When I wake up in the morning, I think about how the monster of greed, ill will, and delusion has taken over what we call our country. And I don't want to talk about it all the time. I think about it all the time, and, you know, we can talk about it all the time. And what, I don't know about you, but what I already know is played out every day. You know, what we already know is the present so-called government, the so-called president,

[01:06]

and his so-called master are taking the nation apart in the name of greed, ill will, and delusion. And every day another revelation, but the revelation isn't really a revelation because we already know it. It's just a matter of being played out, as you see, as like a movie, actually. You expect the things that are being played out to play out. You expect the government to be dismantled. And if you didn't expect that, you're really naive. I don't know what people expected.

[02:10]

Anyway, so I want to talk about Zen practice. There's something called, the people say it's called Zen training. So what is Zen training? It's the opposite of what's happening in our country, or to our country. It's just the opposite. It's, well, you know, there's no real definition for what is Zen training, because in a sense we don't think of it as training. Usually we think of training as a goal, when you train for something, you have steps in training and a goal. There's something like that, but it's not a curriculum.

[03:13]

Zen training is not a curriculum. It's how we live our life moment by moment, according to what we feel is the laws of reality. So, I've made a little list of things that we consider, that we train with, that we're concerned with in our daily activities. First of all, Buddha is an obstacle. We always think that Buddha is this wonderful being, right? But Buddha is an obstacle. So, Buddha is an obstacle to our self-centeredness, and since mostly we operate out of our self-centeredness,

[04:32]

I don't say all the time, but without realizing it, most of the time we're operating out of our self-centeredness, which is delusional. And so, Buddha is an obstacle, because when we're practicing Dharma, we run up against Buddha, our true nature, and then we have a lot of problems with that. But I'll get back to that. So, learning how to control our ego is Zen practice. We say, get rid of, you should get rid of ego, but you cannot really get rid of ego. It doesn't mean, in Buddhist language sometimes it's kind of like black and white, without nuance, but getting rid of is not possible, because ego is important. It's how we control our impulses, how we teach our ego.

[05:39]

So, Buddha teaches our ego. We have a double nature, self-centered nature and Buddha nature. Of course, self-centered nature is Buddha nature, but its self-centered nature is Buddha delusion, Buddha as a delusion being. So, Buddha takes many roles. So, Buddha is actually the teacher of our self-centered, ordinary being, self, myself, I, me, and mine, I, me, and mine, the trinity of egocentricity. So, ego is our delusional side, our delusional self.

[06:46]

It's necessary, it's important to have delusion, but delusion means dualistic understanding. Basically, that's delusion, delusory understanding in Buddhism, is the dualistic nature, which means good and bad, right and wrong, yes and no, because we live in a dualistic world, except that it's hard, even though we live in a dualistic world, it's more than just a dualistic world, but we have to pay attention to the dualistic world, otherwise we can't really operate as a person. So, but our Buddha nature educates us, hopefully, if we really pay attention. If we have faith in our Buddha nature, then Buddha nature really can guide us.

[07:52]

If we have faith in Buddha nature, Buddha nature can guide us. So that's what we mean by giving ourself over to ourself, or to our Buddha nature, our big mind, instead of our small mind, which of course is dualistic and egotistical. So we need to have some ego, some sense of self, but our Buddha nature lets us know that our sense of self is false, but we accept that. Is that the self doing the self by itself? The self settling on the self. The self doing the self by itself. There are two, when we say self, there are two notions. One is small self and big self.

[08:52]

So small self settles on big self, that's the self doing the self by itself. So selfishness is the activity of the self, of the ego. Selfishness, meaning me first, me big, me control, me want. So learning how to guide the self rather than how to eliminate it, because it's necessary. If we have no desire, the characteristic of the self is self-centeredness, it's desire. If we have no desire, it's not possible, because as I like to say, when desire is turned toward practice, it's no longer called desire.

