Good evening, everyone. Welcome. I want to continue or follow up on a talk I did yesterday morning about vision and spaciousness. So tonight I want to talk about vision and vulnerability or the fragility of vision. Most of you were not here yesterday morning, so I'll review what I said yesterday. And, you know, we sit with our eyes open in zazen. Our zazen is about vision in various ways. So, how we see things is how we know things. particularly for human-type beings.

[01:02]

So I'm going to talk about that and then also talk about the fragility of vision. and particularly today as Hiroshima Day, today being the anniversary of our government dropping atom bombs, an atom bomb on Hiroshima in 1945. And I'll come back to that. But first to kind of review what I said yesterday about vision and different aspects of vision that are part of our practice, that are in some ways the heart of our practice. I'm referring to a book I did on Dogen and the Lotus Sutra, Visions of Awakening Space and Time, and also a book by a Buddhist scholar called Empty Vision, Metaphor and Visionary Imagery in Mahayana Buddhism. And so most of you weren't here yesterday morning when I talked about vision as essential to our practice in some ways and to this practice tradition.

[02:13]

I'll start with something from David McMahon's book referring to that. So he says the association, talking about the metaphoric and symbolic richness of vision and space in Mahayana Buddhism, in the Bodhisattva tradition, McMahon says, ìThe association of knowledge with space is one of the more interesting and quite neglected features of Buddhist discourse. In the primary metaphor, knowing is seeing. Simply from a linguistic standpoint, connections between vision and space are apparent. So this applies in Sanskrit and applies in Chinese and Japanese, and in English too.

[03:19]

We say, oh, I see, I see now, meaning, oh, I know that, I can understand that. So McMahon relates the verb locate, which is how we see things in space, to the meaning see, or know, or perceive, and to the Sanskrit verb loka, which primarily means the free or open space. So there's a lot of ways in which the idea of vision is important in Buddhism. So just to talk again about a few of those. Well, so vision has to do with space, to seeing the space around us. space between us. So Dogen, the 13th century founder of this branch of Zen, of Soto Zen, talks about the Lotus Sutra and refers to how

[04:24]

In the Bodhisattva Sutra, there are Bodhisattvas who arise from the earth to help keep alive the teaching. Dogen says we should not only realize springing out of the earth and turning the Dharma flower, we should also realize springing out of space. MacMahon says, the ability of the visual system to apprehend vast areas, long distances, and many things simultaneously, is often highlighted in Buddhist literature and associated with the sense of spaciousness. which is an important aspect of our practice. Part of our zazen is to focus and to concentrate and to settle. But another part of it is a kind of openness, a spaciousness that we can also realize. So this sense of spaciousness, the sense of sight, the sense of sight McMahon says is as capable of encompassing wide spaces and penetrating to the furthest depths of the cosmos is important to the development of the imagery of the Bodhisattva Sutras.

[05:34]

So just to give a few more references for this and the importance of this really in our practice and in our teaching tradition. McMahon also says, what Buddhist texts say about vision in a technical sense is not as important to our inquiry as how they use visual metaphors and imagery. and what philosophical practice, rhetorical, and social significance these uses had in Mahayana literature and practice. And the Jewel Marrow Samadhi that we just chanted, which is one of the core texts of the Soto tradition from China, is full of these interesting different visions, different aspects of vision and provocative imagery. So another Buddhist scholar, George Tanabe, says, visions are central to the East Asian Buddhist experience.

[06:43]

Little has been done by way of research of them, but Mahayana Buddhism, the Buddhism of the Bodhisattva tradition, the enlightening being tradition, is among many things that can be a tradition of the mind's faculty for producing images in both waking life and sleep. a tradition that is a fantasy producing visions. And he talks elsewhere about the importance of fantasy and imagination in our practice. So we keep our eyes open, not just to see in some literal way, but to be open to the visions that may arise as we settle deeply into zazen. So, one of the passages I like most from Dogen, his vast writing, is in an essay in Chudarmai, Treasury Shobokenzo, called Gyobutsu-Igi.

