Can you hear in the back? If you can. A couple of days ago, someone was waiting on the steps of the Kaisando for Doksan. And she was looking at the lamp. You can't hear? She was looking at the lanterns in the morning. She said the flames were very quiet because the wicks were all cut. Just so, so they burned very quietly, all the same. And then she said, and he doesn't need to make any announcements at work meetings.

[01:02]

Today I'd like to, I don't know, this might be difficult for you, but I'd like to read several texts at once. So you have that text. It's called... Check the text from Chan Yirang Jingwei by Songsa. Do you have that text? So I have it laid out so I can see all three texts at once, but I want to study that text in comparison with Fukan Zazengi 1, in Fulkan Zazengi II. And I don't know if you want to keep turning back between them or not.

[02:10]

You might get too confused. So... It's like an amphitheater. Perhaps the most influential in China, and particularly on Dogen, the most influential manual for monastic life is the Chanyuan Jingwei, which means the Zen Garden, pure rules for the Zen Garden. And this monastic manual was compiled by Tsung Tzu. And then, apparently...

[03:11]

Separately, he wrote the ceremony for Zazen. Swachang Yi. Swachang Yi is Zazengi. He wrote a Zazengi. And then later, the Zazengi was put together with the Changyuan Jingwei. Yes? When did he write that? He did the compilation of the monastic rules in 1103. and he wrote the ceremony for sitting meditation. We don't know when. This text is considered to be You know, it's called, Dogen's text is called Fukan, which means, can be translated as universal encouragement or universal admonitions, but also can be translated as general, or even almost popular, or common.

[04:29]

So, the text by Tsongsa, is considered to be the first example of a new genre of Zen text, which is the genre of Zen meditation manuals. The Zen school, the meditation school, for some reason or other, before Sun Tzu, had not produced meditation manuals. Its main literature was the sayings, the lectures, and the interactions of the Zen masters. But they didn't have any real manuals of meditation. The meditation instruction was like in stories and in personal dialogues. This is like the first example that we have of where somebody actually sat down and wrote a text on meditation.

[05:34]

And one possible reason why there wasn't a text on meditation before was that there were already in Chinese Buddhism and Indian Buddhism many, many manuals on meditation which Zen monks could read. And that the special character of Zen is that it doesn't give its teaching in books but more through personal interaction between student and teacher. And if monks wanted to read manuals on meditation, there were lots of them. And they did sometimes read them, and you could tell they read them because they would sometimes ask questions based on those manuals. But here, the Zen school is starting to, has just started to make its own manual. Also, that's one thing. The other thing is that this text, uh,

[06:39]

was very influential. It was the first of a kind, and I feel, and you might feel too, that it was really the inspiration, or the, I don't know the inspiration is quite the right word, but it was the ground upon which Dogen wrote the Dogen Zazengi. But it's not a very well-known text, or well-appreciated text. And one of the reasons for that might be, number one, that it doesn't fall into Rinzai or Soto. Sangsa, I think, is in the Rinzai lineage, but this text is not a Rinzai meditation manual or a Soto meditation manual. It doesn't have like the sectarian clear school lines, which is another reason why it's more influential. Even though it's not strictly speaking a Soto meditation text, It is the text that Dogen used as a basis for Phucan Zazengi.

[07:42]

So we have this text, this Zazen manual, and then we have the Phucan Zazengi I. Phucan Zazengi I, is called the Tempuku version, because it was written during the Tempuku period. And in the Bendowa, which is written, I think, in 1231, I think they think now, they used to think it was 1234, 1234, Anyway, it was written around that time. There's a note in the Bendo Wa which says, I wrote a text called the Fugan Zazengi. And I wrote it in the such and such era. And that era ended a few months after Dogen got back from China. So he wrote it right away when he got back. But that text is lost. We don't know what it looks like.

[08:56]

The Tempuku text was written in 1233, six years after he got back. Fukanzazengi II was written much later, and Fukanzazengi II is called the Vulgate, and Vulgate means the popular, the widely distributed, the commonly known. That's the one that is a translation that we use and that's used in Soto Zen. It was written quite a bit later. And I'd like to look at these different texts and see how they're related and try to tie them all together with the Buddhist teaching of suchness. Fourth Ancestor's One Practice Samadhi, Vasubandhu's Bodhi Mind as the emptiness of, you know, object, consciousness and organ, tie these things together with these texts.

[10:13]

And I don't know how much we can do in this meeting today, but we'll do a little. Okay, so the Tsungsa's text starts out, by saying a bodhisattva who studies prajnan a bodhisattva who studies wisdom should first arouse the thought of great incompassion and make extensive vows and then carefully cultivate samadhi vowing to save sentient beings she should not seek liberation for herself alone that's the beginning and uh... in the Phucan Zazengi I and II, they don't start out that way. Phucan Zazengi I starts out like this. Fundamentally speaking, the basis of the way is perfectly pervasive.

[11:16]

How could it be contingent upon practice and verification? The vehicle of the ancestors is naturally unrestricted, why should we expend sustained effort? Surely the whole being is far beyond defilement. Who could believe in a method to polish it? Never is it apart from this very place. What is the use of pilgrimage to practice it? And yet, if a hair's breadth distinction exists, The gap is like that between heaven and earth. Once the slightest like or dislike arises, all is confused and the mind is lost. And this is the same as in the popular version which we used. So in his Tempuku text and in the popular text, they both start that way. But the Tempuku text had some more stuff in it, which is interesting, I think.

