I vow to teach the truth of the Tathagata's words. Morning. Well, this morning we're going to look at Section 8 called The Conduct of Zen Monks. Or you could say Zen Students. I like to say Zen Students. He says Zen Monks, and that's what he means, but for our purposes, we say Zen Students, so that we're all included. So this is maybe the most difficult section Superficially, it may look like you understand it, but it's very difficult, partly because to translate the meat of this, the central aspect, is very difficult.

[01:19]

So anyway, Dogen says, the usual introduction, the conduct of Zen monks has been directly and uniquely transmitted by Buddha ancestors throughout 28 generations in India and six early generations in China without the addition of a single hair and without the destruction of a single particle. Thus, the robe was transmitted at Saoshi, which is the sixth ancestor's temple, Daikan-e-no. And Dharma has spread in boundless worlds. from the sixth ancestor. Presently the Tathagata's treasury of the true Dharma-I is flourishing in Great China. So then he says, the Dharma is such that it cannot be attained by groping or searching about. In the realm of seeing, knowledge perishes. At the moment of attaining, mind is surpassed.

[02:24]

So it says that, you know, you can't, the Dharma can't be attained by grasping after it. You know, there's this famous koan of Joshu asking his teacher, how does one seek after the Dharma? And the teacher says, well, you can't get it by seeking. If you try to grasp it, it eludes you, and you stumble past it. And if you don't go after it, you miss it. This is a very famous koan. Possibly alluding to that kind of understanding, Dogen says that dharma is such that it cannot be attained by groping or searching.

[03:27]

It's important to have the thought of enlightenment. But if you run after something in your mind called enlightenment, then you stumble past it. Because it's not something that your intellect can grasp. And it's not something that your imagination can conjecture. So this is why all the great teachers say, stop searching for it, even though you're searching for it. But you can't seek enlightenment by seeking it, and yet you have to seek it. So this is the great koan of practice. Simply let go and practice for the sake of practice. And then enlightenment fills your hand. But if you try to grasp it, you stumble past it.

[04:33]

So he says, in the realm of seeing, knowledge perishes. In other words, when you truly wake up, everything that you thought was enlightenment vanishes. It's beyond your thought process. And at the moment of attaining, mind is surpassed. That is, discriminating mind is surpassed. So, it's like, I always say, you can see it, oh no, you can be it, but you can't see it. Seeing it means to take an objective view. You can't see enlightenment as an object. You can't see realization as an object.

[05:38]

You can immerse yourself in it. So it's like a fish doesn't see the water as an object. But the fish totally lives in the water, and the water is the fish, and the fish is the water. Bird is the sky, and the sky is the bird, as Dogen says. But the bird doesn't have the idea, this is the sky. The bird simply flies in the sky. If the bird says, this is the sky, he'll fall out of the sky. If the fish says, this is the ocean, he'll drown. So you can be it, but you can't see it. And when you try to peek, then you create a fantasy. So this is why dharma has to emerge from you. You can't stick it on or open your head and pour it in.

[06:39]

You're already there. I mean, it's already what you are. but we have to bring it forth. So, intellection helps, but it doesn't bring it forth. Master Sekito was enlightened through reading. This happens sometimes. Someone will become enlightened through study, through reading a sutra or something. That sometimes happens, but it's not usual. The reason that happened was because of his practice, not because of his reading. So, he said, the Dharma is such that it cannot be attained by groping or searching about. In the realm of seeing, knowledge perishes. At the moment of attaining, discriminating mind is surpassed. And then he says, once a face was lost on Mount Huangmei.

[07:48]

Once an arm was cut off at Shaolin. By attaining the marrow and turning around mind, you acquire genuine life. by bowing formally and stepping inward, you stumble into the realm of great ease. That's really nicely put, stumble into it. So once a face was lost on Mount Huangmei, Huangmei was the temple of the fifth ancestor. Daimon Konin. And that when Huineng or Eino was a young man, he purposely came to the Huangmei to study with Daimon Konin, who he had heard was the fifth patriarch. And when he studied with him, he lost his face. You must lose your face.

