Beyond the Dream
This is an edited transcript of a talk given at the temple in October 2021.
I’d like to take a look at the chapter in Roar of the Tigress, Volume Two called Beyond the Dream1. And since this book is available online through Shasta Abbey’s website, if you find what we’re talking about of interest, I’d highly recommend that you take a look at this chapter. Because it’s a very lengthy chapter, what I want to do is touch on a particular thread that Rev. Master Jiyu develops, as I think it’s quite relevant to what we’ve been discussing over the last number of weeks.
Beyond the Dream is from a lecture that Rev. Master Jiyu gave in the monks’ meditation hall at Shasta Abbey, probably back in the 1980s. And it’s about one of the chapters in Great Master Dōgen’s work the Shōbōgenzō, called Muchū Setsumu, which is translated as: Giving Expression to a Vision from Within the Vision.
Now in the title Muchū Setsumu it has the word ‘Mu’ twice. It’s a Chinese character that’s pronounced ‘Mu’, but it’s not the ‘Mu’ that we know about that means ‘emptiness’. In this case, the character means either ‘dream’ or ‘vision’. Those are the two closest English words for it, and Rev. Master Jiyu says that she will use the word ‘dream’ to refer to how we usually see our world; the world we’re living in, the normal everyday life that we’re aware of. She’ll use the word ‘vision’ to refer to that which goes beyond the dream, that which goes beyond this world, this everyday world that we live in and are aware of.
The starting place for talking about this chapter, this teaching, from the Shōbōgenzō, Rev. Master Jiyu says, is to recall the verse from the Diamond Sutra: “Thus shall ye think of all this fleeting world: a star at dawn, a bubble in a stream, a child’s laugh, a phantasm, a dream.” All of these images, all of these descriptions are of the transiency of life and the True Reality lies beyond this transiency. The ‘vision within the dream’, therefore, is That which is Real because It goes beyond our usual everyday reality. And then, interestingly, she says that the True Reality, the vision
…has the characteristic of seeming to be unreal from within the dream in which we presently live. When we have a glimpse of this Reality we call it a ‘vision’ because, in our world of dreams… [that is, in our everyday ordinary life] …we have no suitable word in our vocabulary to describe That which is unborn, unbecome, unmade, uncompounded.
And then she says – and it would be interesting to listen to the recording that this chapter was transcribed from: “It is imperative to know from personal experience this vision within the dream.” I would imagine she is saying this directly and strongly, and with great faith and certainty.
Rev. Master Jiyu then gives us a kōan, talks about a kōan, and says that, in the code of ancient Zen writings, this Reality that lies beyond the dream is also sometimes called ‘the head’ (as in the head that’s on top of your shoulders). Perhaps you have heard the old kōan which poses the question: “What do you do when a tiger chases you up to the head of a ten-foot pole?” ‘The tiger’ is also code for the will to train and ‘the pole’ is both the stem of the lotus of training and the physical spine. So already she’s touching on things that she has talked about extensively in How to Grow a Lotus Blossom.
The question that has been posed by this kōan is not one of what to do when there is a large cat licking its chops at the bottom of a pole on top of which you are sitting but of “When the will chases you to the ends of training and the spirit rises to greet the Unborn, rises to greet the True Reality, what do you do?” And she says the answer is very simple. You just be one with the True Reality, enter the vision within the dream, leaving aside what you “know to be real”. This is where Zen training will lead. If you sit down and meditate, as Rev. Master Jiyu used to say, you run the risk of being “grabbed by the Cosmic Buddha.” If you sit down and meditate, the True Reality over time will reveal itself. This is the choice that we must make. The ‘will to train’ is the exercising of, the putting into action of the choice that we’re making moment-to-moment, day-to-day. You either remain within your dream, holding on for dear life to what you “know” or you leap into the unknown, wherein lies the True Reality.
She then goes on to talk a little bit more about the True Reality and one of the things she says, and it’s something that we’re very well aware of, is: “It cannot be understood by the reasoning mind, let alone by the religious doctrines and theories that people put upon you in your childhood.” I didn’t have any such doctrines and theories put upon me in my childhood, but I know Rev. Master Jiyu, and a fair few other people did. She goes on to say: “Know that a full explanation of the True Reality is impossible …Therefore all the words that I have said are inadequate and wrong in one sense, but they are an attempt to explain the inexplicable.”1 [Page 79, lines 27-32] They are a very sincere attempt on her part, on my part, on any teacher’s part to point in the direction of True Reality, to impart what it is. But also, be aware that all words are inadequate and inaccurate. And I know that, so don’t hold me to what I say sometimes!