[12:21]

You should know that repeated migrations... Let's turn it off for a second. You should know that repeated migrations through eons of time, in other words, repeated births and deaths through eons of time, depend on a single moment's reflection. A single moment of thought. Losing the way in this world of defilement depends on the failure to stop deliberation. If you wish to transcend to the extreme beyond, just directly exceed to the way. The way of non-deliberation. Failure to stop deliberation could be referred to as failure to stop thinking.

[14:25]

Non-deliberation could be stated as non-thinking. So falling into the world of confinement is a failure to practice non-thinking. The next big section of the Phucan Zazengi, both Tempuku and Vulgate, the next section is not in the Chanyuan Jingwei. So I'm not going to read that part. I want to stay with the root text. And again, I might also mention that I call it the root text... You know, the root of the Fukanzazengi 1 and 2, I call it that. But Soto Zen establishment says almost nothing about this text. The school of Soto Zen in Japan does not like to associate itself with that text. Various motivations you could attribute to that.

[15:26]

Number one, again, this guy is not a Soto Zen teacher. Number two, there's some tendency to try to make Dōgen look very original. When I was first starting practicing Zen, like when I was ordained, I was ordained when I was 27. Just turned 27, I got ordained. And I must admit, I had a sort of a feeling of, what's the word? Anyway, I felt kind of bad that by the time Dolin was 27, he had already written Fukan Zazengi. He wrote it when he was 27. Actually, 28 by Chinese calculations. I thought, geez, I haven't written anything like that. Anyway, I now see that I could have written the Puganzazengi pretty well myself. Just copied Sun Tzu's text and Americanized it a little bit. And I would have been a great author, right? That's what Dogen did, basically. He copied Sun Tzu. And so that's one of the reasons why in Soto Zen, generally speaking, most priests and lay people in Soto Zen in Japan don't know about this text, but they don't want people to know

[16:34]

but their great teacher was not such a hot shot of 27. What interest. However, plagiarism in those days was different. We didn't have copyright laws. It was okay to copy the ancestors. Go ahead and talk while you, uh, the next, the next thing is really important. It says, um, uh, we just said we just read this thing about what a bodhisattva should do first of all first of all first arouse the thought of great compassion make extensive vows then carefully cultivate samadhi vowing to save sentient beings you should seek liberation for them well not seek liberation for yourself alone okay now Tom Cleary also translated this, and he managed to pull out of the text the following sentence, which Carl Bielfeld didn't find.

[17:37]

Then and only then. In other words, after making these vows, then and only then, cast aside all involvement and discontinue all affairs. Make body and mind one, with no Division between action and rest. Okay? This is a very important point. First of all, you make these vows. Then, you cast aside all involvement and cease all affairs and make body and mind want. I think myself that this is a, for America anyway, this is a better way to write the text. In Japan, maybe at the time, Dogen didn't have to say, first of all, you arouse the thought of enlightenment.

[18:41]

First of all, you make vows to save all beings before yourself. Then you cast aside all affairs. Then you unify body and mind. And only then. Maybe people understood that. The Sun Tzu said it and Dogen didn't. So, of course he meant that, but didn't say so. So, as a popular text, in some ways, you can make arguments for why he didn't do it that way, but anyway, the point here is that before you do, before you cast aside all involvement, before you make body and mind one, Before you practice the one practice samadhi, you should be, as I said, well grounded in the samadhi of two. The samadhi of self and other. The samadhi of putting others first. You do that practice and when you're based in the welfare of others first, then you can enter into a samadhi where there isn't any others.

[19:43]

And we cast aside all the concerns for the time being to enter the samadhi. So here you see the one practice samadhi in Somsa's work. I see it there. Do you see it? Make body and mind one. And I always say make self and other one. In other words, enter the samadhi of oneness. Translation is, after making these vows, then and only then, you should let go of all objects. Let go of all objects. No objects.

[20:46]

And let go of all objects means you let the objects just be objects. Usually people hold on to the objects of the senses and thought and manipulate them. They don't just let them be. Letting them go means you let the herd just be the herd. You let the scene just be the scene. That's letting go. After making these vows, you leave objects alone and let them go. And you put to rest all your concerns So that body and mind are one suchness. So here again is the saying that when you leave objects alone, stop manipulating them, let go of them. By that practice, body and mind become one suchness.

[21:53]

by discontinuing, grasping and manipulating objects, by letting them go and letting them be, there is no here or there or in between. And this is how the body and mind become one suchness. So, I'd like to stress this little section here where I feel like this beginning section of this text, which Dogen read, encapsulates the early teaching of Shakyamuni, of suchness, and also the One Practice Samadhi, and shows how the practice of suchness, the training in suchness, is the entry to the One Practice Samadhi. In very short form, he says that. Yes? That's Cleary's translation. Oh, I see. Cleary's translation, then and only then, After making these vows, then and only then, you let go of objects. In other words, letting go of objects means, letting go of objects is like one sentence, which means train yourself thus for one year, two years, 10 years, 50 years, until you can let go of objects.

