Good morning. Before I begin the talk this morning, I just want to say a little bit about our practice, Sachine practice. There's a saying, it's not, I don't do this for myself. I don't do this for you. I just practice for the sake of practice. And when I practice for the sake of practice, I am included and you're included. So I think we should keep that in mind. It kind of speaks to our preferences and to our self-centeredness. and our likes and dislikes and so forth.

[01:05]

And when we come to Sachine, we just set our preferences aside and practice for the sake of practice. And given that, if we all make the same effort then we are all supporting the practice of each other. So this is really important. It's not just my practice. Sometimes when someone comes to practice they think, well there are these people and they're doing this and I'm joining them. But that's not the correct attitude. The correct attitude is I am participating and my participation is what's making this work. So no matter what our position is, each person who is participating is the center of the practice.

[02:17]

And you are making the whole thing work. So, how each one of us participates and practices affects the whole sushin. If I start exercising my own preferences, then there's an effect that that has on the sushin. For instance, is just the extension of zazen. But that's an opportunity to go to the bathroom. So, please do that. But if you say, well, I don't particularly want to do qinyin, so I'll kind of go out and walk around a little bit or have a cup of coffee or tea or something. That reduces the effort. It affects everyone else's effort. So, or you may feel, well, I've had enough of this today, so I'll go home tonight or something.

[03:32]

That affects everyone's practice. Each one of us should be strong enough to not be affected by that. But at the same time, it affects everyone. So we should be careful and make an effort to, when we participate, to throw our whole body and mind into practice. And when our urges come up to feel independent, to look at that and maybe say, well, maybe it's not a good thing to do that. So, if you have to go somewhere, if something comes up for you, if you're tired, whatever, you should say something to the director so that we don't miss you.

[04:35]

When I see someone's seat empty, I wonder, why is that empty? I said, you know, if I know why it's empty, that's OK. But if I don't know, then I think, why is that empty? And although I can hold my own without you, you're included in my practice. So I miss you. And there's something about, I don't want to say group effort. But it's something we all do together. And if you have a puzzle and you take one piece out of the puzzle, it affects the puzzle. It's not complete. So the feeling of doing this all together, there are practices nowadays where people just do what they want. I don't see that's wrong. You go to your room and sleep or type or

[05:46]

take a long walk or whatever. I won't fault that, but it's not our practice. So our practice is to make a big effort to just, if we all just do the practice, then we encourage each other. So when I see that we're all together, feeling that we're all making our big effort, we all feel encouraged. And we need that encouragement because it's a long slog. Five days. Even five days is not so long. But we need to encourage each other all the time. So please, let's do that. So for those of you who weren't here, I guess most of you were, you've been Dogen Zenji's Genjo Koan commentary by Nishiyari Boku-san, which was our class during the practice period, and I'm trying to finish it during Sushin.

[07:03]

And so I'm going to read just up to where we, the Genjo Koan, up to where we are today. So Dogen Zenji says, when all dharmas are buddhadharma, there are delusion, realization, practice, birth and death, Buddhas and sentient beings. So this is the experiential side of our life. And it's also called the granting side. And then the second sentence is, When the myriad dharmas are without self, the first one is, when the myriad dharmas are the self, when we realize that all dharmas are Buddhadharma, then there are delusion, there's realization, there's practice, there are all the things that we experience.

[08:11]

So I remember I mentioned experiential, and intrinsic. Intrinsic is our true nature. Experiential is how we experience that in our daily activities through the dharmas. So when myriad dharmas are without self, this can be called withholding. No self. In other words, granting and withholding. Granting, oh yes, everything you do is true dharma. And at the same time, when myriad dharmas are without a self, there is no delusion, no realization, no Buddhas, no sentient beings, no birth, no death. So, the Buddha way basically is leaping clear.

[09:17]

of abundance and lack, which means self and no-self, which means granting and withholding. Lack means withholding, granting means giving. So we think of our life as being given, and death is withholding, withholding our life. Thus there are births and deaths, delusion and realization, sentient beings and Buddhas. Yet, in attachment, blossoms just fall, and in aversion, weeds just spread. To carry the self forward and illuminate myriad dharmas is delusion. That myriad dharmas come forth and illuminate the self is enlightenment, which is the oneness of delusion and enlightenment. Those who have great realization of delusion are Buddhas.

