Just penetrating and perfect dharma is rarely met with, even in a hundred thousand million kalpas, having it to see and listen to, to remember and accept. I vow to taste the truth of the Tatagas. Good morning. And good morning to everyone who's joining us online. Thank you all for coming. So today is the start of the spring practice period for this year. And we're starting with a one-day sitting, which is traditional and so lovely to be here with all of you. And it's so nice to have a full Zendo. It just has a, well... completely has a good feeling it feels very settled very warm hearted despite the chilly weather today and yeah just really good to be with all of you this morning we will formally open the practice period after the work period and there will be a Shuso invitation ceremony for Colleen and Subtle River Endless Path

[01:29]

So the text we'll be working from this practice period is Dogen's Genjo Koan. One translation of Genjo Koan is the koan of everyday life. And that is the translation that is currently most resonant for me. That it brings it in directly into our practice. So... We'll be studying it not so much in a scholarly way or looking into deep sources, but study as in the way that Dogen says, to study the Buddha way is to study the self. So it's this deep presence and being with that sense of study. Genjo koan is basically two words, genjo and koan.

[02:39]

Genjo implies manifesting or completing or actualizing reality as it actually is happening in this moment, in this very moment. Not theoretical, like right here, right now. And koan refers to the paradox of awakening within everyday life, within the myriad things. Shohaku Okamura translates genjo as reality, true reality, actually and presently taking place. And koan refers to the intersection of the two aspects of reality, the individual relative and the universal absolute. So you could say something like genjo koan means to answer the question from true reality through the practice of our everyday activity.

[03:41]

In other words, what we're doing right now. This and everything else. These two aspects, the absolute and the relative, are expressed in a number of different ways throughout Buddhism. In the Avatamsaka Sutra, the Flower Garland Sutra, it's expressed, one of the many ways it's expressed as the total unhindered mutual inner penetration of all space and time. Hongzhi says, the boundless field of emptiness is what exists from the very beginning. This is the clear circle of brightness. And at the same time, after his awakening, the Buddha went in search of the five ascetics that he'd been practicing with. And he did not talk about the boundless field of emptiness.

[04:44]

He did not talk about the total unhindered mutual interpenetration of all space and time. After talking about the middle way between the extremes of asceticism and indulgence in sensed desires, he talked about the Four Noble Truths and he began, the first noble truth is this, birth is suffering, aging is suffering, sickness is suffering, death is suffering, association with the unpleasant is suffering, Being separated from the pleasant is suffering. Not to receive what one desires is suffering. In brief, the five aggregates, the five skandhas, subject to grasping, are suffering. So the Bodhisattva way, the Buddha way, is how do we hold these two things together in our own bodies, in our own lives?

[05:48]

in the either lay or priest ordination ceremony, towards the end of the ceremony, after receiving the precepts, the preceptor says, you have received Buddha's precepts and thus all beings have entered Buddhahood. So this is the universal or the absolute side. And then goes on to say, to sustain and confirm the practice of these vows, for their meaning is in the living of them. They don't have some abstract meaning. The meaning is in how we live these in our everyday life, moment by moment, in our relationships with each other, how we meet and treat and handle all the things we encounter throughout the day, the week, the month, the year. You are born of Buddha.

[06:57]

You are one with all Buddhas and ancestors. You are one with all being. There's the absolute. Let your living be for all beings, realizing, making real the true nature of existence. This is basically the end of the ceremony. You are born of Buddha, one with all Buddhas and ancestors, one with all being. You inherently have our Buddha nature, no separation. What do you do with that? You live and be lived for the benefit of all beings. How we do that, how we manifest, realize, actualize, is what we're doing when we practice to bring this to life. It may not always feel like that.

[08:02]

And Dogen does say also, you know, Buddhas do not necessarily notice that they are Buddhas. Yet they are actualized Buddhas who go on actualizing Buddhas. but we can't just jump over that. It's like, okay, I'm Buddha, I don't know it, but it's all good, because it may not move your experience of things. And it's very, it is wholesome to move our experience of things, the way we experience the world, more onto the side of the simultaneity of presence as well as activity. So this is a way of expressing Genjo Koan, actualizing the simultaneous truths of unity and differentiate in this very life, your very life, including all the messiness therein.

[09:11]

There are various translations of Genjo Koan, a number of them, and also of the title. I just want to share some of the various titles that are pretty much summarizing Genjo Koan in a number of different ways. Actualizing the Fundamental Point. The Actualization of Enlightenment. Manifesting Suchness. Manifesting Absolute Reality. Complete Manifestation of Established Truth. the realized universe, the issue at hand, and the koan of everyday life. When Dogen made his own collections of the Shobo Genzo, of his

[10:21]

Life Work, The Treasury of the True Dharma Eye. It's a number of different fascicles, essays. And when he made his own collections, he put Genjo Koan first. In other collections, it's often in chronological order. But Dogen chose to put it first. And I think that's very significant. Because he says, you could actually say for each of the fascicles in the Shobo Genzo, it's Genjo Koan Buddha nature. It's Genjo Koan valleys and streams. Because each fascicle is giving a particular instance of how we live that out in our daily life. So that applies to all of them. In a sense, it contains everything. But then it's like, how do we play that out in different ways of understanding?

