Good morning. It feels very good to me that Green Gulch and Berkeley can practice together in this way. and share this wonderful place. I think it's good that we can feel, even though we have our own particular place to practice, that we can all come together and share the same practice, and know that some bigger than just our own weight, than just our own place.

[01:06]

Sometimes day after day we practice together with certain people in a certain place and tend to ignore or forget that other people are doing the same thing. It helps to broaden us all, and we can come together to practice. Gil asked me if I would talk about something today. He wanted me to talk about the last part of the Hokyōdōma, the last paragraph, so to speak, of the Hokyo Zamae, the Jewel Mirror Awareness, as clearly translated, or the Jewel Mirror Samadhi.

[02:07]

In Berkeley, we don't chant the Hokyo Zamae. We chant the Sango Kai, but not the Hokyo Zamae. But I think it's something that I'd like to introduce for us to do. So, Berkeley people are not so familiar with Hokyo Zanmai as the people at Green Gorge. But they may be more familiar with it than they know. The last part of the Hokyo Zomai, I'll just read some of it toward the end.

[03:28]

I don't want to read the whole thing, but just to get into it a little bit, I'll start from toward the end. Yi, with his archery skill, could hit a target at a hundred paces. But when arrow points meet head-on, what has this to do with the power of skill? When the wooden man begins to sing, the stone woman gets up to dance. It's not within reach of feeling or discrimination. How could it admit of consideration in thought? The minister serves the Lord, a son obeys the father. Not obeying is not filial, and not serving is no help. Practice secretly, working within, as though a fool, like an idiot. If you can achieve continuity, this is called the host within the host. So this last paragraph, practice secretly working within, as though a fool, like an idiot. If you can achieve continuity, this is called the host within the host.

[04:30]

So the end of this long discourse and kind of a culmination of high point of practice is to be like a fool or an idiot. In most undertakings in life, we're asked to be wonderful and intelligent and knowledgeable and creative and accomplished. But the culmination of what he's talking about is to be like a fool, like an idiot, not letting anybody know, particularly, your achievement. Hokyo Zamae, Jewel Mirror Samadhi, is based

[05:41]

sort of, of course it was written, supposedly written by Tozon, and somewhat based on his five ranks, the go'i, five ranks of the absolute and the phenomenal. the integration of the Absolute and the Phenomenal. And the Sangokai is also part of this. The Sangokai was supposedly written by Sekito Kisen, and has kind of like the germ of Tozon's five ranks, out of which comes the Hokyo Zamai. So these three are pretty much connected. And without going into a lengthy explanation of the five ranks, of which there are many interpretations, so if I give you one interpretation, you may come up with another one that you've read somewhere, but very generally speaking, five ranks

[07:06]

are the integration. Five Ranks is a way of pointing out the five stages in practice of integrating the Absolute and the Relative in your life, integrating the nature with the phenomena. So first rank is like understanding or having a realization that all phenomena are an expression of Big Mind, of Buddha nature. And second rank is like practicing that understanding, putting that understanding into practice, letting go of all of your preconceived notions and habit.

[08:28]

And the third rank is like the integration of the two. understanding of the mutual integration of the phenomenal and the absolute. Sometimes Tozan calls it lord and vassal sometimes. And in the preceding passage where it talks about filling a pile, it's not talking really about father and son and servant and so forth in the sense of Confucianism, although those are Confucian terms.

[09:40]

The Confucianists talked about, had five ranks also. The rank of the father as the head of the family, and then the mother, and then the elder son, and I guess the youngest son, and then the servant. And the way they relate to each other is the way society was built and recognized in China. So what Tozan is referring to is the relation of you to the Absolute. Your filial piety is how you give power to the Absolute, and the Absolute empowers you. Rather than taking power, rather than trying to take power,

[10:42]

from the Absolute, to allow the Absolute to do the empowerment. And I was reading something in the paper where someone was talking about the TV ministries and the corruption and so forth. taking the power and using it, rather than letting the power use you. Which is always the biggest problem in religion, organized religion, is that originally it starts out letting the power direct you. And then, at some point, it turns around where we start taking the power and using it.

[11:44]

And then it leads to disaster. So, Kozan is talking about filial piety in that sense. The child recognizes where the power is and doesn't abuse it. obeys that power. So this is kind of like the mutual integration of yourself with the Absolute, this third stage, where filial piety is working very well. There's a great harmony going on.

