This week Roshi continued our discussion of Dogen’s Zuimonki.   To reiterate, the Zuimonki is a collection of casual discussions Dogen had with his students collected by one of his students, Ejo.  This week we covered passage #7 in book #4 …

Students of the Way, the reason you do not attain enlightenment is because you hold onto your old views. Without knowing who taught you, you think that ‘mind’ is the function of your brain – thought and discrimination. When I tell you that ‘mind’ is grass and trees, you do not believe it. When you talk about the Buddha, you think the Buddha must have various physical characteristics and a radiant halo. If I say that the Buddha is broken tiles and pebbles, you show astonishment. The views you cling to are neither what has been transmitted to you from your father nor what you were taught by your mother. You have believed them for no particular reason; they are the result of having listened for a long time to what people have said. Therefore, since it is the definite word of the buddhas, and patriarchs, when it is said that ‘mind’ is grass and trees, you should understand that grass and trees are ‘mind’, and if you are told that ‘Buddha’ is tiles and pebbles, you should believe that tiles and pebbles are the ‘Buddha’. Thus, if you reform your attachment, you will be able to attain the Way.

Roshi explained that this passage has Dogen explaining that we really cannot understand our own mind.  In modern times, we have some basic understanding of the physical brain, but we have made so little progress in understanding the mind.  Why is this?  Roshi likened this to understanding a computer.  We have the hardware and the software in a computer system.  The hardware is concrete and easy to explore.  If a being from another galaxy found a computer built by a human, they would be able to disassemble it and understand the circuits as they follow the universal laws of physics.  However, what about the software?  It does not exist anywhere physically.  One may say that it is a series of bits on a storage medium, but our alien friend would struggle to understand it.  Why?  They would struggle because software is built upon layer after layer of tacit agreements and abstractions.  These are tied very much to the human experience.  To take a trivial example, our software is based on decimal logic – why?  It is because we have 10 fingers!

Dogen is pointing to the same thing with our mind.  How can we understand it when our conditioning has been built up over eons of karma.  Why do we react to the things we react to?  Perhaps we were brought up by judgmental parents.  However, why were they judgmental?  Perhaps something in their parents or the culture of the country they originally came from.  Why was the culture like it was?  (and on and on and on!!)  We exist at the end of a long series of karmic events.  If we really understand this, then it becomes clear why our own minds are so mysterious to us.

Roshi noted that Dogen is interested in this because our practice is all about the mind.  We need to unwind the karma baked into our existence.  This karma is broad and deep.  It is the sum experience of everyone who has come before us.  However, it is also all of the instincts baked into the DNA of every creature who has led up to us.  Yes, humans have instincts just like every other sentient being on this planet.  These are deeply baked into our “operating system” and profoundly affect the “software” of our mind.  Dogen never said it would be easy to get a grip on all of this – however, this is why we practice with intensity.

Roshi noted that the power of any religion is also what makes it so horrible – namely its simplicity!  Religion wants us to be “good” and provides doctrines to show us how to do that.  However, Dogen knew that he was NOT a good person, but he also was not a bad person.  We are simply what we are.  Creatures at the “cutting edge” of an infinite wave of Karma pervading throughout time.  Our goal in practice is to realize this.  We practice to realize our true mind even though this is impossible.  We strive to save all beings – even though they are innumerable.  The pattern is all the same.  It is not about the goal – only the aspiration.  No gain, no loss, no goal.

Roshi wrapped up by noting that every time we start a new meditation session, we brush off our mats.  We do this symbolically to remind us that this is a new meditation session with no connections to any past session.  Every session is completely new and presents a new chance to transcend our karma and let all the conditioning go.   How lucky are we that we get this chance at freedom over and over again.