of this Rohatsu Sesshin or Sesshin which commemorates Shakyamuni Buddha's enlightenment is a kind of experience for us. going through or participating with Shakyamuni Buddha in his discovery of enlightenment. In the story of Buddha, after having gone through, after having left home, and practiced with many teachers in his time.

[01:03]

He practiced with the most famous teachers that were around. And when he understood what they were doing, he felt that it wasn't really it. So he kept searching. And he went to the most did the most extreme kind of practices in his asceticism. There were a lot of ascetic practices in Buddha's time. And there were many, many different teachers, lots of wandering monks. And I think that in that particular time, in Buddha's time, It was a time of lots of questioning and lots of people searching for various ways to enlighten them.

[02:21]

And so it was a very stimulating time. And there were a lot of people around and a lot of teachers and a lot of students. And the practice of asceticism was very strong in Buddhism, I mean in India at the time, and always has been, still is today. And there's a sutra which explains the various conversations that Shakyamuni Buddha had with the various teachers of his time, where he points out their errors. But when he became an ascetic, he really went all the way.

[03:26]

And there were times when he was living on one grain of rice a day for a long, long time. And where he would just roll in the mud, cover himself up with mud, and he'd roll in a dung pile, or he'd lay down in the street and ask people to pee on him. Those really extreme practices, ascetic practices. And people in those days felt that, I mean some ascetics in those days felt that the body and the spirit were two distinct things and that in order to allow the spirit to come out you had to do away with the body, put down the body in order to let the spirit come out. and extreme spiritual practices were based largely on that premise.

[04:28]

And even today, there's some feeling about that, you know, but not in that extreme way. Our Buddha, Shakyamuni, had engaged in his ascetic practices. He lived in his father's palace where he had access, not only access, but was encouraged to indulge himself in all kinds of sensual practices. His father didn't want him to know about any kind of suffering, and so he was brought up in a very controlled environment where he was given everything to add to his pleasures. So his father wanted him to live a life of pleasure and to not know anything about suffering.

[05:34]

So he knew the side of indulgence. He understood very well the side of life, which is pure indulgence. And there was no limit to what he could do in that area. So he understood it very well. And so he actually got kind of satiated. And so then he went over to the other side when he left home. and indulged himself in ascetic practices, eating one grain of rice a day, and so forth. I mean, he was the extreme of the extremes in the ascetic practices. He was the ascetic's ascetic. So he knew both extremes very well. So one day, according to the story, he was still searching, you know, for the right path.

[06:44]

And he was very tired out, actually. I think he was burned out. What we call burned out by his ascetic practices. And he was looking for some way, you know. And he saw this tree, nice tree, in a meadow, an apple tree, kind of apple tree. And so he said it reminded him of when he was younger and when he would sit under a tree and just enjoy being there, just kind of enjoy the environment. So he went and sat under this tree And he had some kind of realization, a big realization. And after his initial realization, his realization at that time

[08:00]

was that neither asceticism nor indulgence was it. He came to that realization. And he said, if neither one of those is it, then what should I do? So he decided to sit down cross-legged until he found out, until he had realization. So he sat for seven days under this tree. And at the end of seven days, when he saw the morning star, he had his big realization, big understanding. And according to Zen understanding, according to the Zen way of explaining his understanding, he said, I, together with all sentient beings, am enlightened.

[09:16]

I am enlightened together with all sentient beings. So he's realized his connection with the universe or with existence and non-existence. Realized how he was part of everything. Realized his Buddha nature. and you realize the Four Noble Truths and so forth. Realize the truth of what is suffering and how to get rid of suffering. And realize the nature of what exists and the nature of the end of existence. So, roughly,

[10:20]

That was his great enlightenment. So when we sit for seven days, we participate in Buddha's sitting for seven days. And each one of us is Shakyamuni Buddha. That's actually so. Even though we talk about Shakyamuni Buddha who existed 2,500 years ago, each one of us is really Shakyamuni Buddha. And we're each practicing our own enlightenment. So, When we think about the story of Shakyamuni Buddha, it's not really just a story about somebody who lived in India 2,500 years ago.

