I mean, can you hear me? Yes. In the back. I don't know. In the back. Yes. Well, let's see. Well, it's very nice to see all of you here tonight. As you know, we're going to be studying tokens and she's not in tune. This is a classical that Doge wrote, but more like his deepest philosophy or understanding of Zazen. I've given you some handouts. One was Carl Bielfeld's translation and commentary, and Yi Jin Kim.

[01:15]

I'll explain a little bit about these two commentaries. There are many translations, of course, now of Deleon. All of them are a little bit different, so it's always good to compare translations. I also have some comments on Suzuki Roshi and Nishijima. When I look at this fascicle of Dogen, Well, first of all, how many of you have really looked at it? How many of you have not looked at it? OK, well, that's good. Thank you. It makes it a lot easier if you have, because it's very simple and very difficult at the same time.

[02:19]

So I'll kind of explain what the difficulty is. The Lancet of Seated Meditation, was there another? Yes, there was another one, but he's in Keen, which is called... Nina, that wasn't in your copy that I gave you. Huh? Everything's fine. Everything's fine. Good, I'm glad to know that. Finally. I feel that it's in five parts. The first part is like the introduction, where think-not-thinking is introduced. That's the subject matter, thinking-not-thinking and non-thinking.

[03:26]

And then the second part is a title polishing and mirror polishing a tile to make it into a mirror. That's part two. Part three is whipping the cart or the horse to make it go. You whip the cart or the horse if you want to make the cart go. That's the third part. And the fourth is various. Commentaries by Dogen. And the fifth part is Monshi Shogaku, his poem on Zazen. And then Dogen's poem in response to Monshi's poem. That's the end. Hongju.

[04:29]

You may be more familiar with his Chinese name because Hongxue is cultivating the empty field. Remember that book? He was the author of that and very highly esteemed in China before Dogen's teacher. Eighty years difference between him and Dogen. So I printed this piece on eleven and a half by 17 because the print was so small. I had I myself have trouble reading, you know, not just the print, but the text, but the footnotes. were almost unbearable for me. I don't know about you, but yeah.

[05:35]

So I printed it in this bigger print. And the way I used to visualize doing this was like, you take the first page, and we'll study that. And then you take the second page, and study that, and put it inside the first page when you're done. And then you have the third page. Does that make sense? Anybody not understand that? Maybe? OK. That keeps everything in place and kind of neat and tidy and simple. So what we'll do is, I don't know how, you know, we have this idea maybe that we'll study this much tonight and then the next time. But you never know how it's going to turn out. You may get through the whole thing tonight. But as we go along, in each section, I will study document 3, Carl Bielfeld, from Dogian's Manuals of Zen Meditation.

[06:47]

Carl translated most of Dogian's Meditation manuals, like Fukan Zazengi, Zazengi, Zamae o Zamae. We've never studied Zamae o Zamae. It's rather short, but it's the King of Kings Zamae. That's the way it's usually translated. And Dogen talks about how wonderful Zazen is. Zamae o Zamae. That calligraphy on both the door, as you go out, Many may or may not have seen it, right there, above the door. Suzuki Roshi wrote that. I asked him to give me some calligraphy, so he wrote Zamae of Zamae. And so we'll study Carl's, the first part, and then we'll study Heejin Kim.

[07:48]

Heejin Kim is a Dogen scholar. written several books on Dogian, very insightful, and to bring out the real essence of Dogian. And so, this is my note. It's not the whole text. What he did in this book, Flowers of Emptiness, was to present, to translate the parts of Dogen's fascicles in Shobo Genzo, in order to show certain characteristics of the way Dogen works.

[08:54]

So, he did this with Zazen Shin. He covers these aspects of Dogon that he feels are the characteristics that make everybody confused. He posits eight of them. I'm not going to talk about them because it's too much and they're too technical sounding. But in this Zazen Shin, what we find is that Dogan takes what historically Buddhists agree on is consistent and he turns them upside down so to speak and he'll take a negative statement and make it into a positive statement or he'll take a negative statement and use it as a positive statement or he'll take a positive statement and use it as a negative statement

[10:00]

in order to express his understanding, his non-dualistic understanding and his understanding of emptiness and sometimes he will look at some phrase and just scramble the words So that they mean, they come up with totally different meanings. And you can say, in doing that, there may be some meanings that sound kind of crazy, but it always produces something that's startlingly wonderful. And insightful. So, he's quite a genius. Is he Korean? He is, yes. Not Dogen. I'm talking about Dogen. When you say he, the one that does it, oh, this is Dogen.

