An unsurpassed, penetrating and perfect dharma is rarely met with, even in a hundred thousand million kalpas. Having it to see and listen to, remember and accept, I vow to taste the truth of the Dharagata's words. Good evening. Let me encourage people who are online. It's really helpful when you turn on your camera just so we can see each other and appreciate that. So this is the last of our five classes looking at the foundations of our Zen tradition, particularly in the context of key ancestors.

[01:10]

So we've done, we've spoken about Bodhidharma, Nungshan, Dogen, and tonight, Suzuki Roshi. And So before I start speaking about Suzuki Roshi, just see if there are any open questions from last week or from other weeks. Anything that's on your mind that you would like to know about or to say. Feel free to raise your digital hands if you like, or your actual hands in here. It's hard to do a class like this because it's so incomplete.

[02:15]

It's just touching on aspects of our tradition. And, you know, there's so much, there's so many more figures that we would like to learn about and study and even for any of these just have to have one set inadequate. So there's a hand raised by John, John Ryder. Hi. Could you possibly before we enter Suzuki Roshi, domain, if you could maybe speak to a continuity across that we're going to encounter with Suzuki Roshi, who is our teacher, our root teacher.

[03:23]

Is there some continuity across the span from Buddhadharma that that you can elaborate on a little bit just to sort of... Yeah, it's interesting because I'm going to read you something that is in the forthcoming new collection of Suzuki Roshi taken from his lectures and the centerpiece of what cites is something that we have already spoken of in a slightly different translation from Dungshan. So all of these ancestors, well, certainly from Dungshan, they were constantly referring and citing, referring to and citing each other.

[04:30]

And so what we're looking for here in a very broad sense. In the Zen tradition, which comes through Bodhidharma as the first Zen ancestor, who traveled from India to China, and then Yui Neng, who's seen as the kind of fountainheads of Chinese Zen or Chan, And through several generations after Huinen, we have Doshan, who was one of the founders of the Soto school. And then you have Dogen, who was in the Soto lineage, although he did not solely identify as Soto, but he's been absorbed in what's the modern Soto Zen school in Japan.

[05:34]

And then you have Suzuki Roshi, who is really a pivotal figure for us, but also a kind of exemplar of modern Soto Zen coming into the mid 20th century. And so that lineage continues and continues through Sojin and it continues primary identity as primary family identity, even where certainly for many of the ancestors, they saw themselves as not necessarily as exemplifying a particular lineage. And when Dogen spoke and when he quoted the ancestors, he was You know, he didn't quote from just, he didn't cite just ancestors in one particular school.

[06:42]

And so, you know, I see myself as a Buddhist. This is my family. And on the other hand, you know, I read and I read the Buddhism and draw from all of that. And I found that certainly Sojin Roshi did, and particularly in the early years when I was here, he was teaching from some of the primary... ...pali sutras and approaches, and Suzuki Roshi did also. All of them were deeply educated in the breadth of Buddhism. And there was an evolving flavor to their practice, which is kind of crystallized in Suzuki Roshi.

[07:46]

Does that make sense? Yeah, it does. That's fine. Thank you. That's kind of my way of thinking about it. You know, it's a whole other, yeah, other questions or thoughts. Paolo. How is non-sentient beings can have? I know maybe there's a lot to this and we don't have time, but how can non-sentient beings have karma? Well, so this is an evolution. I don't know what he was saying. So this is part of the evolution of particularly Chinese Mahayana Buddhism.

[08:55]

And I think that in many ways, it's the kind of interpenetration of other schools of Chinese religious philosophy, particularly Taoism, et cetera. that saw all of nature as pervaded as a manifestation of Buddhadharma, of Buddha nature. And, you know, this, if you go back to, I think the, if you went back to the Pali Sutras to look at it, you would find, you really wouldn't find it being spoken of that way. But at the point at which Buddhism made a cultural shift from Indian Buddhism and found a new location in China. This kind of orientation was very much perspective of Chinese Buddhism.

[10:03]

It was a great, just a tremendous natural awareness. And that became a point of doctrine. And, you know, as I think I said in one of the early classes, there was a school of Buddhism that evolved in the 70s and 80s in Japan. It's called critical Buddhism. was really questioning the assigning of Buddha nature to insentient beings as a distortion of the Buddha's early teachings. So, you know, that I would say is there is no one Buddhism.

[11:09]

you cannot put your finger on something that is Buddhism, and you can't even really put your finger on something that is for sure. At the point at which we have the Pali suttas, it's already, by the time they were written down, it's already three or four hundred years after the Buddha's time. And if you look at the earliest Scripture, the earliest writings that we have a record of so far, those date from somewhere around the beginning of the Common Era, and they were found in Afghanistan. And it's very interesting because Christians have kind of a... They really have a mix of what we would... consider Pali teachings, they're in another language, but they have a mix of what we would call early Buddhism, Yana Buddhism.