Now, the next part that she talks about is, I think, getting at the incredible importance – and the word ‘incredible’ is very much an understatement – the vital importance of temples and places of training and what their functions are. She says that the place where the vision within the dream is most fully given expression is the assembly of the Sangha. And, right here and now, we are one assembly of a Sangha. She says: “As such, this assembly is the place of the greatest intimacy which humankind can experience, for it is the place of the sharing of Truth.” So, the reason that people come together in temples and meditation groups is that we want to share in the Truth. “It is the place of practice and the place of teaching, the place of the turning of the Wheel of the Dharma, the place of the flowering of the Dharma.” And it can be challenging, I know, in our current times because it’s prudent for us to be joining via Zoom due to the Covid pandemic. We don’t have our usual going to the temple, walking into the temple and realizing that we’re walking into a space, into a place where we’re wishing to share in that Truth. One of the things that can be very helpful as a reminder is to try to really bring to mind, when you’re connecting via Zoom to a temple, whatever temple that may be, that you’ve walked into the temple, and all that represents for you and your practice.
I thought it was really wonderful to see that Rev. Master Jiyu uses the word ‘intimacy’, and she uses it very specifically in terms of the Dharma and the sharing of the Truth and the support that we’re giving each other for our own journeys in the unfolding of the Truth. Rev. Master Jiyu then takes it from the coming together as a Sangha and the sharing of the Truth, the sharing in our practice, to say that:
…as the dream subsides over the course of training, as we cease to be interested so much in the dream and become more and more interested in the True Reality, so the Truth emerges. We can know from our own living experience That which previously seemed to be but a pleasant dream within our dreaming, which is the Reality. And that what we have, up to now, called “reality” is but a dream.
I came across these teachings years ago and it has taken time to really deepen my understanding of the statement that this “reality”, this life that we take as reality, is but a dream and to see what’s really being pointed out here. It doesn’t mean that this life is not important or isn’t occurring. Rather, in the process of clarifying it and honestly acknowledging more and more we see that actually everything that has unfolded in our life is transient. We realize that this life is not really a refuge. As we meditate, as we go about our daily life expressing this understanding, that is the only way we’re able to open ourselves up to the True Reality.
Notice she says it becomes something more than what previously was just ‘a pleasant dream within our dreaming’. There needs to be, over time, this clarification, this deepening understanding of what’s really going on; of really seeing, fundamentally, that transiency and our grasping onto it, of trying to hold on to it, is actually really suffering for us, even though it may seem that our dream, our everyday dream, is really wonderful at times. Despite that, it’s transient, and sometimes we go through a lot of grieving or a lot of anger, a lot of disappointment. And over time, we also realize that being sad and grieving and being angry, is also transient, in the sense that we can’t hold on to that, that doesn’t help either. The anger in not being able to continue the great dream we had last night doesn’t actually make the dream come back any better. There’s a real depth to the life of practice and training that we go through to clarify: “What’s the dream and what’s the vision? What’s the dream and what’s the True Reality?” We may feel it is too bad that ‘daily life’ is no more substantial than a dream. But it’s not our fault. That’s just the way it is.
Rev. Master Jiyu says that another aspect of the vision is that many people have flashes of realization. Many people have the arising of the pleasant dream within the dream, but very few it would seem know what to do with them. She then states something which many of us are familiar with: “In Christianity it is said, ‘Many are called but few are chosen.’ But in Buddhism, it is more that all are called, but few answer”. In other words, the True Reality is there. And Rev. Master Jiyu says that if they do not answer it is usually because they lack sufficient faith to believe in the vision instead of the dream.
She then divulges a secret that Zen Masters know: “Herein lies the great ‘secret’ that one master passes on to another. Without faith in the reality of the vision, the only ‘reality’ that will be believed in will be the worldly dream”. So, it really, really comes down to faith, to trust. Faith and trust that there is a True Reality. Faith, trust that there is an Unborn, Undying, Unchanging. And she says: “Thus there will be constant wandering and searching in samsara down the centuries…” for those who don’t have that faith. “It is because we lose sight of the vision that we busily try to keep the dream as our reality and try to force ourselves and others and the world to turn it into a real reality”. And she says it never works. It never works because, as we well know, when we have a really wonderful dream, we can’t keep it going. It’s the same with our waking dream.