[12:50]

And a fourth rank is the perfecting of that, the stage of perfecting that kind of activity, real freedom, but still with an awareness of self and other, or an awareness of absolute and relative And the fifth stage is where everything's forgotten. There's no sense of relative or absolute. It's as if everything that you've learned, you forgot. It's like complete mastery. And there's no need to think about in terms of relative or absolute, because it's so well integrated that there's no duality whatsoever. And this is the stage of the fool, the idiot.

[13:55]

No particular sense of accomplishment or distinction between self or other. No sense of hierarchy or position. Whatever happens is life itself. No more striving. Hakuin, in his Song of the Five Rats, at the very end, his last poem, is something like, Old Hakuin, not himself, Hakuin, the old gimlet, hires foolish wise men, and he and they together fill up the well with snow.

[15:10]

An old gimlet. A gimlet is something sharp, you know, punched through leather with a gimlet, or make a hole. So he calls this old hakuun, who is somebody, some master. Old hakuun, the old gimlet, hires foolish wise men, and he and they together fill up the well in the snow. Foolish wise men are inexplicable. Filling up the well with snow, what does that mean? Filling up the well with snow is a kind of useless activity. It doesn't mean much. Why would anybody want to fill up the well with snow? But in our activity, you know, what does it all come to?

[16:20]

What is all of our striving and work and ideals and so forth, what does it all come to? In the eyes of the world, accomplishment is really important. Worldly accomplishment, materialistic accomplishment is very important. But in the eyes of someone looking for reality, for the essence of reality, material accomplishment is not so important. But yet, anyone who's bound to do that has to work pretty hard. In order to have realization, one really has to work hard.

[17:26]

But the work is kind of dumb. It's like filling up the well with snow. Over and over, you know. Every day you get up and you Come into this barn and sit still. Kind of stupid, useless activity. Doesn't add up to anything. Doesn't mean much. Walking slowly. Kind of meaningless stuff. These foolish wise men and women keep doing this. Keep filling up the well with snow. It keeps melting. The more you fill it up, the more it melts. This kind of endless, foolish, meaningless activity.

[18:29]

But, you have to do it. There's nothing else to do. So when your parents ask you what you're doing, you say, well, it doesn't mean much. Everybody looks at you as a kind of idiot. When you go home and they compare your activity with what's expected of a normal person, you don't have much to say. You feel kind of like an idiot. And sometimes you question yourself and you say, well maybe I am kind of an idiot. Maybe I am kind of stupid. Look at all the wonderful things that people are accomplishing, according to, seen through those eyes.

[19:33]

But yet when you come back, You feel pretty good. You feel, this is really something. This is wonderful. Too bad people can't understand it. So the other part of this, and I'll close on saying, practice secretly. Don't let anyone know your accomplishment, which is pretty good, actually. You know, we really want to have acknowledgement. Every one of us wants some kind of acknowledgement for our good works. or whether it's for our good works or not, we just want to be acknowledged, period.

[20:40]

If we're not acknowledged for our good works, we want to be acknowledged for our bad works. If we can't be acknowledged for doing good, then we're trying to do something bad. And most of the criminals in the world are trying to be acknowledged Because what they did that was good wasn't acknowledged, so they had to do something bad in order to get acknowledgement. I was watching on the TV the other night, Mental Institute, and how they're taking care of the people in the Mental Institute, and this one woman was She was pretty lucid, actually, but she'd been there for a while, and she was talking about her life, and she said, talking about her sex life, and she said, you know, the thing I crave most is to be spanked.

[21:50]

I really like getting a spanking. And she said, I like it more than anything else. I think about it all the time. And I said, well, why do you think that is? She said, well, like most people, you don't like to be hugged and so forth. And she said, that's not enough for me. She said, when somebody thanks me, I really feel close to that person, a certain kind of closeness. I feel a certain kind of recognition that I don't get any other way. So, recognition is something that everybody wants, and if they don't get it one way, they'll get it some other way. And yet, he's saying, practice secretly. Don't let anybody know what your really good traits are.

[22:54]

And what's implied, also, is To let people know how bad you are, mostly we try to let people know how good we are. And we don't like to let people know our faults. But if you look at it closely, when we let people know our faults, when our faults are really out there, people really tend to see our good part. We don't have to say anything about our good points. When we're kind of visible in a whole way, people know who we are. Someone comes to practice and they don't say a thing.