[12:21]

So there's nothing pure, there's no one Buddhism. And so this is something that we have, the tradition is what we have, we have inherited, and it's a living tradition. And Also the recognition, if you think about, so this core principle of Buddhism as being, one core principle is impermanence and non-self. So if you apply impermanence and non-self to the Buddhist tradition itself, it's not surprising that it manifested in different ways according to the different cultural and linguistic conditions in which it existed.

[13:24]

So Buddhism in China looks different than Buddhism in parts of India, and even Buddhism in parts of India, as I think I said, If you went to Nalanda or if you went to a monastery in China a little later, what you'd find is a whole variety of practices and a variety of schools and perhaps a diversity in doctrine, actually, that were coexisting within one place. So the idea of insentient beings preach the Dharma, this is a big, this is a big sort of core teaching of certainly of and then of Dogen's. It's in our lineage. And so we have it, but we have to discover all this for ourselves to see where the truth of this is.

[14:34]

So I'm sorry, that's a long answer to a question. Other questions? This is just to say it's really good to open up these questions. You know, these are things that we want to know about and we don't always get to ask about and we shouldn't sort of doctrinally given. Okay, Leonie. I'm not sure how well formed this question is, but when you say there's a diversity of Buddhism, even at a single time, I try to picture in my mind how diverse in thought, or how similar in thought were they?

[15:39]

compare that to the way in which there's BCC and there's San Francisco Zen Center and there's Green Gulch and all these are different practice places and there's some diversity there like how unified but I think of a lot of the Zen I don't actually even know how to comprehend the diversity of Zen practice let alone the diversity of Buddhist practice in the times that you've been describing so well for example If you go a half mile away to the Berkeley Buddhist monastery, which is in the Chan tradition, very much in the Zen tradition, where here we're somewhat steeped in the literature of koans, and we take that as a really important teaching device. know anything about cons.

[16:42]

It's not that they don't know anything. It's just, they don't study that. So their approach to Zen, they have to have meditation, they have some of the same approaches that we would have. But their study is core tech. That in fact, then we don't study, you know, if they're looking at, they're looking, they're studying and really learn the Avatamsaka Sutra, or the Sharingama Sutra, or the Paranirvana Sutra. These are major Mahayana Sutras we haven't had classes on. We don't study, and I certainly don't feel any expertise in those particular sutras, and this is what they spend their lives studying. So right there within, nominally, two We have a really different approach.

[17:44]

Does that make sense? Well, if it's okay, let me go ahead and I want to read you something. I thought I would read you something that you haven't heard. In his last couple of years, Sojin Roshi was working with Jiryu, who was one of his disciples at Green Gulch. And they were putting together a new collection of taken from Suzuki Roshi's lectures. And that's actually a, that's a book that's going to come out in the next couple of years. And so they were gathering and sorting and editing material that that we have, but I think when we hear it, it'll be very familiar. So if it's okay, I'll read this to you.

[18:47]

This is from a lecture that was given in February of 1971 at a session at a city. And the title is, don't try to figure out who you are. This morning I said you must find yourself in each Zazen period. This is actually what Tozan Zenji, that's Tozan is Dungshan. What Tozan Zenji meant when he said in his enlightenment verse, after seeing his reflection in the water, and here's his translation of the verse. Don't try to seek yourself. Don't try to figure out who you are. found that way is far from the real you. It is not you anymore. But when I go on my way, wherever I turn, I meet myself.

[19:55]

When you take your own step, wherever you go, you will meet with yourself. Let me read that again. Again, this is Dengshan. Don't try to seek yourself. Don't try to figure out who you are. The you found in that way are from the real you. It is not you anymore. But when I go on my way, wherever I turn, I meet myself. When you take your own step, then wherever you go, wherever you go, you will meet with yourself. So Suzuki Roshi says, that is the bodhisattva way. Tozan Zenji says that when you want to figure out who you are, the image you see in the water is not you. But actually, the image you see in the water is yourself.

[21:05]

So the water is like a mirror. which is the song of the Jewel Mirror Samadhi, Tozan says, Tozan makes the same statement. He says, you are not he, but he is you. It is paradoxical, you know, to catch your mind, he uses a paradoxical statement like this. It means, that when you try to figure out who you are, even though you see yourself in the mirror, it's not you. But if you just see your figure in the mirror, without any idea of trying to figure out what you are, that is yourself. The reason why it is not you when you try to figure out who you are

[22:09]

is because of your self-centered, limited mind. Self-centered practice doesn't work. If you try to attain enlightenment, or if you want to be some great Zen master, you cannot actually be a great Zen master. Before you practice our way, you are already But because of your limited self-centered practice, even though you practice our way, you cannot have real practice. You will lose yourself in small self-centered practice. This morning said that first of all, you should try to help others. But when I say so, you will have some misunderstanding.