[09:58]

It's called way-seeking, I call it way-seeking mind. In other words, putting yourself under the control of your Buddha nature. That's way-seeking mind. And having faith in your true self, rather than in this ego-centered self, which is always changing. What is it? So this is how we practice, this is how we train ourselves. Zen training. And of course, the center, the central activity of Zen training is Zazen, where you can actually let go of your ego, where you can let go of your self-centeredness and merge with your true nature, which is the universe. So it looks like, you know, when you sit Zazen, you're separating yourself from the world.

[11:06]

In a sense it's true, but it's not so. By separating or merging ego with the universe is actually to let go of the self and be one with the universe, which means that instead of limiting yourself, you're expanding yourself. So the more we can limit our egocentricity, the bigger we get. So we should also be aware of our surroundings. Not just, you know, when we're thinking too much, we tend to forget our surroundings. Professors do this all the time, you know, always thinking about something. They have to be guided around by their hand, because their minds are so active.

[12:08]

So when I come into the Zen Dojo and I bow to the altar and I'm thinking about my talk, I'm thinking I pick up my Zazen, you know, which I'm not supposed to do. You know, I just do things automatically, because the mind is distracted by what I'm going to do next. So Zen training is to be focused on what we're doing now. What we're going to do next is okay, but what we're doing now is really important, because this is the only moment there is. So Zen is not an academic curriculum, although academic is okay, it's included, but it's not the focus. We don't graduate. There's no graduation where you're finally it. Because actually we're it all the time, but we don't know it.

[13:13]

Progress in Zen training is to actually be where you are. It's not going someplace or finding something out or getting more knowledge. But just knowing really who you are, that's difficult. We don't like to accept who we are, mostly, because we want to be what we want to be instead of being what we are. So Zen practice is radical acceptance of where we are. That's our training. And then there's taking responsibility. One aspect of Zen training is to practice with others.

[14:29]

Practicing with others, you know, people often come and they'll have Zazen instruction and practice for a while. And then they say, is it okay if I practice at home? And of course, you can do anything you want. Why should I be telling you what you can do at home? Do whatever you want. When I first started practicing, I was in San Francisco, and I would go to the Zen Dojo. But then I'd go to Golden Gate Park and sit in the park and experiment with Zazen, which is fine. But Sangha, practicing with Sangha is where training takes place. So, although I don't like the idea of proselytizing or saying you have to come to the Zen Dojo to build up the Sangha with your presence,

[15:39]

although I do think that, but that's not my goal in teaching. But it should be your goal in being a student. Because your presence, you think, well, they're over there, sitting in the Zen Dojo, and I get to go there. As soon as you go there, you are actually creating the practice for everyone. You may think I'm just a beginner, but a beginner's practice encourages everybody. We tend to think the older people have been practicing for 40 years, they're encouraging everybody, which they are. But the new person who doesn't know what they're doing and is making this effort to find out, that encourages everybody. So the practice of the novice is just as important in helping people to practice.

[16:44]

Because when they see your struggles, when they see your difficulties, and how you approach and take the practice on, that's the most encouraging thing for everybody. And for the people who have been practicing for 40 years, that's really encouraging. But people don't know that. They think, well, I'm just a, you know, whatever you do think. Some people think they already know all about it. And then when they come up against Buddha, they run away. So Buddha can be an obstacle. But obstacles are our practice. The most important thing in our practice is obstacles. It's an obstacle course. And I have to be a little bit athletic.

[17:44]

Flexible. It's not athletic. People sometimes come in gym shorts, you know, as if it's a physical therapy. But flexibility and lightness is our training. How to be flexible and light in more than one way. Lightness of body and mind, and light shining through the body and mind. And light that shines through the body and mind comes from having flexibility and a lightness of body and mind. Agility. These are important things. Not heaviness and weightiness. Profundity can be heavy. Grave is profundity.

