in the hoisting of the sail lies the wind's blessing

talk on 2 december, 2025

erring cloud sangha

Summary:

This Dharma talk on December 2, 2025, led by Hamid, explores Master Dogen’s Genjo Koan ("Actualizing the Fundamental Point"), using the metaphor of fanning oneself to illustrate that while Buddha nature is inherent—like the wind—practice is the necessary action of "hoisting the sail" to actualize it in the present moment.

Hamid:

As you may have seen from the group post yesterday, we're going to talk about the ending, or the last part, of Master Dogen's Genjo Koan, that is a poetical, dense, profound spiritual, religious, and philosophical text. It is also very condensed and many-layered.

It is like with texts such as Dogen's, we approach them, try to read them, and try to understand what the very notion of "understanding" means. This is where Master Dogen says what the eyes can see, the eyes refers here to our understanding, is informed by the depth of our practice. When it comes to texts of philosophy we refine our understanding by familiarizing ourselves with the concepts, at times through repeated reading and intellectual effort, that are presented by the author. But in the writings of someone like Master Dogen, it's not just about trying to understand what the words mean. The studying itself is related to practice, and reading is itself a form of practice. Of course, it engages the intellect, but it requires more than just intellectual understanding to allow us to relate to something deeper that is trying to be conveyed here, something that is using words to point to something that words cannot reach.

This Genjo Koan—and the title itself has been translated differently— Master Shohaku Okumura translates it (and I will be leaning a lot on his commentary in what I'm going to share with you today), into English as "Actualizing the Fundamental Point." Now, a koan is something that most of you may have heard of. It's a practice in the Rinzai branch of Zen Buddhism, where you are given a case, a question—a quiz or something hermetic, difficult to access with just the mind and you are asked to say how you understand it. In meditation, you work through that koan and try to resolve it, and even outside of meditation, you carry it with you. So, Koan has been translated here as "the fundamental point," and Genjo is translated as "actualizing."

You're probably going to hear a lot of dogs here; I can't do anything about that. And on top of the dogs, we also have workers who are working on the roof because it's leaking, so you might hear some noise there. There's nothing I can do about that either.

So, actualizing... one way of understanding what we mean by actualizing—and this word "actualizing" is very important in order to understand this whole fascicle, particularly the ending of it—means to make something present. To bring something here and now. So, it's about bringing to this present moment, or actualizing or activating, the fundamental point of our practice here and now, in each moment.

The whole chapter is just four pages, but I will read you the ending part that I also shared yesterday. So after talking about what is practice, what is realization, what is illusion, what is enlightenment, and some fundamental points of Zen understanding and Dharma, Master Dogen ends this chapter with these words. Also, just to mention that this story, or koan, that he ends with does not appear in any of the classical collections of Zen koans, like the Blue Cliff Record or the Book of Serenity or the Gateless Gate. This koan and story does not appear in any of those.

"Zen Master Baoche of Mount Mayu was fanning himself. A monk approached him and said, 'Master, the nature of wind is permanent and there is no place that it does not reach. Why, then, do you fan yourself?'

'Although you understand that the nature of the wind is permanent,' Baoche replied, 'you do not understand the meaning of its reaching everywhere.'

'What is the meaning of its reaching everywhere?' asked the monk again. The Master just kept fanning himself. Then, the monk bowed deeply."

This can be interpreted as him arriving at a deep realization or understanding. And these are the concluding lines from Master Dogen:

"The actualization of the Buddha-dharma, the vital path of its correct transmission, is like this. If you say that you don't need to fan yourself because the nature of the wind is permanent, and you can have wind without fanning, you will understand neither permanence nor the nature of the wind. The nature of the wind is permanent; because of that, the wind of the Buddha's house brings forth the gold of the earth and makes fragrant the cream of the long river."

So, this fascicle of the Shobogenzo, which is the opus magnum of Master Dogen, was written a few years after he came back from China. It appears as the first fascicle, while it's actually the third in the order of writing. He put it himself as the first, which probably indicates the importance he gave to this particular text.

Now, this whole chapter of the Shobogenzo and this koan refers back to something that he grappled with when he was a young monk, practicing from the age of 13 when he was ordained at a mountain temple in Hiei, Japan. After some time of reading intensely and studying the texts available to him, this essential point became clear to him: that Buddha nature, or the nature of awakening—our sense of penetrating and realizing what the truth is, or what the Dharma is—is something that is inherent to each one of us. We all have it. We do not work toward attaining it or creating it.