[10:20]

Those who are greatly deluded about realization are sentient beings. Further, there are those who continue realizing beyond realization, who are in delusion through delusion. When Buddhas are truly Buddhas, they do not necessarily notice that they are Buddhas. However, they are actualized Buddhas who go on actualizing Buddha. When you see forms or hear sounds fully engaging body and mind, you intuit dharmas intimately, unlike things and their reflections in the mirror, and unlike the moon and its reflection in the water, when one side is illuminated, the other side is dark." So this is about To forget the Self is to be actualized by myriad things.

[11:22]

This is just a practice for the sake of practice. When actualized by myriad things, your body and mind, as well as the bodies and minds of others, drop away. No trace of enlightenment remains, and this no trace continues endlessly. So that's where we stopped yesterday. And today, We're coming to section 9. And this seems simple, but his explanations or his commentary is a little bit difficult. So when you first see Dharma, this is Dogen, you might imagine that you are far away from its environs. He says, you imagine. And I say, you might imagine, because you might not. I don't like to make those positive statements. When you first see Dharma, you don't know how far away you are, but you might imagine that you are far away from its environs.

[12:36]

You might imagine that you are far away from its environs. At the moment when Dharma is correctly transmitted, you are immediately your original Self. So, this original self is important because when you look for something, you're looking down the road, where actually, in practice, all roads lead to here. So, we're looking in the wrong place. we're looking over there, when actually what we're looking for is here. So this is related to no gaining mind, because there's nothing to get. So this section is talking about there's nothing to get. So he says, the first sentence of Genjo Koan expresses body-mind study of the way,

[13:43]

following the passage, to study the Buddha way is, which I just read, the first sentence. In other words, the direction of practice in enlightenment is demonstrated with the principle of no dharma outside the mind. So, no dharma outside the mind is a way of expressing don't look for it someplace else. This is not limited to beginner's mind. It is the moment of going toward Buddhadharma with the awareness that there is practice enlightenment. And this has to happen. So, practice enlightenment is Dogen's course. Key to practice enlightenment, which is simply that when we practice, there is enlightenment. If you start to run after enlightenment, you won't find it. Suzuki-goshi was criticized, I've told you this before, by some of the teachers who were oriented toward Kensho, who came early in the 60s and 70s.

[15:02]

He never did that. And so people would say, he doesn't think about enlightenment. He doesn't think that enlightenment is a good thing, or he never talks about enlightenment. But actually, his emphasis is on practice, because practice is enlightenment. If you turn toward practice, enlightenment is there, but you don't realize it. Some may realize it, and some may not. That's further on again, Joko. selling water by the river. Do you want some? Well, it's right there. So his emphasis is on just do the work, never mind about the result. Just be in the boiler room, you know, shoveling coal on the ship, never mind steering it. practice enlightenment, and this has to happen.

[16:27]

Don't run after enlightenment, just practice. But this is very strange. We usually say, the first thought of enlightenment arises simultaneously with complete, perfect enlightenment. That's true. But he says, this is not like that. In other words, what is it that brings us to practice? What brings us to practice is the thought of enlightenment. I don't say the thought of enlightenment, but it's our enlightened mind, which we don't recognize. Enlightenment brings us to enlightenment, just like water seeks water, fire seeks fire, Buddha seeks Buddha. It's not like attraction happens. But this is very strange. We usually say the first thought of enlightenment arises simultaneously with complete enlightenment.

[17:34]

But this is not what is meant here. What is meant here is, when you first go toward the Buddha Dharma, you are already standing back-to-back with the Dharma. In other words, you don't see it. It's strange, isn't it? Why do we face away from the Dharma? Why are we so far away from its environment? sentences. So here, no dharma comes from outside the mind. When the self is in the midst of the original path without confusion and without topsy-turvy views, meaning that we think there's a self where there is no self, we think that suffering is pleasure, and so forth. So when the self is in the midst of the original path without confusion and without topsy-turvy Without increase or decrease, and without mistakes, there is not one thing that's lacking. To seek for enlightenment outside of this is already being far away from the environment of dharma.

