This morning, I'm going to comment on Suzuki Roshi's commentary on a very well-known koan, number three in the Book of Record, called Various Things, like Master Ma is Unwell. I like that title, but when we did the edited Suzuki Roshi's talk, we called it Sun Face Buddha, Moon Face Buddha. So you probably have heard of this koan, and I've talked on it several times. Master Baso, was the Dharma grandson of the Sixth Ancestor through Nangako Eijo, the Sixth Ancestor's disciple.

[01:21]

And he was born in 704 and died in 788. And he was a very significant teacher in our lineage. Not Soto Zen lineage, but Zen lineage. So, I'm going to come in on Suzuki Roshi's talk. Suzuki Roshi had been in the hospital. The only time I remember him being in the hospital was when he had a cold liver operation. He had been in, at, um, Reed College to give a talk. And, uh, when that was, at the end of that, he got a gallbladder attack. And, um, uh, so he came home on Sunday.

[02:28]

I can't remember if it was with him, but, um... He was red, wasn't he? He was red, yeah. And Rev tried to help him, you know, and he said, no, don't help me. I should, you know, I should take care of myself. Very independent minded. I understand that. I know what to do. Don't help me. So he says, lately I've been sick. And because I've been practicing Zazen for many years, some people may say, you will not catch cold or suffer from the flu. But isn't it funny? He stayed in bed so long. I remember people talking about that. If you're a Zen master, how come you have a cold? So we may believe that Zazen will make us physically strong and mentally healthy, but a healthy mind

[03:35]

And a weak body is not just weak, not just a weak body. Whether it is weak or strong, when that weakness or strength is based on what we call truth, or buddha-nature, then that is a healthy mind and a healthy body. So that's an interesting attitude. I can't help but listen to the birds. Healthy sound. as we go through our life, various things happen to us. And so on one level, we break our arm, or we cut our finger, or we catch a disease, or whatever, and so we call that being sick. But actually, we can be sick in that way, without denying that, but our attitude is not sick. Our basic attitude may be very healthy.

[04:41]

So a healthy attitude with a sick body is not the same as a sick body with an unhealthy attitude. We can make ourselves very ill by dwelling on our illness or worrying too much about our illness. Sometimes the worry is worse than the illness. Siddhartha Maharaj used to say, a strong person is not necessarily strong and a weak person is not necessarily weak. A strong person is weak and a weak person is strong. If a strong person doesn't know how to be weak, then that person is not a strong person.

[05:43]

If a weak person knows how to be real, then that person is not a weak person. So he says, my voice may not be very good yet, but today I'm testing it, whether it will work or not. So he's giving his talk. Or if I speak or not, it's not a big problem. Whatever happens to us is something that should happen. It may not like that. The purpose of our practice is to have this kind of composure, that it's not that something should happen, in that It's fate, not in that sense. But because something happened, it should happen. Even though we, in our soul-centered way, we think that should not have happened. But it did happen. So by accepting that this did happen, that's the fact of the moment.

[06:59]

And we go over the litany of why something happened that should not have happened. Which is okay. But fundamentally, something happened that should have happened. And the reason it happened is because it should have happened. Because of time, place and circumstances. But because we don't like it, we say it shouldn't have happened. I was riding my bike two years ago to this lecture. And I turned in the corner and I leaned over too far, which I like to do, go around the corner fast, and my pedal caught on the asphalt and threw my bike totally out of control. And I went, you know, over the handlebar and broke my finger and stuff. I think about, that should not have happened.

[08:05]

That's true. But actually, it should have happened, because all the circumstances were in place for that to happen. If it didn't happen, it would have been very unusual. So he says, in the bluecrip record, there's a koan concerning Baso Doritsu. We call it in Japanese, we say Matsu. Baso was the big and physically very strong, a man of great stature. Suzuki once said that Baso was a big guy, and he could touch the end of his nose with his tongue. Or maybe it was his forehead. I'm not sure. Once, when Baso was ill, the monk who took care of the temple came to visit him.