So the question that arose was: if we are fundamentally endowed with this Buddha nature, if it is in us, if it is us, why then put so much effort and trouble into practicing? What is the point of practice if we do not need to reach that which is already present in us and is us, and is a manifestation of who we are?

He questioned himself for many years, and he asked all the people he was practicing with to clarify this for him. "What is the point of sitting for hours doing zazen in a monastery, for example, if I'm not supposed to get anywhere other than where I already am, with what I already have in me?" No one seemed to be able to answer that question for him in a satisfactory fashion. So he kept asking himself that question, and then one master told him, "You need to go to China and inquire into this question with Chan masters," which is what Zen was called in China.

At the age of 23, he embarks with his own teacher to make this crossing into China, which was a very perilous journey in those times. Many times, the ships would capsize and have accidents, and they would never reach the other shore. It was not like there were regular schedules; they would leave once probably every several years. So he decided to go to China to resolve this fundamental doubt, and he stays there for four or five years. The last year he spent with the man who would become his master, Nyojo. He, in the dialogue that they have, resolves this question for him.

So, this ending of the Genjo Koan and the whole chapter itself refers to the question that he had: What is the point of practice if we already have or already are that nature? What he understood and what he realized was that—as it is pointed out in other traditions and branches of Buddhism—practice is often viewed as a vehicle to reach enlightenment. Enlightenment can be viewed as a realization of this Buddha nature. But often, practice and realization are seen as two distinct things, with one aiming to arrive at the second. In that sense, enlightenment would be viewed as a finishing line.

Dogen challenged this view by saying that enlightenment and practice are one. They are inseparable, and one does not lead to the other because one is the other. So, in a way, he talks about the relationship between practice and enlightenment, but the word "relationship" is itself questionable because, strictly speaking, we relate two things that are distinct. If two things are one and the same, then there is no relationship there either.

So this oneness of practice and realization was the point that he was going to make. Although we have this nature of awakening, although we are endowed with Buddha nature, this Buddha nature needs to be actualized every time in our activities. In our practice of zazen and whatever is part of the things that we do in everyday life. Everything that we do in everyday life, and of course the practice of zazen, are moments, are occasions for actualizing Genjo Koan. This fundamental point activates it.

When Master Baoche is taking the fan and fanning himself, he is actualizing the fundamental point. The monk who sees him fanning himself says, "The nature of wind is everywhere"—which is Buddha nature, it is here, it is in you, it is in everything—"What is the point of you fanning?" And the master's reply is that although you understand that the nature of wind is permanent, you do not understand its permeating, or pervading everything, or manifesting. So you understand it as a concept. Your understanding of it is intellectual. You have not really penetrated the depth of it, and the depth of it cannot be penetrated other than through actualizing something in action. Otherwise, it just remains as a theory, as a concept, an idea. And Buddhism and Zen are about practice, about making things present, actualizing things.

This is a very important point because very celebrated authors—and this also refers maybe to Krishnamurti's viewpoint about meditation that Carl brought up in a previous session—and notably in the Zen tradition, people like Alan Watts, who was one of the pioneers who brought the Zen teachings in the 60s and 70s and made them popular in Western culture... he was one that would think that fanning yourself is not necessary because Buddha nature is already there. So he would not engage in zazen and he would not prescribe any practice. He thought it was beside the point because the point was just a realization that Buddha nature is everywhere.

Now, the workers on the roof are actualizing this by hammering at this very point. They are engaged in a very serious activity, perilous being on top of the roof, for our well-being.

So, this is the meaning of this chapter of the Shobogenzo. And then there's this important thing: if, like Alan Watts and those who think meditation is redundant or not necessary because they have this deep understanding of realization, you can take "the nature of wind is permanent" or "Buddha nature is in everything" and make that into an absolute position. Like an absolute truth that you have somehow realized or attained. And that absolute position disparages all the things that happen in every day—to which Zen is very sensitive, the details—and says that those things are actually insignificant. Because then you're just looking at this bigger picture, the panoramic picture, the truth. We establish ourselves in truth and look at all the things that are happening in everyday life as little insignificant things that have no deeper meaning.

