Latest / Zen Community of Oregon Dharma Talks / Dancing and Singing with Shakyamuni- Zen Teacher Jomon

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Dancing and Singing with Shakyamuni- Zen Teacher Jomon · Zen Community of Oregon Dharma Talks

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome. This is the Zen Community of Oregon, making the teachings of the Buddha Dharma accessible to support your practice. New episodes air every week.
• 0:25
  Speaker 2: Look at all the Zoomers. So nice to see you. Oh, there's Momo. Hi, Momo. Shall we take refuge together if you like?
• 0:43
  I take refuge in the Buddha. I take refuge in the Dharma. I take refuge in the Sangha. I'm really happy to be here with you, And I am really grateful that we made an appearance with Genzo and his wife Deborah at the UCC summer picnic on Saturday. It was very sweet, lots of music and a whole table full of food, very interesting conversations and just a real welcome.
• 1:25
  Pastor Steve was there for quite some time. We chatted and just another way to kind of connect our communities. So that's really sweet. And it's just good to see you all here. Thanks for being here.
• 1:44
  Thanks for practicing. I have really missed this and now I have to be gone next week. I'm gonna be in St. Louis visiting my mom. But then, actually on Saturday, we are doing the Zhao Zhen Kai, a full day of practice right here.
• 2:01
  How many of you are going to that? Excellent. So look, missing out if you're not going. See how all the cool kids are going. Missed if there's a few of you on here that are going too.
• 2:18
  At least one of you I know of. All right. Okay. So last time I was here, I spoke a little bit about the two sort of branches of Zen, So to and Rinzai, and how our lineage is a fusion of those. And one of the differences basically is a certain style of practice, and in particular the practice of koan study.
• 2:56
  So I wanted to talk a little bit about koans today, which may be totally unnecessary for your practice. Just bring whatever curiosity you might have about it. The word koan actually is translated into like a public case And style of practice originated in China, Chinese Chan. And so having been to the White Plum Conference, which is a conference of the lineage that plum blossom represents, and someone asked, I think it was Genzo, what Asanga means, that it's the white plum Asanga, which is the larger group of all the people who have descended from Maizumi Roshi, my teacher's teacher. And it's a play on words when you put the word, the letter A in front of something, I believe in Sanskrit, it means not or no sangha.
• 4:08
  And so it's kind of pointing to non attachment is what Bernie Glassman and Maizumi Roshi were saying in the plum blossom part, the white plum part is named after Maizumi's father. His name meant white plum. So Maizumi Roshi studied with teachers who were trained in the Koan tradition, namely and specifically Koryu Roshi, who was a lay teacher. He was basically ordered by his teacher not to ordain, not to become a priest, because at the time his teacher felt that the priest track wasn't really going to go anywhere for him, wasn't going to go to somewhere real, that it was just kind of bureaucratic and didn't mean so much as a genuine practice. So there's already, I mean that Dharma great grandfather is a very powerful teacher and a very powerful lay teacher.
• 5:22
  So I take a lot of heart in that. That realization does not differentiate between priests and lay people. So he studied with teachers who were trained in the Koan tradition, and wanna share this quote from him from Appreciate Your Life, the book Appreciate Your Life, which is a lot of Mizumi's teachings, and in it he talks about Koryu Roshi. So he says, what creates the hindrances that prevent each of us from seeing himself or herself as the one who is constantly dancing, singing, and talking with Shakyamuni Buddha? What creates the hindrances that prevent each of us from seeing himself or herself as the one who is constantly dancing, singing, and talking with Shakyamuni Buddha?
• 6:30
  All of us must see this for ourselves. No one can do it for us. How do you confirm yourself as Shakyamuni and I are practicing together, living together? In order to experience this, you need to do something with your busy mind. By counting your breath, you can trim off busy thoughts rising like bubbles one after the other.
• 6:56
  Are you practicing with bubbles instead of with Shakyamuni Buddha? By counting your breaths in cycles of 10, all these numerous thoughts are reduced to 10. By following the breath, you reduce it to two, inhalation and exhalation. But it is not simply a matter of two, ten or 100. Don't forget, breathing is life.
• 7:20
  By breathing genuinely in this way, you begin to live in this way. In what way? You appreciate intimately the life that you are living in this very moment. When I was in college, I lived in a dormitory where I studied with Koryu Roshi. Koryu Roshi often said, When you breathe in, breathe in the whole universe.
• 7:46
  When you breathe out, breathe out the whole universe. Breathing in and out, in and out. Eventually you even forget about who is breathing what. When you breathe in, breathe in the whole universe. When you breathe out, breathe out the whole universe, Breathing in and out, in and out.
• 8:10
  Eventually you even forget about who is breathing what. There is no inside, no outside, no this, no that. Everything is altogether disappearing. So what is there? You can answer nothing.
• 8:31
  When you truly sit, you can also say everything. What does this mean? It's not to be figured out. It's not even to be known or understood. It is to be lived, experienced directly.