[23:09]

Bodhidharma said to Vajka, Externally, don't activate the mind around objects. Let objects go. don't mess with objects don't mess with what you hear don't mess with what you see don't mess with what you think just leave the things be train yourself like that that's what Buddha said that's what Bodhidharma said that training also the fourth ancestor said that training takes you to the place where there's no here or there where body and mind are not here or there or there or here and you enter into one suchness through the discipline of the sense process through the discipline of the sense process. It is sometimes called the restraint of the senses, which is also called right effort in a full path. It's the first aspect of right effort. To let go of objects. Letting go of objects, once you accomplish that, you naturally enter the one suchness, the one practice samadhi.

[24:15]

And it's right there. Let go of objects. Body and mind become unified. Body and mind become one suchness. Okay? Dogenzenji did not, however, copy this sentence. However, I find this teaching of this sentence all over the place in his teaching. But in the manual, he didn't put it in there. And I can imagine that maybe, you know, that's fine. Because maybe that's actually too advanced for people to say, let go of objects and become one suchness. Because the next thing that happens is regulate food and drink. Although that's difficult to do, as you know, it's pretty straightforward. People kind of understand how to get working on it. Yes? On the second page, I'm not just saying one, later on, Dogen says, if you remain for a long period... That's a different part. That's a different part. I know, but there he's copying Soongsa. Oh, okay.

[25:19]

I'm just saying, here he left out. I'm trying to show that he didn't copy Soongsa at this point. But later, Soongsa brings this up again about the objects, and there he copies Soongsa. So I'd just like to point out that here he didn't. Okay, this is a very important part. This one paragraph he didn't do. But later, when Simpson gets back into this again, so this is the introductory thing. First is the vows. Then just briefly he mentions the core of the text is letting go of objects and unifying body and mind. That's a core issue here. Letting go of objects, unifying body and mind. This is called no deliberation. It's non-thinking. So just the beginning does this, but then later he comes back and goes into more detail. At that point, Dogen joins him. Although, I must say, although Dogen kind of copied Sun Tzu and criticized him to make it less obvious that he was copying him, he did write something a few years later which was pretty good, which nobody saw anything like before.

[26:32]

The Genjo Koan. So, you know, he was pretty good and original at that point. But this is not, he's not being very original here. But one thing he adds here in the Fukanzazengi II, which I like, is he says, do not intend to make a Buddha, much less be attached to sitting still. Okay. Or, actually, that's Carl Blufo's translation, the usual one is, do not intend to make a Buddha, how much less to be attached to sitting or lying down. Or, Zazen has nothing to do with sitting or lying down. In the next parts, about... the actual ceremony or the actual procedure that comes in the next part here it's very similar in this text in Pukkan Zazengi 1 and Pusat Pukkan Zazengi 2 very similar and then in the Shobo Genzo Zazengi there's a little bit more information about how to put your butt in the cushion

[27:56]

But basically, these ceremonial ritual procedures are pretty much the same. In Song Tzu's text, both Fukan Zazengi's, the Shobo Genza Zazengi, and Bendo Ho. And then we come to the part about the eyes, keeping the eyes open. And Tsongsa says, the eyes should remain slightly open. Dogen says, the eyes should always remain open. In Fukanza Zengy 1, and in Fukanza Zengy 2, he says the eyes should always remain open. So Tsongsa speaks lightly of keeping them open, doesn't say always at the beginning. But then afterwards, he makes a strong admonition, as you see, of saying that some Zen masters say that if you close your eyes, it's like entering, your practice is like entering in a ghost cave on Black Mountain.

[29:15]

So, although Sun Tzu says, first of all, slightly open instead of always open, he then gives a strong admonition afterwards. So all three texts are strongly encouraging you not to close your eyes in meditation. And Tsung Sa also says that if you attain samadhi with your eyes open, it will be most powerful. And that's been my experience with myself and other people. A lot of people get into samadhi more easily with their eyes shut. Some people get into it quite easily with their eyes shut. But as soon as they open their eyes, they lose it. A lot of people, some people get into Samadhi with their eyes open pretty easily. And some people have a real hard time. But the tendency is, especially for those who have a hard time, is you don't tend to lose it when you open your eyes because they're already open.

[30:21]

So open eyes is easier to extend the Zazen practice into daily life. It's more powerful. Harder to get, but more powerful. More useful. Okay? But still, most of this point, all the different texts are the same, pretty much. Now we come to the big difference. Not big difference, but another big important part. Once your posture... Once you have settled your posture and regulated your breathing, you should relax your lower abdomen. And I think a lot of you heard about relaxing the lower abdomen or making effort down here. Dogen took that out. And I don't. There's almost no place in the Shobo Genzo that I know of where he talks about, you know, working your heart up.

[31:25]

Relaxing your lower abdomen. This is something which became oral transmission in Soto Zen. A lot of teachers teach it, but it's not in the text anymore. He took it out. And then Songsa says, Do not think good or evil. Dogon already says that earlier. He quoted that earlier. Now here comes the important part. Whenever a thought occurs, be aware of it. As soon as you're aware of it, it will vanish. If you remain for a long time forgetful of objects, you will become naturally unified. So there is an expanded version. When a thought arises, when an object arises, observe it. Be aware of it. Be aware of it is short for

[32:26]

Don't activate your mind around it. When the object arises, be aware of it means let it just be an object. Aware of it means don't activate your mind around it. When you don't activate your mind around the object, the object will vanish. If you sit with objects vanished in this way for a long time, body and mind will become unified. That's what Tsongsa says. And in the Tempuku version of Phukhan Zazengi, Dogen says, whenever a thought occurs, be aware of it. As soon as you're aware of it, it will vanish. If you remain for a long time forgetful of objects, you will naturally become unified. Okay? Tsongsa says, this is the essential art of Zazen. Dogen says, this is the essential art of Zazen. Okay?