[11:06]

Ijin Kin is the translator. Does that make sense? Oh, okay. Ijin Kin is Korean. Some sort of Korean. Yeah, he is Korean. Okay. Do you have any questions before we start? OK. And you might want to look at the text as we as I read it. Your filter. OK. So the big picture. So that's a machine. He actually doesn't have a title.

[12:11]

The title is not here. It's called Lancet of Seated Meditation. That's the English, but in Japanese it's Zazen Shin, which means acupuncture needle, basically. Literally means acupuncture needle, or the point of Zazen. which I'd rather you called it Zazen, but you know, some translators want to make their translations legible or understandable to the common person, which is okay, but I would rather you just I think it's better, because then those terms become more common. So, okay.

[13:15]

So, once when the great master Hung Tao of Yue Shan was sitting in meditation, a monk asked him, what are you thinking sitting there so fixedly? The master answered, I'm thinking of not thinking. The monk asked, how do you think of not thinking? The master answered, non-thinking. So this is Dogen presenting the koan. And then in the lighter text, This is Dogen talking about the koan. He said, verifying that such are the words of the great master, that is Weishan. Weishan is Yaksan, Igen. Ugan, Donjo, Dayosho, Yaksan, Igen, Dayosho, Yaksan, Igen, Dayosho.

[14:24]

Weishan is a real name in Chinese. So, verifying the such are the words of the great master, Naoshan, we should study and participate in the correct transmission of fixed sitting. This is the investigation of fixed sitting transmitted in the way of the Buddha. Although he is not alone in thinking fixedly, Naoshan's words are regular. He is thinking, I'm sorry, singular. He is thinking These words express what is the very skin, flesh, bones, and marrow of thinking, and the very skin, flesh, bones, and marrow of not thinking. The monk asked, how do you think of not thinking? Indeed, though, the notion of not thinking may be old. Here, it's the question, how do you think of it?

[15:27]

Could there be no thinking in sitting? Fixingly? and sinning fixedly, how could we fail to penetrate this? If we are not the sort of fool that despises what is near, we ought to have the strength and the thinking to question sinning fixedly." So here he's taking all these words and using them very creatively. The Master answered, non-thinking. Although the employment of non-thinking is crystal clear, When we think of non-thinking, we always use non-thinking. There is someone in non-thinking, and this someone maintains us. Although it is we who are sitting fixedly, our sitting is not merely thinking. It presents itself as sitting fixedly. Although sitting fixedly is sitting fixedly, how could it think of sitting fixedly?

[16:32]

Therefore, sitting fixedly is not the measure of the Buddha, not the measure of awakening, and not the measure of comprehension. I'm going to read this whole first part and then we can go over and talk about it. This is page 192. The single transmission of this sitting fixedly by Ngueshan represents the 36th generation directly from the Buddha Shakyamuni. If we trace back from Ngueshan, come back to the Buddha Shakyamuni.

[17:41]

And in what was thus correctly transmitted from the Buddha, there was already Yuishan's thinking of not thinking. So he goes all the way back to Shakyamuni, 36th generation, from Yuishan. Recently, however, some stupid illiterates say, this is Bill again, once the breast is without concerns, in other words, once you have nothing to worry about, The concentrated effort at seated meditation is a state of peace and calm. This view does not compare with that of the Hinayana scholastics. That's a put-down. It is inferior even to the vehicles of people in garments. How could one who There are many such practitioners in the Great Sangha, what we usually call the Sung Dynasty. How sad that the path of the patriarchs has become overgrown.

[18:44]

There is another type which holds that to pursue the way through seen meditation is a function essential for the beginner's mind and the late student. But it is not necessarily an observance of the Buddhas and Patriarchs. Walking is then, sitting is then, Whether in speech or silence, motion or rest, the substance is at ease. Substance, that's interesting. Therefore, they say, do not adhere solely to the present concentrated effort of seated meditation. This view is common among those calling themselves a branch of the Rinzai lineage. It is because of a deficiency in the transmission of the orthodox lineage of the teaching of the Buddha that they say this. What is the beginner's mind? Where is there no beginner's mind? Where do we leave the beginner's mind? Be it known that, for studying the Way, the established means of investigation is pursuit of the Way in seated meditation.

[19:53]

So he's been criticizing these people who don't know about it. Now he's saying, but be it known that for studying away, the established means of investigation is pursuit of the way in seated meditation. The essential point that marks this investigation is the understanding that there is a practice of a Buddha that does not seek to make a Buddha. Since the practice of a Buddha is not to make a Buddha, it is the realization of the koan. The embodied Buddha does not make a Buddha. When the baskets and cages are broken, a seated Buddha does not interfere with making a Buddha. At just such a time, from 1,000 through 10,000 ages past, from the very beginning, we have the power to enter into Buddha and enter into Mara. Walking forward or back, It measure fills the ditches and moats.

