This morning I'm going to continue my talk on what I was talking about yesterday, but I want to also introduce a few things that I want you to be aware of and also I want to make available to you. This book that I've been reading from is called Shikantaza and it's a collection of gleanings from the Soto Zen teachers in the past. And I think it's a nice little manual for people who practice Soto Zen because there are a lot of things in there that are very simple.

[01:16]

Not stuff for you to study, but stuff for you to encourage your practice and to remind you of what our practice is about. Although I can't sell it to you, because I don't have anything to sell to you, but it is available, and I'll try to make it more available in the future. The other one is this Maha Prajnaparamita Hridaya Sutra, which is a commentary, a very short commentary by Kabose Sensei, who has a temple in Chicago. And the reason I like it for people is because, again, it's not a detailed study, but it's a kind of commentary on what the sutra is talking about, to help you to kind of see what it's actually talking about. And I think that it's an important way of getting into the sutra.

[02:24]

put it together for you a little bit. And I have some copies of this which I can sell to people. I'm not selling right now, but I want to set it up so that I can do that. And this other book which I Xeroxed called The Way of Zazen is a little manual that came out in the 60s. and by Rindo Fujimoto Orochi, who was a Soto priest, Japanese Soto priest, and has an introduction by Elsie Mitchell, who was a kind of prominent woman who promoted Zen back East. Some of you may know of her. You know her? She's still alive, isn't she? And so she wrote a very nice introduction to it, and she introduced him, actually, his teaching.

[03:35]

So I Xeroxed this for people. Again, it's just a little manual of what Zazen's about, and from his personal approach, and simple. You don't have to know anything to, you don't have to study it. But it helps you to orient yourself and to remind yourself. So every once in a while, I go back and read this little book. Even though my library is quite extensive and full of weighty tomes, every once in a while, every couple of years, I go back and read this little book. And it kind of helps me to remind me of what our practice is about in just the simplest way. So I think this kind of text is really important for us to have some texts from our own tradition which remind us about what our practice is about.

[04:40]

And it's real easy to forget. And to just keep these books around. Every once in a while when you get confused or want some encouragement, you read the book. It takes about half hour. And then the last one that I want to talk about called On Love, which every few years I read it, but it helps me to think about, it's always helped me to think about what love is about. And it's not definitive by any means. There is no such thing as a definitive essay on love. It really is a wonderful take-off point for any kind of discussion that we'd want to have on the subject.

[05:51]

And I printed some of them, but I haven't printed nearly enough. And sometime I would like to have a seminar or some kind of prolonged discussion on the subject. so that we could talk about it and study it from various points of view. I think that it's really important. This essay is by Oraj, a man named Oraj, who was very active in the 20s. And he did this in 1924. It appeared in the New Republic, December 1924. And when I was teaching at Sonoma State, I taught a Zen class. When Bill Kwong went to Tassajara in 1982 to be Shuso, I took over his class at Sonoma State in Zazen Zen class.

[07:01]

That was really interesting. And so I ran into this, one of the teachers had one of his things that he handed out to people. But it's a wonderful, provocative, insightful essay on love. So I want to make these available to you. So if you're interested in one or all the texts, you'll have to buy them from me. They're not very expensive though. Just ask me about them. Also, when we're finished with our lecture, I want to introduce a variation in our chanting of the Four Vows, but I'll do that at the end rather than now.

[08:08]

So I want to continue Ejo Zenji's, this little excerpt from Ejo Zenji's Komyo Zamae, Komyo Zo Zamae. And I'll just read up to where I ended yesterday, which is not very long. He says, I have some earnest advice for those who sincerely aspire to practice. Do not be pulled by a particular state of mind or by an object. Do not rely upon intellect or wisdom. Do not carry in your hands what you have learned on the seat in the Sangha Hall. Cast your body and mind into the great Komyo-Zo and never look back. Neither seek to be enlightened nor drive away delusion. Neither hate the arising of thoughts, nor love thoughts and identify with them.

[09:15]

Just sit stably and calmly. If you do continue to think, if you do not continue to think, thoughts will not arise by themselves. Just sit as if you were the boundless empty sky or a ball of fire. Trust everything to inhalation and exhalation. That's where I ended yesterday. I didn't talk about trusting everything to inhalation and exhalation. But I'll read this to the end of the paragraph and then go back. Yes? Even if 84,000 idle thoughts arise, each and every one may become the light of prajna, which is undiscriminating wisdom. if you do not pay them any attention and simply let them go. Not only in sitting, but every step you take is the movement of the light. Step after step, no discrimination.

[10:17]

Throughout the day, be like a dead person, completely without personal views or discrimination." I think we have to talk about what being like a dead person is. Not zombie. The walking dead, the night of the walking dead. Just sit as if you were the boundless empty sky or a ball of fire. I like to talk about the boundless empty sky. What do you think he means by a ball of fire? Jill told me yesterday what she thought. Oh, I thought it was totally consuming and leaving a trace. Anybody disagree with that?