[33:29]

In other words, the Buddha's teaching of training in suchness is the essential art of Zazen. One practice Samadhi is the same thing. Okay? And then one more step is, in the Fukan Zazengi 2, Dogen makes his change. Instead of saying, when a thought arises... be aware of it and it will vanish. If you sit with the objects vanished for a long time, body and mind will become unified. He changed that to think of not thinking. How do you think of not thinking? Non-thinking. So that's the equivalent of the training of suchness and the one practice samadhi. in terms of substitution, and I think that actually is right, that that's another way to say, leave objects alone, is to think not thinking.

[34:37]

So these, this is, these are, three different ways of speaking, well not really three different ways, actually one way of speaking, about the essential art of Zazen. One way is, Let the herd just be the herd and then there will be no here or there. Let the herd just be the herd and there will be no subject or object. Let the herd just be the herd and body and mind, self and other will become unified. One practice samadhi. Same instruction, same meaning, think of not thinking. How do you think of not thinking? Non-thinking. When a thought arises, when thinking is going on, What does it mean to think of not thinking? What? Let the thinking be the thinking. Or get on and ride the thinking. Thinking is a definition of karma.

[35:43]

Let the karma just be the karma. Ride that karma. And when you're steady and settled on it, you don't manipulate it anymore. So he changed, Dogen changed from the teaching of just let go of the object, just be aware of it and let go of it and it will vanish and then be in that samadhi and body and mind become unified to think of not thinking. How do you think of not thinking, non-thinking? Same expression. So forgetting objects is like forgetting thinking. Forgetting objects is like forgetting thinking. It's like thinking of not thinking. It doesn't mean that you deny, ignore, or space out in the midst of the objects or the thinking.

[36:49]

You actually are aware of it. But you're aware of it in such a way that you forget objects. You forget thinking. You become so intimate with your thinking that it drops away. You become so intimate with objects that they drop away. As objects. In that intimacy with objects, you develop the liberating relationship with objects. I did this workshop on intimacy, and one of the people in the workshop said that he heard, some person told him that in Zen, the word for intimacy and the word for enlightenment are the same word. And I said, that's not quite right. But oftentimes in Zen stories they say, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, and she attained intimacy.

[37:51]

And meaning intimacy means that she was enlightened. So intimacy is understood as enlightenment in Zen text, usually, especially at the end of a story. But it's not the same character. When you're intimate with an object, you let it go. When you're intimate with a person, you let him go. You let her go when you're intimate. When you're not intimate, you push them away or hang on to them. You manipulate them when you're not intimate. Same with objects. David, how's it going? Intimacy is the same as let it go. And as a result of intimacy, you forget

[38:56]

that he's not you. You forget that you've got to manipulate him. You go right ahead and manipulate him, but you just forget. It just, you know, the manipulation machine goes on, but somebody forgot, and that one becomes unified. Okay? So, this is the essential art of Zazen. And in the Fukan Zazengyi I, he goes right on to say that Zazen is the Dharma Gate of Repose and Bliss. In Fukan Zazengyi II, he says, this is the essential art of Zazen.

[39:58]

And he says, Zazen is not jhana practice. It's not concentration practice. Okay? Of course, you're concentrated. but you're concentrated on intimacy with objects you're concentrated on intimacy with your thinking you're not concentrating on an object you're concentrated on intimacy with the object of course you're attentive to what's happening but the main emphasis is non-manipulation and suchness rather than just focusing of course you're focused but your attempt is not to manipulate yourself into being focused or to manipulate the object and staying around with you all the time or you with the object. The intention is to be intimate and non-manipulative and non-interfering and non-thinking about what's happened. It is a samadhi, but it's not a focusing, a concentrating samadhi, like a jhana practice where you pick color,

[41:02]

or something like that, and you focus and train your mind into that focus on that particular object. It's different. And then, after saying that, he says, this is the Dharmagate of repose and bliss. It is the practice and verification of ultimate Bodhi. The Buddha said, this is the end of suffering. When the mind is unified, there's no here or there or in between, and this is the end of suffering. So I see there's a nice agreement here. So this is kind of a big important part there, so maybe we stop here for a little while on this point. Probably you understand pretty well, but maybe there's some questions about this. I don't know. Marianne? Well, the vows that I think he means are particularly, first of all, the bodhisattva vows.

[42:15]

The vows that you feel towards the whole universe, not just your own personal training vows. He gives the personal training vows later, eat and drink moderately, You know, loosely arrange your robe, but in order. Don't get your rocks dirty and leave it at the pool. You know, arrange your cushions in a certain way, cross your legs in a certain way. These are the kind of like personal training vows. The vows that he's talking about at the beginning are the vows, the big vows, to save the entire universe, to benefit the entire cosmos, to heal and cure the disease of the world. That's the vows that he means. Then, for the time being, you can cast aside all affairs and enter this samadhi. Like I told you before, you know, I saw this statue when I was in Paris, you know, of Avalokiteshbar, did I tell you about that?