• 9:04
  And we already have everything we need right here, right now, and no one can do it for us. So what are koans and what is koan practice? Well, koans are not riddles. You will sometimes see them referred to as such. And I was tempted to tell you some riddles today, but I will spare you.
• 9:40
  Although when you go to the Kaiser Longview Phlebotomy Clinic, which is excellent by the way, those people are like a well oiled machine. They're like an elite basketball team. They're behind there and helping each other and getting it done. And I've just most of the time been amazed every time I go in there, wait, you're done? Did you even do anything?
• 10:07
  So incredible. But they have at every little chair a piece of paper taped that has some really bad jokes. And I just catch myself laughing at them every time. But this is not what a koan is, for sure. I think that there's one I do remember, I'm gonna tell you it now, I'm sorry, in advance.
• 10:28
  One of them was, what do you so stupid. What do you call a fish with no eyes? A fish. So bad. Okay, so sorry, that was that is not a koan.
• 10:52
  That is a riddle. It's cute. It's, you know. Again? They're also not pithy sayings that contain some pithy aspect of the teaching.
• 11:10
  They are often family stories in our family lineage. They're stories, usually conversations between a teacher and a student, or two teachers challenging each other to see more clearly or deeply questioning some aspect of life. Those conversations carry with them a sincere hope that the practice can really meet these unsolvable mysteries that we will and do probably have each person, each one of us inevitably encountered if we're lucky. So koans are serious in this way, but they also are playful. The practice of koan can also be playful and expressive.
• 12:05
  Taken up and practiced with earnestness, with heart, consistency, energy, they are a powerful technology and they shine a light on all of our assumptions, on all of our fixed beliefs, on all of who we think we are and displays them for us. We get to really view what we've been carrying around. They're revealing in that way. And it may be kind of like looking under the rug like, oh, oh man, I'm gonna tend to that. To practice with them does require a foundation of meditation, fair amount of concentration.
• 12:53
  They do require consistent concentration. They do require a sustained and wholehearted effort. It's really helpful to do a day long retreat or a longer retreat to work with them at length. It's a powerful way to work with them. So I wanna talk about the first koan, koan number one in the collection called the gateless gate.
• 13:26
  How can you pass through a gateless gate anyway? What is a gateless gate? I mean, just right there is a koan. What is a gateless gate? So the first koan in this collection is called Mu, M U, not M O O.
• 13:49
  Though when you practice with it at the monastery, there are cows in the field across the road and they do seem to be practicing with us. Mu is the Japanese pronunciation of the Chinese word wu, which can be translated as no or nothing or does not have. Mu. And so the story goes, a monk in all earnestness asked Joshu, the teacher, Does a dog have Buddha nature? And Joshu said, Moo.
• 14:42
  There's a dog in this in our realm, in our midst on Zoom. You'll see, and hopefully I'll be able to articulate the fact that this khan isn't really so much about dogs, although I love that it has a dog in it. So we have to bring some life to this exchange. So when you hear the monk in all earnestness, that really means something. That really means something.
• 15:21
  So this was not a question that he brought to Joshu to just fill time or some attempt to come up with a question. This was a burning question. The doctrine, the teachings of Mahayana Buddhism says that everything has Buddha nature. The Buddha upon his awakening said, I and all beings are awakened together. Shakyamuni and I are practicing together, living together.
• 15:55
  So given that, given this is what it says, perhaps this question arose from some experience he may have had. I've heard it said that in Tang Dynasty China, dogs were not widely treated as preciously as they are now, and the dogs he may have encountered might have been mange infested or seen as dirty or pathetic, disgusting. Perhaps this monk saw a dog like that and maybe it was a heart of compassion, maybe it was disgust. What about this poor, disgusting creature? Does even this have Buddha nature?
• 16:49
  We could apply that same incredulity to the teaching when we read the news. Even these cruel beings inflicting pain, inflicting harm on other people, on children, did they have Buddha nature too? Really? Really? Does this teaching really hold up in the face of what we might be witnessing?
• 17:27
  Or maybe the monk was frustrated with himself, with his own practice, so unable to see that the teachings are describing this, we're all enlightened, everything has Buddha nature. Even me? Why can't I see it? Why can't I understand this? Maybe he felt as worthless as a dog.
• 18:01
  And then this suggests even more questions, this do I have Buddha nature? Well, who am I? And what is this? Those two, those are also koans. That is a koan.
• 18:16
  Who am I? What is this? I prefer what is this? This is what we call great doubt, great doubt. Doubt, it's not that kind of doubt that is the cynicism that we usually associate with doubt.
• 18:40
  Cynicism is a sense that, oh, I know and I'm not gonna be fooled. I know better and I'm not gonna be naive. That's cynicism. Or I'm gonna assume the worst. That kind of doubt, that is about thinking that we know and about being too cool for school, basically.
