Good morning. So two days ago was the winter solstice. So I want to talk about that some and read some poetry. about winter solstice from some of our ancestors, and talk about yin and yang. So this is from, first is from Ehei Dogen, our founder in Japan, who gave a number of dharma hall discourses on the occasion of winter solstice. And in several of them, he quoted a winter solstice dharma hall discourse from Hongzhe Zhongzui, who was a century or so before and wrote the picked the cases and wrote the verses for the Book of Serenity, so we've talked about him.

[01:07]

So at the beginning of Hongzhi's dharma hall discourse, he talks about yin and yang. Yin reaches its fullness and yang rises. Strength is exhausted and our state changes. He goes on to give a number of references from Zen koans and poems. So the yin reaches its fullness as the winter solstice arises. That was the shortest day of the year, a couple days ago. And yang arises, so the days start to get longer. Of course, it's winter, so it may not feel that way, but anyway, there's the gradual arising of energy that starts with the solstice. Hongzhe quotes an old Zen story, an old koan, about Zhuofeng, seppo in Japanese, the great Chan Tenzo, who cooked in many places as Tenzo before founding a temple and having many students.

[02:28]

Zhuofeng asked a monk, where are you going? The monk said, I'm going to do community work. Zhuofeng said, go. Later, Yunmen said, Xuefeng understands people according to their words. So Xuefeng took him at his words, and we will have our own temple cleaning, our own community work a little later. Hongzhi said about this story, don't move. If you move, I'll give you 30 blows. Why is this so? For a luminous jewel without flaw, if you carve a pattern, its virtue is lost. So Hongzhe's talking about the luminous jewel of our Buddha nature, of our Zazen nature, of our uprightness. Can you all hear me back there? Yeah. So he says, if you carve a pattern, its virtue is lost.

[03:32]

Hongxue emphasized, just abide in this luminous jewel of Buddha nature, of upright sitting. Dogen has a comment, though. He said, although these three venerable ones, Weifang and Yunmen and Hongxue, spoke this way, I, Ehe Dogen, do not agree. So this one is from 1245, this Dharmal discourse, soon after he'd moved to the north country and was in the process of founding Eheji. So he says, Dogen says, I do not agree. Great assembly, listen carefully and consider this well. For a luminous jewel without flaw, if polished, its glow increases. So for Dogen, it's not enough to see the luminous jewel of Buddha nature expressed in our zazen, but if polished, its glow increases. So Dogen emphasized expression of this luminous jewel.

[04:36]

And when polished, it develops, its glow increases. Dogen goes on to say, today's first arising of yang and the daylight's increase is an auspicious occasion. A noble person reaches maturity. Although this is an auspicious occasion for laypeople, it is truly a delight and support for Buddha ancestors. Yesterday, the short length of the day departed, yin reached its fullness. and the sound of cold wind ceased. The sound of cold wind ceased. This morning, at the winter solstice, the growing length of day arrived, and yang arises with a boisterous clamor. Now, it's still winter, so we may not feel a boisterous clamor, but energy is arising. Now, paschal monks feel happy and sustained, and the Buddha ancestors dance with joy How could directly transcending the realm of awesome sound, king of emptiness, have anything to do with the seasons of spring, autumn, winter, and summer?

[05:49]

So the realm of so awesome sound king of emptiness was the Buddha of the empty Kalpa before the Big Bang. And so Dogen is pointing to the unconditioned where it has nothing to do with spring, autumn, winter, or summer, even though he's celebrating the solstice. So that's one starting point for considering this. In terms of yin and yang, well, I want to read some poems by Dogen from For the Winter Solstice. I'll read one and then say some more. Okay, yeah. Yesterday was short. Today is longer. Though without edges or corners, the solstice is good to examine. I encourage you to look closely.

[06:51]

Stop asking for the sun in the sky. So it may still be cloudy, and it's the beginning of winter, and yet today is longer. And he says, look closely. So this thing about yin and yang, I want to say a little bit about. We have two sides of our zendo. We could say there's the tenzo side and the ino side. But also, Kaz Tanahashi, who's been here a number of times, my old friend who's a great painter and calligrapher, as well as the translator, a translator of Dogen Shobogenzo, has left us two two paintings, and we could see them as yin and yang. So behind David and Douglas, the first one he left is the snow, he calls the snow within. So, There's no snow yet.

[07:58]

There would have been probably up in the north near Ahege at the solstice time, in Dogen's time. And, you know, snow is coming as the winter is here. We've had a little bit of snow. Although Paula, who's a native Chicagoan and really knows Chicago seasons, told me that there's not going to be any snow this year until March. So we'll see. So there's the snow, the snow side, the snow within, to remind us when the snow's outside that the snow's also in us. The other poem, the other painting behind Brian, which caused Tanahashi left the last time he was here, he called The Desert Within. And I think he brought that as one of the paintings to offer us. I don't think he remembered that we had the snow within. So we have the snow within and the desert within.