[23:11]

Whatever you do, that is our practice. Misunderstanding from a selfish gating idea. It's pretty hard to practice our way without any expectation or gaining idea. That is why we have various rules in the Zendo. without any idea of self. I'm sorry, the opposite. You can just follow the rules without any idea of yourself. Giving up your idea of self. You can practice real practice, which is not based on a self-centered idea. So the rules will help you give up your self-centered practice, which doesn't work and encourage your true practice.

[24:22]

The reason why we observe our rules is just to help make it easy to keep our practice. It is the easy way to practice. You may think that to follow rigid rules is difficult to practice. Someone said, oh, I wish I hadn't started this kind of difficult religion. Maybe our small mind will feel that way. But if you know what real practice is, then following the different precepts and rules of the Buddhist way will help yourself as well as others. So there, we have the authentic voice of Suzuki. I think it's familiar to many of us.

[25:23]

The teachings are teachings that he consistently shared over the years that he was our teacher and they've been preserved in his writings. There's nothing new about this and I don't think you as we read these new texts somehow we're not going to see a new unfamiliar Suzuki Roshi emerging consistent in his message. What I take from the middle of this teaching is this morning, I also said that first of all, you should try to help others.

[26:32]

That is the Bodhisattva, to me, that is his articulating the Bodhisattva spirit. And the practice that we have that he shared is not just for our own awakening, but to encourage us to find whatever ways it is to others in through the difficulties of all of our lives. And this is the compassion and heart that he had for us. And these teachings, everything we read by Suzuki Roshi, in a sense, it's important to remember that

[27:39]

his teachings have been taken out of context, that there was a context for when he was saying things, and this is true of any Zen teaching, that speaking directly to people who were in this Sashim in February of 1971, and he was speaking from what he knew to be the challenges that were facing people in Sishima. He was offering them a teaching for that moment, for that time and place. And so we locate Suzuki Roshi really in a time and place. And it's good to have an understanding of what that was. And I'm going to... talk a bit about his background and then talk about some of what might consider his fundamental teachings.

[28:52]

But every teaching is a time and place. Every question and answer, say in lecture, is a response to a particular person and a particular question. Not, not an abstract issue. And that's the spirit of our tradition. So, you know, lately, someone in our Suzuki Roshi Zen family has created, out of chat GPT, the Suzuki Roshi bot. And It's kind of interesting. You know, it's capable of generating Suzuki Roshi sounding pronouncements and texts.

[29:58]

Not a lot like him. But that really is taken out of context. It's just taking the words, taking the style, and and fashioning a statement. It's not speaking to a particular person. So kind of an interesting thing to do, but on the other hand, I'm not so interested in it. It's kind of playing around and playing around in the context. I think a practice that is, on the one hand, very serious, and the other hand embodies the lightness and the joy that we hear in Suzuki Roshi. So I want to talk a little about his life, but first let me just see, are there any questions that came up from the piece that I read?

[31:06]

or anything new that struck you in this that you hadn't heard before or that ended on you freshly? Sue. Thank you, Ahazam. I'm still dwelling on the idea of helping people who come to you. And I realize that I tend to see, well, are they somebody I want to have some sort of relationship with? And yet, very often, I could actually expand my life by seeing how I can be helpful.

[32:19]

Makes sense. And it's sort of mind blowing that we can meet each person in not an annoyingly helpful way, you know, but just open. And that sounds like a pretty great and very hard way to live. My sense of Suzuki Roshi and you can get this there's there's some short film clips of him and one is a film clip of him that was made for KQED program and somehow it was like a video of him driving to Tassajara and this is like in 1968, 69 and stopping at a gas station along the way and getting out of the car in his robes. And there were these two shirtless guys, young guys who were working in the gas station.

[33:25]

And immediately he, he went, he walked up to them and you can see there's no soundtrack, but you could see him with them. And they met. They were engaged with each other. And I think that one of the lessons and one of the, I think one of the lessons of Suzuki Roshi was not to turn away from anybody. And one of these incredible abilities that he had, that is somewhat mysterious to me. But I admire it when I see it is just a quality of ordinary presence that allowed everybody in his presence to feel seen.