As to forcing ourselves and others, Rev. Master Jiyu says that “this is the state in which most of us live most of the time. You can see it in the desperateness with which people try to keep the dream called ‘my life’ going, and in the urgency with which they distract themselves.”
So again, I think it’s really helpful to remind ourselves that this is from a formal lecture Rev. Master Jiyu is giving in the meditation hall. You can really feel her pointing very, very deeply, really holding out her arm, holding out her faith so that people can hold on to this, trust in this.
Rev. Master Jiyu then moves to talking about our concern with our bodily health, and she makes it very, very clear that she’s not talking about, “Oh, you don’t need to go to a doctor” if something really serious is going on. She’s not talking about that. She’s talking about the reality that this body, as Dōgen says, is “as transient as dew on the grass”. We know about birth, old age, disease and death, and this all needs to be looked at within the context of: ‘This is all a dream; this is all a bubble in a stream; this is all a star at dawn, the little tiny twinkling star at dawn that you see suddenly get completely engulfed in the brilliancy of the day’.
When you really start realizing and understanding that this life is not a refuge, she says, those who know the vision actually don’t worry about the fact that the body and the mind and life are transient. And that, paradoxically, a lot of Zen masters – because they know the vision and they’re not worried about the transiency – live to a great old age. She says you don’t have the vision so you can ‘kick the bucket’ and then just go off and enjoy it!
Rev. Master Jiyu is very pointedly saying that we get the vision, we have the faith in the vision “…so that samsara ceases to be samsara and instead becomes a beautiful playground or a great garden, in which he or she can wander and play and work, and help others to find the vision.” But the master cannot help them to find that vision if all they are concerned about is the dream.
This is a very direct explanation as to why we don’t go out trying to drum up business. At some point a person has to have an inkling that there must surely be more to this life. And we all know the effort it requires, the work it requires to do this practice and how difficult it is emotionally to actually be putting down what we normally think of as reality. So, we have to wait until people are actually ready for that. We actually have to wait until they’re willing to walk in through the temple gate. And, as we all know, with ourselves and others, lots can happen even after we walk through the temple gate. Rev. Master Jiyu says: “So, remembering this, do not worry so much about the dream; keep your perspective on what is vision and what is dream.” What we can do is to have faith in the reality of the True Reality and know, through our continuous training, what is Real and what is but a dream.
So, this next bit that Rev. Master Jiyu says is, I feel, the most important part of the whole chapter. She says this right in the heart of Shasta Abbey, she says this right within the heart of the Sangha:
To make the vision appear within the dream, although it is not a calculated or deliberate act, is an act of willingness and of faith. It is essential; it is your only true purpose for being here: to make the vision appear within the dream, and to know the truth and reality of the vision.
It is the only true purpose for being here and, turned in the other direction, it is the only purpose for a temple. The purpose of a temple is so people can gather to share in that intimacy of wishing to find the truth and to allow the vision to unfold.
Now it seems to be that in this life that we call reality, but which is actually a dream, the way our minds work is that, when we hear one thing said as being the case, we automatically infer that all other things are wrong or not the case. So please understand what the temple is for and there are many, many other things that are good to do, and need to be done. And, of course, we do those things. And a temple is for enabling people to have that vision and to know that it’s the True Reality.
I wanted to finish with one final quote from the very end of the chapter. Rev. Master Jiyu says:
Do not be caught up in the dream of worldly things, do not forsake your own sitting place to wander by streams and within mountains, keep away from the great and the worldly – this is the way of the Buddhas and Ancestors. This is what will eventually bring to fruition what is predicted by the Buddhist Fourth Law of the Universe, which matters so deeply at this present time: in the long run ‘without fail evil is vanquished and good prevails.’
Rev. Master Jiyu was saying this, offering this teaching which is so deeply important, back in the 1980s. I would say, this teaching is even more important and relevant today. Please don’t forsake your own sitting place. Please don’t forsake your own opportunity to find the True Reality. And it takes a great deal of faith, a great deal of trust, to do so.
Notes
1. Jiyu-Kennett, P.T.N.H., Roar of the Tigress, Volume Two. Edited and with an Introduction by MacPhillamy, Daizui. Shasta Abbey Press, Mt. Shasta. 2005.
