what we call study Sushin. Usually Sushin is just Zazen with a lecture, but this kind of study Sushin is a combination of Zazen and study of a text. The subject here is Sekito Kisen's Sando Kai. Sandokai is a poem that was written by Sekito Kisen of Shitu in Chinese.

[01:20]

Sekito lived in the 8th century in China, Tang Dynasty China. He was actually born in 700 and lived to be 90. So he experienced the whole 8th century in Tang Dynasty China. He was a grandson of the sixth ancestor, Huineng, or what we call in Japanese, Daikon Eno. And he was probably the youngest of Daikon Eno's, maybe youngest of Daikon Eno's students, and he didn't stay with him very long before the old patriarch died. And then he became a student of Sekito's Dharma heir. In the Sixth Ancestor's time, we count Bodhidharma and then six patriarchs after Bodhidharma in the development of Zen in China.

[02:30]

ancestor and by the time the lineage came to Eno, Zen in China had formed and flowered with the sixth ancestor. And then the sixth ancestor's disciples carried on and developed Zen in China after that. So Sengen was a very prominent disciple. ancestors' time, there was a lot of divisiveness about the Patriarchate, who was the illegitimate ancestor after the fifth Patriarch, Diamond Konyan. So, the sixth Patriarch had two disciples, One was Jinshu and the other was Eino.

[03:42]

And there was this argument for a long time about who was the legitimate heir to carry on the lineage. And so, Sekito was kind of involved in this controversy after Daikan Eino died. And so he wrote this poem basically to express his understanding that there really is no one patriarch of the Northern school or the Southern school. Even though there is a patriarch of the Northern school and a patriarch of the Southern school, they're not that different. and the Southern school had its personality, the Northern school has its personality. When we look around us at how each Zen center or any organization works, although they seem to have the same basic understanding, the expression will be different.

[05:01]

for each one. Berkeley Zen Center has its personality, San Francisco has its personality, New York has its personality. The practice takes its flavor from the personality of the leadership, basically, and the constituencies of the members. combination. So, there was a kind of propaganda about the sixth ancestor being the true ancestor and some others saying that the Jinshu was the illegitimate true ancestor. But Sekito is saying, forget all that, just practice and try to understand the basic understanding of what practice is. the basic understanding of Buddha Dharma.

[06:02]

And so each one is expressing in their own way the true Dharma. No need to argue about it. So he wrote this poem, which is rather a little bit long, depending on what you think of long and short is. And it's called The Harmony. Title is difficult to translate because it's like you get your feet mixed up, because it's a non-dualistic title. The harmony of difference and equality. So equality is oneness and difference is twoness. And the harmony between Essence is like emptiness or true existence, and emptiness is expressed as difference.

[07:18]

In other words, all of the various existences are really the existences of emptiness, different expressions of emptiness. Emptiness is like this. One. And the expression is like this. Many. Many fingers. One fist. Many fingers. So, the oneness of one and zero. Or two and zero. Zero is the common denominator. Without zero, there is no one, two, three. So, form is emptiness, emptiness is form. This is the message of the Heart Sutra which we chant so many times a day. Form is emptiness, emptiness is form. That which is form is emptiness, that which is emptiness is form.

[08:22]

So, emptiness is the parent of form, and forms are the children of emptiness. So, all of us are the children of emptiness. So although we are all different, we are all one. This is Sekito's message. So I'm going to read the poem. I've been teaching this for some time, but it's so hard to get through all of the commentary at one time that I've already done up to the fifth talk. So, our study Sashi starts with the 5th talk. And it's okay because the Sandokai is structured in four lines, a succession of four lines.

[09:23]

So, we're taking the four lines of the 5th talk and the four lines of the 6th talk, depending on how far we get. So, I'm doing this all year. or until we get to the end. And today we just happen to be zeroing in on this particular section. But here's the way, here's the poem. The mind of the great sage of India, which is Buddha, is intimately transmitted from west to east. While human faculties are sharp or dull, the way has no northern or southern ancestors. That's what I was talking about. The spiritual source shines clear in the light. The branching streams flow on in the dark. Grasping at things is surely delusion, but according with sameness is still not enlightened. All the objects of the senses interact and yet do not. Interacting brings involvement, otherwise keeps its place.