[18:49]

In music. But it's also important, the seriousness. But seriousness needs to be balanced by lightness. And agility of mind. Agility of body and mind. And flexibility of body and mind. So everything is balanced. You know, we say non-duality is to understand or practice non-duality is what Zen practice is. So we have, everything has two sides, but the two sides really are two sides of one coin. In everything we do, we tend to not quite grasp the one, the whole coin.

[19:59]

We either fall into heads or tails. But non-duality is the whole coin. That tails needs heads and heads needs tails. You can't cut off tails and just have the heads. But that's what we're always doing. We're always falling into one side or the other. It's very hard to walk that tightrope between heads and tails. And that's what we do in Zazen. We walk the tightrope between heads and tails. We either fall into happiness or pain or pleasure. But we have to understand that there's pain and pleasure and that there's pleasure in pain. That's not in the non-masochistic understanding. It's not that you love the pain. That's a little masochistic. But you understand the pain and accept pain.

[21:02]

And when you can do that, it's pleasurable. Because you rise above it. It's not that you wallow in it. When you can rise above pleasure and pain, you have the whole coin. And that's what pleasure is. It's what reality is. So taking responsibility, as I said, is when you practice with the Sangha. That's Zen training. You don't have to do anything special. But as you practice, there's a place to practice with the Sangha called the Zen Dojo. So that's where your practice and your training takes place. Part of your training. And then your presence helps everyone and encourages everyone.

[22:09]

And if we're only practicing by ourselves, we don't have any correctives. So it's easy to go astray. So practicing with others gives us correctives. And practicing with the teacher, the Sangha, and studying the Dharma together. And just associating with each other is actually what creates the teaching. Not even having to say anything. The less we have to say, although that can be disputed, the less we have to say and just associate and do the same practice together, there's something subliminally that educates us, so to speak.

[23:15]

So that's taking responsibility. Taking responsibility for yourself and helping others. So, you know, our Japanese ancestor, Master Edo, Dogen, most of us know who Dogen was. He was the fountainhead of our Soto Zen practice from Japan, which came to him from China, which came to China from India. It's a long road. And Dogen wrote many fascicles in his so-called Shobo Genzo,

[24:30]

the Dharma-I practice. And his first fascicle, the main fascicle, is called Genzo Koan. As you know, in Zen, there's Shikantaza and Koan practice, so-called. It looks like Shikantaza is not Koan practice, but it is. And Koan practice is studying the dialogues of the old masters as Koan. Sometimes people think that Soto Zen practice, Dogen's practice,

[25:33]

doesn't deal with Koans, but actually it's not so. And Dogen wrote this fascicle about Koan called Genzo Koan, which is the Koan of daily life. And, of course, in Dogen's fascicles, he's always quoting the Koans, which some people practice as their main practice. So our main practice is also Koan practice. But we have one Koan that Dogen left for us, which is called the Genzo Koan. The Koan which arises moment by moment, which we cannot escape. It's not something that was thought up. It's what we cannot escape, basically, and which we're always trying to escape.

[26:37]

So I'm going to read you a little definition, which I think is very nice. I've always liked this. From Maezumi Roshi's former disciple. Of course, it's not his thing, but he wrote this. So I'll read this to you. Shobo Genzo is the name of a larger work of which Genzo Koan is a part. It literally means a treasury of the true Dharma eye, the eye of wisdom which is able to bridge the gap about oneness and duality. So Genzo Koan itself can be divided into two principal elements. The word Genzo Koan. Genzo means to make real or to manifest.

[27:40]

So Genzo means manifesting. Manifesting means what we take as reality. We look around and we see all the objects of the world and we call this reality or manifesting. But everything manifests momentarily. So we say things are not real, although they seem real. What is really real is momentary. To manifest or to make real. And refers to phenomena, to the living of our lives in its most concrete sense. What we usually call the reality of our lives. Koan, on the other hand, points to the absolute side. The side of oneness, of completeness.

