Good evening everyone. So we haven't chanted the Genjo Koan in service in a while. It's one of our lengthiest chants. It's one of the more important early writings from Ehei Dogen, the 13th century Japanese monk who brought this lineage of teaching from China to Japan. The Japanese monk founded what we now call Soto Zen and I'm teaching it this week in my online graduate course in Dogen and I thought I would just touch on a few major points in this text and please feel free to please feel welcome to get out your chant book if you want to and follow along or not but I just wanted to touch on a few points and

[01:04]

you will have time for some discussion if you want to raise other questions. I've talked about this before and written about it and there's lots and lots of stuff in here but actually the part of this that I've talked about most that maybe some of you've heard me talk about the second paragraph to carry yourself forward and experience myriad things is delusion that myriad things come forth and experience themselves as awakening is one of the clearest definitions of delusion and enlightenment I've ever heard so that we bring ourselves forward and project ourselves on to our experience onto the object world is kind of the definition of delusion so all of our idea of ourself our ego self our stories we have about ourself all of our self identity this is

[02:12]

our usual way of being in the world and this is the ordinary human realm of delusion we carry ourselves forward and see the world out there so called as objects and carry ourselves forward to experience these things that's delusion that myriad things come forth and experience themselves is awakening we're part of that that's not something that happens out there so when everything arises together when and this is something that we start to see when we do this practice is awesome and do this regularly that we are connected with everything so this is something I've talked about a lot this these definitions of delusion and awakening and yet we it's helpful to keep going back again and again and he's then he says those who have great realization of

[03:15]

delusion are buddhas buddhas are those who are enlightened about their delusions who have great realization of delusions who see clearly our delusions that's that's what Buddha is those who have great delusions who are greatly deluded about realization our sentient beings so in or deluded being so deluded beings have a lots of delusions about enlightenment so that's also a kind of helpful definition he doesn't say that one should any and this is a really important point that we should get rid of delusion and get awake and get awakening both are part of our human life so he says there are those who continue realizing beyond realization Buddha going beyond Buddha or who are in delusion throughout delusion and when buddhas are truly buddhas they do not necessarily notice that their buddhas so it's not the Buddha walking down

[04:20]

Irving Park Road says oh yeah I'm Buddha it's just you know Buddha just is awake to all the delusions in our mind and sees that but still she's an actualized Buddha and she continues actualizing buddhas all around so this is this paragraph is this really helpful definition of the difference between delusion and awakening and buddhas and sentient beings and and as he continues that the point isn't to get rid of one and get the other these are both part of our human life so I could say a lot more about this but I've talked about this more I'm gonna I will encourage your responses or questions to that there's two again two other

[05:23]

little sections I want to mention in this long long very helpful teaching poem and we could maybe we should could do a whole practice spring practice period on just on Genjo Koan sometime there's so much in here but I wanted to talk about well on the middle of the third page he says here is the place here the way unfolds right here so you know it's very easy to think oh if I was only in I don't know in a Himalayan mountain or you know somewhere special in some great monastery or something then I could really be Buddha but here is the place here the way unfolds so the scroll that is in the back there that there was a living what they call them living treasure as a calligrapher and

[06:35]

actually he was a he writes modern kabuki plays who was here once doing calligraphy he left this for us it says straightforward mind this is the place of awakening here is the place here the way unfolds it's not about somewhere else so how do we find our place right here but that's a little tricky so I want to go back to the bottom of the second page he's talking about fish swimming in the ocean and birds flying in the sky and and knowing our place Dogen also talks about elsewhere about finding abiding in your Dharma position abiding in your phenomenal expression knowing where you are and he says about fish and birds they've never left their elements then he says that the just the last three sentences on this page when their activity is large their field is

[07:39]

large when their need is small their field is small thus each of them totally covers its full range and each of them totally experiences its realm so how do we see our place how do we find our way in our place each of us has our own realm of practice each of us has our own Chicago spirit realm each of us has our own way of expressing Zazen heart in our life how do we take that on here is the place here the way unfolds and then he talks about this field there's a lot of play in this field there's a lot of how we find our space of practice is

