A Small Fish

When I went to a new school at the age of almost thirteen the head master talked to the new boys saying "In your last school, you may have been a big fish in a small pond, or a big fish in a big pond, but now, you are a small fish in a big pond". I was thinking of this when I came across the Blogisattvas directory; I don't imagine that anyone has nominated me for this award, and I would be embarrassed if someone has (to the point of delaying posting about it until the nominations had closed), but seeing the extent of the directory was a good exercise in reminding myself that there is nothing special going on here.
So if you are getting bored of reading this, there are undoubtedly many fine blogs to be read out there. And while sitting here waiting for the rain to abate - since it is only raining on weekends at the moment and my bike riding is suffering from it - here is an a-propos and excellent entry I found, which touches a few tender spots in my own blog-life - thanks John.

Study Hall - Shobogenzo

Sometimes wrestling with Dogen taxes the brain, and I suspect that is how he wanted it. Selecting a few phrases from these latest fascicles is not to imply that I have penetrated them in any way, but that they are things that may allow some clarity.
After 'Receiving the Marrow by Bowing', and its call to find a teacher regardless of gender or status, the next fascicle 'Valley Sounds, Mountain Streams', also one of the better known in the collection, instructs us to find the dharma in everything around us. Dogen uses three famous enlightenment poems of Chinese masters - layman Dongpo, whose poem provides the title of the fascicle, Xiangyan who heard a pebble striking bamboo, and Lingyun who was enlightened through seeing peach blossoms - and uses them to exhort us to pay attention to everything with way-seeking mind: "To hear with the ear is an everyday matter, but to hear with the eye is not always so. When you see buddha, you see self-buddha, other buddha, a large buddha, a small buddha. Do not be frightened by a large buddha. Do not be put off by a small buddha. Just see large and small buddhas as valley sounds and mountain colors, as a broad, long tongue, and as eighty-four thousand verses. This is liberation, this is outstanding seeing".
The following fascicle 'Refrain from Unwholesome Action', 'Shoaku Makusa', gives us examples of Dogen's playing with words and phrases; taking as his starting point the verse
"Refrain from unwholesome action.
Do wholesome action.
Purify your own mind.
This is the teaching of all buddhas"
he ends up riffing:  "Purify your own mind. This means that you refrain from. Purify through refrain from. You that is your own. You that is mind. Your own that refrains from. Mind that refrains from. Mind that does. Purify through do. Your own do. You do. This is the teaching of all buddhas". Okay then.
This following phrase may help untangle this: "When you arouse your entire mind and let it practice, and when you arouse your entire body and let it practice, eight or nine out of ten are accomplished before questioning, and refrain from unwholesome action is actualized after knowing". Or it may not, but I like the idea of letting the mind and body practise, without trying to interfere so much by striving to understand.

As the World Turns

Seeing this picture of mine in Sangha-e this week reminded me how the sun sinks in the sky once we get past the Equinox - it is something that everyone who goes to eat lunch in the City Center courtyard remarks on at this time of year. This photo is from the 21st of September, but if I had taken the same photo today, the entire scene would have been in shadow, as the sun is cut off by the roof line and only shines onto the walls of the dining room now. I think Dogen would call this 'wondrous function'.

Sympathetic Joy

As I have said before, I am not much of a baseball fan, but I liked the idea of being at a ticker tape parade, and since our weekly senior staff meeting ended early, the tanto and I walked down towards Civic Center to see the Giants parade. For all I know he may still be there; the helicopters and advertising planes are still circling overhead. I felt I should come back for noon service, so I didn't see them arrive in the Plaza, but the crowds were already huge. There were numerous TV crews, a drum circle, some big motorbikes, and despite Prop.19 not passing, a fair amount of marijuana smoke in the air ("Don't they know it didn't pass?" - "Well, maybe they don't yet"...). All told though, the last time I was in a crowd this large and this good-humoured was during Gay Pride, another great San Francisco get-together.

I gave my pictures to Caren, who didn't get to go, and may be posting them on her blog. She added the following caveat:  "If, for some reason, you mention me in your blog, (which I don’t expect you to), please note that I am a diehard Red Sox fan, that all of my loyalties are to the Red Sox, but I have gained respect and admiration for the giants. A girl has to have her pride, right?  ( ;"

Skies

The weather is quite wonderful this week, and being the last week before the clocks go back, we have late sunrises. Here is the view from the roof after breakfast; if you look closely at the first picture, you can also see the moon rising.