[09:14]

And he asked, How are you doing, Master Ma? Are you well or not? And Baso said, Sun-faced Buddha, Moon-faced Buddha. So this all has to be explained. In Baso's time, there was a sutra in many, many gardens that had the names of 11,500 Buddhas and Bodhisattvas. That was the whole sutra, just the names of these Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, which of course somebody had sat down and thought up, you know. And one of the Buddhas lived 1800 years. And another one of the Buddhas lived a day and a night, like a dayfly. So, which is long and which is short?

[10:18]

There's a saying, a Zen saying, long bamboo is long, short bamboo is short. very significant. And the capping verse that I think is correct would be, long is not long and short is not short. Long is simply a designation for the height or the length of something compared to something else. And sure, it's just the length of something compared to something else. So when you take away the comparative value, whatever a thing is, is what it is. It's not long and it's not short. I'm five feet seven and Co is like six feet.

[11:30]

7 feet? No, 7 feet tall. So he's tall and I'm short. But actually, I'm not short. I mentioned he's short, and I'm tall. But actually, Mitch is not short. From an ant's point of view, Mitch is huge. So, more than short, I simply So, sun-faced Buddha, moon-faced Buddha, long or short, is all the same, depending on how we experience each moment of our life. So what this koan is about is how we actually experience and

[12:40]

bring forth, live on our true nature moment by moment. Shri Nithyananda used to say that we live our life one moment at a time. That's all it is. If you want to practice Zen, just live your life totally one moment at a time. This is called Zenki. Dōgen calls it Zenki, total dynamic activity of this moment, which includes the whole universe. He also calls it Shikantaza. Shikantaza usually applies to sitting zazen, but it's also Zenki, which applies to every moment of our life. So, Baso is saying something like, I only live my life moment by moment, whether it's 1800 years or whether it's a day and a night.

[14:11]

If I live my life completely, on each moment, there's no problem. There's a comment on this column about the director who was asking a question. And the comment is, the director seems to be thinking about how much the funeral is going to cost, and how the temple is going to be run after he dies. I don't know if that's really true or not, but that's what they commented. And all the commentators said the same thing. So, the Sun Face Buddha is supposed to live for 1,800 years. And the Moon-Faced Buddha lives only one day and one night. When I am sick, I may be the Moon-Faced Buddha.

[15:13]

But when I am healthy, I am the Sun-Faced Buddha. But the Sun-Faced Buddha or the Moon-Faced Buddha has no special meaning. Whether I am ill or healthy, I am still practicing Zazen. There is no difference. Even though I am in bed, I am Buddha. So don't worry about my health. So, what Securacy is saying is we should not be pulled around by circumstances. Circumstances are always changing. Good circumstances, bad circumstances. Favorable circumstances, unfavorable circumstances. Things we like, things we don't like. Everything is changing. We have something and it's gone. Or suddenly something appears that we don't want. The cause of suffering. So, he's saying, no matter what the circumstances are, I am always myself. Even though I'm in bed, I'm standing on my own two feet.

[16:15]

When I'm in bed, sick. Wherever I am, I'm practicing Zazen. So, the composure is constant. In the circumstances, are always changing, but the composure is always flexible. Composure is a flexible thing. It's not something rigid. So, adaptation is the name of the game. How we adapt to circumstances. without being upset. It's like the Daruma doll. In Japan, they have Bodhidharma dolls, or the Daruma dolls.

[17:21]

And sometimes it just has a flat bottom. But in real life, the Daruma doll has a round bottom. So when it goes over, it flips back up. No matter what the circumstances. it always comes back up to composure. So the thing that Synger emphasized all the time was composure. Never lose your composure. When we get angry, we lose our composure. Often we can use anger, or anger can use us, but mostly it uses us. So, no matter what the circumstances, we always know where we are. We always stand up, even though we don't know where we are, what we're doing, or what's going to happen to us. So he says, this is quite simple.