[08:39]

part of the art of practice when their need is small their field is small so for each of us for different people at times they have a person have their own place of practice their own realm their own family relationships work and took to totally take that on is the place in the way when there but then when their activity is large their field is large how do we see this our own space of practice he says thus each of them totally covers its full range each of them totally experiences its realm what is our realm of practice it's not that there's you know it's not that there's a correct realm that you should be

[09:40]

occupied how do we occupy our space of practice so Gary Snyder the great American Zen founder one of the great Americans and founders talks about Zen coming down to two things Zazen is sweeping the temple so we have temple cleaning here Sunday after Dharma talk and he says our Zen practice comes to comes down to Zazen which we've just done and then sweeping cleaning the temple and he says it's up to us to define how wide the temple is so for some of us the temple may extend to the south side for some of us the temple may extend to Washington DC who knows for some of us the temple you know extends to homeless people under bridges for some of us the temple includes our

[10:41]

family and the people we work with when that when their activity is large their field is large so sometimes our field is large what is our field of practice for some of us our field includes the prairie lands in the Chicago area and and the animals and birds when their need is small their field is small sometimes taking care of one thing really well may be the place in the way that it falls so so some fish migrate great distance some birds some birds migrate great distances some stay localized same with fish each of them totally covers its full range and each of them totally experiences this realm so the quest the question here the practice issue here is how do we fully

[11:42]

occupy our practice realm and it's not that you know that you should have a wide realm or a small realm but how do you and sometimes it may expand and sometimes it may contract sometimes we focus on one thing sometimes we you know move to China or something how do we how do we how do we occupy that that realm so this this I think this this question of how large or small the field is interesting how we occupy it how we fully experiences so I wanted to just highlight that there's so many things in this in this Kencho koan and I invite you to bring up other portions of it but then the last one I wanted to mention well could you show us the back of your raksha I put so there was a lay

[12:44]

ordination ceremony a week ago yesterday and can you read the English part of that part of that is his name which is actually relevant to this discussion but yeah so the middle of the second page it says when Dharma does not fill your whole body and mind you think it's already sufficient so when we let me know a little bit about about the teaching about reality sometimes we think it's enough and maybe that's okay but when Dharma fills your body and mind when you are soaked in the truth and reality and the teaching you realize something is missing there's something is missing is where what I wanted to end with and then invite questions something's missing what's what's this about this is a

[13:48]

mysterious interesting paradoxical sentence and there's lots of ways to to to play with this in some ways it's the first noble truth that there is suffering there is some sadness or misalignments in the world and it's a noble truth because we can face it we can realize it and maybe when Dharma fills our body and mind we see that truth or maybe this has to do with Buddha going beyond Buddha there's always something more maybe until we pass away in nirvana but when we're wet as in as much as Buddha is alive Buddha continues awakening

[14:49]

buddhas are in awakening throughout awakening buddhas go beyond Buddha there's something missing there's still maybe maybe it has to do with that realm maybe there's something in our small realm that we haven't realized maybe there's some aspect of the realm that maybe we can stretch and get wider it's not a maybe it's not a matter of wider or smaller but something is missing can we live fully with something missing can we be okay and whole because Dharma does fill our body and mind with some question something more that is required of us or that we may require of the world that we may see in terms of our

[16:01]

need to respond to all of the suffering and chaos and craziness of the world so I wanted to highlight those three little sections in this long text with many many many juicy parts so I'll invite your responses to those or anything else in this text comments questions responses please feel free yes yeah but that maybe that's seeking to seeking to look for what more is needed

[17:19]

is part of how we see the myriad things coming forth experiencing themselves so that that that inquiry is really important to just be complacent is it's kind of not it even though you know there's times when it's good to just take a rest you know so yeah thank you other comments or responses questions reflections yes yes I've always understood this point about understanding that something is missing as sort of connected to this point about realizing delusion because in

