Good morning. This second day of speaking, some of you may begin to have some difficulties, and the difficulty If you stay with your difficulty, the difficulty will allow you to manifest your whole self. Usually, it's not so easy to manifest our whole self because, or at least to realize the manifestation of our entire self in our usual activity. because we have so much choice. But in Sachine we have very little choice.

[01:08]

So we have to bring our whole self to the moment. So even though we may have difficulty, the difficulty actually helps us. It doesn't help us to feel good. but it helps us to manifest completely. So this is the point of sashi, not to have some wonderful euphoric feeling or some special feeling, some bad feeling or some good feeling, but just to manifest our whole self completely. Dogen's teaching, and Dogen's teaching is expressed in his Shibu Genzo, his 95 fascicles of his writings about

[02:26]

And the fascicle of Shivo Genso, which is the key, or the cornerstone of his understanding, is Genjo Koan, the koan which of manifesting in the present And all of the 95 fascicles are commentaries on, seem to be commentaries on Genjo Koan. And I've talked about Genjo Koan before, as many of you know. Someone recently said to me, gee, the lecture you gave the other day was one you could have given 20 years ago. Do you ever talk about anything new? So, Genjo Koan, even though we may have heard it once or twice, or read it a few times, is infinitely full of possibilities for understanding.

[03:50]

So, it's pretty hard to study it too much. since it's so relevant for our practice. Genjo means manifesting, being present, manifesting in the present. That's why sometimes the title There are various titles, translations of the title. One translation is The Way of Everyday Life. So manifesting in the present means here and now, moment after moment. means various things.

[05:05]

It means a public case, like if you want to get an example of precedent in law, you go to the law books and they give you various examples, precedents for the law. And so Koan is a precedent example. of dharma, the law. Dharma means actually the law, the immutable law of things. What we want to know about in life is what's the law? What's the immutable working of things? What is that which is always so? That's called the dharma. So Koan is an example of the immutable Dharma, the immutable law, that which is an example, a pretty rock-bottom example of things, of how things work in reality.

[06:21]

But Koan here, for Dogen, he stretches that a bit. not stretch, but expresses it as ko means equality and an means difference. So ko The common denominator of everything is ko. Everything is equal in ko. And an means everything's difference.

[07:29]

So genjo koan is the manifestation, moment by moment, the sameness of everything's difference and the difference of everything's sameness. And this is what all the koans are about, in one way or another. And this is what our understanding of practice is about. Usually, we're immersed in on. Just doing stuff. Just mountains are mountains without going any further. Just waves are waves. But waves are an expression of the whole ocean.

[08:35]

Each wave is an expression of the whole ocean. and the waves are on. So we often go about our lives just immersed in the circumstances without really thinking too much or understanding too much what our life is based on. what this life is an expression of. This is called the realm of delusion. The realm of enlightenment is to understand the deep ocean, or ko. So Dogen's Shobogenzo, or his Genjo Koan, is about

[09:43]

What our life of running around doing things is about fundamentally. And it brings up all the questions of what is it? Who am I? What is birth and death? All these fundamental questions are addressed Dogen apparently took condensed koan practice into this fundamental koan. So genjo koan is the koan How our life is extended from zazen.

[10:53]

How our daily life extends into activity from zazen. Zazen is an. Activity is ko. But an includes ko and ko includes an. Ko is an and an is ko. form is emptiness and emptiness. When Dogen opens, he opens with four sentences.

[12:04]

And these four sentences establish the meaning. And then the rest of the fascicle is an explication of the meaning. This is true in most of Dogen's works, is that the opening statement, it establishes the meaning, and then the rest is kind of commentary. So I'll read you the first four statements, first four sentences. He says, when all dharmas are buddhadharma, there are enlightenment and delusion, practice, life and death, buddhas and ancestors. When the 10,000 dharmas are without self, there are no delusion, no enlightenment, no Buddhas, no creatures, no life, and no death.