[11:36]

It's really our story, the story about what we're doing. And when we study some koan in a book, it's really the story of ourself. If you just see it as a story about somebody else, you know, some interesting story, it's not enough. You have to see it as your own story, your own koan. So, what is Buddha's enlightenment? That's a big question. What is Buddha's enlightenment? What is your own enlightenment? You can never know what Buddha's enlightenment is unless you know what your own enlightenment is. Unless you experience your own enlightenment, you can't know what is Buddha's enlightenment.

[12:45]

Because you can't name it. If you say, what is Buddhism, you get a lot of explanations. There was a time when Buddhists created a wonderful philosophy of Buddhism. to explain Buddhism through philosophy and through doctrine. But you can't explain Buddhism. That's why we always have such a hard time. If you want to explain Buddhism to your friend, you can talk about it, but you can't explain it. You never notice how hard it is to talk about Buddhism to someone who doesn't sit zazen.

[13:52]

Pretty hard. Pretty soon, if you continue to practice, you lose all your friends. I hope you don't. pretty hard to explain it because there's nothing you can point to. There's a very famous koan, the first koan in the blueprint record about Bodhidharma meeting Emperor Wu of the Liang Dynasty in China. When Bodhidharma came to China, Emperor Wu invited him to court. And Emperor Wu actually considered himself a devout Buddhist.

[14:58]

And spent time in monasteries and promoted Buddhism. This is in the 6th century. And when some famous scholar or teacher came to China, to his country in China, he always invited him to court and asked him for some teaching. And in that time, Buddhist philosophy was the most important study of Buddhism. The schools, Shingon and Tiantai schools in China were really at their zenith, just really gaining momentum. And there were the teaching schools or the learning schools of Buddhism. And proclaiming the highest philosophies

[16:10]

and doctrines of Buddhism. And that's what everybody was studying. And everyone was all wrapped up in creating the form of Buddhism, creating an image of Buddhism, creating an image of enlightenment. But Bodhidharma was a different kind of teacher. And when he came to China, he knew what was going on in China. And Bodhidharma, Emperor Wu invited him to court. So when Bodhidharma came to the court, Emperor Wu asked him this question. He said, Well, Venerable Bodhidharma, I would like to ask you, what is the highest meaning of the holy truths?

[17:20]

And he thought that Bodhidharma was going to tell him something wonderful. And Bodhidharma said, emptiness, nothing holy. And Emperor Wu was kind of taken aback. may be fronted. And he said to Bodhidharma, Who are you? And Bodhisatva said, Not knowing. We say, I don't know. But Chinese, you don't say, I don't know. You say, know not, or the I is implied, it's not said. So, not knowing.

[18:23]

If you say, I don't know, it sounds a little too pedestrian. Don't know. Not knowing. And it was obvious that the emperor didn't know what he was talking about. So Bodhidharma left and I went to Shaolin Monastery and stayed there for nine years. I want to read you a little commentary. This story also appears in the Book of Equanimity, Shoryo Roku, as the second case. A little different presentation.

[19:24]

This Book of Equanimity is like the Blueprint Roku, but it was compiled by Shogaku, Tendo Shogaku. And it has a hundred cases. And this is the second one. And he said, part of his, I don't want to read you his whole commentary, but part of his commentary he says, even though Emperor Wu did not comprehend, still he made a point with his question that can be dug into. Even now, everywhere, when they open the hall and strike the gavel, they still say, assembly of dragons and elephants at the seat of the Dharma. Behold the highest truth. But if it is the ultimate truth, can it after all be seen?