[18:26]

Practice, this is very simple. There's a lot of talk, a lot of stuff around it, but it's really quite simple. Always be centered in your compulsion. That's why nowadays, when we first started practicing the various Zen centers, this was practically very simple. And I've always tried to maintain that same simple practice, but now that people get interested And so they start this and that and do various things. But I try to keep it very simple. Just Satya. And Saptami. And so forth. Very simple. The point is to attain complete composure. Ordinary effort associated with comparative thinking will not help you.

[19:28]

To attain enlightenment means we have complete composure in our life. without any discrimination. At the same time, this does not mean to stick to the attitude of non-discrimination, because that is also a kind of discrimination. So we also need to recognize, I don't like this, and I wish that didn't happen, and so forth. We shouldn't be stuck on in any one attitude. The additive composure includes domestic thinking without being caught by it. So we say the discrimination of non-discrimination. When I was still in Japan, I had some Zen students. Some of them were very wealthy and influential.

[20:33]

Others were students, carpenters, or other kinds of workers. In Japan, we treat some people like a mayor or a teacher in a deferential way. And we have a special way of speaking to them. But I always told my students, if you are a Zen student, you should forget all about your position, work, So, when I first started practicing here, that was my attitude. Nobody is special. You may have various titles, or be in positions, or be wealthy, or whatever, but when you come to the Zen Dojo, everybody is the same. You have nothing. Your position has no meaning. But as time went on, We begin to recognize, you know, people's, it's important, so it's important to discriminate who everyone is.

[21:42]

So that was my non-discriminating attitude, with everybody exactly the same, and there's no one that has any position a little more above anybody else, according to your work in the world. But then, I realized, we have to discriminate, and recognize people for who they are. what they've done in their life and so forth. That's important. That's discriminating on the basis of non-discrimination because we understand that we're all equal. We can say, we can appreciate everyone's difference. I'm looking for myself.

[22:50]

So when you are sitting, I say, don't think. Don't think means not to treat things in terms of good or bad, heavy or light, just to accept things as it is. Even though you do not think, You may have something, and usually the moment you hear it, you hear something, and the moment you hear it, your reaction is, what's that? That's a car going by, or maybe it's a motorcycle. So we need to identify things according to what we hear and see and so forth. So when he says, don't think, it means, It's not necessary to identify things. It is necessary, otherwise you'd be smashed by cars or motorcycles or whatever. But not to think means let go of the conception of what you think something is.

[24:05]

A car is a car, but actually a car is not a car. The sound of a car is the sound of a car, but actually the sound of a car is not the sound of a car. It's just a sound. It's just this sound. A feeling is just this feeling. Something is just seen. Something is just heard. Something is just felt. In this way, we're not caught by our discriminating mind, which we are caught by. And we think that's the norm. It is the norm, but it's only one part of the norm. So he says, in Zazen, you should not, you should just hear, this is a big noise, a loud sound, or a soft sound, and not be bothered by it.

[25:10]

In the 60s, there was E-K-E-E-G, the test to see what your—to put electrodes in your head and test your responses. E-E-G, it's called. And they went to India. Zimbabwe was one of the people in India to record how yogis responded to stimulus. And then they went to Japan and tested how Japanese monks, Zen masters, responded to stimulus. So there was a big sound or a small sound, certain sounds, and the yogis didn't register anything. when it was so much as immediately registered, but let it go, they didn't hang on to it.

[26:19]

So that's kind of the difference between yogic concentration and zen concentration. In yogic concentration, it was like you're totally dissociated from sound, or whatever. And in zen meditation, You hear the bird. The bird is heard. I don't hear the bird. The bird is heard. The sound is in my mind. But it's there. But when it's not there, it's not there. It's only there when it's there. So in Japan... I'm sorry. So it may seem impossible, especially for a beginner, because the moment you hear something, a reaction follows. But if you practice Zazen, if you continuously just accept things as it is, eventually you can do it. The way you do it is to concentrate on your posture or your breathing.