[43:21]

You know? There's a beautiful museum in Paris, it's small, called Mizegime. It's got three floors and it's a round building, and it's mostly Asian art. So it has like Chinese Buddhist art. It's holding a vase with a lotus. And she's out in the world, you know, bringing the lotus blossom to all people. But she's in her meditation hut now, sitting zazen, and on the shelf next to her, on one side there's a little shelf and there's the vase, and on the other shelf there's the lotus blossom. She's put aside, she's cast aside her activity of benefiting the world for a little while, setting it down. She's not active. She's just entering into samadhi now. So sometimes you put aside, you know, changing diapers and, you know, what do you call it? Fixing the road and digging gutters and clearing culverts.

[44:25]

You put that aside for a little while and then you enter into samadhi. You put aside concern for other. After you devote yourself to other, you put aside concern for other. You say, I'm devoted to you, but I'm going to go sit now, okay? Yeah, okay, then you go sit. But those kinds of vows, when you really make them, then you can sit this way. But you shouldn't sit this way if you haven't made those vows, because you can withdraw from the world and get out of touch. And then if you do, when you come back from your meditation, you might find the world irritating. And even if you do make these vows, sometimes when you come back from meditation, you find the world irritating. But you say, oh yeah, oh yeah, oh yeah, oh yeah. I remember, I remember. I wanted to be with these people. I wanted to deal with human beings. Yeah, that was right. That was the point of the meditation.

[45:26]

Even though right now it's kind of irritating. I remember now that was my intention when I left. Okay. But if you don't remember that, When you interface with the, you know, who is again, it's hard. You got to have your vows to help you re-enter. Once you get blissed out, you know, reposed. You know, we don't. And that's unusual too. In Asia... you don't very often find people meditating like this without having made, formally made bodhisattva vows. I think because we wanted people to come. Because Americans have, you know, problems about commitments to religious things, right?

[46:32]

We have a lot of religious refugees here, right? They don't want to like, you mean I got to commit to like save all sentient beasts, to come to Sasa Hara? Many Zen students confess, you know, I'm sorry, but I'm only in this for myself. I want to get liberated, but I don't care about these other people. So some really good Zen students never would have shown up. But maybe we should switch. What do you want to do? From now on that you guys got in, should we make everybody else formally vow to save all beings before they come into a practice period? Should we do that? Huh? Yeah, for everybody else, you at best. Yeah. How about that? How about after everybody here has vowed to save all beings, vowed to become free of all defilement, vow to master all Buddhist teachings and master to attain the unsurpassable Buddha way.

[47:36]

Then we'll require that of all the new people. Steve? Before we talked about Nicoletians, there's something about Well, in other words, while there's still somebody who's going ahead and manipulating and being busy, maybe there's, like, there can still be the thought, I'm walking across the room, okay? But while there's a thought, I'm walking across the room, there can simultaneously be the awareness. which doesn't manipulate that thought. This is called the one who's not busy. But you don't, huh? You know that case? The one who's not busy is not like not there when the one who's busy is there.

[48:40]

Okay? So I'm going, oh, I'm walking across the room, but there's somebody who's not busy who's there every step of the way with me. That's the awareness which doesn't manipulate this thinking that I'm doing. They're simultaneous. So, that practice can go on simultaneously with any belief in karma. As a matter of fact, they come together when you wholeheartedly do your karma. like we were talking about before, when you give yourself 100%, not 105%, but 100% to your karma, then you become unified. And then your effort merges with the one who's not busy. Prior to that, there's somebody who's partially doing his karma, who doesn't experience unity, but there's also one who's just riding with him all the way and realizing unity. it means to not it means it means the let's say the karma is manipulation okay the 100% the karma itself okay is not the karma itself is not karma the manipulation itself is not manipulation okay

[50:13]

Like I said the other day, the thoughts that you have prior to awakening are of no help to awakening. But that's not because those thoughts are not good or because those thoughts are not awakening itself. In fact, all prior thoughts to awakening are themselves awakening. So when you're involved in karma, that's not awakening, but karma itself is awakening. Because karma itself is karma unmanipulated. And when karma is unmanipulated, when karma is just itself and unmanipulated, there is no here or there in between.

[51:37]

And this is the end of suffering. No, it's not split off. Like in that story, you know, hear what he said? He said, it sounds like a split off. So in the story, Yun Yan is sweeping. Da Wu comes up and says, you're too busy. You're doing karma. You're manipulating the earth with the broom. Okay. And Yun Yan says, you should know there's one who's not busy. So then you're like Da Wu. You say, well, then there's two moons. There's a busy moon and the not busy moon. They're split off. And Yuen Yun raises his broom and said, which moon is this? Is this the busy one or the unbusy one?

[52:41]

So if you think it's split off, you know, take a walk. Which one is this? Is this karma or not karma? Is this thought? Or is this realization? Sounds like they're two. See, listen. Thought, realization. They sound like two different things, right? But anyway, if somebody comes up to you and says, you're thinking, you have thought, right in your thought, your thought itself is realization. Thought is also thought. But thought itself is realization. Just being the thought is the thought itself. But the thought that you're messing with and that you're clinging to and that you have concerns about, that's not just a thought.