[18:40]

So in other words, we have it, but we don't recognize it. Everything is here that we need, but we don't recognize it. So always looking for something outside. Not only that, there is originally not one speck of dharma to seek for in the Dharma doctrine. There is no self, no person, no sentient beings, and no beings with eternal life. Because of this, in the Pragyaparamita Sutra it is said the five skandhas are all empty in their own being, not born, not attainable. As the fourth ancestor said, all dharmas are utterly liberated. What on earth do you seek for in the midst of Dharma? As soon as you arouse the idea of seeking for something, you've gone astray thousands of myriads of miles from the way. This is like letting go of a gaining mind.

[19:53]

We think that gaining mind means to have two cars and two television sets, or be greedy about ice cream cones and things like that. But it really means this. No gaining mind. Not trying to get something that you already have by seeking it somewhere else. So we're always seeking somewhere else for what is already here, what we already have. But we should be aware of the tendency of beginners to say, it's not good to seek for Dharma so I won't pursue it. That's the other side. Because even though it can't be pursued, it can't be found by pursuing it, you have to pursue it anyway. It's not possible to perfectly fit with the dharma at the beginning of your practice.

[20:59]

It takes time to actually fit yourself to the practice. And that's difficult. It's not our usual way. It's difficult to not think dualistically all the time. And it's difficult just to sit zazen. component. And so you have to stretch your body out little by little in order to conform to position. And you're doing this all of your practice life. And to understand the Dharma really takes a long time. So not seeking for Dharma is out of the question. endeavor with urgency, even sacrificing filial piety for your mother."

[22:02]

There are cases like this. There was Tozan who refused to see his mother. And even when she died, you know, this is a controversial subject. But there are many, you know, other, one of Dogen's companions, they were going to China and the master of one of the monks that was going to China was dying and he said, please stay with me. And the student had to make up his mind. The monk had to make up his mind whether to go to China or to stay with his master. He decided to go to China. So you can complain all you like. The point here is not that you should leave your mother, but that seeking the dharma is a serious matter.

[23:11]

So by doing so, you come to understand that non-attainment is the true face of dharma. In this way, the difference between the original lustiness of dharma And the guidelines for beginners is like the distance between heaven and earth. In the scriptural school, there is something called the abiding mind of desire, where desire is good dharma, or good dharma is encouraged. The second noble truth is that the cause of suffering is desire. But we need to use desire and not be used by desire. So if we use desire, in practice. That's what he's saying here. Desire is not good or bad, it's simply how it's used, or how it uses us. So if your thought is

[24:15]

So, yes, if you say to somebody who's beginning, no seeking, they don't know what to do. So they have to do something. They have to seek for something. So seeking is not so much seeking after something, but there has to be a carrot somewhere. And Shakyamuni used the carrot a lot. Like in the Lotus Sutra, the carrot was nirvana. until his disciples got to the point where they didn't need the carrot anymore. And so they let go of the carrot. But a lot of them just left because they thought, well, I ate the carrot. I love these carrots. 500 Arhats left the assembly. So, because he told them that although this was good, it wasn't the end. So this is really important.

[25:28]

There's no end. So, we think there was no end. What am I doing? Because I always want a conclusion. There's no conclusion. There's no graduation. So, Only when you get to the extreme of seeking mind do you arrive at no-seeking. And Suzuki Roshi, I remember him saying, when you begin to practice, you have to stretch yourself as far as you will go. Therefore, you must start out with a great determination to practice thoroughly, study with a teacher, study the scriptures, and study the 3,000 rules for monks and 80,000 detailed activities. Those are just numbers. from the viewpoint of the original thusness of dharma. However, you can't see this if you even have a little seeking mind or a bit of attainment.