[11:26]

So practice period is traditionally a time to intensify our practice. And practice periods or practice intensives are a tradition from the time of the Buddha. when wandering monks would gather together during the rains, during the monsoon season, because there was getting to be so many of them that they were ruining the farmer's fields, walking through all the mud and the muck, and the fields, of course, wouldn't have been marked out the way they are today. I said, could you all stop walking around for a little while? And the Buddha said, that's a wonderful idea. We'll all gather together and we'll do some intensive practice together for a period of time. That was called the rain's retreat. So when we think about doing an intensive or intensifying something, it often has this feeling of more.

[12:48]

or an increase, or a strengthening, or a deepening. And maybe the first way that you thought about it was increasing your commitment, increasing the amount of time that you're spending coming here, because as part of the process for applying to the practice period, what are you going to commit to? So you looked at what was offered, Arouse the desire, as Ojun used to say, arouse the desire to do it all. That's the right attitude to start with. To be like, yes, I want to be all in. And then to settle and say, and what are my existing commitments? What do I still need to take care of in my life? And how will I balance these? And I know that many of you are doing that in one way or another. You're finding ways to do this. And you're here today so clearly.

[13:50]

And spending more time in a structured container of practice with good friends in the Dharma and things to study and ways to interact and everyone taking this, not only having taken vows together, but made this commitment to be together. is really powerful. It has its own energy. And you may also be increasing your time of study, studying Genjo Koan, this practice period. But what I want to talk about now is some other ways that you could extend your practice outside the temple gate into your daily lives. And also along with that to just reflect on how you might refresh your practice, to bring forth a fresh mind of practice, particularly during this time.

[15:02]

So here at Berkeley Zen Center, the main traditional forms, the repeated ones, are zazen, service, or yoki, work practice when we take care of the temple, and practicing in temple positions, like being director or douan or kokyo or coordinator, and study when we have classes. So zazen, bowing, chanting, and study are all very traditional forms of monastic practice. Going back to early Buddhism, work practice, taking care of the temple, grew out of the need for monks in China to support themselves. They did all the work themselves just to keep the monastery functioning. Work itself is not inherently practice, like zazen, chanting, bowing, serving oryoki.

[16:21]

There are all these markers for making this a different sort of activity, an intentional activity, a sacred activity, something that we're wanting to bring another mind to. But this mind can be extended to the rest of your life. If you go and spend a good chunk of time in a monastery, you will find that that becomes your everyday life. And you can start to treat it like everyday life. It stops anything, stops being special after a while when we get used to it, when we get familiar with it. And rather than kind of being... having a little sparkly edge to it, either because you're learning something, so you have to really pay attention, or it's just so amazing to be here and not somewhere else, whatever it is.

[17:28]

It can get... On the one hand, that's when things really start happening is when it starts getting ordinary, when it starts getting every day, because that's when it starts going to a deeper level. So this is one way of deepening our practice is going... is not taking the ordinary for granted. And I think with all that's going on in the world, there are lots of ways that you may be appreciating the ordinary in ways that you didn't notice before. I know that that's been really true for me. You know, some little ordinary... thing that reflects democracy or kindness or something can be very powerful that I used to just take totally for granted. And now I'm like, that's really precious. I want to protect that. In Dogen's fascicle gyōji continuous practice,

[18:43]

The opening line is, on the great road of Buddha ancestors, there is always unsurpassable practice, continuous and sustained. It forms the circle of the way and is never cut off. So you can form the circle of the way throughout your daily lives, every day, through little moments of remembrance. One of the translations of sati, which translates usually as mindfulness or awareness, is also remembering, bringing to mind. So the mind of zazen, you could practice extending the mind of zazen outward in time as well as in space. If you want to expand it outward in time, you might notice...

[19:45]

When do you actually feel like now I'm sitting zazen? Like before that it wasn't, but now it is. Is it when you get fully settled on your seat and calm and you can actually stay with your breath, is that zazen? Or could it extend farther? Could it be... In Phugan Zazengi, Dogen talks about the whole process of sitting down for zazen. which includes rock your body right and left, and settle into a steady and movable sitting position. So even the settling, the bowing to and away from your seat, especially if you're running a little late, that's such a good time, because you can get really caught by, I have to get here. Just keep being, and you may be even more mindful if you do this, to be like, I'm just going to walk at my usual pace to the seat and bow with my full attention to my seat and away and sit down.

