I love to taste the truth of other's words. Morning. I've I decided to talk about Dogen Zenji's Genjo Koan for Sashin. And I think it's, although I've talked about it many times in the past, I think it's important for everyone to have some understanding of Genjo Koan. Since our practice comes from Dogen and our understanding, and since Genjo Koan is the kind of touchstone for the whole Shobo Genzo, it's important to understand

[01:21]

If you understand Genjo Koan, then when you study Dogen, when you study his Shobo Genzo, you can see how each fascicle relates in some way to this one fascicle. So he starts out with, well first of all I'll talk about the title, Genjo Koan. Genjo means something like manifesting in the present. like the immediacy of the present.

[02:42]

And ko, there are various ways that we can look at the term koan, but I think specifically for genjo koan, This is the best explanation, that ko means equality. And an is difference or momentariness. Ko is made something like even or flat and something that everything can identify with. And on is a particular, something individual.

[03:53]

So ko is like horizontal. And it's like equality. And on is vertical or hierarchical difference. And where the two meet, the vertical and the horizontal meet, is genjo, this right now moment. People have different translations for the title. Kim says, the realization koan. Clary says, the issue at hand. Maizumi says, the way of everyday life. Kaz Tanahashi uses actualizing the fundamental point. So there are these various ways that people translate the title, all of which are correct.

[05:06]

So where the vertical and the horizontal meet at that point, is called the dharma position of each thing. Each thing has its dharma position, each entity on each moment. And the dharma position of each individual existence is absolute. And the expression of the absolute is each thing's momentary dharma position. So this is the essence of all koans, where the absolute and the relative meet without hindrance as an expression of each other.

[06:26]

So Dogen starts out, he presents four propositions. And these four propositions are the cornerstone of the whole fascicle. The rest is elucidation. And there are various ways to look at these four propositions. But it's, well, I'll read the propositions. First he says, when all dharmas are Buddha dharma, there are enlightenment and delusion, practice, life and death, Buddhas and ends and creatures. Then the second one, he says, when the 10,000 dharmas are without self, There are no delusion, no enlightenment, no Buddhas, no creatures, no life, and no death.

[07:40]

And the third one, the Buddha way transcends being and non-being. Therefore, there are life and death, delusion and enlightenment, creatures and Buddhas. And the fourth one is, nevertheless, flowers fall with our attachment and weeds spring up with our aversion. So these are four ways of looking at reality from the point of view of enlightenment. When all dharmas are buddhadharma, there are enlightenment and delusion, life and death, buddhas and creatures. This is looking at existence from the conditioned side. This is our usual way of seeing things, is we see what's in front of us and we feel and we touch and we see and we hear the realm of the senses, the realm of tangibility,

[09:02]

But then he has, when he says, and all dharmas, all dharmas means all things in this sense, the wide sense of dharmas. When all dharmas, when means when we realize. When we realize that all dharmas are Buddha nature, really. That's what he means by Buddha dharma. When all dharmas are seen as Buddha nature, There are enlightenment and delusion and practice, life and death, Buddhas and creatures. So he has these polarities. The only term that is not a polarity is practice. And practice is like the catalyst for realization. So in the realm of duality, in the realm of enlightenment and delusion, life and death, Buddhas and creatures, then he says, when the 10,000 dharmas are without self, there is no delusion, no enlightenment, no Buddhas, no creatures, no life, and no death.

[10:37]

This is looking at life from the point of view of non-being. actually. The first one is looking at life from the point of view of on. This is looking at life from the point of view of ko, or horizontal. There's no comparison. Nothing is compared to anything else. So there's nothing coming up. And this is the matrix of life where there's no special form or color. Then he says, the Buddha way transcends being a non-being or leaps beyond, goes beyond being a non-being.

[11:42]

leaping clear of the many and the one, actually. Therefore, there are life and death, delusion and enlightenment, creatures and Buddhas. Therefore is a strange, it seems a little strange here, but because therefore means because of, right? The Buddha way leaps clear of the many and the one, being and non-being. Therefore, there are life and death, delusion and enlightenment, creatures and Buddhas. This is like form is emptiness and emptiness is form. So the first proposition is looking at everything from the point of view of existence. The second is looking at it from the point of view of non-existence. And the third is looking at life from the point of view of both existence and non-existence, neither existence or non-existence.

