Words And Phrases

Amongst our visitors from Tassajara this week is the tanto, and my predecessor as ino, Greg. Not content to swan around on vacation, he gave the talk last night, based around Dogen's fascicle on 'All-inclusive Study', 'Henzan', and the story of the exchange between Huineng and Nanyue. This is a great one to chew on, as Nanyue did himself for eight years. In the new translation of the Shobogenzo, Nanyue says, after he has come to his realisation, 'Speaking about it won't hit the mark'.
This morning in service we chanted the Song of the Jewel Mirror Samadhi for the first time in a couple of months, our Thursdays having been given over to the memorial services for David. When we got to the line, 'Although it is not fabricated, it is not without speech', I actually stopped chanting and tried to think how that line and Nanyue's line meet each other. Give me eight years and I will perhaps come up with an answer.
Over breakfast we were discussing this. Renee liked that Greg highlighted the line from the Full Moon Ceremony, 'To expound the dharma with this body is foremost', which as regular readers will know, I am partial to myself, and which, as I don't think I have mentioned, Lou had on the back of his rakusu. "How else are you going to do it?" I chipped in, "To expound the dharma with this iPad?" Gretchen said she had some friends who might advocate for Second Life at this juncture, and we started riffing about the qualities of virtual zazen, since I understand there is a zendo in Second Life - it is undoubtedly less painful, and perhaps less of a time commitment. Nonetheless, I think we mostly tend to think around here that it's better to focus on this first life. "I feel a blog post coming on", I said. "Is that like feeling the flu coming on?" Gretchen wondered. "It's more like feeling a poem coming on, or a painting", replied Greg. Thanks Greg. I promise to put your talks online soon.

Study Hall

Having reached the end of the first volume of the Shobogenzo, I thought I would take a little break and read something else. There was something particular I have been wanting to read as well, Talks on Yoka Daishi's "Song of Realization" by Sekkei Harada Roshi. I have been interested in Yoka Daishi, or Yongjia, since I first started reading about Buddhism, and particularly his famous exchange with Daikan Eno, or Hui-neng, which I first encountered in this book, where many koan stories are brought to life.
Over the years, I have noticed that nobody here ever talks about the Shodoka, or the Song of Realization, so when I found references to it in Deshimaru's writings, or Nyogen Senzaki's, I was always curious to find out more. I even offered a class on it at Tassajara one summer, when students are given the opportunity to do such a thing, compensating for my lack of understanding with my enthusiasm for the subject. None of the translations I have found have completely satisfied, but this one and this one are the most popular.
I had never heard of Sekkei Harada's commentary on the work, but discovered this small anonymous-looking booklet in Jerome's effects, and asked if I could read it. I have enjoyed reading The Essence of Zen several times, as well as having attended study classes on it with Daigaku, who speaks of his master in the highest terms, and right off the bat, these teishos are deeply inspiring:
"Of the religions of the world we can say that many or even most are comprised of seams or knots which connect the separation between Man and God, Man and Buddha or between Man and Nature. In truth there is no such borderline, and I would like you to realize that there is no reason such a division should exist. The ego/self has created distance between self and other things and then purposely joined them together again. Consequently if the ego/self is forgotten, one becomes the origin, becomes all things. This is an unmistakable fact".

Sudden Enlightenment

We had just started chanting the Self-receiving and -employing Samadhi at today's noon service when the doorbell rang. The ever diligent work leader went to get the door, and I could see the UPS man coming in with a cart-load of packages. I suddenly thought of the story of Hui-Neng: having lost his father at an early age, the future patriarch was unable to go to school, but instead supported his mother by selling firewood. He happened to hear a monk reciting from the Diamond Sutra - 'abiding nowhere, let the mind shine through' is the version of the line I have in my head - and was suddenly enlightened. He went off to seek the fifth patriarch on the recommendation of that monk. I wondered if the UPS man might hear a line from our chant - we had just reached 'when even for a moment you express the Buddha's seal in the three actions by sitting upright in samadhi, the whole phenomenal world becomes the Buddha's seal and the entire sky turns into enlightenment' - and be greatly awakened. From where I was standing, I couldn't say for sure, but I would like to think it could have happened.