[10:29]

Sights vary in quality and form. Sounds differ as pleasing or harsh. Refined and common speech come together in the dark. Clear and murky phrases are distinguished in the light. The four elements return to their natures just as a child turns to its mother. Fire heats, wind moves, water wets, earth is solid. Eye and sight, ear and sound, nose and smell, tongue and taste, Thus, for each and every thing, depending on these roots, the leaves spread forth. Trunk and branches share the essence. Revered and common, each has its speech. In the light there is darkness, but don't take it as darkness. In the dark there is light, but don't see it as light. Light and dark oppose one another, like front and back foot in walking. Each of the myriad things has its merit or virtue.

[11:32]

expressed according to function and place. Phenomena exist like box and lid joining. Principle accords like arrow points meeting. Hearing the words, understand the meaning. Don't set up standards of your own. If you don't understand the way right before you, how will you know the path as you walk? Practice is not a matter of far or near, but if you are confused, Don't pass your days and nights in vain. So, we're going to start with the fifth stalk. And the four lines of the fifth stalk are

[12:34]

Sights vary in quality and form. Sounds differ in pleasing or harsh. Refined and common speech come together in the dark. Clear and murky phrases are distinguished in the light. Fortunately, we have a commentary on this. Very difficult to grasp unless we have some commentary. So we're very fortunate that Suzuki Roshi, toward the end of his life, made a commentary on this whole thing. So, he's talking about... Suzuki Roshi quotes the lines here, and he says, Everything has its own nature and form. All things have their nature and they have their form. And when you hear a voice, it is either agreeable or disagreeable. Here, the sandokai is talking about sights and sounds, but the same is true for all the senses as well as for the mind, in other words.

[13:47]

We taste something and taste either we like it or spit it out, right? Or we touch something and we like it or it's hot or too hot or too cold or it's just right. So we feel all these through our senses. we discern phenomena. And then he says, there are good and bad tastes, good and bad feelings, agreeable and disagreeable ideas. It is our attachment to them that creates suffering. So in other words, a feeling is just a feeling. Seeing something is simply sight. Hearing something is simply hearing. Touching is simply touching, but through our discriminating mind we judge whether the thing is good or bad, right or wrong, like or dislike. So, sights vary in quality and form, that is, things are just the way they are, but sounds differ as pleasing or harsh.

[15:01]

mind. So, it is our attachment to them that creates suffering. When you hear something good, you will enjoy it. When you hear something bad, you will be annoyed or disturbed. But, if you understand reality completely, you will not be bothered by things. That's a big thing to swallow. I can remember you know, when I first started sitting Zazen. And in those days, back in the 60s, mid-60s, people, you know, our students, Sutra students were all having a hard time sitting because we had pain in the legs, pain in the back, pain in the mind. When people hear about meditation, they think, oh, this is wonderful, serenity.

[16:13]

But actually, serenity is possible. Serenity is possible, except that there's a big wall in front of us that says, I like this, I don't like this. I accept this, I don't accept that. If you understand reality completely, you will not be bothered by things. By understanding reality completely, he means that we decide how things should be. I remember one of the turning words that helped me when I was learning how to sit sadhana was him saying, As long as you're not bothered by it, you can sit comfortably.

[17:23]

That was a real turning point for me. Because when he talks about attachment, he means we're attached to pain, we're attached to suffering, we're attached to discomfort. How do we become comfortable? Dogen says, Zazen is the comfortable way. But that actually is the comfortable way. But you have to get through the barrier of the mind before you can sit comfortably, before you can be comfortable with things, before you can find your untroubled mind, serenity, Composure. He used the word composure a lot.

[18:26]

Find your composure. Composure means pain is just pain and suffering is suffering, but they're not the same thing. What we feel is what we feel, but suffering is when we decide we don't like it. Think about that. So, like and dislike. The like and dislike are the activities of our dualistic mind. So, he says, when you hear something bad, you will be annoyed or disturbed, but if you understand reality completely, you will not be bothered by things. The next phrase, the third line, gives the reason. refined and common speech come together in the dark. So, refined and common and dark and light, we have to explain those.

[19:38]

Dark and light refer to the absolute and the relative. And the relative in its individuality. You are there, how many of you, I'm counting all of you people, that's distinguished in the light. But when we turn out the lights, everything disappears, and so we use the dark to mean oneness. Everything is one. This is called absolute, and this is called So refined and common speech means refined speech is non-dualistic speech. Common speech is dualistic speech. So mostly we're speaking in dualistic terms because we are always discriminating

[20:49]

make a difference between the ceiling and the floor, right? So our discriminating mind is totally active all the time. So it's very difficult for us to resume our true pure mind, which is the mind of oneness. Both are necessary. But the problem is we're only aware of our dualistic thinking. We're not aware of the dark side. Usually dark and light means pure and impure. Usually the dark means evil, but in this sense dark does not mean evil. Dark means So, things in themselves are not good or bad.