[08:53]

Don't lose face, but lose your face means you take on the Buddha face. When you lose your face, the Buddha face appears. But when the Buddha face appears, it looks just like your face. So I say, this is like a way of expressing Dharma transmission. You lose your face, and Buddha's face emerges. But it looks like your face. So once a face was lost on Mount Huangmei, once an arm was cut off, that's Taiso Eka cutting off his arm and handing it to Bodhidharma. That's the sorriest story I ever heard. But the meaning is, you know, it means that he would give up anything for the Dharma.

[10:02]

That's the meaning. I offer you, you know, I give my right arm for the Dharma, for the truth. That's how intent he was on seeking the truth. And, you know, when you become ordained, you cut off your right arm for the Dharma. It's true. That's the thing that matters the most. So you let go of everything else. And that becomes the central point of your life. So he says, by attaining the marrow, referring to Taiso Eka, who received the marrow, right?

[11:08]

In the story of Bodhidharma and his students, Taiso Eka received the marrow. He says, you have my marrow. So by attaining the marrow and turning around the mind, you acquire genuine life. Turning around mind is turning mind toward reality or toward the truth or toward dharma. You attain the marrow, just like Eka attained the marrow. At that time, you are Eka. You know, in the meal chant, we used to say the nirmanakaya, all the nirmanakayas, the numberless or innumerable Shakyamuni Buddhas all over the world.

[12:19]

Well, how many Shakyamuni Buddhas are there all over the world? I thought there was only one. No, Shakyamuni Buddhas are those who are practicing like Shakyamuni Buddha. When you practice like Shakyamuni Buddha, Shakyamuni Buddha, you are Shakyamuni Buddha. So when you attain the marrow and turn around mind and acquire genuine life, you are Thaiso Eka. You are Bodhidharma. So your face drops off and your original face appears. So by bowing formally and stepping inward you stumble into the realm of great ease. Another translation says when Daikon Eino bound formally to Daimon Konin.

[13:33]

But in this translation, Cos likes to use the You, he likes to, instead of talking about somebody else, he likes to translate it as, when you do this. So that's the way this translation goes, which is okay. By attaining the marrow and turning around mind, you acquire genuine life. So he, Dogen addressing whoever's reading this, rather than talking about somebody else. By bowing formally and stepping inward, you stumble into the realm of great ease. I just think that's a great translation. You stumble into the realm of great, oh. I didn't know this was gonna happen. However, mind and body, in mind and body, there is no abiding or attaching, no abiding and no attaching, no standing still and no stagnating. So,

[14:35]

bowing formally and stepping inward. It's like, he's saying, this is Dharma transmission. Bowing formally to the, he could be talking about his own experience, which I think he is, actually. He said, when I bowed formally the first time I met my teacher, I received his Dharma transmission. whatever that means. Bowing formally and stepping inward would mean turning the light around, stepping, letting go of everything and just stepping inward. By bowing formally and stepping inward, you stumble into the realm of greed. However, in mind and body, there is no abiding. there is no attaching, there is no standing still, and there is no stagnating. This is called body and mind dropped, Bodhogan called body and mind dropped.

[15:40]

So that one proceeds from enlightened mind, true body and mind. So you also trade in your old body and mind for true body and mind. It seems like another way of saying that might be by stepping inward we stumble into the realm of true ease where we can't stay. that there's no staying, there's no remaining there. That's right, that's what he's saying, that you stumble into the realm of great ease, but it doesn't mean that you're stagnating in some place called great ease, or stagnating in some place called standing still.