But in Zen understanding and philosophy, this is leaning into an absolute position while disparaging the relative dimension of things. And the relative, the conditioned, the everyday, is where our lives unfold. It's where we engage with others. It's where each time something is asked of us, we are summoned to respond. But if you just lean into that absolute position, the responsibility of responding to everyday situations is taken away from you, and you don't feel the need to respond because you have realized "the truth."

If you say that reality is Buddha nature, it enlightens us through zazen. And from moment to moment, in our practice of zazen, we are invited to drop off this separate sense of self that is informed by our karmic consciousness and thinking. This sense of self is the self that is constantly discriminating between phenomena and things. So here, Master Okumura says that to the question asked of Baoche, he continues fanning himself. And Master Okumura emphasizes that Dogen, by picking up the story and pointing to the fanning, is emphasizing that practice is not a philosophical debate. This is not something that we can settle with arguments or philosophical points of view, but it's a practice. He adds, "Whenever we stray from awakening, we must return to it in practice."

Seen from that perspective, this is how we actualize emptiness, shunyata, or Buddha nature. By this activity of self-emptying, or kenosis, by opening the hand of thought and letting go of our discriminating thinking. So Buddha nature requires of us to engage constantly in all the events and activities of everyday life, and it cannot be actualized without our effort. So in that sense, zazen is effortless effort; while it is effort, it is not an effort that's aimed at an ending or at getting something.

I find it interesting—and I'm looking now at the time, I don't want to go beyond the time allotted to this talk—that in the teaching of Ramana Maharshi, the great Indian Vedanta teacher, I read some time ago, he was talking about God's grace. He said, taking the metaphor of someone who's in a ship in the ocean (which is a metaphor, interestingly, that Master Dogen uses throughout the Genjo Koan to explicate the essential points of this chapter), Ramana Maharshi says that if you're in a boat in the ocean, God's wind does not cease from blowing all around you, it is everywhere. But to receive the wind of God, you need to hoist your sail. So, if you do not hoist your sail, the wind is blowing everywhere, but it will be completely ineffective. It will be unrelated to your existence, to your life. So you still have to make the effort of raising that sail to receive the grace or the wind of God.

Now I leave it to you to see how these two sayings or teachings bear a resemblance. One is about fanning yourself to actualize the nature of the wind that is always present. And Ramana Maharshi says raise your sail to perceive the wind of God that is always blowing. So that is something I wanted to share with you today. Thank you for listening, and if you have any comments or questions, please go ahead.

Linda: Good morning, everyone. Good morning, Hamid. I have to leave for starting my day, but I didn't want to leave before I said thank you. So thank you, Hamid, for this sharing. Bye everyone. Thank you.

Carl: Hamid, thank you very much for this talk. When I read this dialogue of the monk and the Master fanning himself, what was most evident and struck me was that it was again about giving up duality. This is the reason for our questions. The reason is a result of an answer which is not answering the question but makes the question unnecessary. It came very clear out of this when I was investigating into the story. Because all the Buddhist teaching is about non-duality and our deep wish is non-duality, but there is something in the way, and that is our question: how to reach it. And the practice is really the key. I feel the key of not doubting it, as we don't doubt our life, also. We are alive, we can breathe. So the practice is part of this. So thank you very much for making this clear.

Ahmed: Thank you, Hamid, for this talk. It's quite interesting, actually. Before you had mentioned him, I was thinking of him when you were talking about the actualization point, which is Alan Watts. And it struck me that he inadvertently invented what is now a common term called "spiritual bypassing," by making it about the point of realization, not about the practice of keeping that realization present and in turn actualizing it. I think that has become a common practice, and we speak about this in sort of the neo-spiritual age and the commercialization of it all. So I didn't think of it that way. I spent many years listening to Alan Watts; I found him quite entertaining. But it seems that, from what you're saying, it's almost like, "What's the point?" I think he said it that way, or he kept using those words a lot, and then he'd say he's a "spiritual joker" and "what's the point?" So when you said that, it struck me that, goodness, he actually is one of the predecessors of this term, so that was quite interesting.

Another thing that came to mind on the subject of the practice: I think also, in day-to-day life, when one is experiencing certain pains, certain struggles, whether they be personal or relational, we distract ourselves from it continuously and find ways to stay away from it. And just like the practice, I think the embodying of certain pain—whether it be in silence, making that more present—is actualizing that experience. And in turn, maybe becoming it to overcome it. So this also came to mind while I was listening to you speak about this, personally, in my own personal life. So as a matter of practice, yes, zazen, to actualize the Buddha nature and to continue to practice that actualization, but also in our daily lives with experiences and issues we come up with, I think that sort of actualization or making it present, rather than distracting ourselves from it, allows for maybe a different kind of processing. So that also came to mind. That's it, really. Thank you.

