So then, to continue, Dogen says, when the truth does not fill our body and mind, we think that we have enough. When the truth fills our body and mind, we realize that something's missing. Suzuki Roshi, when he talked about Beginner's Mind, this was his description, not a description, but a comment on which, if you're familiar with it, his well-known statement, in the beginner's mind, there are many possibilities. In the expert's mind, there are few. So the more we study and the more we investigate, the more we realize that the less we know.

[01:10]

And of course, as things open up, you realize that there's just more and more to understand. And that none of us can really get too far. There's a saying, even Shakyamuni is only halfway. So, you know, the wonderful thing about practice is that we don't have to understand it. We don't have to understand in order to practice. We can simply, from the beginning, throw ourself into practice. This is why we don't have a practice of stages, where we learn something, and then we learn something else, and one stage is the stepping stone for the next stage.

[02:20]

In our practice, everyone practices the same, from the beginning to the end. And it's the same for everyone. But some will understand it, and some will not. And some will understand it better than others. And some will allow practice to open them up. But Dogen says, Some will understand, some will not, but it doesn't make any difference whether you understand or not, as long as you can practice. Understanding is good, but it's not everything. What is important is simply to practice.

[03:26]

because we entered the realm of non-duality or reality without even knowing it through practice, necessarily. In esoteric Buddhism, There's a kind of, not pantheon, but a number of Buddhas and Bodhisattvas. And in the center is Vairojana. And Vairojana is the Buddha of illumination. And Vairagchana doesn't really do anything.

[04:30]

Vairagchana just simply sits. You never see him standing up. He's always sitting. And just emanates light. And all of the Buddhas around Vairagchana and Bodhisattvas have functions. But varuchana's only function is to just be in the center and radiate light. So whether we understand or don't understand, when we really do zazen, We're simply doing the practice of Vairochana Buddha. There's not much to understand.

[05:37]

I mean, if you really did understand, it would be something. It is beyond our words and beyond our thinking. So it's intrinsic and experiential at the same time. It's the absolute reality and the mundane reality at the same time. That's why we say that Zazen is enlightened activity. Whether we get it or don't or not, So then he says, when, for example, when we view the four directions from a boat on the ocean where no land is in sight, we see only a circle and nothing else.

[06:41]

No other aspects are apparent. This is like when Dogen went to China. He kind of got this feeling when he was on the boat, because when you are on a boat and no land or anything, you can see, you turn around, you see a whole circle. And you can see that the ocean seems circular. But he says, no, circular is one way of looking at it. But when a fish looks at the ocean, it's not circular. Every species sees water in a different way and experiences water in a different way. He says, for example, when we view the four directions from a boat on the ocean where no land is in sight, we see only a circle and nothing else.

[07:49]

No other aspects are apparent. However, this ocean is neither round nor square and its qualities are infinite in variety. It is like a palace. It is like a jewel. It seems just circular as far as our eyes can reach at the time. In other words, we see everything, we see things through the limitations of our sensory input, accessibility. And then we make up a story about what things are. The 10,000 dharmas are likewise like this. Although an ordinary life, an enlightened life, assume many aspects, we only recognize and understand through practice what the penetrating power of our vision can reach. He talks about pure life and dusty life.

[08:55]

When he says ordinary life and enlightened life, I think that's, his terms are dusty life and pure life. So in order to appreciate the 10,000 dharmas, we should know that although they may look round or square, the other qualities of oceans and mountains are infinite in variety. Furthermore, other universes lie in all directions. It is so not only around ourselves, but also right here and in a single drop of water. So even though we don't fully understand, we can still practice. That's his point here. And even though the ocean is wide and deep, we can still swim around and play in it.

[10:09]

So even though we don't really understand or know what this life is, we can do it. We have to do it without understanding it really. But the more we make an effort to let go, understanding will reveal itself. The four views of a body of water. The fish see it as a palace. Celestial beings see it as a jewel ornament. Hungry ghosts see it as pus and blood. Human beings see it as water.

[11:19]

None of them is real or complete. We only see things limited by our capacity. So this is the experiential world. So why we call this the experiential world or the Saha world, it's the world of partiality. It's the world of separation and individuation. And through individuation, it's very hard to see the whole. Very hard to see the whole because we can't see the forest for the trees. That's our big problem. So the forest is the intrinsic and the trees are the specific.