[20:57]

Okay, so I'm going to go back, we're going to go back. OK. So, one day, this is in the beginning, when great master Hodao Huishan was sitting in meditation, a monk asked him, What are you thinking, sitting there so fixedly? I don't like the word fixedly, but he doesn't mean it, actually.

[22:08]

But there it is. What are you thinking, sitting there so fixedly? The master answered, I'm thinking of not thinking. Translated, it says, thinking of not thinking. But I think it's better to say, I'm thinking not thinking. If you say, thinking of not thinking, then you're thinking of something. So, it means you're thinking about something. And if you're thinking about something, you're separated from what you're thinking about. If I think about something, then I'm separate from what I'm thinking about. But if I think the thought of, in this case, the thought of Zazen, then I'm not separate from Zazen.

[23:13]

Because... I'll explain what I mean. So, later, as we go on. The Master answers, I'm thinking... So I'm going to say, I'm thinking... I'm thinking, not thinking. Not thinking is what I'm thinking. I'm not thinking about not thinking. I'm thinking not thinking. The Master asked, how do you think not thinking? The Master answered, non-thinking. Sometimes this non-thinking is translated as beyond thinking and not thinking. I would use the term non-thinking because we understand that it's not a perfect term, but we use it. So, there's thinking, not thinking, and non-thinking.

[24:19]

What do you think about that? What do you not think about that? OK, we'll go on. Verifying that such are the words of the great masters, we should study and participate in the correct transmission of fixed sitting or stable sitting or whatever. I have some synonyms. Isn't there a mountain sitting too? Well mountains, it kind of means mountain, but it also means like hovering. A mountain is like hovering, is like, not hovering exactly, but overarching. A mountain is like solid, it doesn't It's solid. It doesn't move around. And we think of it as fixed.

[25:41]

Yeah. But it's not fixed. We just think it's fixed. But mountain has that feeling, right? Mountain is fixed. So fixed is OK. But there's also intense or focused or immobile. Some people use immobile. I like noble, mindfully, and so forth, but fixed is okay. So this is the investigation of fixed sitting transmitted in the way of the Buddha, although he is not alone in thinking fixedly. So in other words, he didn't invent it, right? Yueshan's words are singular. He is thinking, not thinking.

[26:43]

These words express what is the very skin, flesh, bones and marrow of thinking, and the very skin, flesh, bones and marrow of not thinking. The monk asked, how do you think not thinking? Indeed though, the notion of not thinking may be old. Here it is the question, how do you think of it? Could there be no thinking in sitting fixedly? When we sit in Zazen, are we supposed to sit without thinking? Is there no thinking? Please raise your hand if there's no thinking.

[27:45]

Could there be no thinking in sitting fixedly? In sitting fixedly, how could we fail to penetrate this? If we are not the sort of fool that despises what is near, We ought to have the strength and the thinking to question sitting fixedly. So, I'll read about it a little bit more. The Master answered, non-thinking. Although the employment of non-thinking is crystal clear, when we think of non-thinking, we always use non-thinking. Here we have three, it's like a pyramid, the three sides. There's thinking, there's not thinking, and there's non-thinking. How do we use non-thinking?

[28:58]

We know what thinking is. We know what non-thinking is. But what is non-thinking? It's not limited to the realm of thinking or not thinking. Doesn't that mean it's above? No, I said it's not limited. Oh, it's not limited to thinking or not thinking. So what we usually say is, let the thoughts come, but don't get hung up on them. Would that be non-thinking, if you were doing that?

[30:00]

Yes. But I want to get back to Ron's non-thinking. Can you give me an example of what you mean? Well, now it's like if you're in Argentina... Oh yeah, if you're in Argentina, that's thinking. That's dreaming. It's just not limited for those two frameworks. Well, if it's not limited, what is it? Just awareness. What about this bones, flesh and marrow stuff?

[31:04]

Something more interesting to me. Okay, where do you see that? Well, it says that the teacher I mean, footnote or... Thinking of not thinking. These words express what is the very skin, flesh, bones and marrow of thinking and the very skin, flesh, bones and marrow of not thinking. Yes. Well, I just thought if we could find the bones and marrow and flesh, we wouldn't be talking in abstractions. We're not. We're not in abstraction. flesh, bones, and marrow means the essence. But, in Dogen's, you know, when you... Dogen has a fast book called Kato, which means twining vines.