[27:22]

In Japan, the samurai practiced Zazen to master the sword. As long as he was afraid of losing his life, he could not act at his full ability. When he was free from the idea of killing or being killed, He could just react to his enemy's activity and win. So this is, you know, kind of, this is so. But during the Second World War, the Japanese army perverted that understanding to just, you know, it doesn't matter whether you kill somebody or not or whether you're killed or not. perversion of this kind of understanding. And so when he was free from the idea of killing or being killed, he could just react to his enemy's activity and win. And this is the attitude of the Japanese army. It was almost impossible to dislodge those soldiers from the atolls in the Pacific.

[28:30]

So practicing how to act without fear, which limits your activity, is the most important thing. Although it was a matter of surviving on the battlefield, the samurai fought his fight in the zendo. When I was sitting zazen, beginning to sit zazen, when I was shuso, Tatsugami Roshi was my teacher. And he said, Zazen is the battlefield of the mind and the heart. Kind of interesting. And I said, yes, absolutely right. I wish the bell would ring. So, you know, Siddhiqui Rishi is always saying, don't move, don't move. It doesn't mean don't. If you have to move, you move. make the effort to not move. And so we went through a lot of silent traumas until we finally saw through our delusions.

[29:45]

So he says, when we don't have that kind of circumstance in our everyday life, we don't feel the same necessities practiced. But our human problems are created because we make an effort to achieve something and this limits our activity. Then we cannot achieve anything. So, you know, we say no gaining mind and also no particular goal. But just because there's no particular goal doesn't mean there's no direction. I remember Ziggurat saying, even though there is no self, there are still some rules. So, if we... there has to be something that arouses our spirit to put our whole self into

[31:01]

this activity as if it was okay to die. I used to sit, I had a lot of pain when I was learning to sit, and I used to say, I'm going to sit in the cushion even if I die here. And some people would say, it's okay to die in the cushion. But it doesn't mean that you should fall over and I'm going to carry you out. Let your ego die on a cushion. Let your ego pass on on a cushion and so you can sit there comfortably. So then I have a little comment that I wrote that says, what is achievement? We have various kinds of achievement.

[32:10]

And when we do achieve something, then we have to achieve something more. And then that's not good enough, we have to achieve something more. But what about every step being achievement? So when we go, it's human nature to go from non-achievement to achievement. And that's the path. And it's total, total achievement. And then there's the next step, which is total achievement. And there's nothing at the end, which is achievement. If we can actually be totally present without self-centeredness on each moment, that's total achievement. And that achievement matures. So usually we think of the path.

[33:19]

A path goes somewhere, right? A natural path goes somewhere. But this path goes here. So there's nothing to step away from. It's stepping into. We step into, or onto, this moment and this place. And the next moment takes care of itself. So we have a past and we think there's a future. Future is simply an idea. But given the momentum of the past, using the present as a point of departure, then the future has some... we have an idea of the future based on how the past was. But if you take the self out of the middle, then where did the future and past meet?

[34:25]

They must meet somewhere. They meet myself. Past and future and myself. So where is that space? So he says we should understand our everyday activity in two ways and to be able to respond either way without a problem. One way is to understand dualistically good or bad, right or wrong. We try hard to understand things in these terms. Yet we should also be able to let go of this dualistic understanding and then everything is one. This is the other understanding, the understanding of oneness. So to let go of dualistic understanding and just let everything come together as one without discriminating means to set it apart, set things apart.

[35:30]

And when we stop discriminating, we take all of the dividers out and it becomes one drawer. So when we have the dividers, here are the knives and there are the forks and here are the spoons. We take the dividers out and it all comes together. Or when we take the third lighters out of the ocean, the ocean just is one piece of, one body of water. So, and this is what the Sando Kai is talking about, this is what the Hokyo Zamae is talking about, and this is what Dotson's Five Ranks is talking about. So you should be able to understand or accept things in these two ways. But this is not enough. It's still dualistic. Without thinking, this is one of the two understandings. Then you will not be caught by your understanding. Whatever you do will be the great activity of practice.