[16:45]

That's right. So, but great ease has an underlying feeling, which doesn't mean that it's divorced from activity. It means that within all activity, there's great ease because there's no grasping or clinging. So the realm of great ease isn't really a place. Yeah, it's... It's not a place you can stagnate. You can stumble into it, but you can't stand there. Yeah, that's good. Yeah. In a way, isn't the not stagnating the realm of great ease? Yeah, well, that's right. Not stagnating is the realm of great ease. Not standing still is the realm of great ease. And no attaching is the realm of great ease.

[17:54]

So then he says, a monk asked Zhao Xiao, Zhou Xu, does the dog have the Buddha nature or not? And Zhao Xiao replied, woo, even though everybody says moo. You know, people sometimes say, is it okay if I take that koan and say no? Because mu means no or nothing. So logically it would follow that if you want to practice mu, why wouldn't you just say no instead of mu or wu? But there's a problem with that. It's okay, it's fine. The problem is that you think there's a meaning to the word no, or the word no. And so you try to, well, to crack the meaning of the word no.

[19:04]

So, you get off in a kind of dualistic understanding. So, a monk asked Zazho, does the dog have a Buddha nature or not? Zazho replied, woo, which means no or nothing. But at another time, the monk, it may have been the same monk, but it may be a different monk. Does the dog have the Buddha nature? And he said, yes. So I'm just gonna leave that for you. In order for one not to be dualistic, fall into duality, whatever side you take has to include the other side as well. And it's not about a dog. It's about, what?

[20:17]

Tell your dog that it's not a dog. I try to tell him. He tells me, woo. Cows, in Japan it's cows, but in China it's dogs. So, then he says, beyond this word, woo, Can you measure anything or grasp anything? I think there's another translation that says within this mu, which I think may be better. Within this word mu, can you measure anything or grasp anything? This is the meaning of mu, that there's nothing to be grasped. You can't grasp this mu. You sit there and just say mu, mu, mu. And then, did you ever try to say bread over and over again? Bread, bread, bread, bread.

[21:20]

Pretty soon it just loses all of its, you know, it's just a sound. And mu just becomes this sound, right? So, and then we try to figure out what is mu, you know, what is, well, mu is the question, the answer's in the question. And that leads us into the next part, because Mu is what? What is Mu is not a question. It seems like a question. There's a question mark. What is Mu? But if you take the question mark away, it's what is Mu? And if you turn it around, Mu is what? And Dogen uses this all the time. in his, whenever he writes, what or who or how. It's not, when you say who is, who am I? You just turn around, I am who?

[22:21]

And who becomes the subject? It's like saying, what is it? Well, it is what? Because if you try to pin something down, it's not it. But yet it, you can point to anything and say, this is it. What is this? Well, this is it. But everything is it. Everything is what? Everything is who? Everything is how? So he says, within this word mu, or beyond this word mu, can you measure anything or grasp anything?

[23:24]

There is entirely nothing to hold on to. Then he says, please try releasing your hold, and releasing your hold, observe. Another way of saying this is, please try opening your hand. I like that, opening your hand. Because when you open your hand, it becomes filled. When you close your fist to hang on, there's no way that anything can enter. So this is called limitation, and this is called letting go or freedom. So please try releasing your whole, open your hand, and opening your hand, observe. What is body-mind? What is conduct? What is birth and death? What is Buddhadharma? What are the laws of the world? What, in the end, are mountains, rivers, earth, human beings, animals, and houses? So here we have what again.

[24:28]

This looks like questions. What is body-mind? Body-mind is what? These are statements, they're not questions. But he puts them in the form of questions. What is conduct? What is birth and death? What is Buddhadharma? So this is like bringing forth the essence. without trying to answer the question. We think we know what things are, but we never really know what things are. We only know what things are according to our limited way of understanding through these five holes. and the hole inside our head called the mind. The five entrances, right?

[25:32]

Seeing, hearing, but you know, the mind distorts all of our perceptions. And we create the world out of these perceptions. It's such a limited perception. We don't know what anything is. We only know what things are as far as we use them. We only know what things are as far as they're useful to us. As long as it's in our national interest. Or as long as it's in our special interest. Why do we care about things that are not in our special interest? even though the inquiring mind researches out things, it's still only as far as our perceptions can reach.