[34:26]

And certainly this is something that was confirmed. Sojin talked about it when we discussed it and he would talk about it. Just everybody in Suzuki felt completely and mysteriously seen, which is, that's a really rare quality. But I think we can cultivate that quality. I think what he was teaching us by this principle of helping others is like, can you bring your attention to being present with whomever you are meeting. And I think that's essential teachings. I think Sojun cultivated that as well. And Suzuki Roshi just had this kind of warm envelope of presence and awareness that

[35:39]

everybody responds to. So we can try and we can develop. It's not necessarily something you were born with. It's something that you can cultivate. Other questions or thoughts? There's a hand in the dark. He said, oh, it's John again. Now you're in the dark, John. Yeah, I'm sorry. I don't have a lot of light. It seems to me that from what you read there, he also said, you're going to misunderstand what I'm saying. After he uses that line, help others. I forget the exact sentence. Yeah. So, you know, it's the same... of self. He's talking about you're looking for yourself, but don't look for yourself, the true self or the real self.

[36:52]

This stuff is built for misunderstanding and built for seeing more deeply what is at hand. Right, so what he's saying I think in this piece is that we do have this, we have self-centered ideas. And he's not blaming us for that. But he's also encouraging us to practice in a way, the way I would put it, he's practicing a way allows the self centered ideas to become really fully transparent to us. So we're not caught by them. This is also one of his teachings is it don't be caught.

[37:54]

We're going our, our, our habitual life in our programming is maybe even our hard wiring is going to attempt to create a self. And he's saying, in order to help others, can we get beyond that? You know, and in helping others is helping others is also simultaneously how we can get beyond that. And this is the mechanism of our practice, I think. I read it just a tad differently. And so far as this is as is as built as has as much or the other has as much illusion built into it as the self. And there is no other.

[38:57]

I think that the deeper with Suzuki Roshi is always that there's something deeper than the self and there's always something deeper than the other and that's something else. and to not get he's saying okay yeah help others but there's there's something even beyond that opens this up with uh you may uh don't don't look for yourself here don't try to find yourself here i think the same move is with the other as well my thought is um in the Dungshan verse and in Suzuki Roshi's teaching, and in Sojin's teaching. For example, Sojin would often say, we have to read the other side of the .

[40:01]

So the self is constructed, the other is constructed, and the challenge for us is to be able to see things from multiple directions and not be caught by looking from one direction. When we're looking from one direction, that's where we're constructing something that we think is real. And so in other words, to look through it, and this is also, this accords with certainly accords with what we would see in Majanaka, and relatedly in Yogacara thinking, but I don't want to get, I don't want to go off in that direction at the moment. Yeah, okay. There was something in the chat, let me just see. If I can email, I will, I'll email you the meeting.

[41:05]

And there was another, there's a question from Nina Sprecher. Don't trees, for example, preach the Dharma if we know how to listen, impermanent and interconnectedness? Yes, I believe that they do. But all I'm saying, that makes sense to me. But just what I'm saying is that a way that our understanding of the Dharma evolved, particularly it evolved in its encounter with Chinese culture, that it wasn't very much, it wasn't particularly in the early Indian teachings. So, what am I doing here?

[42:12]

wanted to say a little about Suzuki Roshi's background and see if I can get yourself because I think if you really want to know about Suzuki Roshi's life. Just read Crooked Cucumber by David Chadwick. Happens to be David Chadwick's birthday today. But that's read it anyway. You know, David Chadwick's book is, is really, really well researched. And, you know, he was so attentive as a student himself to, to Suzuki Roshi, but he did, he, he did monumental research and, and viewing an oral history. And so it's all there. But meanwhile, let me just give you a short, sketchy overview. Suzuki Roshi was born in May of 1904, and his father, Butsuman Sogaku, was the abbot of a soto temple near Tokyo.

[43:31]

And his mother was the daughter of a priest. And father's temple Shoganchi was located about 50 miles southwest of Tokyo, and it was a small and poor temple, so the family had to be very thrifty. He understood the family's financial plight, and he also was poorly dressed. He shaved his head as a young boy and he was made fun of in school because he was the son of a priest. Being a priest in that early 20th century was pretty low status position in Japan at that time.

[44:33]

And while he didn't in the schoolyard, he was a top student. And his teachers encouraged him to study hard. At the age of 12, he decided to train with a disciple of his father's, Dokuchun. And his parents thought it was too young to go and live in a temple far from home. But eventually they allowed it. And he was the Suzuki Roshi arrived during the practice. The youngest student, they was 12. They would get up for sasana at four every morning and chant the sutras and clean the temple. And Suzuki Roshi idolized his teacher, who was really tough, really strong.