[32:14]

Twining vines. Intertwining vines. Usually, twining lines means entanglements. And usually, in Buddhism, we talk about cutting off entanglements. But Dogen uses that to mean how the student and the teacher are totally entwined with each other. So he takes the negative and turns it into the positive. So when he's talking to his students, Taiso Eika is considered his Bodhidharma's successor, right? Bodhidharma, Daisho, his own angel, I mean, Taiso Eika, Daisho. So, he had four disciples that we talked about.

[33:17]

And one has his bones, one has his flesh, one has the marrow. Right? You know that story? Right? So, bones, flesh, and marrow. So, which is the best? The one that has the bones, the one that has the flesh, or the one that has the marrow? He says they're all the same. Whether it's bones, flesh, or marrow, whatever, it's all the same. So that's what he means by bones and marrow, flesh, bones and marrow. It's like the quality of flesh, bones and marrow. But it also means basically that the essence, each one has the essence, whether it's the touches the essence.

[34:21]

Okay? I thought it meant something specific. No, no. It's the essence, but also something specific at any given moment. We could say it's the essence, but that's kind of... Well, something specific at every... Some things are specific and not recognized as specific. So, think not thinking. The way I see think not thinking means that we're not thinking about something. Think not thinking means that the thought and the act is one. The thought and the act is one. There's no separation. It's body, breath, and mind is zazen.

[35:25]

So it's flesh, breath, and thought. And when we actually sit zazen, we're not trying to keep a blank mind. That's no thought. That's not it. And we're not trying to fill our mind with thoughts. That's not it. But there is a thought. There's thinking. That's why I always say, when you sit Dazen, think the thought of Dazen. You have to do something with your mind. It's not blank sitting. That's always been criticized. Blank sitting, or sitting without any thoughts, or trying to make the mind blank, is not Dazen. does is to think the thought, to think not thinking, to not think thinking. But there's another explanation or a way of wording this that's very different.

[36:31]

And Heejin Kim brings that up. So, for me, it's like when body, mind, and breath are one, are not separate, There's awareness, bare awareness, which is non-thinking. So, there's thinking, which is thinking the Father does it. There's not thinking, which is not thinking about something else. And there's non-thinking, which is non-duality. all these elements. It's just one piece. So the Master answered, non-thinking. Although the employment of non-thinking is crystal clear, when we think non-thinking, we always use non-thinking.

[37:42]

There is someone in non-thinking And this someone maintains us. So what is this someone? He doesn't say it's you. He says there is someone. And that's a ponderous question. But you have to realize that all of these questions, these interrogators, are actually not questions. There is someone in non-thinking and this someone maintains us. Although it is we who are sitting fixedly, our sitting is not merely thinking. It presents itself as sitting fixedly. Although sitting fixedly is sitting fixedly, how could it think?

[38:45]

of sitting fixedly. How? Now, this how means the how is sitting fixedly. It's not a question. If you take these interrogatives and not see them as questions, but Kim will bring that out. Although it is we who are sitting fixedly, our sitting is not merely thinking. It presents itself as sitting fixedly. Although sitting fixedly is sitting fixedly, it's the house thinking of sitting fixedly. It's the house sitting. Therefore, sitting fixedly is not the measure of the Buddha, not the measure of awakening, and not the measure of comprehension. If we look at footnote number five, he says, this is one of the more obscure arguments of the text.

[39:50]

And I understand the passage to say something like the following. Although non-thinking is an enlightened activity, free from all obstructions to knowledge, as in Zen expression, all eight sides are crystal clear, it is a distinct act of cognition with its own agent, the enlightened someone, who is present in all our cognitive states. But the activity of non-thinking in meditation is not merely a matter of cognitive states. It is the identification of the act of sitting physically itself. When one is thus fully identified with the act, It is beyond what can be thought of or measured, even though the notions of buddhahood are awakening, even through the notions of buddhahood awakening. He then says, my clumsy phrase, it presents itself as sitting fixedly, attempts to preserve something of the grammatical play on Dogon's gotsu gotsu, which means something like that.

[40:59]

The invocation here of the someone that maintains us in our non-thinking may remind some of the traditional Buddhist discussions of what mental factor it is that continues during states of mental cessation. The measure of the Buddha can be taken as what is validated on the authority of the Buddha. Here again, Dogen is playing with the graph Ryo and Shuryo. So he says, the single transmission of this

[42:04]

sitting fixedly by Ewaishan represents the 36th generation from the Buddha. So he talks about that. And the next paragraph, recently however, is some stupid illiteracy. But I want to talk about that a little bit because it's what may sound like, isn't that saten? But actually he's saying it's not. So once the breast is without concerns, you know, you're free of concerns, the concentrated effort at seated meditation is a state of peace and calm. What's wrong with that? This view does not compare with that of the Hinayana scholastics. it is inferior even to the vehicles of people and gods. How could one who holds such a view be called a person who studies the teaching of the Buddha? So at present there are many such practitioners of the great song Chai Nats, how sad that the path of the patriarchs has become overgrown.