[11:19]

Well, it could just be a lot of energy and just on the kind of energetic level that a fighter has. The sensation of Anybody else? I was thinking about the sun. The mountain was empty sky and the sun was just very steady. Somewhere around there, right? I think we kind of all know in a way what it means. And I think our various expressions are all right on it. Trust everything to inhalation and exhalation.

[12:22]

That's an interesting statement. There's a statement I think by Eijo where he talks about breath as being Compassion. The identification with breath and compassion. To see your breath as compassion. Breath is not something that we do volitionally. Breathing is not. We say, I am breathing. But You can say, I am breathing, but which I are you talking about? You can say, I am breathing, or you can say, I is breathing. But actually, whether you want to or not, breathing just happens.

[13:29]

something happening, which is nature expressing itself in a certain way, as breathing. So, Suzuki Roshi talked about it as a swinging door, just opening and closing, or coming, action, going one way and then another. But you could equally say, we are being breathed, or I am being breathed. In the same way when we say, I am living, we could say, I am being lived, which is actually more accurate. So it depends on your point of view. From a total point of view, or from the point of view of the first principle, you can say, I am being breathed, or I am being lived.

[14:36]

From a second principle, or personal point of view, we say, I am breathing, or I am living. Actually, both points of view are equal. But we usually Our standpoint is usually from the point of view of the second principle, which is coming from ourself as the center. I am acting. I am breathing. I am living. I remember Yoshimura sensei, who was one of my teachers, said, Buddha says that to say, I am alive, is tremendous arrogance.

[15:44]

I had to think about that one. But if you think about it, you can see that I am alive is just from a certain point of view. But from a total point of view, point of view of light, totality of light, alive is me. Or life is shared. There's another way maybe you could say, life is shared by me. So, points of view from Buddha's perspective,

[16:54]

which is what we call first principle, where there's no differentiation between anything. Life means totality of life, of the one body. All things are manifestations of the one body, which we call life, which we call life and death. And each one of us, each particular thing, feels its independence. And from the standpoint of where we feel our independence, we say, I am breathing. I am alive. But in dharma, we always look at it from the perspective of the first principle. But we don't ignore the second principle, which is differentiation, seeing things from the point of view of everything is different.

[18:11]

So he says, leave everything up to breathing, meaning leave life up to life. when he sits us in, just leave life up to life. Actually, we don't, we do take part in breathing. Yeah, but breathing really breathes us. And even if you want to stop it, you can't. You can, but strictly speaking, we don't. And we also don't call it forth. We just appreciate it and go along with it. Sometimes we try to control it. And in our life, we try to control it.

[19:19]

We try to control our life in the same way. And we do cooperate with it. We cooperate with our breathing and we cooperate with our life. But when we try to control it, Too much. Get off of our natural, off of the nature. It actually says trust everything to inhalation and exhalation. So trust. That's actually the key word here. Suzuki Roshi used to talk about zazen as not just original with him, he was talking about attitude, putting yourself in Buddha's hands or

[20:28]

in a way like a baby bird being in a nest. It sounds almost a little too safe, you know, for adults. But kind of like a child with its mother. to just trust in that way. Trust everything to inhalation and exhalation. So in a sense we The purpose of zazen really is to return to a kind of innocence, innocent nature.

[21:39]

Sometimes we think that we have to do something special. or do something complicated. Sometimes what comes to my mind actually is, you know, sometimes in order to get people to trust, you have a kind of group and you ask somebody, well now you fall backwards and we'll catch you. scared, but they do it, and they begin to get some trust. Actually, that's what Zazen is like. You just sit there and leave everything up to the universe. And then he says, even if 84,000 idle thoughts arise, each and every one may become the light of prajna if you do not pay them any attention and simply let them go.

[23:04]

Which is very interesting. He's not saying that these thoughts, 84,000 idle thoughts may come and they're all bad, or they're all wrong, or you should chase them away. He said they all become the light of prajna. if you don't chase them around, if you don't become attached to them. They're just manifestations of light, non-discriminating wisdom, if you don't discriminate them. And this is different than some other approaches to meditation, where you're supposed to keep your mind blank. Sometimes we say, like a white sheet of paper or the clear blue sky, but that doesn't mean blank.

[24:07]

And there's a real distinction between like the vast sky, blue sky, or a white sheet of paper. Because when you have a white sheet of paper or the vast sky, something enters. But whatever enters, leaves. So just means openness or readiness. Sometimes zazen is described like a tiger waiting. Tiger is very powerful. And when there's something to do, tiger leaps out. But when there's nothing to do, or when there's not something to leap at, tiger just sits. Cats do that.

[25:10]

We like cats because they have so much composure. Even when they're just sitting, not doing anything, they're really doing something. Sitting, not doing anything is usually, or quite often, far more meaningful than I'm busily doing something. So he says, not only in sitting, but every step you take is the movement of the light. Step after step, no discrimination. When he says every step you take is the movement of the light, We think, you know, when we think about light, we try to sometimes get some image or idea about some bright, brilliant light. Sometimes in religious or mystical circles, people talk about focusing on the light, you know, the brilliant light or the blue light or some light.