[45:41]

And, you know, I think that the legend has it that basically Gyokuchun drove away all of his other students. They all fled. It was too hard, except for Suzuki Roshi. So when he was 13, he was ordained as a novice, and he was given the name Shogaku Shinryu. And his teacher gave him the nickname Crooked Cucumber for his forgetful and unpredictable nature. And he was, again, the subject of ridicule.

[46:47]

But he never complained. In 1918, at the age of 14, Solon was made the head of a second temple, which was outside the town of Yaizu. And that temple is Rinsoin. That became the temple that Suzuki Roshi, where he was the abbot and where his son and grandson were subsequently abbot and where Sojin received Dharma transmission and some of us have practiced that and visited. Beautiful place up against the mountainside, up the top of the plantations and In back of the temple, there are orange groves. It's really, it's really beautiful. So on his teacher sent his students to study with a Rinzai master for a while.

[48:08]

And here Suzuki Roshi He began to study koans and to kind of hold the goal of Satori or Kensho. And Suzuki Roshi had a lot of difficulty with his koans. Meanwhile, the other boys passed theirs and he felt isolated. And Before the graduation ceremony, Suzuki went to his teacher and blurted out an answer. And the master passed Suzuki, but later Suzuki Roshi felt that the teacher had done it just to be kind to him. So he came home at the... But he really wanted to be with Zon and to train with him. And in school, he took English and did quite well at it.

[49:13]

And so he continued his training. I'm going to skip ahead. In 1925, so that's the age of 21, he entered Komazawa University, which is the Soto University. And he continued his connection with Solon, going back and forth. And in 1926, at the age of 22, he received donor transmission from Solon. And later that year, he had tuberculosis. And he began to visit an English teacher named Nora Ransom. And he worked with her for for quite a few years. And in 1929, someone retired as and installed Suzuki Roshi as its 28th abbot.

[50:24]

And Suzuki Roshi graduated from Komazawa was a major in Zen and in Buddhist philosophy and a minor in English. And during this period, he began to think that he might like to go to America to study. So from Komazawa, he went to Aheji, which is the headquarter temple. And his responsibility there was to He was the attendant for a very famous Zen master, Kishizawa Ien, who was himself was in a lineage of Dogen scholars. And this is where Suzuki Roshi began his education in Dogen.

[51:34]

And he studied with Kishizawa years. I'm skipping ahead here. So he continued to practice there and and he was the abbot of and there was a growing community there. And the war came. There's a legend that Suzuki Roshi was involved in anti-war activities in World War II. Probably that's not true. But at best, certainly he was not enthusiastic about supporting about the war effort and did not go, did not serve in the army. And there's a, I have a photograph

[52:37]

in my office. It's a photograph that I went through in, going through their archive of photos. I found this striking photo and asked Hoitsu what it was. In the picture, actually, Suzuki Roshi is holding Hoitsu as a baby in his arms, as a little boy, not a baby. The photograph is from somewhere in the early 40s, of the whole Winsowin community, which was quite large. And all the temple bells are arrayed in front of them. And everybody has a really grim expression on there. The day the Japanese army came to confiscate all the bells to melt them down for armaments. And we can see that we have the record of that. The other thing that Suzuki Roshi did during the war period was about, I don't know, it's about five miles or so from Yaizu, which is on the coast.

[53:46]

It's a town, it's a fishing town, but it's a real town. And so it was subject to kind of the pattern bombing that happened during the war. And so Suzuki Roshi took orphans and took children and family members into the shelter of the temple at Rinsulin. And people stayed for long periods of time during the war. In 1959, Suzuki Roshi came to San Francisco And he was made the head priest of Sokoji on Bush Street, which was, oh, I need a battery.

[54:48]

Meanwhile, you can hear me, yes. And you can hear me out there while we change the battery. He was the home of the, the Japanese Soto mission in San Francisco. And it was one of kind of a network of Soto temples. And he was the sole priest there. And he took over for the interim priest, who was a gentleman named Wako Kato. And Kato, since he died a couple of years ago. And we had the good fortune of knowing him. Really remarkable, wonderful man and scholar.

[55:54]

And he was involved in our Soto Zen activities until . So he must've been quite old. And he was not that interested in what was becoming sort of an Americanized and somewhat Christianized practice of Soto Zen. He handed off to Suzuki Roshi. And Suzuki Roshi was surprised to see that Sokoji had previously been a synagogue. And so when Suzuki Roshi came, word of his presence circulated and he began to have daily Zazen. And that's the group that founded what became the Zen Zen.