[20:29]

Does it admit Emperor Wu's questions or Bodhidharma's answers? When he says, everywhere, now, they still strike the gavel and say, assembly of dragons and elephants. At the seat of the Dharma, behold the highest truth." In Tassajara, you know, we do this. Monday, I'm going to Tassajara. Actually, it's Sunday night. Monday is a shuso ceremony in Tassajara, the head monk. Someone is always head monk for the practice period. And then the head monk is called shuso. And at the end of the practice period they have a shuso ceremony where each person asks the shuso a dharma question and the shuso has to answer everybody's question.

[21:31]

It's the culmination of the shuso's training period. Usually they read this case. The shustra, in the beginning of the ceremony, reads this case and says, dragons and elephants, give me your questions. So, we're still doing that. But this is what the commentator says. He says, I say, leaving aside the highest meaning for the moment, Okay, what do you want with the holy truth? What do you want with the holy truth? Leaving aside the highest meaning for the moment, what do you want with the holy truth? What do you really want? And then he says, Tian Huang said, quoting somebody else, Tian Huang said, just end profane feelings.

[22:36]

There is no special holy understanding. And then he says, the heroic march scripture, I don't know that scripture, says, if you create an understanding of holiness, you will succumb to all errors. Just this Bodhidharma saying, empty, there's no holy, undeniably has expert skill and a discerning eye in the light of a spark or flash of lightning. Most Buddhist, if you think about it, most things that you study in Buddhism are on the negative side. The precepts, the first three precepts are taking refuge in the Buddha Dharma Sangha, and then there's accepting the three pure precepts.

[23:42]

And then there's the ten prohibitory precepts. Don't kill, don't steal, don't have sexual misconduct, don't sell liquor, and so forth. And there are always don't. And there are also for Theravada monks, you know, 250 don'ts. And in the Heart Sutra, it's all the don'ts, or is-nots. Everything is negative in Buddhism. Don't do this, and this is not real. Nothing exists. It's all very negativistic. And when the early scholars started translating Buddhist scriptures, they just thought it was a nihilistic religion. And in some sense, it is. But all this, the no, the negative, is a way of bringing out the positive.

[24:52]

Because you can't name, you can't point it to it. You can't point to what it is. You have to point to what it's not. Bodhidharma says, don't know. Not knowing actually is the highest understanding. Knowing just gets in the way. The stuff that we know is just knowing about it. It's not it. It's not not it. We like to use double negatives, but why we

[26:07]

sit zazen for seven days instead of reading scriptures for seven days is because you can only know it when you stop everything. So it's a kind of asceticism. Buddhism is a kind of asceticism. We say Buddhism is not asceticism, but it has an ascetic tendency. some ascetic tendency. It's more on the side of... tends more toward the side of asceticism than it does toward the side of voluptuousness. So it always stays a little bit on the bear side and negativistic, taking everything away. And why we take everything away is so you can experience enlightenment, but the fullness of enlightenment.

[27:17]

In Buddhism, it's necessary to understand what's called the two truths. One truth is nothing exists. That's the absolute truth. Absolutely nothing exists. But, on the other hand, everything exists just as it is independently from everything else. That's the other truth. Everything exists, just as it is, independent from everything else, completely independent. And the great koan of our existence and non-existence is right there. And the great koan of

[28:32]

positive and negative is right there. In the negativity of Buddhism, right in the middle of the negativity of Buddhism is the great positive. And right in the middle of the great positive is the great negative. So right in the middle of sitting still for seven days is great unlimited activity, ceaseless activity. And right in the middle of your everyday activity is great stillness. Even though we move around in the world of things doesn't exist. And even though we negate everything, there's nothing but constant dynamic activity.

[29:48]

But this is just words. we have to realize this through our practice. The old, um, Wangshi Shogun who helps us, he says, I say, leaving aside the highest meaning for the moment, what do you want with the holy truths? Tien Tong said, just and profane feelings. There is no special holy understanding." Buddhist practice, in Buddhist practice, traditional Buddhist practice, it's always built

[31:01]

on how to do something, how you do right actions with right intentions. And if you are not attached to unwholesome dharmas, then realization is not hindered. In Mahayana we say, not being attached to unwholesome dharmas or to wholesome dharmas, then realization really comes out. But I'm afraid that if we don't make some distinction between what's wholesome and unwholesome, we run into a lot of trouble.

