In honor of Darlene Cohn, I'd like to read Jobo Genzo Shoji, Birth and Death. Because a Buddha is in birth and death, there is no birth and death. It is also said, because a Buddha is not deluded by birth and death, a Buddha is not deluded by birth and death. These statements are the essence of the words of two Zen teachers, Ja Shan and Ding Shan.

[01:04]

We should certainly not neglect them because they are the words of those who've attained the way. Those who want to be free from birth and death should understand the meaning of these words If you search for Buddha outside birth and death, it would be like trying to go to the southern country of Yue with your spear heading towards the north. It is like trying to see the Big Dipper while you are facing south. You will cause yourself to remain all the more in birth and death and lose the way of emancipation.

[02:19]

Just understand that birth and death is itself nirvana. there is nothing such as birth and death to be avoided, such as nirvana to be sought. Only when you realize this are you free from birth and death. It is a mistake to suppose that birth turns into death. Birth is a phase that is entire, that is an entire period of itself, with its own past and future. For this reason, in Buddhadharma, birth is understood as no birth.

[03:27]

Death is a phase that is entire of itself, with its own past and future. For this reason, death is understood as no death. In birth there is nothing but birth, and in death there is nothing but death. Accordingly, face and actualize birth. When death comes, face and actualize death. Do not avoid them or desire them. This birth and death is the life of Buddha.

[04:31]

If you try to exclude it, you will lose the life. If you cling to it, trying to remain in it, you will also lose the life of Buddha. And what remains will be the mere form of Buddha. Only when you don't dislike birth or dislike death or long for them do you enter the Buddha's mind. However, do not ever speak about it. Just set aside your body and mind, forget about them, throw them into the house of Buddha, then all is done by Buddha.

[05:36]

When you follow this, you are free from birth and death and become a Buddha without effort or calculation. Who then continues to think? there is a simple way to become a Buddha. When you refrain from unwholesome action, are not attached to birth and death, and are compassionate towards all living beings, seniors and kind to juniors, not excluding or desiring anything, with no designing thoughts or worries, you will be called a Buddha. Do not seek anything facing and actualizing birth and death is the same as facing and actualizing delusion.

[07:53]

...posed by our great ancestry that there is such a thing as the inconceivable wondrous dharma And this wonderful Dharma includes everything. Everything lives. For example, sentient beings. Sentient beings live. in the inconceivable wondrous dharma, and Buddhas also live in the inconceivable dharma.

[09:05]

Sentient beings also live within a delusion. And sentient beings are humans, for example, fish and birds. Birds live in the air and no matter how far they fly they never reach the end of the air. Fish live in water and no matter how far they swim they never reach the end of the water. Humans live in confusion and delusion, and no matter how far they swim, they never reach the end of it. If the birds leave the area, they will die at once.

[10:16]

If the fish leave the area, they will die at once. If humans leave delusion, they will die at once. Air is delusion for the birds and water is delusion for the fish. Our world is our delusion. And in this world there is birth and death. Buddhas abide constantly in this inconceivable dharma. but there's no trace of deluded consciousness in their illumination. They are illuminating in this dharma and there's no trace of consciousness in their illumination.

[11:24]

Sentient beings are constantly moving in this dharma, but the illumination manifest in their deluded consciousness. And their deluded consciousness cannot reach the illumination that surrounds Buddhas and sentient beings. The job of sentient beings then is to Meet, encounter, and actualize delusion. Meet, encounter, encounter, and actualize birth and death. This is our opportunity. And if we do that, we realize the illumination of the Dharma with the Buddhas.

[12:32]

Yesterday I quoted Suzuki Roshi, and when I did, some people gave me those looks like, would you say more about that? And I said, that Suzuki Roshi said, emptiness is not nothing. Emptiness is disciplined form. But it's also then disciplined feeling, disciplined consciousness, disciplined emotion, disciplined all phenomena. It's caring for birth and death in a disciplined, thorough way. Then birth and death realizes emptiness. Some people have told me they're having some difficulty during this intensive, and they were having difficulty before the intensive too, and probably will afterwards.

[14:23]

But we have the luxury during this intensive to really take care of our difficulty, to really be thorough about our sickness. and during this time. We're supporting each other to encounter our difficulties urgently and yet not rush. Take care of each moment of difficulty before moving on to the next one. There's a point that I noticed when I read the teaching of Dogen Zenji, and he said something.

[15:57]

Well, Rather than try to look for the text again, I'll just say my memory is he said something like, don't analyze it. But that doesn't mean that you don't analyze. It just means that when you're analyzing, you encounter the analysis thoroughly. So our minds do naturally analyze, like we analyze inside and outside of a building. We analyze a building into the north side and the south side and the east side and the west side. Our mind does things like that. This is the activity of delusion. It's not that we shouldn't analyze, but we shouldn't get distracted from fully encountering the analysis.