[09:01]

So one side of the zendo is yin and one side is yang. And yeah, you can see it's just the desert. And there is the mountain. Or maybe that's a wave on Lake Michigan. I don't know. but it's covered with snow. So going back to Dogen, he has two verses on the winter solstice. I read you one of them. I'll read it again. Yesterday was short, today is longer. Though without edges or corners, the solstice is good to examine. I encourage you to look closely. Stop asking for the sun in the sky. So both the sun and the snow are within also. Another, the second poem on the winter solstice. Everywhere you meet him, completing your face, turn your body and head to pervade the heavens in this transition, although borrowing the strength of the fist of the dharma.

[10:13]

From the beginning, the effort of your nostrils has been to exhale. So as I sometimes say about zazen, please enjoy your inhale and exhale. And after you inhale, please make the effort to exhale. And notice that space at the end of the exhale. turn your body and head to pervade the heavens in this transition of the solstice, although, though borrowing the strength of the fists of the teacher or the dharma, from the beginning, at the point at which there is this, as he says in the other one, this luminous jewel without flaw, from the beginning, the effort of your nostrils has been to exhale. So please continue practicing. And he's emphasizing the simplicity of practice maybe.

[11:18]

Or maybe that there is an effort in inhaling and exhaling. And at some point, maybe we will no longer do that. But we're still here. So Dogen also has some series of verses about snow. And I want to read two or three of those. One of his most famous verses. In our lifetime, false and true, good and bad are confused. And we could certainly say that in our lifetimes. In our lifetime, false and true, good and bad are confused. While playing with the moon, scorning winds, and listening to birds, for many years I merely saw that mountains had snow. This winter, suddenly I realized the snow completes mountains. Those last two lines could also be read... Yeah, the mountains had snow could be read, there is snow on the mountains.

[12:31]

The next line could be read as... The snow creates the mountain or fulfills the mountain. So we have the snow within and on the wall of the inner side of the zendo. That poem was the first thing he ever heard from Dogen and led him to study Dogen and eventually translate Dogen into modern Japanese because Japanese people can't just read the original Dogen material. And then to come to America and start translating Dogen into English. So again, In our lifetime, false and true, good and bad are confused. While playing with the sun, with the moon, scorning the winds, and listening to birds for many years, I merely saw that there was snow on the mountains. This winter, suddenly, I realized that snow fulfills the mountains, or creates the mountains.

[13:39]

So is that a mountain or is that just snow piled up? Anyway, there's also the snow within. A couple more of, one or two more of these winter poems from Dogen. Bless you. Deepening dusk in early winter, dense snow keeps falling on mountains in all directions. There are no cypress or pines, and we don't see them from the snow. Stop discussing snow depths and the sinking gloom. I want this to be like Xiaoshu Peak on Mount Song, where Bodhidharma came. And that's a steep mountain I climbed up to where the cave is that he sat in for nine years. Deepening dusk in early winter, the dense snow keeps falling on mountains in all directions.

[14:49]

We cannot see cypress or pines. Stop discussing snow japs. and the sinking gloom. So when that snow comes to Chicago in March or whenever, we always note, oh, it's a foot deep. It's two feet deep. It's six inches deep. Anyway, Dogen says, stop discussing the depth of the snow and the sinking gloom. I want this to be like Shaolin or Bodhidharma. So this was when he was up in Eheji talking to his monks there. Maybe one more of these. An Udumbara flower naturally opens on an old tree. Early plum blossoms erect sanctuary, a bright tower in the night. The silvery pearl net hangs yet, hangs over the entire world. The ground becomes pure as lapis lazuli.

[15:51]

So there's some images in here. Udumbara flower is said to bloom every, I don't know, 1,000 years. When a Buddha appears, the Udumbara flower blooms. Early plum blossoms, so an Udumbara flower naturally opens on an old tree. Early plum blossoms erect a sanctuary, a bright flower in the tower in the night. So in the winter in Japan, the first blossoms to bloom are the plums. And Dogen and his teacher spoke about plum blossoms very often. They're white, so it's white on white. It's like a heron hidden in the moon, these early plum blossoms. Dogen says, early plum blossoms erect a sanctuary, a bright tower in the night. So this is the flower that comes when there's still snow.

[16:56]

And I think we have them in Chicago. I remember there was a plum blossom outside the window of where I was staying in Green Gulch. I live there. Early plum blossoms erect a sanctuary, a bright tower in the night. A silvery pearl net hangs over the entire world. So maybe that's a reference to Indra's net in which everything is interconnected. The light from each place and each jewel in the net reflects all the others. A silvery pearl net hangs over the entire world. The ground becomes pure as lapis lazuli." So maybe that is talking about the snow on the ground, but also it's a quote from the Lotus Sutra. So those are some reflections on solstice and winter from Dogen. And again, this shifting from yin to yang, this sense of balance, like the two sides of our zendo, is evoked, I guess, we could say also on the summer solstice and on the equinoxes, at these junctures in the seasons.

