Good morning. I want to talk today about vision. Vision in Buddhism and also fantasy and imagination and visual imagery. I'm going to refer to a couple of books. One is the book I did on visions of awakening space and time, Dogon and the Lotus Sutra, and another book that I refer to a lot in there. by a scholar named David McMahan, Empty Vision, Metaphor, and Visual Imagery in Mahayana Buddhism, where he talks a lot about the, well, the Flower Ornament Sutra, but other uses of vision in Mahayana. And one place to start is just the, idea of, it's etymological and it's how we think, of vision as having to do with knowing or seeing and knowing.

[01:05]

So this is from David McMahon's book. He says, the association of knowledge with space is one of the more interesting and quite neglected features of Buddhist discourse. So, seeing has to do with space, and I'll talk more about that. But based on this primary metaphor, knowing is seeing. Simply from a linguistic standpoint, connections between vision and space are apparent. MacMahon talks about the verb to locate. to see where something is, and the relationship of locate, various meanings, see, know, perceive, and then the Sanskrit verb loka, whose primary meaning is to free or open space. Man points out that the etymological connection of space to light and vision is not overlooked in Buddhism, and it is sometimes said to shine brilliantly.

[02:08]

Mahayana texts are often less concerned than various technical scholastic texts like Abhidharma, with systematic analysis of space, and instead exploit the symbolic richness of the concept, making it one of the primary ways of seeing awakening and wisdom. To see is to know. This is true in English, too. Oh, I see that. So we see things, and that's how we know. Dogs know by smelling. We know by seeing. Just one example. So seeing is... So, I Buddhism as a visionary tradition.

[03:13]

So again, just referring to, this is also from McMahon, 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 a sense of spaciousness. So a lot of Buddhist sutras, colorful Buddhist sutras, and also in Zen writing, the sense of space and seeing. This sense of sight as capable of encompassing wide spaces and penetrating to the furthest depths of the cosmos is important to the development of the imagery of Mahayana sutras. So they're seeing, I'll come back to this, but they're seeing space without, and there's also this inner seeing that is part of Mahayana Buddhism and of Zen.

[04:19]

So just some other contexts for that. There's a fine Buddhist scholar named George Tanabe, who is actually primarily a Jodo Shinshu scholar, but he deals with all of Buddhism. Yeah, um... Oh, shit. So Tanabe is talking about, in this case, the Lotus Sutra, which is one of the sutras that's very rich in visual metaphors and imagery.

[05:29]

Tanabe says, visions are central to East Asian Buddhist experience, but little has been done by way of research of them, talking about Buddhist scholarship. Mahayana Buddhism is, among many things it can be, a tradition of the mind's faculty for producing images in both waking life and sleep, a tradition that is of fantasy producing visions and dreams also, and dreams are important to this, but this sense of vision as how we see the teaching, how we see all of Buddhist experience, how we see, how we awaken, how we are aware through seeing. So McMahon also says, what Buddhist texts say about vision in a technical sense is not as important to this inquiry as how they use visual metaphors and imagery.

[06:36]

So it's not so much what is said. in Mahayana texts, and I would say often in Zen texts too, as much as how visual metaphors and visual imagery is used, and what philosophical practice, rhetorical and social significance these uses had in Mahayana literature and practice. Tanabe also says, the Buddhist tradition is as much a history of fantasy as it is a history of thought. That's not how we usually think of it. But when we think, reading Mahayana Sutras and also some of the Zen koans, there's this... This fantasy is used more than literal didactic thinking. Zenobi says, it should be studied as such to gain a better understanding not only of Buddhism as a fantastic philosophy, but of Buddhists as sentient beings as well.

[07:40]

So as Buddhist practitioners, what is it that we are seeing? What is it that we are doing with that? So some examples from Dogen, the 13th century Japanese founder of the Japanese branch of Sotusen. There's a, Well, speaking of dreams, Dogen has one of his essays in Shobo Genso where he says, expressing the dream within the dream, and he talks about how reality is really just our how we see reality, our dream of reality. So dreams are, in some sense, awakening is traditionally considered the opposite of dreaming. Dreaming is just, you know, sort of fantasy in the negative sense. But Dogen talks about dreaming as where we actually express and practice our awakening and our reality.