[53:50]

I was thinking also Tim asked a question about, remember at the end of the last class, what's the difference between 100% and 106%? Did you use an example of meditation? No, I asked you to give some examples. Yeah, so I gave an example. So again, I thought that's a good example of when you're in meditation and you're sitting and it's 100% or even 99%, you're in bliss. Okay? Okay. Yes, that's the Dhamma Gator, Epos and Bliss. 100% sitting. Just sitting. The sitting is the sitting. That's it. That's called the practice. That's called the, what do you call it? What's it called? The practice realization of ultimate reality. The practice realization of ultimate Bodhi is when you're sitting, it's 100% sitting and that's it. Now, so what's 106%, he asked. 106% is, this is the Dharma Gate of Repose and Bliss.

[54:52]

This is the Practice Realization of Ultimate Bodhi. And I'm going to keep it. And if they want me to move, I ain't moving. I'm taking this home with me. That's 106%. 100%, you can't get a hold of it. Sorry, you can't get a hold of it. There's no extra there to grab it. 99% you can get a hold of it too, although you haven't got it yet. 99% you can get a hold of 99%. 1% you get 99%. If you get 100%, now you really got it. Now you need 101% to grab. You need 1% extra or 6% extra to get that 100%. And nothing could be finer than to have that 100% in the morning. Can you explain the difference between that and on the second page of Tunitza's statement where he says, after you have left Samadhi, always apply to protect and maintain the power of Samadhi, just though you're protecting. That sounds a little like you're trying to take something with you.

[55:54]

That sounds a little like 106%, or 101, or 113. And a lot of people ask, around this time, of the practice period, they start thinking, how am I going to continue the spirit at the end of the practice period? How are we going to take this into the vacation land, into, you know, Turkeyville? They ask that question, and I always have this useless comment. I say, forget the practice period. Just let go of it. That's the way to preserve it. you should protect this samadhi you know like it said there that you know it had protect one without deviation that spirit of continuous mindfulness of this samadhi okay but if you grab you lose the samadhi so somehow you have to continuously maintain it by not grabbing it

[57:08]

So when you stop manipulating objects and you let go of things, you get this wonderful samadhi of oneness. Then when you get the samadhi of oneness, the way you protect that is to let go of that. Protecting it for your sake rather than for your own sake. Exactly. That's the spirit. Protect it for its own sake. Dogen even goes so far as to say, You don't practice meditation even for others. You practice meditation just for meditation. Even for others is like, maybe a little bit like 100.001%. A little bit like, can I even do this for others? No. You're totally stupid. All you can do is sit when you're sitting. What are you doing? Sitting. Yeah, signlessness.

[58:22]

Right. Yeah, the signlessness. This is the signlessness, you see. The signlessness of the just sitting. It's also wishlessness, you see. There's no wish there either. It's accomplished. Your success and you don't hold on to your success. And how come you don't hold on to your success? How come you don't hold on to this Practice realization of ultimate Bodhi. How come you don't hold on to it? Because you can't, actually, because it's empty. Yeah, by the way, it's a massive fire. Anyway. And you're not there, sorry. Signlessness of speech karma? Well, speech that isn't karma?

[59:29]

Well, speech that isn't karma is speech that comes from the samadhi. So one way is take speech that is karma and realize intimacy with it and enter the samadhi. Once you enter this samadhi, when this samadhi starts talking, it's not karma because in this samadhi there's not a self and other, there's not a me who talks to you. So I don't do this speech anymore. Because I'm not separate from you. Maybe you can notice... Maybe you can notice disturbance. What do you mean? Yeah, if you've got a mind here that's trying to figure out something, this is not the samadhi of signlessness.

[60:46]

Pardon? But you'd have a disturbance there, and that would be an opportunity there to pay attention to some disturbance, yes. Meditation on dependent core arising is not to try to figure out dependent core arising. It's just to work with what's happening for you as it's happening for you. And someone asked me, is ta-ta-ta the same as yata-butam? Remember yata-butam? Yata-butam is, yata-butam dharmas are dharmas as they're coming to be, or as they've come to be. In other words, you see things as things which have come to be. You see things as dependent horizons. Is that the same as ta-ta-ta, training in ta-ta-ta? A little different. I think as you train yourself in ta-ta-ta, and you become unified with ta-ta-ta, then Yadaputam manifests.

[61:53]

When you work with things as they're happening for you, the way they're happening for you, when the way they're happening for you is that things are just what they are and no more or less, then the way things happen opens up to you. So first you just let things be the way they are. You let objects be the way they are, which means you let go of them. When you let go of them, they tell you a secret. They say, this is how I came to be. So you don't actually like, you actually can't train yourself, you can't actually meditate on and look at the pentacle arising. The pentacle arising is given to you is revealed to you when you train yourself in non-deliberation, in non-manipulation, which is non-greed, non-hate, and non-delusion. It is letting things be.

[62:56]

And your reward for this is the Dharma, the pinnacle arising of whatever the phenomena is. In other words, you get to see the emptiness of the thing. So now you don't just see a face, you see a face in such a way that every face liberates you. You forget the sign of the face. You see the emptiness of the face. And then every face that you see liberates you. Every face you see sets you free because you see the dependent core rising of the face. And you see the dependent core rising in the face because you stop trying to get something from the face. Even if you go to a wonderful Buddha trying to get something from Buddha Buddha can't help you because you don't see the Buddha face you see the signed face which you have a wish for. You want to get something from Buddha. So when you look at Buddha's face you have to have no greed and let that face just be that face.