Study Hall - Shobogenzo

'Receiving the Marrow by Bowing' ('Raihai Tokuzui') is a rightly well-known fascicle. Dogen begins by talking about the necessity and value of having on authentic teacher, the meaning of the title being that if you are ready to bow to an authentic teacher, you will be in a position to receive the true teaching. He points to the need not to be stuck in heirarchies of age or position - quoting Zhaozhou, who famously said "I will ask about dharma of anyone who surpasses me, even a seven-year-old. I will teach anyone who is behind me, even a one-hundred-year-old.
The fascicle is well-known because Dogen takes this premise, and, again quoting stories from China, uses it to promote the equality of the sexes in the realm of practice:
"One who has attained dharma is a true authentic buddha and should not be regarded as the same as before. When we see the person, someone who is new and extraordinary sees us. When we see the person, today sees today...Why are men special? Emptiness is emptiness. Four great elements are four great elements. Five skandhas are five skandhas. Women are just like that. Both men and women attain the way. You should honor attainment of the way. Do not discriminate between men and women. This is the most wondrous principle of the way...
Those who are extremely stupid think that women are merely the objects of sexual desire and treat women in this way. The Buddha's children should not be like this. If we discriminate against women because we see them merely as objects of sexual desire, do we also discriminate against all men for the same reason?...
When you see an object, learn to clarify it. Being scared of it and only trying to avoid it is the teaching and practice of shravakas in the Lesser Vehicle. If you give up in the east and hide in the west, it is not that there is no object in the west. Even if you keep escaping, there are objects afar and objects nearby. This is not the way of emancipation. The farther away you push objects, the deeper you may be attached to them".
It is only unfortunate that this appears so radical to us today because we haven't really made so much progress in this realm in the last seven hundred years.

A Bit Parky?

Obviously the weather in Japan is more predictable than it is here. While looking in the "Gyoji Kihan" for an answer to Dennis' question about the correct traditional placement of doors to the zendo, I found the instructions for today's date:

— November 1 —


Section Three: Opening Braziers [206]


This day is time for opening braziers in sangha hall and various quarters.
From this day on, according to customary ritual procedure monks of assembly
may cover their folded hands with their sleeves.

I remember Linda Ruth referring to a seasonal covering of the hands while we were at Tassajara, where it is nice to be able to do so. Today in San Francisco it is around 70 degrees on the roof, and I don't think the braziers need to be opened.

PS My informant tells me that they have just turned on the heat in the Tassajara zendo, so I suspect Kathy is following the observances.

Study Hall - Shobogenzo

I didn't get much more clarity on 'The Mind Itself Is Buddha' re-reading it this morning, but the next two fascicles in the book are more accessible - 'Cleansing' ('Senjo') and 'Washing The Face' ('Semmen'). It is easy to imagine Dogen preaching these to the assembly as a way of getting his slovenly young followers to take care of themselves correctly, but of course he does not just deal with the forms around going to the toilet and washing on a mundane level. While the level of detail might seem excessive, he makes use of precedents in sutras and older guidelines to underline the importance of treating each activity as practice activity: "In the practice of buddha ancestors, there is always the awesome practice of this cleansing...Those who hear little think that buddhas don't have a procedure for the wash house or that the procedure for buddhas in the Saha World is different from that of Buddhas in the pure land. This is not the study of the way...Thus, be aware that all buddhas use a wash house".
Similarly, for washing the face and cleaning the teeth: "If someone asks you, 'what is the essential matter?' say 'I have fortunately met Old Man Eihei chewing a willow twig'". Dogen goes on to lament the use of new-fangled brushes in China when he was there: "So, monks and laypeople in Great Song China have bad breath. When they speak, their breath can be smelled two or three shaku away, which is hard to bear. Those who call themselves reverend teachers who have attained the way, or guiding masters of humans and devas, are not aware of the way to rinse the mouth, scrape the tongue, and chew a willow twig. The decline of the great way of buddha ancestors is beyond measure...How much of the pure dharma has perished before us? It is regrettable, truly regrettable".