[26:34]

This is the hardest thing of all. It's the hardest thing of all. We say that one who is addicted to power is the most difficult thing to control or to Let go of power is the most difficult thing to let go of or attainment is the most difficult thing to let go of So even if you have a little seeking a little seeking mind or a bit of attainment So it is said that the seeking mind immediately ceases Even when someone calls you don't look back and you go away covering your ears This refers to two different koans, but it's too much to go into that now of the oneness of the Dharmadhatu actualized. Only then does face-to-face transmission between Buddhas and ancestors happen. You know, sometimes between teachers and disciples

[27:48]

a teacher will wait for a student to ripen. And the student may have wonderful qualities and great ambitions or whatever, but if there is that mind of desire, difficult for the teacher to acknowledge a student, even though they're a great student. And people wonder, well, why is it that the student is not acknowledged? But it's not like the teacher wants to do something. It's just that naturally, there's an impediment, a barrier. And when that's gone, everything falls into place. So, here it is explained from the viewpoint of the original blessedness of Dharma.

[29:06]

However, you can't see this if you have even a little seeking mind or a bit of attainment. So it is said that the seeking mind immediately ceases. Even when someone calls, you don't look back. This is when someone has actually dropped everything. There's nothing left. Only thus is the activity of the one thusness of the Dharmadhatu actualized. Only then does face-to-face transmission between Buddhas and ancestors happen. The second sentence of the paragraph shows the dynamic of attaining Dharma and realizing the intimate merging. But this is funny. It says that when Dharma is already recognized and correctly transmitted, you are immediately your original person. That's what Dogon says here, right? But in fact, there is no before or after. It is pecking inside and outside of the shell at the same time.

[30:09]

When the Dharma is transmitted, the Self to the Self, and you say, Aha! You are an original person right then. Aha! It goes way back to Shakyamuni's time, when an arhat felt that they had realization, they said, Aha! I think that's a kind of stereotype. Aha! Pecking and tapping is like when the student is still inside the shell but is ready to pop out. The mother hen taps from inside. Tap, tap, tap. Tap, tap, tap. So that's calling and response. When someone calls, you respond. I didn't think chickens do that, but I've never heard of a chicken doing that, but it's a great image.

[31:17]

It's a good metaphor. So I was thinking inside and outside the shell at the same time, when the Dharma is transmitted to the self, and you say, aha, you are your original person right then. And if you don't have even a particle of seeking mind, that all I remember Suzuki Hiroshi saying, if you say, I know who I am, that's not who you are. If you say, I don't know who I am, that's the correct way of saying that you know who you are. However much you hope for Buddhadharma, you cannot get it as long as you hope. That's an interesting sentence, because I remember back when I started practicing, we realized that having hope was not the dharma.

[32:23]

It's like these prisons, you know, the old prisons. All you who enter here give up hope. But actually that applies to the practice. Just give up hope. If you hope for something, you're stuck. Because you think that there's something else So with the teacher and the student, when that ripeness is there, people say, well, how do you know when to give someone transmission or something? It's not like there's some test. There are tests, but not written tests. When the fruit is ripe, it feels and it just about falls off the tree.

[33:26]

You touch it and it falls off the tree. But sometimes, if you wait that long, nothing will ever happen. Very little will happen. So, you have to pick the fruit sometimes when it's not quite ripe. Sometimes, I mean, you pick the fruit and it ripens. after a little while. That's nice. But there's, that's good. But there's also, well, this fruit is green, but we'll have to pick it, but it doesn't ripen. If you go to the store, that's what happens. Is this going to ripen? So that's the kind of, that's the way it is. So it's nice when it's totally ripe, but that's rare. I remember when Suzuki Roshi was giving his first dharma air, a noble dharma air transmission, he asked me, well, do you think, I'm going to do this, do you think, how do you think about it?

[34:29]

Because he hadn't done that before. And I said, well, do you think this person is ready? And he said, well, sometimes we do this when the person is ready, and sometimes we do it and hope. And I think that's right. enlightened but you know that the person will not backslide, you know they're getting deeper within themselves and that it will continue and so you have that kind of faith in the person and when you have that faith in the person people come up to the So I always like to err on the side of, the person will come up to it, rather than, I don't think the person will come up to it.

[35:31]

So it's always good to take that chance and grant. But withholding and granting is an art. So only when you forget yourself, and forget the Buddhadharma, is Dharma transmitted to you. It was indeed body and mind dropped off. The time a body and mind dropped off is the place of no seeking. It is as plain as a blank wall. So I have one of my favorite little sayings here. We need to practice to attain the precious mirror. Precious mirror is a euphemism for enlightenment. We need to practice The precious mirror is not something we can attain through practice. We need to practice to attain enlightenment, but enlightenment is not something we can attain through practice.