[43:10]

There is another type which holds that to pursue the way through seated meditation is a function essential for the beginner and the late student, but is not necessarily an observance of the Buddhas and patriarchs. You know, meditation is good for beginners and students, but not for us, creative beings. So then they say walking is in, sitting is in, whether in speech or silence. You have to understand what he's talking about here. This Dogen was very critical of what's called the Shrenika heresy in Buddhism. Shrenika was a student of Buddha who proclaimed that there is an essence or a soul which is eternal.

[44:24]

And the soul takes on many embodiments in succeeding lifetimes, forever, or for a long time. I don't know how long, but maybe forever. And Dogen is very critical of that. So this is what he means. This is like a Buddhist heresy to think that there is an abiding soul or substance, which is kind of Hindu, a way of thinking, that there is a jiva that continues through various embodiments. So when he says, walking is in, people say, walking is in, sitting is in, whether in speech or silence, motion or rest, the substance that internal jiva or soul or substance.

[45:44]

Therefore they say, do not adhere solely to the present concentrated effort of seated meditation. This view is common among those calling themselves a branch of the Lin Chi lineage. It is because of a deficiency in the transmission of the orthodox lineage of the teaching of the Buddha, they say this, what is the beginner's mind? Where is there no beginner's mind? Where do we leave the beginner's mind? So Vietnam, if you're studying the way they establish means of investigation and pursuit of the way, as seen in meditation, And the essential... So Navadraga is talking about what he thinks. Being known that for studying the way, he established means of investigations, pursuit of the way, and seated meditation. The essential point that marks this investigation is the understanding that there is a practice of a Buddha that does not seek to make a Buddha.

[46:49]

Now this is an important point, and this is This is like the point that he carries through in the rest of his classical. That's actually, I think, the main point. A seated Buddha who does not seek... There's a practice of a Buddha that does not seek to make a Buddha. Since the practice of a Buddha is not to make a Buddha, it is the realization of the koan. Genjo koan is what he's talking about. The embodied Buddha does not make a Buddha. When the baskets and cages are broken, a seated Buddha does not interfere in making a Buddha. At just such a time, from 1,000 to, from 1,000, from 10,000 ages past, from the very beginning, we have the power to enter into Buddha and enter into Ma. Walking forward and back.

[47:51]

You know, there's a koan. I think it's in the Book of Records. Saitsu Jisho Buddha sat for ten aeons without moving. But he didn't become a Buddha. Except for 10,000 eons, but he never did become a Buddha. Why didn't he become a Buddha? That's the koan. And that's kind of like what Dogen is saying here. Buddha does not make to become a Buddha. Why? There's only one. He's already Buddha. But we don't sit down to become a Buddha. That's Dogon's theme also. We do not sit down to become a Buddha.

[49:05]

What does the baskets and cages mean? Baskets and cages means impediments. Stuff like places where you get caught. Places where you get caught. So, now... So, the point seems to be that not obstructing a Buddha. You can make a Buddha or become a Buddha, but you could maybe obstruct a Buddha. Yeah, you can obstruct a Buddha. Don't obstruct a Buddha. So that's what the real thing is. The real guys do not sit in there, not obstructing. Yeah, not obstructing.

[50:06]

Yes. Yeah. Yes. We'll take one minute. It's getting shorter and shorter. One minute. But don't don't leave unless you have to do something. OK, so now we turn to Zazen-shin, admonitions for Zazen. So after sitting, a monk asked great teacher Yao Shan, what are you thinking of in the immobile state of sitting? The master replied, I think not thinking.

[51:10]

The monk asked, how can one think not thinking? The master replied, by non-thinking. So this having been confirmed as the great teacher saying we should study immobile sitting and transmit it correctly, herein lies a thorough investigation of immobile sitting handed down in a good way. Although thoughts on the immobile state of sitting are not limited to a single person, Yuexuan's saying is the very best. Namely, thinking is not thinking. Thinking is not thinking. Sometimes thinking is the skin, flesh, bones, marrow of Zazen. Sometimes not thinking is the skin, flesh, bones, marrow of Zazen. The monk said, not thinking is the how's thinking. Not thinking, though indeed time-honored, is newly restated as the how's thinking.

