Latest / Zen Community of Oregon Dharma Talks / Beyond Labels - Hogen Roshi

Transcript

Beyond Labels - Hogen Roshi · Zen Community of Oregon Dharma Talks

• 0:00
  jomon: Hello and welcome. This is the Zen Community of Oregon, making the teachings of the Buddhadharma accessible to support your practice. New episodes air every week.
• 0:23
  hogen: Good evening. We had a gigantic wedding this morning at the Great Vow, which is quite lovely. Colin and Mimi were successfully married, and we had a big reception afterwards, so we turned everything in the monastery over to them this morning, and there probably were 150 people maybe who were there. Was very nice, Including a lot of people who are regular here. We're continuing to do the work with the book The Art of Living by Thich Nhat Hanh.
• 0:56
  And The way that I've been doing this, of course, you can read the book yourself, so I don't really talk so much about what's actually in the book except the themes that the book is pointing to each time. You can take my talks as an elaboration of what's in the book itself. Now, the chapter that we're on is a chapter called signlessness. And what it's one of the kind of the three entrance gates to the dharma emptiness, signlessness, aimlessness, wishlessness. And by signlessness it means that we take things as we take the in our ordinary mind we take the signatures of things, we take the sign to things as being reality.
• 1:48
  So for example, he uses the image of an acorn. And if we think there's an acorn and that's all it is, just an acorn, that's what he means by the sign, the description, the momentary experience. But an acorn never stays as an acorn. If it's viable, it blossoms, it grows, it transforms. And so he's saying that the essence in a way of who we are can't be pinned down by any particular So one of the examples he gives in the book is a cloud.
• 2:27
  The clouds are constantly morphing, evolving from one seemingly solid look to a more ephemeral look to steam to moisture to humidity to rain to snow to water. That there's no thing which can be which is the essence of a cloud. And that of course is true about us. Now I think the better way of actually talking about this is categorical categorylessness. The way our culture works, way we have to work is we tend to put people and things into categories.
• 3:05
  We say I'm a 76 year old Caucasian guy who, you know, with certain kind of education, certain role and I'm called this or called that. But the categories that we are put in, the functional categories are not who we are. And so when we begin to see that the categorical nature of our life, slots that we have been culturally, the slots that we have been put into based upon our growth and our conditioning are not true. They're just temporary, temporary states. Thich Nhat Hanh is saying there is nothing that when we start pinning things down and saying, okay, this is the way it is, this is the way it is, this is what this is whether it be the administration, it be the environment, whether it be the nail in the road, everything is in process as we talked about previous times.
• 4:02
  That the categories that we tend to operate in are fluid. Now one of the nice things about about that is when we have more fluidity about it the the source of creativity is that we step outside of the categorical way of thinking. We step outside of this is who I am, this is the way I think things should be, this is the way red should go with blue, should go with lines, should go with this. And we begin to realize oh it's all in flux. That the categories which I had put myself in, the categories which society had put myself in, put me in are just expedient temporary states.
• 4:44
  Now we see that because we are practicing meditation and practicing meditation we first we feel the body, we experience the body, we experience the body with the body, nothing else. We can't do that. That's the foundation of mindfulness, the body with the body. And if we're actually in the body feeling it, we can't feel the shape that we normally think about ourselves being. You can try it right now.
• 5:12
  You put your attention in your whole body, in your knees, in your toes, in the cuticles on your hands, in your back, in your pelvis, in your nose, in the nostrils, in your eyes, in your hair, in your chin, in the sensation of skin and flesh, the tingling. You can't feel it all and if you do that you will realize it's shapeless. The bigger our view is the more we appreciate the shapeless nature. Another way of doing that, close your eyes right now, you feel your body, and you say, Can I feel an edge where my body is no longer? You can think it of course thinking you know there's a wall over there, that's a thought.
• 6:08
  But can I experience a place where my body is not? And when we recognize that there is no way we can experience something outside of this experience we begin to enter the boundless. Through this body, the boundless, the shapeless, the formless, the signs that Thich Nhat Hanh talks about, the categories that culture puts us in, are all about past and future. So part of our meditation practice is can we bring ourselves in to the boundless creative moment right here and feel the tingling life energy which has the potential to manifest in all kinds of ways and has a function. Thich Nhat Hanh keeps saying, Okay, signlessness, signlessness, signlessness.
• 7:10
  Who we think we are is only a temporary construct. That's not our true essence. So then we think, okay, I'm inadequate, I'm incomplete, I'm informed. You know, well, you know, those have a temporary nature but our true essence is not inadequate. It's not our true essence is not broken.