[07:48]

He says, although this moment is distant from the sages, you have encountered the transforming guidance of the spreading sky and the spreading space that can still be heard. So he's talking about Buddha and the Lotus Sutra, which was one of the last teachings that Buddha gave before he passed away, and talking about and there are other references to the sky over Vulture Peak and the moon over Vulture Peak, and he's saying that we have encountered, he's saying you have encountered at this moment, although this moment is distant from the sages, although it's 2,500 years since Shakyamuni Buddha, you, Each of us have encountered the transformative guidance of the spreading sky that can still be heard.

[08:53]

So this sky over Vulture Peak, we're still hearing it. We're still hearing about it. We're still hearing this message of the possibility of what we can envision through this practice of just sitting. uprightly, of sitting like Buddha, of performing Buddha on our seats. So this sky or this space is still heard, even now in Chicago, very distant from Vulture Peak in India. So yeah, one other thing from David McMahan about this. He talks about the Sanskrit word āśa, which means space.

[09:57]

It means space in a local and ordinary sense, such as a finite space between two objects. So the space between me and David now has a location of space. But the primary symbolic force of space comes from considering it as infinite and connoting vastness, undifferentiatedness, formlessness, sameness, extension in all directions, nonresistance, that part of the lived world that is most akin to perfect transcendent freedom as conceived in Buddhist thought, the unconditioned, So space, as in the early Buddhist systems of classifying things, is considered unconditioned, beyond conditions. So just to be aware of space, not as empty or not like outer space where there's no oxygen, but the space in this room, the space between each of us, the space between your ears, the space between

[11:09]

your head and your feet as you sit on your seat. All of that, to be aware of that as, in some ways, beyond conditions. So this spreading sky that can still be heard from the Buddha's teaching So there are many other things to say about this. I talked about this more yesterday. One thing is the description of old Zen people, old Zen teachers, as having one eye looking out and one eye looking in. So if you look at the picture of Suzuki Roshi on the back of Zen Mind Beginner's Mind, you can kind of see that. There's one eye that's looking out at you and one eye looking in. So, our practice is not to see just out there and not to see just in here.

[12:13]

This is what the dual merit samadhi is about, this integration of upright and inclined. So, our sitting allows, even with our eyes open facing the wall, which is to say facing ourselves or facing all beings, We look out, but we also look in. One basic Zazen instruction is to take the backward step that turns the light inwardly to illuminate the self. So we look within. But also, we see what's going on around us. So the sense of vision as spiritual or cosmic vision, but also moral vision. How do we respond to the situations of our life, the situations of the people around us?

[13:15]

So we emphasize a lot in Soto Zen, taking care of the space of our world, the space of our lives, taking care of the temple, taking care of everyday activities. So I mentioned yesterday this word kensho, which is a word for special, dramatic, enlightening experiences, to put it that way, which literally means to see Buddha nature. And some branches of Zen emphasize getting these dramatic experiences. And that happens in Soto Zen too. But the point is, as, you know, the Jomar Samadhi talked about, to integrate how we see inside and outside, how we see our settling, our connectedness, and how we see

[14:17]

the things around us and our expression of our deepest awareness in the world around us in our everyday activity. So I want to talk about this also in terms of the fragility of vision. And my own eye that I'm having another operation on in a couple days, you know, that maybe this eye can still see within. This is the eye that sees without. This eye is very blurry outside, but I can still look within. So how do we integrate looking in and looking out? How do we integrate this deeper vision? This is a key issue for our practice. And our vision can fade. our sense of what is important to us, we can forget.