[26:14]

But he's not talking about that kind of light. Actually, when he's talking about light, he's talking about Buddha nature. And Buddha nature has no special feature. So, a cloud of mud is brilliant light. If you can see a cloud of mud is brilliant light, then you can see what light is. It has no special feature, but all things are its manifestation, is what he's talking about. If you look for some special light, then your mind is becoming very narrow.

[27:19]

So it's even risky to call it light because it's also darkness. And Sekito talks about this in the Sandokai, the light and the darkness. Light in Buddhadharma Light is usually the expression of revealing, the phenomenal side of life. And darkness is the absolute side of life, where there's no discrimination between anything. There are no borders. In the dark, When the lights go out in a complete pitch blackness, there are no borders, even though everything still exists as it does.

[28:20]

But when you turn on the light, then you see all these things. They're all different. So this is how we express those as darkness and light. But this light also is the darkness. when he's talking about komyozo, it's light that doesn't have an opposite of light and darkness. Just like when we say, last night we talked about, we didn't talk about, but we chanted the refuges, and the refuges say Buddha is the perfect teacher, the dharma is the perfect teaching, and so forth. That kind of perfect is not the opposite of imperfect, When we say Buddha is the perfect teacher, it doesn't mean as opposed to some imperfect or that there are no imperfections. Perfect and imperfect are both included, but right and wrong, good and bad, complete and incomplete are all included in that perfect.

[29:35]

It's non-discriminating perfect. And when we use words, terms in Buddhadharma, lofty terms, which could be misconstrued by their opposite, or misunderstood by bringing in the opposite, the terms are always used in the absolute sense, not in the relative sense. So Buddha as the perfect teacher, or the Dharma as the perfect teacher, teaching means given all of the imperfections. They're all included. And one reason why, well I won't talk anymore about that, but I just want to express that so we don't become confused. Otherwise you're always looking for the perfect term. And the perfect term, any term, has an opposite.

[30:39]

So, rather than looking for the perfect term, in which you find some imperfection, you understand what the terms mean. We have to understand how we use the terms. So he says, not only in sitting, but every step you take is the movement of the light, step after step, no discrimination. So all our movements, it means our life is actually taking place within realization. Everything that we do is an expression of Buddha nature.

[31:49]

Whether we express it with our small mind or with our big mind. Small actions, activity, activity of our small mind is the way Buddha nature is expressed. So, throughout the day, be like a dead person, completely without views or discrimination. What do you think it means to be like a dead person, in this sense? If given a non-discriminating character of the word dead. It means to be stupid, to be dumb. Actually, it's like beginner's mind. Yeah, beginner's mind, like beginner's mind.

[32:54]

No point of reference? Well, I hear a lot of words, what? No point of reference? No, no particular, like your mind can strain all the information through and you're seeing things from only your perspective. No pain. No pain. Non-reactive. Unreacted. Open. Yeah, open. What were you saying, Bob? Indifferent. Indifferent, right. What does indifferent mean? There's another word that is used in that case, which is disinterested, which means not... it means not ignoring, but not being...

[34:36]

attached. The sense of impartiality, yeah, that's a good term to use. Not partial. If you say, If we use terms like that, then it easily can be misconstrued as kind of lifeless or not taking part or removal, you know what I mean? It doesn't, I think the way you express it, it doesn't. But I think, I'm always a little bit, wary of those terms because if you don't, if people don't know that, then it makes it look like withdrawal or non-involvement.

[35:42]

I don't like to use the word detached because detached has the feeling of non-involvement even though we know it means like what you described. Because we tend to think indifference is you know, disinterest. But I think the feeling is to respond to circumstances completely without any self-interest. So in this case, being dead is also being quite alive. Being like a dead person makes us come to life.

[36:45]

That's the non-dual aspect of that term. And it's very important because in Buddhism, especially the Mahayana, Life and death are always equated with each other. There's a dualism of life and death, but there's also a oneness. And that's the important point that we all have to understand. I think that's our big koan. Another way of expressing our koan is how to be completely alive and dead.

[37:56]

How to be completely dead and alive at the same time. Do you have any questions? One question. Towards the beginning it said, don't take in your hand what you learn on the... Don't, don't, don't take, don't keep, don't hold, hang on to what you learned in the dharma hall. We tend to get little bits of information and then we chew them over bookstore.

[39:08]

I try and get a bunch of copies to sell to people. Oh, the last thing is the Four Vows. This is the way that I'd like us to try. Sentient beings are numberless. I vow to awaken with them. Instead of, I vow to save them. Sentient beings are numberless. I vow to awaken with them. Delusions are inexhaustible. Instead of desires. Delusions are inexhaustible. I vow to end them. The Dharma gate is endless. I vow to enter it. The Buddha's way is unsurpassable. I vow to become it. It's like what we say during the Bodhisattva ceremony. So, anybody object to any of those?

[40:11]

Yes? I was wondering why you want to change the translation? Well, I don't want to explain that now because we've finished. I just want to know if anybody objects to it. Anybody? Okay, so let's do that now. Sure. And I'll chant it strongly enough so that you can hear if you don't remember. Okay? Stimulation of the Yin-Zhong

[40:42]

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