[12:55]

So you can look at it from the point of view of water and waves. The first proposition is waves. The second is water. Waves are the expression of the water, and water is the fundamental existence of waves. Water has no special shape or form, but all the waves express the shape and form of water. and then he says the Buddha way transcends being a non-being. So this is the water and the waves working together, going beyond being a non-being, going beyond water and waves.

[14:00]

When the water and the waves are working together, they go beyond water and waves. And then he says, nevertheless, flowers fall with our attachment and weeds spring up with our aversion. Flowers is like enlightenment or something that we like, something wonderful. And weeds are something that we don't want or don't like. So flowers fall with our grasping and weeds spring up with our aversion. So this is the old, you know, every moment we have to make a choice. We either accept something or we push something away.

[15:04]

Attachment and aversion, these are the two. aspects that we're always dealing with. So in zazen, we go beyond grasping and immersion and just sit with whatever, what is. And this is enlightenment within delusion, delusion within enlightenment, which is what Dogen talks about next. So these are four

[16:11]

four views, four ways of looking at non-duality. It's not that one is right and one is wrong, or we go from one to the other, but looking at like something from all sides, from different sides. Even though we have good understanding flowers fall with our grasping and weeds sprout up with our aversion. So we're always dealing just with the fact of life. Even though we say no I, no self, it feels like a self, definitely feels like a self. And even though we talk about going beyond suffering, it still feels like suffering.

[17:26]

And even though we love certain things, they at some point are out of reach. And even though we dislike certain things, at some point, they're right in our face. Then, Dogen gives us four other propositions, four couplets, and four ways of looking at enlightenment and delusion. And Dogen doesn't say, get rid of delusion in order to have enlightenment.

[18:45]

but enlightenment and delusion go hand in hand. And one of the most important propositions in Soto Zen is that sentient beings and Buddhas are not two. that we're both Buddha and sentient being, or both Buddha and ordinary human being at the same time. So there's a well-known phrase, to carry the self forward in order to realize the 10,000 dharmas is delusion. that the 10,000 dharmas advance and realize the self is enlightenment.

[19:52]

That's the first one. To carry the self forward in order to realize the 10,000 dharmas, that's ego, talking about egocentricity or self-centeredness. To carry the self forward, to move things, to ignore, or actually to carry the self forward means to separate subject and object. It means to see yourself as a separate subject over against everything else outside of yourself as objects. And then he says, the 10,000 dharmas advance and realize the self is enlightenment.

[20:54]

That meaning that we let everything in. That there's no separation between myself as a subject and the 10,000 dharmas. That myself and my environment are what I call myself. To merge with whatever it is that we meet is enlightenment. To see the self as, to see everything as the self, actually. There's a, let's see. The fool sees the self as other.

[21:57]

No, the self sees, the sage sees the self as other. The fool sees the self as other. The sage sees others as the self. Let's get that. But there's another way of looking at these two sentences, and one is that the self does advance, and the dharmas advance. And when the self advances, the self turns the dharmas. And when the dharmas advance, the dharmas turn the self. This is also Dogen's understanding, that we don't live in a vacuum. We live in relationship.

[23:01]

And when we turn things, when we turn the dharmas, We're in the strong position and the dharmas are in the submissive position. And when the dharmas turn us, the dharmas are in the strong position and we're in the submissive position. And we have to know what to do on each moment, how to turn with things and be turned by things. then it's not a matter of which is right and which is wrong. This is called harmony, being in harmony with things, allowing ourselves to be turned, and also taking the initiative and turning things. And this is always the case with Zen students.

[24:03]

When the teacher looks at the student's activity and behavior, the teacher is always looking at how the student creates harmony in this way. Is the student being too pushy and shoving everybody around? that's coming on too strong. That person, you help to train them to be moved by things more. Allow themselves to be moved by things more. And when someone's only moved around, shoved around by things and doesn't assert themselves, then you want to help them to assert themselves more so that they take initiative. And otherwise, there's no harmony. So we have people who have aggressive personalities and people who have retro-aggressive personalities.