[36:39]

That's a great koan. You've been busily running around like a thirsty person looking for water, but now when you become your original person, what will you think? You understand that even before taking one step, there was already the original I and complete Buddhadharma abiding where Bodhi mind first arose. In other words, the first thought of enlightenment is complete enlightenment. This cannot be understood without 20 or 30 years of endeavor in the face of extreme hardship. So even though you hear this, you don't really know it yet. So if you look from here, even a speck of seeking mind, a speck of seeking mind creates a gap between heaven and earth. So Dasan says, Dasan was famous for 30 blows.

[37:43]

If you're right, you get 30 blows. If you're wrong, you get 30 blows. So either way. Before you get back into the boat, I will give you 30 blows. sure about this story, but I think you're trying to get hold of something. You're out there in the water trying to get back on the boat and you're saying, bam, bam, bam. You have to fight like hell to do it. So Doug and Ginzi explained this from the viewpoint of original blessedness, of dharma. My footnote, my commentary on Darshan saying, before you get back into the boat, I'll give you 30 blows. Don't get rescued too soon. Don't get rescued too soon.

[38:44]

I know, you know, when you fall off, It's really good to go all the way down to the bottom before you come up. If you get rescued before you go all the way down to the bottom, you never have the opportunity to hit bottom before coming up. And the more bottom you hit, the further down you go to hit bottom, the closer you are to your original self. But if you get risky too soon, you don't have that opportunity. So, I don't know how much time we have, but the next, I do want to get to the next section, which is when you ride in a boat and watch the shore, you might assume that the shore is moving, right?

[39:55]

Similarly, if you examine myriad things with a confused body and mind, you might suppose that your mind and nature are permanent. When you practice intimately and return to where you are, it will be clear that nothing at all has unchanging self. That's the second line of the Gendro Koan. This is withholding. The first line represents the principle of all dharmas are without self, criticizing the view of a permanent, single, presiding self, ordinarily held by people outside the way. By the metaphor of the boat moving or the shore moving is presented, but this is only a partial metaphor.

[41:04]

He talks here about the meaning of metaphor and the limitations of it. Now, you should have a good understanding of what a metaphor is. In general, metaphors look like they are hitting the mark, but mostly they don't. Most of the metaphors presented by Buddhism ancestors are only partial metaphors. So it is foolish to create interpretations saying that the boat means this and the shore means that. So we get into a lot of trouble actually. Sometimes I present a metaphor and people say, well what about the other side? What about this? You get down the road and pretty soon you forget what you're talking about. So metaphor just applies to that thing and don't try to figure out what it misses. It misses a lot. pertains to just what it's talking about. So it is foolish to create interpretations saying that the boat means this and the shore means that.

[42:15]

Here, the comments of Gaucho are suitable and appropriate. It is a crooked view to say that the body is impermanent and the self-nature is permanent. In other words, the body is changing all the time, but self-nature is not. He said that's foolish because it doesn't follow form. It is as wrong as saying that it is the shore that moves. This is just a metaphor. Look, the confused view regarding what actually is impermanent as permanent is illustrated by seeing the shore as moving, while actually it is the boat that's moving. So the second line talks about confused body and mind, which is deluded thinking. That is, thinking without looking at the dharma body. This is intended to criticize and exclude the theory of an established atman.

[43:20]

So when we say the shore, it does refer, actually, atman means like a divine self or a first cause. And dharmas mean so-called real entities. When we get back to the real world out of zazen, this is what's meant by dharmas, the real world. We think that way. This is the real world, isn't it? But yes and no. So, saying that the self-existent body is permanent and universal, which is presented by the theory of the 25 categories of truth in the Shastras of the Sarvastivadins, or the six definitions in the Paramartha Satya system. So, Sarvastivadins are early Buddhists who lived in Kashmir, and they had their theories about what exists.