[18:19]

the rest of that paragraph he sort of talks about these false perceptions this way in which we assume that our particular perspective is reality when it's just our particular perspective so the point about the ocean ocean is around it's just how you see it when you're in the ocean that there myriad many features in the dusty world and the world is and will be on conditions you only see what your eyes practice can reach so I sort of understood that as when Dharma fills your body and mind you realize that you don't realize everything you realize that you only realize sort of what you in your particular position are able to realize good yes I think that's right I think that's a big part of what is he saying there I think we could take we can take it further as I was in the meeting but I think that's right one of the major teachings in this whole tech in this whole text is about the limitations of

[19:23]

our awareness about the limitations of our perception how when you ride out in a boat and watch the shore you think that the shore is moving for example you know that we are limited in what we can in how just our human faculties our perceptions are you know dogs are aware of things that we're not you know for example many examples so yeah we can't we have we don't know so much that we don't know the matter you know there's a lot of very smart people in this room but still there's so much that we don't know and so to realize that something's missing to realize that we that there's a limitation to what we know yeah that's

[20:23]

it that's that's that's part of that's a big part of the truth when Dharma fills body and mind so yeah that goes back to what you were saying about looking further that you were talking about but I think there's more to it than that I think there's something kind of ontological to other comments on any part of this text hi well I feel kind of ashamed about this and I think about people and there's a person I really like who is a billionaire that's okay we forgive you yeah well that's not what I mean exactly I'm ashamed of but I think that when I think about well this situation I think about people like

[21:33]

the Koch brothers who want more and more money and what's missing is they don't realize that that it seems to me like they're encased in some sort of a bubble where they don't see outside the effect of accumulation and this is a very very uninfluenced thought that I have because I don't have any kind of accumulation like that but I do have a nice apartment and I do have a beautiful view of the lake and I'm extremely fortunate in physical terms but I'm always concerned about what's missing

[22:37]

I was able to do this but there's many people who can't and when I come home to my apartment I feel so grateful that I am able to walk in the door and have a place for myself because there's so much, so many people that don't have that I don't know if that satisfies the teaching I think that to see, I think it does in some ways that something is missing includes both the people who are in need and the people who perpetuate that and feel and have great resources but feel like they need more and more and more and increase the need of others that's part of the, we talk about greed, hate and delusion

[23:42]

and part of what Buddhism teaches is basic contentment and not to increase our desires so I think that's in here in various ways so yeah, I think to be aware of that and to be aware of that dynamic is to be aware that something is missing in the world, that sense of contentment how do we respond to that? well, there's a limitation to each of us each of our abilities to respond that's maybe a source of sadness, I don't know what do we do? so there's a question there so I think you posed that I think that's the question you were posing how do we respond to the question of need

[24:44]

and the first noble truth and the sadness of the world and so forth but also, you know, what's so that goes back to what is our realm? how do we occupy our realm and take care of it and do our best to totally experience and cover the range of what we can do each in our own realm and sometimes it gets larger and sometimes it gets smaller so in a way, someone has their activities are large, they do a lot they experience more maybe not deeply, but more broadly and then someone's needs are small like a family, a job, something

[25:46]

they're going to experience that a lot they're going to experience the depth so for both of those situations you're always missing something you can't have they're still fully experiencing each good, yeah, that's one way of seeing it and then, you know, when and sometimes when somebody is trying to cover a very full range you know, it's very common that people if they try and do more than they can do get burnt out and need to take care of a smaller range so how do we actually balance out what is an appropriate range and it changes in terms of our actual lives yeah other comments or responses? yes, David it's one thing when you're when you're cooping to actually respond but also when you're first talking what really, in my delusion what I came up with is that enlightenment or realization is

[26:48]

not a static place it would flow in and out of it that it's not, you know okay, I'm going to get enlightenment and I got it and I'm always there it's more fluid, is what I hear you saying that we go in and out of that am I hearing you correctly? yeah, it's possible to have understandings or have realizations of awakening and then forget about that or get caught up in some delusion that happens it's possible to have experience of awakening and continue developing that awakening so, you know, there are and it's possible for people to have awakening experiences and and then get caught up in greed or or confusion afterwards so it's not like Buddha became the Buddha and was awakened