[57:00]

And after a couple of years, He let go of his responsibility for the Japanese American community and took on leading this very wild and wooly bunch of American. Well, it was middle-aged women and hippies. And that's who bought what has become city center now. on Page Street. And also, I think before they had Page Street, he wanted to start a monastery. And they found that the land, which is now Tassajara, which was the first Zen monastery in America. So that's going back to 1968, I think. And

[58:03]

I'm near the end. He continued to practice. He had some wonderful disciples and some of them are still around. Sojin was one, Ed Brown, Ed Anderson, David Chadwick, Paul Disco, Richard Baker, who became the second abbot of San Francisco Zen Center. And each of those people carried a piece of Suzuki Roshi forward. And the first day of Rohatsu Sashin in early December of 1971. So this is a very quick and insufficient overview of Suzuki Roshi. Let me stop there and see if you have any Questions? Anything here?

[59:12]

One of the things that he did say, at a certain point, he had to, not only, I think before he, started Zen Center, or maybe it was just after he started Zen Center, he also had to let go of his son in Japan. He had to decide where he was going to be for the remainder of his life. And he chose to be with his American students. And at that time, he turned the Abassi of Rinsoen over to his son, Oitsu. And Oitsu is still there. He's turned it over to his son. And Suzuki Roshi remained and lived at Zen Center.

[60:22]

And his wife, Suzuki Okusan, carried on living at Zen Center until probably about 2000, when she went back near Rin Soin. And she was in her late 80s at that point. And she was a wonderful presence at Zen Center and kind of mentor to many, particularly the women. And she was a tea teacher. Laurie studied tea with her. So open for questions or thoughts. I think these early teachers that we had in America, they saw just to say they saw that was open and

[61:27]

expressive of way-seeking mind that they weren't finding in their communities in Japan at that time. Who came here, the Japanese teacher that came here, Suzuki Roshi, Maizumi Roshi, Katagiri Roshi, who came to be an assistant of Suzuki Roshi's, Kobanchino, who also came to assist Suzuki Roshi, all of them were very curious this new land of dharmic opportunity, if you will. And they really, my feeling is, a lot of them died relatively, feels to me like they used themselves up on our behalf. They just, gave their lives over to sharing what they felt was precious to people who they felt really interested in accepting it, really interested in practicing Zen Buddhism, particularly practicing a Zazen-based Zen Buddhism, which was not, that was not happening.

[62:58]

What was happening, And I think I may have said it earlier. Zazen for lay people was kind of like another Japanese art, like flower or kendo or, you know, some very particular aestheticized mode. Whereas, so, you know, every six months, like a temple, you see it still in Rinsuin, they would have a Zazen Kai, you know, sort of an instruction, how you learn the art of Zazen for a day, and then that's it. And sometimes corporations or companies would have a Zazen day, they bring all their workers to the temple as a kind of

[63:59]

just an exposure trip to learn. It's part of the process of learning to be Japanese. Whereas here, it's like we really wanted to do the practice. And many people who persisted for many years doing Zazen daily, lay people, which was just not at all what you would experience in Japan. So I want to, I was looking through Sojin's upcoming book, which is now in production and it's called Seeing One Think Through. And one of the chapters is a list of what he felt to be Suzuki Roshi's key subjects. to share that with you.

[65:02]

First one is, everything changes. I'm quoting Sojin who is kind of explaining Suzuki Roshi. According to his understanding, this is the most fundamental indisputable principle of Buddha Dharma. All the rest could be considered a commentary on this truth. Everything changes, which is another way of he expressed it was not always so. Beginner's mind. This became a kind of trademark term for Suzuki Roshi, which was used in the title of the first book of his talk. Beginner's mind. I see it as another way of expressing the meaning of shikantaza.

[66:08]

So there is a term for beginner's mind, it's called soshin and it's one of the ways that zazen mind is expressed. And you could also, I also think of beginner's mind as, it's the mind of not knowing. It's the mind that comes, not thoughtlessly, not stupidly, but it comes with some, in some way unencumbered, conceptual ideas. So as Suzuki Roshi put it in the, in the beginner's mind, there are many possibilities.

[67:11]

In the expert's mind, there are few. So Sojan often talked about just time to walk in here. And I think every one of us has had this clear, it's like, I don't, what's going on here? I don't know what's happening. I don't know what to do. I don't know where to go. I don't know how to sit. All of that is beginner's mind that is of total potentiality. And this is also the mind not knowing, this not knowing mind, this beginner's mind. He says this is Shikantaza. And that's his third point. Shikantaza. This is a term that Dogen used, which basically means just sitting or doing. It applies to daily life as well as to Zazen.

[68:17]

It also means to let go, rise anew on each moment, or to die and be born in each moment. There are various ways that she can toss by different teachers, even in the Soto school. One translation that I saw is, it's not simply just sitting, but it's like, it's just hidden sitting, just beyond the mark Right in that place and be in that place of potentiality. Be in that place where you're just open to the next thought that arises, the next perception that arises.