[32:10]

Before we can have completely unfettered enlightenment, we have to practice in a more practical way. Sometimes we hear about crazy wisdom or crazy Zen masters who can do whatever they want. But I think we have to be very careful about following that kind of example. That's what we'd like to be able to do. and it's correct because we're enlightened. That's very dangerous, creating your own version of Buddhism.

[33:21]

To be crazy is like saying there's nothing that's a hindrance. In Buddhism, we say if you take away the hindrances, enlightenment is there. The only thing that holds it, keeps you from realizing it, is what hinders it. So if you just act unhindered, what's the difference? That looks ... well, maybe that's right. But we can't trust that kind of activity. You can't use that as an example. He says, just end profane feelings. There is no special holy understanding. Don't try to do something. In other words, don't try to do something good.

[34:23]

Just don't do anything bad. It's a koan. It's a big koan. It looks easy. Oh yeah, you just don't do the bad things. But we're always doing something bad, you know. I must say, as much as we talk about wholesome dharmas and unwholesome dharmas and doing good and don't do bad, we're always doing something bad, you know. Sometimes we do something good, sometimes we do something bad. So, all of us are always doing something bad. Me too. Sometimes we do something good. But that's not the point. We have to realize that each one of us is always doing something bad as well as something good. And enlightenment has to include that. Suzuki Roshi used to say, you'd think that if

[35:30]

when you're enlightened, that when you pass the ice cream, if you love ice cream, you know, you can't stay away from an ice cream store. You think that when you're enlightened, if you pass the ice cream store, you'll no longer be tempted to walk in there and have a chocolate sundae. But even if you're enlightened, you walk past the ice cream store, you know, God, I'd really like to have an ice cream sundae, and you find yourself sitting there. It's possible if you're enlightened. Sometimes we say, well, how can an enlightened person do such and such? Because we think an enlightened person is just all good. And we have this ideal about people. And we have this ideal about teachers.

[36:32]

Zen teachers. All these Zen teachers, you know, turned out to be bad. And we thought they were all good. They're good and they're bad. But what makes them teachers is something else. Suzuki Roshi was bad as well as good. But he was a teacher. And everybody respected him. And he was bad, but somehow you could accept him being bad, because it didn't hurt other people with it. And he said, I'm bad, I'm like this, you know, but I try very hard. Anyway, that's a big problem. So he says, If you create an understanding of holiness, you will succumb to all errors.

[37:34]

So that's another big koan for us. Fastness, no holiness. But no holiness doesn't mean no holiness. Holy means whole. It comes from the word whole. It means complete or whole or all-embracing. But if you make an image of that, holiness, some idea, that's not it. You missed it. You can only say something. What can you say? This is why the Jews and the Muslims don't make images.

[38:52]

As soon as you start making an image, you've already passed it by. They make images other ways. In their minds they make images. They don't put them down on paper. So, in order to realize enlightenment, we sit here for seven days without doing anything.

[40:03]

But don't wait for it to come. It won't come at the end of seven days. Don't expect something. It's not what you think it is. We always want to create some image of enlightenment. Just don't know anything. Just be what you are. We have our enlightenment. Just be what we are. Just try to sit still.

[41:20]

If you have a lot of pain in your legs, just accept where you are. And if you have to move, move. But if you try to think about enlightenment. What you think will not be it, but when you don't think about it, don't worry about it, but just practice hard, then it's there. It's like the eye, your eye doesn't see your eye. You can look in a mirror and you see the image in the mirror, which it reflects your eye, but your eye is not Cannot see your eye.

[42:32]

Your eye will never see your eye. It will never see itself. So just have some trust in yourself.

[42:50]

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