[13:09]

The Buddha way transcends being and non-being. Therefore, there are life and death, delusion and enlightenment, creatures and Buddhas. Nevertheless, flowers fall with our attachment, and weeds spring up with our aversion. So the first sentence, he says, when all dharmas are buddhadharma, there are enlightenment and delusion, practice, life and death, buddhas and creatures. All dharmas means all things. Dharma is thing. Dharma is the manifestation of reality, something that appears. The ancient Buddhists in the Abhidharma studied the dharmas as elements of our being.

[14:14]

They isolated various dharmas and said, well, these are the dharmas that we will study because these are the elements that constituted human life. And they studied those dharmas. So that's a very special meaning of dharmas. But the broad meaning of dharmas means everything. Buddhadharma means Buddha nature or truth. So here we have ko and an. Ko is Buddhadharma. An is all dharmas. So all dharmas are all dharmas of Buddhadharma. In other words, if you take a rock and smash it into a million pieces, you have little rocks. little dharmas, which come from the big dharma, which are expressions of the big dharma.

[15:15]

So all the little dharmas are expressions of Buddha nature, big dharma. So in order to study dharma, we can study dharma through the dharmas. is contained in a grain of sand. If we take it apart, though, we may not discover its nature. So, when he said, so Dogen says, when, when means at the time of, and this when implies At the time of realization, or at the time when we see this as so, when the time our understanding reaches this point, we see that all dharmas are Buddhadharma.

[16:28]

At that time, there are enlightenment and delusion, practice, life and death, Buddhas and creatures. Positive expression means within the whole dharmadhatu, everything is expressing enlightenment. All dharmas are buddhadharma, and there's enlightenment and delusion. Enlightenment is being expressed through enlightenment, and it's being expressed through delusion, and it's being expressed through practice, and it's being expressed through life, and it's being expressed through death. And it's being expressed through Buddhas and it's being expressed through creatures. And then he says, when the 10,000 dharmas are without self, that means when the realization is that the 10,000 dharmas are without self, there's no division.

[17:42]

This is the other side. He's expressing it from the other point of view, the point of view of no self. The point of view of no self means there is no fixed self. Nothing exists as a fixed entity. The true form of all forms. It's no special form. So we say, myself and yourself and this and that. But this is only a tentative identification. So because we have this tentative identification, we have a lot of fear and trembling. and concern, because this form that's manifesting now as you, and this form that's manifesting as me, seems permanent, even though we know it's changing.

[19:04]

It seems permanent. What will happen to me after I die? It's a big question, and we know that we will die, We say, don't quite believe it. What will happen then? I mean, is there an end to this? So we have to realize that all forms are tentative. True form of things is no form. The real form Reality is to not hold on to forms. It doesn't mean we shouldn't try to preserve forms as long as they exist. As long as this form exists, we should take care of it. But it's important to see it all the way through.

[20:12]

important for us to see this form all the way through its existence. Take care of it well, the best way you can. Take care of all these forms because we all want to be happy. We do want to be happy. Since happiness cannot be grasped, what do we do? And success cannot be held onto, so what do we do? So Dogen says, when the 10,000 dharmas are without self, in other words, when we see the 10,000 dharmas from the point of view of no special form, true form, then there is no delusion and there's also no enlightenment.

[21:41]

This is like Enlightenment only exists because of delusion, and delusion only exists because of enlightenment. Buddhas and creatures look different, but actually creatures are Buddhas and Buddhas are creatures. And life and death look like two different things, but in life there's death and in death there's life. This is looking from the point of view of no self. From the point of view of self, there's life and death, birth and death. From the point of view of no self, no birth, no death, no enlightenment, no delusion. That which has no specific form, no special form, is not subject to birth and death.

[22:52]

So this is Buddhism, Buddhist understanding. That which has no specific lasting form is no birth and death. Either way you say it, same thing. Think that if we say there is birth and death, that it's different from saying no birth, no death. But actually, same thing. Don't you think so? That which appears and disappears has no... there's nothing in it to die or be born.