[18:16]

Although, when we go back to the Buddha of the empty kalpa, Who cares about seasons? But here we are in Chicago. So I thought I'd add to Dogen's solstice poems a couple from Saikyo. Saikyo was a Tendai monk, just as Dogen was before he went to China and received Zen lineage. Saikyo lived... 1118 to 1190, so a little while before Dogen. But he was both a monk and also a wanderer. He traveled around Japan like Basho did later. And he's famous for his poems. He wrote many poems. Often he wrote about the moon. So he was one of the family of those who howl at the moon.

[19:20]

But this is a poem he wrote about, well, he says, it's called All Night Long, Regretting the End of Autumn. This must have been on the solstice night. Regret as I may, even the bell has a different sound now. And soon frost will fall in place of morning dew. Maybe I should. read that these are waka, maybe I'll read the Japanese just for the sound. Oshima domo kane no otosai, kawaru kana shimu ni yatsuyu wo musubi kawaran. Regret as I may, even the bell has a different sound now, and soon frost will fall in place of morning dew. So have you noticed that the bell sounds differently in different seasons? David, would you? Give us a nice sounding of the bell, the big bell. So do you notice how it sounds different from a week ago?

[20:36]

After the solstice. Anyway, that's what Saigyo tells us. Another poem from Saigyo called Winter. Clouds have all scattered from the tall peak where I wait for moonrise. What kindness in the first of these early winter showers. Tsuki o matsu takane no kumo wa haranakeri kokoro arubeki hasu shigure kana. Clouds have all scattered from the tall peak where I wait for moonrise. So Saiki will love to stay up and watch, look at the moon. What kindness in the first of these early winter showers. So he's appreciating the early winter. One more. This is called Falling Leaves at Dawn.

[21:40]

This is also a winter poem. Wondering if it's a winter shower, I wake in my bed and hear them, the leaves that couldn't withstand the storm. So he's, maybe there's no rain, maybe it's just the wind and the leaves falling, and he's hearing the leaves falling. Shigure kato, nezame no toko ni, kiko yuru wa, arashi ni tae no, kono hana, mari kari. Wondering if it's a winter shower, I wake in my bed and hear them, the leaves that couldn't withstand the storm. So, we're at this transitional time of the solstice. Winter is coming, as they say. Or winter is here. Even though it's fairly mild out today. So who knows in this time of climate chaos if we'll have a real Chicago winter.

[22:45]

But I wouldn't count on not having it. And part of what all this brings up is the naturalness and the nature and the And how nature includes yin and yang, includes yin energy and yang energy. And there's this balance that's part of the natural order, and it's part of our lives, and it's part of the shifts in our lives. And so, time of the winter solstice, yin is at its greatest. So, it's receptive. soft energy, but also it's the arising of yang, this more active part. So if the desert is within and the snow is within, we feel this also in our bodies and minds, in our hearts, in our zazen.

[23:49]

And we celebrate in our lineage the harmony of difference and sameness, the harmony of oneness and abundance, the many and the one. So finding balance is a key part of our practice. How do we find balance? the balance between softness and sensitivity and uprightness and assertiveness. How do we come to express Buddha on both sides and in their interaction? that I'd offer some poetry for the solstice. Does anyone have any comments, reflections? Kirshen, I know you like to celebrate solstices and equinoxes. Do you have anything to say about the winter solstice to start us off? I guess that's where it gets its name.

[25:26]

Okay, something to look forward to. David? Right.

[26:38]

And there's the New Year's decoration that everybody puts out on their door, which is pine and bamboo, and is it plum? Yeah, so those three are also, everybody puts out as a New Year's decoration. It's like we put out wreaths. Put that out, yeah. Yes. So renewal and balance, yeah. Yes, Daniel. Good, yes.

[27:53]

Yes, thank you. Other thoughts, questions? Yes, Phyllis. I was also very impressed with and seemingly permanent, at least to us. Mountains always seem to be there, but snow seems to come and go. The snow melts. Mountains melt too, but over a very long time. But intellectually, we all know that's actually not true. Both of them are impermanent. So that was very interesting. And another thing that really pops up to me was the yin energy being in its peak, and then afterwards, the yang energy starts to gradually come back, gaining strength.

[29:22]

And we actually almost never think of it that way, that the yang energy starts to grow. And that reminds me, something I read that truly surprised me about botany. About? Plants. Oh, botany, yes, yes, yeah. I learned that although, for plants that lose their leaves, trees that lose their leaves, we always see them as, oh, when the spring come, the leaves come back out. That's the idea of growth. But I learned from that article that the leaves actually start growing on the leaves. You just don't see them inside the vegetables. reading the article, it was like a sad face.

[30:39]

It's like, we were so wrong. So, that really tied into your poem that you will share today. You're welcome, thank you. That reminds me, I've heard that when the leaves turn color in the fall, and Gyoshin, correct me if this is not true, but that actually the green is just from the season, but actually it's from the chlorophyll. When the chlorophyll fades, that's in some ways the natural color of the leaves, which is all the colors. So the colorful leaves is actually their true nature.

[31:42]

So any other comments or reflections or images to share? Well, thank you very much. Please enjoy the winter and the snow when it comes in March, or sooner, maybe. We'll see. And we'll close. Oh, no, before we close.

[32:25]

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