[64:00]

Then you see the emptiness of the face and the Buddha is working for you. And when you practice this way and remain forgetful of faces, in other words, forgetful of the face as something out there, then your body and mind become unified. I think I remember reading a literary doctor that often people will write a prayer as a peace, almost exactly the same as an everyone, as a kind of veneration. But I remember people thought that the doctor was writing a peace as a kind of veneration or praise for discipline. Did you hear what she said? She said sometimes people wrote a piece almost exactly the same as a form of veneration. Well, I think on some level it was a form of veneration, but he criticized the text. He said that Tsongsa got it wrong. So his veneration, you know, that's Dogen-style veneration.

[65:04]

Criticize it, rewrite it, and then your descendants say that you're original. So, but he was 27, you know, give him a break. Anyway, later, later he had some problems too. And in some ways, I think you can pick on Tsungsa. There's some places where, like Stuart just, or somebody, I guess, Tim just pointed out this place where it sounds like he's telling you to cling to the Samadhi. So this is a general text for beginners. This is a text for beginning monks and lay people. That's one way to understand this. But still, I think it's a wonderful text in terms of understanding the lineage of these teachings. And for me... It's all hanging together pretty nicely. So Christina and Anna and Liz again. Yes.

[66:15]

If we really love it, we don't expect it to be a typical way. Right. Which is, let it be however it is. Right. We respond to trying, it's laughing. It's laughing, but it's... Right. ...for later that when we think it has to stay a typical way because you said that's a very happy schedule. Stay with it or something like that. Yeah. I didn't think like that I was holding on to it. Actually, that's just you. Right. So when we say protect something, there's different interpretations of protect. Right? Like when the Russians, I think it was the 56th, I think the Russians came into Hungary. Was that when they went in there? They went in and they said, well, we've come to liberate you and protect you. And the Hungarians said, oh, well, no thanks, we're fine. You can go back, take your tanks back. And the Russian says, but you don't understand, we've come to liberate you.

[67:18]

He said, no, no, it's fine, we're liberated enough, you can go back. He said, but we love you. You know? Therefore, we're running in a run over you now with these tanks. So that's one kind of protection, right? The other kind I think you're pointing to, I told you that story of the lady at the airport, right? Yeah. That's the way to take care of a baby. It's rather expensive. It means you can't do anything else at the airport but follow this kid. If you want to go to the toilet, you've got to put him on a leash and strap him to the chair, right? That way that lady took care of that kid, that's the way to take care of the samadhi. Where's your samadhi? Where's your samadhi? Samadhi! Oh, there you are. Oh, okay. Okay. Oh, okay. Oh, here we go. Oh, oh. You just, you know. The kid's the leader.

[68:19]

The samadhi's the leader. You're the adult. Let the samadhi be the playful, stupid one. He doesn't know any better. Poor old thing. It's leaving Tassahara. It's gone hiding in the woods. See, so Ana? I think the problem of originality, I mean, every text they've written on the background of other text, there has some facts, so what is the problem? It's the people who want to leave it, right? Who said there's a problem? I think they want to make it look like he's an original without a history. Why? Guess why.

[69:24]

That's why. That's why. To make your founder look like he's like out of nowhere, right? Like even Suzuki Roshi came to America, he was like out of nowhere. In Japan, he was like, you know, one of the guys. But in America, it was kind of like, yeah. Yeah. We had no basis to do anything but to say thank you. So if you want to set up a school, take away the history of your ancestor. Don't make him look like he depends on some ordinary monk over in China. That's why. And also, make it look like Zen has nothing to do with reading books, right? It has to do with his special relationship with Ru Jing. And it's great enlightenment.

[70:25]

That's where Soto Zen comes from. Not from Dogen like being a student who goes over to China, gets a book on Chinese meditation, comes back and rewrites it in Japanese. That's not so romantic. It's not so romantic. Even though, in fact, it's perfectly good reality. I think that's why someone might do that. Say it again. Say it again. I mean, everything in this teaching pops again, so I feel like it cuts this off. Cuts off this thing of independent originality. Yeah, right. Yeah. It cuts it off, but before it cuts it off, we should stand it up nice and strong.

[71:29]

It isn't like, kind of like, oh, well, there's no concern for originality here. There's no ego here. We have no ego here because of the medical horizon. There's no ego. No. Let's put the ego up there and then find out that there's nothing to it. So Dogen stands up there, nice and strong, and then you take them apart. Don't hide out and pretend like nobody's there. We have an apparent ego here. Let's let it just be, if it's this big ego, let it just be this big ego. If it's this big, whatever. If it's this sense of independence, let it be this sense of independence. If it's this sense of independence, whatever the sense of limitation and independence it is and power and butter, let it be that. And take care of that and let it just be that. Then we realize that it's empty. but not by hedging your bet on things, holding back, letting them be just what they are.

[72:32]

I think Liz, it's Liz and Steve, is it? What's your place in order? No place. No place. Okay. You're going to get it for that. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, like taking care of the baby without cleaning. Only protect it from hurting itself. Don't make it go the way you think it should go. Follow its lead. But stay close to it. Stay close and do nothing. Be intimate with the samadhi.

