Did you ever notice that when a bug falls off the table, it either lands on its back or on its front? If it lands on its back, it kind of wiggles its legs and hopefully can turn over. And if it turns over, then it crawls on its way. If it lands on its front, it may be stunned for a moment, but it just crawls on its way. So the bug is going in one direction, one moment, then he falls down on the floor in a different world. And then he starts wandering off in that world. This is a bug zen.

[01:04]

He doesn't necessarily climb back up onto the table again, but just, he falls down and he finds himself someplace. And then he starts, I don't know what they look for. I don't know what bugs read or write. or recite poetry. We don't know what bugs think, actually. But maybe they don't think, which is their saving grace. But we human beings are thinkers, so it gives us a lot of problems. we have a lot of trouble because we're such thinkers and so our minds easily get confused and because we think so much we find ourselves in the realm of imagination there are what are called the three natures in Mahayana

[02:29]

Buddhism, the nature of imagination, the nature of comparative values, and the nature of ultimate reality. And of course ultimate reality is our basic nature and is our discriminating nature and the nature of imagination is our delusive nature. So mostly we live in the realm of imagination and comparative values, which is the basis of our confusion and delusion.

[03:34]

Without penetrating ultimate reality imagination and comparative values just keep us in a state of confusion even though we may think we have clarity. So knowing where we are and what we're doing is very important. So I'm constantly asked by people, how do we practice in our daily life? I think what people want is some kind of answer to specific questions or specific incidents and how should I do this and how should I do that.

[04:48]

But basically, I can only talk about how to stay centered fundamental reality, so that our nature of comparative values and our nature of imagination don't confuse us. So I want to read some of Dogen Zenji's and talk about it in Genjo Koan, which is Dogen's touchstone for all of his work, all of his teaching. Genjo Koan is translated in various ways.

[05:53]

Actualizing the fundamental point Attaining the way is another way, but Genjo Koan is something like the fundamental koan of our life, which appears moment by moment. And it's not some specific koan. It has to do with the basic reality of our life. as movement and stillness, or ultimate reality and comparative values, and the tension between these two. Our discriminating life and our non-discriminating life

[06:59]

So Dogen says, now if a bird or a fish tries to reach the limit of its movement, of its element, before moving in it, this bird or this fish will not find its way or its place. In other words, the bird lives in the sky, the fish lives in the ocean. the sky is limitless, so to speak, and the ocean is for the bird, the sky is limitless. For the fish, the ocean is limitless. But if the bird or the fish tries to understand or know the limits of the sky or the ocean, The bird or the fish can only find its way when it knows its place, where it is, and where it's going.

[08:13]

So a bird flies, and that's its way. Then the bird lands on the branch, and that's its place. But the place of the bird changes all the time. Every time the bird flies off, it finds another place to land. So you can think of place as being. And you think of way as doing. So this life is the life of place and way. It's the life of being, which is existence, and way, which is direction. And direction involves movement, whereas being simply is.

[09:25]

So genjokan is the tension between is and way. If we only have is or being, it's incomplete. And if we only have way or movement, it's incomplete. So to complete movement, there has to be place. And a complete place, there has to be movement or direction, going somewhere. Everything is constantly moving in place. So for the bird, you just substitute yourself, myself.

[10:30]

If you try to reach the limit of your element before moving in it, you won't find your way or your place. So, we like to investigate and know things. practice in Buddhadharma to know things is to do things. To know something is to do something. We can know about swimming. We can investigate swimming. Swimming involves water either in the ocean or a stream or in a enclosure called a swimming pool. But in order to know swimming, we have to jump in. And jumping in is called knowing. So in Buddhism, philosophy and practice go together.

[11:42]

Philosophy comes out of practice. Philosophy in Buddhism is not abstract. even though if you read Nagarjuna, Vasubandhu, their philosophy is quite elaborate, but it's all based on swimming. It's all based on actual practice. So philosophy comes out of practice. rather than being just abstract ideas. So in Buddhist philosophy it gives one direction for practice or a basis or understanding of life and practice.

[12:46]

this place in this way, this place in order to, in other words, it's not necessary to know everything in order to know everything. you can understand the whole universe if you understand a grain of sand. To penetrate one thing thoroughly is to penetrate all things. So instead of trying to understand everything, just to try to We may understand a lot about many things, but to understand one thing thoroughly is to understand everything.