[22:02]

When you read the Buddhist literature, it talks about desire as being defilement. Don't desire, but actually desire is an important part of our psyche. We can't get rid of desire. It's not a matter of getting rid of desire, it's a matter of turning desire toward objects which we're not compelled to hang on to. So desire is necessary for life, but desire becomes attached to things that cause suffering. That's the problem. That's our dualistic mind creating problems because we're kind of blind. When Buddha looks at humanity, he doesn't think everybody's wrong.

[23:05]

He just thinks everybody's blind. And so he has great compassion for beings who are blind. We're all blind because we don't realize that we're sticking our head in the fire when we do that. So we get caught, desire gets caught, but desire is quite wonderful when it's not caught, because it motivates us in the right direction. So, he says we understand things in two ways, in darkness and in light of form. Darkness is An, called An in Japanese, and the light of form is is no good or bad in things themselves, it is we who differentiate things as good or bad and thus create practice, what am I doing?

[24:25]

So desire is not good or bad, it's simply a driving force in our life, but we have to know how to use it rather than be used by it. So practice is how to use and not be used by. So he says, things in themselves have no good or bad nature. Someone asked me, does the universe care about me? That's an interesting question. Does the universe care about me? I said, no. And then he started to walk away and I said, yes! things themselves have no good or bad natures.

[25:28]

To understand this is to understand things in utter darkness. So, utter darkness means neutrality, without judgment. It means without self-centeredness, basically. So, we can use any words as long as they're not used in a selfish way. In utter darkness, good words and bad words will not disturb you. It's like the ocean, as an example. The deeper you get into the ocean, the deeper the ocean, the darker it gets. There are creatures there that are interesting, but it's a metaphor.

[26:33]

And so there's not much disturbance, whereas up on top we have a lot of disturbance. This is our busy mind creating disturbance on the surface. But if you know how to walk on the bottom, Dogen has this wonderful term, while swimming in the waves your feet are walking on the bottom of the ocean. So you're grounded. So that the disturbance on the top, you can accept the disturbance on the top without being caught by it. So Suzuki Roshi always used to say, just don't get caught by anything. That's how we maintain composure. So, refined and calm in speech.

[27:48]

I remember we used to have this, I don't know if people still do it, but we used to have this saying, sticks and stones will break my bones, but names will never hurt me. They do hurt, but not the same way. Sometimes worse though. There are pure words and muddy words. In brightness we have dualistic words and duality. The duality of pure and impure. So, in Dharma language duality, dualistic words means discriminating words. Pure words means non-discriminating words. So for instance, there's the famous koan, does the dog have the buddha nature?

[28:55]

Master Mu, I mean Master Joshu, the monk asked Master Joshu, does the dog, since everything has the buddha nature, according to Buddhism, does the dog have the buddha nature? And Joshu said Mu, he said Wu actually, because it's Chinese, which means no. Well, how can that be? If everything has the Buddha nature, why doesn't the dog? So then the monk asked him, again, does the dog have Buddha nature? He said, yes. Well, is it yes or is it no? Pure words. A word is just a word, right? No is just no. But the intention is what creates discrimination or non-discrimination.

[29:59]

When Joshu says no, it includes yes. When he says yes, it includes no. But when no and yes are opposing each other, that's impure words. That's dualistic, discriminating. words. When you are relating to anything, when we realize that what I'm relating to is also myself, that's pure relationship. If what I think I'm relating to is separate from That's impure relationship. But impure relationship and pure relationship are one thing. We have to discriminate myself in the pillar. But myself in the pillar, although I discriminate, there's the pillar and here's me.

[31:07]

Without the pillar, at this moment, I don't exist without the pillar. And the pillar does not exist without me. Even though you may think that's funny. When you have a conversation, you and the other person are creating each other. This is co-creation. Things don't just happen by themselves. Everything is creating everything else. When we understand the oneness of creation, then creation is not simply discriminative activity. It's the discrimination of non-discrimination and the non-discrimination Even though we are angry at someone, we can still acknowledge that person. How does that happen? Even though we're angry at that person, we can still acknowledge that person.