[12:21]

And we live in a specific world. We live in a specific realm. It's very hard for us to see the intrinsic reality of this experiential world. That's what Dogen is trying to help us to see. So, When we talk about pure and impure, you know, pure means non-duality. Impure means duality. So impure means to see the trees without seeing the whole forest. Pure observation of reality is to see the whole forest, including the trees. So the trees is where we practice.

[13:36]

That's where our practice takes place. And our practice takes place in this world of duality. So to be able to a practice in the world of duality with our understanding of non-duality. The pure practice includes impure practice. So when we talk about pure and impure, it gets very little hairy because we tend to think of impurity in a different way. So when we can see that the parts belong to the whole, that's pure practice.

[14:49]

When we can see that the chair, as Thich Nhat Hanh likes to say, the chair is made up of all the parts, all of the things that are not chair. Because of all the things that are not chair, there's a chair. So in this sense, of course, everything is intrinsic. So there's the truth of the trees and how they relate to each other. And that's the realm that we practice in. But we also practice in the realm of all the trees belong to each other and create each other. So is that your hand raised, Dean?

[16:31]

Yeah. OK. So we live in this world. There's an airplane up there, so you have to get through it. So we also practice with the with the possibility of what we don't see, because if what we see are the trees, because we live in this real world. No, in the tree world. In the tree world. But there's all this other stuff that we don't see, like all those rocks in that garden that we don't see. We maintain a practice with with what's in front of us, right? That's right. So we light up the corner of our world, and that's connected to everything.

[17:36]

So you don't have to spread yourself out over the whole world. All you have to do is take care of what you're doing, and if you do that thoroughly, that's connected to everything. The window only has to be the window. It doesn't have to be the walls. It doesn't have to be the floor. All it has to do is totally be the windows. The door just has to be totally the door. And then it's playing its part in the whole house. The door is the whole house, but the door is the door. But the door can't say, mine is the only truth. Mine is the only what? Truth. In other words, the door can't, even if you only shine your corner, you can't say this corner is the only, is the whole world, is the only thing, right?

[18:47]

Well, what do you mean is the only thing? Well, isn't that kind of like how you get war? Is this one person saying, there's only seven rocks, and the other person saying, no, there are eight rocks. Well, of course. Yeah, that's partiality. So the door realizes that it's part of the whole house. But if the door just thinks, well, I'm the door, and I'm... That's all we need. That's right. That's the problem that we have in the world. That's the second line. Yeah, when the truth... We think we have the truth. That's right. So, yes. Yeah. When the window is totally the window and it realizes its entire self.

[19:48]

That's the truth-filling body and mind. We know that something's missing, right? When the truth... Why is something missing? Well, that's more like, you know, metaphor only goes so far. That's like when we feel that we have enough understanding. It's a problem. Yeah. Further down, where it says, although ordinary life and enlightened life have so many aspects we only recognize, etc. Okay, we only recognize and understand through practice what the penetrating power of our vision can reach. So, I thought that through practice perhaps we can go beyond what vision can reach. Go beyond. Go beyond our limited understanding.

[20:50]

Is that what you mean? Yes, we can only go as far as the limitation of our understanding. But he doesn't say that you're limited to the limitation. In other words, wherever you are, that's your limitation. So our effort is to not be bound by the limitation. or at least to understand the limitation. Enlightenment is to understand your limitation.

[21:53]

And when you know this is the limitation, then you can open up to broader understanding. That's what he's actually saying here, actually. When the truth fills our body and mind, we know there's something missing. So, when the truth fills our body and mind, we know that what our limitation is, that we have limitation. But we're not necessarily limited by our limitation. But at the same time, you know, to know, well, this is as much as I can understand. And settle down in that and practice with that. That's okay. That's, you know, as I said, humility means to know exactly where your place is in relation to everything else.

[22:59]

You don't think you know more, you don't think you know less. you know just where you are. And so there's a possibility of allowing more knowledge or understanding to prevail. I think that's very important, you know, I don't know is probably the three most important words. Because when we say, I don't know, it means that we open our mind. I don't know. It clears the mind. And when the mind is clear, something can come up. But if we say, oh, I know, or I want to know, Then we kind of cloud the mind and actually block something from coming up.