[15:28]

We can forget our moral vision, our spiritual vision, and we can get caught up very easily these days in all the things of the world and all of the information on the screen, little screens in front of us and so forth. How do we take care of our vision? How do we recognize the vulnerability of our vision on so many levels? The spreading sky coming from Vulture Peak can still be seen and it's guidance for us in our practice and in our uprightness. How do we take care when the vision fades? And in terms of personal vision, aging and illness and so forth can cause shifts in our energy and our ability to see and our ability to express that. In terms of our vision of the world, our moral vision, since Hiroshima and the dropping of the Hiroshima bomb

[16:37]

on this day in 1945, there's a kind of wounding of our vision, our vision of the world. So I think all of us were born since 1945. Throughout our lives, though, some part of us is aware of what happened in Hiroshima. Einstein said, this changes everything. And what's the quote? I forget exactly. Anyway, the knowledge that a city can be wiped out like that. And now, if you read Dan Ellsberg's new book, The Doomsday Machine, the whole planet is endangered by nuclear weapons. There's, of course, historians debate about the attack on Hiroshima, whether it was really necessary to fought as a military tactic, that the Japanese were already getting ready to surrender, and that maybe Truman dropped the bomb on Hiroshima really as a warning to the Russians,

[18:02]

Whether or not that's true, certainly dropping the bomb on Nagasaki a few days later was overkill in many different ways. So, what is our moral vision? What is the fragility of our vision of who we are as human beings, knowing that that our future is imperiled. And this has been part of human knowledge since 1945 on this day. And we don't think about that, we can't. We go through our days and take care of our lives and that's as it should be, but also somewhere in the back we know about this reality. And there are various aspects of that.

[19:05]

And now our future of our planet, the future of our species, I mean, the planet will survive, but whether human civilization certainly is imperiled by not just all the nuclear weapons and the endless wars, but by the climate crisis that's happening now. with fire tornadoes in California and fossil fuel industries profiting off of the destruction of not just human habitat, but many species. the whole biosphere. So the fragility of our future is a reality. And we don't think of that so often. We need to take care of our everyday obligations and so forth. But I think it's a mistake to pretend that's not happening.

[20:06]

How do we envision a future? not just for ourselves, but for, you know... civilization, for humanity, for all the things that are wonderful and valuable about humanity, for all the great works of art and literature and so forth, and music. How does this survive now? And a lot of this is threatened. And our moral vision is eroding. So we have immigrant children in concentration camps in our country, separated from their parents. This is not civilized. This is still going on, and it's terrible. And part of this is the vision of this practice. So we have received the guidance from the Buddhas and ancestors through the spreading sky that we can still see.

[21:15]

We sit with our eyes open so we can see that it's possible to be upright and to sit like Buddha and to be open and aware and to feel this illumination. So how do we protect that vision too? So our practice is so important. to keep the vision alive of the possibility of awakening, the possibility of awareness and compassion, and to see what's happening in the world and to respond as best we can. And nobody knows exactly what to do. There's not a right answer to what to do. There's not one right answer, but we each can take care of our vision in some way, take care of this sense of seeing possibility, seeing the reality of kindness, seeing how to keep alive this practice tradition, which we've all been fortunate enough to find, and also the tradition of

[22:27]

what we call civilization. And certainly, at the very least, with what's happened in the last couple of decades to our climate, how our society is organized is going to be is going to need to change to adapt. So how do we adapt to the new reality that is coming? Sea levels rising, the increased heat all over the planet and so forth. And also the possibilities that of all the weapons of war and all the endless wars that our government seems to enjoy. So I'm talking about vision on a lot of different levels. Part of what our practice allows us is a deeper vision of what is possible for awareness.

[23:45]

And, you know, it's up to us. How do we take care of that? So maybe I've said what I want to say about the fragility of this vision, but also the wonder of it, that we can see the beauty of space, the beauty of our world. So I'll stop. invite your comments or responses or questions about any of this. David. was and all the fears that went around it.

[25:01]

But I'm wondering, for people who are not of my generation, like Samantha or Nick, do you have that sense? Is that in the back of your mind also, or is it now more of a mind change? Is that more of a purpose? Do you really have a sense of these folks thinking about pushing an instrument, like a nuclear war? Is it pushing that? I don't think that's a complicated answer or a complicated question with complicated answers for people of my generation or basically what's happened now with technology. are ever-present and you can experience that, but we can block that out so simply.