[32:10]

In other words, even though on the surface we have a problem, deep down we're the same person. We're just two sides of the same person. So when we argue with somebody, we're really arguing with ourselves as well. Because the teacher knows the student very well, sometimes the teacher will be angry with the student. The teacher knows that the student is very good, but sometimes the student will be lazy. There's not so much contact to make a difference.

[33:35]

But when the student's really close to the teacher, closeness makes for dissonance. In music, when the intervals are very close, you have the beats. It's great. But you don't want the dissonance all the time. But that doesn't mean that the relationship is altered. So you can have great disagreements or great dissonance and at the same time be connected at the bottom. And that's actually what creates the wonderful music. So we say positive way and negative way. The positive way is to acknowledge things and is the positive way.

[34:41]

The negative way is to not accept anything. Whatever you say, you get 30 blows, positive and negative. Sometimes the one and sometimes the other, and usually we are very much attached to either the bright side or the dark side of things. So we have this example of And for saying, whether you're right or you're wrong, you get 30 blows. This is the dark side. Not the mean side, but the non-dual side. 30 blows, whether you're right or wrong. It doesn't matter whether you're right or wrong. It's not a matter of right or wrong. It's a matter of right and wrong. Right is in wrong, and wrong is in right.

[35:45]

The right includes the wrong, and the wrong includes the right. Are you a good boy? Yes, I am. No, I'm not. This is how the old teachers taught their students. So do you know this famous koan? He presents us with one of his favorite koans, and one of Dogen's favorite koans. He said, a monk asked the master, it's so hot, how is it possible to escape from the heat? And the master said, why don't you go to a place where there is neither cold nor heat? You probably know this koan, it's very famous. And the disciple said, is there a place where there is neither cold nor heat? And the master said, when it's cold, you should be cold Buddha. When it's hot, you should be hot Buddha. When it's hot, let the heat kill you.

[36:50]

When it's cold, let the cold kill you. Just be hot. Just be cold. Being hot includes everything. Includes the whole universe. Being cold includes the whole universe. This is non-dualistic understanding. Usually, when we're cold, we want to get hot. And when we're hot, we want to get cold. So we're always escaping. There are situations where you have to do that, but the understanding is to just accept what's going on, to just be totally one with what's happening. Then there's no opposite. The secret of Zazen is to be totally one with what's happening. Zazen teaches us this. This is the great teacher. Zazen is Buddhist teaching.

[37:52]

The teaching here is whatever is happening is what's happening. If you try to escape, you'll suffer. If you try to escape, you'll suffer. So it's simply Buddhist first teaching. When you desire is the cause of suffering. Desire meaning wanting what you wanting to escape. We can't escape from this world. And we can't escape from what's happening right now. We can try, and we can do various things to make that happen, but life will chase us down. You can run, but life will chase us down. When it's painful, it's just this sensation. That's all.

[38:56]

It's just this sensation. And then it changes. And it's this sensation. But we say, oh, that hurts. I want to get out of here. So when you get to the point where you can't leave and you can't stay, that's the crux. That's the place where you become enlightened. You can't leave and you can't stay. What would you do? We had to learn that the hard way. But every student has to learn that the hard way. You can't stay and you can't leave, but you have to just let go. Stop the discriminating mind. Just let go of the discriminating mind. And you can say that, But you have to experience yourself. So he says, when you think that if you practice Zazen, you will attain a stage where there is neither cold nor hot, where there is no pleasure or suffering, you may ask, if we practice Zazen, is it possible to have that kind of attainment?

[40:16]

And the true teacher would say, when you suffer, you should suffer. When you feel good, you should feel good. Sometimes you should be a suffering Buddha. Sometimes you should be a crying Buddha. And sometimes you should be a very happy Buddha. So when you're crying, have a good cry. And then forget it and go on. When you're happy, be really happy, totally happy. And then when it's over, forget it and just go on. So this is the children's way. You see the children, they just go from one mood to the next. They go from happiness to crying to falling down to standing. And they just let go and just keep going from one thing to another without hanging on, usually. So this is actually the essence of practice.

[41:18]

experience. So there's no opposite. What creates our problems is opposite, opposition. I'm sad so I want to be happy. Then you have suffering. I'm hurt but I want to be not hurt. Then you have suffering. As soon as you get questioned, as soon as you say that, suffering, you open the wedge It's a wedge for opening a hole to suffering. So, how do we just experience what we're experiencing with gratitude? We have a ceremony today, Buddhist Bar Nirvana, right after this, so I have to stop. Anyway, that's a little bit of what Seguito was talking about, I hope.

[42:29]

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