[20:56]

So you don't even have to stop at the zendo door. You can begin zazen when you take off your shoes or when you come in through the temple gate. You could do it while you're driving here or walking here. I used to have a... I'm much better now, but I used to so often run late to Zazen for no particular reason, and I drove. And I noticed at one point that my... I was already kind of thinking along the lines of practice because I was learning to be Kokyo, and I would practice in the car. by myself at 5.30 in the morning when no one was else around, which was great. But at a certain point, I noticed that my hands were gripping the steering wheel pretty tightly. And I'm like, oh, I'm not treating the steering wheel.

[22:00]

Me and the car are very separate here. And I thought, I could meet the steering wheel. I could be in relationship with the steering wheel. I could be in relationship with the car, in harmony with the car. And that really changed things. And it became, you know, so Zazen could extend to when I got in the car to come here. And then similarly, and bigger challenge, leaving. You know, like, when do I extend that? going out the gate. When chatting with people after zazen, which is an important part of our practice, and I don't mean to slight that in any way, can there be something about the mind of zazen, the mind of awareness, the mind of open-heartedness and care, manifesting as greeting our friends after zazen?

[23:05]

in service, when we're chanting, well, when we're in the zendo and we're moving around, please be aware of everyone around you. Just notice, how are you in relationship to each other? Are your zabutans lined up? Is there a room at the end of the row for everyone to be there? Does anything need to be adjusted? Is anyone looking lost and needing help? And when we're chanting, listen with your ears. Sojin always used to say that. Listen with your ears. I'm sorry, chant with your ears. Chant with your ears so that your ears are always open. You can hear yourself. But mostly you can hear others. You should always be able to hear other people.

[24:12]

If you can't hear other people, then you're chanting more loudly than you should be. Even if you feel like nobody's chanting loudly enough, you should harmonize. The tempo, it's always, you know, the kokyo sets the pace, and it's always... a little delicate about how we can harmonize, but I want to say to everyone, the feeling is that there should be some energy with the chanting. It should feel not too fast, not too slow, not rushing, not dragging. Unless you're the kokyo or the fukudo or the abbot, you shouldn't even be trying to push or hold back. You should just be finding, like, as best you can. Sometimes it just starts off in kind of an off-kilter place.

[25:16]

And just as much as you can, harmonize with what's going on, and it will settle. But trying to push it or hold it back tends to create suffering for the one who's doing it, but also for those around. I suggest you memorize a chant that you don't yet know by heart. Maybe something that you know pretty well but not quite completely. And just try adding a little more to it. It's really nice to be able to chant from memory. Partly when you're in the zendo and it's during service, but also when you're outside. It can just come up. It becomes yours because you've memorized it. Maybe you had to memorize a poem and high school or something, I don't know if people are still doing that, but there's a way that it becomes yours. When written language was first being developed in ancient Greece, before that everything was an oral tradition, and I guess writing was looked upon as this very suspect new technology, because if you didn't have to memorize it, it wouldn't really be yours.

[26:37]

So there's something about just, you can memorize a chant, you can memorize a section of the Genjo Koan that particularly speaks to you, or anything. But it's nice to have something that means something to you, that you're practicing with, that is a touchstone, because you're making that little effort to be there with it, to have it be with you. In terms of the mind of oryoki practice, you could bring a mind of practice to eating at home. You may want to have a ritual around how you eat. If you're living with other people, they may or may not wish to do this with you, but they may find it fun. Living in the monastery for so many years, it's total habit.

[27:41]

to do the meal chant. The one we usually do is quite long, but when the pandemic started and Greg and I were city center together and there was no meal, like nobody was eating together, obviously. Uh, and we really missed the meal chant. And there's a short one that they would do for the chuseau ceremony. That was, um, innumerable labors brought us, no, that's ours. Um, We venerate the three treasures and give thanks for this food, the work of many people, and the offering of other forms of life. So we were chanting that. And then because we were both studying Spanish on Duolingo, I just typed it into Google Translate and got it in Spanish. So we started chanting it in Spanish. That may be the only time I speak in Spanish from the Dharma seat.

[28:49]

So there's lots of ways to do this. You could have a small ritual around your morning coffee or tea if you do that. Just a moment of awareness, not a big deal. And if you're reading the news and drinking coffee, just read the news and drink coffee. Two things? Yes. But intentional. So just these... Islands during the day of presence, focus, awareness. There may be ways that you could extend that into your work life. Whether if it's at home, you might make a more intentional transition between whatever your workspace is and the rest of your home and have an intention for how you are in each, how you'd like to be in each.