• 7:32
  Our true essence is not good, bad, indifferent. Our true essence is something that is more fundamental than any category we can put ourselves in, than any sign that we take as ours. Now the thing that we've talked about a few times with this is when we begin to realize, oh everything is changing. The person I was last year is not the person I am right now. My thoughts are different, my body sensations are different, my situation is different, different people around me, the light is different, the weather is different.
• 8:12
  When we begin to recognize that the people that we used to be are no longer the people we are right now. The ten, eleven, 121314202535, in some cases the 75 year old that we used to be, is not here. It's not here. We're an entirely creative person. Creative in that we have a certain karmic direction but there is fluidity and it's in that fluidity that we have the ability to change, to evolve, to become wiser.
• 8:52
  That fluidity we have the ability to be creative, to bring something new in the world. When we're looking at it's a different talk but we look at complexity. The world is really complex. There's just a million infinite people and you drive down the road and everybody is in a different world. Know we somehow drive down the road we think all those people and all those cars are somehow like I am, but really they're people who are every state of mind.
• 9:26
  When we begin to touch and recognize the fluidity, the boundless nature of things, we realize, Oh, at any moment I can encounter something completely unexpected, something new, somebody I've never touched before, some piece of art I've never seen before, some new sound, some new sight. The universe is inherently creative. And so the direct experience of I'm resting right here in this body mind watching it being moved, it tingling, it thought come, go, and we realize it's inherently creative. Now our version of creativity is different of course, know, we all have different lives. You know, my version of creativity is not painting.
• 10:20
  Other people's versions of creativity might have to do with parenting, might have to do with teaching, have to do with woodworking, might have to do with plumbing. You know, you never know what kind of creativity we have. We have creativity in our own life with our particular karma. So this particular teaching says that when we are paying real close attention right here, right now, We're not stuck. We have the ability to respond to our world in creative ways.
• 10:52
  We don't have to feel like that the particular slot that we have been placed in our culture, we are limited by. Signlessness. Now, it's not as though we can ignore the particular karmic conditioning that we have. Have to wear the right size clothing, have to wear the right size shoes, we each know where our house is, we hope we all know who our partners are if we have them. But to know that it is fluid.
• 11:29
  It is fluid. So we did a wedding ceremony this morning, and the people who got engaged were not the people who got married, and the people who got married this morning are not the people they'll be next year. And so what is the common denominator in a signless, fluid, spacious world? What keeps us having integrity? If everything is fluid and relative, what keeps us in having integrity?
• 11:58
  And that's where when we have a glimpse of the oneness of things, we have a glimpse of the boundlessness of things, we have a glimpse of we are not separate, then we realize, oh, that that inclusive mind has the fundamental nature of compassion. And the fundamental nature of compassion is integrity. And the fundamental nature of integrity is that we are reliable and dependable according to our particular vows that come from the inside. So, signlessness, creativity, lack of being categorized, flexibility, appreciation, loving kindness, all wrapped up. And it's all directly perceptible in this moment right here, right now.
• 12:59
  And so the basic tool that we have, the only tool that we actually have, is awareness. There is no other tool. You know we think, okay, can have these thoughts, I can have good thoughts, I can have bad thoughts, I can have all kinds of thoughts. Thoughts come and go, but we can have awareness is that which can penetrate through conditioning. Awareness is that which can penetrate through the limitations of who we think we are.
• 13:24
  Awareness. And part of the reason that we come here is to sit down, have a few minutes of calm, quiet, let go of the entanglement with the world, have the mind rest so that we can practice awareness. What is it that's right here? And then after we refine that awareness we can take it everywhere. What is it?
• 13:49
  Right here. It's tingling alive, unstructured, it's moving. And then our life becomes a creative engagement. Sometimes Sometimes vulnerable, sometimes strong, sometimes moving forward, sometimes moving back. That's my version of the essence of signlessness.
• 14:15
  Now if you read Thich Nhat Hanh, he'll say the same thing totally different ways. The other piece, for those of you who've been to talks, you you can just keep talking and talking and talking about this stuff. But to actually get down and say, I want to practice and know it for myself. I want to stop. I want to look.
• 14:50
  I want to recognize. I want to function from that deep recognition. That's the whole point of this conversation. So may each of you take this shotgun smattering of dharma teachings and really make them your own, make them alive, recognize them, find liberation, help others.
• 15:28
  jomon: 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.