[27:52]

and then went home and forgot about the rest of the world he continued practicing and awakening the rest of his life for 40 years so it talks about Buddha going beyond Buddha so that's why, you know receiving the precepts is to remind us to continue trying to express dharsan heart and awakening aspiration and awareness in the challenges of everyday activity I was going to also comment on this you know, why do I have small world? if I have realization, it doesn't matter what size it is I'm content with where I'm at it's not that anything is missing you know, I'm in a small realm or I'm missing something I have to go to a larger realm or if I'm in a larger realm, I've overextended myself I have to go back to a small realm it's more about being content and fully realizing whatever realm you're in

[28:56]

but if you think it's already sufficient then dharmaism does not fill your body and mind if you think it's already sufficient then dharma is not filling your body and mind so there's a question that needs to be part of how you are totally experiencing your realm Suzanne, I felt like you had a question or a comment no? ok sorry go ahead so, as I said, there are many many parts of this text I was pointing out three areas yes, Jason I had more of a question about how are we feeling

[29:57]

because he always seems to be oscillating between multiple ways of reading legibility like, there's a revolving door of logics and in western philosophical context you can read like an argument and there's a linear quality to the argument and I don't get linearity good, right is there a trick? well, it's not a trick, it's just but there is, you know a few things I usually suggest one is just to read it through so we chanted it, you know, the whole text but then to go back and look at the parts that that spoke to you and sit with them like, go over, you know, like I did with a few sentences to hang out with just a few sentences

[31:00]

and see what comes up for you and there is a logic to it but it's not the linear rational western logic it's the logic of awakening so it's a different kind of logic and it takes a while to get into that so I've sometimes compared reading Dogen to like taking a hot bath or listening to a symphony you just have to bathe in it and don't worry about trying to have some understanding of it but play with it where are the places that if there's a phrase or a passage a paragraph, a sentence that really tickles you or interests you you can write it out and memorize it or something or if there's something that really bothers you you can do the same thing and see if you can feel what he's getting at

[32:04]

and sometimes you can understand it in many different ways and actually kind of play with it's not about trying to figure out what he meant it's like what does it mean in your Zazen so those are my suggestions for reading Laurel, do you have ideas about that? I would suggest reading more than one translation of the same thing they're astonishingly different and sometimes you can triangulate and find even more interesting possibilities there are a lot in our library where you can read a small thing and then read two or three different versions that's really, really interesting exercise particularly Genjo Koan there are several really

[33:06]

well, somewhat competent translations and some of them in the same passage are quite interestingly varied so yes, thank you and sometimes the footnotes are just as long yeah, and sometimes the footnotes are very helpful sometimes yes? I don't think it's incredibly not requestory if you read there's a lot of thesis, antithesis and I feel like this reads the same way where you have to experience reading it as a process versus experiencing it as statement by statement and before this I feel like it's similar to what you're saying that you aren't trying to arrive at from one point to another point but the process in itself is the thing I feel like I'm hearing a lot of people

[34:10]

talking about large field, small field large realm, small realm and it feels like it doesn't really matter for me the thing that is missing is that it is the realm anyway but the thing that feels like it's missing is that we're understanding ourselves as manipulators of phenomena but instead we're recipients of it I don't know if that makes sense totally, yes, that's what he's talking about when he says, as opposed to carrying ourselves forward to experience and manipulate the world of objects that everything comes up together and we're part of that and that is this key distinction between the realm of awakening and our usual ordinary realm of trying to manipulate the world of objects but yeah, what you said, Hegel

[35:11]

there's definitely the dialectical process involved in a lot of tokens thank you well, thank you all any last comments or thoughts or reflections? okay, we'll close with the four bodhisattva vows which are on page bottom of page 36 in your chant book we'll chant them three times

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