[08:50]

So, For example, Dogen says, without expressing dreams, there are no Buddhas. Without being within a dream, Buddhas do not emerge and turn the wondrous dharma wheel. This dharma wheel is no other than a Buddha together with a Buddha and a dream expressed within a dream. Simply expressing the dream within a dream is itself the Buddhas and ancestors, the assembly of unsurpassable enlightenment. This also is part of what Dogen is talking about in Genjo Koan, one of his most famous essays in Shobo Genzo, which we sometimes chant here. Cause's translation is actualizing the fundamental point. And Dogen there says, those who have great realization of delusion are Buddhists. Deluded people have lots of delusions about Buddha.

[10:00]

It's the opposite. But Buddhas are those who greatly realize and see delusion. So what is worthy of study is not delusions or fantasies about enlightenment, but the reality of the causes and conditions, the uses we put to the realms of delusion and suffering. There's a kind of similar logic in the Lotus Sutra where it says that Buddhas appear, Buddhas manifest only because of the presence of suffering beings, only to awaken suffering beings. So it's only because of the illusions and the dreams and the unhappy fantasies that Buddhas appear. So another place where Dogen talks about this, and this is one of my favorite. little quotes from Dogen.

[11:04]

This is from an essay called Gyo Butsu Igi, The Dignified Manner of Practicing Buddhas, or The Awesome Presence of Active Buddhas. And he's talking about, this goes back to things in the Lotus Sutra and the the Buddha And he was referring to this moment in Japan being distant from India, and also this moment in Japan being distant from Shakyamuni, but we can see this too. So this moment also is Chicago, 2018. This moment is distant from the sages in Asia. It's distant from the Buddha 2,500 years ago.

[12:06]

Although this is so, you have encountered the transforming guidance of this spreading space that can still be heard. So this is a saying in, in, in Yobutsu-Igi that, Somehow, the transformative guidance from that space of the Buddha preaching the Lotus Sutra or Dogen talking to his assembly at Eheji a lot later, it's still heard. we can still hear it, it can still be heard. And he puts it in this kind of, this image of the spreading sky or the spreading space that can still be heard. So there's something, there's a visual aspect of this. We can still see this, it's actually more clear in some poems by Saigyo, who was a great,

[13:11]

Zen monk and poet, very famous Japanese poet, a little before Dogen, and he talked about the Lotus Sutra and the idea that the Buddha was past and gone and so not available to us. He said, so just a couple of poems, though those who view, and actually Saigyo was famous for writing poems about the moon. So most of his poems, a large part of his poems are about seeing the moon. He said, those who view the moon over Vulture Peak as one now sunk below the horizon are people whose minds, confused, hold the real darkness. So he's saying that people who see the moon over Vulture Peak, where Buddha spoke, as now sunk below the horizon,

[14:17]

It's in their minds, in their confused minds, where the real darkness is. Another Sagyo poem, Over Vulture Peak. There in Buddha's time and place, a bedazzling moon that everyone saw there. Here. softly filtered into Tsukuyomi shrine, which is where he was when he wrote this. So still the moon is seen and we can see it and we can go and do full moon ceremonies now at Paula's place downtown. So this moon that we see is the same moon that the Buddha saw when he was preaching, that Dogen saw. So this seeing as a way of... It's more than understanding. So there's seeing and knowing, but deeply knowing.

[15:22]

To see, to really know the... the spreading sky that still can be heard from Buddha's teaching, that we can still practice as we sit upright here this morning. There's a famous Zen koan. So part of, well first, before I get to that, Mahan talks about this also as, well, the connection of time with space and how space is a way of seeing time. And this has to do with not rejecting the flowing of time and the impermanence of time. He says, the image of time as contained within space like the spreading sky from the moon at Vulture Peak.

[16:24]

The image of time as contained within space provides the basis for mandalas like the Mahakala Mandala in which time is represented as a circle in space. So these mandalas used in Vajrayana Buddhism in Japan as well as Tibet, so Dogen was familiar with this as part of Japanese Buddhism too, is in some sense a way of mapping time onto space. This spatialization of time represents an important insightful perspective that allows for a new context for envisioning temporality. So impermanence is not to be celebrated, but transcended, is the idea in early pre-Mahayana Buddhism. that we need to somehow get out of impermanence and the suffering of change.

