saying by Yunzhu that Dogen shares. And it's a good story. And I liked it. And I'm not exactly sure how it fits, except of course, it's the story of suchness. But I'll say something about it. Oh, there's another statement he has, which is about insight, or how we are, he calls it wisdom, how theory translates it as wisdom.

[30:14]

Insight into suchness, and Duggan says, wisdom is not learned in people, and it doesn't arise in itself. Wisdom is communicated to wisdom. Wisdom seeks wisdom. So Suchness is looking for Suchness on your cushion and chair right now. Suchness is saying hello to Suchness on your cushion and chair right now. Suchness is wondering what this Suchness business is all about on your cushion and chair right now. So one story about this related to this has to do with a statement. Here, Dogan attributes it to India. I know there's a story about this from one of the Chinese masters. But this is what happens when we make a mistake, when we somehow imagine we're separate from suchness.

[31:25]

or when we think that some person has suchness and some person doesn't, or that there's some experience of suchness that we have to get in the future, or else this practice is meaningless. So, the basic statement is, if one falls on the ground, one rises from the ground. There's no way to rise apart from the ground. Dogen says, what this is saying is that one who falls on the ground must get up from the ground. They cannot hope to rise except by way of the ground. It has been considered excellent to become greatly enlightened when this is brought up and considered a path to liberate body and mind as well. Therefore, if one asks what is the principle of enlightenment of the Buddhists, it is said to be like someone falling on the ground, rising from the ground. So the ground is everything, the ground of our experience, the ground of our being. And as we walk the ground, as we walk the earth,

[32:26]

like Kenyan Kung Fu or whatever, we fall and then we get up from the ground. The ground supports us. However, Dogen gives a different twist to this, which is worth our consideration. He says, though it has not been said in India, or in the heavens even, there is a further principle to express. That is, if one fallen to the ground tries to arise from the ground, one can never, ever rise. Well, I don't know about this, but that's what Dogen said. I don't necessarily agree with everything he ever said. He goes on, in truth, one manages to arise from a living road. That is to say, one fallen to the ground must arise from the sky. And one fallen to the sky must arise from the ground.

[33:31]

Otherwise, one can never get up. All of the Buddhas and ancestors with us. If somebody asked how far apart are sky and ground, Thus asked, I would answer, the sky and the ground are 108,000 miles apart. If one falls to the ground, one must arise from the sky. If one tries to arise apart from the sky, there will never be a way. If one falls to the sky, one must arise from the ground. If one tries to arise apart from the ground, there will never be a way. So, what's this about? First of all, it's a living rope. Suchness is alive. Our practice of the way of engaging suchness is alive. Suchness is not some other thing that you can go get down at the corner store.

[34:34]

And your suchness, the person of suchness on your cushion or chair, is alive. And when we fall, If we fall to the ground, well, the old saying is, you should rise up from the ground. The Dogon says, actually, if you fall to the ground, you should rise up from the sky. So we could kind of talk about the ground and the sky as form and emptiness. And you know, maybe that's okay. If we fall for stuff, we should get up from great spacious awareness. And if we fall into great spacious awareness, pay attention to the ground. How do we take care of the specific stuff of our life? They're not separate. So that's a little story. I can say more about that.

[35:38]

The point is, how do we enjoy the fact that if you want suchness, please be a person of suchness. Already being a person of suchness, why worry about such a thing? And Dogen, in his Fukunsen Zen gear, admonitions for sitting says, if you want to attain suchness, practice suchness immediately. So now that you've heard this, everyone, some of us are sitting here for the day. Some of us are just here for the talk and welcome. But for the rest of the day, please practice suchness. Just do it. And if you fall on the ground, please get up from the sky.

[36:40]

And if you fall into the sky, please get up from the ground. So for those of us staying for the day, we'll have a discussion period later. But I wanted to, since there's some people here just for this morning, I want to take a few minutes anyway. If there are any comments or questions or responses, anyone, please feel free. I heard it said that Christians in the South Side are completely useless, and that they have no suchness. Is this true? In suchness, there's no North Side or South Side. Then why did you mention it? Because we think there is. If you get it. You've already got it, then. Well, but if my point was right. And if you don't use suchness and you still have a skin in your mouth, the question is still open, why got out of the bed?

[37:52]

Because it's a living road. Lakeshore Drive is alive. There's lots of stuff happening there, not just all the cars. When you drive on Lakeshore Drive, you're going so fast that you don't notice all the little things that are happening right next to the road at any point along it. So we come and sit and stop and breathe and face the wall or the floor and pay attention to this living room. So thank you all for getting out of bed. Jeremy. Sure. Is there something, well, let me ask you, is there something that's not sexist? No, there's nothing that's not sexist.

[38:54]

Are you sure? Yes. What about thinking that there's something that's not sexist? Yes, it's not sexist. Good. So, do you have a question? That was actually correct. Good. Anybody else? Any thoughts or comments? are engaging in the practice of suchness as a constant purification of suchness and of our lives. And suchness is not afraid to be the suchness of mud and confusion and greed and lust and anger.

[39:58]

How do we practice with the suchness of those? How do we just enjoy the suchness of our impurities and possessions of those who pay attention. Oh, I'm thinking bad thoughts about that person. Okay, well, why is that? Can't I appreciate the good parts of that person or aspects of that person? Or how can I be respectful to that person and to my thinking about that person. So yeah, there's a process of purification, but that doesn't mean that purificationist purity is something that we can get. Purity is the suchness of impurity right now.

[40:42]

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