[24:10]

But I don't know, it's like stepping back and opening the mind and allowing something to come up. I think those three words are very important because that's true humility because it allows you to just be in the space where you are. without trying to get ahead, or thinking less of yourself or more of yourself. You can't be in a better position. And we also say, don't know mind is true mind. Yeah. Well, I don't know, but I'm hearing there's this water analogy in both of these pieces, and it seems to be describing these different levels, these levels of understanding.

[25:14]

But we're starting on the first page in sort of the enlightenment place, and it's that water that is disturbed, when water is disturbed, the water may not notice the reflection of the moon, and it may actually see the moon as something separate from itself. But perhaps the practice of Zazen is, one of the first stages is actually noticing the waves, being comfortable with the waviness, and as that settles use the analogy of the ocean, which is the depth, not only noticing reflection, not only having the water as calm as a reflection, but then also noticing the interior, also noting inside of that water there's these whole other worlds that actually exist.

[26:23]

So he's using the analogy Yeah, I think that's a good way of talking about it. We have to be able to see the moon reflected in the disturbance as well as in the calmness. That's very important. But when you come to a calm place, then it's very easy to see the moon reflected in the water. And when the water is disturbed, then all the waves reflect the moon. So, you know, there's Gensha, was a, Zen master in the Tang dynasty.

[27:30]

Someone asked him, what do you do with a clear mirror? Clear mirror is like no disturbance, just seeing everything very clearly as it is, right? So what do you do with a clear mirror, with a pure mirror? He says, smash it into a thousand pieces. And then each piece reflects like the dew drops in the grass. like the waves, like all of the aspects of your busy life are disturbances, so to speak. Disturbance, you know, is a kind of technical term. It doesn't mean disturbed. It means agitated or moving or, you know, circulation. And each activity is like that. So each activity should be reflecting the moon. It doesn't have to be. That's why we say daily life is practice.

[28:32]

All the activity of your daily life is practice, because if you're really practicing, then every aspect of your life reflects the moon. Zazen does it with a calm water, but your daily life is movement. So if that moon is shining in a little mud puddle, or if I'm at ease, it's shining, if I'm Not at ease, it's shining. If I look at Greg, it's shining. I see Greg, but I see shining.

[29:37]

Or you, or anything around. Is there any absolute or relative? Everything is absolute and everything is relative. Could we just drop it? No. How will you drop it? Don't need it. Do what? Don't need it. Don't eat it. Don't need it. Don't need it.

[30:39]

Oh. Okay. Yeah. What do you need? Good. You know, you don't need it. That's right. But at the same time, we need it. So it's good to know that we don't need it. So since we don't need it, we can discuss it.

[31:40]

Nancy? We talk about ancestors, right? Yes, we do. as opposed to heaven and saints. Wait a minute, wait a minute. What? We're talking about ancestors. And other religions talk about saints and heaven. Yes. But we talk about ancestors. I was trying to incorporate what you're talking about tonight in terms of ancestors. And I don't know whether this was I was making it too simplistic, but I was thinking, well, everything that comes to us, including thought, in a way, thoughts and perceptions and everything that we experience now could be considered an ancestor in a way.

[32:48]

I don't think that makes, does it? Does it make sense? No. Some say yes, some say no. Everything is an ancestor? Well, in the Vimalakirti Sutra, we were reading that a couple of years ago in the Dharma group, and it was saying there that bodhisattvas are even rocks in a stream bumping together. These things can inform us. And I guess Bodhisattvas can be considered ancestors. I'm trying to put a net around it so that my mind can grasp this. But I was thinking, everything is history, and I appreciate this ancestor idea. And even a thought that comes to me right as I speak is history, as my mind works to express it to you.

[33:56]

I want to ask you a question. Do you think that what we're doing here is history? No. This is the koan. It's not history, but it's maybe a term as everything comes to us and is us being now. There is a point where we We digest that, you know, and disseminate it because we're alive. We are? That's pretty hard. Are we? Are we alive? As opposed to dead. Yeah, I mean, actually, that's another koan, isn't it? I just, I don't understand why you're bringing ancestors into the, into the thing.

[35:00]

I hesitated, and I wonder if you'll wonder why. I just, it seems like, I don't know why you're doing that. I just, I'm just trying to figure out, and then you're talking about everything as an ancestor? I just wonder, you know, if it's a term that can be, I'm not familiar with Vimalakirti Sutra, that part, so I don't know.

[35:32]

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