[26:33]

These feelers can only reach so far. What is birth and death? Well, we can talk about it, we can speculate, and we can get down to something, but what is water? H2O, hydrogen, oxygen. But to know what water is, you have to jump in the water. To know what birth and death is, you have to jump into birth and death. So we say, well, I am alive. That's just a perception that our mind tells us. We kind of make that up. So how do we experience birth and death as reality?

[27:40]

So Letting go, releasing your hold and observe. What is body and mind? What is conduct? What is birth and death? What is Buddhadharma? What are the laws of the world? What in the end are mountains, rivers, earth, human beings, animals and houses? When you observe thoroughly, it follows, when you observe this thoroughly, it follows that the dual aspects Now this is a very tricky sentence because the way it's translated is that the two aspects of motion and stillness do not arise at all. Could you say it again? The two aspects. I mean the whole thing. It follows that the two aspects of motion and stillness do not arise at all. What was it? It follows what? Where could you read the beginning? I got lost, I'm sorry. When you observe thoroughly, it follows. I mean, when you see clearly, right, it follows that the two aspects of motion and stillness did not arise at all.

[28:52]

But that's a tricky sentence. When the two aspects, when the dual aspect, instead of two, when the dual aspect of motion and stillness arise. So the dual aspect doesn't mean the two aspects, it means the non-dual aspect of motion and stillness. When you realize that motion and stillness, although motion is motion and stillness is stillness, it's not a duality. When you observe clearly, you see that motion is inherent in stillness. And stillness is the basis of motion. So when you take that even further, you can say that stillness, well, what is stillness and what is motion?

[29:57]

Stillness is when everything is perfectly quiescent. There is no, there are no waves. And then when, this is the unwavering pivot of Confucius. The unwavering pivot of Confucius is totally without any activity at all. And then when it leans over, things begin. That's falling out of balance. Everything is so perfectly balanced that there's nothing happening. But in that nothing happening, it's the most dynamic thing there is. that when everything is totally balanced and there's not a whisper, that's the great potential which contains the big bang, so to speak, right?

[31:14]

But then when it moves, everything starts to flow. So motion and stillness are not two different things. even though motion is motion and stillness is stillness. So form is emptiness, emptiness is form. They're not two different things, but in order to talk about them, we separate them. So that's making a mistake on purpose. When you observe thoroughly, it follows that the dual aspect of motion and stillness does not arise at all. Though motion and stillness do not arise, things are not fixed. People do not realize this. Those who lose track of it are many.

[32:17]

You know, I remember Suzuki Rinpoche saying, even though there's no self, it doesn't mean that there aren't rules. So how does a self arise? A self arises out of motion. But we say there's no self in Buddhism. Self is, phenomena arises. But a self arises when there's attachment and grasping. So Buddha says, if you read the scriptures, phenomena just roll along, but there's no self in it. There's no self in it, even though phenomena just roll along. And then there's you appear and I appear and, you know, all the trillions of people from beginningless human creation have appeared and disappeared.

[33:33]

Well, where are they and where did they go? They all had their dramas called this life. Self is a kind of illusion. Phenomena are rolling along. Just phenomena roll along. And then the self arises when the phenomena, the phenomena called you and me, grasp onto something and cling to it. That's what we call the self. So it's necessary to do that. You know, we cannot deny the self. But the self is not a self. That's not denying the self. That's just looking at the reality of the self. So it's very tricky, you know, to say there's no self is true, but to say there's a self is also true.

[34:35]

So this is the tricky part of the duality of self and non-self. It's not that there's nothing there. It's that what is there is not a real self. But we call it a self and we act out of that conception. But we make it up. It's called our drama, our life drama. Our dream drama, dreamer. I guess it's somewhat related. We live in a dream, actually. So Buddha's, you know, pen is to pop the bubble of the dream and not live in the dream world. But we can't help it, you know. It's really hard to help living in dream world because of our emotions and our feelings and our grasping onto them. Can't help it, really hard.