[23:58]

There's just a rising and falling away. Of what? Myself. So, that brings up the question, well, what is myself? This is the big question. What is myself? Myself is, is this form myself? You can't say it's not. Is this rising and falling myself? Is the undulation of life myself? So when there's no, when all dharmas, when 10,000 dharmas are without self, then we see that everything or this true form of no special form is myself, my true self. True self is no special form but includes all forms and no forms.

[25:05]

So this is the other side. This is looking at our life from the point of view of no self. Whereas the first sentence looks at life from the point of view of myself, from the point of view of birth and death, buddhas and creatures, enlightenment and delusion. So the first sentence, everything is there. Second sentence, everything's taken away. These are the two sides. And then he says, the Buddha way transcends being and not being. It goes beyond being and not being. Being and not being are just ideas that we have. because of our observation of the way things appear and disappear.

[26:18]

Therefore, there are life and death, delusion and enlightenment, creatures and Buddhas. So this kind of affirms the first sentence. The first sentence is like emptiness is form. We can equate this with the heart suture. Emptiness is form. The second sentence is, form is emptiness. All forms are empty. They are the product of emptiness. And the third sentence is, you know, the heart suture says, Form is emptiness. Emptiness is form. That which is form is emptiness. The very emptiness is form. It says it in those four ways. But the first way, form is emptiness and emptiness is form, is the equality of the two.

[27:26]

But the second set actually means form is form and emptiness is emptiness, even though it doesn't say it in that way. It doesn't mean that. It means that form is emptiness, and emptiness is form. This is the equating. And then the second one says, the very form is emptiness, and the very emptiness is form. But it means form is form, emptiness is emptiness. It means when form, when confronted with form, form, that's all there is. That's all you see. And when confronted with emptiness, that's all you see. So this is a kind of confirmation of both, and it expresses, you know, the Heart Sutra is such a refined

[28:32]

ultra-refined piece of literature. It's not literature, but it's reduced down to the very essence of things. And so it's very hard to understand it unless you are yourself at the essential place. because it's talking from the point of view of the essential place. It's not talking from the point of view of duality. So when we try to understand the Heart Sutra from a point of view of duality, or our usual standpoint, even though we may understand it, we always end up with form on one hand and duality and emptiness on the other. So Dogen puts a little meat on the bone.

[29:45]

Makes it easier to digest. Something for us to feed on. Hearts are just really bare. Bare bones, bare stuff, like walking through the desert. Dogen brings us more into the forest, you know, a little greenery, lushness. Makes it easier to digest. So he says the Buddha way transcends being and non-being. It's beyond being and non-being. Being and non-being are just dualistic way of thinking about things. But since there is being, we do see things from the point of view of being and non-being. It's also valid. So what Dogen is doing is actually validating our dualistic way of seeing things. When you read the Heart Sutra, you feel that everything's just being taken away and that your usual way of seeing things is not right.

[30:55]

In order to see reality, you know, you can't see it through dualistic eyes. So you kind of left, well, geez, you know, what do I do? What do I do now? Until I'm enlightened. Then Dogen says, nevertheless, flowers fall with our attachment and weeds spring up with our aversion. Everything is just as it is. Form is emptiness. Emptiness is form. It's just the way it is, which means flowers is like enlightenment. When we try to grasp it, it falls.

[31:59]

We think a flower is very beautiful and then we pick it up and the flower falls. With our wanting, with our attachment, we see it fall. Actually, the falling of the flower is its life. Flowers must fall and produce something. The flower's life is in the falling, as well as in the blooming. But we tend to think of the flower's life as in the blooming. We see this one side of a flower. It grows, it's a bud, and it grows tall, and then it blooms, and it's wonderful, and then it falls. But the falling is as much the life of the flower as the growing and blooming. And then the flower falls on the ground and disintegrates and integrates with the ground. This is also the flower's life.