[28:43]

So according to one translation, Ko means to make even or flat. This is like horizontal, right? Ko means make even or flat or equality, basically. All things being equal. And on means to have its own position. So Genzo Koan then means on one level that the position, we call it Dharma position. The position of each thing is absolute. In other words, each momentary moment is also eternal or absolute.

[29:47]

And so this table, for example, is at once just a table and at the same time the infinite indestructible universe itself. In the same way, each of us is all of reality. So Genzo Koan then means that everyday life is realization and everyday life is the way. The term Buddha Dharma has similar implications. Buddha refers to oneness, to the absolute side. And Dharma refers to the side of differences. Together they point to the ongoing integration of harmony of oneness and difference. Sandokai, the harmony of oneness and difference. But we usually divide them.

[30:50]

So this is how we, this is our training, is to understand the difference of oneness and the oneness of difference. So Genzo is the wisdom of differentiation or our usual life, how everything relates to everything else. Nothing exists by itself. Everything only exists in relationship. Everything. So when we say, well, who am I? What am I? I am the universe. When we reduce our ego to only what's really essential, then we actually grow. We expand. When we are focused on our ego, we actually contract.

[31:55]

And limit ourselves. That's why people with big ego has to rely on greed, ill will and delusion in order to grow. But real growth is to let go of greed, ill will and delusion so that you can be your own, your true illuminated being. This is how you blend with the universe, which is our true body. So he says, we can appreciate this life as this physical body, which includes all things, and as this sphere of activity, of living and doing.

[33:04]

In either case, the absolute and the relative are inseparable. But it is important to remember that these words and all words are only an explanation. That's why we have to actually practice. But it's important also to study, because study keeps us focused on practice. Instead of the mind straying to unessential things, distractions, we study. And study keeps us focused, so it's important, because the mind is so fickle. We just get turned this way and that by interesting things. I'm going to end with Vasubandhu, one of our ancient Indian ancestors, Vasubandhu Dayo Cho,

[34:29]

was a great Buddhist philosopher, but he presented a list of dharmas, or things, means things, actually, but very specific dharmas that are important for any Buddhist to practice as training. There are wholesome dharmas and unwholesome dharmas, and these were codified, 100 dharmas. There are 11 wholesome dharmas, which we should cultivate, and there are 6 afflictions,

[35:41]

and 20 derivative afflictions, and a lot of afflictions, and some intermediate afflictions. This is Indian understanding. So, the 11 wholesome dharmas are faith, as I've talked about, vigor, shame, remorse, absence of greed, absence of anger, absence of stupidity. That's a good translation, I like that translation. We say delusion, but stupidity, yeah, it really is. Light ease, non-laxness, renunciation, and non-harming. So, if we practice these wholesome dharmas as training, these sustain our life, actually, our practice life.

[36:47]

So, it's important to have faith. Dogen says, without faith we can't really practice. Faith has a kind of bad name because of people associated with certain religious practices, but actually faith is the most important thing. Without faith you can't really do anything. You can't even stand up without faith, or sit down. You can sit down because we're always dealing with gravity, you know. Our whole life is controlled by gravity. Everything we do is controlled by gravity. That's why grave is really an important term. Vigor means to actually put yourself into action, to do something.

[37:50]

It covers a lot of territory, asserting yourself, initiating practice. Shame and remorse are actually called the guardians of the world. Because there are people who have neither, and they're controlling our country right now. No shame, no remorse. As statements, I am not ashamed of what I'm doing. I have no remorse. People say, oh, okay. Okay, I'll vote for you. Absence of greed, absence of anger, and absence of stupidity. Greed, anger, and stupidity are called the poisons, three poisons. And society, they're the axle upon which the wheel turns.