[69:20]

Whatever arises, to be open to it and to let it flow on. And that to me is My understanding of Shikantaza, when Dobin says, not thinking. How do you think not thinking? Non-thinking. Non-thinking is not somehow a blank mind. It's just allowing the flow but allowing them to flow freely and not be caught on one. The next principle is no gaining idea. Our practice is to resume true nature. Fundamentally, there is nothing to gain or lose.

[70:26]

That which is gained is also lost. and therefore not fundamental. Our practice is to let go and trust our Buddha. So no gaining mind is certainly, it's a principle that the expression in Japanese is and I see it as a principle that is really brought forward. Some of the other key Soto teachers of the 20th century, Sawaki Kodo and Kuro Uchiyama, who often talked about No Gaining Mind or Mushotoku. This basic fundamental principle.

[71:30]

and i like this last sentence our nature is to let go and trust our buddha nature so to me is just to fall back to allow yourself to have the trust to fall back into the arms of buddha and just allow yourself to That way. Nothing fancy. Suzuki Roshi didn't want us to get lost in or confused by complicated theories or dazzling and seductive explanations or practices or distracting mystical beliefs. So this is interesting because What Suzuki Roshi was giving a very stripped down version of one of the most complicated and ritualized schools of Zen in Japan.

[72:54]

And that's not what he brought with him. That's not what he felt was. And it's interesting because he didn't, He didn't profess to be expert at these ceremonies and rituals. In fact, he had to bring another teacher over to Asagami Roshi to set up the monastic forms of Tassahara, which to our minds when we go there is kind of high church. But Suzuki Roshi stripped these things down pretty simply. And even though that our practice is pretty formal and we have very particular ways of doing things, it's really pretty straightforward. And what I saw in Sojin was that, you know, having practiced in Japan, in the San Francisco Zen Centers, I saw

[74:04]

One of the things that I really appreciated about the nothing fanciness of this place is that I could recognize everything that we did in Japan. I can recognize everything we do here in relation to what I saw in Japan. But what I never saw here was any kind of anything added on. There were things that were simplified. and that were adjusted to our space and also our time and population, but there were no added curlicues or complexities that were added. And some of this is interesting because what Suzuki Roshi didn't teach his students was how to do certain kinds of ceremonies. And You know, he actually didn't teach people how to do funerals, which was fine because everybody who came to Zen Center at that point was like in their 20s or 30s.

[75:18]

So very few people. But now we have to know how to do funerals. And so we've we've learned we have to turn back to other teachers. And I watched Suzuki do that. Uh, with funerals to to consult with with. These teachers, and we had to we got enormous help from them and doing students funeral. So we have to learn these things, but. In essence, this nothing fancy is important. Yes, it sounds like. Zikoroshi, like, sort of instituted a lot of kind of big changes in making this Zen as we practice it here. And to what degree did, for his, I don't know if there were, if he had superior, he was answering to in Japan, but to what degree did he have...

[76:27]

Was this condoned or was he just sort of a rogue? He wasn't, no, he wasn't a rogue. He was in the lineage, but you know, what we experienced of it. The Japanese Soto Shu, Soto headquarters, really, it's taken them 40 years to figure out who we are and how to work with us. And there was not a lot of. But what I will say is something that I've been teaching at Union Theological Ceremony is a seminary in the last few weeks. And one of the texts that we've been studying has been by a scholar named. But the making of a Buddhist modernism. And when you look at it in that context, Suzuki Roshi was a Buddhist modernist.

[77:29]

That what he was doing was simplifying in a radical way a practice that would fit with this culture. And so there's a lot more to discuss there. There's a raised hand. Hang on a second. Judy. Thanks, Hozan. I realized that some of what's coming up for me is just a real discomfort with the use of the word Americans to describe those that Suzuki Roshi, you know, was creating a sangha with that the folks at Sakoji you know, are the Japanese community, but actually they're Japanese Americans. Japanese Americans, yeah. So, you know, the whole conversation and the work now around, you know, white, Euro, Caucasian, Zen, middle class, you know, had a large male contingent, and so on, and other Buddhist

[78:53]

communities in America. And I'm just wondering how we can frame and speak to that conversation as a way, in a way to integrate what Suzuki Roshi brought and how we can contextualize it now in terms of to our Japanese American Yeah, I know. And many others. And, you know, I just get very. I don't know how to have this conversation, but it just really seems important to me that we don't keep saying Americans. I understand that. And you're correct. And I don't think this is the place actually.