[14:11]

So Dogen says, attaining this place, one's daily life, is the realization of ultimate reality. which is Genjo Koan. Attaining this way, one's life is the realization of ultimate reality, which is Genjo Koan. Our practice is actually called practice of Genjo Koan. In Buddhism, in Zen, one practices Koan, does Koan study often. And people say, well, you Soto Zen people, you know, you don't practice the koans, you don't study the koans. But actually, Genjo Koan is the big koan of our practice. It's the one koan that covers all the koans. And it's present moment by moment in our life.

[15:17]

That's what our practice is. How do you deal with this koan of your daily life, moment by moment, knowing what your place is and what your way is? So place is like, where is your place? We say, well, where is your home? Where is your true home? Don't give me your address. We find, you know, many places to call our home. But your home is this place that is you, your home, wherever you are. Whether you're in an airplane or a submarine, climbing the mountains in the midst of a war, at your desk, in your kitchen, Where is your place?

[16:20]

Where is your true place? So this is how we practice Zazen in our daily life. Genjo Koan means practicing Zazen in your daily life, wherever you are. You sit on the cushion in the zendo, and we call that Zazen. This is like settling on the self. settling on a true self, finding your true home, finding your place. Suzuki Roshi used to say, we're always falling out of balance. Moment by moment, we're falling out of So every moment, we fall out of balance. It means everything changes.

[17:25]

The whole situation changes. Moment by moment, the whole situation changes. You change, your surroundings change, the way you relate changes. And so this is called falling out of balance. We retain our balance. But it goes this way, and then we land upright, like when you throw a cat across the room. The cat always lands on its feet. I used to do that. Not because I was mean, but because the cat loved it. He'd always come back for more. Please throw me again. So when you're in your office and you're overwhelmed by telephone calls, you're overwhelmed by people wanting something from you, and then pretty soon the load gets heavy.

[18:33]

Where are you? What do you do? Where do you retreat to or where? How do you find yourself without being pushed around by circumstances? How do you find your way and your place? So the place is not your cushion. The place is not your seat or your circumstances. The place is here. To find your place means to find this center of your being which is the center of the universe. It's the same center of your being is the same center of everyone's being which is the center of the universe.

[19:36]

This way you can't get lost. If you know where you are and settle on who you are, where you are, you can't get lost, even if you die. That's a big way to get lost, right? Dying. The big loss. The major catastrophe. if we know how to live in this life, in these circumstances, then we won't get lost when that moment comes because it doesn't depend on existence or non-existence.

[20:44]

So this is the fundamental reality, which is not dependent on comparative values or imagination. It's the realm of ultimate reality, which is where we have to base our existence. Then, in the realm of discrimination, we can find our way. without getting lost or upset. Even though we get upset, we come back up. We're always getting upset, you know. Anger arises, various things arise. Greed, delusion. But we always come back to our fundamental reality. Resume our original nature, as we say.

[21:53]

When we sit on the cushion, we resume our original nature. We let go of the realm of imagination. We let go of the realm of discriminating mind and simply sit in ultimate reality. People say, oh, maybe you escape. But it's simply being complete. So then Dogen says, since this place and this way are neither large nor small, neither self nor other, neither existing previously nor just arising now, they therefore exist thus. Thus means ultimate reality. place is like horizontal.

[23:03]

Horizontal means non-hierarchical, means the level at which everything is the same. When you reach the center of your being, This is horizontal. It means no hierarchy. Nothing is big and nothing is small. There are no comparative values. And then way is hierarchical and vertical. One thing is different than another thing and everything has its place on a hierarchical scale. high and low, but high doesn't mean best and low doesn't mean worst. High is just high and low is just low. We put the cups and the dishes in the cup board high and we put the pots and pans a little bit lower, but the pots and pans aren't any

[24:20]

The cups and dishes aren't any better than the pots and pans. It's just that everything has its place in the scale of things and therefore everything is equal. It's only unequal through our judgment, through our discriminating mind. Garbage is the most valuable thing. actually, but that's a discriminating judgment. Garbage is wonderful and valuable because it's life. It's teeming with life and it produces life. Its death produces life. So we can learn about reality from garbage.

[25:27]

If we really study garbage, you know that the death of the vegetables is the life of the vegetables. So there's no value judgment in this horizontal and in this vertical hierarchical level of comparative values. It's only when we judge from the point of view of ego or self-centeredness that there's a problem. So where the vertical and the horizontal meet is where our life takes place. And that spot where they cross, if we are not interposing self into that intersection,

[26:43]

then we know our place and we know our way and they harmonize with each other. Then whatever comes along, we're not lost. It's only when we start judging, you know, things are intruding on me, you know. This is where we have a problem. Something is intruding into our space. I remember when I became abbot at San Francisco Zen Center, I became very busy. But I decided that I wouldn't let anything... I would allow myself to be interrupted. And I would not desire to continue with what I was doing. I would just allow myself to be interrupted over and over again.