[52:19]

Isn't there thinking in the immobile state of sitting? When we advance in the immobile state of sitting, how can this fail to be known? Unless one is a short-sighted fool, one should have the capacity to inquire about and reflect on the immobile state of sitting. So I'm going to look at the footnotes, which start on page 161. Are you looking at the right one? OK, so in the first footnote, I'll read that anyway, because he talks about the fascicle. This fascicle, Zazen and Qin, belong to the same genre as Zazengi.

[53:22]

Zazengi is a short talk on just how to do Zazen. Fukan zazengi is more Dogen's invitation to people to sit zazeng. It's much longer. So Dogen's Zazen-shin fagical is no exception. However, as compared with his subjugated Zazengi, which focuses on the method of Zazen, the present fagical deals primarily with the philosophy of Zazen. Furthermore, Dogen's exposition of the matter is more exact and advanced than Bandoa. 3.

[54:34]

The immobile state of sitting, gotsu gotsu, kuchi, compares the state of the body-mind in sitting to the intactivity of a great mountain. So then we go to footnote 6. The original, I'm not going to say all that, I think not thinking, is now rendered as thinking is not thinking. In other words, equating thinking with not thinking. Not thinking is thinking, and thinking is not thinking. That is to say, authentic thinking involved in the immobile state of sitting is not thinking.

[55:19]

The nots, the absolute truths, thinking. So it's the nots thinking. In fact this is going to be easy. The immobile state of sitting is not thinking, that is, unlocks the absolute truth, thinking. The intent here is not a state of blank consciousness, a comatose or unconscious state, we know that. Neither is it an absence or denial of thinking, we know that. Rather, Dogon means a thinking which is liberated from and liberated for thinking and not thinking. Ultimately the think of not thinking is not thinking's thinking. This is the essence of Zazen. Dogen said in 2013 that think not thinking is the art of Zazen.

[56:25]

The word art is a little funny but We should examine this footnote. Oh, that's 1-7. Footnote 7. The skin, flesh, bone, and marrow signifies the totality or essence of the Buddhadharma. In this particular context, however, Dogen is referring to the essence of Zazen. So going back to 6, the original, is now rendered as thinking is not thinking. It's not that it's not thinking, it's not thinking.

[57:26]

Right? Not thinking is a... Well, not-thinking doesn't mean not thinking. If it was just not thinking, without a dash, that would be different. Isn't it important also that the I is taken out of it? Oh yeah, the I is taken out. It's not that I am not thinking, or that I am thinking. Thinking is, yes. It's just that thinking is thinking. Well it's like, when you sit in Zazen, all the senses are open. So when a sound appears, there's hearing. When a sight appears, there's seeing. When a smell appears, there's smelling. And so forth. This is five senses.

[58:28]

If a thought appears, there's thinking? Well, not necessarily. When a thought appears, in the sixth consciousness, which is thinking, is not necessarily thinking. A thought can appear without thinking. But when the thought is... when the next stage of this is something that I see, that's thinking. But there's a bare perception Which, from that sixth sense, even though there may be the thought airplane or bug, it's not named.

[59:33]

It's cognized, but it's not necessarily named. As long as it's not developed, it's not thinking. It's a thought, but it's not thinking in that sense. Because there's no development. There's no self-consciousness about it. There's no self-consciousness. That's right. There's no self-consciousness. Because there's no I saying that I'm thinking about this. That's right. There's no I in thinking. So the sixth, bear attention. So could you taste not tasting? Taste not tasting? Well, tasting tastes. There is tasting. But there is not necessarily self-consciousness of tasting, which is, I taste this. How closely is that related to not tasting?

[60:40]

I mean, is that really different? Because it's not trying to eliminate thoughts. No, I know that. But would you say those are the same? Like taste not tasting and thinking not thinking? Yeah. I think that's, yeah. Seeing not thinking. Taste not tasting. Seeing not seeing. Hearing not hearing. Yeah, why not? I think so. The word for not, is that mu? It could be. I don't know. It could be. Let's see. I don't see it here. Well, it's in Japanese. Yeah, but I see the Japanese here. But not necessarily that one. So I don't know. Maybe it is. I don't see not thinking as meaning no thought.

[61:51]

Not dash thinking. It's a different feeling. It's the not thinking. It's a mode of thinking. So getting back to taste not tasting, I like to taste things. When I'm sitting Zazen, I don't necessarily want to think. It seems like I just want to sit Zazen. Yes. So what's the benefit then of think not thinking versus the benefit of tasting, really tasting the food? Zazen is It's not that you shouldn't taste food. You should taste food and enjoy.

[62:57]

But who is the taster and who is the enjoyer? So, this is like... Zazen is not... is to free you from your conditioned desires, actually. It's to put yourself into a desireless, quote-unquote, position. You don't get hungry when you're sitting by them. You might, but it's not usual. You may want some other things, but they're just passing fancies, right?