Hamid: I think Hasan is here, but we don't see you, Hasan. I didn't turn on his video, I think. And Elena was also here, but I no longer see her. She probably had to leave as well.

Kiana: Hi. Throughout the talk, Hamid, I just kept thinking about how the practice and the actualization are so important—to, instead of intellectualizing everything, actually do it. And I haven't been meditating for a while, like, probably since last April, just because my PhD... I just got distracted with my PhD. And I just kept thinking the entire time about how grateful I was that you guys have provided a place where you can actualize the meditation. And it's so consistent. Every week, when I go on WhatsApp and I see the Zoom link... yeah, I just kept thinking, "Wow, I feel so lucky to be a part of a group who is consistent with their meditation practice." And like, I want to be more like that, or I plan to be, but can't plan anything, really. And also, a group that's so okay with coming and going. Like, I maybe only come once every two or three months, maybe less. And I feel so welcome every time. So thank you. I really do appreciate it.

Serge: Morning, everybody. Yeah, thanks for the talk, Hamid. And just to reflect the light here, as you said... yesterday, I was on a flight to Ireland, where I am now visiting family. And I got the Zoom invite. I looked at it, read the koan, and there I was, in the middle of an airplane, like physically pushing against the wind, because you know, I just didn't have the capacity or time even to think about the koan. And so I just left it. And then, just as you so appropriately put it regarding Ramana Maharshi, this morning—it was during this morning sit—I was able to "hoist up that sail" or go with the wind instead of pushing against it, as I felt in the plane yesterday. That just enabled me to understand what the monks were doing. So actually, the whole practice is... I'm not saying it's a realization, but the practice is the way to open up the mind, to see the koan for what it is. So, yeah, this practice in the group this morning, being here, it's just the perfect way to do that. So, yeah, I guess you enabled me to hoist my sail this morning and see the koan for what it is. So thank you very much.

Carl: Yes, I want to say something again. Same topic, but I thought I hadn't made it quite clear. Because I think practice solves the question if practice is necessary. This question is solved bypractice. And I have a friend in Germany, an old friend, and we always discuss about it. He said, "Well, you sent me articles that it is dangerous to practice too much." And then there was something where he said, "Yes, I practice all my life since I'm in school. I sit on the cushion and I do my photo work or my things." But so there is in him still the question if it's necessary, or an argument. And I mean, the practice itself can solve the argument if it is necessary. This is very interesting for me to see that in fact, the question "practice or not"—this is a kind of melody, you can make a hundred hours discussion about it. But the practice itself, an engagement in it completely, in this every-present, every-activating moment... this solves the problem of duality. I wanted to say this.

Hamid: I mean, anyone who engages in some form of spiritual or meditative inquiry would never do so if there were not some deep questions, existential questions, which is proper for us as humans to ask. But I think, if you do this practice for many years, over time you notice that the practice does not aim at something outside of itself. It's not a vehicle and it's not a preparation for something else. So it's not instrumental. And then that, I think, is where in another passage of Shobogenzo, another fascicle, Master Dogen basically says that this is not to reach something. He says, "That is why zazen is the gateway of ease and joy." It's not about resolving anything. It's not about fixing anything. It's not about getting anywhere. It's just this moment. Actualizing the fundamental point, making present what is essential. And what is essential is a manifestation of us living, being present in this point in time. Letting go of discriminating discourses and thinking, opening the hand of thought and realizing the interconnectedness of us with all things.

So, that is the other thing he says: Zazen is the gateway of ease and joy because it does not tend to something else. Each time, whatever nature your practice is, you just sit with that. And it's the gist of just being present in this moment that counts, not what this moment will turn into or has the potential of revealing. Because that is something outside of this moment, somewhere in front of us, in the future. And the making present, Genjo, always happens here and now. You cannot render the future present. But this present moment is here, and practice illumines it in some way. And this moment illumines the practice. So, yes, it necessitates dropping the thinking, dropping the dualistic thinking, and seeing that yes, it's not a notion, it's not an idea, it's not something that you carry with you. It's something that you manifest. Each moment of practice... and then each moment of life can be a moment of practice. The on-the-cushion and the off-the-cushion. If you just looked at it as zazen and then what's outside of zazen, that's also dualistic thinking. So it all blends into each other. At what moment of our lives—being in the car, facing irritation, reading bad news, or all things that can happen—with what mind, with what spirit can we engage with that? So looking at it from this perspective, every moment is a moment of awakening. Practice does not leave anything out. Practice is all-inclusive. But for that, we need to drop the mind. Because the mind is always there to ask, "What is the point? Where is the point? Where is this taking me? What is this about?"

