Keizan

Like, [laughs] our, our conscious effort can include the fact that everything is fine just as it is, and our sense of everything is fine just as it is can include our effort and our vows, bodhisattva vows.

So I am going to share some apparently contradictory passages from two of our main Zen ancestors, Dogen and Keizan, and then we can discuss vow and intention and pass- passion for practice, motivation, that kind of stuff.

So, uh, if any of you are m- members, you, you own a little chant book, or you will soon.

And this, both of these passages are in your chant book.

I don't do anything.

I'm just gonna kick back." So I don't think that's necessarily an answer to your question, but that's been the thing that's been top of mind for me over these last, uh, at least these past couple months or so.

I think there's another piece in Kaizen where he says something like, and somebody could grab a chant book and look.

It's like, it takes effort but not the usual effort.

But basically a group of 15 of us from the Sangha went in late May for Dave's Zuisei ceremonies at Sojiji and Eheiji, which are Zen's head temples in Japan.

So Gigi was Keizan's temple.

Eheju was Dogen's temple.

I mean, these are places like incredible historical significance.

And then I'm gonna be talking tonight about my teachers, Kyogen and Gyokuko Carlson, who went to Shasta Abbey and trained with Roshi Kennett, and then kind of their, their Dharma story.

So, uh, and just if you're curious later on in this series, you know, gonna cover history, but then essentially we're gonna be talking about, you know, the, the fundamentals of our lineage, what characterizes our lineage, fundamental teachings and, um, you know, our foundational like Dogen and Keizan, and things like that.

So I will play a few moments.

Yeah.

You know, I love that topic a lot actually because whenever we read, uh...

There's a, there's a book in Zen that we, well, ostensibly are supposed to study, that some of us are nerdy enough to get into called the Denkoroku, and it was written by Master Keizan Zenji, who was the founder of Sojiji, the mon- the second of the head monasteries of this tradition.

Uh, he was credited with basically making Sotoshu get really big a few generations after Master Dogen.

Although he was, I believe, ordained by Master Dogen when he was very young, uh, he came into his own as a master, uh, a little bit after Master Dogen passed away.

And, uh, Keizan Zenji put together this story of, well, you know, as a religious institution, we consider it, uh, historical, b- but I, I do have some reasonable doubts of the historicity of the document.

But it's, it chronicles the transmission of the Dharma from teacher to student, uh, beginning from, uh, Shakyamuni Buddha to Mahakasyapa, and then Mahakasyapa to Ananda, and so forth and so on, all the way up until, uh, the transmission of the Dharma unto Master Dogen.

And I th- I, I'm gonna have to admit that I haven't read as far as...

I don't know if the story of how Keizan got the Dharma is written in there, but it might be.

The following Dharma talk was given at Boundless Way Zen Temple in Worcester, Massachusetts.

So earlier tonight we read together a selection from a Japanese Soto teacher, Keizan Jokin, probably the most important Soto Zen teacher after Dogen.

who was the teacher of his teacher.

And this was from a text that's called Zazen Yojinki, which translates into something like notes on the practice of zazen.

And we're restoring as much as we can in many of these cases.

And this is one of them, these selections from Zaza and Yojinki.

And I thought I would share with you what this part of the reading that we did tonight will sound like now in its version that's much, much closer to Keizan Jokin's original language, translated, of course, into English.

So arising from stillness, carry out activities without hesitation.

I recently read a little poem, I think it was in Kohozenji's biography, that illustrated this.

A lovely poem of, actually of great master Keizan.

Apparently he lived in a temple, the same temple that Kohozenji was the abbot of for many years.

Composed in appreciation of the beauty of the area, This was Japan's Noto Peninsula.

So, so I, I do believe that shortly after, uh, Dogen's death, uh, that it was, it became solidified probably in the, in the next, uh, one or two generations that this Soto sect was labeled.

Now, we also have at that time the, um, development of the other branch by, uh, Keizan, and in order to... uh, that was in the early 1300s, in order to connect the two branches, Keizan's temple, Sojiji, and, and Dogen's temple, Eihei-ji, and say, "Hey, these two branches are one, are one lineage," uh, there had to be a common name, a common theme.

So th- that's my brief answer.

Thank you.

And there's not much mentioned that I've seen from Dogen's own account of that experience.

He expresses that it was very sad, and he has some kind words for Myozen.

But I'm wondering if you've seen anywhere else a connection between the state of mind that he might have been in given those circumstances and his own, you know, diving so deeply into practice under Ryujing and then his subsequent awakening, which we presume happened- At some level, whether it happened exactly as Keizan Zenji said or not.

Right, right.

So we're not quite sure what Dogen wore.

And there have been several attempts in the history of Soto Zen in Japan to figure this out by very close examination of texts or staring for a long time at old statues and paintings and trying to figure out, oh, did they have it like that or like that? And one of these investigations led to a huge fight in the 1800s between the two main temples of the Sōtō school in Japan, which is Eiheiji, that was founded by Dōgen, and Sojiji, which was founded by Keizan.

And they got very intensely angry with each other for a very long time about two main things.

The first one was whether you should fasten your ropes with a ring or with a tie.

You are the officiant.

In a sense, you are taking the place of Dogen Zenji at Eheji, and then you go to Sojiji and do the same thing there, and there you are, in a sense, taking the place of Keizan Zenji, who are considered the two founders.

Keizan Zenji was a few generations after Dogen, but really was instrumental in establishing Soto Zen and spreading Soto Zen in Japan.

Anyway, when I was at Eheiji, the first time I was there, when you're the abbot for the day, when you're doing Zuisei, basically, you're just led around.

In other words, you're just... you're completely caught within the process.