For those of you who haven't been here for our five days of teaching, my lectures have been on Dogen Zenji's Genjo Koan, his fundamental work. Dogen Zenji was one Zen master in the history of Zen who wrote a lot of stuff. And Genjo Koan is very fundamental to his writings. And our practice is very heavily influenced by Dogen's understanding. And so it's important for us to understand Genjo-Koan because it's so completely tied, our practice is so inextricably tied to Genjo-Koan.

[01:15]

Genjo-Koan That's not what it means, but one way to express the meaning of a Genjo Koan is our daily life as it's extended from Zazen. When we're studying this Koan completely, when we're in the midst of this Koan completely, there's no gap between Zazen and our daily life. You can't say, this is Zazen and this is daily life. In the same way that you can't say, this is my mind and this is my body. This is me and this is you.

[02:19]

You can say these things and they do exist in that dualistic way. tied at the core, it's like two fingers of one hand, or two hands of one body. This is me, and this is you. Or this is this, and this is that. But these two hands, even though they seem independent, are two hands of one body. So, to understand in this way is to understand Genjo Goan. So Dogen is talking about enlightenment and delusion. Enlightenment on this hand and delusion on this hand. To live in delusion and to live in enlightenment

[03:21]

When you separate them, they are from the same root. Two hands in one body. So, even though we talk about enlightenment and delusion, to separate them, or to think of them as separate, is not correct understanding. So delusion is the realm in which ordinary human beings exist. And enlightenment is the realm of the Buddhas. But human beings, there are no Buddhas outside of human beings. And although each of us is Buddha nature itself, unless we do something to bring forth our nature, it doesn't manifest.

[04:47]

And this is Dogen's message. The end of Genjo Koan is this message. Unless we, even though all sentient beings are Buddha nature, unless each one of us does something to activate that nature, it doesn't come forth in its entirety. So he says, if we want it, we have to do something about it. and practice, whether you realize it or not. And Tsukiyoshi always emphasized practice, activity, actualizing

[05:57]

John plays enlightenment, but actually, entering the stream of enlightenment. I think we have to be a little wary of people who talk too much about enlightenment. The reason that I felt that I could always trust my teacher was that he never promised anybody anything. He never said, if you do this, you will blah blah. But he didn't say, you will become enlightened.

[07:04]

I promise you the moon. Or something like that. He said, if you practice hard, your legs will hurt. He's right. That's right. So I felt that I could always trust him. Because what he said was very right. I crossed my legs and they really hurt. But through the pain in my legs, I could see a lot of light. A lot of light manifested through that painfulness. You can't hear me. A lot of light manifested through that painfulness. When I see all of us sitting sashi, there are certain times of day when you walk into the zendo, People are sitting, they've been sitting all day, and people sitting in this row are all facing in this direction, people sitting in this row are all facing in that direction, but there's nothing that they're facing.

[08:23]

No particular thing that we're facing. It looks like a wind, a kind of breeze, you know, or something that, something very profound that is in front of everybody's face. But you can't say what it is or say it, but you can almost touch it. Chinese have had a way of talking about great function and great use. Great function is pure enlightenment, realization of the interconnectedness of all being.

[09:28]

And great use is the activity which comes forth from that. or which proceeds forth into it. So, enlightenment itself needs, or the great function needs to be used, needs the great use. And without the great use, the great enlightenment doesn't manifest. So the two go together, and you can't separate them. You can't separate practice out from realization. Sometimes we get insight, you know, great insight, and

[10:39]

But insight is something that helps us to continue, gives us some faith and a kind of boost, you know, kinship, kind of good insight, and then helps us to continue because we know that we're on the right track. But it's endless. The track is endless and we need to have some confirmation from inside. But we also have to be careful, you know, about our understanding and what we think we understand and what we think is our enlightenment. Practice and enlightenment is like plumbing.