[25:11]

And we want the retro-aggressive ones to come out more and the aggressive ones to hold back more, to allow, not be afraid, you know? So much of our, Activity comes from fear. The way we act comes from fear. We're either afraid to assert ourselves or we assert ourselves because we're afraid of being turned. So how to find that balance is the main aspect of practice. So when we have that balance, everything falls into place and there's no ego. That's when self-centeredness disappears, when that turning and being turned is perfected.

[26:21]

And then he says, it is Buddhas who enlighten delusion. It is creatures who are deluded in enlightenment. When you realize what is delusion, that's enlightenment. People say, what is enlightenment? Enlightenment is realizing what delusion is. But he says, it is creatures who are deluded in enlightenment. And yes, within enlightenment, within our life which is enlightenment, there is this delusion. So what is delusion and what is enlightenment? Delusion is actually a term for this realm of activity. Samsara is called the realm of delusion.

[27:36]

Just the fact of life is delusion because we believe in it. Enlightenment is to see everything clearly, to see through the facade of the play, but at the same time, we have to play out the play. You can't retreat and sit up on your rock and out of the play and let all this go on around you. You have to enter into the play as a participant without being caught by it. This is enlightenment. So, the enlightened person enters into delusion, and it becomes thoroughly deluded.

[28:51]

Thoroughly one with delusion, with this deluded life. And when you are totally, thoroughly deluded, that's enlightenment. because there's nothing outside of that. So we can't escape our life by pulling away. We can only escape by entering, and then it's not an escape. But what we escape from is being caught by suffering. When we enter willingly into samsara, into the pain, it's no longer suffering.

[29:54]

Then he says, further, there are those who attain enlightenment beyond enlightenment, and there are those who are deluded within delusion. Attaining enlightenment beyond enlightenment means beyond the duality of enlightenment and delusion. There's enlightenment and then there's delusion. And this is a duality. So, it's not really, there's something beyond that duality, which is enlightenment beyond enlightenment. The enlightenment of enlightenment versus duality, versus, delusion.

[31:07]

That is, when you don't care anymore. And those who are deluded within delusion means totally deluded, which is the same as enlightenment beyond enlightenment. They're just two aspects of the same thing. Being totally deluded within delusion is the same as being enlightened beyond enlightenment. So then he says, when Buddhas are truly Buddhas, one need not be aware of being Buddha. However, one is the realized Buddha and further advances in realizing Buddha. This is going beyond Buddha.

[32:13]

This is where one's practice is so unified that there's no longer any need to think about it. And you don't try to do anything. but whatever you do is the right thing. I was talking about this in my last lecture a little bit. In the five ranks of Tozan, this is the fifth rank where one no longer needs to think about precepts because one embodies the precepts. One doesn't think about Zen or stink of Zen or think of Zen. One just lives their life.

[33:16]

But there aren't so many of those people. This is the culmination of enlightenment. is just entering ordinary life with people and acting as an ordinary person, except that there's something different. You know, Master Sagan, This is a different Sengen than Sengen Gyoshi. He said, for 20 years, before I had realization, mountains were just mountains, and water was just water.

[34:23]

Then when I started to practice, mountains were no longer mountains, and water was no longer water. And after realization, I realized mountains are just mountains. Water is just water. There's a saying that I need to practice to attain the precious mirror. although the precious mirror is not something I can attain through practice." That's a wonderful koan. I need to practice to attain the precious mirror, although the precious mirror is not something I can attain through practice.

[35:27]

There's also three kinds of compassion. One is compassion for beings. One is compassion for dharmas or the environment, you might say. And the third is compassion without a special purpose. And this compassion without a special purpose is actually the underlying compassion that, ah, from which all the others spring from. If you only have compassion for people, it's not really rooted. If you only have compassion for the environment, that's not really rooted either. But when you have compassion which has no special purpose,

[36:32]

That's just compassion, which can be used unlimitedly. That means that your nature is compassion, and there's no place it doesn't reach. So this is an aspect of enlightened practice,

[37:04]

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