As you may know, in our Zen practice, our Zen practice is transmitted through the simplest, most commonplace acts of our life. And quality of life, or quality of reality, is present in the simplest, most ordinary acts of our life.

[01:05]

But how to be aware of this quality, although it's very simple and closer than we can see, is very hard to find. Maybe the most difficult thing to find is what's closest to us. Since we tend to look outside for something, it's not so easy to see what's right under our nose or right under our feet. And if you study the examples of the old masters, you'll see that this is what they're always dealing with. how to recognize or be aware of or manifest the total presence of it.

[02:27]

I can't tell you what it is, so I'll just call it it. to be able to recognize it in every act, on every moment. On every moment, this is it, totally and unconditionally. Sometimes, one of my favorite stories, sometimes I talk about this, one of my favorite stories is a story of Dao Wu and his disciple Lungtang. Dao Wu was a famous Zen master in the Tang dynasty around the 8th century in China.

[03:33]

he had a young disciple whose name was Lung Ton. Lung Ton means dragon pond. I think Dao Wu must mean no way. No special way. But Dao Wu recognized something, some capability in his disciple Lungtang, who was maybe 13 or 14 years old. A lot of these old Zen masters in China started studying when they were quite young. There seemed to be some interest in spiritual practice. these young children were attracted to that practice.

[04:47]

So, Dao Wu was very much taken with Lungtan's ability and enthusiasm as a young boy. And he sort of cultivated him. And his family, Lungtan's family, was very poor, and so he gave them a place to live in his monastery, a little hut next to the temple. And the family supported themselves by making little cakes, which they sold on the roadside. Zen literature is full of people selling little cakes on the roadside. And every day, a little lungtan would bring Tao Wu ten little cakes as an offering.

[05:51]

Traditionally, when you find a teacher, the student brings some offering to the teacher, something. It's always considered good taste to bring some kind of offering to the teacher. Not that the teacher needs something, but it's an expression. Since you want something, you offer something. So every day little Lungtang would bring ten cakes, they must have been pretty small, to his teacher Dao Wu. And every day Dao Wu would take one of the cakes and give it back to Lungtang. And Lungtang would say, why do you give me the cake? One time he said, why do you

[06:56]

why are you giving me this cake back? He started thinking about why his teacher kept giving him one cake back every day. So he said, why are you giving me this cake back? And Da Wu said, this cake is to help your descendants. And when he said that, a little lungtang had a wonderful kind of awakening, his mind started to open up. It's like, he said, well, Dao Wu said, I'm just giving you back what is originally yours."

[07:59]

This is what opened his mind. I'm just giving you back what was originally yours. In Zen practice, a teacher doesn't really give the student anything, and the student doesn't really give the teacher anything. But giving and receiving is constantly present, but there's nothing given and nothing received, although giving and receiving is always taking place. Sometimes we talk about Dharma transmission, but in this transmission nothing is transmitted.

[09:05]

It's only waking up to yourself. The biggest gratification for a teacher is when a student wakes up to themselves. but in transmitting the Dharma, there's really nothing transmitted. So, Dao Wu gave back the cake and he said, I'm only giving you what was originally your own. Then later, a few years later, when Luangta was studying with Dao Wu, as he became older, one day he came up to Dao Wu and he said, I've been here for many years, but you've never really transmitted anything about the mind to me.

[10:26]

You've never said anything. You've never given me any special teaching. Why is that?" And Dao Wu said, well, I'm very surprised that you say this. He said, when you serve me tea, don't I receive it from you? And when we meet each other, Don't I bow to you when you bow to me?" And this was another great awakening for Luangta. Very ordinary, Luangta was missing the transmission in ordinary

[11:32]

daily life. His teacher had to remind him of what was actually taking place. So often, we miss what's really happening in our daily life, and we're looking for something beyond where our feet are. He says, when we meet, don't I bow to you? When you serve me tea, don't I accept it from you? When I hand something to you, don't you take it from me? Right here, at this moment, we must see it before any thinking. before any pondering, just to recognize it directly.

[12:39]

If we don't see it in this way, we miss our whole life. We keep looking for our life, and we miss it. This is, I can't stress this point too much. Our old teacher Suzuki Roshi was very much, this was the essence of his teaching, just to watch him walk or sit down or stand up or eat the whole teaching was revealed if you could see it. If you had eyes to see it, you could see it.