[39:05]

So absence of greed, absence of anger, absence of stupidity is what frees us. That's called nirvana. When there's no greed, no anger, no stupidity, which is hard. That's nirvana. The cool state. So light ease, which I talked about, and flexibility, and non-laxness. It has to do with, oh, I'll do it tomorrow. You know, we do that all the time. It's like taking care of things right now. Take care of what's in front of you right now. I find that hard sometimes. So then renunciation means to let go of self-centeredness. And non-harming means no harm, ahimsa, no harming.

[40:11]

So these are dharmas to cultivate. The six fundamental afflictions are greed, anger, stupidity, arrogance, doubt, and improper views. Improper views means we think that what is actually harmful is harmless. And we think that what is pleasurable is really not pleasurable. And we think that what works actually doesn't work. It's called topsy-turvy views, which is mentioned in the Heart Sutra. Upside-down views. So, and then 20 derivative afflictions to avoid.

[41:16]

Wrath, hatred, rage, covering, rage, covering is kind of associated with denial, which is rampant. Deceit, flattery, conceit, harming, jealousy, and stinginess. So these are all impediments. And we should realize when these arise, we should be aware of when these unwholesome factors or dharmas arise. So we're practicing with them all the time. And then, lack of shame, lack of remorse, which are the guardians. And eight major great afflictions. Lack of faith, laziness, laxness, which is kind of like torpor. And restlessness is to be unsettled.

[42:22]

You can't sit down, and you can't stand up, and you don't know what to do. Distraction, which surrounds us. Improper knowledge. I'm not sure what that is, but I can guess. And scatteredness means the mind easily is distracted. So everything is vying for our mind. Especially in this busy, busy society, where everybody tries to seduce your mind. Every day we get these advertisements in the mailbox. And then you take it out of the mailbox, and all these pieces fall out. Have you experienced that? You have to pick them up and put them in the garbage. Terrible. Everything is trying to seduce your mind. Get this, get that, do this, do that. And it's hard to just stay with the practice.

[43:28]

Really hard. And even people who have been practicing a long time, at some point they say, well I'm going to go out there and get distracted. They don't say that, but it's easy. Something starts to draw you away that's interesting. It's okay. Sometimes people come back. They say, they don't say anything, but they say, oh this is just like when I left. I had somebody come over and talk to me after 20 years or something. He said, this is just exactly like when I left. I said hi, and he said hi, and there was no in-between. So, that's some pointers in Zen training.

[44:29]

It's not about getting anything. It's actually about letting go. That's what Zen training is about. It's not about getting something. No gaining. The more you gain, the more burdened you are. Did you ever see, look into people's garages? You open the door and it's all this junk, you know. We can't get rid of it and we can't keep it. So, we can't all be monks. A monk has three robes and a bowl and doesn't dig in the ground. That's India. China, the monks, people didn't like the fact that all these young guys were going into the monasteries when it was time for harvest. So, the monks also cultivated the fields as work practice. And that's how work practice developed.

[45:32]

Because in India, there was no work practice. You just begged for your food. And you paid for it through your practice. It's not that they got food free. They paid for the food through their practice. We say in the meal chant, as I've said over and over, may our virtue and practice deserve this meal. Every time we eat. It means it's not free. It is freely given. But they have to earn it. It's not just like, you know, spoiled bread. So, this is why, if our practice is sincere, we'll always be fed.

[46:36]

Because our practice is not just for ourselves. This is what people don't understand. Is it okay if we just practice at home? It's okay. Matter of fact, on the surface, it looks like this is the Zen Do. And you walk out the door, and that's out there. There's the world, and then there's the Zen Do. But once you enter the Zen Do, as a practitioner, you never leave the Zen Do. Because it's like that little thing on your, when you open your computer, and there's a little thing down at the bottom, and you can pull the whole thing over, right? You pull the whole picture over. So when you walk out the door, the Zen Do expands to wherever you are. So you never leave. Or come. Or come?

[47:45]

Well, if you're never going to leave, you're never going to come. If you're not going to die, you're not going to be born. And if you're not going to be born, you're not going to die.

[47:57]

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