[64:04]

So every taste and touch and all the sensuality of life doesn't enter into it. So it's freedom from our senses, although our senses are totally open. So it's freedom from self, basically. You're not creating karma, you're not creating a self. It's liberated from self-creation. I don't know whether that's good or bad, Or some of us do. So, how do you understand dropping? Drop all the workings of the conscious mind. So, how do you understand dropping?

[65:05]

Well, dropping is just a metaphor for letting go. It's the workings of the conscious mind. Yeah, right, exactly. Workings of the conscious mind means building dreams. Well, you know what that is. Workings of the conscious mind, not creating something, but allowing creation to freely create you. There's an instruction there, don't let go. There's not just... I mean there's some intention there.

[66:07]

Your intention, if you follow his instruction, there's an intention to let go. I see what you're saying. There shouldn't be any intention? I don't know. Yes, there should. There should be intention. You sit zazen with intention. Intention, not intention? No. Intention, which is free from desire. When you talk about desire, it doesn't mean that you don't have a desire to do something. It means that you're not caught by desires, by sensual desires. So, zazen is not a sensual activity. It frees the senses. Because it frees the senses. There was a study back in the 60s. Dolly, as a matter of fact, was one of the... she was a science writer actually at that time.

[67:11]

She participated in these tests of Zen masters and yogis. And when they were sitting in their usual way, and when they would tap, you know, it didn't register on the yogis, but when they would tap, the Zen Master, it would register, but it wouldn't be followed up. So the registering is there, but there was no follow-up. What am I trying to say by that? The yogis were shut off from the world. The Zodiacs were still in the world, but not

[68:13]

but free from all creativity, personal creativity, whereas creativity was the Dharma, allowing the creativity. Ziggurat, she used to talk about Zazen as the highly creative act. I think the thing with tasting is, tasting, I mean, we all like to taste the things that we like to taste, but it's, and we don't like to taste the things we don't like to taste, but even more than that, there's really a time when you just taste. Yes, well, you know, but did you ever have the experience of tasting something that you that's familiar, but when you saw it, you thought it wasn't familiar.

[69:21]

And it had a different taste than the familiar taste, because when you see something and you like it, and you want to taste it, all your conditioning comes to the fore. And that conditioning is helping you to you know, taste it as you would like to taste it. Or looking at yourself in a mirror, you know, the first glance is the true one. Oh yeah, that's what I look like. So, Zazen is to be free of conditioning. It's like conditioning is not interfering with things as it is. So it's just to be able to experience what things as it is, whatever is there as it is, free from the conditioning.

[70:32]

And pain is one of those things, you know, experience it for what it is, until you sit down and allow yourself to be free from it. But this is... I'm going to go on here. So, it's... To put it down to it, Point note 8. How can one think of not thinking? It is read by Dogen as, not thinking is the how's thinking. Not thinking is the how's thinking.

[71:40]

How, like what, and other interrogatives, signifies ultimate reality, ultimate truth. Thus, not-thinking is equated with the how-thinking, which is subsequently construed as non-thinking. So non-thinking is like the ultimate truth-thinking. It's not my thinking. It's like the way things are, the way it is. It's like just this, basically. Not thinking. Thinking is not thinking. Not thinking is thinking. And then there's just this. So when we get to the point of just this, that's the house thinking. The not thinking. So number nine, in this paragraph, Dogen emphatically holds that Zazen is thinking.

[72:53]

More often than that, Zazen is psychologized as a reductionist way such that it is associated with pure experience or pure consciousness as if there were no intellectual content. But without thinking, sitting is blind, and without sitting, thinking is impotent. Thus sinful-minded sitting is not an idle sitting, a blank mind, but the plenum of the house thinking. So elsewhere in the present fascicle, Dogen is highly critical of those views of meditation which advocate returning to the source, back to the origin, and stopping thoughts, being absorbed in quietude. He finds these views excessively quietistic, contemplative, and static. Dungin's notion of zazen is rather unique in the dynamic complexity of its intellectual content.

[73:58]

So this is Kim. But there's something to be said for Kim, that observation. So, you know, one of the criticisms of Soto Zen back in China, Cao Wu, criticized Soto Zen as, you know, rice bags pressing down on the earth. Quietistic, you know. So this is one of the cautions about good teachers is that zazen can lead to quietism. It can be construed as quietism. And quietism can be like trying to make the mind blank, finding ease and comfort and so forth.