[35:37]

But we can work with it, you know, until we find our freedom. from our dream world. And then we can live in the dream world, but we know this is the dream world. When you wake up to the dream world and you know this is the dream world, then you can live in the dream world. So enlightenment is understanding delusion. When you are enlightened, you will understand that you live in the dream world. And so we say, you know, delusion and enlightenment go together. Enlightenment is about your delusion. You know, that's why Dogen, and most of the Mahayana, but Dogen especially is saying, the Srilavaka and Pratyekabuddha will never get this. The reason why they will never get this is because it's like, this is an example that's used, the persimmon.

[36:39]

The persimmon, Western persimmons, not Japanese persimmons. Japanese persimmons, you eat them when they're hard. But Western persimmons, when they're hard, if you bite into one, your mouth just goes, right? So it's astringent. but it needs the astringency in order to be ripe. And when the persimmon gets ripe and soft and malleable, then it becomes very sweet, right? So this is like our delusion. We need our delusion in order for the enlightenment to arise. We need to have our astringency and the astringency is the ground, the compost. for the sweetness. So that's necessary. The delusion and the dream is necessary in order to bring forth the enlightenment.

[37:45]

This is Mahayana understanding. Big delusion is big bodhi. So we don't dismiss people who are deluded. We have to dismiss ourselves. But, you know, how do we try and work with our delusion? Within delusion, you know, when we sit Zazen, we say we're sitting in the midst of delusion. Sitting Zazen in the midst of delusion. And the lotus grows out of the mud. Maybe we exist in muddy water like a lotus, or maybe we exist like a lotus in muddy water. Kind of like delusions aren't inexhaustible, I bow to them.

[38:53]

I mean, that's such a great line, this. Yeah. Well, you know, language is simplistic. Language is simplistic. But dharma is subtle. So the language doesn't always express the subtlety. And the language is startling. So we should be startled. You know, oh, get rid of delusion, get rid of desire. Oh, you got involved, you know. What will I do if I get rid of desire? What will I do? It's like good language is a pointer. It's what? It's a pointer. It's a pointer. Yeah, language points at something, right? But if you take everything literally, then you really have a hard time, get stuck. So you have to be careful not to take things literally. And if you take whatever, you know, Dogon says literally, or any Zen teaching literally, it's always the finger pointing at the moon.

[40:00]

And then when you take the finger for the thing, you know, that's not it. That's a great metaphor. Look at the moon itself, you know, and look at your own reasoning. You have to bring reasoning to the Dharma. Well, you know, And you have to put two and two together. This guy says this, and this guy says that, and this guy says that. What does that all mean? And then you kind of get a picture. When you study the koans, if you study the Mumon Kon or the Luklev record, and you're studying one of the cases, you should study as many translations as you can. Then you begin to see the picture because everybody sees it in a little different way and each translator translates a little differently according to their understanding. So this stuff, nobody knows what Buddha said that was so long ago and going through all these, it was an oral tradition for 400 years before anything was written down.

[41:02]

So how many distortions does it go through or different ways of expressing before it comes to us? So we have to kind of use our reasoning and not just take everything literally and use our own, this is why it's important to practice, to use practice as the scale rather than study as the scale. But your practice should accord, the result of your practice should accord with the sutras. But you shouldn't take the sutras at their word. So comparing is a good idea. You have something to compare your practice with. So people study the scriptures without practicing, and they have one idea about what that means.

[42:07]

Then they come to practice and leave the scriptures alone for a while, and then when they go back and read them, it's a totally different scripture. Lois? Have you ever noticed, I'm sure you have, how difficult it is to see the moon? No. Only when the clouds are... No, what I mean is, you speak about the language and the pointing, look at the moon. To prepare to really see the moon is quite challenging. to really take in the moon. You can go to a hilltop, you can set yourself up, unless you're there with the rising, the beginning of the appearance of the moon, even over the whole night. It's very complex to really take it in. It's sort of in the middle of your body. It's a very, it's not, oh look at the moon, or oh there's the moon, if at all possible.