[29:56]

If you're going out somewhere to work, it may be how you're meeting your workspace. It may be how you're meeting your coworkers. There's so many opportunities. So tossing various things out, and one of them might be of interest that you want to look more at. I asked Sojin once about what he did in terms of study and he said, I study to verify my practice. And that's really stuck with me. That he didn't study to be a scholar, he studied to practice more deeply and to to verify, to test his practice against what he was reading.

[30:58]

How does this line up for me? Am I understanding this correctly? And he worked on translations with a number of different people over the years. So they were always doing this practice of like, what's the word in Japanese, in Chinese, and how does this resonate with my experience in these other texts? a great way to learn something more deeply is to teach it or to share something about it with another person. It's particularly interesting to try to express it in your own words and not use any Dharma words or fancy words, but just to, it's like, what is this? How would I explain it to someone who doesn't know anything about the Dharma? And then you might try actually doing that. I used to be in a study group and after the person who was leading it left, one of the things they suggested that we could do together was to open Dogen's Bendowa, which is a relatively straightforward fascicle, and at random read a short section of it out loud and then give a short five or ten minute talk on that section.

[32:29]

No prep. You just open it and go. And it was great because none of us thought we could do it. We thought that was insane. None of us were teaching at that point. And, you know, I can't do that. And Dogen, are you kidding? But because we started doing it, we found that in each one of those, there was something that we could say something about. that had some meaning for us. We didn't have to understand every word or how it all tied together, but there was something in there that spoke to us. And we could say something. And then we gave each other feedback, which was great. So this is a category. Roshi had his first two books were returning to silence and you have to say something. So this is on the side of you have to say something. Just practice saying something and see how that goes.

[33:31]

You may be surprised. You will almost inevitably learn something if you allow yourself to learn something. And a specific area of practice to pay more attention to when you're here is in the zendo. Oh, I said that already, about paying attention to what's around you. Because as human beings, we're pretty much wired to pay attention to what other human beings are doing. Babies are most curious about the human face or even like a cartoon drawing of a human face. It's like more interesting than anything else. So we're just – our attention and interest is drawn that way. And we very often – and we want to belong – We want to know that we're okay, that we're okay in a space, okay with other people, that we belong.

[34:36]

And part of that is doing what other people are doing, or at least being aware of what other people are doing and being able to make a choice if we're doing the right thing or not. So because we're just wired this way, it tends to feel really good when we're all doing the same thing together. not when it's like lockstep or forced, but when we're doing it out of attunement, when we're doing it out of presence, when we're doing it out of connection, we're harmonizing with each other. And that does take some effort of paying attention, and then it gets in our bodies. So there's... So I want to say a little bit about forms because one of the things I'd like to do, particularly during this practice period, is to clarify some of the forms we use.

[35:39]

And I've been talking about this with the senior students and the priests, clarifying forms that weren't clear to me. Like, is this a form or is this just like whatever you do is fine? And sometimes it might seem like... There's a form for everything, but that is actually not true. So just because you see various people or even various senior people, even me, do something, don't assume that's the form and I should do that. Follow, harmonize, but don't get stuck. But some of them, I was like, people are looking confused at the dismissal bells. You know, like at the very end, before we're about to leave, there's the doshis at the foot of the bowing mat, bows, there's one bell, single small bell, and then the doshi comes back over here, and there's two bells, ding, ding.

[36:46]

And some people were bowing on the first bell, and some people were bowing on the second bell, ding, ding. But I saw people looking around being like, what's going on? And particularly new people coming were like, If they bowed with the first of the two bows and realized that they were kind of alone down there, I could see that they were like, oh no. But just to make it, you know, that everyone knows what's happening, we're going to do it on the first of the two bows. Because I think our bodies are now kind of conditioned, you hear a bell, you bow. So we're just going to go with the first one, which also means that you're bowing with the doshi. So we're all doing it together. And the last thing I want to mention this morning is, which I'm saying this and I have really no idea how the silence has been going outside the zendo this morning.

[37:56]

because I'm not usually around in this area, so I don't get to know. What I do know is that there are many, many details of things that need to be taken care of throughout, you know, even a Saturday morning or a full day. And I want to encourage, if you have, you need to take care of those things. And if you could speak very quietly, and if... One of you can't hear very well, so you need to speak louder. But just generally, take it away from the central area. You know, like really away. Because silence is really a gift that we give ourselves and we give each other. It's a gift to give the silence of our minds to ourself. to just let go of the chatter.

[38:59]

But it's also a gift that we give each other. And it's once someone starts talking, again, because we're all so attuned to one another, it's that much easier to break the silence and for something else to get going and going and going. Similarly, when it's quiet, it's like you're really aware of I want to say something, but people are really quiet. Maybe we should go over here. And of course during work period, we have what's called functional speech, which is speech that's only about...

[39:40]

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