[27:47]

And I never had any problem. But if I had started complaining about intrusions, I would have had a big problem. Our mind causes us problems because our life is mind made. In Buddhism, we understand that our life is mind made through our imagination and through discrimination, which reinforce each other. Discrimination and imagination are constantly reinforcing each other. this is where, as I said, we have our problem.

[28:49]

So Dogen says, therefore if one practices and realizes the Buddha way, when one encounters one Dharma, one penetrates one Dharma. When one encounters So to encounter one dharma, dharmas are things in this case, to encounter a dharma means to encounter anger or to encounter desire of some one sort or another or to encounter delusion or to encounter When one encounters one Dharma, one penetrates one Dharma.

[29:52]

In other words, you don't ignore what comes up, but you penetrate into the heart of what that Dharma is. When one encounters one action, one penetrates or practices that one action. In other words, just to do one thing at a time, just to take care of one thing at a time, we tend to want to accomplish something. This is called the way, one way or another. We want to accomplish something. Human beings need to have some direction and so we invent ways of having a direction and we get very caught up in our direction, in our movement, in our accomplishment.

[31:03]

But to accomplish this place is just as important. To accomplish this place means being, how to just be. We lose the sense of how to just be when we're overwhelmed by how to just do, or how to do, or the way. What is the quality of our movement? What is the quality of our life? What is the quality of just taking a breath? So we don't value that as much. I don't have time to sit down and breathe, to just be with my breath.

[32:11]

I have to do this. So we're driven by doing, by the way. We're driven by the way of desire, actually. We're caught by the way of desire and driven by it. And because we're caught by the way of desire and driven by it, it's very hard for us to just settle down and penetrate being. And being just doesn't have, we just don't pay attention to it. Of course, being is involved in doing. When being and doing are equal to each other, when being is doing and doing is being, That's practice. But usually, desire takes over. So, to turn desire into practice is to allow being to penetrate being within our doing.

[33:28]

So when we take a step, to be conscious of the step, to be conscious of this step, to be actually in this step. The step is going somewhere, one step. after the other, but to actually be in the step, to be the step, to be conscious and aware, this is stepping, this is walking, this is sitting, this is talking. To have that awareness and be settled in it is practice. So being and doing, sometime when you're in your office or your school or wherever, to just let go of everything and just sit down and breathe so that you can recognize what being is, pure existence.

[34:41]

we get very carried away. So, pure existence is your home. If you really can settle down in pure existence, nothing can turn you over, if you're really settled in pure existence. Zazen, you know, is letting go of everything and just sitting in pure existence. People say, well, what is the advantage of sitting Zazen? What do we get out of Zazen? Well, you don't get anything. You're simply letting go of everything. It's the anti-get. simply settling in pure existence. But it's boring.

[35:50]

Yes, it's boring. But it's only boring when you're not doing it. You think you're sitting Zazen. As soon as you say it's boring, you're no longer sitting Zazen. And so it's a shame people say, well, I get bored, you know. Why? It's just because you're not really sitting Zazen. But if you're sitting, Zazen, you're not bored. You can't get bored if you're truly sitting. If you're one with what you're doing. So how to be totally one with your activity means to be settled on big mind within your discriminating activity. To encounter one action is to penetrate one action thoroughly, not trying to do a lot of things.

[36:56]

Zen practice itself is very simple, even though our life is very complex. But Zen practice itself is very simple, to just penetrate one, to do one act and That's called one-act samadhi. Samadhi is no separation between being and doing. So to do is to be, and to be is to do. To always be settled in all our activity. So doing activity slowly helps us to do that. and mindfully and carefully. But we tend to take on many things, you know. Life is very seductive.

[37:58]

Our surroundings are very seductive. So, you know, we think we have to have cell phones. We think we have to have new cars, we think we have to have all these things, but actually we don't. All we really need to do is settle down in our true nature, then we don't need so much. but we think we need so much and our standard of living gets higher and higher. Actually, as our standard of living gets higher, our true standard of living gets lower, because we depend more and more on things.

[39:03]

We depend more and more and we have more and more crutches and more junk and more stuff. And so we get further and further away from our settled mind. And if all this stuff was suddenly taken away, where would we be? It's interesting, when the lights go out, whoa, then you really see where you're at, what you depend on. So this is why in Zazen, Zazen is just one act. It's not many things.