[73:36]

That protects it best. And when you're intimate with the samadhi, you don't cling to it. So, you know, my history, I told you, I used to be real heavy-duty into protection of samadhi. And when I finally got my samadhi completely protected, I realized I was miserable. Well, not miserable, but... It wasn't what I came to resent for. I didn't come to be kind of oppressively protecting and holding on to my samadhi. That's not the happy, free person I wanted to be. I'm like a slave to samadhi, a samadhi slave. Steve? Since I got it wrong, Do you know something specific, Stuart? We'll try to find out something specific.

[74:37]

Yeah, yeah. Well, we'll check, see if we can find out what specifically he's picking on Sun Tzu about. Well, I can understand that. But what they mean actually literally is dying, right? They mean dying. Yeah, yeah. Because you know there's a Zen style, right? When you die, Zen style is you sit cross-legged in front of your students like this, and then you go. Or another way is you're standing up.

[75:45]

Another way is hang from a tree. Grab a tree and go. One, two, three, see ya. So anyway, death is the last big performance for the Zen teacher. And to put on a good show and not be sloppy about it, you know, you've got to have a lot of Zazen background, right? So Suzuki Roshi did kind of a cool thing. He was lying down in his bed. And then when we started sitting Zazen with Rohatsu Sashin, 130 people started sitting Zazen and he died. That was his. So if you can do that, time it, you know, with the beginning of the Sashin. Especially Rohatsu's nice. And if there's not a session nearby, try to get them to have one soon.

[76:49]

Anyway, this kind of stuff depends on the power of the samadhi. Okay, let's see. Did you have your hand ready to mark it? Why do you think that Logan took out the mention of the hara out of this? My feeling is, generally speaking, that instructions about how to meditate on hara and breathing are much more complicated than instructions about posture. Hara is not just, you know, postural instruction. It's meditation on a psychophysical drama in this part of your body. And it's much more complicated meditation, much more subtle than the posture thing.

[77:54]

And if you take care of the posture properly, your breath and stuff like that come off very nicely. So I feel like that kind of instruction works best orally. And so there isn't much written down. And if somebody writes it down, it becomes fairly popular for a while. But then the word gets out, don't read that book. It's misleading. And then it goes into disuse. And then people say, well, what about this and what about that? And then somebody writes another book, and it becomes popular for a while. Because people want to know about, have somebody say about this stuff. But these kind of texts don't last. Because in order for them to be exhaustive and cover all the dangers of this kind of stuff, they're too big. say a little bit, people go try stuff and get in trouble. So that's my reason why he didn't do it. But I think that in actual practice, he gave a lot of instruction like that, and he got a lot of instruction like that, and a lot of stuff like that is scuttlebutt in the monastery, this kind of stuff.

[78:54]

But they don't usually write it down. But this is a place where they did write down the basic physical structure, the posture, and let it go at that. Is there a hand over there? No? Well, two of them, yes. What came to mind was your talk about religion, and what religion is. I can't remember the exact wording yet, but not denial of death, but the connection of death, and it was obscuring. Yeah, obscuring the fact. Yeah. Yeah, and even in Zen, there's these stories about so-and-so, you know, like actually the fourth ancestor. They buried him, you know, and then they uncovered him several years later.

[79:57]

No signs of decay. Even in Zen, they think that's cool. These guys, they die and they're sort of like, no rot here. This idea of, you know... But Suzuki Roshi's way was... to rot. No fancy stuff from Sisekiroshi. And people say, well, okay, he wasn't that good as Zen Master. Just like I think a lot of people said, how come he had cancer? How come the Karmapa had cancer? Can't they die a neater way than that? Have to get a regular, you know, could they get, what do you call it, designer disease? Like what? What's a designer disease? Dying in good health is a designer disease. Yeah, there's, you know, there's some of that thing about, like, something special, be able to do something special in the face of death. Don't we want to?

[80:59]

Don't we want to be able to, like, you know, meet that well? So what's obscuring it and what's meeting it and what's transcending it, this is a crucial issue. Right. Right. What? Yeah, it's a creeping vine. It keeps sprouting up and grabbing on to the practice. Want to grab something? Yeah. Doesn't ask me to sit back up. All right. Right. Right. Yeah. And that's why it's important that Hara instruction be given orally because the teacher might sense that in some case meditation on Hara would be useful to somebody.

[82:09]

But even that person who's useful to, he wouldn't be useful because they would get clinging to it. So I don't very often, I don't like to give people too much instruction on breathing because they tend to get greedy about it, clinging about it, and it seems to backfire. But some people could do meditation and heart and get something out of it without clinging or anything. like some kid off the street probably who doesn't know it's a cool thing to do, right? You can just tell them, you know, put your mind in your hara. Put your mind below your navel, you know? And it might be very helpful. And they wouldn't think, oh, I'm practicing Zen and blah, blah, blah. And they just remember it and use it. Maybe they wouldn't cling to it. But it's pretty hard in a Zen monastery to practice that way without getting some kind of a trip

[83:12]

But sometimes people find their Hara, they just find it. You just sit in there and suddenly, there you are. You found Hara. And it's nice because you feel all this kind of organic, what do you call it, sponsorship. You feel all this warm energy from that part of your body sustaining your circulation. So it's great. If you go look for it, it can be quite a distraction. Let's see, what time is it? I think maybe we can stop now, okay? Because it's about time to stop, right?

[84:06]

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