• 19:06
  But great doubt is something else completely couldn't be more different. Great doubt is a great not knowing. It's a deep and nearly obsessive curiosity, an all pervading curiosity and need to inquire. It's great inquiry, great questioning, a deep need to touch the mystery directly. Nothing else will be satisfying.
• 19:48
  No answer could be satisfying to this kind of curiosity. So when he's asked, does a dog have Buddha nature? How could Joshu say no? He's not providing an easy answer. He's not presenting himself as a teacher who knows.
• 20:19
  He's not even affirming the doctrine. I mean, the doctrine would say, why yes, everything has Buddha nature. What's he doing? Why is he saying no? In this moo, this moo points the question back to the monk, points the question, this living question, this living mystery back to the monk, gives it back to him.
• 21:00
  Isn't this kinder really than giving him some answer than saying yes? Isn't this a greater compassion to keep the question alive? The actual question, the real question? The living question. Zhou Shu is pointing to the formless, what we might call emptiness, beginninglessness, endlessness, and that which permeates everything.
• 21:44
  One line from the Precious Mirror Samadhi chant, so minute it enters where there is no gap, so vast it transcends all dimensions. To even say it is to limit it with our wish to contain it in a concept we can understand. So in the Koan collection that contains this koan number one, Joshu's moo. There's a commentary and verse by Wu Men who collected this group of koans, and Wu Men's verse reads, A dog, Buddha nature, the absolute truth is laid bare with a single moo. You annihilate being and non being.
• 22:53
  So when we practice with a Koan, there is often a story and exchange like this. And it's nice to know about and kinda learn about the context of these stories. Those are really it's it's it's enriching, because there's a lot of, a lot of footnotes in all these conversations and commentaries. There's a lot of richness in our family history. But then to practice with it, might break it down into just one word or one syllable.
• 23:28
  That's called a Hua To. The word or the word seed is repeated. The object of meditation is carried around every moment that we can, every moment of our awareness. The word or word seed is repeated. The object of meditation Breathed, seen, heard every object, every step, every action, every breath.
• 23:55
  Moo, moo, moo, moo, Everything. Everything is moo. Being moo, nothing but moo. The commentary translated by Eiken Roshi. This is just a piece of it.
• 24:52
  It goes like this. And this is how Wu Men is recommending that we practice with Mu. Make your whole body a mass of doubt. And as we have established, it's the great doubt. Make your whole body a mass of doubt.
• 25:12
  And with your three sixty bones and joints Don't think in terms of has or has not. Mu is not nothingness or somethingness. Fixed notions of nothing bar you from true intimacy. Has and has not, like self and other, arise with the concept of human skin as some kind of armor. Actually, your skin is as porous as the universe.
• 25:57
  It is like swallowing a red hot iron ball. You try to vomit it out, but can't. Sitting there big with Mu, letting Mu breathe Mu, you are completely caught up in your zazen. This is the red hot iron ball you can neither swallow nor spit out. The koans can be Complete, complete practice.
• 26:48
  Not even practice, just complete. Are koans required in Zen practice? Mu. They are not required. There are teachers, there are entire lineages that don't utilize these tools, and that is also true Dharma.
• 27:14
  Some people really take to Koan practice, and some people don't. That's okay. While there is a very specific way of working with koans, there is also a way that it can be said that life is a koan. Inevitably life will provide you with something that cannot be grasped. Something that cannot be solved with any of your usual tools.
• 27:47
  And so what will you do? Will you look more deeply? Will it open the door? Will you surrender more thoroughly? Dharma gates are boundless, I vow to enter them.
• 28:12
  That's one of our great Bodhisattva vows. We enter them with awareness of our life, moment by moment, breath by breath. Now. Now. Now.
• 28:31
  This intimacy. Just this. Shall we all try it together? We call this moo chanting. You might feel a little self conscious, but we could do it together.
• 28:56
  And it is way more satisfying when you just allow it to happen and not drive with the gas and the brake on at the same time. Let's just let's try it once. And what you do is just allow the syllable to be carried on your every out breath. And you breathe out all the way to the bottom of that out breath. And then just the in breath takes care of itself, and then you breathe out again, moo, as long as you can.
• 29:31
  Just let it all the way out. And we don't have to all be in the same breath. In fact, that's what makes it interesting is that we're all in different pace with our breath. You can just let your breath guide your practice. All of you on Zoom too, you're invited to Moo Chanting.
• 29:51
  And I'll just clap when we can stop. Chanting. What do you notice now? Just kind of check-in with what is happening. And to close, I'll just repeat that teaching from When you breathe in, breathe in the whole universe.
• 30:47
  When you breathe out, breathe out the whole universe. Breathing in and out, in and out, eventually you even forget about who is breathing what. There is no inside, no outside, no this, no that. Everything is altogether disappearing. So what is there?
• 31:12
  You can answer nothing. When you truly sit, you can also say everything. Thank you.
• 31:30
  Speaker 1: Thank you for listening to the Zen Community of Oregon podcast, and thank you for your practice. New episodes air every week. Please consider making a donation at zendust.org. Your support supports us.