[13:48]

There are many famous teachers, but Suzuki Roshi was a very ordinary kind of person, so ordinary that if you didn't see or experience this ordinariness, it was hard to see what he was doing, hard to understand. But even though we have a good teacher like Suzuki Roshi, still hard for us, still it was very hard for us to express reality in an ordinary way. There was, later on, Lungthang himself became a teacher, very famous teacher also, but kind of a quiet person, and he lived on a mountain, kind of away from the cities.

[15:42]

And in order to get to Lungthang, people had to make some effort And there was a very strong student named Dashaan. And Dashaan was not just a scholar, but he was very famous for his lectures on the Diamond Sutra. And he went all around China lecturing on the Diamond Sutra. And he was considered the great authority on the Diamond Sutra. And he was rather angry that these Zen people, Zen monks, were becoming very popular in China at that time.

[16:51]

So he made up his mind that he was going to destroy the Zen sect. So he set out with his commentaries on the sutra, and since he'd heard about Lungtan, he was going to visit him and defeat him. So he went on his journey to Lungthans Mountain. And when he got to the bottom of the mountain, he stopped at a little wayside stand. There was an old woman who was selling little cakes. And by the side of the road, And so he wanted to stop to get a few cakes and to ask the way to Lungtan's mountain, or to where Lungtan was on the mountain.

[18:04]

So the woman looked him over, and she asked him who he was. And he told her that he was Dasan, and that he was, she said, well, what do you have in your baskets there? And he said, well, I have these famous commentaries on the Diamond Sutra. And he told her what he did. And she said, oh, the Diamond Sutra. She says, if you can answer my question, I'll give you these three cakes. And if not, then you have to pay for them. So he said, OK, ask me the question. She says, in the Diamond Sutra, it says, present mind, past mind, and future mind cannot be grasped.

[19:07]

With what mind would you eat these tea cakes? The tea cakes were called mind refreshers. With what mind would you eat these mind refreshers?" And he was stumped. He really felt defeated because although he had studied this Diamond Sutra and lectured on it, he really hadn't found his own essence of mind. So she said, if you want to see Lungtan, he lives right, just follow this path and go up the mountain and he's up there. So he was a little dejected and he walked up the mountain to find Lungthang. And when he came upon Lungthang, Lungthang was just a kind of ordinary person. He looked like an ordinary person. Nothing special about him. Maybe a little old man who was just kind of going around about his daily business.

[20:14]

And so Dasan said, oh, are you the famous Lungtan Dragon Pond? And Lungtan said something like, well, you've come to the right place. This is it. So he invited Dasan in. And they got to talking. And they talked all day and all night. And Dasan was very impressed, actually, with Lungton's understanding, and was feeling, actually starting to feel pretty good about him. But it was getting dark and they had to stop, and Lungton said, I have a little hut outside, why don't you stay overnight in the little hut? And Dasan said, okay, I will. Lungthang lit a little lantern, a paper lantern, for Dushan to find his way.

[21:24]

It was very dark out. So as soon as Lungthang, as soon as Dushan took the paper lantern, Lungthang went, and blew it out. And there was just total darkness, pitch black darkness, everything gone. And Darshan woke up. His whole mind became one piece. And the next day, he went out and burned his commentaries. This happens often in Zen literature. Somebody goes out and burns their commentaries. book-burning is not a good thing to do, and commentaries are very helpful, but this is an extreme situation. So here we have three different teachers, Daowu, Lungtan, and Deshan.

[22:38]

Deshan, after this, became a very famous teacher, one of the most famous teachers in China, and he was His characteristic was beating his students with a stick, giving them 30 blows with a stick. He was a very forceful kind of person, as you can see. He set out to destroy Zen and he ended up promoting it. Converts are like this, sometimes. And his characteristic was, whether you're right, if you're right, you get 30 blows. If you're wrong, you get 30 blows. You can't escape. There's no way, no place you can escape. If you go this way, 30 blows.

[23:39]

If you go that way, 30 blows. So he always kept his students right there on the spot. no way to escape into right or wrong. The interesting thing about this kind of relationship is that Dushan was nothing like Lungtang. Student is not a copy of the teacher. And I think that this is a very important point. And although both Lungton and Dushan realized utter darkness, Dushan acts as Dushan and Lungton acts as Lungton. They don't imitate each other.

[24:39]

Student doesn't imitate his teacher. When a student is studying with a teacher, it's good to imitate the teacher. That's one way of learning. It's a little bit like apprenticeship. But when the apprenticeship is over, the student should be their own person. So when a student, it becomes his or her own person completely, then that's Dharma transmission already. So a purpose of a teacher, is to help a student become themselves completely and become independent.

