Shōbōgenzō

So that's why Dogen didn't like this broken down into formulas.

But his, his Shobogenzo's music was just dancing this, just, with just expressing this.

So what are basically these two truths? Well, the absolute and the relative.

We're often lost, especially before we come to Buddhism and other spiritual practices like this, these non-dual practices.

Okay.

Anyway, we all sometimes go out of it.

Even Dogen, if you read Shobogenzo, especially the Sui Monki, where his student, uh, Eijo, was taking notes, Dogen got off on a...

And was having, I like to say, a bad hair day, if he had hair.

I want to start with Dogen Zenji.

He is the founder of Soto Zen, and he was alive in the 13th century, and he wrote a famous masterwork called the Shobo Genzo, and there's a fascicle in this work called Uji, which is also translated as being time, and I just love this passage, and I want to read it to you Yeah, kind of put it into your mind, see what you think.

So it goes, an old Buddha said, for the time being, I stand astride the highest mountain peak.

For the time being, I move on the deepest depths of the ocean floor.

Clarify and investigate these words.

Since studying and chanting fascicles from the Shobogenzo during the 2019 Everyday Zen Tassajara practice period, these instructions, which appear in several of Dogen's fascicles, routinely turn my mind like a wheel, reminding me over and over again, stop.

Investigate these words.

But when we study the Fukanza Zengi, Dogen says, don't fuel that investigation with the intellect.

I'll put up the breakout rooms, and I've got some questions.

Um, but before I put those out, I'm gonna read a couple quotes from, uh, Shinshu Roberts, um, that she wrote in her book, "Being Time." Uh, I've probably talked about this in some of my other talks, but if you're ever interested in Dogen's, Shobogenzo Uji, this is a phenomenal book to, to help guide you through it.

I just read it over and over again, um, bits, bits and pieces here.

But she says, "Dogen does not deny that we have a past and future, yet the true freedom of realization is the ability to be simultaneously independent while responding to this moment's totality." In this way, no previous obstacles or future desires that might hinder our skill response bind us.

way more than I could possibly get into, but Dōgen is the founder of Sōtōzen in Japan, which he inherited from the Chinese Chan tradition.

And so he wrote a very long piece called the Shōbōgenzō, which is sort of like his magnum opus, I guess is what they call it.

So like his big treaties.

And I guess historically speaking, the Shobo Genza wasn't really that prominent in Soto Zen tradition.

I've been leading a study group on being time.

It's a chapter or a fascicle in Dogen, a 13th century teacher, Shobo Genzo.

And I'm gonna start with a two minute meditation and then in the middle I'll do another two minute meditation.

Why don't you close your eyes for this? Let your spine be upright, feet planted on the floor, hands resting naturally in your lap.

So here's the opening quotes for Painting of a Rice Cake, which is a quote from Dogen.

There's a chapter in the Shobo Genzo, Gabyo, painting of a rice cake.

We'll see how this connects.

If you say a painting is not real, this is Dogen, then the material phenomenal world