[23:57]

They just sit in their seat every day. They just do what they have to do. without saying anything or trying to be anybody, day after day, you just see this person doing what they have to do. They don't say anything. And you begin to feel very good about this person. Everybody feels very good about this person, because they're not saying anything. They're not promoting themselves. They're just being themselves. And a person's good points and bad points will be will come out. You can't hide yourself for very long when you're practicing with people. It's just like taking the cover off. So you just might as well be who you are. But it's not so easy. Even though everybody sees who we are, we still try to hide ourselves.

[25:00]

But then sometimes something happens and we're revealed. And when we go along with the revelation, people feel good about us. So, I've known a lot of people in the past who always own up to their problem, always reveal themselves. in their problematic aspect, and you feel comfortable with that person. But someone is always telling you how good they are, the wonderful things they've accomplished, you always feel uncomfortable with that person, because it doesn't give you an opportunity to be sympathetic, or to come to something on your own. We always like to come to conclusions on our own.

[26:05]

We don't like to be told something. But also, it helps us to do something secretly. Because then we find out the real reason for our doing something. So if we do something, maybe it's because we like to get praised for it, or get some recognition, or get some strokes. But to do something without being noticed, something nice, something helpful, something beneficial, without being noticed, either for ourselves or for somebody else. It's a very difficult practice, maybe the hardest kind of practice.

[27:10]

And if we say, promise ourselves to do something, it's good not to tell somebody else. Someone once said, if you're going to do something, if you promise yourself you're going to reform, or do a certain kind of practice, don't tell anybody for nine months. And then see what comes up. And one form of practice which is not usually spoken about, but which is historically done by most people, is to pick some kind of, some particular practice that you are going to do.

[28:25]

a way of focusing, you know, or a way of getting into, giving yourself a way of, like a vow, kind of like a minor vow. Something like, when I catch myself being angry, I'll make sure that I recognize that before I give in to anger. That's a kind of practice. When anger comes up, I'll count to ten every time before I do something with it.

[29:37]

That's a kind of practice, as an example. But that kind of practice is secret practice. It's not something you tell somebody else about. It's something that you do without letting anybody know. And if you're successful, no one else will know about it. Because people will know about it, but not through your telling them. Also, maybe you have promised yourself that you'll leave food for somebody. of time.

[30:42]

Or maybe you give money for something over a period of time, but you don't say anything. Our whole practice is sort of like that, that we don't let ourselves stand out in some way. I remember when we first started Tassajara, Suzuki Roshi, some people wanted to stay up late at night and read, study, after going to bed. And he said, now everybody should go to bed at the same time. And then some people wanted to be in zendo earlier in the morning than everybody else. He said, now everybody should go to zendo at the same time. Go to Zendo earlier than somebody else.

[31:46]

Don't study harder than somebody else. Don't let yourself stand out in some way as doing some better practice than somebody else. And then sometimes people would want to sit Zazen through kingyin rather than get up and say, Whether you feel like it or not, get up and do healing with everybody else. So that nobody can say, oh, he's really got it. He's really working hard. There's plenty to do in practice, actually. Just maintaining the practice completely takes a good amount of effort.

[32:51]

If you want to practice Zazen more, sit in your closet. Don't let on about, you know, it's okay to say more Zazen, it's good to do more words, but don't let yourself stand out in some way. One of the hardest things, maybe, is just to try to be normal. It's just to be, how can we be like everybody else? How can we be normal? So that's kind of like an idiot, a little bit like an idiot.

[34:03]

When you move this way, oh, okay. When you move that way, okay. Not trying to get to the head of the line. When we allow ourselves to be wherever we are and do well, we really put a lot of faith into practice. We just put our faith into the practice. The practice actually works if we let it work. But if we try to make it work, it doesn't work so well. The way our practice has been set up for us is quite simple and powerful.

[35:07]

And if we put ourselves into it and move with it, So when we put ourself into it, it works, and then we work it. There's no practice without us, and there's no us without practice. And by letting ourself move through it, it leaves us, and it's mutual. mutual interaction as the going-to, the coming-from, the coming-from, the going-to. The going-to, the coming-from, within the coming-from, within the going-to.