Dana Paramita

One of the announcements I am expected to make after the Saturday talk is a request for donations. This is always a tricky one. I try not to be too repetitive, but I tend to use phrases that I have heard former inos use.  One ino used to ask other people to make this request, a different person each week as I remember, which is a good way to keep it fresh. If the speaker has made a reference to generosity, or dana paramita, the perfection of giving, then that can be a good springboard. Linda Ruth talked recently about how the pleasure centre of the brain is activated in similar ways by three activities, giving, eating and sex, and I was tempted to follow that by saying, well, we can take care of the first two for you with our donation box and lunch, but the sex you will have to take care of for yourself - but I wasn't in a bold mood that day so I didn't.
In my re-reading of the Platform Sutra, I was struck by a line of Hui-neng's in response to questions from Governor Wei. The governor was asking about the famous exchange between Bodhidharma and Emperor Wu, in particular the idea of accruing merit by doing good deeds. In his verse at the end of the chapter, Hui-neng declares 'Attaining the way does not come from donating money'. I have been tempted to quote this, but I think it would be a little off-putting, and I am reminded of the famous speech given by Katagiri Roshi to a room full of donors, which he began by reminding them 'you're all going to die'.
As we are currently focusing on the Bodhisattva path,the words of the Diamond Sutra also hold good in this regard: 'Moreover, Subhuti, a Bodhisattva who gives a gift should not be supported by a thing, nor should he be supported anywhere...For, Subhuti, the Bodhisattva, the great being should give gifts in such a way that she is not supported by the notion of a sign. And why? Because the heap of merit of that Bodhi-being, who unsupported gives a gift, is not easy to measure'. In other words, we should give without expectation of result or reward. This is the perfection of giving. Now I just need to find a way to distill all of that into about thirty seconds of talking.

Study Hall

I have just finished reading the 'Sutra of Hui-Neng', sometimes referred to as the 'Platform Sutra', and am working through his commentary on the 'Diamond Sutra', which is included in Thomas Cleary's translation. It is a work I have read two or three times before, and has many familiar and well-loved stories in it. These days scholars tend to discount the possibility that the Sixth Ancestor actually had anything to do with it - I was going to say wrote it, but he was famously illiterate - and that the whole thing was a propaganda exercise by his followers two or three generations later.
A few years ago, I was able to do one of Shohaku Okamura's Genzo-e sesshins here at City Center, and while the focus of the sesshin is studying Dogen and the Shobogenzo, Shohaku's breadth of knowledge means that he often draws in other subjects. I remember he was talking about how lineage was very important in Chinese culture, especially at the time referred to as the golden age of zen in the generations after Hui-neng; in fact, he said, the idea of having an authentically transmitted lineage was too important for them not to make one up. But does that make what is communicated in the sutra any less valid?
One of the stories I like most in the sutra concerns Yung-chia; the exchange between him and Hui-neng is perhaps my favourite dharma combat, although I have never found a translation of it that I feel really brings out the whole flavour of the exchange in clear language. I really wouldn't claim to understand it, although I did  try to present it during a class I did at Tassajara a few summers ago, where I spoke about Yung-chia's 'Song of Enlightenment', which I had been coming across in a few different books and anthologies, but which seemed to have been somewhat neglected, certainly within Zen Center.
This time I enjoyed the story of Fa-ta, who had recited the Lotus Sutra 'as many as three thousand times already', but whose head did not touch the ground when he bowed. Hui-neng admonished him: 'If you just laboriously keep reciting and consider that an accomplishment, how is that different from a yak admiring its tail?' Fa-ta said 'Does that mean I shouldn't bother to recite the sutra, as long as I can understand the meaning?' The Master said 'What's wrong with the sutra? How can it obstruct your mindfulness? It's just that delusion and enlightenment are in the individual; gain and loss depend on oneself. If you recite it and also act on it mentally, then you are reading the sutra; if you recite it but don't practise it mentally, then you are being read by the sutra.'