[17:15]

Study it thoroughly and understand it. And that's, I'm saying that because Birth and death is thinking. So encountering birth and death means and actualizing it means we encounter and actualize our thinking. I mentioned also that I might bring up some teachings from the Samdhi Nirmacana Sutra and the Mahayana Samgraha, which also could be translated as Summary of Mahayana, by the great ancestor Asanga.

[18:32]

And this summary is based on the Samdhi Nirmacana Sutra. If we say that in chapter five of the sutra, Bodhisattva, what's the Bodhisattva's name? I forgot his name. He asked the Buddha, how is wise with respect to mind, consciousness, and intellect? Our bodhisattva is wise with respect to mind, consciousness, and intellect. Intellect. Now we add internet. And the Buddha says, ask that question out of your concern for the welfare, happiness, and freedom of all beings.

[19:48]

It's good that you ask that question. So listen carefully and I'll explain to you how bodhisattvas are wise with respect to mind, consciousness, and intellect. Consciousness and intellect. is an analysis, a threefold analysis, of the mind, the deluded mind of sentient beings. So then, it's not a very long chapter, but anyway, then the Buddha goes in to describe how the aspects of consciousness arise and function. So how are bodhisattvas wise with respect to delusion? And then Buddha described delusion. For the bodhisattva to listen to carefully and pay attention to this description, this instruction about how to meditate on delusion.

[20:52]

And then in the next chapter, the Bodhisattva asks, you know, you've taught about the three characteristics of all things, so tell me about those. And then the Buddha talks about the three characteristics of the mind, consciousness, and intellect, three characteristics of all phenomena. within deluded minds. And for sentient beings, all phenomena arise within deluded minds. So this is instruction for us about how to pay attention to and take care of our experience in such a way that we see how to not grasp it and see that it cannot be grasped. So I'm gradually warming up to the possibility of introducing the teachings of a sangha based on this sutra.

[22:06]

But I want to pause now and see how you're doing with what's been offered so far. if there's any feedback you'd like to offer or any response you'd like to offer. I just wanted to clarify a couple of things. It's not turned on. Could I clarify a couple of things he said? She said that emptiness is disciplined form. What my mind says is, is it more like the realization of emptiness as disciplined form?

[23:13]

The form that doesn't have to do with our interaction with it is still absent of inherent existence. So there's two parts. One is, I thought I was going to respond to the first part. You said emptiness is disciplined form. Yes. And I said, but what my mind says is the realization of emptiness is disciplined form. And then what did you say after that? then thinking the thought behind that is even if we're not interacting with form in a disciplined way, form is still absent of inherent existence. The second part I agree with, even if we're not interacting with our delusions in a disciplined way, still our delusions, still forms are empty. However, the emptiness of the forms is still the fact, is their disciplined quality.

[24:14]

I don't think I understand what that means. In the sense that it's their profound quality. to see quality. But they always have that quality, it's true, whether we're enjoying it or not, whether we're joining the discipline or not. But in fact, forms, if we don't practice with forms, they still have, in some sense, two qualities, a superficial quality and a performance quality. The superficial quality is the quality they have when you don't have a disciplined relationship with them. Their conventional reality, like things, if you don't study them, they look like things naturally look to us like they're substantially out there on their own. That's what they look like when we don't discipline quality. But in their thoroughness, in their discipline, their depth, their emptiness. So discipline may be a synonym for profound quality and also, it sounds like it's also leaning towards our interaction, or limited to that.

[25:21]

And you said leaning towards our interaction, but that's an important point too, is that there's some tendency to think emptiness is one thing and we're another. It's rather that emptiness is not something that wisdom knows, This is a disciplined state of consciousness. But it's not this deluded consciousness. It's the Buddha's consciousness, which is, you know, illumination of, it's dharma illumination. But it's also a disciplined consciousness. Emptinesses. Emptiness is a disciplined consciousness. And that's the deep way everything is, which the Buddhas are continuously maintaining. So it's true that everything is empty, even if we don't a disciplined relationship with it. But the way it's empty is the way it's being thoroughly exercised in a profound way.

[26:28]

And that is going on. The question is whether we're open to that by developing a disciplined relationship with conventional reality. Thank you. Another question? Yesterday I thought I heard you say that the work of a Buddha is to understand delusions. And then I'm not sure, but I thought you said today that there's no trace of delusion. Yeah. Well, there's no trace of delusion in the illuminated mind of the Buddha. But Buddhas can also try on deluded consciousness in order How does that relate to the work of the Buddhas to understand delusion? Is it actually actively working with delusion or is it just delusion?