Ha

san: Thank you, Hamid. Thank you, Carl. I mean, she likes sharing, but, I don't know, I'll just throw myself in. While listening to Hamid and Karl, like, a few things came to me. Like, what is the practice? And is the practice the path, or the way, or the vehicle? And then it came to me, like, maybe the practice is the best offering we can offer for the present moment to embrace it. Maybe. And as Hamid said, every moment is a moment of practice. Maybe.

Noura: Thank you all. I agree with you, Hassan, and I agree with you, Hamid. Personally, it was always a challenge for me to sit and practice. Feeling like I need to fix something. I need to heal. I need to go somewhere. I need to be enlightened. So it's a path, it's a journey. It's not the practice itself. It's a vehicle that it will take me somewhere. It will upgrade me, as if I am not enough. And this is why every time I practice, I come out of the practice even feeling worse. Once I realize the practice is... sorry about that. Hamid, you mentioned that you can... is the first. So, what I realized is that the practice is itself being. It is the truth, it's the answer. Just sitting and connecting with yourself. And I have to admit it's not always easy. But I'm getting there. I wanted to mention, Ahmed, one time you mentioned something about creating a platform where we can invite more people to practice, and I think it's a brilliant idea and I would like to offer my help if you need it, and I encourage you to do that. We need more presence and peace. Thank you.

Ahmed: Thank you, Nora, for that. The platform that we were discussing in those sessions that we had definitely would act as something to invite more people, but it was also the idea to show what engaged Buddhism could look like in an age with all of this conflict around us and these atrocities. And trying to maybe find a way to match some of these teachings that we talk about with some of the actual occurrences, the atrocities, the testimonials that are happening on the ground around us. And I attempted to do that in two of the sessions, bringing these stories of people that were going through these difficult hardships, transformations on both sides of the conflict, actually, and matching that with teachings and writings by some of these masters that we discuss here in the Sangha. So, absolutely, I still want to do that. I think there's a lot of ways that we can do it, and I'd be happy to speak to you more about setting that up as maybe a separate website connected to us or connected to my Maitri, that can be something where we can post things on it. And yeah, we can think about that. I don't have a clear vision of what that would look like, but we can discuss it and share with Hamid and Karl and everyone as well. So thank you.

Hamid: I had a very interesting experience yesterday, last night. And that is that the roof of our house has been leaking since we came here five years ago. They keep coming and doing little repairs and never... and it rains, sometimes very intensely. The house leaks. So they have decided to remove the roof and fix it, put plastic everywhere. So, they put provisional covering yesterday, but the rain was so intense that the whole house, part of it, was inundated. And it felt like a very interesting experience: the notion of a roof, and the roof blows away. You're completely without protection, and your bed is wet, and there's no dry place to go. It was a very interesting experience. It ties into the umbrella here. I refuse an umbrella because there's nothing to shield yourself. But it was interesting.

Well, if no one has anything more to add to our gathering today we can leave it here. I understand it would be good, Nora, as you said, that maybe more people joined these sits, but, and this is something I learned from my teacher, that somehow this practice is vast enough for even those who are absent to be inculded in it. The space is welcoming and open, people can come and leave. They come return whenever they wish. While we gather here, we offer this open-ended opportunity to practice together. It's not the number of people who are present, I guess, that counts. The space is here and is inviting. Of course, anyone is welcome to join, but I personally do not feel driven to try to attract more people. Here this saying of the Dutch mystic, Alfred de Kempf, comes to mind. It shows our limits and to what operates outside our limits, "We expose and God disposes." So what we can do it to hoist our mast and then come what may. We don't need to worry about the consequences.Does anyone want to have an ending word for today's meeting?

Well, in that case, I wish you all well, and we convene for next week at the same time. All the best to you in the meantime. Bye for now.