[11:43]

Plumbing is truth. The water is always seeking the lowest level, you know, that's truth. And when you have nice tight pipes, they're well put together and the water flows well to its lowest level. and you turn on the water and it goes down the drain and you don't think twice about it. Everything's taken care of and it's wonderful. Sometimes I get a wonderful feeling of gratitude toward the plumbing. I'm really thankful for this plumbing. Just think of what it would be like without this plumbing in this house. Or turning on the electric light switch. But, you know, if you don't put the plumbing together just right, if you don't put those pipes together just right, they leak, you know, and if you've ever been under the sink with these pipe wrenches, you know, and you're trying to get it all together and there's maybe a washer and there's, you know, and you're finding, you know, okay, I think it's okay, even though the pipes bend a little bit, you know, maybe it'll work, you know.

[13:07]

I hope it works. So you turn on the water and then drip, drip, drip. It's got to be just right, otherwise it doesn't flow. So, you know, this water is truth. Because the water, if it isn't perfect, the water will come out. You know, the water tells you what's happening. So... It's kind of truth, you know. If you don't do it, If you don't do it right, life will let you know about it. So life really confirms us. Life is our confirmation. So how we enter into life is pretty important. That's why practice and path is important.

[14:14]

Well, there's a certain path that we follow. Is that a good path or is it just, why do we do that and why not do something else? Well, when we do something else, the water leaks. So we find a way to live where We keep things tight and the water flows well, truth flows well through our activity. It's called being on the path. So practice, it's called practice, to keep the pipes tight, keep everything working well in truth, whatever it is. So I want to read the next couple of lines here. We stopped with

[15:37]

To carry, Togen says, to carry the self forward and realize the 10,000 dharmas is delusion. That the 10,000 dharmas advance and realize the self is enlightenment. And then he says, it is Buddhas who enlighten delusion. It is Buddhas who enlighten delusion. And it is creatures who are deluded within enlightenment. So, within enlightenment means that enlightenment is all around us, but within it, we're deluded. It's not that there's some enlightenment to seek, but that it's like electricity. It's all around us, but we don't see it until we turn on the switch, and then the light goes on. to some, some way. That's how you see it.

[16:48]

That's how you see it. Famous to each other. Very compassionate atmosphere. Even though everybody's in their own dealing with our own stuff, you know, very compassionate atmosphere. Someone mentioned something that the Buddha said in answer to a question. I keep coming back to it. Buddha said that if we want to help, if I want to help someone else, I should go and meditate. If I want to help myself I should do something for somebody else. I'm thinking that's really, you know, maybe the kind of thing that Bob is talking about. But I really, I can't help somebody else's karma. But if I'm working on my own karma, in that way, I can't help somebody else.

[17:56]

If you want to help yourself, help somebody else. And if you want to help yourself, work on yourself. No, the point you made was really, I think was right on, and I had missed it, and I had spoken of it before, but I missed it in this case, and that is the power with just the willingness to be with someone, and that doesn't give a direction, just the willingness to surrender to the relationship and just be with them, and have what they have, suffer with what they suffer, There's also a part of that is when you do something like that, there are two sides.

[19:14]

One is you should be able to pull yourself out. You should know when to extricate yourself. So that even though you're identifying with the person, you're also yourself. So that you don't get sucked in. side of that is, that you don't care. You just get just completely sucked in and go with it. Those are two ways, actually. But, you know, it's good to... you should be able to pull yourself out so that you don't go down with the person. And if you can pull the person up, that's good, you know. And if not, at least you know who you are. So, but sometimes you may just, there may be no way out, you just go way down.

[20:15]

Maybe just be, you know, saying, well, you know, there you are, you know, you're suffering good or something, but not to take it away, not to change it. Yeah. Yeah. It's time just to... Well, anyway. Sometimes in Sishin, at the end of Sishin, I remember in the past we'd ask people to go around and say anything that they wanted to say, which was quite nice actually, but we didn't plan that in this Sishin. Some other Sishin we can do that. But at the end of Sishin,

[21:40]

I want everybody to hug everybody else, just to complete that part of our life. What time is that? I don't want to be in the bathroom. After lunch. Okay, well, before service. That's that.

[22:15]

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