This morning I'm going to continue to talk about, comment on Dogen Zenji's Genjo-Koan, which I started during our five-day Sushin last week, and I plan to continue until I'm finished. Although Genjo-Koan is not very long, actually, taking it line by line. It will last a long time, but it's good to peer deep inside. So, if you want to become familiar with Genjo-Koan, which is a very important text for our particular teaching, there's a good commentary by Maezumi Roshi called A Way of Everyday Life, which you can buy in most esoteric bookstores.

[01:12]

So I recommend that you do that. It will help you in understanding these talks. In this particular passage, Dogen says, seeing forms with the whole body and mind, hearing sounds with the whole body and mind, one understands them intimately. Yet, it is not like a mirror with reflections, nor like water under the moon. When one side is realized, the other side is dark. seeing forms of the whole body and mind, hearing sounds of the whole body and mind, one understands them intimately.

[02:29]

Intimately has the meaning of as yourself. Intimate here Maybe we say, you know, if you know something well, then you're intimate with it. But this, another level, deeper level, is when you know something well, you know it as yourself. So, to know something, to see something with your whole body and mind and to hear something with whole body and mind. When we're thinking about something, when we view something with a thought in our mind, the thought makes a kind of, creates a

[03:47]

an idea about what we're confronted with. If I say, if I look at this piece of pillar, I'll say, that's the temple pillar, pillar that holds up the temple, maybe. But if I don't think about it, if I don't name that, but look at it, really look at it. there's no thought in my mind of naming, then I'm a step closer to being intimate with the pillar. And even though the pillar is the pillar, and I am myself, so to speak, to be really intimate with this pillar is to see this pillar as no different than myself.

[04:50]

This is a power of zazen, actually, to be able to see everything as ourself with no separation in between. That's why in practice, practice is oriented toward doing one thing well at a time. We have lots of different ideas about practice, but basically, if you can do one thing, one act completely at one time, and become intimate and thorough with that one act so that you yourself and the object involved in your action are totally one.

[06:01]

Then you can experience real intimacy. But usually our minds are ahead of ourself or behind ourself. Our mind is quite often behind it, behind our mind, or ahead of our mind. And to be really present is not so common. So in training, sometimes we wash the window, even though the window is clean. You know, our usual activity is to accomplish something. If we sweep the floor, then it feels good. It's very gratifying if we end up with some dust. You know, if you end up with some dust, you say, oh, this is really worthwhile. But if you sweep the floor and there's no dust, you feel a little bit disappointed.

[07:06]

But in practice, So in practice, we sleep the floor, even though the floor is not dirty. Sleeping the floor is called sleeping our mind. It doesn't matter whether there's some dirt or not, whether the floor is dirty or not. As a matter of fact, if the floor is not dirty, you have more opportunity, better opportunity, to become one with the act. Because there's no and in mind. You don't have the result as a barrier. Result is a big barrier for us. In our usual life, of course, we want some result. And if we don't have result, we feel very disappointed. Because we view things as objects.

[08:08]

We feel ourself as a subject and over against objects. Even other people are objects. But when we do something just for the sake of doing something, just we are not separate from our act. Very hard to do that. Not so worried about result. If it works, okay, wonderful. If it doesn't work, well, that's too bad. But within the action itself is where your life is. So it's pretty easy to waste our life in the realm of effort and result. Of course we want some result, but what result do we want? So our teacher, Suzuki Roshi, his theme for years and years was no gaining idea.

[09:26]

In practice, it's no gaining idea. No gaining idea means not to acquire something, not to be attached to some result. When you wash your face, you don't wash your face because it's dirty. Usually we wash our face because it's dirty. And if your face is dirty, of course we like to wash it. But when we get up in the morning, we don't wash our face because it's dirty. We wash our face. We just wash our face. We just brush our teeth. this kind of understanding is a little different than our usual way that we view our activity. Of course, results are, you know, also part of our life.