[26:11]

Our ducking cover hasn't become about safety in the same kind of way that it was when you were growing up. Our ducking cover is more of an ostrich, almost, with technology. That's my relationship to it, and a rather pessimistic one, I guess. If I may, thank you for saying that. I think part of what I'm trying to talk about is not succumbing to the numbness, to remain sensitive to the fragility. of our life, personally and communally, that things are tender and fragile and precious and, yeah, so it's not just nuclear bombs or climate, all kinds of things are, that which we hold dearest is fragile.

[27:18]

Other responses, though? Thank you, Jason. Dylan. Yes, and I think it's easy to believe that because it's tender or fragile that it's weak as well, or that the potential is weak. And I think it's important for us to get at that. Good. At least for me, that like, you know, to practice, to live your life with the knowledge that of such incredible things, you know, and that those two things are both true. That things can, that things need to be taken care of, but things will always support you, you know, as well. I mean, hopefully. People are let down all the time by the government, by each other, but the potential to be supported is always there.

[28:29]

And the more that, so, I think, Good, and that's actually what I wanted to end with, not that we're ending, but what I wanted to also say is another way of saying what you just said, that our vision, our sense of spaciousness, our sense of both tenderness and preciousness of our life and of the world can support us. part of our practice is to envision positive and possible futures, individually, collectively, and for our world. And our envisioning of positive, and I know it's very easy to feel negative, but

[29:37]

to see that something has survived for 2,500 years, and that many things have survived, that there are many traditions of, visionary traditions, culturally, musically, in literature, in art, in many realms, spiritually. Part of our practice is how do we envision a positive future? a possible positive future for ourselves. That's partly how do we see our own intention for how we want to contribute to our world and our lives. So that's following up on what you said, Dylan. Thank you. Other comments or reflections or questions, please? Yes, Nate. I've really been intrigued by the topic of vision, because it's something that I have been bringing into practice myself.

[30:47]

I also feel that, you know, to the people who are very familiar with nuclear weapons, nuclear weapons are in fact what they call this impact, where it is climate change, the potential for war, and just this absolute global glittering on the spot, every single day, of utter chaos. And so I see this sort of practice as an attempt to cultivate a clear vision. To let mind fully be through the mind field. And try to do so in a genuine fashion. Yeah, we live in challenging times.

[31:48]

So there's a challenge that this practice gives us. The simple practice of just sitting upright, keeping our eyes open, looking at the wall, looking at ourselves. How do we live with awareness? And the whole thing about seeing and knowing, you know, there's different kinds of seeing. And that's part of what Zazen teaches us, too. That, you know, the ideas about what's happening in the world that you see in the mainstream media, for example, you know, are very limited and do not include a whole lot of what's happening kind of underground or beneath the surface. So, I'm not talking about this to be discouraging or negative. I'm talking about how do we look at that which is difficult and bring something positive to it. How do we see a possible future?

[32:49]

So, yeah, thank you very much, Nate. Yes, Ed. Is nearly? Yes and no. I think, yeah, so Dogen came back from China to Japan and when asked what he brought, he said, eyes horizontal, nose vertical.

[33:51]

So we're all the same in that way. And yet, so this basic dialectic that the Song of the Jewel Marisamadhi talks about, the integration of the universal sameness that you're speaking of. With also the particular, there's not one right response to the problems of our politics and our climate and wars. We each can respond in our own way. in a positive way. So I think, you know, Walt Whitman said, I'm vast and contain multitudes. I think we each contain multitudes and particular multitudes of possible visions and possible positive contributions. So both sides, both sides are important. And yeah, it's really, it's impossible to kind of pin it down. That's part of what the Zen teachings are all about. It's not about some, the Jomar Samadhi said, it's beyond deliberation.

[34:52]

We can't explain or figure it out, and yet, there's something we see, or we can see or know, and it changes maybe each time we say Zazen, that, is about how each of us can respond to help see a positive possible future.

[35:17]

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