Myoki Raizelah offers a reflection on Eihei Dogen's Genjo Koan during this sixth session of her shuso's class, Discovering Your Genjo Koan. This class was offered in support of the community's Winter Practice Period.
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Myoki Raizelah's talk notes:
I want to start with a confession. I have been so nervous. My nervousness has been growing as the weeks go by. Sitting with it and inquiring, “What am I nervous about?” Exposing myself. Being myself - fully. I have felt quite vulnerable as Shuso - sharing about my history, my personal life, my struggles, my growth, my practice. But actually, what I feel most vulnerable about sharing is my joy and my wonder.
Sharing this exploration with you has been an absolute joy. And a complete wonder. Wow. All the causes and conditions that made it possible for us to come together, to access these words offered by Dogen like 700 years ago (in Japanese!), for us to practice together as human beings - as human beings. That we all inhabit these human bodies is, in itself, a wonder.
These human bodies are such a miracle. I’m a bodyworker, you know - I am fascinated by bodies. The complexity of our organ systems, the mystery of the brain’s workings, and that somehow the body knows what to do all on its own. It has its own innate wisdom. The heart knows how to beat; the lungs know to breath; the stomach knows to secrete digestive enzymes; and the large intestine knows to eliminate waste. Wow. And if we are lucky, it works together like a beautiful symphony performance. In synchrony, the body naturally moves toward homeostasis.
So - what does it mean to fully inhabit these miraculous bodies? What is it to be embodied? This practice we share is a body practice. Zazen is a body practice. What is it to fully show-up in these human bodies? To fully show up in our lives? This is the Genjo Koan.
For me, to fully show up with you this evening means sharing my joy and wonder. I have been holding it back. Feeling sheepish or shy about really letting it spill. My passion for this life, this practice, this shared exploration.
Ragir p.111 “Dogen can be relied upon to try to trick our brain through his semantics and the changing of syntax…In showing all the angles and contradicting all the opposites, he dismantles our notions of solidity, independent identity and linear time. He encourages us to open our minds beyond our concepts and fixed views, and experience just this moment as it is realized.”
Dogen’s writing - with apparent contradictions, paradoxes and expression of opposites frustrates many people. But this is what I love about Dogen. He forces us to go beyond our conceptual or conditioned way of thinking. He is asking us to “leap clear.”
What a gift. He is giving us the opportunity to move beyond what we believe we know, and what we take to be true - to “let body and mind drop away” - our conditioned beliefs, our identities, our clinging to our separate selves. Dogen encourages us to let it go.
And really what else is there? If we were all content with our conditioned natures, we probably wouldn’t be here. Would you? Maybe it was your suffering and confusion that brought you to practice. Maybe there was a yearning. Maybe some part of you knew that there was more. The vast open skies. The spaciousness of being. The “height and depth of the moonlight” reflected in the dewdrop of your being.
This is the miracle. There are no boundaries to our being. That is what boundlessness literally means: boundaryless-ness. This vast interconnected web of life is endless. Every wave in the ocean has a ripple effect and touches us, touches our lives. Wow.
We hold so strongly (and I include myself in this) to our identity with this separate “skin bag” (to quote Shirtou). And we need this skin bag! It holds all our organs, systems and body parts together - so they can work together and in synchrony. We need these bodies. And we are not just these bodies.
Here is another quote from Judith Ragir (p. 103) “One of Zen’s traditional images is the Bodhisattva covered in mud. Because an enlightened person has to and does live in the world of form and samsara, we can not help but be covered in mud. From a non-dualistic point of view, mud and cleanliness (purity) interact and are different sides of the same moment. A misunderstanding of Zen practice is to aspire to live in the pristine, transcendent world of enlightenment that is separate from delusion. The teaching of Dogen is the counterpoint to this misunderstanding.”
Dogen is saying that the muddy waters of the form and samsara (delusion and suffering) are the waters we wake-up in. There is no separation between the Boddhisatva covered in mud and the enlightened jewel hidden by the mud. We are given these human forms and these crazy lives to wake-up in. Right here.
There is no enlightenment over there. There is nowhere to go, no place to get to in practice. Penetrate this moment. Actualize this moment. As Dogen writes in the Genjo Koan:
When you find your way at this moment, practice occurs, actualizing the fundamental point.
Thank you, Dogen.
And…Dogen says this in many different ways in the Genjo Koan, in order for us to understand his point. Maybe you relate more to his discussion of firewood and ash; while others relate more to his metaphor of the moon in the dewdrop. Tonight, we are going to explore the section about fish in water and birds in the sky.
A fish swims in the ocean, and no matter how far it swims there is no end to the water. A bird flies in the sky, and no matter how far it flies there is no end to the air. However, the fish and the bird have never left their elements. When their activity is large their field is large. When their need is small their field is small. Thus, each of them totally covers its full range, and each of them totally experiences its realm. If the bird leaves the air it will die at once. If the fish leaves the water it will die at once.
Know that water is life and air is life. The bird is life and the fish is life. Life must be the bird and life must be the fish.
It is possible to illustrate this with more analogies. Practice, enlightenment, and people are like this.