[10:34]

I'm not saying that working for a result is not part of our life, because it is. But underneath, you know, if we didn't work for some result then we'd just have to think of something over and over again to do to keep ourselves occupied, right? But underneath the activity it should be pure activity. That's why in our daily life we're always doing something for a result. But if we only do something for a result, then our life is wasted. We can't really reach our real life. And we're constantly frustrated. Even though we accomplished something, we need to accomplish something else. Because once we've accomplished something, it's not satisfying anymore. So, to understand how

[11:39]

To appreciate and live our life in the realm of pure activity is what our practice is about. Result is important, but doing something for the sake of intimacy, true intimacy, is the real purpose of practice, the real goal of practice. So our life doesn't have to be self-centered or selfish, even though our life is taking place in the world of change, constant change. So Dogen says, seeing forms with the whole body and mind, hearing sounds with the whole body and mind, one understands them intimately.

[13:00]

There's a story of Kyogen, a very famous story about Kyogen, who was a student of Isang. And he studied with Isang for quite a long while. But he was really trying hard to get enlightened, and he just felt it. And he worked very hard. Very good student, actually. And turned out to be a very famous student. But one day he felt that he just could not continue with his teacher. And he felt that he was really a failure, maybe after 20 years. So he went He left the teacher, Isan, and he went for a long way and found a cemetery. And he said, I'll just stay here and spend my life sweeping the gravestones.

[14:03]

So he completely given up everything. And was just resigned to a kind of useless, unproductive activity. And he was sweeping in the cemetery for a while. And then one day when he was sweeping, he was, a pebble, he swept this pebble and it hit against a piece of bamboo and made a cracking sound. And immediately his mind was completely opened up. This is like intimate understanding. There was no separation between himself and the whole universe. He completely lost everything that stood in between himself and the whole universe.

[15:08]

A very famous story, Kyogen's pebble striking a piece of bamboo. Then Dogen says, �Yet it is not like a mirror with reflections, nor like water under the moon. When one side is realized, the other side is dark.� Later on in Genjo Koan, Dogen in this talk, Dogen talks about how enlightenment is like a mirror with reflections. and like the moon reflected in water, in a drop of water. But here, he says, I'm not talking about that, that way of seeing enlightenment. I'm talking about the other side, which is when one side is realized, the other side is dark.

[16:15]

Dark, you know, we speak about light side and the dark side. A light side means when all things are revealed in the light. Everything has its own shape. The pillar looks like the pillar. I look like me. You look like you. The bell is the bell. Everything is illuminated individually. And the dark side means that all boundaries are taken away. So pillar is not pillar. I am not me. You are not you. The bell is not the bell. Nothing is separate from anything else. So in the dark, you don't see boundaries. Everything is one piece. So that's dark side. Light side is where everything stands out in its individuality.

[17:18]

when he says, when one side is realized, the other side is dark, has several shades of meaning. When one side is illuminated, the other side is dark, yet included. So, if I'm sweeping the floor completely, I don't have to worry about the whole rest of the universe. Whole universe is right there. Broom, person, floor, sweeping is one complete act which covers the whole universe, which includes the whole universe. But I don't have to look at the whole universe in order to realize it. All I have to do is be completely focused and one and intimate with this one simple act.

[18:24]

And the other side, everything else is completely dark, but the whole universe is right here in this sweeping. This is our understanding. And in Zen language it's called one act samadhi. Samadhi of one act means concentrated activity on one act which covers everything. So if you want to see, if you want to understand the whole universe, you can't do it by looking at the whole universe because your mind is too limited. The whole universe is contained in one act, one simple act, wherever you are. That's why in the monastic practice at Tassajara, our life is very simple.

[19:39]

You're not given a lot to study or a lot to do except very simple tasks where you can just be very intimate with what you're doing. And that's why we practice a lot in silence. When you don't talk, you don't think so much. You may think, but even if you don't talk, you may be thinking a lot, but to contain yourself so that you can really penetrate or be intimate with whatever it is that you're doing. Thich Nhat Hanh, you know, has a very nice device when he's giving talks or I experienced it in his talks.