[75:02]

peace of mind, and so forth. But actually Zazen is an activity, is an active act. It's really an active act, and it's a balance between activity and passivity. Because there's a way to sit, which is to sit up straight. There's a way to hold your body and effort to make it work. And at the same time of letting go, which is the passivity. Letting everything come and go is the passive side. And putting yourself into place and maintaining posture is the active side. the balance of those two sides of the activity, that's why we go around and straighten your posture.

[76:09]

What you said I feel is right, but I feel that Heejin Kim is, by using the word intellectual content, is really causing confusion. Well, yeah, I understand what you're saying. Yeah, I think it's right. Although, we have to be careful what he means by it. So, I hold that. I understand that it does cause me pause as well. But I'll just hold it. There are ways to say it, which would be less causing of confusion. I think you may be right. What are you referring? Well, down here in paragraph 9, he says, in this paragraph, Dogen emphatically holds that Zazen is thinking.

[77:22]

More often than not, Zazen is psychologized in a reductionist way, meaning no thinking. Zazen is not reductionist, reducing it down to no thinking. More often than not, Zazen is psychologized in a reductionist way such that it is associated with pure experience or pure consciousness as if there were no intellectual content. As if there were no thinking, it would probably be better. But he's a scholar, so he has to use terms like that. But without thinking, sitting is blind, and without sitting, thinking is impotent. Thus, single-minded sitting, shikantaza, shikantaza means just sitting, right? Just without trying to attain something, without just to be...

[78:27]

totally present, moment to moment. Shikantaze is not an idle sitting with a blank mind, that's true, but the time of the howl's thinking. Then elsewhere in the present fascicle, Dogen is highly critical of those views of meditation which advocate returning to the source, back to the origin. You know, the ten archery pictures The last one is returning, or the ninth one, eighth one, returning to the source. Duggan didn't like that because he said, we never strayed from the source. There's nothing to return to. No matter how much you think you're separated from the source, there's no way you can be separated from the source. The difference, I think, between Dogen's radical understanding and most religious understanding, because in religion, most religious understanding is we are separated from the deity.

[79:40]

And we're always trying to get back to the deity. Supplement, supplicating the deity. Because we're separate. We're feeling separate. But Dogen says, well, Zazen is where you don't feel separate. But it's not returning to the source, even though Suzuki Roshi says, returning to your original nature. He used that term a lot, returning to your original nature. But, you know, when we read history, and read words from history, and read words from history that are translated through two different, you know, from archaic Japanese to of modern Japanese to English, we have to give some... not criticize everything, but look at the gist of it and try to get the gist of what's... and if we focus too much on certain terms that we think are not translated correctly, that's why it's good to have more than one translation.

[81:00]

But a question in the back here. Yes. OK. Yeah. Young man. Yes. The question I had was, can you think of Slauson? Can you think of Slauson as thinking, recognizing, not thinking, recognizing its relationship to our thinking? Well, It's thinking, not thinking, and letting go of thinking and not thinking. Basically letting go. It's trusting yourself to not thinking. What would happen if you trusted yourself to not thinking? So for Dogen, Zazen is great faith, basically.

[82:06]

He says you have to have faith in your Buddha nature. So Buddha nature is the how. It's the not. These are terms for Buddha nature. How, not. Interrogatives. Because they don't attach to anything. What is a how? What is a not? These are just terms that are applied, but they don't have any meaning in themselves. They only have their meaning when they're applied to something. So, when it is another... I talk about it quite a bit. It. You can point to anything in the world and say, this is it. no special shape or form. It is, every dormant is it, and yet it is not anything.

[83:12]

So we have to use these, Dogon uses these interrogatives that way because to get our minds... if you simply say, well, it's Buddha nature and all that, you don't have to think, you know, but here we have to think. He's causing us to, you know, using these terms to get us down to the essence. So, when I think of what Dogen's teaching, you know, when we read the Shobo Genza, which is his major work, and all these festivals, to just read, to just study it, is to just go through it, not try to figure it out, but just to go through Dogen's mind. I see we're just, it's just traveling like the rollercoaster or the funhouse or something, you know.

[84:13]

Sometimes it's the funhouse, sometimes it's the rollercoaster, sometimes it's the train up in the mountains or the boat down in the ocean. The Hall of Mirrors. Huh? The mirrors, the Hall of Mirrors. The Hall of Mirrors, right. It is like the Hall of Mirrors. And you just kind of go through it and experience his mind. And then you go back and kind of try to get just the most sexy thing. So, next time, I hope you come back. Next time, we will finish this part and go on to the next part, which is very interesting. Next part is polishing a tile to make it into a mirror, polishing a tile to make it into a mirror.

[85:10]

@Text_v004
@Score_JJ