[44:27]

They felt that all the dharmas have reality, have existence. And the Heart Sutra says all dharmas are empty as well as skandhas. That's the message, one of the messages of the Heart Sutra, is that the dharmas are not permanent entities, whereas the savasthavadins felt that they were. So we have the 25 early schools of Buddhism, which all argue with each other about what's real and what's not. It's not like there's one conclusion as to what Buddhists think. Buddhists think all kinds of different things. But Mahayana Buddhism thinks in this way. Most Mahayana, not all Mahayana, but most Mahayana. Broadly speaking, most students nowadays... I just want to talk about this a little bit more, because this is thinking without looking at the dharma body.

[45:33]

So, it's like, you know, I remember when I was driving up a hill, I was stalled on a hill, and the car next to me started moving up. And I thought, I'm moving backwards. But I'm just standing still, really kind of moving. And I'm sure you all had that kind of thing, right? And we also think, I am breathing. But you're not. You are, and you're not. Breathing is just happening. It's just a universal activity. Try and stop it. Don't try too hard. And then we say, I am walking on the sidewalk. easily say, I am being walked by the sidewalk, because without the sidewalk, there's no walking. This is no subject, no object.

[46:38]

You see the sidewalk as an object standing still, but when you're walking, actually walking, the sidewalk is not standing still. We say the bridge flows while the water the water is standing still while the bridge flows. What does that mean? Well, when you're walking on the sidewalk, the sidewalk is moving with you, but we think it's standing still and I'm moving. So, broadly speaking, with deluded thinking. To caution against such ideas, Dogen Zenji set up a section for discourse. There are many people who know that mind is permanent, that form perishes is a view outside of the way. This is a view outside of the way, that mind is permanent and form perishes.

[47:51]

People think this way. And even though they say so, they nevertheless fall into this view. Theorists of cause and effect talk about the karmic reaction in the three worlds. The teachers of scripture talk about Buddhist practice throughout the asamkhyaya kalpa, which is a long time. Also, nowadays, there are those who talk about an eternal soul, which is not Buddhist. They are all stuck with a poisoned view. This is a mistaken ordinary view that separates body and mind. So, what he's getting at is the non-separation of body-mind, essence and function. In general, to see body and mind as separate is the mistaken view of people outside the way. Buddhadharma is one thusness of body and mind, the non-duality of nature and form. Nature here means Buddha nature or essence and function.

[48:56]

Nature and form is like essence and function. In this way, if the mind is permanent, the body is permanent. And if the mind is impermanent, the body is impermanent, because they just go together. Although everyone agrees that body is born and dies in each instant, many people regard mind alone as impermanent. I think that should probably be body. I'll have to check on that sometime. How is this so? Buddha dharma is never like that. When you say permanent, the entire heaven and earth are permanent. But this permanence is not apart from impermanence. Because of this, the Buddha says all dharmas have a true mark, which is emptiness. And the Heart Sutra says the true mark of all dharmas is empty. That means the true The self permanently abides in nirvana.

[50:04]

An ancestor says, the green mountain is always walking, a stone woman gives birth to a child in the night. We have that kind of thing in the Hokyo Zamai. The stone woman sings and the wooden man gets up to dance. Great. What is a stone woman? And so forth. The green mountain is always walking. A stone woman gives birth to her child at night. That's from the Mountains and Rivers Sutra of Dogan. It's like a mountain and a stone seem like permanent things. Right? They're really established. A mountain is established as a mountain. A stone is established as a stone. But the green mountain is walking. That which looks permanent and established is walking.

[51:10]

And the stone woman who looks like a huge rock is giving birth to a child in the night. In the night means emptiness. Giving birth to a child, meaning that which seems established is continually changing. So That's true, except that it's dualistic. So if you say everything is permanent, it's true. It's not true, because it's just half the equation. So if you say impermanence, then you also have to posit permanence.

[52:16]

So true impermanence goes beyond permanence and impermanence. Otherwise, we get stuck. So however people outside the way say that there is one permanent thing within the mountain of the five skandhas, forms, feelings, perceptions, mental formations and consciousness, and it presides over myriad things, that's called atman. Atman and dharmas. The beginning of Vasubandhu's 30 verses says, ideas of atman and dharmas, meaning a source and a deity, which is atman, and dharmas, which is things, as permanent.