[17:25]

But this change is somewhat in the Mahayana, McMahon says, with the assertion of the non-duality of samsara and nirvana. The Mahayana found ways to conceive of the transcendence of time within time itself. So one expression of this in our Zen tradition is one of the ...well-known koans that we've talked about here, ordinary mind is the way. So the great, great Zen teacher, Zao Zao, when he was a student, went to his teacher, Nanshuang, and said, what is the way? And Nanshuang said, ordinary mind, or everyday mind, is the way. And then when... ...when... Zhaozhou questioned him about this. Nanshuang said a few things.

[18:31]

Zhaozhou asked how we can know this, how can we know the way, the true way. How can we know this?" And, um, Nancalan said, it's not a matter of knowing or not knowing. In some ways he's saying it's more a matter of seeing. He says, when you reach the true way beyond doubt, it's vast and open as the sky. So to see this openness, this spaciousness, is essential to what Buddhist vision is about. So, you know, there's this word kensho. Do any of you know that word? It's used in Zen. It means literally to see the nature, to see Buddha nature.

[19:40]

but it refers to particular experiences, dramatic experiences of opening, of seeing, of seeing deeply. So in some Zen traditions, this becomes the, The main goal of practice, really, is to have one of these experiences of Kensho, of seeing deeply into Buddha nature. And they can be very dramatic experiences, and this happened in Soto Zen, too. But we don't emphasize some dramatic experience as the point of the practice. The practice is about this seeing reality, more than knowing reality, it's not about having some intellectual understanding, it's our experience of seeing reality. And whether you have one of these dramatic experiences or not, the point of the practice is how do we integrate that into our real vision.

[20:55]

So, This is saying that all Zen people have one eye that looks out and one eye that looks in. And if you look at the picture of Suzuki Roshi on the back of Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind, you can kind of see that. One eye looking out, one eye looking in. And now I have one eye that can't look out very well, it's kind of blurry, but maybe I can still look within with that eye. You know, this is about this integration. It's about spiritual vision or maybe cosmic vision. It's also about moral vision. how do we see both, you know, and maybe Kensho is more a matter of looking within. Of course it's not, it's both.

[21:58]

And the point is that it's all both. But, and how do we express that and integrate that in our lives? So how do we see the possibilities of seeing space and time here, now. How do we look within to see, to envision truth, reality, the true nature of things? How do we see that also out in the world of phenomena? And Zen is very much in Mahayana Buddhism, talking about connecting nirvana and samsara is very much about that it's not just looking away from out there to what's inside. And it's not just looking away from what's inside to what's out there either, of course.

[23:02]

Again, these Kensho experiences can be very dramatic and very helpful. but trying to encourage that as the whole point really misses something. How do we see, how do we envision What is our moral vision? So I'm going to continue talking about this tomorrow evening and talk about this in terms of right view and the fragility of vision. How do we take care of our vision? Our vision is vulnerable. I can testify personally to that now. But how do we see the reality in here and then see what's going on out there and bring that together. So there are many many dilemmas we can see in our phenomenal world and talk about and how do we respond to them from this process of integrating the eye that looks within and the eye that looks without.

[24:28]

I'll just mention one today, which is the climate crisis they're having in California now, what they're calling fire tornadoes, and huge devastation. And this is not just some act of nature. The fossil fuel industries have known about the science of climate damage since the 70s, and instead of trying to help and find alternative technologies, they've spent huge fortunes trying to pretend that it's not happening. And along with the politicians that they hire and the mass media, whenever they talk about these climate events, the mainstream media news doesn't even mention climate damage.

[25:34]

It's hard to categorize what the fossil fuel industry has done. It goes beyond a crime against humanity. In the Sunday New York Times today, in the magazine section, the whole magazine section is dedicated to one article about what happened in the 70s and 80s when we could have actually done a lot to change what's happening now. Of course, there's still things we can do, but it's pretty bad. It's going to be pretty bad. This is a crime against centuries of human beings and the whole biosphere and species that are going to go extinct. So, okay, this is one really drastic I mean, what to call it? There's no words for this kind of crime.