[79:55]

to have that full conversation, but I will own the fact that there were Japanese-Americans in the Sangha in Atsukoji, and there were Anglo, mostly Anglo-Americans who gravitated towards Suzuki Roshi and the founding of San Francisco Zen Center. And there's a lot longer and deeper conversation to have about the diversity of that community, inclusivity, et cetera. So I apologize for using words sloppily. And I will try to be more careful, but I want to finish what I was presenting, if that's okay. Yeah, I mean, I get that piece. I think the Dharma piece that I'm more, I mean, that's a very important piece.

[80:59]

I'm curious about the sort of the expression of Zen and how it came to us and how of meeting, you know, you were talking about context at the beginning, that it's important to contextualize. And I think that this context is also shaping the understanding and the Dharma expression. And I think that that's the more subtle piece that I'm curious about. And maybe this is for it, but I think that it's important to have that conversation somewhere. Yeah, I think it is important to have that conversation. And it... It's very multi-layered and things that happened in the Francisco Zen Center also conditioned the shape of certainly of Zen here for a long time.

[82:11]

And we are reckoning with that. We're working with that now. So if it's okay, that's what I'd like to. Our time is really short here. So I wanna move through these three points quickly. Along with nothing fancy, there's nothing special. And she didn't want us to think of zazen as something special or the practice of some special people. Our practice on the cushion should harmonize with the practice of our daily life. This is, I'm reading Sojan. Zazen is not your practice. It's the basic activity in which everything is participating. It is Buddhist practice. Therefore, it is not something which we just do for ourselves. Since no two things can exist on the same spot at the same time, we each appear to be sitting in a

[83:19]

And I would say, adding to Sojin, and that is, there's an illusory aspect of that, because if we think of zazen as the activity of the universe, we are all also all sitting together, however uncomfortable that may be. do one thing thoroughly. So, Suzuki Roshi, like Dogen stressed, to totally penetrate that one thing, to practice one Dharma and penetrate one Dharma. And this is where the title of Sojin's new book comes. I once asked Suzuki Roshi, what is Nirvana? He said, to see one thing through to the end. So the title of Sojin's book is to see one thing through taken from this quotation.

[84:33]

Sojin says, instead of accumulating put into our basket, we strike in the same place over and over to reveal our treasure store. We have this kind of confidence. We can let go of our crutches and external support and without trying our practice to others. The last point in soldiers list is your difficulty is your treasure. This is a really hard lesson for all of us. And we can find it to be true. We can. with it, understandably. Sazen has its difficulties as well as its pleasures in the same way that our daily life has its difficulties and its pleasures. Sometimes our response to problems is to avoid or resist them. But if we approach it as an opportunity, we can welcome and use the problem in a beneficial way that can deepen our practice.

[85:48]

rather than allowing ourselves to be overwhelmed and victimized by it. Sometimes Suzuki Roshi would say that you should appreciate what you now have. If you get rid of it, another one will take its place and you may wish you had the previous one. So I'm going to stop there. Our time is basically up, but I just... Obviously, there's more, as with everyone, everyone we've covered, we could go on, but just wonder if there are any immediate questions or thoughts, either in the room or on Zoom. So I wondered for a while about Suzuki Roshi's teaching.

[87:07]

I never sat with him or knew him. When he taught how to do things, we talked about the rigid rules, you know, help self-centered ideas. Was he... like always telling how to do things? I don't think. My understanding was no. That, in fact, the Japanese mode of instruction, for the most part, is not to do things. On the other hand, sometimes the Japanese, it's to show you. It's to show you. But on the other hand, sometimes the mode in a Japanese temple, which doesn't necessarily, in a particularly in a Japanese tempo, and I'm not talking about Japanese-American, is the mode of teaching is just to tell you, no, that's not the way to do it.

[88:09]

That's not the way to do it. That's not the way to do it until you figure out for yourself what is the way to do it. I don't think that is a modality of instruction that works very well. in our culture. But I think that Suzuki Roshi was very kind. And actually, I think he left some of the, he could be kind. This is, this is a, there's a dynamic in the, in the, like this, it's like the Eno is kind of the taskmaster who is, you know, if you will say cracking the whip. Whereas the abbot can have grandmotherly or grandfatherly . And I think that's kind of a dynamic that Suzuki Roshi had. I think people felt loved by him.

[89:11]

They didn't feel chastised by him. Thank you. Anything else? Well, thank you for being with us for these five weeks. And we'll close with the Bodhisattva vows. And again, I'm really available for further discussion. Any of this or things that have been generated by your thinking about our tradition. these ancestors or our practice as a whole or any part of it. So close the Bodhisattva vows. Yeah, clunk. Beings are numberless. I vow to awaken with them. Delusions are inexhaustible.

[90:15]

to pass the foil

[90:34]

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