[36:11]

It's kind of like this, isn't it? So actually, if you move too fast, you get out of step. If you move too slow, you get out of step. If you want to do something too much, you get out of sync. If you hold back too much, you get tired. So learning how to move smoothly It's very difficult, because we always want to do something. So I practice secretly, working within as though a fool, like an idiot.

[37:22]

If you can achieve continuity, this is called the host within the host. Each one of these ranks has a name, host and guest. Host and guest is another way. Host is like the absolute, and guest is you, or the relative, or phenomenon. So each one of these ranks has The guest within the host, and the host within the guest, and the guest and the host in mutuality, and then... Right? The guest and the host. I can't remember the fifth one, the fourth one. But the fifth one is the host within the host, meaning no guest, no host.

[38:26]

just a total dustness. And if we can, in a sense, if you can achieve continuity, meaning moment by moment, if you can practice this moment by moment, this is the host losing the host, never standing outside of reality, It's just mutually integrated, moment by moment. That's the end of practice, the culmination. No particular achievement in a worldly sense. In a worldly sense, it's nothing from the eyes of the world. from the viewpoint of materialism, it's nothing.

[39:31]

But from the point of view of reality, wholeness, it's the be-all and end-all. And it includes a materialism, no rejection of materialism at all. My particular practice retiring from the world, and it includes working in the world. Bögen outlined it with a series of symbols, actually. Hokyo's and mine got to be kind of entangled, an intellectual entanglement,

[40:34]

That's why we don't talk about it so much. We're beginning to look at it now. You know, we're beginning to look at these things. Tozans, five ranks, Hokyo-zomai, and that kind of stuff, you know. Hakuin took it up, really took it up, in the 16th century. But Dogen, before him, decided to not deal with the five ranks because it got to be a kind of messy way of talking about enlightenment. It became too intellectual. But Dogen integrated it and created his own symbols. Not his own symbols, but used these Buddhist symbols. One is the swastika. He used the swastika. And the swastika pointing in this direction meant retiring from the world and going to the Absolute.

[41:41]

And then the next symbol is Buddha's and sentient beings are the same, no difference between Buddha's and sentient beings. Third symbol The second symbol was a circle with a black dot. And the third symbol was just a black, just a circle, which is the mutual integration. That's the opposite of the second one, where you have a black field and a white dot.

[42:45]

And the last symbol, which is the emerging out of all that. And the last symbol is the swastika going this way. Swastika going this way, meant coming out into the world and practicing in the world with bliss-bestowing hands, which is the last symbol of the Ten Akshardhi Pictures. So all these symbols are, you know, where interacting with each other, various ways of explaining the same thing. The ten Oxford pictures explain in a very similar way, but using different symbols. But the point is that retiring from the world and then re-entering the world, and this constant cycle of retiring and re-entering, is

[43:55]

the rhythm of practice. So, we have Zazen, we have daily activity. And they're not two different things, but they're two aspects of the same practice. So, our great task is We kind of know how to do zazen together. But our great task is to be able to go out into the world and let your practice flow. So sometimes we say, I know what I'm doing when I'm in the zendo, but as soon as I leave the zendo and go out to work, I forget everything, you know.

[44:58]

It's all wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong. Of course, that's the culmination of enlightenment, is to be able to do that. So because you can't do that, don't feel so bad. We're just working on it. We're working on how to do that. You have to find out how to do that. And even though We may not be fully, wholeheartedly enlightened. It doesn't mean you've got to hide until you are. We have to go out and do this stuff even though whether we're enlightened or not. It's if we're enlightened. So, anyway, the world is our teacher. And our openness to be able to learn is our saving grace.

[46:00]

If we have that open mind to want to learn and allow the world to teach us, then we're right in the midst of enlightened practice. You don't have to worry about which rank you're in. It's all mixed up. Five legs, it's just a way of taking one whole thing apart and looking at it. Any of these systems or symbols, it's just a way of taking one thing apart in order to look at it. So, if you look at the 10 Oxford pictures, you may say, well, this is the first one, this is the second one, which one am I in? You can't figure it out, because it's all working together in one piece. tenth place, sometimes you're in first place at the same time.

[47:06]

So be grateful for our practice, please, and let yourself be open. Practice secretly. Do your good things secretly and let everyone know what your faults are, so that we can appreciate you. That's right.

[47:33]

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