of Guidelines for Studying the Way. And I'll probably interweave this text with our ongoing study of the teaching of suchness. The text begins, the first point of the text is called,

[01:01]

You Should Arouse the Thought of Enlightenment, the Bodhi Mind. So we've been spending a lot of study time looking at the procedures, the ceremonial procedures of just sitting, the ceremonial procedures of the practice of suchness. This text, called Guidelines for Studying the Way, is a text to aid us in our attitude towards our sitting practice. The first point is that we should arouse the thought of enlightenment. So the thought of enlightenment, arousing the thought of enlightenment has to do with

[02:06]

arousing a selfless approach to practice. The first point in practice is selflessness. Always start there. Now of course, that is also the final point in practice too. This being non-dual practice, we start with selflessness and finish with selflessness. The thought of enlightenment has many names, but they all refer to one and the same mind, one and

[03:12]

the same wisdom. The ancestor Nagarjuna said, the mind that fully sees into the uncertain world of birth and death is called the thought of enlightenment. The mind that sees into impermanence of all things in the world of birth and death is called the thought of enlightenment. So here, the teacher, Dogen, is not discussing impermanence of the mind, but rather pointing

[04:20]

mind that sees impermanence of all phenomena, including the thought of enlightenment itself as impermanent. Thus, if we maintain this mind which sees impermanence, this mind can become the thought of enlightenment. When we understand discontinuity, when we understand impermanence, the notion of self does not come into being. When we understand impermanence, the egocentric mind does not arise, and ideas of fame and gain also do not arise. Seeing

[05:26]

impermanence goes with being free of egocentric mind. Seeing impermanence goes with selflessness. Fearing the swift passage of the sunlight, practice the way as though your head were on fire. Reflecting on this ephemeral life, make endeavor in this manner, just like the Buddha raising his foot. In a past life, the Buddha came upon, when the Buddha was a Bodhisattva, came upon a Buddha named Pusha Tathagata, and he saw the Tathagata sitting in samadhi,

[06:30]

and when he saw that stillness, that immovable presence, he stood on one foot and sang verses of praise for seven days. Can you imagine seeing the Buddha sitting in samadhi, sitting in the samadhi of oneness, and then standing there on one foot or on tiptoe for seven days reciting verses of praise? This is the kind of practice that one is able to

[07:43]

live when one sees impermanence. To arouse the thought of enlightenment, think deeply in your heart of the impermanence of the world. This is not a matter of meditating on some provisional method of contemplation. It is not a matter of fabricating in our heads that which does not exist. Impermanence is truly the reality in front of our eyes right now. We need not wait for some teaching from others, proof from some scriptural passage,

[08:55]

or some great principle in order to see impermanence. It's right here today, right here this moment. If we can open our eyes to it, we get the gift of selflessness, and this becomes the Bodhi mind. Born in the morning, dead in the evening, a person we saw yesterday is no longer here today. These are facts of this world that we can see with our own eyes and hear with our own ears. Dogen Benji himself got to see his dear mother lying before him when he was seven years old,

[10:11]

and as he saw the incense smoke rising from her casket, the thought of enlightenment was around. Furthermore, really seeing impermanence frees us from our desire for fame and profit. Again, Dogen Benji says in practicing the Way, first of all, we must learn poverty, give up fame

[11:14]

and abandon profit, do not flatter, put down all such affairs. Then you will become a good practitioner of the Way without fail. Last night we had the Bodhisattva ceremony where we confess our karma and make vows, great vows, and receive the precepts. This is the traditional first step in practice. The next step, this is called prakimosha samvara, which means discipline in that which is conducive to liberation. What is conducive to liberation?

[12:22]

Confession and repentance of karma, taking refuge and receiving the precepts. Disciplining ourselves in confession, repentance, refuge and precepts is conducive to liberation. Next comes jhana samvara and anasarava samvara, discipline in concentration and discipline in freedom from outflows, freedom from duality. Having disciplined, having received the discipline of prakimosha samvara last night, we are now ready to spend this week and the rest of our lives in concentrating on the way without outflows. The way without outflows is the way of selflessness. Receiving

[13:32]

the precepts we now enter the samadhi of keeping our eyes open for impermanence. When you hear a song of praise sung by a celestial opera star or some great songbird, a paradise, let it be like the evening breeze brushing against your ears. If you see a beautiful face like Mao Zedong or Xi Xi, let it be like the morning dew drops coming

[14:49]

into your sight. Freedom from the ties of sound and form naturally accords with the essence of the way-seeking mind. You know, the Shuso has been diligently harping on the point of renunciation and also saying over and over, Buddha's teaching is not to reject or hate pleasure, right? He wants to make sure that we don't have to hate pleasure. Don't you? I do. He wants to allow pleasure,

[15:50]

don't you? I do. He also doesn't want us to hate pain, right? Or anger. None of it. Okay. So, we have some beautiful people here in California, as you may have noticed. Matter of fact, some people are suffering with some of the beautiful people here right at Tassajara. But it's okay. We let beautiful people in here. It's all right. Anyway, apparently they had beautiful people back in China and two of the most beautiful were called Mao Zedong and Xi Xi. When I was in China, actually, as I went up the Yangtze River recently, the Yangtze River has 300 million people living on it. Towards the

[16:56]

beginning of Yangtze, actually, is the part of the river right just before it goes into the Pacific. The last 20 miles is actually called the Yangtze. The previous several thousand is actually called the Yangtze, Yangtze, which means Long River. So, we went up the Yangtze, the Long River, from Shanghai to Wuhan and so on, all the way up to Chongqing. Chongqing is a rather big city, 30 million. And it's a city that's famous for beautiful women and generals. Lots of generals and lots of beautiful women. And the tour guides were not clear whether the generals were there because of the beautiful