Now if a bird or a fish tries to reach the end of its element before moving in it, this bird or this fish will not find its way or its place. When you find your place where you are, practice occurs, actualizing the fundamental point. When you find your way at this moment, practice occurs, actualizing the fundamental point; for the place, the way, is neither large nor small, neither yours nor others'. The place, the way, has not carried over from the past and it is not merely arising now.
Even though Dogen never mentions the word Zazen in Genjo Koan (which is interesting in itself), it is clear that this section of Genjo Koan and analogy of the fish swimming and the bird flying is about Zazen. The water and the sky are boundless, limitless. And there is no separation between the fish, the activity of the fish (swimming), and the water; just as there is no separation between the bird, the activity of the bird (flying), and the sky.
Likewise, there is no distinction between Zazen, or our activities in the world, and the boundlessness of the water or the sky.
Like the bird and the fish, we are living in the vastness of the ocean and the sky. Also like the bird and the fish, we are living as individuals within the boundless reality - and so we need to practice. Dogen writes, “It is possible to illustrate this with more analogies. Practice, enlightenment, and people are like this.” Because we are both the boundless skies/ocean and the individual fish or bird, we must continue to make an effort with practice. This brings us back to the very first line of the Genjo Koan “As all things are buddha-dharma, there is delusion and realization, practice, birth and death, and there are buddhas and sentient beings.” Dogen subtly slips the word “practice” in this line about duality. Because we identify with this dualistic view, we must practice.
As Uchiyama says p.166 “The integration of totality and individuality is the way we actually live and the reason we must practice. Although the boundless moonlight is reflected in each drop of water, we must still care for the drop.”
How do you care for your individual drop?
In another fascicle of the Shobogenzo called “Bendowa,” Dogen writes “Although this inconceivable dharma is abundant in each person, it is not actualized without practice...”
I was struck by a story that Andrea Thach told us at Sunday morning’s Zen Alive program. She witnessed a Grizzly Bear fishing for salmon, during a trip she took to Alaska. She described the Bear fishing as totally and completely being a bear. Just as a fish swimming is totally and completely being a fish while doing the activity of a fish. And a bird flying is totally and completely being a bird doing a bird’s activity. The bear was totally and completely being a bear doing the activity of bear: fishing for salmon.
How do you totally and completely express your human-ness in your daily human activity? Your human-ness, of course, includes both your “skin bag” self and your spacious nature. How do you “actualize the fundamental point” through your activity? Andrea suggests that we actualize the fundamental point through just this - the authentic expression of our humanness (like the bear being its authentic bear nature).
Repeating question (8 min each): What would be an authentic expression of yourself right now?
Next section: Now if a bird or a fish tries to reach the end of its element before moving in it, this bird or this fish will not find its way or its place. When you find your place where you are, practice occurs, actualizing the fundamental point. When you find your way at this moment, practice occurs, actualizing the fundamental point…
Here we are again - in this repeated theme of the Genjo Koan.
This is exactly what Genjo means to me. To show up fully. To inhabit this moment with your entire heart, mind and body. Gen is translated as “to appear or to show-up,” referring to something that is unseen that can now be seen (such as the sun appearing from behind a cloud). Jo means “to complete.”To me, Genjo means to completely show-up. Dare to be authentic.
In Okumura’s commentary p. 178 “When we sit upright in zazen, eyes open breathing consciously, letting go of thoughts, we in a sense negate our individual, limited, karmic selves and become one with the vast network of interdependent origination. Dropping our conceptualized views, we actualize reality and settle into our true selves (boundless). When we sit in this way, we can not say “I am one with the universe actualizing the true self beyond space and time.” If we think that, we are caught by conceptual dualism. We are thinking about it, rather than actualizing it. So, our practice is to just sit wholeheartedly moment by moment. And yet in this simple sitting practice, we go beyond our limited individuality as we actualize the Buddha Way.”
But, for me, Zazen doesn’t just happen on the cushion. Yes, Zen is about sitting down on the cushion. But it’s also about getting up off the cushion. An old friend once said to me (after years of practice), “It’s time to bring my cushion into my life.” This “place” and this “path” where we actualize the fundamental point can be found not just on the cushion, but where you pick your kids up from school, when you’re in a work meeting, or while washing your dishes. This “place” and this “path” is about actualizing the Moon in the dewdrop (to revisit last week’s metaphor). It’s each bird in the endless sky; each fish in the vast ocean. Okumura says, “… in this simple sitting practice, we go beyond our limited individuality as we actualize the Buddha Way.” But Genjo Koan is more than that. I might say, in our daily activity we go beyond our limited individuality as we actualize the Buddha Way. Zazen is included in our daily activity.
Discussion: How do you bring your Zazen practice into your daily activity? I’m not talking about bringing your cushion with you in the literal sense, but metaphorically. Another way of saying it - how do you connect with Zazen body when your washing the dishes, folding the laundry, or in a work meeting? What helps you to show up completely in your daily activities? What helps you to “drop body and mind” or your limited individuality, as you move through your day? What helps you remember you are more than this “skin bag:”