[53:23]

The idea does not match the reality. It's just an idea. These are just ideas, but they don't match. There's nothing that matches that idea. However, people outside the way say that there is one permanent thing, which is Atman, within the Mountain of the Five Skandhas, which is Dharmas. And it presides over myriad things. That's like a deity. as Atman or a Divine Self or anything like the form of the Self. If you say that the Self is universal, permanent, and one, the body that comes from it is also being permanent and one. However, the form of the body is born and dies every moment and keeps moving without ceasing even for an instant. The form of mind is said to be born and die 50 times

[54:30]

within the cycle of a day and a night. That's just a number, right? People ordinarily think that their body and mind are permanent, because they use them continuously all their life. So we say, my mind, my mind, or my body, but my mind is changing 50 times, or whatever the number is, continuously. It's not the same mind, even though it has reflections of a similar mind. It seems to be the same, and the body is the same. So, if you reflect on yourself intimately, what we call self-mind and self-nature perishes in each moment. The self-mind and the self-nature are annihilated when this body is destroyed. There is no place where this so-called Divine Self abides. The notion of the Divine Self is criticized in many sutras and commentaries. So the last sentence mentions where you are, which is the backside of this.

[55:41]

It means turning around the light and illuminating inside. If we turn around and see what is self-mind, what is self-nature, there is not even a particle of anything like divine self or anything like permanence. There is only a In Buddhism, we talk about mind consciousness. We don't talk about a deity. We don't talk about divinity. But, on the other hand, this is not the main subject of Buddhism. But on the other hand, if you are so vociferously denying that, there's a problem. So the second sentence says myriad dharmas are without self, means that myriad dharmas have no self.

[56:49]

Yes. Now it is clear that we don't have self. As myriad dharmas are without self, we are without self in this way because we are nothing but myriad dharmas. How can we be a self if myriad dharmas don't have a self? understand the principle, you need to have a great capacity to be free from the dualistic views of annihilation and permanence, and freely utilize annihilation and permanence. This is a tricky koan. The view that holds that heaven and earth perish is the view of annihilation. The view that holds that heaven and earth continue to exist forever is the view of permanence. So permanence and annihilation are extreme views that are denied, in a way, in Buddhism. And so middle way is between permanence and annihilation.

[57:54]

It's called thus. It's called middle way. Transcending annihilation and permanence. So we get into all kinds of tricky things here. The views of annihilation and permanence are not necessarily invalid. So here he's saving himself. Heaven and earth function in two ways and would not be maintained apart from this. However, those who fall into either of these views goes against the true body of dharma. For this reason, to maintain the self beyond these two views, using them freely and not getting stuck with either one, indicates a great capacity. Annihilation and permanence are the left and right of dharma, just where you are. So annihilation and permanence have to do with birth and death.

[58:57]

Like when you die it's annihilation or you live forever. Both of these views are extreme views which are a duality. So what's the real thing? Where is the real dharma which includes these two views but doesn't get stuck in either And so if we're talking about heaven and earth, that's a kind of duality right there. And if you're denying divinity, then what are you talking about heaven for? interesting field to deal with.

[60:12]

Actually some aspects of Mahayana Buddhism think in terms of divinity, actually. And some people say Mahayana Buddhism is kind of the religious aspect of in terms of being on that edge, Buddha is kind of like a void falling into the volcano of divinity, but standing all around the edges, kind of saying what's not there. It's very interesting. So that's kind of what this is about. And I'm glad we got through that. Oh yeah, I have a nice little footnote of my own.

[61:26]

Myriad dharmas are without self means that myriad dharmas have no self. Yes. Now it's clear that we don't have a self. As myriad dharmas are without self, we are without self. In this way, myriad dharmas are taken up to show the principle that the self has no self. So, the self has no self means that there's got to be a self, otherwise it wouldn't have no self. You can't talk about no self without talking about a self. So, it's the self of no self and the no self of a self. Now, even if you understand the principle, you need to have a great capacity to be free from the dualistic views of annihilation and permanence, and freely utilize annihilation and permanence. So, to be free from it means not to get away from it, but to use it. And this is what I would call the thief, knocking the thief off of the horse and stealing the thief's horse. because you're using that which is stolen for true benefit.

[62:48]

Never mind.

[62:51]

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