[33:02]

But it's also the life of the ground, the life of the flower, So you can look at it from all kinds of perspectives. What is the life of this flower? But this is the way our life is. And he says, flowers fall with our attachment and weeds spring up with our aversion. Even though we try to keep everything that we don't like out, the weeds are coming in the cracks. There. The dust is settling on the windowsill. The garbage is overflowing. Everything has closed the units.

[34:10]

So grasping and aversion, you know, these are our two big problems. When we want something, not too much, we try to hold on to it, but it slips out of our grasp. And we don't want something, but there it is. So even though all this is true, this is our life. That's called the life of suffering. Buddha calls this, the life of suffering is when you try to hold on to what you can't hold on to, and when you try to keep out what you can't keep out, grasping an aversion. But he says, these, this is our real life.

[35:15]

Right in the midst of grasping and aversion is where our life takes place. And this is where we have to affirm our life. We have a tendency to think, well, as soon as everything gets to be okay, I'll be all right. If I can only remove this little obstacle, this impediment, I'll be okay. But actually, this impediment, this little problem, is where we find our life. Suzuki Roshi used to say, the problem you have right now

[36:18]

is the best problem for you. And the problem you have right now is the problem you'll always have. God, make our hearts sing. And Dogen says, when you stumble over a rock and fall to the ground, you also use that rock to help you up. You also use the ground to help you up. So the problem is maybe not a thing to solve Maybe it is, maybe not, but a problem is something to help us solve ourselves.

[37:25]

Life with no problems is not life, actually. Because even if there's no problem, that's a big problem. What will I do now? Big problem. If you're too wealthy, you have a big problem. What will I do now? I have everything. What will I do now? It's a big problem. So, in Sachine, we always have a big problem. Even though it may not be too hard for some people, Still, we always have a big problem. And the problem is that you're stuck.

[38:37]

You're stuck in your problem. We get stuck in our problem. And we try and figure out various ways to get out of it. That's most natural. How can I get out of this? We can't get out of it, we can only be the problem. So this problem is what brings our life to life. And there's no escape. There's no way out. An meets ko. And then we have our manifestation of koan.

[39:42]

So, in our life, not to avoid things, but when something... Whatever situation we find ourselves in, this is where our life manifests in an absolute way, not just the relative way. How is Buddha nature? How is this the manifestation of Buddha nature? How is this problem? How is this event the manifestation of ultimate reality? You can't figure it out. You can only be it. It means bring ultimate reality to life. It means just to do this moment wholeheartedly so that there's nothing, no part of you left out.

[40:49]

The way to sit Zazen is to leave Don't do it half-heartedly. Only when we do it completely wholeheartedly does it manifest. Some person's problem looks more difficult than someone else's, but actually they're all the same. By facing a problem, by being wholeheartedly our problem, Buddha nature manifests. But if you analyze it, then you separate yourself from it.

[41:57]

And if you try to say, well, which is me and which is Buddha nature, it won't work. Just don't try to recognize anything. Just be wholehearted. So as I said, even though we all want happiness, you can't get happiness by trying to get it. There are various reasons why happiness arises.

[43:06]

But fundamentally, It doesn't depend on whether you're feeling good or bad. It depends on whether or not we're feeling real, being real. When we're being real, complete, then there's happiness. It's like, if you want to pursue enlightenment, you can't run after it. It just manifests when everything is real. So, stay with your problem.

[44:15]

And in Zazen, Try not to move. Sit still. There are two ways to go. One way, when you have a problem, one way is to get out of it, to move. The other way is to just be it. Don't move. And become more and more still. Most of the problems we have above the problem is the problem of resistance. And resistance will give us a lot of problems. It will create more problems. So how can you sit really still without moving? Still, still, still. Just let the breathing be breathing.

[45:18]

and stillness, one breath after the other, and then there's this moment, this moment, just this moment, just this moment, that's all. And some feeling, whatever it is. And great patience, great patience. Patience means not waiting for something, With no future. To just be on this moment. Completely. Just this moment. That's all. In this breath. Be this breath. No Buddhists, no preachers, no delusion, no enlightenment, no self.

[46:29]

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