Genjokoan
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Rohatsu Day 5
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I love to teach the truth. Even though we may have been sitting zazen for a long time, we still have a tendency to discriminate between good thoughts and bad thoughts, and between good feelings and bad feelings, and between right and wrong, and so forth.
[01:01]
In Zazen, we should have a lot of pain or some discomfort in order to... for some reason or another... wrong, or if we feel good, or if we feel uncomfortable, that there's something wrong with that. So we get into, and sometimes we feel the opposite. We get into this kind of stuff with ourselves.
[02:20]
Our mind is always constantly discriminating. if we have something. Whatever state of mind, I say state of mind, meaning body-mind, whatever state of body-mind is present, this is it, this is who we are.
[03:47]
The problem is that we feel that we have a self, a fixed self. When we have a fixed self, we compare our feelings, thoughts and feelings, and emotions, to that fixed self. So we set up a standard. Now, Sangyokai Sekiko says, don't set up any standards for yourself. Setting up a standard means setting up an idea of who I am, a fixed self. kind of immovable self, which we use as a measuring stick. Compared to this, there's good, and compared to this, there's bad. Good and bad only arise in comparison to something depending on where we are on the scale of myself.
[05:10]
Accept and move with. states of consciousness are changing faster than we can be aware of. But when we sit, we can be aware of who we are when we return to our true self, which is constantly changing.
[07:06]
the changing states of body-mind elements until it picks itself, then we have our comfortable way. Dogen says, this zazen is the comfortable way, but the fifth day of Sashin, we may cast some doubt on that. This is called mindful suffering, but it's close to that.
[08:36]
The nature of human life is to be uncomfortable, and so we're always seeking how to be comfortable. And discomfort comes when we need to move, and can't move, or don't know where to move, or how to settle. Once we stop fooling around, making the external adjustments which don't work, we find out that we can only make internal adjustments.
[10:26]
So internal adjustment means to drop our measuring stick, which is called self. And we all have it, and it's necessary to have it, to some extent. But we make it pretty big, and so it becomes a hindrance. Ego is important.
[11:32]
Some sense of solidity, some sense of presence. becomes so big. so that when I say light and transparent, it means that our true nature can illuminate our life. If we're too dense, if our ego is too dense, then our light doesn't get through. We try to change our So.
[12:39]
changing this state of mind, this state of mind. as evening approaches, a bright moon illuminates the whole ocean. If you want to catch the moon, if you want the dragon's jewels, So in Shukotan.
[15:04]
To forget the self is to be enlightened by the 10,000 dharmas. To be enlightened by the 10,000 dharmas is to free one's body and mind and those of others. No trace of enlightenment remains, and this traceless enlightenment is continued forever. He still is talking about delusion and enlightenment, and continues to unfold different ways of looking at the same thing. And to study the self is to forget the self.
[16:34]
To forget the self means that fundamentally there's no self. As we know, Buddha taught, if you study the self, you find that there's no permanent self. So in The Abhidharmas, the old Hinayana Buddhists, not Hinayana, but fundamentalists, Buddhist fundamentalists, studied the elements of the body and mind, in order to the psychological and physical elements very mightily in order to prove that there's no
[17:47]
My own Buddhist Zen is more understanding of synthesis. So to forget the self is to realize the oneness of all being. That's my idea. So enlightenment is to realize no self.
[19:07]
But when we realize there's no self, then we can accept this self, this delusory self, or illusory self. Not a problem. Not much problem. But before we realize what this delusory So then he says, to study the self is to forget the self. And to forget the self is to be enlightened by the 10,000 diamonds.
[20:41]
Well, he said that before. He said that things advance and confirm the self is to be enlightened by the 10,000 diamonds. That's what he said previously. So to forget the self is the same thing. And to be enlightened by the 10,000 diamonds is to free one's body and mind of others to find this great freedom. We make, because of our fear, we make this separation between life and death.
[21:43]
It's not that there is no separation, but... life and death actually appear together, simultaneously.
[22:58]
Because it's just this moment. And various events are happening on this moment, establishing on this moment, but they're also gone. So each moment Now, where does now go?
[24:15]
Does now go somewhere? Any moment we say, this is now. Is this the same now or a different now? And what has changed? Have I changed? has now changed, have I changed with now? What's changing? Okay.
[25:44]
even though we have these names, who am I? But we need to establish ourselves with a name, we need to establish ourselves with a place, we need to establish That's the ice cream store.
[28:16]
He has this little paragraph. He says, refraining from all evil. He says there's an easy way to become Buddha. Easy way to become Buddha. Refraining from all evil, not clinging to birth and death, working in compassion for all sentient beings, respecting those more advanced, and taking good care of your juniors without any grasping or rejecting, worry, or lamentation. This is what it's about. Good luck. Read it again. What? Read it again. The truth makes you feel comfortable. And then it goes on, it says, when the first one seeks the truth, or one separates oneself, or one feels separate.
[29:58]
When one has already correctly transmitted the truth to oneself, one is one's original self. intimately and returns to the true Self, it will be clear that the 10,000 dharmas are without Self." So he says, when one first seeks the truth, one separates oneself. separate from it. We may or may not feel that it's outside or inside. Some feel that it's out there and some feel that it's in here.
[31:01]
Let's do this. When one has already correctly transmitted the truth to oneself, one is one's original self at that moment.
[33:23]
Now, this brings up the whole subject of what is transmission, what is dharma transmission. Dharma transmission is ourself, being ourself. So.
[34:33]
is my boat means my center. moving around everybody else as the center of the universe. If I'm the center of the universe, you're also the center of the universe. The problem is when I think that I'm the center of the universe and everyone else is an object in my universe.
[36:29]
That means if I think that I'm the center of the universe and everything else is an object in my universe, Just a ghost is what a ghost is, a disembodied spirit. But to realize that everyone else is also the center of the universe, and the universe revolves around each one of us, and more than just revolves, because no-self means everything is the self. Just like emptiness means fullness, completeness.
[37:43]
So when we watch the shore from a boat, When one examines the 10,000 dharmas of the diluted body and mind, one will suppose that one's mind and nature are permanent. Even though we know the body is moving on, we think the mind is fixed. Same thing. The body and mind and consciousness are always moved together. We say, out of the body experience. possibilities.
[38:51]
But, show me one of these spirits that doesn't have a body, somewhere. There's a kind of heretical view in Buddhism, it's called the Shrinika heresy. mind, the mind does not perish with the body. It's very popular. There's something that still exists after the body perishes, and it's very close to There she is.
[40:07]
So, if one examines the 10,000 dharmas that are permitted by the mind, one is supposed that one's mind and nature are permanent. Mind and nature are always changing. If you put it on the face, nothing is permanent, except change. of course, say, to really be intimate with yourself means no gap between big self and small self. It will be clear that the 10,000 dharmas are It's necessarily wrong, but it's just seeing things partially.
[42:11]
The problem is that we don't go beyond partially, and that creates problems for ourselves. So delusion and enlightenment go together. Enlightenment enlightens delusion. You can see through the structure of this life. But we still need the structure of this life. But we need to realize that it's not just a structure. It's a very important structure. that we need this structure, and we need to take care of this structure. How do we do it? How do we take care of this?
[43:21]
This world of bones. How do we take care of this world of bones? When I was ordained, Suzuki Roshi gave me a calligraphy And in fact, inside of everything, bones.
[43:44]
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