[25:48]

To find their own utter darkness and out of that utter darkness to manifest bright light Utter darkness is the same as bright light. So you can say enlightenment is both bright light and utter darkness. Darkness means everything is taken away. There's no boundary, absolutely no boundary. And light means everything has a form and a shape and is independent from everything else.

[26:55]

So light and darkness are like two sides of a coin. The dark side Nothing. The bright side, everything. But everything and nothing are two sides of the same coin. So in this coin, if we only see the bright side, where everything is revealed as independent, that's called the realm of delusion. And if we realize the dark side where everything is taken away and there are no boundaries,

[28:08]

This is called the realm of enlightenment. But true enlightenment is beyond both delusion and enlightenment, beyond light and dark. The coin itself is enlightenment. One side is dark, the other side is bright. So, Dashaan always gave his students 30 blows if they fell into the light side or the dark side. If you fall into the light side, 30 blows. If you fall into the dark side, 30 blows. Stay in the middle.

[29:11]

Keep the tension. We have to always keep the tension. between the dark side and the light side. Everything is, and at the same time, everything is not. is and is not. If we fall into either is or is not, we stray from the path. So where do we find it? Where do we find the path between is and is not? Where do we find that place which is reality?

[30:17]

When you serve tea, I take the cup. When you greet me, I greet you. When you wash the dish, just completely wash the dish. When you take a step, just completely step. You do it in your way, and I do it in my way.

[31:23]

But where do we meet? And who is it that meets? And what is it that we meet? And who are we to meet anything anyway? These questions are not solved, they're dissolved in our meeting. So the way a teacher and student relate is on just an everyday level. Just being able, just when we meet, how do we greet?

[32:30]

When we interact, how do we interact in a simple way? And if you know how to relate to, how a student relates to a teacher, and a teacher relates to a student, then students relate to each other in the same way, and to each and to the world in the same way. But there's meeting and then there's really meeting. There's doing something and then there's really doing something. So enlightened activity is not different than ordinary activity. But ordinary activity is not necessarily enlightened activity.

[33:34]

The difference is how we see and what our intention is. and how open our mind is. When our mind is open to the ordinariness of life as the reality of life, then we begin to see. This is our Zen practice, and we don't have to do it in any special place. wherever we are is reality and wherever we are is the possibility of waking up. Most waking up experiences in Zen have been in very ordinary situations.

[34:53]

A piece of A stone hits a bamboo and someone wakes up. A peach tree blossoms and someone wakes up. So let's please keep our eyes open and our ears open and our mind open and watch our activity. take care of ourself, take care of each other, take care of things, and see everyone as Buddha, even if you don't like them. It's beyond liking and disliking. Reality is beyond liking and disliking, or beyond our opinions. and beyond our thinking.

[35:59]

So sometimes Zen students will wonder why they have to wash dishes so much or why they have to work so hard or clean the toilets. Traditionally, in monastic life, the abbot cleans the toilets. Sometimes someone says, they always put me in the kitchen washing dishes or something like that. We become very selective about our work and our life.

[37:24]

But it's a great gift to be allowed to do something very ordinary, something that doesn't give us a sense of status, or big accomplishment. Matter of fact, accomplishments may hinder us because they may stand in the way of the one big accomplishment, which is to realize ourself and who we are through an ordinary experience. So when someone comes to practice Zen, we always try to give them something to do which they don't know how to do very well. If you're an expert at something, we always ask you to do something else.

[38:34]

But unfortunately, we can't always do that. But if you're a great French cook, you should be working someplace else than the kitchen. because you're too good, you won't learn anything. So when we're put in a position where we don't know quite what to do or how to do it, it's a great opportunity to find ourselves. So some difficulty or some unusual circumstance is a great opportunity. When we get to a place where we think we are going to have a lot of trouble and we don't like it, that can be a great opportunity for us.

[39:37]

We get very close at that point to being able to wake up There's a saying that when you stumble over something, if you stumble over a big stone, we use the stone to help us stand up. So in practice, there are really no obstacles. If you know how to use everything in the right way, there are no obstacles. Everything, all obstacles become an opportunity. This is called being within practice, living within practice.

[40:43]

And when you're living, this is called the way. When you're living within the way, the Tao, the Tao Wu, the no way way, when something happens to you that's difficult, even though it's difficult, you feel that you have a way to go. There's always a way to go.

[41:11]

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