[26:42]

So, you know, this is about moral vision as well as cosmic vision. How do we then respond? How do we use the teachings that we have from the spreading sky? left over from Vulture Peak and the moon. How do we use the precepts and the transcendent practices and apply them to the eye that sees without? These came from the eye that looks within. So, how do we envision ourselves and the world And again, I want to go over some of this and talk some more about this tomorrow evening and talk about this in terms of right view and again about the fragility of our vision. We can't assume that the spreading sky from Vulture Peak and the moon will just continue forever. It's up to us. So maybe I'll stop with that and just invite comments and questions, and I read a lot of

[27:53]

quotes about from Dogen and from these scholars like McMahon and Tanabe about the nature of vision. But any comments or questions or responses that any of you can see and share? Thank you. Yes, Douglas. Yes, that's right. Non-vision. Yeah, that's right.

[28:57]

I think you're exactly right. It's not explaining, it's not information. Yeah. Right. Good. It's how we see things and yeah. seeing through. So again, this, in English, too, oh, I see, is to really know.

[30:03]

Yeah, go ahead. And it's helpful to me. I think, I know that it's certainly for me. It's a really nice practice. It's interesting to understand something and figure it out. It's interesting. He's always made a good marriage, too. Yes.

[31:21]

Maybe the sense of purity in sound is a little different. It's kind of omnipresent, we don't have a sense of distance and space with the sound. Well, it just so happens, I don't know if you saw the email, but a Zen teacher from the East Coast has a student who's blind and deaf who's moving to Chicago, and if they can arrange to have, and they

[32:27]

understand things through touch. You know, there's sign language, right, for deaf people, but now they have a physical sign language. So, this may or may not happen here, but we will be... I'm corresponding with this guy about perhaps this blind and deaf Zen student will be sitting with us with a hand translator, a physical translator to guide him and So we may get a chance to see what that looks like for us to see. Yeah, yes. Yeah, so I referred to dogs having a super sense of smell.

[33:30]

I don't know how dogs communicate through smell about ultimate reality. Yeah, but just to realize, to see that we are so caught in visual imagery in terms of the sutras and so yeah, and it is possible to have some you know, didactic, philosophical understanding of the Dharma. But that's not the point, as these academic scholars say. Yes, Miriam. Well, I was thinking, before you mentioned this lady who was deaf and blind many, many years ago. It was before 1950. But even back then, they had a little ethic.

[34:35]

The teacher touched a little coal on her hand, and she was introducing us to the little girl. And one of our students happened to be from the same little town that the little girl came from. And then finally, it was the eyes, what I'm seeing now, the mirror was pure. Yeah, interesting. And the music, even though music is, you know, most people hear this, but sometimes when you're studying,

[35:41]

Yes. Yes, thank you for that. And your story, of course, reminds of Helen Keller, who famously was able to communicate and function and write and actually had great moral vision and became a social activist. worked with the Wobblies and worked for women's suffrage as a blind deaf, and I don't know if she was mute also, but yeah, she was blind and deaf. To talk about this stuff, though, and to see how seeing has to do with what we know is also to inform our zazen. As we're sitting, of course our thinking mind is rolling around and our brain continues to secrete thoughts, but also we are knowing things physically. The discomfort in our knees or butts or shoulders or wherever, we're feeling things hot and cold and we're aware, to use that word,

[37:04]

of things, not just based on thinking. And partly it's looking at the wall and not being distracted by lots of visual performances, but just the wall. So how do we see? How do we know? Zazen is partly about this. Dogen talks about that a lot. Any other questions or comments or responses to this sense of vision? So I want to continue tomorrow evening. How do we, what happens when we lose our vision? not just visual, but our sense of, our vision of spirituality, of truth, of our moral compass, to put it that way, the spatial metaphor.

[38:16]

How do we revive our vision? And then this gets into the issue of right view. which is, in a way, right vision, which is one of the eightfold, part of the eightfold path. So, yeah, I think there's more to consider about all of this. Any last questions before we close? Yes, Jerry. Oh yeah. Yes.

[39:30]

Yeah. That's an interesting point. How has our vision changed, not just our seeing, but our sense, our vision about ourselves and our lives and the world, by the new technology? that we look at and so yeah, I think I've been hearing, seeing a lot of discussion of that recently and I think it's an interesting, it's part of the question of being aware, just to be aware of vision and seeing as how we move in the world.

[40:35]

is part of the point of all this.

[40:43]

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