[40:08]

It's simply one act. And to penetrate Zazen is to penetrate one thing. And it's not to accumulate, but simply to go deeper and deeper and centering, finding the vital center of things. So this is how we practice in our daily life. This is the fundamental practice in our daily life. And I wouldn't want to burden you with various techniques because there's no technique. moment's activity is an entrance to big mind.

[41:10]

It's not like, you know, you walk along looking for the entrance in the wall. There's no gate. The entrance is any place and every place. But if we don't see it, it looks like there's no way to enter. But if we see it, every place is the place to enter. Every place, every activity is the true way. Do you have... A question or two? Paul? You're comparing the world of the horizontal, where everything is equal, with the world of comparative values, and saying that the world of comparative values is differentiation, but not judgment.

[42:21]

Well, it can be either way. It can be. Well, I think you're saying that judgment is a problem, and that comes in when you judge based on ego. That's when your ego gets involved. Right, but the hierarchical comparative values is not necessarily... I mean, it's neutral. Right, it doesn't necessarily contain good and bad judgments. Well, I think you also said that the good and bad judgment, which comes from ego, is a problem. I think now that implies that it is bad to do that, which is only a minor part of what I'm getting at. But I think there's a little bit of a contradiction there, if that implication is what you intend. The other thing is that I'm sure you would agree, and so I don't see how it fits into this whole picture,

[43:26]

There is a time to judge good versus bad, as in, for example, benevolent behavior is better than malevolent behavior. Right. So how does that all come together? Well, there are two levels. One is the level of absolute understanding, and the other is the level of discriminative understanding. And so discriminative understanding is not bad. So we say there's benevolent behavior and malevolent behavior. And so on the human level, we discriminate that, which is necessary. Into good versus bad. Yeah. That's different from the comparative values. That's right. So, on the level of non-judgmental values, everything is just what it is.

[44:37]

And on the level of human values, there's good and bad, and right and wrong. Now, is that level based on ego necessarily? Well it's based on human, because in the human realm we wish for human survival. Because I want to be happy, we wish for other people to be happy. And other people, because I am unhappy, I wish for other people to be unhappy. Those are the two sides. From the Buddha side, because I am happy, I wish for everybody to be happy.

[45:44]

From the evil side, because I am unhappy, I want everybody to be unhappy. you see that in the world. And I am happy when other people are unhappy. That's also a mode of human nature. And these are the two duality which is always fighting each other. It's called good and bad. So this is the human level and we have to operate on the human level, everything is just the way it is in its place, right, and everything is equal and at the same time hierarchical. So these are called the two levels, the two truths, the absolute truth and the relative truth, and this is very important to understand in Buddhism. I just asked for a thought to it.

[46:52]

I'll defer one. No, what is yours? I was just wondering, I mean, I appreciate what you said this morning, especially because that's been my practice in facing the wall lately, is all that comparative and imaginative mind realm stuff that comes up. I just kind of, if your time is right, can just read through that and say, yeah, but what's the fundamental point? but at the same time I'm wondering is everything in the imaginative realm always delusional? I mean without it wouldn't we not be the bugs who treat ourselves human? It's only when it's not based on absolute reality, when it's divorced, when

[47:54]

the nature of imagination and the nature of discrimination are divorced from ultimate reality, then it's delusion, but when it's based on ultimate reality then it's enlightenment. So would you say that the absolute, the imperative and the Well no, I don't want to say that. That's going too far. The Buddhist trinity is Dharmakaya, Sambhogakaya and Nirmanakaya, but there are also, you know Buddhism loves numbers, so the three this's and the three that's and the four this's, but those are the three natures, that's what it's the Three Svabhavas. Yes?

[48:58]

I don't see how we can get away from the whole issue of right and wrong. No, I didn't say we could. I didn't say we could. Because in the absolute reality, there's the human reality and the absolute reality, and in the absolute reality everything is equal. Everything is equal. So, I mean, I can't see where, you know, torturing someone who is saying things... I didn't say... I didn't say we could get away with that. Well, you said that the human reality is good and bad, but the Absolute Reality is equal. Yes, that's right. I didn't say we could get away from the human. Let me ask you a question. When there are no humans, will there still be good and bad? Well, you know, a lot of what we view as good or bad are natural events, like a volcano erupting or something like that, or floods and stuff like that, because of the effects they have.

[50:06]

But that's just the natural course of life, and animals eat each other because they need to live. Yeah, and we eat animals. And we eat animals. But we have a ability to go, because we think, We have what? Yes, that's true. Yes. That's called the human realm. That's right, so good and bad. How do you say that? Because the ultimate realm doesn't depend on the human realm, but the human realm depends on the ultimate realm.

[51:13]

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