[43:13]

You know, Sasaki Roshi, I remember reading something of Sasaki Roshi one time, he said, in Japan, you know, now they teach people in the usual way, but in the old days, they used to teach the children, where's the moon? And a child would say, here. But he said, but nowadays, they teach that it's up there in the sky. And it's really interesting in Branching Streams, Dogen talking about the Sando Kai, saying at Tassajara, you know, people think San Francisco is over there and Tassajara is over here. But if you think San Francisco is over there and Tassajara is over there, you don't understand where either Tassajara or San Francisco are. So then he says, when you observe thoroughly, it follows that the dual aspects of motion and stillness do not arise at all.

[44:23]

Though motion and stillness do not arise, things are not fixed. People do not realize this, and those who lose track of it are many. You who study the way will come to awakening in the course of study. If you continue to study, you will surely come to awakening. Even when you complete the way though, you should not stop. But there is no completion of the way. There are plateaus, but there's no completion of the way. So we can't stop. So he says, this is my prayer indeed. So I have some little footnotes that I made, but I think we've covered it.

[45:29]

Do you have any questions at all? Well, it means that in birth there is death and in death there is birth. And how do we live our life with that understanding? You're living it with that understanding moment to moment without understanding it. Whether you understand it or not. Well, you know, the next time you eat a cookie, what happens?

[46:31]

It's already gone. That's, where'd it go? Where did it go? Truthfully, where did it go? What? That's right, but is it something else? It's something else and it's not something else. And where did it come from? Someplace else? This is how you study. Where do things come from and where do they go? How do they arise and how do they cease? And does that really happen? I was thinking of love for people. I was thinking about love.

[47:32]

Love, yes. I could think about a cookie, but I was thinking about people. Yeah. And I was just wondering if love belongs to the world of birth only, rather than death, if there's anything to love, or what? Yeah. It depends on what you mean by the word, because it's a word that's used and misused, and means anything you want it to mean. But one meaning of the word is that it's what holds everything together. Use it while it's falling apart. Yeah. Well, of course. I mean, there is nothing but falling apart. So it's totally impersonal. And at the same time, it's the most personal thing to you.

[48:37]

Is there a non-deluded way to love a person? Yes. It's not just everything but that person? You know, there's a non-deluded way to love a person, which is to love them for their own sake, not for your sake. And also to realize that this person is not just this person. So what is this person? I know something about this person, but what is this person, really? How far back does this person go? What's the boundary of this person? Do we love their face? Do we love their heart? What is it that we love about this person? And we say, well, the whole person. But what is the whole person? There's no whole person that's not connected to everything else.

[49:49]

So we're talking about a part of something. I love this part of the universe, this little speck of the universe. But if we love this person totally, then what's the boundary? So love is really impersonal, at the same time very personal. But we associate love with our own self-interest. When we say love, it's our own self-interest, mostly. But that's just one idea, aspect. It's not our own self-interest. So in Buddhism, there are four aspects. loving kindness, compassion, sympathetic joy, and equanimity. And the equanimity is the basis.

[50:53]

Because equanimity is not, sees, loves everything equally. Without a preference. So, and in the highest sense, it's what really holds everything together. It's the glue that holds everything together. The cream filling of the Oreo. The non-fattening ones. So, you know, and one has to be careful not to get stuck by it, stuck with it, stuck in it.

[51:58]

It can be freeing or it can be concrete, putting your feet in concrete and throwing it into the East River. So it's nice if it's free. We talk about free love, you know, but what we think of as free love is not free love at all. That's just another kind of trap. So anyway, we work toward that. We don't always get ourselves there, but that should be our work.

[52:47]

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