[17:58]

women or the beautiful women were there because of the generals. But they have both of them there. And I didn't see any generals while I was there. But there were many, many beautiful women. It's true. But when I saw them, it was just like morning dew drops coming into my sight. Now, some people like around Takahara, when they see morning dew drops, they get really excited because we have really good-looking morning dew drops around here. So, I don't know if morning dew drops is really the criterion because some people really see jewels in those morning dew drops during Zazheng. The point is, you just let the beautiful face and the morning dew drops just be the beautiful face. You just let the ugly, mean, nasty face be an ugly, mean, nasty face. You don't identify with the beautiful or disidentify with

[19:04]

the ugly. You're familiar with this practice. This is called giving up fame and profit. Meditating on impermanence helps. As I told you before, years ago when I sometimes identified with beautiful faces, I would meditate on my own body smashed by a truck on Page Street. It actually helped me snap out of it. Freedom from the ties of the seen and the heard naturally accords with the essence of the way-seeking mind. If in the past or present, you hear about students of small learning or meet people with limited views, often

[20:05]

they have fallen into the pit of fame and profit and have forever missed the Buddha way in their life. How regrettable! What a pity! We should not ignore this. Even if you read sutras on the provisional and complete teachings or transmit the scriptures of the esoteric and exoteric schools, without throwing name and gain away, it cannot be called arousing the thought of enlightenment. And then, Dogen Zenji talks about various people's way of talking about the thought of enlightenment. Like he says, some people say the thought of enlightenment is the

[21:09]

mind of supreme, perfect enlightenment. Do not be concerned with cultivation. Hearing this, it's not that Dogen Zenji says this is wrong, but rather that hearing about such a wonderful teaching, he criticizes those who use the wondrous teaching as an excuse for having a desire for fame and profit. Then he says, some say the thought of enlightenment is insight, that each thought contains 3,000 worlds. This is the teaching of the Tendai school, which Dogen Zenji grew up in. Some say that the thought of enlightenment is the Dharma gate of quotes, each thought is unborn, unquote. This is the

[22:14]

teaching of the Huayen school, very profound. Some say that the thought of enlightenment is the mind of entering the Buddha realm, the womb of the Tathagata. This is the teaching of the Shingon school, Vajrayana. And then he says, such people do not yet know and mistakenly slander the thought of enlightenment. They are remote from the Buddha way. Why is it that these profound teachings about the thought of enlightenment slander the Buddhas in thought of enlightenment? It seems that the reason why he criticizes them is because they study these profound and lofty doctrines, which are truly that way, but they don't bring out from the beginning the

[23:17]

fundamental teachings of the Buddha, which are that seeing impermanence and becoming free of egolessness, of egocentric desires is fundamental. So to bring out these profound teachings before dealing with fundamental situations of impermanence and selflessness, he's criticizing. He himself brings out these teachings in his Shogogenzo, but he's saying, first of all, impermanence and selflessness, before you get into 3,000 worlds in one moment of thought, and so on, or entering the pristine and subtle inner sanctum of the Buddha's heart. And this emphasis on the

[24:31]

fundamental teachings and selflessness should be the beginning of the Zen school. But we have to be careful. For example, once Dungshan was conducting a memorial feast for Yuen Yen. Everybody know Yuen Yen? Dungshan was doing a memorial service for him, a memorial feast. Now feast means, you know, little tea and little sweet water and some cake for the dead. And at that time, a monk said to him, what teaching did you receive while you were at Yuen Yen's place? What

[25:45]

teaching did you receive while you were at Yuen Yen's place? Well, while I was there, I didn't receive any teachings. The monk then asked, well, since you didn't actually receive any teachings, how come you're conducting a memorial service for him? If you go to a teacher, make a long trip across China to a teacher, and the teacher doesn't give you any teachings, this might frustrate you. This might obstruct your plans. But such obstruction and such frustration may open your eyes to impermanence and selflessness. Therefore, you might do a memorial service for such a frustrating teacher. Since you didn't actually receive teachings, how come you conduct a memorial service for him? Dungshan said, why should I turn my back on him?

[27:10]

And the monk said, if you began by meeting with Nanchuan, and Dungshan had been an unusual young monk, and he scared away many teachers by who he was. And finally he met somebody who wasn't frightened of him. That was Nanchuan, the great Nanchuan. And Nanchuan recognized him when he was a young man as a Dharma vessel. So this became famous, this meeting. And the monk said, you began by meeting Nanchuan, how come you now conduct a memorial service for Yunyan, who was kind of like...

[28:15]

I mean, Nanchuan was kind of like the Dalai Lama of China, and Yunyan was kind of like... who can I mention? Kind of like a nobody, like me. So how come you're doing a service for Reb, after you met the Dalai Lama? I've got the Dalai Lama's recognition. And Dungshan said, it's not that my former master's virtue, or his teaching of enlightenment was so great that I esteem him for those things. I esteem him because he did not make exhaustive explanations for me, because he did not directly indicate. That's why I esteem him.

[29:23]

In other words, sorry to say, Nanchuan directly indicated at that meeting, Nanchuan told everybody about Dungshan, that there he is, there he is, this is it, look at that. He directly pointed to the great issue. The great master was not, in Dungshan's view, as much to the point as the one who frustrated him.

[29:59]

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