[20:50]

Somebody rings a bell after about 10 or 15 minutes and he stops talking and everybody comes back to themselves. You know, it's easy to get outside of ourselves and get lost outside of ourselves and then something will happen to bring us back and allow our mind to relax and just be seated with everything. So when we sit zazen, zazen is a prime example of one-act samadhi. No thinking, no particular thinking. If you have thoughts, you just let them arise and vanish. How to be one with the universe is zazen. It's not to, it looks like it's to isolate

[21:52]

to isolate yourself. If you look at it in a superficial way, it looks like, well, everyone's sitting by themselves, isolated. But actually, to stop local activity so that activity covers in a big way. Stopping the activity of the small mind so that the big mind will be present. which includes all things. That's the purpose of Zazen. Not to be anti-social, but to be truly social. Do you have a question? I was an English major in college, and I always felt that being verbal was my forte.

[23:14]

And I've come to distrust concepts and words for the reasons you're speaking about. Can you have any comments about that? Yeah. Concepts and words are fine, but it's nice if they follow reality. You know, if they follow your experience, then they're a way of expressing experience. So, in our practice, experience comes first, and then expression, verbal expression. So, There are some people who really are verbal people and some people who are very quiet. And I think it's a problem if only the very quiet types do zazen or practice.

[24:16]

So I think we have to be very careful. But I would say speaking is good when it's appropriate. And you have to know when it's appropriate. My mother used to say, speech is silver and silence is gold. But I don't criticize speaking, but I would say experience. is of the basis. If one experiences the basis, then speaking has more reality to it. I've seen this experience of non-separation or no boundaries as kind of a complicated one, actually.

[25:19]

And I feel very much that in my own process that I, it's not, it's sort of going back and forth between a need to define what my own boundaries are, and who I am, and an experience of not having to have that. But I almost have to do the first... This interesting thing, and go ahead. If you didn't have no boundaries, you wouldn't have to worry about it, right? So, because we have no boundaries, we have to constantly think about our boundaries. Otherwise, we have no boundaries. So both is necessary. Boundaries are based on no boundary. Activity is based on no activity. Complications are based on emptiness. So, you know, we don't, we don't, we can't, we don't let ourself just go completely, except in zazen.

[26:32]

In zazen, we can let ourself go really completely because our form is so strong. You know, that's why zazen, a very strong form, and you can let yourself go completely because you stay there, you know. You're there, you're grounded, and yet completely let go. And in our daily life, we're moving with other forms. And so we have to know what our boundaries are and always take into consideration what's going on around us so that we can harmonize with it. And our form is constantly changing. Sometimes we're thin, and sometimes we're fat, and sometimes we're tall, and sometimes we're short. And we're working within an organic world. So problem arises when we think we have a certain shape and we move and we want everything else to move around us, except that we don't want to move our form, you know, to accommodate necessarily.

[27:35]

I mean it's, you know, so it's a kind of both, you know, when we move through the world of forms we also have to realize that we also are changing and accommodating and also moving things. You know, how to move and be moved is practice. But so often we get a fixed idea of ourself. And that's what Dogen is talking about all the time, is to not be attached to the fixed idea we have about ourself. But I think the other, have some idea of yourself would help you. Right. To have a correct idea about yourself. That's right. Or else you're just a sponge. I mean, you can be a sponge. That's why... Sometimes you'll be positive, but then it also can be otherwise. So, each one of us has to find the right form.

[28:36]

And we have to find it moment after moment. It comes up and it's a struggle. It becomes a struggle. Because the ego comes out and says, I'm fine too. And then it gets just recognized. But at least you know what you have to work with. That's the important thing. It's always a struggle, you know. But it's very good if you know what you have to work with and what the elements are.

[29:46]

And little by little you begin to know who you are. But each one of us, it feels like we're the center of the universe. And each one of us is. The problem arises when we think, I am the center of the universe, but you're not. That's a big problem. So ego is, I'm the center of the universe, but I don't think you are. Non-ego is, I'm the center of the universe, and so are you. and you, and you, and you, and you. So how do we deal with that? Well, I'll leave you with that.

[30:51]

Thank you.

[31:01]

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