[36:33]

So you can't say, well this is dualistic, this is non-dualistic, and there are two things. And then now I'm in the dualistic part, and now I'm in the non-dualistic part. Or the oneness part. When you start thinking about that, that's still dualistic, because you're still thinking in terms of two things. So, all of our study is about this. Even though we talk about duality and non-duality and oneness, it's just all one thing. So the sun-faced Buddha is good. The moon-faced Buddha is good. Whatever it is, that's good. That's what this means. So all things are Buddha, and there is no Buddha even. When you do not understand Buddha, you will be concerned if I say there is no Buddha. What do you... I'm sorry.

[37:34]

You are a priest, and people will say, you are a priest, so how can you say there is no Buddha? Why do you chant? Why do you do all these things if there is no Buddha? Why do you bow to Buddha? Those are questions that people ask. Everyone asks that. There is no Buddha, so we bow to Buddha. Because there is no Buddha, we bow to Buddha. This is what the Dhamma Sutra would say. If you bow to Buddha, because there is a Buddha, that's not true understanding of Buddha. Sun-faced Buddha, Moon-faced Buddha, no problem. So that's an interesting point. If there is no Buddha, there is no Buddha, so we bow to Buddha. If you bow to Buddha because there is a Buddha, that is not true understanding of Buddha. So it's okay to bow to Buddha. But actually it's better to just bow.

[38:40]

Buddha is still just an idea. If you bow to Buddha, it's still just an idea on this side. But just bow. Just sit. Just eat. Just eat. Just, just, just. Then there's no problem. Because that's non-discriminating. At the same time, you bow to Buddha. It's okay to bow to Buddha. Because there's no Buddha. So we bow to Buddha. This is a kind of wonderful koan. Whether I am at Tassajara or San Francisco, no problem. Even though I die, it's okay with me. And it's alright with you. And it is not alright. And if it is not alright, you're not a Zen student. We should die.

[39:48]

Come on. We're supposed to die. But, you know, we don't want to do it right away. Not today. I have this book, it's in Spanish, but it has wonderful illustrations. And it's illustrations from Guerrero and a lot of different, and from Mexico. Mexican illustrations are really great. He's got a big bundle on his back, you know, and he's really going places. And then this skeleton, you know. What? He? So, if I suffer while I am dying, that is suffering Buddha. And there's no confusion in it. It's not a problem.

[40:51]

You should be very grateful to have a limited body like yours or mine. If you had a limitless life, it would be a great problem for you. We're dealing with this stuff all the time. On my wife's favorite TV program, she used to watch TV a lot, there are some ghosts of people who lived long ago. They appear in this world and create many problems for themselves. to rest or settle. So this is what happens. A human being is a human being and we can enjoy our life only with our limited body. Because we have a limited body we can enjoy our life. If we had an unlimited body like a ghost we couldn't enjoy our life. So a human being is a human being and we can enjoy our life only with our limited body.

[41:54]

This limitation is vital. Without limitation, nothing exists. So we should enjoy it. Weak body, strong body, man or woman, the only way to enjoy our life is to enjoy the limitation that is given to us. So we often think that freedom is a lack of limitation. If there's no limitation, we are free! But actually, we're not. We only find our freedom within a certain limitation, which gives us the ability to actually function. If we had no limitation, we would explode, because the pressure inside would be greater than the pressure outside. pressure or limitations equal with the pressure inside. Sun-Face Buddha, Moon-Face Buddha does not mean to be indifferent.

[43:06]

So, you know, not like, oh, I don't care. It's not like that. Yeah, I care. Of course I care. But I accept the reality of things. I don't care whether it's sun-faced Buddha or moon-faced Buddha. It means that whatever it is, we just enjoy it. This is also beyond non-attachment. Because when our attachment reaches the point of non-attachment, that is real attachment. If you are attached to something, be attached to something completely. Then there's no opposite. When there's no opposite, there's no suffering. You know, suffering is caused by Opposition. If you think about it. Sun-Face Buddha, Moon-Face Buddha. I am here. I am right here. This kind of confidence is important. When you have this kind of confidence in yourself, when you have this kind of confidence in yourself, in your being, you can practice this.

[44:10]

I had a huge attachment to it.

[44:20]

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