[27:31]

They have learned what delusions are so they can use delusions in order to communicate without grasping them. So in a way to work with, to see through delusion in a way there is no delusion. Well, yes, that, but then also to use it to communicate. Use it to communicate. but they're not deluded in the delusion. They're not deluded in the delusion, right. They have studied it. And understanding it, their minds, which are not... I use the example of... We have this traditional notion of ignorance. karmic formations, and vijnana, consciousness.

[28:36]

This is a process of delusion which the Buddha discovered. The Buddha's illumination discovered this. But the Buddha's illumination is not this vijnana. It's a knowledge which is born of delusion. And that knowledge comes by studying this delusion process. But after realizing the truth of this process, the Buddha could talk to people still. But Buddha has to re-enter a karmic consciousness in order to communicate. But having understood it, one's not fooled by it anymore. Thank you. Good.

[29:43]

My mind analyzes this drawing implement as separate from this drawing implement, which is blacker. The thing I'm trying to learn is how not to like one more than the other. Good morning. Good morning. My comment comes from thinking about Darlene's life. It seems to me that if a person has a happy birth with a little difficulty, then they're not so maybe likely to notice their delusion or that their illusion.

[31:01]

Darlene, of course, had so much difficulty. And her relationship with delusion, she could really see very clearly when she said to me and some other people, I'd rather have a more superficial understanding. Anyway, I think I'm just up here too because of Darlene. And I wanted to say something about her and me. Ten years ago I went through a severe depression and had a lot of difficulty and I read an article that Darlene wrote called The Only Way I Know to Alleviate Suffering.

[32:19]

And it was about how she used mindfulness to meet her tremendous physical pain and difficulty with movement. And I was having physical pain and difficulty with movement. That article just helped me tremendously. Just reading that. And I wrote her a letter telling her that and she wrote me back. She was a great deal of help to me. And then later she came to Sacramento to where I live and where we have practice and she met a lot of students there and some of them became Christians. So she

[33:22]

made a big contribution. She actually did, I think, perhaps the first Jukai that may have ever been done in the city of Sacramento. At least Zen Jukai. Thank you. So my mind, you know, in some sense, when I imagine the realization that based on ignorance there's karmic formations, and based on karmic formations there's discriminating consciousness, and so on.

[34:32]

up to old age, sickness, lamentation and death, the illumination or the understanding of that, there's some tendency to think that somebody's understanding that, rather than just that that's the way. birth and death works. And there's no knowing that. There's just the knowing of it or not knowing it. There's a tendency to think that the Buddha is somebody separate from that process who knows it rather than the Buddha is the knowing it. And sentient beings are the incomplete knowing of it. separate from it. The Buddhas aren't separate from it. It's just two ways of understanding it, or two types of understanding, one complete and one incomplete. But the sentient beings do tend to think that there's somebody who wouldn't know and somebody who would know.

[35:37]

But the knowing of this, the accurate knowing of the workings of birth and death they encounter it so fully that there's no duality. And non-duality is their elimination. 15 minutes before I came here, I talked with Ines, my daughter, and she is happy to hear my voice.

[37:22]

She is in Sweden. And now when I think about her, I really feel scared to die. Sometimes I feel open. It's okay if I will die now. Now, just today, I'm completely in this duality inside me. and I'm caught in this duality.

[38:59]

You have a great gift to give to your daughter, and that is to be completely caught in duality. to show her that you can be completely caught in duality, for her to see this, to see that you're not hiding that you're completely caught, that you can fully engage and realize duality, or being caught in duality. Those who understand non-duality are completely willing to be caught in duality and vice versa.

[40:13]

So I don't know how much longer we can give this to our children, potentially, before we go. We can show them, when I was caught for your welfare, I was completely caught. Morning.

[42:22]

Morning. I also talked to my daughter just before I came. And because many people have asked me about her, she is out of the hospital now. She's at her boyfriend's house, and he's taking care of her. She will probably be able to travel back in two weeks to come home. And... I'm also deeply caught. it may not be a surprise for you to hear that Avalokiteshvara Bodhisattva is completely caught in delusion.

[43:44]

But it may be more surprising to hear that Manjushri Bodhisattva says, that she's caught completely in duality. And Manjushri is foremost in being trapped in duality. I would be bragging if I was completely caught I don't completely accept that I'm completely caught. A little bit of me thinks I can get away. But Manjushri has no reservations and therefore can brag. Amen.

[44:58]

Amen. Amen. Amen.

[44:59]

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